History LowTierLetdown / Pokemon

** '''Uxie''' attempts to be a defensive wall belonging to a type notorious for its poor defensive profile. While it has 130 Defense and Special Defense and a great support movepool that incorporates Stealth Rock, U-Turn, and Knock Off, it's largely undermined by its Psychic-typing offering very few resistances as well as its middling 75 base HP. Additionally, both of its offenses are a paltry base 75, letting a myriad of Pokémon set-up on it. Adding insult to injury is that it was introduced in the same generation as Cresselia, who has better overall bulk thanks to its higher HP stat ''and'' has the same exact ability as Uxie. As a result, Uxie tumbled down to ZU, where it's at least a solid support Pokémon.

* '''Darkrai''' was once one of the most feared Uber Pokémon thanks to its high Speed, Special Attack, and access to Dark Void, which was an 80% accurate Sleep-inducing move that synergized fantastically with its ability, Bad Dreams[[labelnote:*]]deals damage equal to 1/8th of a sleeping opponent's maximum HP every turn[[/labelnote]]. The introduction of Fairy-types in Generation VI was not enough to prevent it from being a terrifying Nasty Plot sweeper. However, Game Freak overcorrected the Pitch Black Pokémon when they nerfed Dark Void to have only 50% accuracy in Generation VII[[note]]which was most likely done to nerf Smeargle instead... despite the move also being changed so that only Darkrai could use it in that same generation[[/note]], which is worse than ''Hypnosis''. This caused Darkrai's viability to tumble off of a cliff and into a burning volcano; ever since then, it's been thoroughly outclassed by nearly any other fast Special sweeper, particularly Yveltal, who shares a typing with it. Even in the semi-official Ubers Underused tier, it's basically worthless due to being completely outclassed by Chi-Yu and its nuclear Special attacks that don't require boosts to hit hard. The prevalence of Magearna, who completely walls Darkrai unless it burns up a Tera, only adds insult to injury. Generation IX's PowerCreep was so severe that Darkrai was finally allowed into Overused with the release of ''The Indigo Disk'', and while not exactly game-breaking there (owing to both power creep and the Dark Void nerf), it served as a major hinderance to the tier with ''Hypnosis'' of all things[[labelnote:*]]Thanks to Sleep Clause preventing multiple Pokemon from falling asleep on a single team, the 100% accurate Spore could thus be baited out into Pokemon that didn't mind getting put to sleep and thus protect the rest of the team. However, Hypnosis's poor accuracy [[CursedWithAwesome ironically proved beneficial]] as it missing the bait could allow Darkrai to simply put another Pokemon to sleep later, or put the bait in a lose-lose situation. Among other things, this would later contribute to Gen IX OU banning moves that directly induce sleep- effectively banning sleep outright save for extreme fringe cases (Relic Song Meloetta and Dire Claw Smeargle, as the mentioned moves are not guaranteed to induce sleep if they connect) or one putting themselves to sleep with Rest.[[/labelnote]].

** In Gen V, Hitmonchan was stuck in RU. Despite being outclassed, players gravitated toward its apparently versatile skillset, seemingly fondly recalling its good showings in lower tiers of prior generations. On paper, it had all the good traits of those prior generations, such as a wide movepool, access to Rapid Spin, and the Iron Fist ability to boost the power of its punches -- the problem was that Gen V was a period notorious for PowerCreep, which led to many other Fighting-types with similar traits dropping into RU as well. This left Hitmonchan neither particularly bulky nor particularly threatening on offense, and its status as a potential Rapid Spinner was undone by the fact that it struggled to handle Ghost-types. Astoundingly, it managed to even stay in RU for the early days of the sixth generation, only dropping after what amounted to a concerted effort from the playerbase.

* '''Glalie''''s... bizarre. Its base stat total is 480, with [[JackOfAllStats 80 in all of its stats]]. However, in practice, it comes down as a MasterOfNone, due to miniscule coverage outside of Water moves and Earthquake and having a mediocre mono-Ice typing. With power creep quickly pushing it out of its niche as a somewhat speedy Spikes setter, it quickly became Untiered. Mega Glalie, while an improvement in giving it more of an offensive presence with Refrigerate and higher Attack, Sp. Attack, and Speed, still wasn't enough to pull it out of RU at most.

* '''Arbok''' has been a miserably weak Pokémon since its inception, which is very unfortunate despite its popularity. It started out as one of the worst Pokémon in Gen I, with [[MasterOfNone middling stats all around]], an awful mono-Poison typing with no STAB moves stronger than ''Acid'', and a galaxy of other Wrap users that could do everything it did better. Arbok's stats have not taken well to PowerCreep at all, and despite a few useful buffs like Intimidate, Coil, and a boost to its attack stat, it's remained in the lowest tiers -- though, to its credit, it has found some success in bottom-tier play in the later generations.
* You'd think with exclusive, high-powered moves and an exclusive item that would be incredibly broken on any other mon, SeriesMascot '''Pikachu''' would be a dangerous presence. However, even the Light Ball can't fix Pika's dreadful bulk and good-but-not-great Speed tier, making it an attacker that's trivially easy scare out or prevent from hitting the field. It still had a solid presence in Gens II-III lower tiers, and even early Gen VIII formats thanks to its Gigantamax form spreading harmful paralysis, but it's a far cry from what fans of the [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries anime]] and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' wanted to see from one of their favorite Pokémon. Somewhat {{justified|trope}} in that Pikachu is an unevolved Pokémon that merely happens to be the face of the franchise, so of course it'd be underpowered compared to its fully-evolved brethren. That said, its evolution '''Raichu''' isn't much better; despite having a great Speed stat of 110 (compared to Pikachu's 90), it suffers from many of the same problems such as awful bulk and a limited movepool. Not to mention that despite being an evolution of Pikachu, Raichu does not receive ''any benefits at all'' from the Light Ball item.

* '''Golem''' had a strong start in Generation I: with its valuable set of resistances and Explosion, there was a genuine debate about whether Golem or Rhydon was better. Sadly, further exploration of Gen I mechanics led to a much bulkier metagame that Golem despised; its Explosions could get absorbed by Reflect Normals, and its lesser staying power than Rhydon showed. While not awful in a vacuum, and maintaining a ranking in the tier to this day, its good points over Rhydon became far less worthwhile, and so it dropped out of the tier due to being seen as simply outclassed. These days, its home tier is Gen I UU, where it's considered fairly useful but still somewhat flawed (though it had a rather long stint in ''NU'', of all places, due to being seen as a bad fit for the UU metagame). While Golem saw a resurgence in the Explosion and Rapid Spin-centric Gen II OU metagame, even eclipsing its old rival Rhydon, general power creep would kick Golem down several tiers because of its increasingly exploitable weaknesses and stat spread that wasn't that strong anymore. It still finds a niche in the lowest tiers, but only as a lead that's meant to have little staying power, a far cry from the rock-solid tank fans liked it for.

* You'd think with exclusive, high-powered moves and a broken item on any other mon, SeriesMascot '''Pikachu''' would be a dangerous presence. However, even the Light Ball can't fix Pika's dreadful bulk and good-but-not-great Speed tier, making it an attacker that's trivially easy scare out or prevent from hitting the field. It still had a solid presence in Gens II-III lower tiers, and even early Gen VIII formats thanks to its Gigantamax form spreading harmful paralysis, but it's a far cry from what fans of the [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries anime]] and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' wanted to see from one of their favorite Pokémon. Somewhat {{justified|trope}} in that Pikachu is an unevolved Pokémon that merely happens to be the face of the franchise, so of course it'd be underpowered compared to its fully-evolved brethren. That said, its evolution '''Raichu''' isn't much better; despite having a great Speed stat of 110 (compared to Pikachu's 90), it suffers from many of the same problems such as awful bulk and a limited movepool. Not to mention that despite being an evolution of Pikachu, Raichu does not receive ''any benefits at all'' from the Light Ball item.

* '''[[BigCreepyCrawlies Bug]]''' has historically been one of the worst types in the franchise, which is equal parts fitting (like Normal, it's more of a "starter type") and ironic[[note]]''Pokémon'' was born from Creator/SatoshiTajiri's fondness of collecting ''bugs'' when he was younger and his desire for kids to feel the same when [[GottaCatchThemAll catching and collecting creatures]][[/note]]. Offensively, it's got awful effectiveness, hitting Grass, Psychic and Dark (the former of which is the most useful and the other two being generally mediocre), but resisted by a whopping ''seven'' types[[note]][[PlayingWithFire Fire]], [[BareFistedMonk Fighting]] (a mutual resistance), {{Poison|ous Person}}, [[BlowYouAway Flying]], [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Ghost]], [[ExtraOreDinary Steel]] and [[TheFairFolk Fairy]][[/note]]. It's actually better defensively, resisting Grass, Fighting and Ground, but it's also weak to common offensive types in Fire, Flying, and Rock[[note]]And thus to Stealth Rock, like Ice[[/note]]; not to mention many of the type's mons have low stats and poor type combos, causing Flying itself to fill whatever defensive niche Bug can do better (having in fact, an ''[[NoSell immunity]]'' to Ground as opposed to just a resistance). Generally speaking, most Bugs are forced to run Heavy-Duty Boots in an attempt to function offensively, or Sticky Web-centric lead sets for utility. It's also not much better in Doubles, as the weaknesses of Bug Pokémon leave them wide open to spread moves such as Heat Wave and Rock Slide. And to hit the nail in the coffin, while Grass also hits seven types for not very effective damage, its former's matchups in Water, Ground and Rock[[labelnote:*]]So, one of the best defensive types, and two of the best offensive ones[[/labelnote]] are miles more useful than Bug's own matchups[[labelnote:*]]A specialized but otherwise passable type, a type infamous for its bad defensive typing (as seen above), and a type that's defensively ''countered'' by the other types that can hit it super-effectively[[/labelnote]]. It's telling that most competitively useful Bug-types thrive thanks to their stats and traits rather than (or actually, in spite of) their typings. Probably the ''only'' real advantage Bug has is that its lack of immunities (be it to types or Abilities) is partially what makes [[SwitchOutMove U-turn]] one of the best moves in competitive play; other than that, all of this amounts to what's usually considered one of the worst types around -- and for some, the outright worst.
* '''[[DishingOutDirt Rock]]''', much like Ice above, is a type that's designed more like a MightyGlacier or StoneWall, but ends up a GlassCannon in practice. It's awesome offensively, hurting Fire, Ice, Flying and Bug, while only being resisted by Fighting, Ground and Steel and having no types immune to it; this offensive profile is part of the reason for Stealth Rock's infamy, limiting a notoriously high amount of Pokémon, while also making it an excellent type to pair offensively with types like Fighting or Ground. However, defensively, Rock suffers from a deluge of weaknesses in Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground and Steel, while not resisting as many types in Normal, Fire, Poison and Flying; of these, only Fire stands out the most, while the Steel-type otherwise outclasses Rock defensively due to its fewer weaknesses and drastically more resistances. Rock had a great start in Gen I, being one of two types (along with Ghost) that resisted Normal; starting with Gen II, however, the type would start dwindling due to Steel's introduction in Gen II and the buffs to Fighting and Grass. A Normal resistance is no longer much of a selling point, and ''many'' Rock-types have at least one [[AchillesHeel 4x weakness]] -- which is a terrible thing when most Rock Pokémon have, again, MightyGlacier stats. It really says something when Aggron losing this type post-Mega Evolution proved to be a ''boon'' than a ''detriment''. Finally and, {{iron|y}}ically, despite its stupendous offensive matchups, the type surprisingly struggles in terms of offense, as its main physical attacking moves (Rock Slide and Stone Edge) suffer from imperfect accuracy, and its special attacking ones have limited distribution (Meteor Beam and Power Gem) or poor power (Ancient Power). While there are numerous strong Rock-type Pokémon that take full advantage of its strengths, the type also has the curious dishonor of never having a Pokémon be banned to Ubers[[note]]Besides Arceus-Rock, but Arceus is a Pokémon that can have any of the 18 types in the game, and Arceus-Rock isn't viable in Ubers[[/note]]; additionally, many of the Rock-types that were introduced in Gen IX are exceptions that prove the rule -- Garganacl often Terastallizes into a better defensive type, while Glimmora is best used as a lead, making the defensive weaknesses of its typing not nearly as relevant.

* '''Iron Thorns''' is widely considered to be among the least impressive of the Paradox Pokémon, alongside Scream Tail, Iron Jugulis, and Brute Bonnet. However, all three of them at least ''have'' niches that give them competitive success[[note]]Scream Tail enjoys its high speed and bulk giving it use as team support and healing with Wish, Iron Jugulis is a decent GlassCannon for its tier with powerful moves like STAB Hurricane at its back, and Brute Bonnet posseses a combination of high offenses, STAB Sucker Punch, Protosynthesis, and Spore[[/note]]. On the other hand, while Thorns has some use as a wallbreaker and Dragon Dance user in theory, in practice, its poor defensive typing (4x weak to Ground, 2x weak to Fighting, Water, and Grass) and middling Speed simply present too many hurdles. It's also hurting for decent STAB options that aren't inaccurate and don't have recoil, it has to rely on Booster Energy to utilize its Ability due to a dearth of good Electric Terrain setters, and it's simply not bulky enough to offset its serious weaknesses. In general, it brings nothing to the table that other wallbreakers and setup sweepers can't do much better without having to fear an Earthquake or Earth Power, and it has none of Tyranitar's utility, versatility, or ability to wall dominant offensive types, something that was made ''painfully'' clear whenever Tyranitar was in the same tier and proceeded to outclass its robotic descendant. Unfortunately, its in-theory use as a Dragon Dancer is [[SkillGateCharacters highly appealing to newer players]], causing it to stay in RU for most of its life, to the point of becoming the '''tenth''' most-used Pokémon in RU in November of 2023 despite being unviable there. It got a nominal buff in ''Indigo Disk'' by way of access to Supercell Slam, allowing it to finally have a powerful move to capitalize on Electric STAB without the guaranteed recoil of Wild Charge, but the miss recoil presents its own problems, and it's nowhere near enough of a buff to offset its many structural problems, and it dropped to NU the month after its release.

* '''Politoed''' has rarely seen success in every generation it's been part of. It's a generic, bulky Water-type with [[JackOfAllStats balanced stats across the board]] that [[MasterOfNone fail to make a significant impact]], and the moveset you'd expect of any Water mon. As a result, in every generation that isn't Gen II, there has always been one Pokémon that outclasses Politoed. As explained in the franchise's HighTierScrappy page, it did have its time to shine in Gen V OU after the introduction of [[BattleInTheRain Drizzle]] as its Hidden Ability, but with Gen VI nerfing Drizzle to last five turns instead of permanently, rain teams lost most of their potency, and thus Politoed lost its niche as one of the most influential Pokémon in OU (with the introduction of Mega Swampert in ''[=OR/AS=]'' not being enough to bump it up). In a cruel twist of fate, however, abilities that permanently set up sun/rain are usually banned in any tier that's not OU, thus leading Politoed to contend in the lowest of tiers with fierce competition that far outclasses it. This became worse in Gen VII, where Pelipper received Drizzle and whose superior movepool lets it outclass Politoed despite its 4x weakness to Electric; rain teams have seen a resurgence since then... just not with Politoed as their anchor, who instead fell to Untiered.

* In ancillary media, '''Unown''' are mysterious godlike entities that become dangerous in groups. In battle, bringing multiple Unown is forfeiting with extra steps. The species has stats on par with unevolved Pokémon, access to a single, unimpressive move in Hidden Power, and no reason to be used over ''literally anything with its Hidden Power type.''

* '''Delcatty''' is widely considered the absolute worst fully evolved Pokémon ''ever''. It was seemingly created for the sole purpose of being used in Contests and [[JokeCharacter deliberately designed to fare poorly in actual battles,]] as hinted by its Pokédex entries. It has a huge movepool and an interesting ability in Normalize, which makes all its moves Normal-Typed, meaning it gets STAB on all its attacking moves, and can paralyze Ground-Types with Thunder Wave (It's still useless against Electric-Types and Pokémon with the Ability Limber, however). After that one trick, that's where ''any'' good it has ends. Delcatty's stats are downright atrocious (its BST is a paltry '''''380''''', the lowest of any fully-evolved Pokémon that isn't [[OneHitPointWonder Shedinja]] if you discount standalone Pokémon, leaving it outclassed by even the ''[[CrutchCharacter early-game bugs]]'' before it got buffed to a marginally less pathetic 400) with its highest stat (its Speed) being an average 90 and the rest being no higher than 70. Normalize also renders Delcatty utterly useless against any Rock, Steel or Ghost-type, as it now has no type coverage to hit them. Almost anything Delcatty does is horribly outclassed. This is one of the few Pokémon where [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration its Pokédex entries match its performance]], Delcatty is [[{{Pacifist}} extremely passive]] and doesn't fight. Considering just how awful it is, it's sadly accurate and even justified. At least it's [[CuteKitten cute]] and can [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman perform in Pokémon Contests]], maybe. Even with these flaws, Delcatty managed to find a place in ADV ZU due to its utility movepool being highly useful there.
* '''Plusle and Minun''' are two of the first Pikaclones to be introduced, and they also happen to be some of the worst out of them in competitive play. Both of them suffer from having subpar stats aside from Speed with their abilities, Plus and Minus only work in Doubles, it isn't until Gen VI where Plusle and Minun gain Lightning Rod and Volt Absorb which have at least some utility in Singles, respectively. They still pose no threat in Doubles even with the Sp. Attack boost from Plus and Minus, as their abysmal bulk means almost any attacks can knock them out (in particular, Earthquake is very likely to knock them both out in one turn), and their coverage basically doesn't exist (in their most recent playable generations, their only non-Electric Special moves over 60 power are a few Normal-type moves and Signal Beam). Their niche comes from being Baton Pass users in Singles, but unfortunately for them, the increasing PowerCreep led to the ban of Baton Pass from Gen VII onward, leaving Plusle and Minun nothing going for them in modern low tiers.

* '''Wailord''' may have been the largest Pokémon in the series for five generations, but size tragically doesn't translate to viability, as it's is a good case study in how bad stat distribution can doom a Pokémon. Wailord seems built as a tank with its massive 170 HP, but it adds on 45 in both defensive stats, which makes its tanking ability mediocre.[[note]]For comparison, this makes its defensive bulk only a little better than Phione.[[/note]] It also has 90 in both offensive stats, which leaves it as a barely-average attacker on both sides, and its Speed of 60 is too slow to outspeed anything but not slow enough for Trick Room. It has the potentially amazing Water Spout, which was initially exclusive to it and Kyogre, but the aforementioned mediocre Special Attack and low Speed coupled with Water Spout dropping off in power as Wailord takes damage makes it far less effective. Wailord is considered excellent in Gen III NU, but it nonetheless stands out there for having the third-highest base stats in the tier (only outclassed by Shuckle and the similarly unfortunate Flareon), with [[NormalFishInATinyPond most of its competition being in the low-mid 400s compared to its 500]]. In Gen IV, NU became much more crowded and Water Spout distribution became wider, and Wailord's shaky viability proceeded to fall off a cliff. Whatever niche it had was then taken by Jellicent, which is also a bulky Water with Water Spout but boasts superior typing, abilities, Special bulk, and moves, with the only thing Wailord boasting in comparison being its access to Pressure. By Gen V, it was struggling in PU, by Gen VI, it was struggling in ZU, and by Gen VII, it wasn't even ranked there.

** While '''Regirock''' was nowhere near the threat levels of Regice in ADV, it was still a decent pick thanks to its colossal 200 defense and decent movepool. However, as the generations flew by and PowerCreep settled in, Regirock's numerous weaknesses began to show. Its poor defensive typing and lack of recovery hampered its usefulness as a wall, and it didn't have nearly enough firepower nor speed to become an attacker. It tumbled all the way down to NU immediately, and as of Gen VII, it's dropped further PU. At the very least, Regirock is always one of the best options wherever it ends up, keeping top metagame threats in check and being easy to include in teams. Gen VIII was even kinder to it, giving it Body Press, which works off its monstrous Defense stat and makes it less passive offensively. It still hasn't managed to climb its way out of the bottom tiers, but it at least has quite a bit going for it down there.

* '''Electivire''' mostly suffers from this due to HypeBacklash and its early {{Skill Gate Character|s}} status. In the early Generation IV days, it was seen as a brand-new powerhouse, due to its incredibly high Attack, a defensive typing giving it only one weakness, a good 95 Speed that could be boosted with Motor Drive by switching it into an Electric attack (which meant you could potentially pair it with the newly-buffed Gyarados to cover each other's weaknesses), and most importantly, a large movepool that gave it the potential to hit just about anything super-effectively. But then people discovered that Electivire's offense wasn't all that great, due to most of its coverage moves and even its STAB lacking power. Without a Motor Drive boost, which was hard to come by due to the scarcity of Electric moves in OU and "Gyaravire" becoming a very predictable strategy, its Speed was a lot worse than you'd expect, especially since it couldn't viably run Choice Scarf as that would take away its coverage and make its offense even worse. It also offered no defensive utility to teams, due to an Earthquake weakness and few notable resistances. Consequently, Electivire struggled to fit a niche: it wasn't fast or damaging enough to blitz an opponent and kill them in a single shot, but it wasn't sturdy enough to slug it out with a fellow offensive threat. And then the Rotom forms came along, able to laugh off all its attacks before neutering it or Gyarados with Will-O-Wisp and then three-shotting it with Shadow Ball. Although Electivire stayed OU throughout Gen IV, the vast majority of the playerbase agrees that it shouldn't have, and it sees no serious usage in modern DPP OU. What little viability it could have gained in Generation V, with Wild Charge finally giving it a stronger Electric move than Thunder Punch, was destroyed by Team Preview, which pretty much ruined any hope of it ever activating Motor Drive against a competent opponent. Once the new-toy syndrome wore off, Electivire fell off hard, plummeting to Untiered by the time of Generation VII and having limited use wherever it wound up before then. Gen VII cut poor Electivire a bit of a break in the unofficial ZU format, where it is a legitimately viable Pokémon, and not just a gimmick... only for PowerCreep in Gen VIII to push it out of viability even there.

* BreakoutCharacter '''Charizard''' has had multiple temporary {{Super Mode}}s that have all been successful in various competitive formats, and despite its crippling weakness to Stealth Rock, its base form has nonetheless proven to be one of the best Pokémon in the lowest tiers such as NU and PU throughout the generations. It even managed to rise to OU in Gen III, where it is held as a genuinely decent wallbreaker with a lot of viable movesets. The problem lies in its PopularityPower; many players will lament Charizard's lack of potency compared to many OU Pokémon and attempt to make it work in standard play,[[note]]or even, egregiously, tiers such as ''Gen V Ubers'',[[/note]] usually with [[GlassCannon Solar Power]] sets on sun teams with their extreme wallbreaking power (often trying to fill the void left by its Mega Evolutions and Gigantamax form in generations where they don't exist).[[note]]It doesn't help that Charizard physically resembles many Dragon-type Pokémon (such as its own X Mega Evolution), many of which are in OU and UU, furthering the negative comparisons and psychologically encouraging some players to use it in the same way. Even fellow Gen I "non-Dragon-type dragon" Gyarados has been a staple in UU or OU since its introduction, further encouraging this train of thought.[[/note]] However, Charizard is a flat-out MasterOfNone compared to the OU titans, with many other Fire-types in most generations (especially Moltres, Volcarona and Iron Moth) able to fill its offensive and defensive roles much more effectively. While many Charizard fans were quick to blame the introduction of Stealth Rock for Charizard's lack of viability, factors such as the aforementioned Moltres and Volcarona and the fact that the Heavy-Duty Boots item[[note]]allows the holder to ignore entry hazards[[/note]] didn't do much to improve Charizard's standing showed that Stealth Rock was merely one of its many, ''many'' woes. Its Solar Power sets fall into this trope quite hard; they are only really usable in higher tiers with automatic weather setters such as Torkoal, but are too frail and predictable to use effectively,[[note]]and are also too weak if Charizard foregoes a Choice item to instead use Heavy-Duty Boots to overcome its Stealth Rock weakness, which is especially problematic in Generation IX OU where Gholdengo exists,[[/note]] giving them no real niche in any metagame. Additionally, Solar Power Charizard is ''directly'' outclassed in Gen IX by Iron Moth, which is faster and stronger by default, and can use Booster Energy to activate a similar power boost ''without'' the self-damage. Thankfully, Charizard has improved within the bottom tiers throughout the generations (where, ironically, its Stealth Rock weakness sometimes ''[[CursedWithAwesome helps]]'' it by making it easier to consistently activate its [[TurnsRed Blaze]] ability), but its popularity will always cause it to be compared to far stronger Pokémon that it has no place competing against and its Solar Power gimmick has never risen out of AwesomeButImpractical territory, never finding a true home outside of Gen VIII VGC.

* Phione is a Pokémon introduced in Gen IV that can only be obtained by breeding the event-exclusive Manaphy with Ditto. It suffers from the same problem as baby Pokémon, where obtaining one requires already having a better version of itself. Unlike Manaphy, it can't use the very rare Tail Glow or the [[SecretArt signature move]] Heart Swap, and overall offers nothing that you can't get from the common Water-types you pick up while surfing or fishing. It's so disliked that when popular ROM hack creator Creator/Drayano60 put out a poll asking which Pokémon should be removed from his then-upcoming ''VideoGame/PokemonHeartGoldAndSoulSilver'' hack in favor of including Sylveon, Phione "won" in a landslide.
* Ponyta and Rapidash in ''Diamond and Pearl''. Rapidash's stats aren't ''terrible'', but it doesn't evolve until Level 40 and its best Physical STAB until Level 58 is the Flame Wheel (which has a measly 60 BP). Not helping matters is that this line is the only Fire-Type Pokémon in the ''Diamond and Pearl'' Sinnoh Pokédex outside of the Chimchar StarterMon line, which means those who didn't choose it had no choice but to use Rapidash if they wanted a Fire-Type.
* In addition to already being overshadowed by a myriad of other Water-types, Wiglett and Wugtrio don't have much going for them even in single-player ''Scarlet and Violet''. While Wiglett can be obtained very early on, you have to go pretty far out of your way to find them, while Buizel is a common spawn in the very first area of the game and outclasses Wiglett in pretty much every way imaginable, and Magikarp isn't much harder to find and is much easier to raise in later generations as the experience system means you don't have to switch it in and out anymore. Players who don't stray too far off the beaten path will likely not find a Wiglett until around level 20+, at which point you can easily have a Floatzel or Gyarados instead, both of whom have better stats and movepools than Wugtrio. To make manners worse, one can also find Finizen very close to where Wiglett can be found, which, while requiring multiplayer to evolve at level 38, becomes Palafin, who has a much better movepool and, when transformed into its Hero Form, has base stats on par with a [[OlympusMons Legendary Pokémon]]. Even Wugtrio's SecretArt, Triple Dive, is effectively just Aqua Tail divided into three hits, rendering it more vulnerable to contact effects, with no benefits for doing so.

* '''Gligar'''' was this for some fans back in Gen 2. Pokémon Gold had Gligar, the first Ground/Flying type, while Pokémon Silver had [[EnsembleDarkhorse Skarmory]], the first Steel/Flying type. The reason Gligar was seen as a joke back then was because its moveset is terrible. As a result, people only caught it for Pokédex data. [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap However, it was saved from its unfortunate status as the Pokémon Generations moved on.]] Now able to learn moves like X-Scissor, Sky Uppercut, and even Earthquake, the fans began to see it as invaluable when fighting Poison, Electric, and Rock types. [[TookALevelInBadass It also helps that since Sinnoh, it gained an evolution in Gliscor]].

** '''Patrat''', [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black and White's]] version of the early-game {{Mon}}, is a contender for the most hated. Most of the other early-game Normal types can serve as good HM users and have appealing, if a bit simple, designs. However, the game's downplaying of HMs hinder Patrat and Watchog heavily, and the line only learns a few HM moves anyways. While it does have the typical wide move pool of early-game rodents, it doesn't have the stats to take real advantage of it, and it's severely outclassed by other easily-available Normal types, such as Audino and Stoutland - the latter is especially notable as Lillipup can be found on the ''exact same route'' as Patrat but has a strictly better movepool, ability and evolutions. The creepy [[TheStoner stoned eyes]] on a chipmunk design didn't help matters. Fans often describe Patrat as "the next Bidoof". Watchog also gained a reputation of being an absolute pain to deal with in-game, due to getting Hypnosis and learning several powerful moves early on. It's also notorious for being spammed in the early game by other trainers, especially Team Plasma grunts--more than half of all Plasma grunts have at least one Patrat or Watchog on their team!

* '''[[BigCreepyCrawlies Bug]]''' has historically been one of the worst types in the franchise, which is equal parts fitting (like Normal, it's more of a "starter type") and ironic[[note]]''Pokémon'' was born from Creator/SatoshiTajiri's fondness of collecting ''bugs'' when he was younger and his desire for kids to feel the same when [[GottaCatchThemAll catching and collecting creatures]][[/note]]. Offensively, it's got awful effectiveness, hitting Grass, Psychic and Dark (the former of which is the most useful and the other two being generally mediocre), but resisted by a whopping ''seven'' types[[note]][[PlayingWithFire Fire]], [[BareFistedMonk Fighting]] (a mutual resistance), {{Poison|ous Person}}, [[BlowYouAway Flying]], [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Ghost]], [[ExtraOreDinary Steel]] and [[TheFairFolk Fairy]][[/note]]. It's actually better defensively, resisting Grass, Fighting and Ground, but its also weak to common offensive types in Fire, Flying, and Rock[[note]]And thus to Stealth Rock, like Ice[[/note]]; not to mention many of the type's mons have low stats and poor type combos, causing Flying itself to fill whatever defensive niche Bug can do better (having in fact, an ''[[NoSell immunity]]'' to Ground as opposed to just a resistance). Generally speaking, most Bugs are forced to run Heavy-Duty Boots in an attempt to function offensively, or Sticky Web-centric lead sets for utility. It's also not much better in Doubles, as the weaknesses of Bug Pokémon leave them wide open to spread moves such as Heat Wave and Rock Slide. And to hit the nail in the coffin, while Grass also hits seven types for not very effective damage, its former's matchups in Water, Ground and Rock[[labelnote:*]]So, one of the best defensive types, and two of the best offensive ones[[/labelnote]] are miles more useful than Bug's own matchups[[labelnote:*]]A specialized but otherwise passable type, a type infamous for its bad defensive typing (as seen above), and a type that's defensively ''countered'' by the other types that can hit it super-effectively[[/labelnote]]. It's telling that most competitively useful Bug-types thrive thanks to their stats and traits rather than (or actually, in spite of) their typings. Probably the ''only'' real advantage Bug has is that its lack of immunities (be it to types or Abilities) is partially what makes [[SwitchOutMove U-turn]] one of the best moves in competitive play; other than that, all of this amounts to what's usually considered one of the worst types around -- and for some, the outright worst.

* '''Arbok''' has been a miserably weak Pokémon since its inception. It started out as one of the worst Pokémon in gen I, with [[MasterOfNone middling stats all around]], an awful mono-Poison typing with no STAB moves stronger than ''Acid'', and a galaxy of other Wrap users that could do everything it did better. Arbok's stats have not taken well to PowerCreep at all, and despite a few useful buffs like Intimidate, Coil, and a boost to its attack stat, it's remained in the lowest tiers -- though, to its credit, it has found some success in bottom-tier play in the later generations.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to wear foes down due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness (even having access to Defog), although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic and Defog, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. While in theory the new Heavy-Duty Boots item should have helped Lugia with its Stealth Rock weakness and made Multiscale more consistent, its typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of Dusk Mane Necrozma, the newly popular Origin Forme Giratina,[[note]]which is one of the few viable Defoggers in Gen IX Ubers,[[/note]] and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. Furthermore, Lugia has a horrendous matchup against Skeledirge, an UU Pokémon commonly used in Ubers, as it's weak to Skeledirge's Ghost typing and Unaware cancels out any stat boosts that Lugia may try. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability. Although a few fans theorize that Lugia could be balanced in OU, this is largely a minority opinion as most players believe that it would be too problematic and hard to take down for the tier.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to wear foes down due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. While in theory the new Heavy-Duty Boots item should have helped Lugia with its Stealth Rock weakness and made Multiscale more consistent, its typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. Furthermore, Lugia has a horrendous matchup against Skeledirge, an UU Pokémon commonly used in Ubers, as it's weak to Skeledirge's Ghost typing and Unaware cancels out any stat boosts that Lugia may try. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability. Although a few fans theorize that Lugia could be balanced in OU, this is largely a minority opinion as most players believe that it would be too problematic and hard to take down for the tier.

* '''[[NonElemental Normal]]''', par for the course for ''the'' "starter type"[[note]]As in, a type meant to teach the player to get familiar with the type chart[[/note]] was bound to be this. Offensively, it doesn't hit any type super-effectively, and fails to meaningfully hurt [[DishingOutDirt Rock]] and [[ExtraOreDinary Steel]] (or in the case of [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Ghost]], [[NoSell at all]]); defensively, it only has one weakness to [[BareFistedMonk Fighting]], but doesn't resist any type save for Ghost, which it is mutually immune to. The result is a type that [[MasterOfNone excels at nothing]]. Notably, in Gen I, the type previously dominated competitive battles (on par with Psychic as the InfinityPlusOneElement), but started to become this as subsequent generations buffed each type and gave them more of an identity -- the introduction of the Steel-type in Gen II and the increasing relevancy of Fighting and Ghost starting with Gen II/Gens III-IV, respectively, would start taking the wind out of Normal's sails, and eventually, the type's MasterOfNone status came back to bite it, especially with PowerCreep in play. Normal-types have thus been rare in the higher tiers since then, with the few viable ones being either perennial {{Stone Wall}}s Chansey and Blissey as well as [=Porygon2=], or those that make up for Normal's lack of super-effective hits with their sheer power like [[{{God}} Arceus]] without a Plate (due to the mon already being a MasterOfAll), Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Lopunny. Unfortunately, Gen VIII removed Return and Frustration, removing the niche of providing strong, neutral coverage the type once had and forcing physically offensive Normal-types to either rely on weaker moves like Body Slam, or the less accessible Double-Edge. In Generation IX, the ''only'' Normal-types to rank above UU are Blissey, Arceus, Bloodmoon Ursaluna, and Terapagos with even promising candidates such as Maushold and Hisuian Zoroark falling to the wayside.
* '''[[AnIcePerson Ice]]''' is infamous for being one of the most misunderstood types by ''Game Freak'', as determined by fans. It's notorious for being one of the most dangerous offensive types in the game, hitting various offensive and defensive types in Grass, Ground, Flying and Dragon for massive damage, and more often than not, these types are rarely paired with the types that resist Ice in Fire, Water, Ice itself and Steel; in fact, thanks to the other types' utility in higher tiers, [[AchillesHeel 4x weaknesses to Ice]] tend to be very common. However, it has far and away the worst defensive profile in the game; Ice not only has common weaknesses in Fire, Fighting, Rock[[note]]And thus to [[ThatOneAttack Stealth Rock]][[/note]] and Steel, but it has no immunities and only resists '''''itself'''''. This tends to overcompensate for Ice's offensive strengths; simply having an Ice-type on your team tends to detract from its defensive integrity as, in an inverse of the Steel-type, pairing Ice with another type tends to worsen said other type. This wouldn't be so bad if the Ice-type Pokémon in question was sufficiently fast, but sadly, many of the type's mons tend to be [[MightyGlacier lumbering and bulky]] instead of [[FragileSpeedster speedier but fragile]], and are thus shoved to the lower rungs of competitive play. However, in an oxymoron, the type's balance is so lopsided, that a mon that makes up for Ice's defensive shortcomings can [[GoneHorriblyRight get out of control quickly]] and shove it into [[HighTierScrappy the opposite realm]], such as with Weavile from Gens VI-VIII, Kyurem in Gen VIII and Chien-Pao and Baxcalibur in Gen IX (the latter three even getting banned to Ubers). Regardless, even after the introduction of Aurora Veil[[note]]A status move that combines the effects of Reflect and Light Screen, halving damage from both physical and special attacks for 5 turns (8 with Light Clay) and even ''stacking'' with dual screens[[/note]] in Gen VII, the type still struggled. It took until Gen IX where hail (and its related move Hail) was replaced with snow and Snowscape, losing the passive damage but granting any Ice-types a very useful Defense boost, further upping the viability of the type; this particular change combined with Snow Warning pushing the previously-good but not amazing Alolan Ninetales into HighTierScrappy territory and was a major contributing factor in sending Baxcalibur to Ubers. For Ice-Types unable to fully abuse Snow however, the introduction of Terastallization also allows these mons to become any type that's ''not'' Ice, with the least to lose and most to gain from changing their type.
* '''{{Psychic|Powers}}''', after a stint in Generation I where it was notoriously [[HighTierScrappy unbalanced]], has had its viability slowly tumble down a cliff as time has gone on. Offensively, while not outright ''bad'', it only hits Fighting and Poison hard, while itself and Steel resist it and Dark is [[NoSell immune to it]]; the niche of a type that can hit much of the cast at least neutrally is also already done by other types like Electric, Ghost, Dragon and Dark, causing Psychic to be outclassed. It's also pretty lackluster defensively, resisting only itself and Fighting, while possessing no immunities and weaknesses to Bug, Ghost and Dark. Its broken status in Gen I was mainly due to having basically no weaknesses (Bug had weak moves with zero good abusers, and due to a programming error, Psychic was outright ''immune'' to Ghost) and abusing the Special stat to full effect; after Gen I, the introduction of Dark and Steel, two types specifically made to nerf Psychic, was a huge blow to the type's viability, though the type still saw use due to its niche of being able to check Fighting-types while not being weak to Stealth Rock. However, the type has significantly declined from Gen VI and on no thanks to the buffs to Ghost and Dark, and the introduction of Fairy, which does everything else Psychic did (except hitting Poison) but better. Game Freak is at least aware of Psychic's problems and have attempted to solve it, with Gen VII onward emphasizing on their offensive prowess with the introduction of Psychic Terrain as well as a wonderful setter and abuser in Tapu Lele, though this otherwise requires setup due to no other Pokémon receiving the Ability (until Indeedee in Gen VIII). All in all, Psychic's problematic offenses make it outclassed by types that can already hit just as hard and better, like Ground or Flying, while its defensive profile remains laughable.
* '''[[BigCreepyCrawlies Bug]]''' has historically been one of the worst types in the franchise, which is equal parts fitting (like Normal, it's more of a "starter type") and ironic[[note]]''Pokémon'' was born from Creator/SatoshiTajiri's fondness of collecting ''bugs'' when he was younger and his desire for kids to feel the same when [[GottaCatchThemAll catching and collecting creatures]][[/note]]. Offensively, it's got awful effectiveness, hitting Grass, Psychic and Dark (the former of which is the most useful and the other two being generally mediocre), but resisted by a whopping ''seven'' types[[note]][[PlayingWithFire Fire]], [[BareFistedMonk Fighting]] (a mutual resistance), {{Poison|ous Person}}, [[BlowYouAway Flying]], [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Ghost]], [[ExtraOreDinary Steel]] and [[TheFairFolk Fairy]][[/note]]. It's actually better defensively, resisting Grass, Fighting and Ground, but its also weak to common offensive types in Fire, Flying, and Rock[[note]]And thus to Stealth Rock, like Ice[[/note]]; not to mention many of the type's mons have low stats and poor type combos, causing Flying itself to fill whatever defensive niche Bug can do better (having in fact, an ''[[NoSell immunity]]'' to Ground as opposed to just a resistance). Generally speaking, most Bugs are forced to run Heavy-Duty Boots in an attempt to function offensively, or Sticky Web-centric lead sets for utility. It's also not much better in Doubles, as the weaknesses of Bug Pokémon leave them wide open to spread moves such as Heat Wave and Rock Slide. And sure, Grass also hits seven types for not very effective damage, but the former's matchups in Water, Ground and Rock are miles more useful than Bug's own matchups. It's telling that most competitively useful Bug-types thrive thanks to their stats and traits rather than (or actually, in spite of) their typings. Probably the ''only'' real advantage Bug has is that its lack of immunities (be it to types or Abilities) is partially what makes [[SwitchOutMove U-turn]] one of the best moves in competitive play; other than that, all of this amounts to what's usually considered one of the worst types around.
* '''[[DishingOutDirt Rock]]''', much like Ice above, is a type that's designed more like a MightyGlacier or StoneWall, but ends up a GlassCannon in practice. It's awesome offensively, hurting Fire, Ice, Flying and Bug, while only being resisted by Fighting, Ground and Steel and having no types immune to it; this offensive profile is part of the reason for Stealth Rock's infamy, limiting a notoriously high amount of Pokémon, while also making it an excellent type to pair with Ground on offense. However, defensively, Rock suffers from a deluge of weaknesses in Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground and Steel, while not resisting as many types in Normal, Fire, Poison and Flying; of these, only Fire stands out, while the Steel-type otherwise outclasses Rock defensively due to its fewer weaknesses and drastically more resistances. Rock had a great start in Gen I, being one of two types (along with Ghost) that resisted Normal; starting with Gen II, however, the type would start dwindling due to Steel's introduction in Gen II and the buffs to Fighting and Grass. A Normal resistance is no longer much of a selling point, and ''many'' Rock-types have at least one [[AchillesHeel 4x weakness]] -- which is a terrible thing when most Rock Pokémon have, again, MightyGlacier stats. It really says something when Aggron losing this type post-Mega Evolution proved to be a ''boon'' than a ''detriment''. Despite its stupendous offensive matchups, the type surprisingly struggles in terms of offense, as its main physical attacking moves (Rock Slide and Stone Edge) suffer from imperfect accuracy, and its special attacking ones have nonexistent distribution or poor power. While there are numerous strong Rock-type Pokémon that take full advantage of its strengths, the type also has the curious dishonor of never having a Pokémon be banned to Ubers[[note]]Besides Arceus-Rock, but Arceus is a Pokémon that can have any of the 18 types in the game, and Arceus-Rock isn't viable in Ubers[[/note]]; additionally, many of the Rock-types that were introduced in Gen IX are exceptions that prove the rule -- Garganacl often Terastallizes into a better defensive type, while Glimmora is best used as a lead, making the defensive weaknesses of its typing not nearly as relevant.

* While its Tao Dragon brethren have found various levels of success throughout the generations, '''Reshiram''' holds the dubious honor of being one of the most unviable box legendaries in ''every generation of its existence''. At the start of Generation V, it was feared as a powerful wallbreaker in Ubers with an unresisted STAB combo (Dragon/Fire with a renamed Mold Breaker to hit Heatran) and an amazing SecretArt in Blue Flare, but required an inordinate amount of babysitting due to its Stealth Rock weakness and dependence on sun, especially with Kyogre running amok and Reshiram having no really effective way to deal with it. Its base 90 Speed also held it back significantly, as it could be outsped by other Pokémon that could threaten it easily. ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' then introduced White Kyurem, which was slightly faster and stronger, and could do everything Reshiram could but better despite lacking Blue Flare (only having access to Fusion Flare) and having Ice STAB instead of Fire. On top of that, Reshiram had no way to naturally boost its Sp. Atk, a problem plaguing fellow fiery dragon Charizard in lower tiers. In every generation since, despite being one of the few Dragon-type Pokémon to only take neutral damage from the new Fairy type, it's sat near the bottom of the Ubers viability rankings while Zekrom and Kyurem's forms have all been viable in their respective tiers at different points. Not helping matters was the introduction of Primal Groudon, which could easily OHKO Reshiram with a Precipice Blades despite its weather being beneficial to it, and discouraging the use of team-wide Sun support due to how much better it was than regular Groudon. Generation VIII was especially harsh to Reshiram; while its whole trio got [[StatusBuff Dragon Dance]] and it was able to make Zekrom better than it had ever been, Reshiram didn't benefit much from the move as a special attacker, already being able to boost its Speed via the similarly un-synergistic Flame Charge. In a twist of irony, Charizard's Gigantamax form was introduced in the same generation and outclassed Reshiram in formats where both were allowed, largely thanks to its own DamageOverTime SecretArt. Meanwhile, Reshiram's high stats and the positive traits that made it feared in early Gen V ensure that it will never drop to OU, at least until PowerCreep catches up to it. Even in Ubers UU, where ''Dawn Wings Necrozma'' is a broken threat, Reshiram still struggles to find a niche and is considered outclassed by Chi-Yu; meanwhile, Reshiram's counterpart Zekrom was ''quickbanned'' from the tier.

* '''Fearow's''' another generic and oft-neglected Flying-type that's bad for similar reasons as Pidgeot. While it had its places in Gen II NU and Gen III UU, {{power creep}} made its base 90 Attack and base 80 Flying STAB pale in comparison to every Flying type from Gen IV and beyond, where base Attacks greater than 100 and base 120 Flying STAB moves are the norm.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to wear foes down due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. While in theory the new Heavy-Duty Boots item should have helped Lugia with its Stealth Rock weakness and made Multiscale more consistent, ts typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma, and the newly buffed Dark- and Ghost-types in general. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. Furthermore, Lugia has a horrendous matchup against Skeledirge, an UU Pokémon commonly used in Ubers, as it's weak to Skeledirge's Ghost typing and Unaware cancels out any stat boosts that Lugia may try. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability. Although a few fans theorize that Lugia could be balanced in OU, this is largely a minority opinion as most players believe that it would be too problematic and hard to take down for the tier.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to score KO's due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. While in theory the new Heavy-Duty Boots item should have helped Lugia with its Stealth Rock weakness and made Multiscale more consistent, ts typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma, and the newly buffed Dark- and Ghost-types in general. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. Furthermore, Lugia has a horrendous matchup against Skeledirge, an UU Pokémon commonly used in Ubers, as it's weak to Skeledirge's Ghost typing and Unaware cancels out any stat boosts that Lugia may try. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability. Although a few fans theorize that Lugia could be balanced in OU, this is largely a minority opinion as most players believe that it would be too problematic and hard to take down for the tier.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to score KO's due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. While in theory the new Heavy-Duty Boots item should have helped Lugia with its Stealth Rock weakness and made Multiscale more consistent, ts typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma, and the newly buffed Dark- and Ghost-types in general. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability. Although a few fans theorize that Lugia could be balanced in OU, this is largely a minority opinion as most players believe that it would be too problematic and hard to take down for the tier.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to score KO's due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. While in theory the new Heavy-Duty Boots item should have helped Lugia with its Stealth Rock weakness and made Multiscale more consistent, ts typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma, and the newly buffed Dark- and Ghost-types in general. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to score KO's due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. Its typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma, as well as the newly buffed Dark- and Ghost-types in general. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to score KO's due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. Its typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma, as well as the newly buffed Dark- and Ghost-types in general. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability.

* In addition to already being overshadowed by a myriad of other Water-types, Wiglett and Wugtrio don't have much going for them even in single-player ''Scarlet and Violet''. While Wiglett can be obtained very early on, you have to go pretty far out of your way to find them, while Buizel is a common spawn in the very first area of the game and outclasses Wiglett in pretty much every way imaginable, and Magikarp isn't much harder to find and is much easier to raise in later generations as the experience system means you don't have to switch it in and out anymore. Players who don't stray too far off the beaten path will likely not find a Wiglett until around level 20+, at which point you can easily have a Floatzel or Gyarados instead, both of whom have better stats and movepools than Wugtrio. To make manners worse, one can also find Finizen very close to where Wiglett can be found, which, while requiring multiplayer to evolve at level 38, becomes Palafin, who has a much better movepool and, when transformed into its Hero Form, has base stats on par with an OlympusMon. Even Wugtrio's SecretArt, Triple Dive, is effectively just Aqua Tail divided into three hits, rendering it more vulnerable to contact effects, with no benefits for doing so.