History Characters / PokemonGenerationIIITreeckoToSharpedo

* BlindingBangs: As a Ralts.

* LethalJokeCharacter[=/=]DifficultButAwesome: Breloom is a major threat in OU competitive play, yet it has one of the lowest base stat totals in the tier.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Shedinja can learn Final Gambit. Think about it.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The Gardevoir line is the only line aside from the Porygons to get Trace as an ability, copying the opponent's Ability and, if applicable, activating it instantly. Have fun using Gyarados's own Intimidate to cripple it, or copying Swift Swim or Chlorophyll to rob the enemy's Speed advantage in weather. Fire, Electric and Water types commonly have abilities like Flash Fire and Lightningrod that render them immune to attacks of their typing, letting Gardevoir NoSell their STAB.

* NotCompletelyUseless: Mega Gardevoir's Ability Pixilate, which turns Normal type moves into Fairy type and boosts them by 30%. It sounds great on paper, except that Gardevoir is a special attacker whereas the majority of the Normal movepool is ''physical'', and while a boosted Hyper Beam is tempting, [[AwesomeYetImpractical the two-turn waiting period is very undesirable on something so fragile]]. This said, however, it has a cool niche in Hyper Voice: after Pixilate and STAB, it boasts a whopping ''175'' base power and naturally flies past Substitutes, which coming off of its massive Sp. Atk stat means it will reliably oneshot or twoshot anything that doesn't resist Fairy and isn't named [[StoneWall Chansey or Blissey]]. Echoed Voice can also serve this purpose if Mega Gardevoir survives long enough to chain them.

* CampGay or CampStraight: Roserade can be interpreted as this if male.

* {{Badass}}: All three of 'em. Aron is one of the best F.E.A.R. users, Lairon's a bitch with an eviolite, Aggron has absurd defenses and good offense, and Mega Aggron is physical tank ''par excellance'' with Filter and its lack of 4x weaknesses.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Mega Gardevoir's ability to make normal attacks into Fairy type, therefore gaining STAB, combined with its high special attack, makes Hyper Beam incredibly powerful. Unfortunately as Gardevoir needs to hold a Mega Stone to Mega-Evolve, it cannot hold a Power Herb to cancel out the cooldown, leaving it vulnerable. Hyper Voice, on the other hand...

Respectively a raccoon and a badger, they are curious Pokémon that have the tendency to find things after battles. They also like to take things from other Pokémon using Covet. They seem to have the appetite for Oran and Sitrus berries, since they are often found with them. However, don't confuse Linoone for one of [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar Aang's]] [[TeamPet Team Pets]]- the two sharing an arrow on their heads is purely coincidence. It's no Airbender- but with its graceful speed and fast-as-the-wind attacks, it sure acts like one.

** Thanks to the new formula for critical hits, if Blaziken holds a Scope Lens while using Focus Energy, all of its attacks become critical hits. As critical hits ignore drops to the user's attack stats, that means it can use Overheat with no drawback until it runs out of PP. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Then add that with Speed Boost...]]

* KickChick[[HurricaneOfPuns en]]: Combusken and Blaziken, emphasized by the Blaze Kick move.

* ConfusionFu: Gallade's movepool. Psychic, Dark, Grass, Fighting, Rock, Flying, Bug, Ground...

* MightyGlacier edging on LightningBruiser: Both Gardevoir and Gallade have impressive Special Defense and offense (Special Attack for Gardevoir, Attack for Gallade), but only average Speed. Thus, while they're not really ''slow'', it's still pretty easy to outspeed them. Mega Gardevoir gets a boost to both special stats and speed, thus potentially pushing it over the edge.

* MundaneUtility: Gallade can learn Mean Look by breeding and naturally learns Hypnosis and False Swipe, making him incredible at... catching roaming Legendaries.
** Gardevoir's Trace ability lets the player see wild Pokemon's abilities without catching them. Combine this with Hypnosis, and you've got a pretty good way of searching for hidden ability Pokemon in the Friend Safari.

* TookALevelInBadass: In Generation VI, it gained the Fairy typing. This not only allows for Dragon types [[NoSell to not hit it,]] but it loses its weaknesses to both Dark and Bug. Added to that, it gains a Mega Evolution, which not only buffs up its stats, but it gives Gardevoir the ability Pixilate. What does this ability do? Turn Normal type moves into Fairy type moves. This was at first thought to be useless thanks to Hyper Beam being the only real Special option it had, but things changed once people realized that it could learn Hyper Voice by way of B2/W2, giving it a 117 base power move[[note]]after the 30% bonus from Pixilate and before STAB[[/note]] with no drawbacks to speak of. Coupled with its horrifying 165 base Special Attack, that shit is going to hurt a ''lot''.

* CriticalHitClass: Blaziken can use Focus Energy to ensure Blaze Kick is always a critical hit. If it's also holding a Scope Lens, all of its attacks become critical hits. It's also one of the few Pokémon that can Baton Pass its Focus Energy boost to something else with a crit boosting item or Super Luck. Combined with [[OhCrap Speed Boost]]...

* CriticalHitClass: Can use Focus Energy and a Scope Lens to make all of its attacks critical hits.

* CriticalHitClass: Focus Energy and a Scope Lens make all of their attacks critical hits.

* CriticalHitClass: All of their attacks become critical hits if they use Focus Energy and have a Scope Lens.

** Though it gets a mega evolution, it's the second worst of them all with unremarkable stats compared to the rest and an ability that while bothersome, doesn't really help it. Only Mega Abomasnow is worse.

* TookALevelInBadass: In Generation VI, it gained the Fairy typing. This not only allows for Dragon types [[NoSell to not hit it,]] but it loses its weaknesses to both Dark and Bug. Added to that, it gains a Mega Evolution, which not only buffs up its stats, but it gives Gardevoir the ability Pixilate. What does this ability do? Turn Normal type moves into Fairy type moves. This was at first thought to be useless thanks to Hyper Beam being the only real Special option it had, but once people realized that it could learn Hyper Voice by way of B2/W2, giving it a 117 base power move[[note]]after the 30% bonus from Pixilate and before STAB[[/note]] with no drawbacks to speak of. Coupled with its horrifying 165 base Special Attack, that shit is going to hurt a ''lot''.

* TookALevelInBadass: In Generation VI, it gained the Fairy typing. This not only allows for Dragon types [[NoSell to not hit it,]] but it loses its weaknesses to both Dark and Bug. Added to that, it gains a Mega Evolution, which not only buffs up its stats, but it gives Gardevoir the ability Pixilate. What does this ability do? Turn Normal type moves into Fairy type moves. Giving it a STAB on a ''Hyper Beam''.

* SuperMode: Medicham has a Mega Evolution.

** TookALevelInBadass: Mega brought it from being okay but unremarkable to horrifyingly dangerous and effective thanks to 30-point boosts in base Speed and Special Attack, plus some excellent utility with Intimidate. Coupled with its surprisingly decent movepool (especially for an [[CripplingOverspecialization Electric]]), it's being looked at as a very serious OU threat now.

** Gen VI put the nail in the coffin by giving Speed Boost to Scolipede. In addition to having Baton Pass, Scolipede is also quite fast, has much more bulk, and can fight back with its better Attack and movepool. Ninjask's only advantage is its much higher Speed before Speed Boost kicks in.

** OvershadowedByAwesome: It was considered an OU in Gens III and IV because of this, but its niche in this area has taken a major hit in V thanks to Shell Smash and Quiver Dance along with its passers.

* CriticalHitClass: Blaziken can use Focus Energy to ensure Blaze Kick is always a critical hit. If it's also holding a Scope Lens, all of its attacks become critical hits.

** Thanks to the new formula for critical hits, if Blaziken holds a Scope Lens while using Focus Energy, all of its attacks become critical hits. As critical hits ignore drops to the user's attack stats, that means it can use Overheat with no drawback until it runs out of PP.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Mega Gardevoir's ability to make normal attacks into Fairy type, therefore gaining STAB, combined with its high special attack, makes Hyper Beam incredibly powerful. Unfortunately as Gardevoir needs to hold a Mega Stone to Mega-Evolve, it cannot hold a Power Herb to cancel out the cooldown, leaving it vulnerable.

Psychic-type Pokémon, notable for Kirlia and Gardevoir's feminine appearances, despite having an equal chance to be either gender. All of them are sensitive to the emotions of people and Pokémon around it. Ralts is the youngling of the group whose abilites are still underdeveloped. However, once it evolves into Kirlia, it starts learning a decent variety of Special Attack-based moves. Unfortunately, as Kirlia, it's still not at its full potetital. But when a Kirlia evolves into Gardevoir, its Special stats skyrocket to something fierce, and it can learn a spectacular number of different moves to compliment these stats. Generation IV introduced Gallade. If a male Kirlia is given a Dawn Stone, he evolves into a Gallade, the "masculine" counterpart. Unlike Gardevoir, he has a high physical attack. He gains Fighting-type abilities, which wipes out his former Dark and Bug-type weaknesses. He is able to learn a large number of physical moves along with the support moves that the rest of the family can learn. In Generation VI, Ralts, Kirlia, and Gardevoir [[RetCon were reclassified to Psychic/Fairy]]. Gardevoir also gained a Mega Evolution.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Mega Gardevoir's ability to make normal attacks into Fairy type, therefore gaining STAB, combined with it's high special attack makes Hyper Beam incredibly powerful. Unfortunately as Gardevoir needs to hold a Mega Stone to Mega-Evolve, it cannot hold a Power Herb to cancel out the cooldown, leaving it vulnerable.
* {{Badass}}: Gallade thanks to his insane movepool, honourable nature and blades on his elbows.

* TheMedic: Gardevoir has access to Wish, Healing Wish, Heal Bell (albeit via Move Tutor), and Heal Pulse. Gallade can use the last of those potentially making him a CombatMedic.

** Gardevoir's Trace ability lets the player see wild Pokemon's abilities without catching them. Combine this with Hypnosis and you've got a pretty good way of searching for hidden ability Pokemon in the Friend Safari.

* NotCompletelyUseless: Mega Gardevoir's Ability Pixilate, which turns Normal type moves into Fairy type and boosts them by 30%. It sounds great on paper, except that Gardevoir is a special attacker whereas the majority of the Normal movepool is ''physical'', and while a boosted Hyper Beam is tempting, [[AwesomeYetImpractical the two-turn waiting period is very undesirable on something so fragile]]. This said however, it has a cool niche in Hyper Voice: after Pixilate and STAB it boasts a whopping ''175'' base power and naturally flies past Substitutes, which coming off of its massive Sp. Atk stat means it will reliably oneshot or twoshot anything that doesn't resist Fairy and isn't named [[StoneWall Chansey or Blissey]]. Echoed Voice can also serve this purpose if Mega Gardevoir survives long enough to chain them.

* {{Retcon}}: Ralts, Kirlia and Gardevoir gain the fairy type in Gen VI. Gallade stays Psychic/Fighting.

* TookALevelInBadass: In Generation VI, it gained the Fairy typing. This not only allows for Dragon types [[NoSell to not hit it,]] But it looes it's weaknesses to both Dark and Bug. Added to that, it gains a Mega Evolution, which not only buffs up it's stats, but it gives Gardevoir the ability Pixilate. What does this ability do? Turn Normal type moves into Fairy type moves. Giving it a STAB on a ''hyper beam''.

* WomanInBlack: Shiny Mega Gardevoir have the appearance of wearing a black dress and with stats rivaling legendary Pokemon, it's not one you want to face.

* [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair You Gotta Have Green Hair]]: It's unclear what the green parts of their head are but on Kirlia and Gardevoir it is similar in appearance to a woman's hair. The shiny version has Cyan "hair"

A very rare Pokémon, respectively based on a water-strider and an eye-spotted moth. Surskit is Bug and Water-typed and has a movepool with limited offensive abilities. Masquerain uses its eye-spotted wings to intimidate the opponent and has a natural moveset that is more in line with the likes of other flying insects. This line is notable for having a unique type combination (Bug/Water) removed upon evolution.

* BlowYouAway: Masquerain
* BlushSticker: Surskit

** Played ''very'' straight in Gen V, which gave it the new, powerful StatusBuff Quiver Dance. Even better, Masquerain is one of only two Pokémon to get both Quiver Dance ''and'' Baton Pass, the other being Venomoth, which Masquerain no longer has to compete with. Masquerain's Intimidate ability even makes it pretty good at setting up, either giving it a free turn as the opposing player switches out, or leaving said player with a weakened Pokémon.

Mushroom Pokémon that mainly inhabit forests like Petalburg Forest. They have the Effect Spore ability which sometimes causes StandardStatusEffects on contact. Shroomish is a pure Grass-type that favors more Status Effect moves. Breloom gains the Fighting-type in addition to its Grass-type and gains many effective Fighting-type moves to take advantage of its amazing Attack stat.

* DisabilitySuperpower: When those with Poison Heal get poisoned, they regain health instead of lose it. Unlike other Abilities that invoke this trope, though, Breloom suffers absolutely ''no'' drawbacks as a result of making use of it, as Poison's [[DamageOverTime only effect]] is negated entirely. For a time, Poison Heal was considered ''the best'' Ability in the game, and still ranks up there even now.

** Outside of Technician, the line's Substitute sets also got nerfed with a buff to Infiltrator and sound-based moves being about to bypass substitute that can put a hamper on any [=SubPunch=] and other setup opportunities.
** The prevalence of Ghost- and Flying-types such as Aegislash, Gengar, Talonflame and Togekiss has made it somewhat less effective.
** On the other hand, Breloom gaining a much improved Rock Tomb (which has the same guaranteed Speed-reducing effect as Low Sweep) to play with, Gen VI having gifted the move with much better accuracy (95%, as opposed to the 80% it had before) a power boost exactly to the highest point that Technician still affects it. Granted, it doesn't get STAB, but it does give those Fire and Flying types that may try to switch in something to think about. Plus, Breloom still has Force Palm, Mach Punch, and the new Power-up Punch to abuse the STAB/Technician combination with, and Mach Punch also serves as a valuable priority attack.

* PerpetualFrowner: Shroomish

* BlessedWithSuck: Truant makes you unable to attack every second turn. Can be quite deadly in double battles, but easily stopped by Protect in single battles. Vigoroth averts this by gaining Vital Spirit as an ability.

* LightningBruiser: Vigoroth and Slaking, even if the latter stops attacking every other turn. Also [[DoubleSubversion double subverted]] with Slaking: Its Special Defense is on par with Snivy, but its huge HP makes up for that.

* DishingOutDirt: Nincada

* NoBiologicalSex: Shedinja

* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Shedinja is, in every sense of the word, a pure gimmicky OneHitWonder...unless you're stuck trying to catch Kyogre in ''Sapphire'' or ''Emerald'', where its Wonder Guard ability nullifies every single one of Kyogre's attacks (Kyogre doesn't even have indirect attacks like Hail to do the job), leaving him a sitting duck as you whittle away at its health. Same goes for Latios/Latias.

** This also applies to trained Kyogre, where Shedinja is an amusing counter since most Kyogre forget to pack a move that can hurt Shedinja, and the ones that ''can'' hurt it are firecrackers compared to the nukes like Water Spout and Thunder it usually throws around. [[note]]Outside of Hidden Power, the only moves super-effective against Shedinja are Rock Tomb (terrible damage and low accuracy), Rock Slide (somewhat okay base damage but uses its inferior physical Attack, like Rock Tomb), and [=AncientPower=] (which, while working off its Special Attack, has at the most 8 uses and only has 60 base damage)[[/note]]
* UrbanLegendOfZelda: You can have ANY kind of ball to get Shedinja, you do not need a Pokéball... In Generation III at least. In Generation IV and V, you ''do'' need a regular Pokéball.

These strange Normal-type monsters specialize in sound-based moves like Hyper Voice and Uproar. They inhabit caves like Rusturf Tunnel, Victory Road, and Underground Pass. Whismur may seem timid and cute, but please don't scare it- you'll regret it. Loudred and Exploud aren't like that, as they are boisterous and blast with the loudest voices they can... in battle, that is, as they are actually somewhat quiet when communicating with their own kind. They also are resistant to other sound-based moves thanks to their Soundproof ability.

* MakeMeWannaShout: The line's entire gimmick. Exploud's Pokédex entries say it's screaming can be heard from six miles away and is strong enough to trigger an earthquake, and Whismer and Loudred aren't far behind in volume. They also learn numerous sound-based attacks like Hyper Voice, Uproar, Howl, and Supersonic, and their signature ability grants them immunity to an opponent's sound-based attacks.

* SignatureMove: Even in its introductory generation, Uproar and Hyper Voice were learned by other Pokémon, but the Whismer line is most closely associated with them, as Uproar is learned at late levels for other Pokémon while Whismer starts with it, and the only other Pokémon in Generation III to learn Hyper Voice was the overlooked Jigglypuff.

* MightyGlacier: In game, it's one of the slowest families of Pokémon out there, with Probopass having a base speed of 40. In story, its Pokédex entry mentions that it only moves a few inches a ''decade''.

The first ever Pokémon to have both the Dark and Ghost types, giving it no immediate weaknesses to any type under normal fighting circumstances (With the introduction of the Fairy type in Generation VI[[note]]''Pokemon X and Y''[[/note]], players don't have to use Odor Sleuth, Scrappy, or Foresight to get the drop on it and/or Spiritomb; they can use Swirlix or the newly-typed Clefable). It is a gremlin-like creature that subsist on a diet of rocks and minerals, giving it very strong teeth, a variety of gemstones on its body, and diamond-like eyes. It is exclusive to ''Sapphire''.

* LethalJokeCharacter: In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', Sableye can have Prankster as its Hidden Ability. This allows it to use non-attacking moves, such as Will-O-Wisp, Recover, and Taunt, among others, first. It's very effective in annoying the opponent and can easily throw a monkey wrench in an enemy's plans, ''especially'' Taunt which handily disables almost half of the moves in the game. With a proper defensive EV spread, this ghost is far from the weakling it was in previous gens.