History YMMV / PokemonShuffle

** Defense Forme Deoxys is plain LuckBasedMission to S-rank (and ''near-impossible'' to win itemless) even with a full-power super-effective team ''and'' all necessary items used. It's a BossInMookClothing taken UpToEleven. The default board layout has most of the tiles covered in Barriers, so you have to clear them quickly to proceed with the big combos... only to find out that the first column, once the Barriers are cleared and skyfall ensues, contains several screens' worth of Blocks with some Defense Forme Deoxys icons slipped between them, which ignore Complexity-1 because they're part of the preset layout. Defense Forme Deoxys' disruption will also produce Rocks, barriers and ''Attack'' Forme Deoxys. Tap-based Megas are the only definite solution to clean up the board, but even then you have to be very skilled with their abilities, and of them, only Pinsir holds a type advantage against Deoxys.

** Sleeping Pikachu, fittingly enough, has [[StandardStatusEffects Sleep Charm]] as its Skill. Yawning is contagious.

*** Porygon-Z shares the same base power as Porygon-2 (70), though instead of Crowd Power (an easier-to-activate version of Crowd Control), it has Shock Attack, which is a better version of [[StandardStatusEffects Paralyze]]. Unfortunately, being a [[NonElemental Normal-type]], it won't see much use (unless it's forced).

*** With Kirlia gaining a new Swap skill, Shot Out, and being available to farm just before Mega Gallade, there is a fairly reliable solution to this stage now.

** Braviary in the mobile version. The 3DS version gives him 11,008 HP and requires 8 moves at maximum (without Moves +5) to defeat him. It's still challenging but fair as you only carry [[ArbitraryHeadcountLimit 3 Pokémon]], which if the ones with anti-disruption skills (at least something with Rock Break) are included, they will make the level much easier. The mobile version, though, pretty much ''triples'' his HP but doesn't change anything else, including the number of moves. Defeating him is one thing, but trying to S-rank his stage will take multiple Hearts... and more likely a lot of Coins in the process.
*** In the harder UX mode, the HP triples again, leaving it with a six-digit score requirement. Better have Tapu Koko...

*** The [[NonElemental Normal-type]] Mega Pokémon have low base power, have no super-effective coverage at all, are resisted by three types (Rock, Steel, Ghost), and their presence only serves as an early introduction to [[SuperMode Mega Evolution]] and its basic Mega effects.
*** Winking Mega Audino, however, is passable - having a similar effect to the likes of Banette, but being combinable with Silvally and Arceus for immensely boosted combo damage.

*** A Skill Swapper fixes this, giving it access to Block Shot, but as there is no way to grind it, you're better off sticking with Duskull.

*** Rock Break++, and specifically the not-very-effective Electrode, has a small niche against Tropius, whose board features a "tree" made of rocks that you can cut down to harvest coins from.

** Players usually associate Paralyze and Shock Attack with Electric-type mons for obvious reasons. However, some mons have the same ability because they can learn a stunning move in the main games. For example, Quilladin can induce paralysis via Body Slam, Qwilfish can use Thunder Wave, Paras has Stun Spore, etc.

** Ditto. At first glance, 10,080 HP in 15 moves doesn't seem much, but the stage begins with a puzzle involving predetermined weak {{Mon}}s, so you'll have to waste five moves before you can even use your set supports. Once that's done, be ready to be surprised as Ditto is a ''[[TheLoad forced fifth support]]'' with a useless ability and very low attack power. Your only hope is a [[GameBreaker Risk-Taker Machamp]] (requires Skill Swapper), but even then its usage is hindered by the larger-than-normal number of Pokémon on the puzzle area. To make matters worse, like everything else in Prasino Woods, Ditto's catch rate is garbage.
** Defense Forme Deoxys is plain LuckBasedMission to S-rank (and ''near-impossible'' to win itemless) even with a full-power super-effective team ''and'' all necessary items used. It's a BossInMookClothing taken UpToEleven. The default board layout has most of the tiles covered in Barriers, so you have to clear them quickly to proceed with the big combos... only to find out that the first column, once the Barriers are cleared and skyfall ensues, contains several screens' worth of Blocks with some Defense Forme Deoxys icons slipped between them, which ignore Complexity-1 because they're part of the preset layout. Defense Forme Deoxys' disruption will also produce Rocks, barriers and ''Attack'' Forme Deoxys. Tap-based Megas are the only definite solution to clean up the board, but even then you have to be very skilled with their abilities and none of them have a type advantage against Deoxys.

*** Mega Abomasnow is like Mega Lucario in terms of functionality, but with less coverage (4 weak to Ice vs. 5 weak to Fighting). Problem is, Abomasnow is a late game mon, and its Mega Stone can only be obtained from competitions. By then, when it comes to fighting Dragon, Flying, Grass or Ground Pokémon, there are simply far better alternatives for Megas.

*** [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman Mega Aerodactyl]]. Its Mega effect is so situational that only stages that heavily abuse Rocks and Blocks make it somewhat useful, but it still suffer from low damage output due to its 60 base power.

*** Mega Metagross suffers from the same problem Mega Charizard X's disruption does, in that it's an X that has practically zero use. It faces competition with Steelix, whose ability is designed to eat through metal blocks; and Mawile, whose effect destroys icons in a much more useful formation, has access to Raise Max Levels to gain respectable power, and can be Skill Swapped to achieve the almighty Risk Taker.

** Mega Gengar only takes three to four matches to mega evolve, and its effect remoces all Mega Gengar icons from the field. While not happening instantly is somewhat less than ideal in the timed stages, it still has a temporary Complexity -1 effect, which is something that costs a massive 9000 coins otherwise. The removal of all Gengar icons ''also'' almost certainly causes a large chain to happen, which in turn results in fewer Mega Gengars showing up until the end of the chain.

** "One chance a day!" battles. The premise is that players only have four chances to capture a certain Pokémon, ''ever'', and most would probably botch their first try out of not knowing the stage, effectively leaving them with three. Worse yet, the first Pokémon to appear in such a level was Pinsir, whose capture rate ''cannot'' be maxed, making it very possible to anyone to permanently miss it no matter how well they played. The mechanic returned for Jirachi, but the general response was less negative due to a much more forgiving stage and capture rate.

** When Noivern debuted it, was an unimpressive Base 70 power Flying type with the near useless Cloud Clear++. In a later update, Noivern not only got a Raise Max Level boost (10 for a 125 AP cap), but also skill swapped to the powerful Shot Out ability and had a personal stage. Shot Out at max level has a multiplier that outperforms the infamous Risk-Taker's power on its highest roll, and with much better trigger rates (60/100/100 for 3/4/5 matches). The balancing factor in theory is the dependence on a forced Support or a disrupted Pokemon icon, but leaving a free slot when starting the stage automatically fills it with a non-support Pokémon, allowing Noivern to trigger this powerful Burst damage every turn regardless of disruptions.

** ''Typeless Combo.'' [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin It's like Pyre or Pummel or such, but it's independent of the types of your team.]] You'd think this would make its damage output suffer, right? Wrong! Typeless Combo carries a stunning 2.5x multiplier, and triggers 75% of the time, regardless of the size of your match. The only downside, really, is that you have to give up Risk-Taker on your Unbound Hoopa.
** Final Effort. "Does tons of damage when there are no moves left." How much is tons? ''x36 multiplier.'' It's pretty cheap to invest in, too, only taking 70 points of skill experience rather than the usual 120. Many stages become way easier if you have an easy 10k+ damage lifeline to fall back on, but it won't help much for S Ranks.
** In the game's final updates, two long-awaited megas were finally implemented - Shiny Mega Charizard X and Mega Pinsir. And what megas they are - by sacrificing one of the taps from Mega Tyranitar, they become blisteringly fast to Mega Evolve, only needing two matches apiece. They're now the first mega any new player should invest in, because they're just that nuts.

*** '''Final Effort''', the king of ultimately situational damage-affecting Skill. Like Last-Ditch Effort, it boosts damage during a critical moment, but unlike said Skill, it results in ''7x'' damage[[note]]3x damage pre-patch[[/note]]... in the last move available, assuming that its base Skill Level isn't increased. That alone should be enough why this Skill doesn't sit well with the playerbase. The fact that it's (so far) only available on mons with lower attack power only makes it worse, even if you boost its level to the point that it deals monstrous damage as in '''23.8x''' damage! A powered-up Final Effort can see some use in Escalation Battles or Competitive Stages, but that's it.

** What doesn't make much sense is that Incineroar and Primarina follow the same pattern.

*** There are four other Shot skills like this one - for Rocks, Blocks, Barriers and Clouds. There's also Necrozma's signature skill, Destruction, which operates similarly to Block Shot, does more damage more often, but only clears one block; as well as the Primal versions of Groudon and Kyogre, who have Barrier Shot Omega and Rock Shot Alpha. These do a massive x10 damage at maximum power, but are huge investments to match, and are probably the last mons you'll catch.

** Mewtwo, interestingly, when it came back for the 5 million downloads event. Not only is its health fairly low, but ''every item is free''. Its capture rate is also very high, meaning you get a Psychic-type with ''80 base power'' even early on.

* MostAnnoyingSound:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg2AjG2IyvY The Mega Evolution theme]] receives a lot of negative feedback for overriding the music of stages when your lead Pokémon Mega Evolves. Of note is when this music overrides the music of any stage that plays music highlighted in the SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic entry. Most of the criticism comes from its silly and off-the-wall composition compared to the rest of the game's soundtrack.
** The sound effect whenever you make a successful quick match in the Fast Match Competition event. The first few times you hear it, it sounded neat, but after a few more times, it ends up being annoying because of how this event is played (making matches as quickly as possible to gain more score than usual).

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcjmKxtlBFM The music for the hard stages]] is one of the fan favorites, with its [[EarWorm catchy bouncy feel and bass line.]] It makes players forget that they are actually playing on a hard stage. (We're looking at YOU, Tyranitar.)

** Chill works the same as Astonish (causes flinching[[note]]In in-game terms, this actually means that it will cause the target Pokémon to delay its disruption countdown by 1 move[[/note]]). Appropriately enough, the Pokémon that possess this Skill can learn a flinching move.[[note]]Glalie can learn Bite, Delibird can cause this effect as one of the possible added effects of Secret Power (learned only via a TM), (Skill-Swapped) Suicune can learn a variety of flinching moves, and (Snowy Form) Castform can learn Headbutt.[[/note]]

** The free Mewtwo giveaway that occurred between December 15, 2015 and January 19, 2016. As in, a special Mewtwo stage where it's easy to be taken down and you're pretty much guaranteed to capture it if you clear said stage regardless of how many moves left. One side sees this as a helpful temporary alternative of getting Mewtwo without wasting Coins in attempting its regular stage, which is timed and definitely a lot more difficult than the event version. The other side's reception, especially from the players who have already obtained Mewtwo prior to the event (thus very highly likely having wasted Coins during said past attempt), isn't as nice...

** The usage of ''Shuffle Move'' for the move-based competitive events. ''Shuffle Move'' is a fan-made application used to determine the best possible move in a given situation. It was intentionally made to assist players who have trouble (or were outright stuck) with the move-restricted stages. However, the "repeat" competitive events allowed players who used the tool to have a somewhat unfair advantage. The fanbase is broken between considering the usage of the program a form of cheating or claiming it doesn't remove the [[LuckBasedMission luck-based]] nature of the game, as it doesn't take into account the icons that fall into the screen once the move has been made.

*** Mega Metagross suffers from the same problem Mega Charizard X's disruption does, in that it's an X that has practically zero use. It faces competition with Steelix, whose ability is designed to eat through metal blocks; and Mawile, whose effect destroys icons in a much more useful formation, has access to Raise Max Levels to gain respectable power, and can be Skill Swappdr to achieve the almighty Risk Taker.

** Pretty much every Pokémon in Safari events whose encounter rate is the highest, as the player is bound to run into them multiple times before finding the one Pokémon they truly want. Notable offenders include Gible and Furfrou in Safari #3 (both have 26% encounter rate), Fletchling in Safari #5 (28%), and Stantler and Electrike in Safari #2 (35% and 23% respectively).
** For mobile players, it has been pretty much agreed that Fairy-types as opponents are this. Considering that there are only two types super-effective against it ([[PoisonousPerson Poison]] and [[ExtraOreDinary Steel]]) that aren't commonly used and the fact that Pokémon usage (especially via Optimize) is made worse by giving all {{Mons}} a single type, you might rarely train the aforementioned two types properly. Even if you do, it's usually the much tougher ones like [[OlympusMons Dialga]] (if you managed to obtain it before the event ended) and Muk. As for the usable Mega, not all mobile players have Mega Steelix (tougher but situational) due to Steelixite being an event reward, leaving most players stuck with Mega Mawile (weaker but clears several icons on activation) until the tougher Steel/Poison Megas arrive on the scene.

** Pretty much every emoticon-based Pokémon variation, especially the Winking ones and the [[SeriesMascot Pikachu-related]] ones. Most of these Pokémon consist of weak basic forms (albeit with a better Skill than the vanilla version) that are more likely to be [[BraggingRightsReward abandoned after capture]], as they are rendered obsolete by other Pokémon with the same type and ability, but higher attack power. Another complaint from the players is that these Pokémon are responsible for inflating the obtainable Pokémon count in this game, capable of surpassing the amount of total species as of [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY Generation VI]]. Many of these emoticon variations are notorious for having low catch rate, even the ones not exclusive to the Safari events.
** Every Pokémon only available in Ultra Challenge stages. True to the name, these stages are considerably more difficult and pretty much require the player to spend an obscene amount of coins on items to make things more manageable. However, the catch rates are still low, to the point that even a Great Ball will not ensure the Pokémon will be caught by the end of it. To make matters even worse, the Pokemon featured in Ultra Challenges are usually vastly outclassed by others available elsewhere (with the Cosmic Duo and the Tapus being the only notable exceptions).\\
From this category alone, Kommo-o may be the worst of the lot. Despite heavily abusing its pre-evolutions in its disruptions, Kommo-o's stage appeared first before its pre-evolutions' ([[LuckBasedMission Safari]] event) when it made its debut, basically forcing a delay for players if they want to reliably battle it without spending too many Coins and/or Jewels. Kommo-o also tops many of the Ultra Challenge {{Mon}}s for being a disrupted icon in the first Shiny Mega Charizard X competition.

** ''Shuffle Mobile'''s Stage 37 Meowth, simply for the fact that it has the possibility of spawning Rocks instead of Coins unlike the 3DS version, making MoneyGrinding more tedious.

** Ampharos is infamous for having Dancing Dragons as its default skill. As it's an [[ShockAndAwe Electric-type]], there is little reason to ever choose it when fighting against Dragon-types. Skill Swapper can change its skill to either Mega Boost, making it Mega Evolve much faster, or Paralysis Combo, which can be easily triggered i an all-Electric team.
** Eevee and two of its evolutions (Jolteon and Leafeon) can have Eject+ as their alternate Skill (default is Mega Boost, which on weaker Pokémon like those isn't really useful for dealing more damage after a [[SuperMode Mega Evolution]] has occurred), which is useful for dealing against stages featuring non-Support Pokémon. A perfect irony considering their notoriety for being a forced fifth Support (which Eject can now affect) in pre-expansion late-game stages.
** Luxray. Prior to the June 27, 2017 update, Luxray saw very little use despite its promising base attack power of 70, all thanks to the highly situational Cloud Clear+[[note]]May clear three Black Clouds. Keep in mind that Black Clouds are second only to Coins for least disruption prominence in stages[[/note]]. When that update rolled out, Luxray became compatible with the Skill Swapper, which allows it to have Cross Attack +. Quadruple damage from activation is no joke, especially if it involves a pattern-based burst damage like this one.
** Noivern. Similar to Luxray, when it debuted it was an unimpressive Base 70 power Flying type with the near useless Cloud Clear++. In a later update, Noivern not only got a Raise Max Level boost (10 for a 125 AP cap), but also skill swapped to the powerful Shot Out ability and had a personal stage. Shot Out at max level has a multiplier that outperforms the infamous Risk-Taker's power on its highest roll, and with much better trigger rates (60/100/100 for 3/4/5 matches). The balancing factor in theory is the dependence on a forced Support or a disrupted Pokemon icon, but for a 4-Pokemon stage, leaving a slot free automatically fills it with a default Pokemon which qualifies as "extra" supported, allowing Noivern to trigger this powerful Burst damage every turn regardless of disruptions. Other notable users of this move include Vanilluxe and Hitmonlee, but no other mon clawed out of as deep a scrappy position as Noivern.

** Mega Rayquaza [[PowerCreep power crept]] Mega Gengar, removing up to ten non-Dragon icons from the field whenever it's matched. While it's an extreme case of AwesomeButImpractical normally, giving it the maximum amount of Mega Startups turns it into this on stages that don't have single digit move counts.

** Ampharos is infamous of its PowerUpLetDown Skill that is Dancing Dragons (on an ''[[ShockAndAwe Electric-type]]'', which isn't effective against Dragon-types (the only type weak to Dragon) anyway). Skill Swapper can finally rescue this poor mon by allowing it to either have Mega Boost or Paralysis Combo, both being miles better than Dancing Dragons on a type resisted by Dragon-types.

*** Mega Banette, despite sharing the same Mega effect as Mega Mewtwo Y, is sadly not really reliable as a Ghost-type Mega. Compared to Gengar the GameBreaker (as it basically functions as a living Complexity-1 that only removes itself), Banette takes several more icons to Mega Evolve (even if it's stuffed full of Mega Speedups).
*** Mega Abomasnow is like Mega Lucario in terms of functionality, but with less coverage (4 weak to Ice vs. 5 weak to Fighting). Its usage is also redundant if one wants to go for the Mega effect, as the icons required are nearly the same (or the ''exact'' same if both are fully-candied with Mega Speedups). Unlike Lopunny (which is considered more or less an introduction to this kind of Mega effect), Abomasnow is a late game mon and its Mega Stone can only be obtained from competitions. If you want to fight a Dragon, Flying, Grass or Ground Pokémon, there are far better alternatives for Megas.
*** Mega Venusaur and Mega Gardevoir share the same Mega effect and are considered unreliable for building combos due to how they work (erasing by column, when Mega effects that clear rows like Mega Lucario are more effective at combo-building).

*** Mega Latias and Mega Latios pretty much discourage combo-building (removing icons horizontally is borderine worthless). While their base power is high (80), their Dragon-typing pretty much only leaves them with only one weak type to fight against: Other Dragon-types, which are very uncommon, and leave the Eon duo to be outclassed by the superior Mega Rayquaza.
*** Mega Charizard X suffers from both this and HypeBacklash. It's a popular Mega Pokémon to begin with, but its ability is horrible both at combo building and disruption cleaning. However, the worst part is that it becomes a Dragon upon Mega Evolving, limiting its coverage to just a single type. Much like the Eon duo, it's outclassed by Mega Rayqauaza in every way.

*** The early [[NonElemental Normal-type]] Mega Pokémon end up being outclassed by other, non-Normal-types. All of them have low base power, have no super-effective coverage at all, are resisted by three types (Rock, Steel, Ghost), and their presence (the vanilla ones at least) only serves as an early introduction to [[SuperMode Mega Evolution]] and its basic Mega effects.
*** Winking Mega Audino can remove up to 10 icons of a Pokémon species that shares the same type as it, but has low base attack power and lacks super-effective coverage. [[OlympusMons Arceus]] (an event-only mon) can be a good partner for this Mega due to its Skill, but good luck finding a good stage to use a team involving these two.
*** Mega Altaria is simply a better version of Mega Audino (clears icons within two spaces of the match instead of one). Unfortunately, Altaria is so weak (60 base power) and, being a Dragon-type, has extremely limited coverage (versus other Dragon-types). Mega Blastoise shares the same Mega effect and base power, but at least it can hit more types super-effectively and its Mega form can be achieved faster.
*** Mega Metagross suffers from the same problem Mega Charizard X's disruption does, in that it's an X that has practically zero use. Getting a good combo with it is very unlikely, unlike with the pattern Mawile has, and it doesn't clear enough to be viable compared to Steelix, whose ability is designed to eat through metal blocks. To make matters even worse for it, the very same update that it was released in gave Mawile some Raise Max Levels to finally give it respectable power, and even a Skill Swapper to give it the almighty Risk Taker!
*** Even the higher tiers don't get off scot-free. Mega Rayquaza is a GameBreaker just like in the main games, though borders in AwesomeButImpractical due to the high icon count for Mega Evolving. The problem with Mega Rayquaza is neither its typing nor its Mega effect, but how it overshadows every previous unlocked Mega from the moment it's acquired, provided the player has Mega Speed Ups to spare or is willing to buy some Mega Starts.

** The Relentless Skill increases damage inflicted if the target Pokémon has a status problem. This is basically a reverse Facade, as in the main games, Facade deals boosted damage if the ''user'' has a certain status problem. Most Pokémon that have this Skill (Serperior, Tornadus, Politoed, Vigoroth, Beartic, (Male) Pyroar) can learn Facade.

** Mega Banette, despite sharing the same Mega effect as Mega Mewtwo Y, is sadly not really reliable as a Ghost-type Mega. Compared to Gengar the GameBreaker (as it basically functions as a living Complexity-1 that only removes itself), Banette takes several more icons to Mega Evolve (even if it's stuffed full of Mega Speedups).
** Mega Abomasnow is like Mega Lucario in terms of functionality, but with less coverage (4 weak to Ice vs. 5 weak to Fighting). Its usage is also redundant if one wants to go for the Mega effect, as the icons required are nearly the same (or the ''exact'' same if both are fully-candied with Mega Speedups). Unlike Lopunny (which is considered more or less an introduction to this kind of Mega effect), Abomasnow is a late game mon and its Mega Stone can only be obtained from competitions. If you want to fight a Dragon, Flying, Grass or Ground Pokémon, there are far better alternatives for Megas.
*** Mega Venusaur and Mega Gardevoir, as both share the same Mega effect. They're often derided for being unreliable for building combos due to how they work (erasing by column, when Mega effects that clear rows like Mega Lucario are more favorable in combo-building).
*** Both [[ShockAndAwe Electric-type]] Megas, Manectric and Ampharos. Both are slow to Mega Evolve if not fully-candied and are heavily RNG-based.
*** [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman Mega Aerodactyl]]. Its Mega effect is so situational that only stages that heavily abuse Rocks and Blocks make it somewhat useful. Then there's the low damage output due to its 60 base power.
*** Mega Scizor. While fans are glad for an alternate [[BigCreepyCrawlies Bug-type]] Mega at last, its Mega effect is similar to Mega Latios (a more powerful {{Mon}} compared to Scizor), which is basically a less random version of Mega Latias's Mega effect (erasing Pokémon in a jagged line horizontally), which isn't reliable in combo-building nor disruption-cleaning.
*** Mega Latias and Mega Latios pretty much discourage combo-building (removing icons horizontally is a big no-no for building combos). While their base power is high (80), their Dragon-typing pretty much only leaves them with only one weak type to fight against: Other Dragon-types, which are very uncommon, and leave the Eon duo to be outclassed by the superior Mega Rayquaza.
*** Mega Charizard X suffers from both this and HypeBacklash. It's a popular Mega Pokémon to begin with, but its ability is horrible both at combo building and disruption cleaning. However, the worst part is that it becomes a Dragon upon Mega Evolving, limiting its coverage to just a single type.
*** Mega Sableye, as expected for an early Mega Pokémon thanks to its low base power. Its main problem being that it uses a O-shaped formation for clearing icons, which is never a good choice for easy combo-building and cleaning up disruptions efficiently. Its usage is excusable during the early game since you had a limited choice of Mega Pokémon , but once you get into the late game and unlock more Mega Pokémon, Mega Sableye is bound to be forgotten.

** When it comes to Expert stage Pokémon:

** When it comes to Skills:

** Landorus-Therian. Its superb Ground typing gives him a large amount of types he's super effective against, and he has a great base power of 80. However, what ''really'' makes him this is his skill... Risk Taker. With the introduction of Skill Booster, Risk Taker was changed from a mediocre skill to ''the'' skill you want something to have. The draw of it is that leveling the skill increases both the minimum and maximum damage, increasing it to a massive maximum multiplier of ''eight'' at max level! What truly sets it apart from Power of 4(+) and (to a lesser extent) Power of 5+ is that it doesn't require any specific matches to activate!\\
Same goes with Hoopa-Unbound. It has a superb 90 base power and the same ability, but as a Dark-type, doesn't share Landorus-T's superior coverage. Still, it is a must-have if you are a near-endgame player and are facing a Psychic or Ghost-type Pokémon.
** Mega Beedrill's Mega Effect mechanic works similarly like Mega Tyranitar's (albeit affecting one spot and has a wider range). Despite the average base power of 60 and having less coverage compared to Tyranitar ([[PoisonousPerson Poison-types]] being only super-effective against 2 types), it's still very useful to clear disruptions without using regular Skills. Its main draw is that, if you max out Mega Beedrill's Mega Speedup count, you'll only need '''one''' move to trigger its Mega Evolution! It got to the point where a fully-candied Beedrill is considered to be a perfect candidate for an itemless run of Survival Mode.

** Ash-Greninja has Unity Power. At first glance, it's like a carbon-copy of Nosedive (damage x5 at Skill Level 1) except it's ''good'', as it has higher activation rate, is easier to upgrade, and becomes much more powerful with each level up. Ash-Greninja's typing gives him good coverage (against Fire, Rock, Ground) and his attack power at max level is solid.

** In competitive stages, depending on the type advantage to use against, it's not uncommon to see players to bring a single-type team (plus Mega Gengar or Mega Rayquaza usually) in order to make use of type-based Skills like [[PlayingWithFire Pyre]], [[BlowYouAway Sky Blast]], Pummel, [[NonElemental Double Normal]] (the damage boost from this Skill is good enough (2.5x) that the "neutral" damage won't matter, unless if one is facing against Ghost, Rock or Steel types), Dancing Dragons, Sinister Power or Pixie Power.

** Blau Salon having levels with Pokémon from past areas, albeit more difficult and with the ossibility of dropping Personalized Skill Boosters. On one hand, players are fine with this idea because they can finally raise the (mostly) forgotten mons' Skill gauge without having to spend stored Skill Boosters, and the area acts as a [[BreatherLevel breather]] after previous updates introduced worlds with 50-60 stages each filled with Pokémon to catch and S-rank. On the other hand, some other players are irked by the idea of fighting the old Pokémon ''again'' with their difficulty cranked up. This sentiment was worsened when each subsequent update started to feature more and more stage repeats, at the cost of having only a handful of new Pokémon to catch.

** Whether the 3DS version or the mobile version is more superior. Fans of the former support it due to not only being the version that they've gotten used to (and thus, not really needing to switch to ''Shuffle Mobile''), but also because of notable issues regarding the latter version: [[UsefulNotes/DigitalRightsManagement Always-online gameplay]], increased item price, overall increased difficulty, notorious for draining battery very quickly, being unable to transfer save file from the 3DS version (the issue is addressed above), among several other issues. Fans of the latter version defend it by saying that it's their only alternative of enjoying ''Shuffle'' for those who don't have a 3DS, the visuals look more crisp compared to the 3DS version, it has some bonuses exclusive to that version only (the free Lucarionite at launch being the only notable one so far), and overall being much more convenient due to the use of cloud-based save (thus, enabling the save file to be transferred to another device, provided that you know the transfer code) and being on a more light-weight device (well... not all smartphones are exactly lighter than a 3DS, but still).
** Then there's the usage of ''Shuffle Move'' for the move-based competitive events. ''Shuffle Move'' is a fan-made application used to determine the best possible move in a given situation. It was intentionally made to assist players who have trouble (or were outright stuck) with the move-restricted stages. However, the "repeat" competitive events happen to be move-restricted, allowing players who have the tool to have a somewhat unfair advantage. The fanbase is broken between considering the usage of the program a form of cheating or claiming it doesn't remove the [[LuckBasedMission luck-based]] nature of the game, as it doesn't take into account the icons that fall into the screen once the move has been made.

** While there are no definite tiers for [[SuperMode Mega-Evolved]] Pokémon, players have ranked them themselves, often resulting in certain mons gaining this status.
*** Mega Banette, despite sharing the same Mega effect as Mega Mewtwo Y (albeit Ghost-type obviously), is sadly not really reliable as a Ghost-type Mega. Compared to Gengar the GameBreaker (as it basically functions as a living Complexity-1 that only removes itself), Banette takes several more icons to Mega Evolve (even if it's stuffed full of Mega Speedups). Considering that players prefer to Mega Evolve a Pokémon as quickly as possible, this is a problem. The only good use of it is for Weekend Meowth, where combo-focused Mega effects are ''very'' helpful there, but there are other Mega Pokémon that functions the same or better than it.
*** Mega Abomasnow is like Mega Lucario in terms of functionality, but with less coverage (4 weak to Ice vs. 5 weak to Fighting). Its usage is also considered redundant if one wants to go for the Mega effect, as the icons required are nearly the same (or the ''exact'' same if both are fully-candied with Mega Speedups). Unlike Lopunny (which is considered more or less an introduction to this kind of Mega effect), Abomasnow is a late game mon and its Mega Stone can only be obtained from competitions. If you want to fight a Dragon, Flying, Grass or Ground Pokémon, there are better alternatives for Megas ([[GameBreaker Rayquaza]] says hi for fighting against Dragon-types).

*** Then there's the usual suspect, [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman Mega Aerodactyl]]. Its Mega effect is so situational that only stages that heavily abuse Rocks and Blocks make it actually useful. Then there's the low damage output due to its 60 base power.
*** Mega Scizor. While fans are glad for an alternate [[BigCreepyCrawlies Bug-type]] Mega at last, its Mega effect is similar to Mega Latios (a more powerful {{Mon}} compared to Scizor), which is basically a less random version of Mega Latias's Mega effect (erasing Pokémon in a jagged line horizontally), which isn't reliable in combo-building unlike Mega Heracross.
*** Mega Diancie is often considered near-useless. Like Mega Aerodactyl, its usage is heavily [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman situational]], only usable in stages that abuse Barrier disruptions. But that's not the worst part. Unlike other Mega Pokémon that deal additional damage depending on the number of disruptions cleared by said {{Mon}}, Mega Diancie's damage output ''doesn't increase at all'' (thankfully buffed in a much later update in the form of increased damage output, but its usage is still highly situational). Now count how many times you've used Mega Diancie, even in Barrier-infested stages. You either use it for very few times or never use it at all. Also consider that being a Fairy-type, its coverage isn't all that great, only hitting 3 types super effectively (Dark, Dragon, Fighting).
*** Mega Latias and Mega Latios aren't off the hook either. As mentioned in Mega Scizor's entry, the way their respective Mega effect works pretty much discourages combo-building (removing icons horizontally seems to be big no-no for building combos). While their base power is high (80), their Dragon-typing pretty much only leaves them with only one weak type to fight against: Other Dragon-types (very uncommon to fight against).
*** Mega Charizard X suffers both this and HypeBacklash. It's a popular Mega Pokémon to begin with, and is one of the only two Mega Pokémon that change type of their base Pokémon (the other being Mega Mewtwo X). But then you remember that both Mega Charizard forms' Mega effect gimmick involves clearing icons in a letter-shaped formation, which not only it'll not help much in combo-building but it's also so restrictive it won't help with cleaning up disruptions efficiently. Mega Charizard X, however, is this but worse, especially when you consider its Dragon-typing after it Mega Evolves, thus causing you to think: Why would anyone bring a Fire-type to fight a Dragon-type (which resists Fire-types) only for its Mega effect to not work reliably? At least Mega Charizard Y has better coverage and doesn't change its type upon Mega Evolution.
*** Its [[PaletteSwap Shiny]] variant, however, has better reception (despite still coming with the type-changing gimmick, Flying to Dragon in this case), being a Dragon-type equivalent of Mega Camerupt (Ground) and Shiny Mega Rayquaza (Flying).
*** Mega Sableye, as expected for an early Mega Pokémon thanks to its low base power. Its main problem being that it uses a O-shaped formation for clearing icons, which as mentioned in the Mega Charizard X section, is never a good choice for easy combo-building and cleaning up disruptions efficiently. Its usage is excusable during the early game since you had a limited choice of Mega Pokémon to use. Once you get into the late game and unlock more Mega Pokémon, Mega Sableye's problem has become clearer. Not even raising its max level will help.
*** All [[NonElemental Normal-type]] Mega Pokémon end up being outclassed by other, non-Normal-types. All of them have low base power, have no super-effective coverage at all, are resisted by three types (Rock, Steel, Ghost), and their presence (the vanilla ones at least) only serves as an early introduction to [[SuperMode Mega Evolution]] and its basic Mega effects.
*** One later Normal-type Mega, Winking Mega Audino[[note]]Removes up to 10 icons of a Pokémon species that shares the same type as this Mega upon activation[[/note]], even suffers from this for the same reasons: Low base attack power and lack of super-effective coverage. [[OlympusMons Arceus]] (an event-only mon) can be a good partner for this Mega due to its Skill, but good luck finding a good stage to use a team involving these two.
*** Mega Altaria is simply a better version of Mega Audino (clears icons within two spaces of the match instead of one). Unfortunately, Altaria is so weak (60 base power) and, being a Dragon-type, has extremely limited coverage (versus other Dragon-types). Mega Blastoise shares the same Mega effect and base power, but at least it can hit more types super-effectively and said Mega form can be achieved faster.

*** Even the higher tiers don't get off scot-free. Mega Rayquaza is a GameBreaker just like in the main games, though borders in AwesomeButImpractical due to the high icon count for Mega Evolving. The problem with Mega Rayquaza is neither its typing nor its Mega effect, but due to how many guides out there that highly recommend using it for clearing post-Mega Rayquaza stages easily when other Pokémon are more preferable, especially Gengar. And consider that not every player has enough Mega Speedups for the Dragon-type (it eats up to ''20'' Speedups, which is saying something), causing many players that see stage guides that recommend bringing Mega Rayquaza feel annoyed since the only other way to use a non-candied Mega Rayquaza is via Mega Start, which the players don't want to waste their Coins for too much.

*** Luxray. It's an [[ShockAndAwe Electric-type]] with the base power of 70. Sounds promising, but with the uncommonly-used Cloud Clear+ (Black-Cloud disruptions are the least common disruption type), this makes poor Luxray one of the least useful Expert stage Pokémon to use... until a much later update allows its Skill to be swapped with Cross Attack+, which, as expected of a better version of Cross Attack, increases damage significantly upon activation (''tremendously'' if invested using Skill Boosters).
*** Malamar is a later Dark-type mon with 70 base power and Quirky+ as its Skill. Quirky is already rather difficult to trigger to begin with unless it's a match five (also, removing only two icons of itself in the case of Quirky+ is rather underwhelming). But the fact that there are still better 70 BP Dark-types out there with better Skills makes Malamar easily being outclassed.

*** Honchkrow forgoes its Flying type for Dark in this game, but brings 70 base power and the skill Power of 5+. However, it's unlocked pretty late in the Expert stages, which only serves to hurt it... because it's a long time after the player has battled the ''other'' big name Dark/Flying expert stage, Yveltal, who has almost identical stats. Except Yveltal has base ''80'' power, can use [=RMLs=], has received a skill booster stage, and can swap its Power of 5 to the far superior Block Smash+.

*** Cheer. Useful in theory, useless in execution. A Skill that boosts the probability of a Skill being triggered in the next move sounds great, but unfortunately it only boosts by ''5%'', way too small to be useful. Also, trying to make a match-three to trigger this Skill is not a good option, having 60% activation rate, for a Skill that affects activation rate.
*** Opportunist, obviously, for Skills classified as a low-tier. It's only available on early-game mons and functions basically as a plain CriticalHit. Players who come across Pokémon with this Skill which are still usable in late-game due to their raw power (or advantage from Raise Max Levels) may choose to either replace them with ones with a more useful Skill or use a Skill Swapper, provided that Opportunist mon can be Skill Swapped.

*** Both Heavy Hitter and Dragon Talon result in 1.5x damage if triggered. Unlike Dragon Talon, Heavy Hitter is not as reliable due to its much lower activation rate (for those curious, 20% less than Dragon Talon's), resulting in the former Skill often the go-to for free bonus damage.
*** Hyper Punch is the worse version of the aforementioned two Skills when it comes to activation rate. Sure it results in triple damage when triggered, but trying to trigger it in the first place is just asking for frustration. Forget about a match-three (''10%''!), even match-four and match-five still have a lower-than-average activation rate (50%...).
*** Prank is rarely utilized by players. Why? Using this Skill pretty much means you have to gamble with RandomNumberGod. Prank sets the target Pokémon's disruption countdown randomly (between 1 and its possible maximum). This means that it is possible the Skill will result in a quick disruption if it often sets the countdown to a lower number like 1. The fact that it's also {{Nerf}}ed along with Mind Zap to make it unable to take effect on Pokémon with a status problem just makes it worse.
*** Last-Ditch Effort and its clones (Swarm, Steely Resolve). These Skills deal 5x (4x for Steely Resolve) damage[[note]]2x damage pre-patch on all of them[[/note]] inflicted in a critical moment during battle (last 3 moves or last 10 seconds before running out of moves/time), assuming that their base Skill Levels aren't increased. Considering that there are other damage-affecting Skills that are more reliable (like Risk Taker!) and the fact that these Skills are way too situational especially if a player wants to S-rank a Main stage (which rarely results in 3 or less moves), these issues cause Last-Ditch Effort and its clones to fall straight into low-tier.
*** Subverted outside of the S-ranking context, where the massive burst damage of Last-Ditch Effort type skills makes it fairly secure to clear many high HP stages at the end. The skill is considered very useful, even grind worthy, to prepare for bulky Escalation battles or to grind other bulky PSB stages. These skills are often the difference between having to use items or not for boss stages in Escalations.

*** Counterattack[[note]]Damage +20 times the number of disruptions on board[[/note]] and Counterattack+[[note]]Same thing, but +100 instead of +20[[/note]]. For one thing, players would rather clean up disruptions rather than take advantage of them for extra damage. Also, it's more guaranteed to activate on a match-five, so if you're surrounded with a lot of distuptions (which this Skill is supposed to take advantage of), it's a complete LuckBasedMission just to trigger this Skill. Just stick with Power of 4+, Dragon Talon, and the like for free damage boost.
*** Swat. It's free super-effective damage against Flying, Bug, and Fairy Pokémon! ...But good luck trying to trigger it in the first place if you're not going for a match-five. It's intended to give [[PsychicPowers Psychic-type]] Pokémon, normally neutral to those three types, some advantage (and possibly new team varieties), but the low activation rate (match-three and match-four) just ruins it[[note]]Boosting its Skill level just boosts damage instead of activation rate[[/note]]. It's often in the players' list of never-used Skills for this reason.
*** Brute Force, not counting the time when it gained a GoodBadBug. Players often question "What's the point of bringing Pokémon whose type normally inflicts not-very-effective damage on certain types just so they can inflict neutral damage?" when it comes to this Skill. It used to be a never-used Skill by serious players because of its effect... until an update gave it a GoodBadBug in the form of triple damage on ''any'' damage, including super-effective ones... only for said bug to be fixed shortly after, reverting it back into its pre-patch state.