Do you ever train a Pokémon on your team that is not fully evolved, and you keep it that way on purpose forever? I mean, on your main team that you play through and beat the game with. Like, for example, if you don't like Venusaur but you wanted an Ivysaur on your team. If so, how do you keep it strong? Do you do anything special to make sure it can keep up, despite not evolving?
I kept my tranquil as a pidove for a while because I liked the way it cooed, just for the cry, i got bored of having a baby Pokémon so I evolved it with in 5 levels of holding it back.
I can't really say how I kept it strong, I'm more of a breeder than a fighter. But I did used to have this mudkip in Black 2 that I wouldn't evolve because it looked cute.
Some people don't evolve their Pokémon for good reason in competitive battling as well! The eviolite is an item that increases the Defence and Special Defence stat, and I come across a few people who use Boledores holding eviolites. In terms of preference, though, I like to evolve my Pokémon, as I greatly enjoy the feeling of having one of my Pokémon evolve! It's a symbol of training and hard work that has payed off, and it also helps to fill the Pokédex.
Generally, when it comes to Pokémon that evolve by level-up, I let them evolve as soon as they are able to (by reaching the minimum level required for that particular Pokémon), though when I played Blue in 2000-01, I kept my Meowth at its base form for quite a long time (probably into the 40s-50s), but eventually gave in and let it evolve into Persian late in the game. When it comes to stone evolved Pokémon, though, I have long held off on evolving them until after they learn their last good level-up move (since back in the early generations, most Pokémon evolved via stones would lose the rest of their level-up learnset after evolution). Evolving by trade is almost a completely different story, since I rarely have an opportunity to trade with someone for an evolution.
I rarely ever stop a Pokémon from evolving, mostly because that is who I am, but the one Pokémon that I kind of refues to eveolve is Pikachu, and that is inly because Pikachu is a part of my childhood, and evolving him hurts a little, but now with the Alolen Raichu, I might consider it, after I max out its speed, because I can troll trainers with a beast speed psychic Raichu, and that thing looks amazing, the only reason why I kind of hate evolving Raichu is kind of thw animes fault, Ash's Pikachu has been able to defeat Raichu on three seperat occasions, sure he was beaten before and given the option to evolve every time until Team Rocket stole the thunder stone, that seemed like the kindest thing they have done at the time, I hope that they will bevcome perminate allies with Ash duriRocket and moon, don't hate them but, they kind of auck at being villens, and are great heros, they are the series antiheros for sure, they have helped Ash stop every last one of the other criminal groups since Hoenn, not compleatly sure about Team Flair but, lets do a check list here. Team Aqua and Team Magma: Team Rocket set both legends free, and even tjough that Ash and his friends stopped both teams it was those three who had the biggest impact. Team Galatic, not quite sure either but, Cyrus did get sent to the reverse world so, yeah. Team Plasma: Team Rocket stopped them. Team Flair: aganin, not sure. And soon to be Team Skull: they are cool and all but, they make the three rockets look smart, but that is only based off of game Team Skull, don't get me wrong but,Team Rocket I loike them, just wish they would stop sucking. By the way, what happened to Cassidy and Cluthch? "Its Butch!" (Trollface)
Now i prefer to evolve most of my Pokémon but one i kept smol was Zorua. I loved the shiny and the regular too much to let it evolve, So i gave it the best moves , eviolite for the def buffs and use it a lot in my white version.
I love Porygon2. It's absolutely amazing. It's really cute and ahhhhhh. Stick and eviolite on it and it becomes a tank. I love it sooooo much.
I've only done that once, and for a beautiful thing called the Rattata Challenge. You basically have to play through G/S/C using nothing but a rattata to battle. You can use other Pokémon as HM slaves, but the rattata is the only one you can fight with. It's strangely run to get through the game, bring down Team Rocket and beat the Pokémon League with nothing but an unevolved rodent.
The only time that comes to mine was Pokémon Moon. I kept my Alolan Meowth, FANCYFEAST!!, as a Meowth not because I didn't like Alolan Persain's design, but because I love how Alolan Meowth looks like a fancy sass-master. I actually hadn't planned on keeping him on my team, but he managed to do really well.
As a rule when I replay old titles, I usually don't evolve my starter so they can level up faster and learn better moves. But eventually I do end up having to evolve them because their stats can't keep up with everyone else's... that doesn't usually happen until, like, right before I challenge the Elite Four. Does that count?
When I hand platinum, I remember making my Turtwig not Evolve. He was just too cute. I eventually did it because of Roark's Gym.
I didn't evolve my Pikachu and Vulpix into their Alolan forms until they learned enough moves. (I.e. Sheer Cold and thunderbolt.) Actually I didn't evolve vulpix until I was halfway through the e4.
I won't evolve a Pokémon on my team if I prefer its current stage, especially if it's my starter (ex. Bayleef in SoulSilver, Tepig in White 2, and probably Dartrix if I pick Rowlet for my next Sun playthrough). I also tend to hold off on stone evolutions until they've learned the moves I want them to learn (or until I'm desperate enough for something with higher stats to just say screw it and use TMs to compensate). I also have a friend who almost never evolves Roselia because it's his favorite Pokémon, and my sister never evolves her starter because she thinks the base forms are cuter.
For the story I'll just evolve them since my team would end up boxed later anyway, once I begin breeding Pokémon with better IVs and etc. Once I'm actually in the post-game, I'll keep my favorites unevolved. Wartortle for example... He looks seriously awesome and I love him. Blastoise on the other hand, I don't like much at all. So it's no surprise for me to keep specific Pokémon unevolved after I've beaten the story. Everything I breed is hardly ever used competitively, I breed for self-satisfaction and fun, so being weaker doesn't bother me at all!
I love Bulbasaur, so I currently have a level 100 Bulbasaur that I transferred from Omega Ruby to Moon yesterday. I have a level 100 Venusaur too though.
Dusclops would get my vote. With eviolite, same as Chansey, it is FAR better than its evolution. Plus, I have a special place in my heart for Hoenn Pokémon
In Sun/Moon, I kept Alolan Meowth. It was just too fabulous as is. But for competitive reasons, I love my Murkrow. With eviolite, defences EV trained, and Calm Mind, it can become an amazing tank!
This is a little different. I keep one Zorua on one of the teams I rotate. I just don't like having just Zoroark I need to have Zorua for some reason. As for keeping it strong I didn't start training or checking for IVs until recently so I guess it probably wasn't all that strong. I'm sure there are others I do that with that I just can't think of at this current moment but that has been my most notable one.