| 1 | %% |
| 2 | %% If an example requires interaction with another game to break the story mode, it is not a Game Breaker; it falls under Gameplay Derailment. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | %% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1410800654087428100 |
| 5 | %% Given the nature of this trope, any picture is likely to be Administrivia/JustAFaceAndACaption. |
| 6 | %% Do not add a picture to this page without running it through Image Pickin' for discussion. |
| 7 | %% |
| 8 | ->''Behold my powers! I am the strongest Pokémon in the world!'' [[note]]He’s not kidding; Mewtwo was by far the absolute ''strongest'' mon at the time and while no longer true thanks to [[ObviousRulePatch Type diversification]] and the introduction of other OlympusMons, he still remains among the strongest Pokémon to this day[[/note]] |
| 9 | -->-- '''Mewtwo''', ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie'' |
| 10 | |
| 11 | {{Game Breaker}}s within the in-game ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series. As the series has been going since the mid-90s into the 2020s, it has a lot. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ---- |
| 14 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | !In-Game |
| 17 | |
| 18 | [[folder:General]] |
| 19 | * Although it's an often overlooked mechanic of the game, if you take some time to do some berry farming, you will easily never have to spend money on status healing items ever again, as {{LetsPlay/Chuggaaconroy}} [[https://youtu.be/-0Nkv--bWn0?t=6m26s demonstrates]]. The best part is, since their introduction, berry farming has gotten easier to maintain and more generous with berry returns with each passing generation. It reached its peak in Gen VI and Gen VII, where not only are all berry planting locations gathered in one convenient spot, berry trees in that game can give an absolutely ''insane'' amount in return for what you put in. It's possible to turn five or so Leppa Berries or Lum Berries into ''forty'' or so in one go. |
| 20 | * The Hyper Potion can be this. The Potion heals 20 HP, the Super Potion 50 HP...and the Hyper Potion heals ''200'' HP. And its price of 1.500 is pretty fair all things considered. Not that many Pokémon have more than 200 HP before the league and even if they do, most, if not all, of their health would be healed anyway with it. It would be more convenient than to buy a Max Potion (it costs ''2.500'') which is pretty much overpriced for doing just a slightly better job than the Hyper Potion. Unfortunately the creators noticed this and from the ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' on, the Hyper Potion has been nerfed...hard. Now it only heals 120 HP and while before it was the best cost-effective Potion, it's now the worst. Nonethless, in older Generations, the Hyper Potion is certainly one of the best healing items. |
| 21 | [[/folder]] |
| 22 | |
| 23 | [[folder:First Generation]] |
| 24 | * Among starters, [[GreenThumb Bulbasaur]] stands out as having a kit and typing with incredible strength throughout the entire game. This includes having type advantages against the first 4 gyms and the last gym, and advantages against 2 of the 4 Elite Four (all but one of Lorelei’s Pokémon are water type and relatively slow, totally mitigating the usual advantage ice has over grass types). Bulbasaur’s poison typing makes it immune to getting poisoned, which is a uniquely terrifying status effect in Generation 1 since it could damage you outside of battle. Razor Leaf was also effectively a 110 power attack that ignored enemy stat buffs thanks to having a near 100% crit rate (this was comparable in power to Flamethrower, but learned several levels earlier). And Sleep Powder was devastatingly strong, with sleep being so overpowered that competitive play limits its usage. Thanks to the special stat controlling both special attack and special defense, Growth was essentially a double stat boost (just like Calm Mind in later generations), something no other starter could access. Finally, many of its weaknesses simply weren’t meaningful. There were no actual decent Bug type moves aside from the extremely rare Pin Missile (limited to exactly 2 uncommon Pokémon), Ice type attacks were limited to late game and almost entirely placed on water-type Pokémon that were weak to Venusaur to begin with, and Fire types were so rare they didn’t present a challenge until the second to last gym (by which point you have a team to round things out). The [[VideoGameRemake remakes]] removed some of Bulbasaur’s power by fixing the AI and making Razor Leaf weaker, though it’s still a powerful choice. |
| 25 | * The Psychic-types were notoriously broken in this generation. They only had a weakness to types of attacks that did below-average damage even when super-effective, and those moves were available to very few viable Pokémon. Due to a bug, one of those types actually didn't affect Psychic-types at all, rather than do double damage. Making things worse, the most common type was the Psychic-weak Poison-type. The Psychic-type advantage was augmented by the Special stat governing both Special Attack and Special Defense. This meant that Pokémon with high Special, such as Psychics, were much more useful than Pokémon with low Special, such as Fighting. This issue was fixed in ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' in later generations by separating the stats and introducing two new advantageous types. |
| 26 | * Though Psychic is the most famously effective type, Normal is generally agreed to be either very close or outright better. Normal's effectiveness may not look like much: it has no offensive strengths, and is resisted or walled by Rock and Ghost and weak defensively to Fighting. However, in practice, Fighting is one of the worst types in the game, with its only somewhat usable move being Submission (which is mediocre and inaccurate), and most Normal-types have wide movepools in a generation where this isn't common, meaning they can easily handle Rock and Ghost-types (for instance, everything that resists Normal is weak to Ground, so a Normal-type move and Earthquake grants perfect neutral-at-worst coverage). Normal also has access to Body Slam (decent accuracy and power and a one-in-three shot to paralyze the opponent), Hyper Beam (the hardest-hitting move in the game that doesn't KO the user, and which doesn't need to recharge if it [=KOs=] the opponent), and Slash (which crits over 99% of the time if the user has any kind of Speed). The result is that in competitive circles, Normal is ''even more'' dominant than Psychic, due in part to Psychics often having mediocre physical bulk, with Snorlax, Tauros, and Chansey seeing effectively universal use, and Pokémon like Rhydon being held in high regard in large part because they resist Normal. With the addition of Steel in the following generation to provide it with another offensive weakness and the significant expansion of Fighting and Ghost, Normal would soon fall out of relevance. |
| 27 | * Wrap, Bind, Clamp, and Fire Spin. In the first generation, they prevented the affected Pokémon from attacking, while dealing ScratchDamage every turn. However, the most broken part was that getting free from them still cost a turn, so if the Pokémon was faster than the target, the Pokémon get the chance to re-use Wrap, Bind, Clamp, or Fire Spin before the target get the chance to respond. While the Pokémon can switch out while being trapped, the AI rarely switches their Pokémon out. It also goes without saying, but X-Items and stat-boosting moves increase the potency of these moves. In competitive play, the only thing holding these moves back is that most of their users don't have the Speed to abuse them without boosting, the moves themselves have shoddy enough accuracy to at least give the opponent a chance to respond, and most of their users have access to trapping moves being their only significant merit--notably, this resulted in the combination of trapping moves and Agility being banned in UU due to how annoying it was to deal with a speed-boosted Dragonite. Needless to say, trapping moves were changed from Generation II onwards. |
| 28 | * X Accuracy in the first games gave moves Swift-like accuracy. This includes ''the [[OneHitKill OHKO]] moves.'' The real dangers of this are because beating the eighth Gym Leader, Giovanni, got you the TM for Fissure, which could be used on a lot of final form Pokémon, like [[FragileSpeedster Dugtrio]], who could outspeed most Pokémon easily, and because OHKO moves could be used to defeat higher-level opponents, it made defeating the Elite Four (barring Lance, who could be defeated using a good Ice Beam user, which most Water Pokémon are) a piece of cake. The combination of X Accuracy and OHKO moves was ''so'' powerful that the mechanics for OHKO moves had to be changed in future generations so that they could never connect against an opponent whose level was higher than the user's level or increase in accuracy. |
| 29 | * Dragon Rage (which always deals 40 damage) can be quite devastating when used in ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'''s Pika Cup (Lv 15-20), since most eligible Pokémon will have between 39 to 60 HP. For this reason, Dragon Rage and Sonic Boom (which always deals 20 damage) are banned from Little Cup in ''Pokémon Stadium 2''. |
| 30 | * Gastly, even if without trading to evolve it all the way to Gengar, breaks the AI trainers like a twig. For starters, it's immune to Normal-type moves, which make the majority of attacks random trainers use, including the dreaded Hyper Beam, Self-Destruct, and Explosion, useless against it. It also has an expansive movepool which includes Hypnosis (as the Sleep status was incredibly powerful), Confuse Ray, Night Shade (for consistent damage; furthermore, there are no Pokémon immune to Night Shade in the first generation) and the incredibly powerful Psychic, which goes well with its good Special, despite the lack of same-type attack bonus. Finally, its secondary Poison-type [[AIBreaker can exploit an AI flaw]] to lock trainers into using useless moves like Barrier or Agility, whereas, outside of Psychic, the line's weaknesses will almost never come into play (not even its Ground-type weakness, as Giovanni is fond of using Fissure, which will almost never work due to the line's high Speed). The only major advantage the Gastly line lacks is a boosting move to make use of the Badge Boost glitch, but that will rarely become necessary. |
| 31 | * In the original generation games, the easiest way to trivialize a run is easily a Nidoran (the gender doesn't particularly matter, though the male version is very slightly better). Nidoran can be caught as soon as you reach Pewter City, or even Route 2 if you're playing ''Yellow''. While it does struggle somewhat against Brock (well, unless you're playing ''Yellow'', in which case it learns Double Kick and suddenly becomes one of your best options against him), it can then easily level off the trainers in Mt. Moon until it hits level 16 into Nidorino or Nidorina... and then immediately evolve again into Nidoking or Nidoqueen, because it's a stone evolution and the Moon Stone is obtained very early. This gives you a Pokémon with endgame-worthy stats before you've even hit the second gym, which would already put it firmly into DiscOneNuke territory, but what really pushes it here is that the Nidos have a ''gigantic'' TM movepool. Between Body Slam, STAB Earthquake, Thunderbolt, Surf, Blizzard, Fire Blast, Rock Slide, and Submission, they really have all the coverage they could ask for, meaning that most trainers will fold immediately in the face of their attacks. Despite being Poison-type, they hit hard enough that most opposing Psychics crumble in one or two hits, and that typing also [[AIBreaker breaks the AI]] for the same reason that Gastly's does. And on top of all that, the Nidos also learn one-hit KO moves, including Horn Drill ''and'' Fissure, meaning they can use the aforementioned X Accuracy trick to sweep the endgame. Speedruns almost universally default to a male Nidoran as their central Pokémon, and for good reason. |
| 32 | * Of the various boosting moves, Amnesia stands out for being an unusually overpowered one. This is due to Gen 1's Special stat serving the role of Special Attack and Special Defense, effectively turning Amnesia into a double-strength Calm Mind. In-game, learning Amnesia is usually enough to completely trivialize the game thereafter, due to it rendering most non-physical foes harmless and [[GoodBadBugs triggering the helpful "badge boost" glitch]]. In competitive, the only thing that really holds Amnesia back is its very limited number of users, most of whom have 80 Special at most (meaning they need an Amnesia boost for their special moves to be threatening at all), which makes them fairly manageable in most formats. The sole exception to this rule: Mewtwo, who has the highest Special stat in the game, and therefore Amnesia as a ''major'' tool in its arsenal. Notably, Slowbro's ability to learn Amnesia, combined with its typing, is considered enough to turn it into one of the few Pokémon that can somewhat take on Mewtwo in a straight fight. The move was nerfed in the split to only boosting Special Defense, making it far less effective, though this did allow a number of other Pokémon to learn it and be transferred into Gen 1 games, with Pokémon like Hypno and Persian abruptly jumping from barely viable in OU to top meta threats. |
| 33 | * Playing the original monochrome games on a Platform/GameBoyColor is a game-breaker in that dark areas like caves suddenly becomes trivial to traverse. Likewise, hidden routes will suddenly become visible. This is largely due to how the Game Boy Color handles color in monochrome games made for it's predecessor, and certain oversights during the choosing of the colors for it's 10 predefined palettes used for all monochrome games did not account for games that relies on the monochrome screen to hide the hidden paths and/or mask the route. |
| 34 | [[/folder]] |
| 35 | |
| 36 | [[folder:Second Generation]] |
| 37 | * For in-game purposes, Feraligatr is a big one, moreso than any other generation 2 starter. The entire game can be turned into a giant CurbStompBattle with its surprisingly good movepool for this generation (Ice Punch trivializes both the rival and the last gym). Worse, the only two gyms out of 16 that this Pokémon has a disadvantage at are in the post-game and relatively easy. It can breeze through the Elite Four with its HUGE movepool and [[LightningBruiser fast and strong attacks for this generation,]] curbstomping EVEN THE CHAMPION ([[AnIcePerson Hello, Ice Punch]]). It reaches its final form at level 30, the earliest among the starters in the entire series. This Pokémon alone is the reason some found this gen easy, and it is even a common criticism of Gen II's balancing issues in the wake of some HypeBacklash. Even in the remakes, with better balancing, it is still one tough Mon to best. It actually became a BaseBreakingCharacter in Twitch Plays Pokémon Crystal because of how easy it made the otherwise daunting challenge of controlling a character only with input commands from a mob of random Twitch chat users. |
| 38 | * Typhlosion is no slouch either. Fast, access to a lot of strong Fire-type moves early on, benefits more from sunlight, and packs the absolutely devastating Eruption, which will likely one-shot anything within five levels. It helps that, like Feraligatr, plenty of gyms have a weakness to it, no less than 4 out of 16, compared to Feraligatr's 2 out of 16. (The only three which are resistant are the final gym (fair enough), and the two post-game ones.) Prior to the Physical-Special split it even benefits from great coverage in Thunder Punch! This and Feraligatr's aforementioned Ice Punch is likely the reason elemental punches are much harder to obtain in subsequent generations when they lost their TM status. Although, it is much less this than Feraligatr was in the originals thanks to much better competitive balance, keeping it from being absolutely broken. |
| 39 | * While it faces difficulties in the single player early game, Meganium is especially well suited for the late game, as even before Kanto the later gyms often have subtypes disadvantaged against grass (including Chuck’s water type Poliwrath, Olivine’s electric and ground types, Pryce’s ground and water types, and the many water types in Claire’s gym). Once it hits Kanto, it has nearly all the advantages Bulbasaur did in Gen 1 (winning against about half of those gyms). It’s also the strongest choice in Gen 2 competitive play among the starters, as it can run both strong setup sets with Swords Dance, Earthquake, and Body Slam, and has sufficient bulk to not get instantly eliminated on turn 1. It can alternatively run a more tanky support set with several self healing options and team support in Reflect, Light Screen, and Safeguard. Both are viable, meaning that it’s difficult to predict exactly what kind of set it will run, and it can play multiple roles on a team. And its bulk means it’s able to switch in reliably and take advantage of useful resistances to water, ground, and electric. It also helps that its weaknesses to flying, bug, and poison were almost entirely irrelevant to the meta (with the exception of Drill Peck on Zapdos). There’s a reason it’s the only Gen 2 starter with consistent OU play in the Gold/Silver/Crystal competitive meta, and the best tier record of the starters on Smogon. |
| 40 | * While Chansey was a notable StoneWall in Generation 1 due to its ridiculous HP and respectable Special Defense, its evolution Blissey takes it a step further by giving it a decent Special Attack, ''even more'' Special Defense, and a very good move pool from [=TMs=]. Since AI trainers almost never switch out their Pokémon, if you switch a Blissey into a Pokémon that doesn't have any physical or guaranteed-KO moves (Perish Song, Toxic, and OHKO moves), ''it will never die''; even if its Special Attack isn't spectacular, Blissey will still tank all their Flamethrowers and Thunderbolts while dishing out neutral or super effective damage in return, especially with moves like Charge Beam (which can increase the user's Special Attack) or Psychic or Shadow Ball (which can decrease the target's Special Defense). If its health starts getting low, it can use Softboiled or Rest/Sleep Talk to return half or all of its massive HP pool. It's so good both in-game and competitively that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbqAsM85AzQ some challenge runners ban it]] because it's such an AIBreaker. |
| 41 | -->'''Pokémon Challenges''': When you start to run Blissey... You start to look at trainer battles, especially gym fights or other boss battles, much differently. You look at the list of Pokémon that trainer has, and you can cross off every Pokémon that doesn't have physical attacks. |
| 42 | * The Psychic type in general isn't quite as overpowered as in generation 1, due to the addition of the Dark type and improvements to Bug and Ghost move pools. However, Alakazam is in some ways even more powerful, because you can purchase TMs for all of the elemental punches (Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunderpunch), and the physical/special split hadn't happened yet, so all of those punches run off its very high Special Attack stat, instead of its pathetic physical Attack. With STAB Psychic, Ice Punch, Thunderpunch, and Recover, a punching Alakazam can take on almost any foe, dealing at least neutral and usually super-effective damage, backed by very high stats. Trading it back to generation 1 (because the punches existed there, they just weren't available for purchase, so it's a legal trade) makes it nigh unstoppable. |
| 43 | [[/folder]] |
| 44 | |
| 45 | [[folder:Third Generation]] |
| 46 | * In ''Emerald'', you can find and catch [[OlympusMons Rayquaza]] just before the final Gym. Unlike Groudon/Kyogre in ''Ruby/Sapphire'', however, Rayquaza doesn't come in at level 45, but level '''70'''. For comparison's sake, [[FinalBoss Wallace]]'s strongest Pokémon is just under level 60. It's tricky to fight, sure, but you find the Master Ball in Team Aqua's Hideout just before the seventh Gym. Combine this with Rayquaza's [[LightningBruiser high stats]] and access to strong (if inaccurate) [=TM=]s from the Lilycove Department Store for coverage, and it can easily steamroll the entire last part of the game on its own. |
| 47 | [[/folder]] |
| 48 | |
| 49 | [[folder:Fifth Generation]] |
| 50 | * In the ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' main game, the Lucky Egg item. In previous games, this was an extraordinarily rare [[RandomlyDrops steal from Chansey]], but in this game, it is simply given to you free of charge about halfway through. It greatly increases the experience of the mon holding it, allowing you to gain levels at ridiculous rates provided you kept going through the tedium of redistributing it every time you switched your active Pokémon — of course, it's totally worth it to outlevel the Elite Four without any extra LevelGrinding on Victory Road unlike the previous gens, and turn the game between getting the Lucky Egg and the Elite Four into one giant CurbStompBattle. |
| 51 | * A big one was the option for players to download both Mewtwo level 70 ''and'' Arceus level 100 into ''Black and White'' from the Pokémon website. If you have both on your team, most of the in-game opponents won't stand a chance. Admittedly, the battles against Shauntal and Grimsley of the Elite Four and the battle with Alder (their 'mons are all in the 60s and 70s that go around) still require some potions on hand, but still, it's way easier than it'd normally be. And you were able to get Reshiram or Zekrom as well, depending on your version. |
| 52 | * In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', you can buy a bundle of 12 Castelia Cones daily in any season other than winter for 1200 and sell them to the maid in the caravan west of Nimbasa city for 2000 a ''pop'' for a total profit of 22800 Pokébucks a day. Still need more? You can get unlimited Moomoo Milks from Driftveil City and sell them to the same maid for a 400 profit per each. That's one of the legit infinite money methods built into the games. |
| 53 | * Another good money fountain in ''Black 2 and White 2'', provided you were playing with it long enough, is Pokéstar Studios. Specifically, increasing your star ranking results in more fans. The notable people for this would be the Backpacker, Ace Trainer, Old Lady, and the Tennis Player. On every strange ending that isn't the final movie, you get 5 Lava Cookies from the Backpacker and 5 Old Gateaux from the others. This is where the Cash comes in: They all sell for 4000 each, which is about 20,000 for the cookies and 60,000 for the Gateaux. Furthermore, there is no daily wait and some strange endings on available movies are 1-2 scenes at the shortest. Then there are the free Hyper Potions, Moomoo Milks, Full Restores, and ''Max Revives''. |
| 54 | [[/folder]] |
| 55 | |
| 56 | [[folder:Sixth Generation]] |
| 57 | * If you thought the Lucky Egg in Gen V was a Game Breaker, just wait until you see the Exp. Share in ''X and Y''. Remember that crappy Exp. All from Gen I? Picture that, except it's actually good. Long story short, it's a key item that while you have it on, ''the rest of your party'' gains EXP equal to half of what you had out gained. This item ensures that you won't know the meaning of the term "underleveled" before the second Gym. In fact, you won't even know the meaning of "grinding" for the rest of the game for that matter as long as the Exp.Share is always turned on. Game Freak toned it down in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' by bringing back the experience system from the fifth generation, where high level Pokémon gain less experience if a lower level Pokémon is beaten. This makes the player less likely to be over-leveled compared to the 6th gen games. |
| 58 | * Pokémon-Amie can turn into another serious Game Breaker if you use it enough. You bond with your Pokémon by petting it, playing minigames with it, feeding it food and such. While that might seem like little more than what's needed to get Sylveon, if you get your Pokémon's affection high enough, you'll receive epic side effects in battle, such as gaining 20% more EXP in battle, surviving attack with 1 HP, avoiding attacks, and shrugging off status conditions. You'll be shocked and flattered when those effects happen in battle. |
| 59 | * Mega Evolution as a whole can shatter the games in half. Most Mega Evolved Pokémon have stats that match or even surpass most legendary Pokémon and often with much better abilities than their normal counterparts. You often get the ability to Mega Evolve your Pokémon long before you can get any legendaries and rarely do you face opponents with Mega Pokémon of their own to even the odds. The ones available to you in story are often the stronger ones like the Kanto starters, the Hoenn starters and Lucario (who along with Blaziken are banned from competitive play for how powerful they are). |
| 60 | ** Since this is in-game, getting the mystery gift Torchic that has the Hidden Ability Speed Boost, combined with obtaining the Blazikenite item, is this in spades and is available when it was first released. Since it's a trade, you level up quicker than normal. You can literally complete the entire story just using Blaziken exclusively, with the 7th gym being the most difficult to deal with. |
| 61 | * The [=DexNav=]. It allows you to actively search for any Pokémon you have caught on a route, meaning there is no longer a need to spent a lengthy amount of time searching for rare Pokémon. It also shows you the level, the first move, the potential (maximum Individual Value represented by a star), ability and held item of the Pokémon, meaning you can actively search for a Pokémon with great potential and unique moves and abilities (some of the moves can be Egg Moves and abilities can be Hidden Abilities). But the game breaker comes in the rare items they can hold - items they normally would not be found holding in the wild - specifically the ones held by Linoone and Pelipper. Linoone can hold Max Revive, which recovers fainted Pokémon back to full health. Meanwhile, Pelipper holds Lucky Egg, which multiplies Exp by 1.5 times, and could previously only be found on the ludicrously rare Chansey line. With Dex Nav, you know which Pelipper will have Lucky Egg. Farm Pelipper for six Lucky Eggs, slap them onto each of your team members, activate Exp Share, and break the game in its entirety. On the other hand, it is also the perfect way to train up multiple teams simultaneously without worrying about over-leveling your Pokémon. |
| 62 | * Cosplay Pikachu in Contests. The thing comes with nearly maxed contest stats and you need only to pump a few Pokéblocks into it to max them fully, then get the scarves for each type of contest. Then change Pikachu's costume to the right contest type, and winning is extremely easy. At least until maybe Master Rank. |
| 63 | * ''[=Omega Ruby=] and [=Alpha Sapphire=]'' are extremely generous with legendary Pokémon as LastDiscMagic for the main story. Let's go down the list, shall we? You get a Latias or Latios for free, and you can get the other one if you get a hold of an Eon Ticket through Streetpassing. You're able to get a Groudon or Kyogre that holds an item which allows it to change its form as soon as it's sent out. You're also able to catch all four legendary golems, all three lake guardians, all three legendary beasts, and the Swords of Justice members. You can also catch either Lugia or Ho-oh (depending on the version), Heatran, Dialga or Palkia (version dependent), Giratina, Cresselia, Tornadus or Thundurus (version dependent), Landorus, Reshiram or Zekrom (version dependent), as well as Kyurem. Remember this is all LastDiscMagic for a reason. Most of these Pokémon can only be unlocked as soon as you deal with Groudon or Kyogre in the Cave of Origin near the end of the game. |
| 64 | * Though heavily luck-based, Wonder Trade can take the early game and snap its spine over its knees. You only need two Pokémon to use it so after going into Santalune Forest, catching a Pokémon or two and then having a bit of luck and/or patience, it is possible to end up with a highly overleveled Pokémon or a freshly bred level 1 you shouldn't have access to at that point. Sure, the overleveled Pokémon is not always going to listen but the level disparity in early game encounters renders it moot. |
| 65 | [[/folder]] |
| 66 | |
| 67 | [[folder:Seventh Generation]] |
| 68 | * Z-Moves. By making a Pokémon hold a Z-Crystal with a move matching the crystal's type, they can unleash a Z-move. The power of the Z-Move is dependent on the power of the initial attack, but even the weakest of attacks will have at least 100 power. And due to the fact that it bypasses accuracy check and the initial attack's effect, converting attacks like Solar Beam, Overheat, and Focus Blast will unleash a high-powered Z-move of that type without ''any of the original move's drawbacks whatsoever''. Z-Move can only be used once per battle, but it's often enough to turn the tide against any challenging trainer or Totem Pokémon. If you are just plowing through the game, Z-Moves can be used to pummel through wild Pokémon or trainers with less Pokémon with so much ease. |
| 69 | * In ''Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon'', the Rotom Dex gives you a chance to use a second Z-Move. While it isn't guaranteed to happen, it pushes any battle extremely in your favor when it does happen. The only catch is that you needed to have bonded with the Rotom Dex enough. |
| 70 | * The Event Rockruff for ''Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon''. If one can get around its inconvenient evolution requirements[[note]]It can only evolve into Dusk Forme between 5-6 PM in ''Ultra Sun'' and 5-6 AM in ''Ultra Moon''.[[/note]], the Lycanroc is a very powerful Pokémon. But that's not what it's here for. The event Rockruff comes with the move Happy Hour. Not only can this be combined with a Z-Move to boost all its stats by 1[[note]]Happy Hour is also a Normal-type move, and Normal is the first type you get a Z-Crystal for, meaning that this can be done very easily.[[/note]], it can also be combined with the Amulet Coin or the Rotom Power: Prize Money. Happy Hour and the Amulet Coin both double the amount of money earned after a trainer battle, and Rotom Prize Money triples it. And they stack '''multiplicatively.''' This results in the player earning [[https://78.media.tumblr.com/51dcdfd520d9ec439645dbc19484298f/tumblr_inline_p0k0uyBHdv1rmc4v2_1280.jpg some incredible numbers]]. |
| 71 | * Poké Pelago has a number of them: |
| 72 | ** Isle Aplenty makes berry farming even more game-breaking, it is easily accessible from the X menu and has completely removed the need to water berries every few hours. And all the GuideDangIt that used to come with maxing out berry returns is now gone, as you will always harvest the maximum amount per berry tree. Instead the Pokémon in the PC do all that for you and a time scale of when the berries can be harvested is given to you. It is also much easier to find berries in the overworld now. |
| 73 | ** With enough grinding/catching the treasure hunting area in Poké Pelago can turn into this as well. Sure you might get a couple Hard Stones rather than something valuable initially but once you unlock the later areas it gets much easier to farm for evolution Stones and valuable ShopFodder. Even more so in ''Ultra Sun'' and ''Ultra Moon'', where you can get fossils this way, ''even those that cannot be bought in your version of game'', and multiple copies each. |
| 74 | ** Poké Pelago also becomes exceedingly ridiculous if paired with a bizarre glitch that allows activities to instantly end.[[note]]Any activities will end when the 3DS clock switches over to a new month. Just reset the clock, enter the game, reap the rewards, reset Poké Pelago, exit the game and repeat.[[/note]] While this does pause other time-related functions, it can also allow you to, among other things, have Pokémon at endgame levels with endgame moves, bottle caps, evolution stones and ShopFodder to last for days, and enough berries to not have to worry about statuses or running out of PP again, all before Mallow's trial. While a patch did fix this exploit, all you need to do is uninstall the patch, perform the glitch, then reinstall it the next time you go online, or even just keep an unpatched game around. |
| 75 | * Ash-Greninja is this for a good number of reasons. Normally its unique move Water Shuriken has a pitiful Power of 15 (not counting STAB), but also can attack up to five times (averaging two) and ''always'' goes first outside of fringe circumstances. What pushes Ash-Greninja into GameBreaker territory is its unique Battle Bond ability, which allows it to transform into its Ash form once it KO's a Pokémon. This form upgrades Water Shuriken to 20 Power and always hits three times instead. Add this onto Greninja's already great Speed and the fact you're guaranteed to get one through the free Special Demo (which you get at Level 37), and you have something that will not only be a boon through the second half of the game but will also be faster than most of the speed freaks in the [[ThatOneBoss Battle Tree]] (though it won't survive most attacks from them if it can't). |
| 76 | * ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'' has [[spoiler:Ultra Necrozma]], unlike most recruitable SNKBoss examples, it's not downgraded whatsoever besides losing its aura. In fact, it might be even stronger, since it can use [[spoiler:[[FantasticNuke Light That Burns The Sky]]]] when under a Trainer control. [[spoiler: Necrozma]] can be acquired in the middle portion of Mount Lanakila and [[spoiler: Nebby]] can be caught after a battle with [[spoiler: Gladion]] by visiting Mahalo Trail, and items to combine them are obtained after catching the former from Colress. This thing then allows you to [[CurbStompBattle Curb Stomp]] [[spoiler:the Elite Four and Champion]], as well as all post-game bosses, Ultra Beasts, and non-Super runs through Battle Tree. |
| 77 | * During most of 2018, there is an event running that hands out Legendary Pokémon not present in your version of the game. As of February 2018, you can obtain Dialga/Palkia. ''Lv 100 Dialga/Palkia''. They come with very useful moves like [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Aura Sphere]] and they hold a Gold Bottle Cup to allow you Hyper Train them directly. The only problem is obedience, but at the very least Elite Four and Champion shouldn't stand a chance. |
| 78 | * Popplio in the original Sun/Moon is hilariously strong compared to the other starters. It learns both incredibly powerful early [=TMs=] in Acrobatics and Scald. It gets its Z-Move first in Waterium-Z, which will also be significantly stronger than Rowlet's Bloom Doom and Litten's Inferno Overdrive since Scald is much stronger than the moves Rowlet and Litten have access to. Primarina's Z-Move, Oceanic Opperetta, is 195 Base Power in comparison to Incineroar and Decidueye's Base 180. And finally, only the Tentacool and Mareanie lines resist the combination of Water/Fairy. For added bonus, Primarina can solo the entire Elite Four with the coverage of its massive movepool. |
| 79 | ** Ultra took several steps to nerf Popplio by moving both Acrobatics and Scald later into the game, and notably giving Rowlet and Litten useful move tutors early in the game while giving Popplio little to nothing. However, Popplio now gets Icy Wind as an early level-up move, allowing for an easy counter to Grass-types as well as slowing down faster opponents. While not as broken as it was in the originals, it is still a powerful Pokémon throughout the game. It also still soloes the Elite Four with relative ease. |
| 80 | * The candy system in ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee'', which replaces standard Effort Values in other main series games, allows you to directly upgrade a Pokémon's stats up to a very generous cap of 200 ''per stat''. With some grinding and perhaps use of the Poké Ball Plus toy that can come with the game, you can gather enough candies to boost your Pokémon's stats through the roof. And while the small candies you can get early in the game can only provide up to 50 per stat, that's still enough to [[CurbStompBattle completely thrash]] early gyms, and by the end of the game you can have a team of [[LightningBruiser Lightning Bruisers]] capable of decimating anything the Elite Four and Elite Trainers can throw at you. |
| 81 | [[/folder]] |
| 82 | |
| 83 | [[folder:Eighth Generation]] |
| 84 | * The EXP Candies. They're somewhat like a smaller, weaker cousin of the ever-present RareCandy, obtained from Max Raid Battles, in that they give a set amount of EXP as opposed to a guaranteed level-up. In the early game, they may seem rather useless, due to the only sizes available being the XS and S, which give off diddly amounts of EXP. However, as you progress through your Gym Challenge and earn more badges, and therefore access to Max Raids with higher star ratings, you start earning the L and XL sizes, which are far easier to amass and give much better amounts of EXP (the XL size gives off 30,000 EXP, roughly equivalent to felling a level 50 Blissey with no multipliers active!) A good, coordinated session of 4- or 5-star Max Raids could earn a Trainer 50 or more of these miraculous sweets. LevelGrinding isn't even a thing anymore: just stuff a wild or freshly hatched Pokémon full of EXP Candies and watch it go to Level 100 in an instant! |
| 85 | * One of the best Pokémon to use for an in-game playthrough is Growlithe. It’s available fairly early in the game, being catchable before the second gym. However, if you’re brave enough to explore the Wild Area a bit, you can find a Fire Stone there and evolve Growlithe almost immediately after you catch it. This would normally be a bad idea in previous games, because Arcanine doesn’t learn any more moves after it evolves… but in ''Sword and Shield'', it instead gets all of Growlithe’s level-up moves at level 1, and the move relearner is free to use in every Pokémon Center. The end result is that you can get an Arcanine — a powerful JackOfAllStats with access to Flamethrower, Crunch, Play Rough, and Extreme Speed — before the second gym, and proceed to [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp]] pretty much the entire rest of the game aside from [[MakingASplash Nessa]]. |
| 86 | * The Max Lair in the Crown Tundra expansion. [[spoiler:You can access this place as soon as you gain the ability to visit the Wild Area and you don't have to beat Peony in order to proceed to the Max Lair. You'll not only get the chance to keep whatever Pokémon you catch during your first Dynamax Adventure (usually around the Level 65+ range), but you can also potentially catch a Legendary Pokémon at the end of the raid, all without getting your first badge! And the best part is that they don't disobey your orders, meaning you'll be able to easily breeze through the game!]] |
| 87 | [[/folder]] |
| 88 | |
| 89 | [[folder:Ninth Generation]] |
| 90 | * Fuecoco, the Fire type starter, is undoubtedly the best of the Paldean starters, a bit uncommon for the MightyGlacier of the trio. Evolving into the Fire-Ghost type Skeledirge, it has a type advantage over a whopping '''5''' of the 8 gyms in Paldea. But more importantly, Skeledirge's SecretArt Torch Song is an 80 base power Fire-type move that gives Skeledirge +1 Special Attack every single time it's used. After getting access to the Throat Spray (which can be purchased and doesn't get used up), Skeledirge can hold it and get a ''+2'' Special Attack buff after using Torch Song for the first time, letting it wreak havoc with other hard-hitting Special moves like Shadow Ball, Hyper Voice, Flamethrower, and Earth Power. The only thing preventing Skeledirge from easily sweeping the rest of the game is its poor Speed, but that can alternatively be fixed with the Choice Scarf, which becomes available for purchase at Delibird Presents after only the fourth gym and turns it into a veritable LightningBruiser - [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer being locked to Torch Song will hardly be an issue]] [[GatheringSteam after it gains enough Special Attack buffs to barrel through even Fire-resists like wet cardboard]] while comfortably tanking the few priority moves that come its way. Alternatively, Flame Charge avoids Choice Scarf locking in and is learnable after defeating Mela, just the second Team Star boss. |
| 91 | * Annihilape, the new final evolution of the Mankey line, is one of the most destructive Pokémon in history. It is very easy to get a Mankey early on, and when Primeape reaches level 35 it gains its signature move, Rage Fist. Using Rage Fist twenty times and leveling up is how Primeape evolves into Annihilape. This effectively means that you have a Fighting/Ghost type, one of the best offensive combinations in the series, with stats above most starters and amazing stat distribution early on, which can wipe the floor with most opponents as-is. What really pushes Annihilape over the edge is Rage Fist, which gains a lot of power the more the user is hit. This combination of ease of acquisition, power and coverage makes Annihilape one of the best choices for most playthroughs. |
| 92 | * The Path of Legends story can be trivialized with a single move: Salt Cure. The signature move of the Garganacl line deals one-eighth of the target's max health damage per turn, which is doubled to one-quarter if the target is a Water or Steel type. This makes the fights against Titan Orthworm, Dondozo, and Tatsugiri (also, if you're playing Violet, Iron Treads) a matter of surviving a few turns, while the Garganacl line has a positive matchup against Titan Bombirdier, making Garganacl one of the best Pokemon to use in Path of Legends. |
| 93 | [[/folder]] |
| 94 | |
| 95 | |
| 96 | |
| 97 | [[folder:Mystery Dungeon]] |
| 98 | This section has been split into old and new games, due to a major overhaul that happened in ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'', that makes many of the old strategies much less broken (for example, Protect and Endure status lasting only a single turn instead of the old 3-6). |
| 99 | [[AC:Both]] |
| 100 | * Multi-strike moves (such as Fury Attack or Pin Missile). Due to the damage calculation in the ''Mystery Dungeon'' games being much different than the mainstream titles, these moves actually hit as hard as most other attacks ''per hit''. The brokenness comes from the fact that the STAB from the mainstream titles is also implemented in the Mystery Dungeon games (and in Mystery Dungeon is often ''better'' than using a move the target is weak to), meaning with the right Pokémon (Treecko with Bullet Seed and the Concentrator skill for instance), this can be quite lethal. And because of how damage mechanics work, it can perform up to five ranged attacks, each of which deals a great deal of damage by themselves. Before the overhaul, this was especially bad, as the projectiles would keep going after defeating a target.) If you think that's bad, try linking a defense-lowering move with one of these, like Meowth or Persian with Screech and Fury Swipes, and watch how fast you take your opponents down. The only downside to multi-hit moves was the [[UnskilledButStrong relatively low accuracy of each individual attack]] (and even then, you could usually land one or two for good damage, or use moves like Sweet Scent to offset it). |
| 101 | ** Multi-hit moves were ''more'' overpowered in the old games as they could KO a Pokémon in-between hits. This allowed the ranged Bullet Seed and Pin Missile to KO multiple Pokémon in a straight line if there are still hits left... and it also worked [[ThatOneAttack against the player]], as a powerful multi-hit attack from an enemy could make it use multiple Reviver Seeds in a single turn. ''Gates to Infinity'' nerfed multi-hit moves so that Pokémon cannot get knocked-out until the move finishes, preventing the aforementioned two cases from happening again, but it's not enough to make the moves balanced. |
| 102 | * Speed-boosting Abilities. As Speed stat did not exist in Mystery Dungeon until ''Super'', all Speed-related effects had to be changed. While moves were changed to boost Movement Speed, the Abilities grant the user a 'two for price of one' on all moves when in effect. Now combine this with either Groudon or Kyogre, an already broken move like Heat Wave, and the fact that Fire/Water moves get a boost in that weather... |
| 103 | * ...Speaking of Speed-boosting Abilities. Drifloon line is a terror to be behold (to the point of memetic reputation), due to Unburden. Not only is the condition related to held item in a game where you have an entire inventory few buttons away, it triggers regardless of whether you had one in first place, unlike in main series. Two repeated Ominous Winds will destroy most Monster Houses. A double helping of Defog + Ominous Wind will ''sterilize'' them. Beware, though, because enemy Drifblim and Drifloon won't hesitate to use this trick against you. |
| 104 | * Memento is ''much'' more viable in the Mystery Dungeon games than the main series. It sharply lowers the Attack and Special Attack of every Pokémon in the room, but unlike the main series, instead of making the user faint, their [[HPToOne HP goes to 1]] and they warp to somewhere else on the floor. That last effect makes it a bit harder to use in dungeons, but it allows you to completely break boss fights. After just three to four uses of it, bosses will only be able to deal ''1 damage'' to you unless it's a critical hit, which you can throw out of the window by having one of your Pokémon use Lucky Chant, a move which protects your party from critical hits. |
| 105 | [[AC:Old games]] |
| 106 | * Starting as a Charmander or Cyndaquil is potentially a game breaker due to it learning [=SmokeScreen=] early on, a move that makes the target's attacks always miss. It sounds simple, but when used against bosses or making a hallway fight for monster houses, you can just attack without any worry of being hit back. |
| 107 | * Due to the way gender works in ''Red and Blue Rescue Team'' ([[PurelyAestheticGender in that it only exists for story purposes]]), anything that causes the Infatuation status-Attract and the Cute Charm Ability-is absurdly powerful, basically being a nigh-effortless way to ensure that enemies pretty much never got a chance to attack you, including many legendaries that wouldn't be affected in main series. Similarly, Imprison caused the Paused status condition. This has been nerfed in ''Explorers'' where gender is a proper gameplay mechanic (including unknown gender). While gender mechanic has not been present in any games since the overhaul, the Infatuation status was nerfed to not guarantee losing a turn. |
| 108 | * Due to the special properties of the Pokémon Castform and its signature move Weather Ball, a single Castform could do enough damage to KO any non-boss Pokémon in a single hit at low-to-middle levels, and at high levels, could even do the same to any boss Pokémon that didn't resist Fire or Water. This was only minorly {{nerf}}ed in the ''Explorers'' games; Castform now has a 'size' of 4, meaning only one can be on a party and at the expense of another Pokémon, but most normal dungeons don't need more than the single Castform at one time anyway. |
| 109 | * In ''Red and Blue Rescue Team'' upon maxing their IQ (the mechanic that replaced friendship, boosted by eating Gummi items), Pokémon acquired the ability "Super Mobile", which allowed them to travel over water, lava, clouds, and even allowed them to bash through walls to make their own path with absolutely no penalty. In a {{roguelike}} game, this naturally causes most of the difficulty to soar right out the window. In the ''Explorers'' games, this IQ skill became the final skill of Palkia, whom you can only obtain ''after'' the game's storyline, making it more of a BraggingRightsReward. |
| 110 | * The Allure/X-Eye Seeds snap boss battles right in two. The AI will ''never'' attack while under this effect, unlike during Confusion, and Crosseyed status probably lasts the longest of any adverse status effect short of stat drops. [[MushroomSamba Eating an X-Eye Seed reveals that they cause the victim to hallucinate that everything looks like a Substitute.]] |
| 111 | * If you want to truly humiliate any boss, just try the Hunger Seed. That item will cause any non-player character who eats it to become immobile and do only 1 damage with any attacks, and unlike any other status, it WILL NEVER GO AWAY unless you shoot another food item at them. The intended downside is their rarity: in both ''Red and Blue Rescue Team'' and ''Explorers'', the only dungeons they show up before credits clear are [[OneTimeDungeon places you can't return to once you clear them]], with only other options before postgame being rare rewards for higher rank missions in ''Explorers''. [[VersionExclusiveContent ...unless you're playing Time, where they don't appear at all.]] They're notably more common in ''Explorers of Sky'', however, being found in Kecleon Shops or Secret Bazaars in certain dungeons. |
| 112 | * Several IQ skills on the right IQ groups to boost HP, PP, and other stats could be further combined with 3☆ exclusive items, that buffed a particular Pokémon each (generally giving them absorption against a type they're usually weak against, or putting them in permanent Light Screen/Reflect status). Not only that, but the effects of those items are ''shared among all Pokémon belonging to the same evolutionary branch!'' So for instance, Pokémon like Gallade, Vileplume, or Politoed could not only gain the buffs of their former evolutions, but also those of their counterpart(s), for a total of 4 buffs; with the exception for the Eevee and Hitmon families, where each item is specifically for that stage. While in ''Explorers Time and Darkness'' you had to combine specific items to net one, usually not even resulting in what you exactly wanted, in ''Explorers Sky'', you can look up the item you're looking for in the shop, and swap ''any exclusive items'' you want to get rid of for the one you want, basically turning any Pokémon with a broad enough "family", through IQ grinding and item gathering, into an InfinityPlusOneSword! Want to top '''even''' this? Then bring along also the 2☆ equivalent of the Exclusive Item to get an even bigger stat boost, make your 'mon binge on stat-rising items like Life Seed and Iron, and keep in mind that out in the dungeons are exclusive items for ''a whole type''. Pair it with a double-type, and...you know the drill. Most exclusive items are quite useful without being game-breaking. But a handful of them are absurdly powerful. Snover and the Hoenn weather trio can use their 3☆ items to perform double attacks all the time, for free. A Tyranitar can bring a Rock Gem to permanently move at double speed, and can extend this ability to all Rock-type teammates, plus Cacnea and Gligar with their 3☆ items. And Celebi's 3☆ item essentially guarantees that it will never run out of PP, ever. Snover/Abomasnow deserve even more special mention because they can use Blizzard as a perfectly accurate, extremely powerful room-clearing move that hits twice. |
| 113 | * In ''Red and Rescue Team'', [=SonicBoom=] is a ranged attack that [[FixedDamageAttack hits for 55 points no matter what.]] Also, unlike the main games, where most Pokémon could easily have 200+ health points at the end of the game, most Pokémon naturally won't even reach triple digits (100+ health points) at the later points of the game, so just imagine how devastating and frustrating 55 direct points of damage from a distance (especially off-screen) would be. The move was nerfed to its main series damage in ''Explorers''. |
| 114 | * In the main ''Pokémon'' series, Protect makes you invincible to damage for one turn. Here, however, Protect stays in play for multiple turns, allowing for multiple attacks while the opponent is helpless, with the only downside that it can occasionally fail, regardless of whether you used it before. |
| 115 | * Similar to Protect, Endure normally allows the user to survive the next attack with 1 HP remaining. This effectively makes the user unable to drop below 1 HP for several turns. Combined with Endeavor, a move that causes the target to have the same amount HP the user currently has, it's one of the most reliable ways to defeat some of the most powerful enemies in the game. |
| 116 | * Unlike main series, Pokémon possess both of their two abilities at the same time. This makes [[StoneWall Bronzong]] a top-class gamebreaker, because one of its abilities (Levitate) negates one of its only 2 weaknesses while the other (Heatproof) cancels out the other. Its awesomeness is greater when you consider that Bronzong already has high defenses to go against the other attacking types which Bronzong is not weak to, along with the fact that its moveset is ''very'' good with Psychic and Gyro Ball being only ''some'' of the great moves it can learn. Add to this mix the fact that Movement Speed is not tied to the Speed from the main game series, and you'll have no trouble getting through most places in the game. |
| 117 | * There's also Shedinja who, unlike in the regular games where it always had only 1 hit point, ''is'' able to boost its HP stat. Couple that with the Wonder Guard ability, and the ''Super Mobile'' IQ skill to freely traverse over all terrain, to see how destructive one Pokémon could ''truly'' be. It gets even better in ''Explorers'' when Shedinja gets an accuracy-boosting IQ class and Silver Wind as an egg move. |
| 118 | * Attacks that hit the entire room trivialize Monster Houses. While Earthquake and Magnitude hit allies, the rest don't while still retaining decently high power. Silver Wind and Ominous Wind in particular have a secondary effect that gives them a small chance to boost all of the user's stats by one stage each, ''per target''. Since Monster Houses tend to have 7+ Pokémon in them, it's highly likely that using either will grant the boosts at least once and make fighting any survivors much easier. Zapdos can be considered one since it learns Agility, Charge, and Discharge. Try linking all three of those moves in that order and see [[CurbStompBattle what happens to a monster house]]... Unless there's an enemy with the Lightningrod ability in said Monster House... (or before ''Explorers of Sky'', '''anywhere on the floor'''). Other notable example is Agility, which increases Movement Speed of all team members in the room, making it easier to get in the range if you have no long-range moves. |
| 119 | ** Dialga and Palkia's signature attacks also deserve a special mention, as they will do [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill the same 150+ damage]] to your poor enemies from an entire room away as they did to you on their respective boss battles. |
| 120 | * Certain Pokémon fare better in level 1 dungeons than others. For example: |
| 121 | ** In ''Red and Blue Rescue Team'': |
| 122 | *** Alakazam's level 1 stats are far, far better than almost everything else. It also has Teleport as a panic and/or travel tool ([[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer which is likely to be all what it's going to use when enemies finally catch up power-wise]]). |
| 123 | *** Charizard has Heat Wave at level 1, a room-clearing move. Add the fact that it learns Smokescreen early on, and you have many ways to alleviate the dungeon's difficulty. |
| 124 | *** [[ThatOneSidequest If you get your hands on it]], Kecleon. Good early stats, very good level curve, and early access to Fury Swipes makes it very good. So good, in fact, that the developers caught on and made it complete trash for similar dungeons in ''Explorers''. |
| 125 | *** In main series, Chikorita line does not fare well. Here, Meganium has niche in Purity Forest, due to its amazing level 1 stats. While it does not start as strong as Alakazam, its much better level-ups mean it actually keeps up power-wise for the whole dungeon. |
| 126 | ** In ''Explorers'' |
| 127 | *** Not only does Drifloon line gets pretty much guaranteed two-for-one attacks thanks to Unburden, it starts with ''Minimize'', just in case something actually gets to attack it. |
| 128 | *** Smoochum is a female-only species with Forewarn, which translates to high likelihood evasion. It quickly gets very useful moves that are Lick (chance to paralyze), Sweet Kiss (confuses the target) and Powder Snow (hits entire room). While not as broken as Drifloon line, Smoochum ([[PowerupLetDown and only Smoochum]]) is very strong in these dungeons. |
| 129 | * Scizor in the ''Explorers'' games. To start off, it has the attack stats of a god, and [[GlassCannon although its natural defense stats leaves some room to be desired]], it still has the fantastic Bug/Steel type, giving it only one major weakness and plenty of resistances, and even its mediocre defenses can be covered by increasing it with sufficient drinks and gummies. Secondly, its movepool is also huge, allowing it to take on almost any type or dungeon reliably, and also carries Agility, which can turn almost any boss into a joke thanks to the multiple turns it grants to your whole team. Additionally, it can also learn Silver Wind, a move that hits an entire room at once, thus tearing the dreaded monster houses to shreds. All of the above alone is enough to make Scizor an extremely versatile Pokémon that would be valuable on almost any team, but what truly pushes it to game breaking levels is its ability, Technician, which gives a massive boost to any move with a base damage under a certain threshold. Technician-boosted weak attacks are significantly STRONGER than unboosted "strong" ones, so with the right moveset Technician essentially gives Scizor a free attack boost, including the mentioned Silver Wind and Bullet Punch. Add in Agility and almost every non-Fire type enemy or boss(es) won't even be able to touch it. |
| 130 | * Then there's Mirror Move. In the main games, it's simply a move that allows you to replicate your foe's move; rather gimmicky and not very useful. Here however, it acts as a Protect--while simultaneously reflecting every move that hits you back at the foe (including status-inducing moves). Not only does this last for several turns, but the reflected moves also factor in types. If you started with a Torchic, simply use Mirror Move on Palkia and watch it OHKO itself with a reflected Spacial Rend. Fantastically useful in monster houses and any multi-boss fights. Its only downside is that it doesn't work against throwing items, and will not reflect a move against someone far away. |
| 131 | * In a series where all base stats might as well be equal, who's bound to be the main beneficiary? Smeargle. Besides running grossly overpowering moves like Mirror Move, Spacial Rend, and Mind Reader + Rollout, it can, along with Cresselia, bring two copies of Lunar Dance (the only PP restoration move) into an exploration, granting infinite PP to the entire team. Sketching a teammate's moves isn't even difficult, only requiring a Blinker Seed and some tweaking of the Nontraitor IQ skill. And just when you thought Smeargle couldn't possibly be any more broken, recall that it has the Technician ability to power up its weaker moves, including multi-hit attacks like Bullet Seed. |
| 132 | [[AC: New games]] |
| 133 | * In ''Gates to Infinity'', picking Axew as your hero or partner may as well be an easy mode enabler, as its first two level-up moves are Dragon Rage and Dual Chop. The former is a fixed damage move capable of one or two hit [=KOing=] most early game Pokémon, while the latter is an extremely powerful multi-hitting move that's literally the only melee range attack it'll ever need. Add in the fact that it's a Dragon type, and thus resists numerous common types and is resisted by almost nothing, and there's very little that can stand up to it. As a cherry on top of the cake, they are one of the few species that naturally learn False Swipe, to make recruiting easier. |
| 134 | * Excadrill are just as overpowering here as they are in the regular game. They learn both Swords Dance and STAB Earthquake at a relatively low level, and their pre-evolved forms aren't that difficult to find (they can be found in the first dungeon). Combine this with its already ridiculous Attack, and you've got something that deals serious damage, even to ''Flying-types''. They're so stupidly powerful that, unless you know what you're doing, your team's Excadrill will one-shot everyone, [[TotalPartyKill including your teammates]]. And if that wasn't enough, Sand Rush allows the user to move twice in one turn if sandstorms are brewing. Dungeons that force you with only one party member? No worries, just send in the mole. It can make short work of just about ''everything''. The only things it ''can't'' handle are [[BrutalBonusLevel the Path of No Return and Slumbering Cave dungeons]], since they force all Pokémon to level 5, and their movepools are reduced to level-up only. |
| 135 | * Companion Mode is quite powerful in ''Gates to Infinity'', if you're patient enough. When in Companion Mode, the story stops completely, and you get to play as a party of the Pokémon you've recruited. Here, you can build up Pokémon Paradise and accumulate massive amounts of resources and items, at the start of the game! The only limits to this are your patience and the fact that better dungeons/missions will be unlocked as the main story is progressed. What really makes this powerful is the fact that there is a shared experience system in effect. All EXP that is earned is shared by all Pokémon, ''even the ones in Paradise and the story characters''. With enough time, your story Pokémon will be vastly overleveled. |
| 136 | * In ''Super Mystery Dungeon'', while you don't get access to it until mid-game, Cofagrigus' gold bar exchange allows people to trade in their gold bars for vitamins. Doesn't seem too bad, but unlike the main series, vitamins do not have a max cap on how many times you can boost the Pokémon's stats. Combine this with the fact that each time your expedition rank goes up, you get an increasing amount of gold bars as your reward, and ''Super'' also has a pseudo-Companion Mode which, while nerfed to not be as powerful as ''Gates'', still allows you to grind items, including gold bars and treasure chest with gold bars in them, if you take the time to do some item farming, the stat growth of the main characters can get a tad bit insane. On a similar note, the Water Looplet, one of the few treasures you can get before beating the game. It makes it so that items thrown by its holder fly infinitely. What does that have to do with the above? If you line your party up and throw a stat booster their way, ''it affects all of them'', making stat grinding two Pokémon at once much easier. |
| 137 | * The Ally Reviver Emera in ''Super Mystery Dungeon'' is incredibly powerful. If the current leader has an Ally Reviver Emera and one of your partners faints, they instantly get revived ''with full HP, PP and Belly'' (essentially working like a free Reviver Seed), regardless of how far away they are from the current leader. While there is a limitation in that you need to have some luck with the RNG to get the Emera, once you get it, you can send your two partners to roam around the floor aimlessly, with no worry of them getting knocked out due to ArtificialStupidity, and no fear of them wasting your Reviver Seeds. Getting through floors is made dramatically easier this way. |
| 138 | * ''Rescue Team DX'' has the Rare Quality Narrow Focus. On its own, it's firmly placed within the BoringButPractical spectrum - it does not give any great boost to moves, stats or partners, with Narrow Focus merely giving perfect accuracy to moves used while in a corridor. Later in the game, however, it becomes ridiculously powerful as many of the most dangerous moves are balanced by poor accuracy. When in a corridor, nothing is stopping you from [=KOing=] up to ten Pokémon at the same time with a single Hydro Pump, [[OneHitKill One-Hit KO]] anything in front of you with Guillotine, Horn Drill, Fissure or Sheer Cold, or even KO '''everything''' in the floor in just three turns with Perish Song. The possibilities are endless, and many of them can trivialize very dangerous encounters. |
| 139 | [[/folder]] |
| 140 | |
| 141 | [[folder:Pokémon Rumble]] |
| 142 | * ''Pokémon Rumble U'', if you actually pre-ordered it, comes with Black/White Kyurem. These two, once you get their passwords in the game, are unstoppable killing machines that destroy anything bar bosses in a single shot. That is, until the further levels, but it's still amazingly easy. |
| 143 | * ''Pokémon Rumble Blast'' (the 3DS version) also has a password system, accessible after the second town. Taking a few minutes to look for codes on the internet and entering them gives you steadily increasingly powerful Mons depending on the area. They are all at a set level and usually know moves you couldn't learn until [[spoiler:Axle Town]] through the random move machine. All you have to do after entering the code is to find them in the overworld and defeat them, and for their level and obtain point in the game, they are absurdly powerful (read: Victini/V-Create, Tornadus/Hurricane, Zoroark/Foul Play). And once you beat the game, you can access more codes for OlympusMons like Groudon, Dialga, and Lugia. For free. |
| 144 | ** And if you were patient enough to continuously beat levels to access that 5% chance, one of many OlympusMons is yours, depending on the level. Most are faithful to their main series counterparts (Darkrai having high Attack, low Defense, or Lugia having low Attack but high Defense), and some even have both maxed out. And most come loaded with their SignatureMove from the start (or a high power attack if they lack one), just to make the rest of the game, [[NintendoHard barring the EX Battle Royales]], a complete joke. And even then, if you do beat the EX Royales and keep searching through specific levels... say hello to '''[[OlympusMons Arceus and Mewtwo]]'''. |
| 145 | [[/folder]] |
| 146 | |
| 147 | [[folder:Pokémon Conquest]] |
| 148 | * Dragon Rage. It deals 40 damage to everything, ignoring all typing, and can hit two targets at once, with the drawback of low accuracy. Not a problem thanks to many Warriors with abilities that give them an accuracy boost for three turns; catch them a Gible, Dratini, Deino or Axew, and they can easily sweep opponents for the first year or so of your story (after which enemies become strong enough to survive a single hit). Many storylines with smaller world maps to conquer can be finished in a few months if you're lucky enough to get your hands on such Warriors early on. |
| 149 | * A lot of the game's difficulty snaps cleanly in two if you load up your team with Pokémon that are Flying-type or have the Levitate ability. They're able to move across any type of terrain without being affected by it (meaning they can ignore poison bogs, ice, water, lava, pit traps, etc), can move over other Pokémon, can move over obstacles, can move over any land regardless of height, and can even move across empty tiles as long as they move to solid ground when you end their turn. This makes a good half the maps in the game become much easier with the superior maneuverability and immunity to many stage hazards this means. The "downside" of Flying-types and Levitate is that their terrain immunity means they can't hit switches, use underground tunnels, or rest in water to heal themselves. However, only a couple of maps have those features, and the advantages of Flying-types and Levitate far outweighs these minor negatives anyway. |
| 150 | * The Guardian Charm equip item. It can be bought from the traveling merchant (who shows up infrequently) for 10,000 gold. It gives a significant boost to your Pokémon's stats if it's the only Pokémon remaining. While it was probably intended as a last hope if your army's been slaughtered, it makes it possible, and rather easy, to solo an entire enemy team 1-on-6. This makes late-game level grinding a breeze. And like everything else that merchant sells, it stays with you if you start a new chapter. |
| 151 | * The Legendary Pokémon are hard to track down, but they are usually worth it. As you'd expect, they have high stats, long movement ranges, and powerful attacks which can hit multiple enemies at once. Give them the Guardian Charm, and they will redefine the phrase OneManArmy. |
| 152 | * There's a reason the Warlord Oda Nobunaga takes a long time to unlock [[note]]Most stories that feature Dragnor have either Oichi or Ranmaru as its Warlord.[[/note]](both of the stories he is playable in require nine episodes and all those of the Senior Warlords' to be finished, respectively) and that's because he has the potential to steamroll any army he is pitted against, with access to all of the Game-Breakers listed above via the evolution lines of his Perfect Links (though Zekrom can serve as PowerUpLetdown due to its comparatively nerfed range relative to his other options), topping all of that with the very potent Warrior Skill Desire ''which allows his Pokémon to act twice in one turn'', which is the skill he ''starts with''. |
| 153 | [[/folder]] |
| 154 | |
| 155 | [[folder:Trading Card Game]] |
| 156 | * The Game Boy Color version of the ''VideoGame/PokemonTradingCardGame'', faithful to [[TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}} the original game]] has Imakuni? was a GameBreaker. He was weaker than all the AI characters, but if you defeated him (which was quite often), he gives you an unheard-of four booster packs. This makes racking up cards rather easy. |
| 157 | ** There's also Pokémon like [[http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/d/de/HitmonleeFossil7.jpg Hitmonlee]] who could attack your lead Pokémon with a powerful move, or your benched Pokémon for 20 points of direct damage, easily defeating first form Pokémon with really low health in one or two turns, while it had enough health to last for a while if you didn't have a powerful psychic Pokémon to counter it. It's also an AIBreaker in the video game, as the AI will be unlikely to give energy to their active Pokémon if Hitmonlee will defeat it in one hit (which his 50 damage High Jump Kick may well do). |
| 158 | ** Similar to the above example the "[[FanNickname Haymaker]]" cards which are basic Pokémon cards with HP comparable to most evolution cards and low energy costs; Scyther, Hitmonchan, and Electabuzz can give you a massive advantage at the beginning of a match, and then there's what happens if you have four in a deck... |
| 159 | *** The Pokémon Trading Card Game underwent SequelEscalation for each generation that was released, plus another for [=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=]. It's reached the point where the old Haymaker deck is easily overpoweed. This is due to an increased emphasis on evolution in that evolved Pokémon get lower Energy costs for greater effects, more Pokémon capable of hitting the Bench, vastly improved Trainer cards (since then split into Trainers, Supporters, and Stadiums) that can easily search for cards of your choice from the deck or discard pile, and a trend away from Energy being the requirement for attacks, instead leaning towards other effects on the field. Together, this has resulted in a frenzy pace, most tournament decks refined to be fully set up in 1 turn, or 2 at most. For instance, Gyarados has an attack that does 30 damage for each Magikarp in the discard pile. A popular deck is designed to use Broken Time Space to [[MagikarpPower evolve a Magikarp on the first turn]] (bypassing a rule prohibiting this), find the 3 remaining Magikarps and discard them, attach an Expert Belt (which boosts attack power by 20), and use this move for 110 damage. Also, this attack requires no Energy at all. Compared to decks like these, the Haymaker is but a light jab. |
| 160 | ** The Team Rocket booster packs, full stop. These had such Pokémon as Rocket Blastoise who could use its "Rocket Tackle" attack for 40 damage, and flip a coin which if it was called right, negated ''any'' damage from the opponent in the next turn including status effects, all for reducing its health by 10 HP, Rocket Charizard who had an attack called "Continuous Fireball", which for ''one'' fire energy it could flip a coin until it got tails, and the attack did ''50 points of damage to the opponent for each heads it got'', and the best part is that most of these very powerful cards were ''common cards''. The rare cards were even worse like Rocket Dragonite who had a power that allowed you to put two Pokémon on your bench at once while it was in battle, and a Trainer Card called "Here Comes Team Rocket" which made both players play the game with their prizes face up, and eliminating the random possibility of picking a weak prize after a victory while thinking of a proper way to use your prizes in any order you want, while keeping an eye on your opponent's possible prizes at the same time. |
| 161 | * The Pokémon SP were pretty broken in general thanks to their speed and the sheer number of options they had. There were trainers that reduced their energy costs, negated opponent Poké-Powers on their turn and even returned a Pokémon SP to your hand without any drawbacks. There was even a card to search your deck for these trainers. The worst Pokémon of all was almost definitely Garchomp C LV.X. It leveled up from a basic Garchomp C, and when it went into play it could completely heal all of your SP Pokémon, has no retreat cost, and with the right combination of cards it could hit any opposing Pokémon for 80 damage for one energy card. You could have a Garchomp C on your bench with nothing attached and get to taking out a vital support Pokémon on their side in a single turn. |
| 162 | * The trainer card Pokémon Catcher. It let you switch the opponent's active Pokémon with one of their benched Pokémon, allowing for easy [=KOs=] on weak support Pokémon. The card Junk Arm (which allows you to reuse a trainer card) made it even worse, as it allowed for eight uses of Pokémon Catcher per game. This got so bad that it became one of the few cards to ever get nerfed (it now requires a coin flip to work). |
| 163 | * Lysandre's trump card is one of the more notorious cases: it's a supporter card which returned the entire discard pile back to the deck. This single card allowed players to run through their entire deck with minimal problems, and extended gameplay by effectively eliminating the deck out win condition, severely slowing down the match as a result. It became the first card to be banned from competitive play in over 15 years, and only the fifth to be banned in the history of the franchise. |
| 164 | * Next Destinies Shiftry was the next card to be banned. Its Ability Giant Fan could force the opponent to return the targeted Pokémon back to the deck, along with all other cards attached with it, whenever one of the player's Pokémon evolved. ND Shiftry could be combined with a variety of other cards, especially Forest of Giant Plants (instantly evolves Grass-Energy Pokémon in play), to be able to use Giant Fan multiple times in a single turn. This often resulted in the player using ND Shiftry to win on the first turn before their opponent could do anything. Later on, Forest of Giant Plants itself was banned due to the numerous other game-shattering combos enabled by it, which allowed for the even rarer occurrence of Shiftry being unbanned. |
| 165 | * Noble Victories Archeops then followed suit in July 2017. Its ability, Ancient Power, prevents each player from playing evolution Pokémon from their hand to evolve a Pokémon in play, severely hampering evolution-reliant decks. What's more, it could be combined with Battle Compressor (sends cards in your deck to the discard) and Maxie's Hidden Ball Trick (lets you play a Fighting-type Pokémon from your discard to your bench - mind you, if played this way, Archeops does ''not'' need to evolve from Archen first) to set it up even quicker and limit the opponent's options even further. While counterplay existed (Hex Maniac, Wobbuffet, Evosoda and Garbotoxin Garbodor to name a few), Archeops caused a lot of evolution decks to [[CharacterSelectForcing have to run these cards]], severely limiting gameplay diversity. And to add insult to injury, it could be combined with Espeon-EX to devolve each of your opponent's Pokémon if they had the chance to evolve beforehand, leaving them stuck with useless evolutions in their hand. |
| 166 | * July 2018 added more cards to Expanded's growing ban list: |
| 167 | ** The aforementioned Hex Maniac, which canceled out abilities until the end of the opponent's next turn. Depending on the deck, this can do anything from be a minor annoyance to completely bricking it, as some decks, particularly Night March, are absolutely reliant on abilities to even function. |
| 168 | ** Ghetsis shuffled all the opponent's item cards in their hand back into their deck; if played early in the game, this can slow down the opponent so badly (and in some cases before they can even play) that it's impossible to recover from. |
| 169 | ** Wally allowed for Pokémon to evolve on the first turn; when combined with a certain Trevenant, whose ability prevents the opponent from using items while it is active, then like Ghetsis it can ruin the opponent's early-game set up so bad that they have to concede. |
| 170 | *** When Team Up's Kabuto and Omastar were released, Maxie's Hidden Ball Trick saw a ban for similar reasons. Kabutops forbids supporters from being played when active, while Omastar forbids items from being played when active. |
| 171 | ** Puzzle of Time is interesting since, while not too strong on its own and being rather DifficultButAwesome to effectively play, it enabled so many different strong combos that [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome it over-centralized the metagame around it]], causing not only a barrier of entry to new players, but also a somewhat stale metagame, so it was banned in order to encourage diversity and also to nerf said strong combos. |
| 172 | ** Lusamine was fine in Standard, but in Expanded, Lusamine loops became a strong part of the metagame. Players would use Lusamine to get back another Lusamine and any sort of a supporter if they needed to. They could also be used to stall infinitely. |
| 173 | ** Delinquent could be used as part of a Turn 1 lock. A Stadium, Red Card, Delinquent, and Peeking Red Card could leave the opponent with 1 card in hand on the first turn. While it was hard to pull off, other enablers like Shaymin-EX and Tapu Lele-GX existed, allowing players to assemble the cards they needed frequently. |
| 174 | * The first two cards to be banned were Sneasel and Slowking from Neo Genesis. Sneasel had the Beat Up attack which, for only two Darkness energy, flipped a coin for every Pokémon you had in play and did 20 damage for each heads. Given that this equates to 6 flips most of the time and that Darkness energy had the additional effect of adding 10 damage to your attacks ''per energy'', this meant an average of 80 damage for 2 energy, at a time when 30 for 2 was considered good. On top of that, it also had no weakness and free retreat, and was a Basic Pokémon. Interestingly enough, Sneasel was re-released in the HS Undaunted set, the only changes being an added weakness to Fighting and its' resistance to Psychic being nerfed from 30 to 20. |
| 175 | ** Slowking ended up broken due to a BlindIdiotTranslation: its ability Mind Games caused your opponent to flip a coin every time they tried to play a Trainer card. If tails, not only did the card fail, but it was placed on the top of their deck, effectively shutting down their draw next turn. Why was this so bad? Because the English translation of the card forgot to include the phrase "this ability only works when Slowking is your Active Pokémon". As a result, you were able to fill your bench with 4 Slowkings and give your opponent only a ''1/16 chance of playing Trainer cards''. |
| 176 | * As a general rule of thumb, most Pokémon EX are very powerful due to them almost always being ''Basic'' Pokémon as opposed to fully evolved (Stage 2) Pokémon. The EX 'Mons have high HP, strong attacks and low to medium energy requirements, and some can switch Pokémon or heal damage making them tough to get rid of. The Gamebreakers however are the Mega EX Pokémon, who can be placed on top of EX Pokémon or regular Pokémon, and have massive HP reserves and insane attack power. And consider you can have more than one EX in your deck. Some decks just revolve around getting 4-5 EX on the bench, loading them up with energy, then sweeping the opponent. |
| 177 | * Zoroark-GX is a MasterOfAll, able to fill almost every role in the game. Its ability, Trade, allows you to discard 1 card from your hand and draw 2 new ones, making it one of the best support Pokémon. Its attack, Riotous Beating, allows you to do up to 120 damage for a single Double Colorless Energy, making it ruthlessly efficient as a beater itself. For more Dark-based decks, it has Trickster GX, which allows it to copy any of your opponent's Pokémon's attacks. It's telling that even after all the support for Buzzwole-GX (its main competitor in the Standard format), it was the dominant archetype until Tag Team GX Pokémon were released.. |
| 178 | ** In Expanded, Zoroark is by far the most dominant Pokémon of the format due to having more support. Sky Field, from the Roaring Skies expansion, allows it to hit for 180 with Riotous Beating. Choice Band boosts this to 210, enough to KO most meta Pokémon in the game. This is nothing compared to Exeggcute, however. Its ability, Propagation, allows it to come back to your hand at any time, but an interaction between the rules on public and private zones made the "once per turn" part irrelevant. With Exeggcute, discard costs became completely optional. Having just one Exeggcute in the discard pile means that Trade becomes Bill. The Zoroark/Exeggcute archetype is also the reason why Hex Maniac is banned, allowing you to circumvent Sudowoodo, hit full damage, and have all Exeggcutes as discard fodder. |
| 179 | * Welder has centralized the 2019 Standard format around itself. This supporter allows you to attach up to two extra Fire Energies per turn, after which you draw 3 cards. This was also the first format since 2010 (and the first in the game's modern era) without Double Colorless Energy, making it hard for other decks to keep up. A large majority of the decks in the game's meta revolve around Welder. |
| 180 | * While the Tag Team Pokémon are already strong as-is due to their powerful attacks, Mewtwo and Mew-GX stands far above the rest. Its ability, Perfection, allows it to use any Pokémon-GX or Pokémon-EX's attacks on the bench or in your discard pile. The deck allows a lot of versatility, especially in the Expanded format where it has a greater pool of attacks and more support for its type. |
| 181 | [[/folder]] |
| 182 | |
| 183 | [[folder:Pokémon Shuffle]] |
| 184 | * Mega Gengar. Its ability is what takes the cake: all Mega Gengar icons vanish 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. Also added the fact that it takes one Mega Speedup to Mega Evolve sooner, Mega Gengar became an absolute favorite in Competitive stages for the time. Although Mega Rayquaza is a bit of a PowerCreep, Mega Gengar still has a use if you were to go itemless in some stages as well as performing huge combos easier had you played on a stage that allows three Pokémon (or if you use a Complexity -1 on a stage that doesn't use non-supports). |
| 185 | * Mega Rayquaza is considered to be the only Pokémon better than 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. |
| 186 | * Mega Beedrill. While not the strongest Mega, its ability is to stop time so the player can tap a single icon on screen, and all of the icons around it in a 3 by 3 square disappear. While Mega Tyranitar and Mega Aggron have a similar ability and does more damage, Mega Beedrill has one major thing above them. When fully candied, it can Mega Evolve in a ''single match''. A strategy to clear Survival Mode without items is what made Mega Beedrill so popular. |
| 187 | * Mega Pinsir and Shiny Mega Charizard X. Remember Beedrill? In exchange for being a *little* slower, taking six or five icons respectively rather than three, you get to make two taps in the Tyranitar shape rather than one big tap. This enables much stronger board control and generally is more conducive to combos due to the way the game generates falling icons in a rough checkerboard shape. These two are broadly considered the InfinityPlusOneSword megas of the modern Shuffle meta. |
| 188 | * Ditto used to be this long before it was made available, and that's because of a second passive ability that no one Pokémon is able to have. Its main ability Swarm isn't too special, but its second ability, given to Ditto's nature made it able to match with every other Pokémon on the board. This means that combos are always guaranteed to happen, it can remove disruptive non-support Pokémon easily and rack up points like nothing else since this effect can go on for quite some time. It was so good that unscrupulous players hacked their save data to cheat their way up the leader boards in Competitive stages, along with the ability to use either use Arceus' ability Double Normal, unobtainable Pokémon with other game-breaking abilities at the time or even simply use two Pokémon as opposed to four [[note]]not using all four Pokémon in your team or non-supports show up, which Ditto can deal with easily[[/note]]. Thankfully, Version 3 came in which removed this passive ability as well as adding a checker for players if they used legitimately obtained Pokémon in Competitive stages. Though since Ditto is now available, its ability Swarm became Transform, which is not very game-breaking, basically being a much better Swap which is able to change some of the Ditto icons on the board into one of your own support Pokémon. |
| 189 | [[/folder]] |
| 190 | |
| 191 | [[folder:Pokémon Masters]] |
| 192 | * Lucas & Dialga might seem above average at first but in truth they are terrors. His only attack is the already quite strong Roar of Time which can be even more powered up thanks to Dragon Wish, which powers up Dragon-type moves in general, so it's beneficial to your other units as well (but also to your enemies). And while Roar of Time needs 4 MP to use, it can be easily corrected with X-Speed +, which raises the Speed of 3. And you can use it two times. Then there's his Trainer move It's Our Time!, which raise the Special Attack and the Accuracy, and it tops the Critical-hit rate, with no drawback at all. If that's still not enough, then there are his Passive Skills. Grand Entry 4 raises the Special Attack by 4 the second the Pokémon enters the battle (and yes, if you use It's Our Time!, you'll top it). And finally Commanded Freebie 9: when every time the Pokémon uses a move, it will apply Free Move Next. With a combination of this ability and X-Speed+, you can ''basically spam Roar of Time''. |
| 193 | * Master Fair Sync Pairs get this billing for providing extra buffs for sync pairs in their teams who come from the same region. Very rarely will a player face a close defeat with at least one of them in their teams. |
| 194 | ** Then there are the absolutely bonkers Master Fair Sync Pairs who have [[SignatureMove Buddy Moves]]. The debut of these Sync Pairs in the game's third anniversary caused quite a major shift in power: |
| 195 | *** Ash & Pikachu have the endurance of a cockroach by having multiple stacks of Endure effects and can dish out absurd amounts of damage, most notably with B Thunderbolt. |
| 196 | *** Sygna Suit Cynthia (Aura) & Lucario basically turn everyone in her team into durable stone walls while providing massive boosts to Fighting-types with her Fighting Zone mechanic. |
| 197 | *** Sygna Suit Red (Thunderbolt) & Pikachu have B Volt Tackle, which allows him to hit the ''entire'' foe team at a mere 2-slot move gauge while Electric Terrain is in play. If the target is paralyzed, B Volt Tackle also drops the targets' Defense and Special Defense by 1 stage rank upon each use, causing his attacks to deal more damage over time, and Red can paralyze ''all'' opponents with a G-Max move. On top of that, Red's signature passive extends the duration of Electric Terrain, and he can be easily upgraded to 3/5 move level in order for him to trigger Electric Terrain right away with a G-Max move. |
| 198 | *** In fact, just pair Sygna Suit Red (Thunderbolt) with Ash, as not only their Kanto Master passives will ''stack'' with each other, they are both Electric-type sync pairs whose kits have great synergy with each other, and watch as they turn everything into ash even if they're not dealing super effective damage. Adding someone else (say, Hau & Alolan Raichu) would be just overkill. |
| 199 | * Adaman and Leafeon can spam. And no, we don't mean metaphorically. He has Clutch Critical, which makes every (and we do mean, ''every'') attack a critical hit except if the opponents have a specific barrier that prevents them, and Critical Freebie 9, which applies Free Move Next if the previous attack is a critical hit. Then he also has Time Flows over Hisui, which makes the weather sunny at the start of the battle and every time the unit uses a Synchro Move, and it powers up the attacks when such condition is present. His Razor-Sharp Razor Leaf lowers the targets' Defense by 1 (2 if the weather is sunny) and the Grass Type Rebuff, and the attack can be unlocked by literally doing ''anything'' with him (the attack itself is limited to two uses but are you even complaining?). Then there's his Trainer move No Time Like the Present!, which tops the Attack, raises the Defense by 4 and lowers the sync move countdown by one when it's sunny. And finally he has Synthesis for good measure. They don't simply break the game, they pulverize it. |
| 200 | [[/folder]] |
| 201 | |
| 202 | [[folder:Fan Games]] |
| 203 | * ''VideoGame/PokemonInsurgence'' |
| 204 | ** While Giratina is already broken due to its stats, this game gives us Primal Giratina, which it obtains by holding a Crystal Piece. In its Primal form, Giratina's BST goes up by ''140'', with it sporting 135 base Attack and Special Attack, 130 base Speed, ''and'' 150/135/135 defensive bulk. In addition, its signature ability makes it EVERY type defensively, which as a result grants it a mind-boggling EIGHT type immunities; Normal, Electric, Fighting, Poison, Ground, Psychic, Ghost, and Dragon, while having only a SINGLE weakness to Rock, which it can easily deal with using a move like Earthquake/Earth Power or Focus Blast. There is the drawback that if it loses the Crystal Piece thanks to a move like Knock Off, it reverts back to normal Giratina, but that isn't much of a problem given how high its stats are already. |
| 205 | ** Arceus is well-known for already being a MasterOfAll with its BST being 720 and all its stats being at 120, fitting for who is considered the god of Pokémon. Then along comes Primal Arceus, which it can assume by holding a Crystal Piece. In its Primal form, Arceus' BST goes up by 100, making it the same as the aforementioned Primal Giratina. As Primal Arceus, it gains the Normal/Dragon typing alongside 150 base Attack and Special Attack coupled with 120/130/130 defensive bulk and ''140'' base Speed, allowing it to outspeed virtually every other Pokémon. While Primal Arceus can't hold a Plate, it makes up for it with its Ancient Presence ability, which makes all of its moves hit for neutral damage, ignoring things like resistance and type immunities, making it so that NO Pokémon resists its attacks (safe for those whose immunities are granted by its ability, such as Levitate). While losing the Crystal Piece in battle will revert it to normal, you'll still have a ''very'' broken Pokémon in your possession. |
| 206 | * ''VideoGame/PokemonUranium'' introduces the Nuclear type and a corresponding new Eevee evolution, Nucleon, which is capable of sweeping almost any team. First, Nuclear is super-effective against every type except Nuclear and Steel -- which means that it's quadruple effective against all dual-typed Pokémon, as most Pokémon in the game are. Then, Nucleon has the Atomizate ability, which converts all Normal-typed moves to Nuclear type -- granting it the Same Type Attack Bonus -- ''and'' directly boosting them by 50%. That allows it to use a Nuclear-typed Hyper Voice, which has a high base attack power (even before stacking in all of its other bonuses) and hits all enemies. And since Nucleon only needs that one move, it can use a Choice Scarf to boost its speed (which was already quite high), ensuring that it will get the first -- and likely final -- hit on almost any opponent. The result: battle starts, Nucleon uses Hyper Voice, it's super-effective, opponent faints, rinse and repeat. |
| 207 | * ''Pokémon Inclement Emerald'' gives many of the weaker Pokémon [[BalanceBuff buffs]] to make them more worth using. Most of these end up fairly balanced, but a few end up taking the game by storm. |
| 208 | ** Like in the original ''Emerald'', Swellow is available to catch fairly early in the game, can pump up its attack with Guts (made easier with a Flame Orb), has a high speed stat, and benefits greatly from Facade. However, two changes turn Swellow from a strong, but balanced Pokémon to a game-destroying sweeper. First, a Choice Band is available in Lavaridge Town from an OptionalBoss fight with Pike Queen Lucy, and giving it to Swellow allows it to come into a battle with the boosts from both Guts and the Choice Band active, making its physical attacks, especially Facade, ungodly powerful. Secondly, Swellow picks up Extreme Speed as soon as it evolves, so faster opponents and ones with priority moves can't exploit its [[GlassCannon fragile defenses]]. There are plenty of battles in the game where a properly-leveled Swellow can blow through half or more of the enemy team by itself; it's riskier to use in double battles, but can still put in plenty of work even there if used properly. Once it has access to all of its most powerful tools, the only times when it'll struggle are against fast and bulky foes like Vikavolt, which can tank an Extreme Speed and hit back hard. |
| 209 | ** The buffs to Goodra, formerly the most mediocre pseudo-legendary, turn it into a horrifying StoneWall. In exchange for losing a bit of special defense (which is still very solid), it's now Dragon/Water-type and gains additional defense — and, more importantly, access to Recover and '''Poison Heal'''. It was formerly held back by its lack of reliable recovery, but now it can heal at twice the rate Leftovers would give it, and use Recover if that isn't enough. Stick it with a Toxic Orb, and watch as Goodra effortlessly shrugs off special hits and Toxic stalls most foes. |
| 210 | [[/folder]] |
| 211 | |
| 212 | !Competitive Play |
| 213 | |
| 214 | [[folder:Generation I]] |
| 215 | * Mewtwo is the original game breaker. Back in Generation I, Mewtwo (considering the fact that Special counts for both Special Attack and Special Defense) effectively had a BST (Base Stat Total) of ''744'' making it not only higher than every other Pokémon at the time, but higher than every other Pokémon ever released until generation 6 (including [[OlympusMons Arceus]]). The icing on the cake? ''Amnesia''. Which boosts its Special by two stages in Gen I[[note]]Which counted for ''both Special Attack and Special Defense''[[/note]]. And when combined with powerful Special moves like Psychic, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam, Mewtwo's nigh unstoppable. This results in a Pokémon with very little counterplay with the only thing that held Mewtwo back is the OverflowError. While Mewtwo has obviously been toned down ''significantly'' since those days, it has remained a mainstay of Ubers for every single generation; even without the Mega Evolutions it gained in Gen VI, it is still an incredibly versatile and adaptable offensive JackOfAllStats that can do most, if not all things well and can shift to fit most roles in a team. |
| 216 | * Mew, the only other Pokémon banned from Gen I, has [[MasterOfAll 100 Base Stats on everything]], which is incredible for its time, meaning it was [[LightningBruiser extremely bulky, fast, and strong]]. This, combined with its Psychic-type and the ability to learn [[ConfusionFu every TM]], made Mew extremely unpredictable. However, due to PowerCreep in Gen V, and the extensive restrictions on Baton Pass in Gen VI, Mew's no longer considered a Game Breaker. |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | [[folder:Generation II]] |
| 220 | * The unquestioned king of the GSC games is Snorlax, who is considered even better than the PurposelyOverpowered Mewtwo, Ho-Oh, and Lugia. Snorlax benefits greatly from the PaddedSumoGameplay of this Gen, as its titanic HP and very high Special Defense makes it ridiculously resilient, while the very powerful physical attacks of later Gens aren't as prominent here to smash through Snorlax's lower physical defense. Then Snorlax's low Defense can be patched up through Curse, which also raises its Attack as the cost of lowering its Speed, which it doesn't care about when it's slower than everything to begin with and when Speed is at its least important in this Gen. After some Curses, Snorlax is practically unkillable while it can now slaughter your entire party in one or two hits. But what really pushes Snorlax to game-breaking territory is its ridiculous versatility; instead of Curse it can run Belly Drum to maximize its Attack at the cost of half its HP, while it can then instantly Rest to get that HP back while having the power to instantly smite anything, or it can run a bunch of the vast variety of coverage move it learns to hit everything very hard while still being very hard to KO itself, or it can run Lovely Kiss to give it sleep utility, or it can run Toxic and with its stats be the best staller in the game, etc etc. While no single Snorlax set can beat absolutely everything, Snorlax has the means to beat everything in the game, and about every competitive PVP team will have a Snorlax, as not using it would put one at a massive disadvantage. |
| 221 | * Perish Trapping (using Perish Song to faint the opponent in 3 turns and Mean Look/Spider Web so they couldn't escape and nullify the effect) was a very effective strategy due to the primarily defensive nature of the metagame. Combined with a sleep-inducing move, non-offensive Pokémon would be rendered helpless against their imminent demise, which led to sleep-inducing and trapping moves being banned on the same moveset by Smogon. The faster pace of the metagame in later generations would render this ban unnecessary and limit the effectiveness of Perish Trapping in general, but this is likely why Misdreavus, the most notable user of the strategy, could no longer learn Hypnosis until Gen VIII, during VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus, even though it only got Hypnosis from an event in Gen II. It's also the biggest part of the reason why Mega Gengar became so widely despised by the fanbase and quickly gained a reputation as one of the most ridiculously broken and abusive Pokémon ever. |
| 222 | * Ho-Oh is a physical monster with far too much bulk for something that hits that hard and has that good of a movepool; indeed, part of the reason why Ho-Oh is so nasty is because of how many sets it can run well, making dealing with it one hell of a gamble. Gen V also gave it [[HealingFactor Regenerator]] as a Hidden Ability, allowing it to annihilate things with [[CastFromHitPoints Brave Bird]] all day and then just switch out when its health gets too low for its liking, as well as offering some insulation against Stealth Rock, which it has a 4x weakness to. Gen VI gave it another incidental boost with the introduction of the Fairy-type, as Ho-Oh resists Fairy attacks; additionally, Defog's newfound ability to clear everyone's entry hazards makes Stealth Rock even less of an issue and gives it even more chances to plow through everything. |
| 223 | * Lugia, meanwhile, is quite possibly the best wall in the game. Not only is it unbelievably bulky, but it's also extremely fast and has even more options than Ho-Oh. It can outstall almost anything, be it through sheer attrition, myriad status effects, the multiple forced switching moves at its disposal (which is fantastic when dealing with things that require setup), or really, just whatever the hell it feels like. Gen V gave it Multiscale, which makes it nigh-impossible to knock out if you don't break it beforehand, since the ability cuts damage taken by half when at full HP (and base 110 Speed means it's faster than a ''lot'' of other Pokémon, especially most of its peers (as well as Dragonite and Lunala, the only other Pokémon to have Multiscale and the functionally-identical Shadow Shield), plus it has access to reliable recovery options). If it wants to just outlast things and cripple the offensive capabilities of the opposing team, it still has Pressure, but if it wants to [[WhyWontYouDie never, ever faint]] and force things to pull out all the stops to defeat it and then wind up getting forced out for their trouble, Multiscale is your best bet. Stealth Rock is still an issue, but with Defog as of Gen VI, it's totally manageable. |
| 224 | * Celebi, similar to Mew, is extremely bulky, and can learn moves such as Leech Seed, Recover, and Heal Bell, meaning it's incredibly hard to cause it to faint. One would think having 7 weaknesses would balance it, but Bug-type attacks were pretty rare (the only users were Heracross, which is weak to Psychic ''and'' is outsped by Celebi, and Forretress), Ghost-type attacks were nonexistent on Ghost-type Pokémon, and Poison was weak to Psychic. Fire- and Dark-type attacks were rare too (only used by Houndoom, [[TakeAThirdOption and Celebi could learn Baton Pass to prevent Houndoom from Pursuit-trapping it]]), and it could easily survive an Ice Beam from most Pokémon. This basically meant that Celebi could switch in on anything, force it out, and then switch again almost unharmed. It was so bad, some people had to force HP Bug on some Pokémon to prevent Celebi from coming in for free. However, time was (ironically enough) very unkind to Celebi, as its myriad weaknesses got more moves and Pokémon with actual oomph, making it much easier to defeat, and PowerCreep set in to render its once-incredible stats only mediocre. |
| 225 | [[/folder]] |
| 226 | |
| 227 | [[folder:Generation III]] |
| 228 | * ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSApphire Ruby and Sapphire]]'' gave Wobbuffet the Shadow Tag ability, which ''[[YouWillNotEvadeMe prevents the opponent from switching]]'', and Encore to its movepool. Forcing the opponent with Encore to repeat their moves while preventing them from switching is possibly [[{{Railroading}} one of the most sadistic strategies]] ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' has to offer. If the opponent decided to play around this by using a non-damaging move like Swords Dance, Wobbuffet would happily switch out to another party member, which then had a free turn to set up any stat buff it wanted, while the opponent was still Encored and helpless. And by giving Wobbuffet the Leftovers item[[note]]which gives it 1/16-of-maximum-HP recovery every turn (note again that Wobbuffet has near the best HP in the game)[[/note]], it could stay on its feet almost indefinitely. This gives Wobbuffet the dubious honor of being the first non-legendary Pokémon to be banned from competitive play. And the second? Wynaut. Wobbuffet's ''baby'' form. If that wasn't bad enough, imagine two Wobbuffet, both having Leftovers, facing either other. Neither can attack except with Struggle (and remember, Wobbuffet also has rock-bottom attack power), and neither can switch out. [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable Literally, a battle no one can win.]] This actually caused Nintendo to change the rules of official tournaments, first banning use of Leftovers on Wobbuffet, then changing the format of all subsequent tournaments to doubles, where Wobbuffet is mostly dead weight[[note]]it'll prevent opponents from switching out, but since it can't force opponents to target it, an opponent will focus their attacks on Wob's partner, rendering its countering abilities moot while forcing its partner to fight two-on-one[[/note]]. |
| 229 | * Kyogre gets a special mention; its Drizzle automatically summons rain as soon as Kyogre is sent out to the field, which boosts the power of Water-type moves by 50%, with STAB to boot. Not to mention that a Drizzle-summoned rain lasted permanently ([[{{Nerf}} until Generation VI changed it to last just 5-8 turns]]) unless there's another weather overriding it. In addition, Kyogre has access to [[ShockAndAwe Thunder]], which has 100% Accuracy during rain, and Ice Beam for dealing with Dragon-types and Grass-types. Considering that its Special Attack is a massive 150 with amazing 140 Base Special Defense, you can give it a Choice Specs to boost its special attack further, or Choice Scarf to raise its speed to the point where only a few Pokémon without Choice Scarf itself could exceed it to see how devastating it is in battle. One of the biggest appeals for Kyogre has to be Water Spout, a Water-type move that has a whopping 150 power if Kyogre has full HP; combine that with STAB and Drizzle, and it will be ''devastating'' to anyone unless they resist Water-type moves or they act first before Kyogre does. |
| 230 | * Groudon is just as devastating, with a massively high 150 Attack with a very impressive 140 Defense, it can perform either offensive or defensive very well, as Groudon packs fantastic supporting moves at its disposal such as Swords Dance, Rock Polish, Thunder Wave, Stealth Rock, and Roar. While Groudon doesn't gain STAB from Fire-type, as it's a pure Ground-type, Drought is fantastic, as it boosts the power of Fire-type moves, thus pairing well with Fire Punch, Fire Blast, and Overheat, and weakens Water-type moves, which Groudon just so happens to be weak to, leaving Groudon with just Ice and Grass-type attacks as its weaknesses in harsh sunlight. |
| 231 | * Rayquaza. A Dragon/Flying-type with 150 offense on both sides, at a downside of a not so high 95 speed and decent 90 defense and special defense. With access to the dreaded Swords Dance and Dragon Dance, Rayquaza will send anyone into a world of pain if it manages to set up. Rayquaza also has Extreme Speed at its disposal, striking first before the opponent could use their own priority move. Rayquaza also packs devastating moves such as Outrage, Draco Meteor, Earthquake, Overheat, Fire Blast, V-create[[note]]only otherwise learned by Victini[[/note]], and its SecretArt, Dragon Ascent. |
| 232 | * Deoxys has 4 forms, and all of them are Game Breakers on their own way: |
| 233 | ** The Attack form is the definition of GlassCannon, with 180 offenses (the fifth highest Attack, and third highest Special Attack), but 20 defenses (the second lowest Defense and ''the'' lowest Special Defense). It also has a whopping 150 Speed, meaning it's fast enough to run Attack boosting Natures and still outrun 130 Speed. You're going to need either a Pokémon with a Choice Scarf or a priority move to defeat it, and even then, it's not even a surefire way to do it since Deoxys could hold a Focus Sash. |
| 234 | ** Deoxys-N is similar to the Attack forme, but with less offense and slightly more bulk, but not enough to matter. This causes it to be considered awful in games where Deo-A is allowed, but fills the same spot it would have in ones where it's not. |
| 235 | ** Deoxys-D is broken in a more indirect way. It was extremely devastating when used as a Hazard Setter, as it forced a lot of switches and therefore free turns for Spikes stacking. It was bulky enough that only a handful of Pokémon could OHKO a max HP Deoxys-D[[note]]and this could be avoided anyway by using defensive [=EVs=][[/note]], and it could not be Taunted easily, as it could hold a Mental Herb or use Magic Coat to prevent Taunt. The fact that it is guaranteed at least Stealth Rock and a few Spikes layers made it the perfect offensive supporter, giving too much power to offensive teams. |
| 236 | ** Deoxys-S was extremely versatile. It could be used as a Suicide Lead to set Stealth Rock, Screens, or Spikes to abet hyper-offence similarly to Deoxys-D, as well a Revenge Killer that could outspeed almost every Pokémon ''with boosted speed'', and even an anti-Lead. |
| 237 | * The Baton Pass chain controversy started in Gen VI ended up retroactively affecting previous metagames, as it steadily made people realize they were not just an unreliable gimmick, but legitimately centralizing. Gen III has arguably the most storied history with Smogon's approach to such teams, because while Gen IV banned the move outright and Gen V restricted it to one Pokémon a team while banning [[OneStatToRuleThemAll Speed]] passing, Baton Pass was too integral to Gen III to be removed outright. Thus, they instead tried to ban the most exploitative aspects of it. |
| 238 | ** Only 3 Pokémon a team could have it, thus preventing the dedication of a full team to it. |
| 239 | ** Smeargle, a Pokémon that could learn every move in the game, was thus the worst abuser of the move (in particular, it had the unique ability to pass Ingrain, a move that prevented the active Pokémon from switching out and thus shut down attempts to reset stat boosts by forcing a switch through Whirlwind or Roar). It was not permitted to have Baton Pass in its moveset as a result, and that rule was instituted long after they tried simply banning Ingrain on Smeargle. |
| 240 | ** Most unexpectedly, Mr. Mime ended up banned to Ubers for similar reasons as Smeargle: its Soundproof ability worked similarly to Ingrain in that it nullified Roar. In later gens, this would not be an issue because other Pokémon could just use Whirlwind, but here, only a few commonly used Pokémon could learn it, leading to [[CharacterSelectForcing players being forced to use specific Pokémon and more limited movesets just to deal with Mr. Mime]]. What's notable is that Mr. Mime is otherwise a fairly underwhelming Pokémon in OU, but Baton Pass was just so overwhelming that simply having it and Soundproof was enough to get it KickedUpstairs. |
| 241 | * Not a Pokémon, but an ''item'': The Soul Dew was introduced this generation, obtained exclusively from the event-exclusive Southern Island, and prior to the nerf it received in Gen VII, boy howdy was it a doozy, as it gave the two species it was compatible with, Latias and Latios, a 50% boost to their Special Attack and Special Defense (essentially, a free Calm Mind). This allowed the two to perform astounding feats, and primarily led to the Eon Twins being cornerstones of Ubers due to this buff, especially with Latias' ability to safely handle the full power of Kyogre's Water Spout, outright avoiding being 2HKOed. Soul Dew was so broken that it was banned from official tournaments and battle facilities. With that being said, the Soul Dew was nerfed in Gen VII to only boost the power of the Eon Twins' Dragon- and Psychic-type moves by 20%. |
| 242 | [[/folder]] |
| 243 | |
| 244 | [[folder:Generation IV]] |
| 245 | * A major difference in Gen IV and V, and even somewhat in Gen III compared to the first two generations, is that with the official tournament formats shifting to non-single battles, now Pokémon and abilities and moves are not really balanced toward singles 6-on-6 as they were before. This leads to stuff that, while fine for doubles/triple battles (where a single Pokémon risks being a focal point for attack, which could minimize its impact), in singles, that same mon becomes really powerful, since it can last longer in singles to have a bigger impact. |
| 246 | * Generally speaking, the fourth generation saw Dragon-types heavily buffed. The new move Draco Meteor, a 140 base power special Dragon-type move, was learnable by every fully-evolved Dragon and basically [[OneHitKill one-shot anything not a Steel-type]]. Outrage was also buffed, becoming one of the deadliest attacks in the game in Generation IV with an increase in power from 90 to 120. With the advent of the physical-special split, Dragon Claw and Outrage went from being special moves to physical, letting Salamence, Dragonite, and Garchomp run STAB Outrage off their superior Attack stat. The extremely popular buffing move Dragon Dance, widely distributed among Dragons, could now be used to boost Dragon-type moves. Dragon-types other than Garchomp could now run their choice of physical, special, or mixed attacking sets, which undercut their traditional counters, especially when factoring the new Choice items[[note]]boosting one of Attack, Special Attack, or Speed by 50%, at the cost of freedom to switch moves[[/note]]. By the end of Gen IV, Garchomp, Salamence, Latios, and Latias were all banned into Ubers, resulting in Dragonite, Kingdra, and Flygon being the only real such threats left in Gen IV Smogon standard. |
| 247 | ** The Latis had an extremely good typing, both offensively and defensively, along with great bulk, a ridiculous amount of power, and an amazing Speed tier. Both could drop a Specs-boosted Draco Meteor on anything and do ridiculous amount of damage, ''especially'' Latios, while it was incredibly easy to run Semi-Stall teams with both an amazing defensive core and tons of offensive pressure with Latias. Even when they were unbanned in Gen V, Soul Dew is still banned, as it provides them with a free Calm Mind. |
| 248 | ** The main thing that made Salamence broken was that it could easily switch in due to its good resists, Intimidate, and good base 100 Speed and force the opponent to guess whether it was running a Dragon Dance set or a Mixed Set, both of which had wildly different counters and could easily make you lose two Pokémon if you guessed wrong. Even if you guess right, you still take a brutal amount of damage and maybe even lose your counter to Draco Meteor or a coverage move such as Brick Break or Earthquake. And there was a 'third', bulkier set, that could easily set up on Scizor, its most common revenge killer. As for the DD Set, its 100 Speed is what pushed it over the top. Now, Scarf Jirachi or Flygon need to win the Speed tie first, while Scarf Heatran doesn't stand a chance. It's for this reason that Dragonite wasn't considered as broken, as it's slower and has lower offensive stats. |
| 249 | ** Garchomp could easily be one of the most powerful non-legendary Pokémon ever created. It possesses an excellent Attack, a fantastic type combination [[note]]before Generation 6, there were only three Pokémon (Bronzong with the ability Levitate, Shedinja, and Skarmory) who could resist both the Dragon and Ground-type attacks Garchomp gets a STAB-boost for, all of which are weak to Fire attacks Garchomp can also use[[/note]], very good Speed, and having good bulk. The flagship Garchomp set contained the Yache Berry, which cut the effectiveness of Ice-type attacks, Garchomp's major weakness besides Dragon-type. This allowed it to get a Swords Dance off and guaranteed one or two [=KOs=] before Garchomp goes down. An even more hated version was [=BrightPowder=]-Chomp which, combined with the Sand Veil ability[[note]]opponent accuracy is cut to 80% in a sandstorm, ever-present in this generation, and [=BrightPowder=] subtracts an additional 10%[[/note]] meant that with just Tyranitar in your team [[note]]speaking of Tyranitar, it was also at its most powerful in this Generation thanks to the popular Tyrani-Boah set of which Garchomp heavily benefits from and outright counters it[[/note]], attacks hit Garchomp a maximum of 72% — which Garchomp could happily abuse with Substitute until it dodges an attack, Swords Dance, and sweep. This is all made even easier because Garchomp can switch-in and force out most Pokémon because of how impossibly threatening it was. |
| 250 | * Dialga's Steel/Dragon typing is one of the best defensively on top of having great physical bulk. Defensive sets could still hit back hard without investment, offensive sets could take hits easily while being hard to wall, and both could provide team support thanks to it being able to learn Stealth Rock. |
| 251 | * Palkia's Water/Dragon typing gives it just ''one'' weakness in this generation ([[TakesOneToKillOne to Dragon, one of its own types]]) and it has 100 Speed whereas most legendary Pokémon typically have 90, meaning it can comfortably run items other than a Choice Scarf. Like Dialga, it is hard to wall between its powerful STAB attacks (particularly Spacial Rend, a 100-power Dragon move with a heightened critical chance and no real drawbacks) and coverage and can run more defensive sets that are hard to break while still hitting back. |
| 252 | * Giratina has two forms, and both of them are fantastic. Its Altered Form is a StoneWall capable of walling 90% of the game along with preventing the use of Rapid Spin, while its Origin Form is a MightyGlacier (10 Speed points short of being a LightningBruiser) who manages to be this despite the fact that it's unable to hold an item to boost its average offensive stats (it helps that the item it has to hold to use this form also boosts the power of its STAB moves by 20%). |
| 253 | * Manaphy in this Gen and in Gen V, albeit for different reasons. In Generation IV, it had two sets: An offensive Tail Glow set, with enough Speed and bulk to easily pull of a sweep, and a bulky Calm Mind set, which made it nigh-indestructible. Generation V, meanwhile, made it even more of a LightningBruiser, since it could easily set up with Tail Glow/Calm Mind, use Rest in the rain to get rid of status and get back to full health only for Hydration to wake it up, and then pull off a sweep with absurdly powerful Scald or Surf that were also boosted by the rain. Manaphy also had key resistances and coverage in Ice Beam and Energy Ball that allowed it to rip through Stall teams with ease. |
| 254 | * Darkrai is brutal itself. 135 Special Attack, while not as ridiculous as some of the other things it'll be dealing with, is still very impressive, and 125 Speed is one of the fastest available. Its movelist, however, is what pushes it over the edge. First off, it has a very useful SecretArt called Dark Void, which is an 80% accuracy Sleep-inducer (most sleep moves have ''far'' worse accuracy). Coupled with its excellent Speed, there isn't much that it can't get the jump on, and its Ability causes damage every turn to sleeping foes and acts as a weaker-but-free Nightmare. Its main weakness is its frailty and vulnerability to revenge killers, but it offsets both by being able to cause enough damage to create an insurmountable advantage by the time it has been knocked out. |
| 255 | ** Dark Void, on its own, was also a ridiculously powerful move in Doubles formats, due to its ability to put ''all'' opposing Pokémon to Sleep, being, alongside Relic Song, the only multitarget Sleep-inducing move (coupled with its regular 80% accuracy, that meant Dark Void had a 90% chance of putting at least one of the opponents to sleep). Dark Void was such a dominating move, even in formats where Darkrai isn't available (but Smeargle is), that the move was banned in all Doubles formats, and even some official VGC tournaments, until it was massively nerfed in Generation VII to the point of near-uselessness (dropping its accuracy to a measly 50%, and also making Dark Void fail if it's used by anything that isn't Darkrai). |
| 256 | * Shaymin's Sky Forme is a Togekiss on steroids. Its SignatureMove, Seed Flare, deals heavy damage and has a 40% chance of harshly reducing Special Defense. It wouldn't be too bad on its own, except its Ability happens to be [[LuckBasedMission Serene Grace]], which doubles that chance. This, combined with its blistering Speed, means that nothing can switch in on it unless they're lucky enough not to get their Sp. Defense lowered. And then there's Air Slash, which also has its 30% chance of flinching doubled, plus Shaymin-S is ridiculously fast. When Shaymin-S was nominated for banning to Ubers... well, let's just [[https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ou-round-1-pokemon-suspect-voting.84270/page-3#post-3215668 quote the overseeing moderator]] on the results: |
| 257 | -->''"That's right folks, we just made history. Smogon just had its first unanimous vote ever! I would like to take this time to thank Shaymin-S for being so annoying that literally every voter wanted to ban its ass."'' |
| 258 | * Arceus has [[MasterOfAll a base stat of 120 in everything]] (meaning a whopping 720 base state that is unmatched by default), a movepool only rivaled by Mew and [[MegaManning Smeargle]], and the ability to change its type (and the type of its powerful Judgement attack) by holding one of seventeen Elemental plates or Z-crystals. This makes it a very versatile and dangerous Pokémon that is able to duplicate almost every Pokémon in the game while performing the same roles with the same level of efficiency, all in one package. And even then, the most feared Arceus set [[SimpleYetAwesome simply runs it as a Normal-type to maul opponents with a Swords Dance-boosted Extreme Speed]] (plus one or two coverage moves), simply because it doesn't ''need'' an ability or even super-effective STAB to thrive when it bodies nearly everything in sight with godlike stats and arguably the most powerful priority move in the series, effectively rivaling Xerneas and Mega Salamence in terms of brokenness. It is the only Pokémon in the ''Diamond and Pearl'' era to retroactively go to AG (Anything Goes), with the old Uber metagame being redubbed "[[FunWithAcronyms Farceus Uber]]." |
| 259 | [[/folder]] |
| 260 | |
| 261 | [[folder:Generation V]] |
| 262 | * Reshiram, the Cover Legendary for ''Pokémon Black'', benefits from near unresisted STAB (due to Turboblaze, Mold Breaker with a fancy name), and pairs up with Groudon in the same way Palkia pairs up with Kyogre. Zekrom, on the other hand, benefits from its extremely high Attack and its powerful Bolt Strike to be a very effective wallbreaker. |
| 263 | * In Generation V's metagame, one playstyle on online simulators provoked quite a bit of outrage; Rain teams. Thanks to the Dream World being able to unlock Pokémon with unique hidden abilities, Politoed got Kyogre's Drizzle for a Dream World ability, summoning permanent rain storms. Combined with the speed-doubling ability Swift Swim and Water's fantastic defense and neutral coverage, the meta-game was completely annihilated by a blitz of obscenely fast, strong, and bulky water Pokémon, with Kingdra, Kabutops, and Ludicolo being considered Uber-level fighters. Add to that Manaphy, who can maximize its special attack with two turns of setup and is immune to status in the rain (letting it instantly heal HP and status with Rest), and it's no surprise that Rain was completely dominant in the Generation V metagame until Smogon declared it illegal to utilize Drizzle and Swift Swim together. |
| 264 | * A newcomer to Generation V's Uber list for {{Website/Smogon}} is Blaziken, the first starter to make it to that tier. Its hidden Ability, Speed Boost, raises Blaziken's normally mediocre speed by one step every turn (and it can use Protect to guarantee that first crucial turn), and the retooled High Jump Kick grants Blaziken a devastating STAB move that doesn't lower its stats. Under the sun, there are few things that can switch into Blaziken's Flare Blitz without promptly being obliterated, especially after a Swords Dance. Its biggest power is the fact that you need to deal with it fast. Even with that, it has a high chance to cripple a team with its massively powerful STAB attack. It took three generations worth of PowerCreep for Blaziken to return to regular tiers (and, in fact, even got to spend time below OU). |
| 265 | * Despite the fact that Generation 5 brought more ways to check Garchomp, it got banned again. Even with checks such as Air-Balloon Heatran who could otherwise come in on any attack and take it out with an Ice-type Hidden Power, if Garchomp was hiding behind a Substitute, it didn't stand a chance. In fact, the combination of Substitute and Swords Dance in a sandstorm was a menace to anyone who couldn't break the substitute and take out Garchomp before it boosted too much or set up another substitute. Unlike in Gen 4, in which Sand Veil was the straw that broke the camel's back, Sand Veil and the LuckBasedMission nature of this set were entirely the reason for Garchomp's ban this time, and once it got Rough Skin and Sand Veil itself was banned, it was allowed once again. |
| 266 | * [[DrillMole Excadrill.]] It has one of the highest Attack stats in the game, and one of the best STAB types, though it appears to be balanced out by its mediocre Speed. However, its ability, Sand Rush, doubles speed in Sandstorm. In fact, it reaches speeds so high almost nothing can outrun it, and it hits like a truck. Pairing with Sand Stream Pokémon like Tyranitar and Hippowdon make activating Sand Rush fairly easy. Also, it can also learn [[StatusBuff Swords Dance]]; let it get one off, and you're headed for a TotalPartyKill. Being Ground/Steel, it laughs at Thunder Wave, Stealth Rock, and Toxic, leaving priority moves as one's only option to take it out. It should come as no surprise that it got banned. |
| 267 | * Tornadus-T was extremely fast and had [[HealingFactor Regenerator]] and U-Turn to chip away at his checks while easily outlasting them. He was most destructive in the Rain, when he had 100% accurate STAB-boosted Hurricanes (usually boosted by a [[CastFromHitPoints Life Orb]] since Regenerator alleviated the recoil). His good [[MagicKnight mixed offenses]] also let him run Superpower to muscle past Blissey and Tyranitar (otherwise solid answers), while Knock Off let him cripple everything that switched in. Gen VI's {{Nerf}} to weather makes him much more bearable since he can't use Hurricane with 100% accuracy all the time. |
| 268 | * Thundurus was not as fast, but still had a great Speed that let him beat most oppositions. His Nasty Plot set could easily cut through teams with the combination of Thunder and Hidden Power Ice, Superpower let him get past Blissey/Tyranitar (just like Tornadus-T), and [[ActionInitiative Prankster]] made Thunder Wave the ultimate utility answer to opposing boosting sweepers, since the priority let him fire one off before fainting. Gen VI's {{Nerf}} to weather and Hidden Power make him weaker overall, but still powerful. |
| 269 | * Landorus was already something of an issue in ''BW'' with a Sand Force set that was already considered powerful, but the release of Sheer Force via ''Black 2 and White 2''[='=]s Dream Radar was what pushed him over the edge. With a Life Orb, he would have the equivalent of 228 Special Attack with no recoil thanks to [[LoopholeAbuse the way Life Orb recoil is coded having Sheer Force negate it on moves with secondary effects]], plus he could easily lure out his checks and counters only to use U-turn and trap them with Tyranitar's Pursuit. Unlike Thundurus, Gen 6 did not make him any less powerful[[note]]in fact, the buff to Knock Off alone made him even more so[[/note]], and he became Uber for a second time. |
| 270 | * Genesect got banned to Ubers quickly after its debut. With high Speed, Attack, and Special Attack, respectable defenses, and an automatic 50% boost to either Attack or Special Attack when it switched in (depending on whether the foe's Defense or Special Defense was lower), it was the most widely used Pokémon in OU during its heyday. Genesect's standard builds got at ''least'' neutral coverage on all of standard OU and Ubers, so there was no such thing as a surefire counter to it.[[note]]The only Pokémon in the whole game that resisted Genesect's standard movesets, Rotom-Heat, lacked the defenses to wall Genesect or the offenses to do much of anything else. It was also Stealth Rock weak in a metagame where Rapid Spin was not easy.[[/note]] Another thing that adds to the trouble of dealing with Genesect is its access to U-turn, which allows it to escape from a potential threat to it or a counter to something that deals with the threat, and Download allows it to hit hard with U-turn even without investing in attack, thanks to STAB, Download, and attacking stats[[note]]it has 120 base Attack and Special Attack, but its physical movepool is not as good as its special one, so purely physical Genesect sets are uncommon[[/note]]. Heatran, which would otherwise be a nearly flawless counter to Genesect, risks being smacked by U-turn, possibly losing its Air Balloon, and Genesect switching out to, say, Dugtrio, who proceeds to destroy it. |
| 271 | * White Kyurem is a monster when allowed to attack. Having a base Special Attack stat of '''170''' means that depending on the set, White Kyurem can obliterate virtually anything with the right move. Between Draco Meteor and Ice Beam, White Kyurem can take down many defensive threats, like, say, Lugia, Dialga and Kyogre. It also learns Fusion Flare, giving it some much-needed coverage against Steels, making its life easier in case it encounters the likes of Ferrothorn, Scizor, Forretress and Bisharp. It gets better; give White Kyurem a Choice Specs (boosted Special Attack in exchange for being locked into 1 move) and most defensive threats fall to a single attack. Its only setback is its unfortunate secondary typing, making it vulnerable to all entry hazards, as well as Fighting and Steel-type moves and its relatively awkward speed. Still, however, it's a massive threat, more so than its counterpart Black Kyurem, who has a movepool it can't easily abuse as well as its white counterpart. |
| 272 | * Another Generation V Game Breaker banned by Smogon is the Moody ability, which causes one stat to be sharply raised (essentially a free Acupressure boost) while another drops one stage every turn. Despite appearing on otherwise overlooked Pokémon such as [[LethalJokeCharacter Bibarel]], a few turns of stalling can result in an unstoppable, NighInvulnerable Pokémon capable of demolishing an entire opposing team, especially considering one of the stats that can be boosted is ''Evasion''.[[note]]In Generation VIII, Moody was {{nerf}}ed to no longer affect Accuracy and Evasion, thus removing the prime reason for its overpoweredness. It was unbanned as a result before being banned again due to being not competitive.[[/note]] It also didn't help that one of the Pokémon which gets Moody is the aforementioned Smeargle. To quote Smogon: |
| 273 | -->''Bidoof nearly had to be banned because of this ability. '''[[ComMons Bidoof]]'''.'' |
| 274 | * In 2019, it was decided to [[https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/lets-rework-bw-sleep-clause-sleep-moves-now-banned-sleep-clause-lifted-post-40.3657777/ ban all moves whose sole effect is to inflict sleep]] (Spore, Hypnosis, Sleep Powder, Yawn, Dark Void, Grass Whistle, Lovely Kiss, and Sing) from the Generation V format. This is because sleep works differently in Generation V: while its duration is shorter, causing a sleeping Pokémon to miss only up to 3 turns, the effect's duration gets reset every time the Pokémon switches out. In other generations, you can work around sleep by strategically switching in and out to gradually tick down the timer, but in Generation V, you have no choice but to keep a useless Pokémon on the field for up to 3 straight turns. Of course, no competitive player would ever let you waste three consecutive turns, effectively making sleep moves almost equivalent to a OneHitKO move. |
| 275 | * The move Assist debuted in Generation III as Skitty's SecretArt, though future generations handed it out to a few other feline mons (the Japanese name is "Cat's Paw") including, crucially, the Purrloin line. Purrloin and Liepard's ability Prankster boosts ActionInitiative of non-damaging moves, while the move Assist calls a random move from among those known by the rest of the user's team, with some exceptions. However, by carefully building the rest of the team around those exceptions, it's possible to control exactly which move Assist will call -- with increased priority every time. This led to some ridiculous builds, notable as not being unbeatable so much as ''uncompetitive'' -- you can either shut it down right away, or you're forced to watch as your team gets chipped to death over dozens of turns and there's nothing you can do about it. As a result of these, Assist got banned from Gen V in 2021. [[note]]The moves these builds rely on got added to Assist's blacklist in Gen VI, preventing them from becoming problems in any other generation, but Assist remained a hidden landmine for balancing and this won't be the last time it comes up.[[/note]] |
| 276 | ** "Dive Cats" combines a Lagging Tail (holder always moves last in its priority bracket), with a move that has semi-invulnerable turn like Fly or Dig. Calling the semi-invulnerable move with Assist causes it to go first, making the cat invulnerable while the opponent whiffs their move. On the next turn, the actual attack is unleashed ''last'' due to Lagging Tail, causing the opponent to whiff again. |
| 277 | ** {{Switch Out Move}}s such as Roar and Whirlwind always have reduced priority, specifically to prevent players from trapping their opponent in switch-out hell while field hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes chip their HP to nothing. Liepard calling these moves via Prankster Assist completely bypasses this NecessaryDrawback. |
| 278 | * Gems were a one-time use item in Gen V that gave a 50% boost when you used a move whose type matched the type of Gem. Originally only used with Unburden strats, they eventually proved to be problematic when people began experimenting with them more. Not only could a Pokémon use Gems to boost their powerful STAB moves even further, it could use a Gem to boost its' coverage moves instead [[ScissorsCutsRock to put a huge dent in, if not outright KO, their intended counters.]] Many Pokémon that were already strong, but not overbearing, such as Volcarona and Cloyster, ran wild with their checks unable to truly contain the power spikes, especially since you could have up to 6 of these boosts on a team, and they stacked with other attack boosts. In 2022, after this change in the Gen V metagame proved to be unhealthy, Gems as a whole were banned from Smogon's B/W OU Tier. Even the devs seemed to be aware of how devastating these things could be, and so in [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY the next game]], they removed all but the Normal Gem (likely because it's the only type that isn't super effective against anything), and nerfed the boost down to 30%. |
| 279 | [[/folder]] |
| 280 | |
| 281 | [[folder:Generation VI]] |
| 282 | * ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' has the cover legendary, Xerneas. Its signature move, Geomancy, essentially gives two Quiver Dance boosts[[note]]sharply increases its Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed[[/note]] after the end of the turn after which Xerneas used it, which can be easily patched with Power Herb to make the boost from Geomancy occur in one turn. Combined with [[LightningBruiser its all-rounded stats]], being Fairy-type (a fantastic typing in Ubers, both defensively and offensively), and having the Fairy Aura ability to boost its Fairy-type attacks, it's pretty difficult to stop Xerneas from tearing teams apart outside from a few reliable checks and counters. While Choice Specs and Life Orb Xerneas users are less potentially devastating, they are ultimately just as much of a threat due to their non-binary gameplan. With the addition of Terastalisation, Xerneas became strong enough in National Dex Ubers to get sent to Anything Goes. |
| 283 | * Yveltal, while initially not as flashy as Xerneas or capable of slaughtering an entire team after just one move, is still a massive threat for a variety of reasons. First off, Dark/Flying is a great type combo made even better by its Dark Aura ability, which gives it horrifically powerful Dark Pulses that hit like nukes. Secondly, it is one of the single best [[CastFromHitPoints Life Orb]] users in the game thanks to Oblivion Wing, which is an extremely powerful draining move that is further boosted by STAB, allowing it to essentially negate the Life Orb HP cost. Oblivion Wing coupled with Roost and Foul Play (which also gets boosted by Dark Aura) and its solid natural bulk also makes it an effective tank, and access to the strongest priority move in the game with a Dark Aura-boosted Sucker Punch is yet another plus. All that without mentioning its plethora of other options, including Knock Off, Taunt and U-turn. Its awkward Speed and middling defensive typing are hurdles, but overall, Yveltal is a massive threat that every Ubers team should plan for. In Generation VIII in particular, it proved its worth as a JackOfAllTrades MasterOfAll by being the only true counter to the otherwise terrifying Shadow Rider Calyrex and [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome was seen on every single Ubers team]] in a variety of offensive, defensive and support roles, becoming the most used Pokémon in the tier and surpassing Xerneas in usage and viability. |
| 284 | * Mega Blaziken receives sizeable stat boosts in offence and speed, though it is slightly weaker in sheer damage output than a Life Orb Blaziken. A much bigger change is that thanks to changes in breeding mechanics, Speed Boost Blaziken now has access to Baton Pass. This not only allows it to pass both Swords Dance and Speed Boost at once, it is much harder to counter, as Blaziken can very well escape to a counter-counter ''with all of Blaziken's boosts''. It says something that high-level battlers in Website/{{Smogon}} were so terrified of it that they basically quick-banned it without a vote in the early ''XY'' metagame, making Blaziken Uber for the second generation in a row. |
| 285 | * Mega Gengar is a doozy. For starters, it gains the [[YouWillNotEvadeMe Shadow Tag]] ability and its Special Attack and Speed stats are incredible. A smart player can pretty much 100% guaranteed clear off anything that hinders a sweep by another Pokémon like Salamence, allowing that other Pokémon to sweep with impunity thanks to [[ConfusionFu its amazing movepool]], and can be tailored to defeat just about anything: Taunt and Perish Song can easily wreck Chansey and Blissey, while Hidden Power Ice and Icy Wind hit Garchomp and Landorus for 4x effectiveness. [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness When Mega Gengar's finished its job]], it can just then [[TakingYouWithMe Destiny Bond on whatever comes in trying to revenge kill and take them out too]]. [[http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/xy-ou-ban-of-gengarite.3494085/ Eventually, the Gengarite was banned from Smogon OU]]. Ubers did not diminish Mega Gengar's sheer abusiveness, either, as nothing there had any tools to deal with its shenanigans either and it continued to be wildly abusive in that tier for the same reasons; it actually got so bad that Smogon suspect-tested Shadow Tag for banning it from Ubers, which, if successful, would have completely outlawed it altogether. It failed and Mega Gengar got to stay, but given how hands-off Smogon tends to be with Ubers to begin with (as Ubers is a "just for fun" tier), you have to be really egregious to get them to even ''fathom'' completely banning you. [[HarsherInHindsight (Enter Mega Rayquaza...)]] |
| 286 | * Special Mention goes to Mega Mewtwo Y ''and'' Mega Mewtwo X. Mewtwo was already incredibly powerful on its own (see Generation I), but both versions of Mega Mewtwo have a BST of 780, which is 60 points higher than ''Arceus''. It doesn't help that the Base Special Attack (for Mewtwo Y) and Physical Attack (for Mewtwo X) are now the highest of all Pokémon, at a whopping 194 and 190 respectively. [[PurposelyOverpowered Looks like the claims of it being the world's strongest Pokémon have finally come full circle now.]] |
| 287 | * Mega Kangaskhan is considered to be a terrifying juggernaut for her Parental Bond ability, which allows Mega Kangaskhan to use the same attack twice in the same turn — while the second attack (of the child) is half as powerful, it still amounts to a free Choice Band boost with Substitute-breaking powers on top. What really makes her terrifying are the many potential {{Combo}}s that could be exploited with this ability: just for two examples, Power-Up Punch, a Fighting-type attack that raises Attack, effectively gives a Swords Dance boost while attacking, while Body Slam, obtainable from Generation III, has a ''51%'' chance[[note]]the chance of a secondary effect at least once in the two hits is 1-(1-p)^2; this comes out to 0.51 for Body Slam's p=0.3[[/note]] of paralyzing the opponent. Her movepool is expansive enough that she can beat most of her "counters" with the right move. She also has a first-strike move and more bulk than what you'd normally think of as bulky, like ''Celebi''. It really says something [[WordOfGod when Game Freak themselves have said that Mega Kangaskhan might be a little too powerful]]. Even with Parental Bond's nerf (the second hit deals 1/4 damage compared to the first hit) in Generation VII, Kangaskhanite is still banned in OU. |
| 288 | * Mega Lucario has been compared to [[LightningBruiser a Choice Band Terrakion with a Choice Specs Keldeo strapped to its back for special attack and Starmie for speed]]. This is because of its sizeable boost to ''all'' offensive stats (including speed, which is now faster than things you'd normally think of as fast, like Latios) along with the Adaptability ability, which turns the 1.5x STAB into ''double'' damage. Combine this with the fact that it has ways to boost both physical and special attack, and you have something that will raze entire teams with no support at all. To put this in perspective, a +2 Adaptability Close Combat has a chance of OHKO'ing [[StoneWall Hippowdon and Skarmory]], and a +2 Aura Sphere 2HKO's Chansey and Blissey ''with Special Attack'', something only Kyogre could before boast. And as the icing on the broken cake, it has ''three'' forms of [[ActionInitiative priority]], all with effective 80 base power. |
| 289 | * Aegislash. This sword is able to go on high offense and defense simultaneously due to its Stance Change ability, which switches the highest of those respective stats whenever an offensive/defensive move is used respectively. This effectively gives it 720 BST, the same stat total as '''Arceus''', and also brings in several mindgames ''simply by being on the field'', where one false prediction means the loss of a Pokémon and possibly the battle. Its Shield Forme is absurdly bulky with 150 in both defenses, while its Blade Forme is a GlassCannon with 150/150 offenses, and it [[ConfusionFu can run numerous sets]] where some can cripple its checks and counters (Mandibuzz and Hippowdon get crippled by [=SubToxic=], for example). Being a Steel/Ghost type, it also has many resistances and three immunities. If that wasn't enough, its SecretArt, King's Shield, acts as a non-status-blocking Protect that harshly lowers its opponent's Attack if they make contact with it. In short, its mere presence was massively overcentralizing and prevented many other Pokémon from performing their fullest in OU, and thus it was eventually sent to Ubers. It was so potent that it became the first Pokémon that Game Freak has directly {{nerf}}ed in between generations; ''Sword'' and ''Shield'' reduced its offensive and defensive base stats by 10, and the stat drop caused by King's Shield was halved, resulting in it dropping from Ubers into UU. |
| 290 | * Mega Mawile. It has the highest attack stat in the game thanks to Huge Power, the best defensive typing in Fairy/Steel with 2 immunities and ''9 resistances'', solid bulk to go along with the typing, powerful priority in Sucker Punch, and one of the most spammable attacks in Play Rough. It had 2 main sets (Swords Dance and [=SubPunch=]) that could screw over its very few checks and counters if you guessed wrong and the only way to reliably deal with it was to let something get KO'd before sending in the check... which could faint anyway to a boosted Sucker Punch or couldn't do anything of significance due to Substitute. Its horrible Speed is just about the only thing working against it, but it has so much going for it that the Speed is little more than an occasional hindrance that seldom affects it in any meaningful way. |
| 291 | * Mega Salamence is a reincarnation of Gen 4 Garchomp, except worse. Possessed of all the things that made Garchomp so abusive (except Sand Veil, which it doesn't need), Mega Salamence takes all of that into even greater levels. It has even more Attack and Speed and as much physical bulk as ''[[StoneWall Skarmory]]'', and adds in enough Special Attack to allow it to viably run Special and mixed sets, making dealing with it a guessing game that you cannot afford to lose. Its Aerilate ability allows it to hit like a .50cal round with Thrash[[note]]which is a win-button much like Gen 5 Outrage, except ''with the 30% boost from Aerilate to that''[[/note]], Double-Edge, Return/Frustration, and Hyper Voice. It still does have a 4x weakness to Ice and a Stealth Rock weakness, but those are nowhere near enough to curb its general ridiculousness, especially seeing that it can reliably ''recover'' all the residual damage with Roost. It later became the first Pokémon to ever get banned from the otherwise less restrictive Generation VI Doubles OU for similar reasons with one major exception, it typically paired with Jirachi as it can redirect moves with Follow Me[[note]]Mega Salamence was unbanned in Generation VII Doubles OU with Jirachi being banned much later[[/note]]. Even in the Ubers metagame, it's one of the single most horrifying offensive threats, on par with such powers beyond comprehension like Xerneas and Primal Groudon. |
| 292 | * Greninja began life in the ''Pokémon X and Y'' OU metagame as a master of ConfusionFu thanks to its Protean hidden ability allowing it to always hit Pokémon for STAB (and oftentimes super-effective) hits, but it wasn't until ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' gave it Gunk Shot and Low Kick as Move Tutor moves that it became truly terrifying. Previously consistent checks in Fairy-types became major crapshoots since Gunk Shot could one-shot them with very little investment, Chansey had to stay extremely healthy for the entire match unless it wanted to get beaten by Low Kick, and people were forced to sack their Mons just to scout for Greninja's moves or get in their obvious revenge killer (which almost always had to be a obvious Scarfer). Its consistency and versatility eventually got it banned to Ubers, making it the second starter to be sent there. |
| 293 | * Both Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre take the already extreme game breaker potential of their normal form and take this up to eleven with their Primal formes. Just like any Mega Evolution, they give 100 extra base stats to the Pokémon, giving them a whopping 770 base stats outrivaled only by Mega Mewtwo X and Y and Mega Rayquaza. What really takes them to new heights are their new abilities, Desolate Land and Primordial Sea. Not only do they bring back the dreaded permanent weather that was fixed in Gen VI after plaguing Gen V (though thankfully it goes away after they switch out or if the ability is surpressed by Gastro Acid), but they nullify entire types of moves (Water for Desolate Land and Fire for Primordial Sea) until they are switched out. Primal Groudon also picks up a secondary Fire typing: between this new typing and a stat boost, Fire-type moves on Groudon go from only usable to devastating[[note]]Groudon's Attack is much higher than its Special Attack; in Generations IV and V, this meant running either the base 75 power Fire Punch to use the high Attack or the higher (120) power but special Fire Blast[[/note]]. The added Fire doesn't really have any downsides either, since Desolate Land nullifies water attacks, one of Primal Groudon's only weaknesses[[note]]Which leaves Primal Groudon with a ''single'' weakness in Ground unless its weather is overridden by Primordial Sea or Delta Stream, something with Air Lock or Cloud Nine, or using Gastro Acid[[/note]], whereas Kyogre picks up an immunity to a type it already resisted. Granted, Primordial Sea ''does'' have significant tactical value in Doubles Battles with Pokémon that are weak to Fire-type, as well as serving to give it bonuses like 100%-accurate Thunders and large boosts to its already-devastating water attacks like Origin Pulse (which will now do so much damage that it's liable to 2HKO or OneHitKill things that ''resist it''). What's particularly absurd about the Primal versions of Groudon and Kyogre is that they don't ''technically'' count as Mega Evolutions. Whereas other Mega Evolutions can only be used one per team, necessitating hard choices for who you'll give the Mega Stone to, Groudon and Kyogre can be stacked. There's nothing keeping a player from using Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, and Mega Rayquaza all in the same match. |
| 294 | * Rayquaza itself was already a terrifying prospect, but Mega Rayquaza easily tops nearly everything. It has a BST of 780[[note]]same as the Mega Mewtwo duo[[/note]]: both its Attack stats are at a whopping 180 and it has buffed up Speed and Defense stats. However, it became the most powerful Pokémon because of one other detail: ''it does not need a Mega Stone to Mega Evolve''. It only "needs" to know the move Dragon Ascent, which Rayquaza has little reason ''not'' to use since it's a 120 power Flying-type attack with 100% accuracy, with the only drawback being a drop in Defense and Sp.Def after. Meaning that Mega Rayquaza can hold any item to either increase its survivability or skyrocket its already formidable power. [[ButWaitTheresMore But that is not the end of it.]] Mega Rayquaza also has the ability Delta Stream, which overrides other weathers (including Primordial Sea and Desolate Land) and weakens moves that would be super-effective against Flying-types — meaning Ice-type moves only do 2x damage rather than the usual x4 damage, its Rock-type weakness is erased, and it becomes resistant to Electric-type moves instead of neutral. Mega Rayquaza is so immensely powerful that Website/{{Smogon}} had to convert Ubers[[note]]known as the banlist for broken Pokémon for the longest time, and not "really" a tier[[/note]] to a standard tier[[note]]unofficially, it's still a banlist first, as they still need a place to put stuff banned from OU[[/note]] and a new tier called Anything Goes had to be created to house it, banning Mega Rayquaza from Ubers.[[note]]Immediately prior to its ban, things had gotten to the point where people were using [[CripplingOverspecialization gimmicky sets]] such as Counter Skarmory and Shuca Berry Rhyperior in Ubers [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman just to beat it.]][[/note]] Anything Goes is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin — all bans (like evasion, Moody, or [=SwagPlay=]) are lifted and the only clause in effect is the Endless Battle Clause. Mega Rayquaza has proven to be so broken that the ''only'' way to balance it was to throw it in a shamelessly unbalanced and uncompetitive format. |
| 295 | * Baton Pass teams proved to be bothersome enough that a Smogon clause that only allows one Pokémon at most to have Baton Pass per team was eventually put in place to stop them along with Speed and other stat boosts being mutually exclusive to each other or else Baton Pass fails. Baton Pass teams revolve around the usage of multiple Pokémon with {{status buff}}s and Baton Pass to pass those buffs on to others, who continue to chain buffs and Baton Pass until it reaches something that can sweep the entire enemy team on their own. Even a JokeCharacter or unevolved Pokémon could go on [[TotalPartyKill a 6-0 rampage]] by itself, and if an already powerful Pokémon was the sweeper of choice, victory was guaranteed for the Baton Pass team. The only way to stop a Baton Pass team was to use something that could shut down the chain, remove the buffs, or somehow get lucky enough to stop the sweeper, which could severely limit team and move options. |
| 296 | * Shadow Tag is an ability that prevents the opponent from switching out other than any Pokémon that has the ability Shadow Tag from Generation 4 onward, any Ghost-Type Pokémon from Generation 6 onward, or any Pokémon holding a Shed Shell. While it made Wobbuffet and Wynaut a problem in Gen 3, this was ''not'' because of the 2 being powerful offensively. Give Shadow Tag to any Pokémon with great offensive stats and speed (like Mega Gengar) and you create a monster that can revenge kill almost any Pokémon in the game with little difficulty. If the Pokémon was lacking in power or speed, buff it with a Choice item. Even a relatively sub-par Pokémon like Gothitelle can become a viable Pokémon just because they have Shadow Tag. As a result, Smogon banned the ability from OU. |
| 297 | * Hoopa-Unbound is a monstrously offensive powerhouse overall and one of the game's best wallbreakers due to its 160 Attack and 170 Special Attack coupled with its equally amazing movepool. Dark/Psychic is also pretty good offensively and allows it to break down some of the most common types in OU such as Psychic, Fighting, and Ghost. The Choice Specs are really what broke Hoopa-U, as there are a limited array of specially defensive Pokémon that can repeatedly switch into STAB Dark Pulse, Psychic, and Psyshock coming off of 658 to 723 Special Attack while also being potentially worn down by hazards. Its high Attack also means it can run Choice Band or mixed movesets nearly as well to stop threats like Scizor with Fire Punch, Tyranitar with Drain Punch, and Fairy-types with Gunk Shot. Smogon banned Hoopa-U from OU due to the massive unpredictability anyone running Hoopa-U is allowed. |
| 298 | * Swagger, while proven to be a viable strategy in Generation V, became a popular playstyle in Gen VI until it was banned. It sharply increases the opponent's attack but also makes them confused, mix that with a Prankster Pokémon such as Klefki and the move Foul Play, which deals damage on the opponent's Attack stat and Thunder Wave for good measure and it quickly turns fights into luck-based draws. |
| 299 | [[/folder]] |
| 300 | |
| 301 | [[folder:Generation VII Singles]] |
| 302 | * Power Construct Zygarde. At 50% or less of its health, Zygarde with this ability transforms into its Complete Forme. Zygarde-Complete has ''incredible'' bulk on both sides of the spectrum due to the drastic increase in base HP. Sporting a massive 216 base HP alongside 121 Defense and 95 Special Defense, it can absorb even strong Ice-type attacks (which do 4x damage to it) with impunity, while using Coil to boost itself, put down massive-HP Substitutes which would trigger the forme pretty quickly, Rest to recover all of its status and health with Sleep Talk to boost itself, and it sports Thousand Arrows, a powerful Ground-type move that hits Flying types — coupled with the attack boost from Coil, it will hurt a lot. Pretty much only Unaware Pokémon could stand a chance against a boosted Zygarde-C, and it would shrug off almost everything else while destroying them with impunity. It was just ''too'' good in OU, and the ability Power Construct was banned to Ubers within the first few days of play. It was later banned in Doubles OU as well for the exact same reason, only with Dragon Dance. |
| 303 | ** Even without Power Construct, Zygarde 50% Forme became a formidable powerhouse in Gen 7. This is mainly due to a new signature move it received: Thousand Arrows, a Ground-type attack that bypasses the Ground-type immunities of Flying-types, Levitate, and Air Balloon; leaving only Grass- and Bug-type Pokémon to resist it. Additionally, Zygarde has an overall fantastic bulk with decent speed, with Dragon Dance and/or Coil to boost its offensive pressure further that goes along with its stats, and [[ActionInitiative Extreme Speed]] allows Zygarde to act before the opponent does. Other threatening arsenals for Zygarde include Glare for paralysis, Substitute for avoiding status and a potential KO that works wonderfully with Figy Berry, Iron Tail for Tapu Bulu, Toxic for Tangrowth and other walls, Choice Band giving Zygarde immediate firepower, and Groundium Z converting Thousand Arrows into a powerful Z-Move. Many considered Zygarde to be too unhealthy for OU with its sheer versatile and unpredictability, forcing the metagame to keep changing just to keep Zygarde in check, and it was hit by the banhammer via a suspect test. |
| 304 | * Pheromosa has proven itself to be an Ultra Beast to behold with its blazing speed that only a few Pokémon can actually outspeed without using priority attacks (even then, not many priority attacks can OHKO it) and both its offensive stats being high. Furthermore, Pheromosa has Beast Boost as its ability, which increases its highest stat every time it defeats a Pokémon, allowing Pheromosa to become either faster or hit harder depending on which stat it specialized in. In addition to its usual Bug-type and Fighting-type moves, Pheromosa has Ice Beam to deal with Ground-, Flying- and Dragon-type Pokémon, and Poison Jab to deal with Fairy-type Pokémon. Even worse, Pheromosa also has access to Quiver Dance, which, while it might seem unappealing at first due to Pheromosa's frailty, allowed it to become a terrifying special sweeper that could blow past some of its usual checks as it usually forces other Pokémon to switch out for a safe Quiver Dance boost, especially when combined with Z-moves, and Pheromosa was eventually banned from OU. |
| 305 | * Mega Metagross narrowly escaped from the banhammer treatment in Generation VI due to regular Metagross's speed and predictability, but Generation VII saw a mechanic change allowing their boosted speed on their opening turn upon Mega Evolving and the terrain abilities, Mega Metagross became a dangerously fast and bulky sweeper that could blaze through half of the Pokémon in a team. While it did have weaknesses, many found it far too centralizing and a suspect test was held for Mega Metagross, with the result being a ban. |
| 306 | * Baton Pass was a move that allowed its user to pass boosts to another Pokémon in your team. With Generation VII's advent, two very good recipents came around in the form of Necrozma and Magearna. Necrozma's ability to tank hits and Magearna's typing and stats were the straw that broke the camel's neck. There wasn't too much counterplay to deal with them, considering that Baton Pass teams would often have a Dugtrio to deal with the recipent's threats. Even after the restriction that came around Gen VI to ban passing Speed with other stats, no matter if the Baton Passer would pass either Speed or other stats, after the chain, it was more than enough to deal with the opposition with little support. It was no less abusive in Ubers, thanks to the Z-move Extreme Evoboost (exclusive to Eevee) which ''doubles every stat'', allowing Espeon's Stored Power and Krookodile's Power Trip to become instant unstoppable nukes. The chaos that ensured was too much to ignore; therefore, the move itself eventually got banned in Generation VII, ultimately becoming the second thing banished to Anything Goes. |
| 307 | * Marshadow. An utter monster from the onset, it packs arguably the best offensive STAB in the game (hitting seven types super-effectively and able to score neutral on literally anything else, something that was unheard of in STAB combos), a very high 125 Speed, having Technician as its ability to boost the power of Shadow Sneak and Hidden Power, a fantastic coverage thanks to the aforementioned Hidden Power boost and deceptively high bulk of 90/80/80. What really put it into this territory, though, is its SecretArt Spectral Thief, a powerful STAB move that ''steals all stat boosts and ignores Substitutes''. Using this, setting up against and revenge killing Marshadow becomes nigh-on impossible, since any attempt to do so would result in Marshadow using Spectral Thief to steal such set-up from anything bar Normal-types (which it can easily take down with a Fighting move), rendering the time spent less than worthless and making it even more impossible to KO. What's more, any Pokémon that ''could'' wall it would be instantly KO'ed by its extremely powerful Z-Move. People were begging for it to be banished to Ubers the moment it was revealed, and, sure enough, it was sent there a mere ''two days'' after it was officially released. |
| 308 | * While Dugtrio always had a reputation thanks to Arena Trap, Gen VII applied a number of buffs that turned it into an utter monster. Between a significant buff to its Attack, the addition of Z-Moves, and the decreased usage of priority, Dugtrio transformed into a monster that could KO any staller it laid eyes on and, thanks to its high speed and good attack, still function on a team after fulfilling its purpose. While it was hurt somewhat by its terrible bulk that ensured it would faint in one hit unless it holds a Focus Sash, it still became one of the most despised in OU, and Arena Trap was eventually banned. Like Baton Pass in Generation VI mentioned above, this eventually led to Dugtrio being re-evaluated in earlier generations, with the end result being most tiers except Gen III OU[[note]]which, like Baton Pass, Dugtrio had already had a storied history in to such an extent the community has been hesitant to enforce any ban on it. Besides that due to metagame differences such as lower power levels making losing a Pokemon to Dugtrio not as game-ending and the effectiveness of "Superman" teams that stack Pokemon Dugtrio can't trap (to such an extent Dugtrio can at times being a burdensome waste of a team slot), Dugtrio is generally regarded as much less effective in Gen III than other generations.[[/note]] and Gen IV UU (but ''not'' its OU tier) banning Arena Trap. |
| 309 | * One notorious Pokémon that entered in ''Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon'' is Naganadel. Its Poison/Dragon type combination is solid defensively, and it has a formidable 121 speed and a really good 127 special attack. Naganadel also packs Nasty Plot to further boost its Special Attack, Beast Boost as its ability to increase its Speed with every KO, and can learn Flamethrower/Fire Blast for perfect type coverage. It usually had ''just'' enough HP to get off a Nasty Plot, and even with a single boost and a Dragonium-Z for a one-time nuke, Naganadel could run amok through almost the entire metagame after its first KO, with Choice Scarf Greninja being one of the few things that could outrun it after only one Beast Boost. Only a few Pokémon such as Tyranitar, Heatran, and Assault Vest Magearna, and items such as the Assault Vest, could stop its rampage, and even that wasn't a guarantee due to the huge amount of damage that a +2 Devastating Drake off of Draco Meteor (195 Power) could do. Naganadel's presence warped the entire metagame so much in a small amount of time since its introduction that it became the first Pokémon to get banned from the ''USUM'' metagame. |
| 310 | * ''Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon'' introduced Ultra Necrozma, with a whopping 754 BST, outmatched only by Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, Mega Mewtwo, and Mega Rayquaza. Not only does it have a large amount of coverage moves to fight against the weaknesses of both Dragon and Psychic, it has its own Z-move, Light That Burns The Sky. Oh, and said Z-move (and its base move, Photon Geyser) go off the higher of the user's offensive stats along with ignoring abilities. Intimidated or burned Necrozma to keep it from wreaking havoc on you? Now, those moves go off its untouched Special Attack, and vice versa if you lower Special Attack. To top it all off, Ultra Necrozma's signature ability, Neuroforce, acts like a better Expert Belt that boosts the power of super-effective moves by 1.25x; combined with its splendid coverage, it can and will use something super-effective against its counters. And, of course, it can be stacked in a team with [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, and a Mega Evolution]] of your choice. (A player is limited to one Ultra Burst per match, but Necrozma is the only Pokémon able to Ultra Burst, so that's a moot point.) |
| 311 | * Dusk Mane Necrozma has proven itself to be one of the best Pokémon in Ubers thanks to its fantastic bulk coupled with Prism Armor that reduces the damage done by super-effective attacks with the added benefit of being unaffected by Mold Breaker, Turboblaze, Teravolt, and the effect of Moongeist Beam, Sunsteel Strike, and Photon Geyser. Additionally, Dusk Mane Necrozma is immune to Toxic while having a Stealth Rock resistance and it has either Moonlight or Morning Sun for recovery. As for the offensive department, Dusk Mane Necrozma has an amazing attack stat with Solganium Z for extra firepower. While it isn't very agile, it can be easily patched with the assistance of either Rock Polish, Autotomize, or Trick Room. Finally, there's also an initial unpredictability (in the opponent's view) of whether or not it'll Ultra Burst into Ultra Necrozma, and when it will do so if it can. |
| 312 | [[/folder]] |
| 313 | |
| 314 | [[folder:Generation VII Doubles]] |
| 315 | * Magearna wound up being the first Pokémon to be banned exclusively in Doubles OU. Its [[SecretArt signature ability]], Soul-Heart, boosts Sp. Attack when a Pokémon faints, which in turn enables Magearna to quickly rack up its already high Special Attack to ludicrous levels in Doubles, including when its ally does something. Combining that with its nice bulk, excellent type combination, Trick Room or Shift Gear to solve its speed issue, and Dazzling Gleam to hit both foes, it will tear almost anything apart with minimal effort. As a result, it was quickly banned along with Power Construct. |
| 316 | * With Baton Pass being unrestricted, Extreme Evoboost is infamous for its abuse potential, as it sharply raises all of Eevee's stats (except for accuracy and evasion), which Eevee could then Baton Pass onto another Pokémon with the help of a teammate using moves like Wide Guard, Fake Out, or Follow Me to keep opponents from defeating it. Basically ''anything'' with a 2x boost to speed, offenses, and defenses is a LightningBruiser to the extreme — particularly Necrozma, as it has Stored Power, though many are just as guilty. Extreme Evoboost wound up being the first Z-Move to be banned by Smogon. |
| 317 | * Jirachi has been known for being the premier Follow Me user in Doubles OU. Back in Generation VI, Jirachi was suspect tested and that result was no ban. While it hasn't changed all that much in Generation VII, the Doubles OU has initially shifted into focusing on setting up thanks to several factors, such as Snorlax and Tyranitar performing better with most Fighting-type Pokémon phasing out from the Tapu, as well as Mega Salamence being unbanned, causing Jirachi to benefit too greatly from the simple metagame change. This resulted in another suspect test held for Jirachi in Generation VII, and it was successfully banned with just enough votes. |
| 318 | * With the aforementioned damage {{nerf}} of Mega Kangaskhan's signature ability, Parental Bond, savvy Mega Kangaskhan players instead focused on [[FixedDamageAttack Seismic]] [[LoopholeAbuse Toss]]. A doubled Seismic Toss enables Mega Kangaskhan to 2HKO most of the Pokémon in the game, and anything that would decrease its attack doesn't affect its damage output. The transition also means players can invest more bulk to Mega Kangaskhan while Wish becomes a popular recovery option for it. The advent of the Tapu phasing out a majority of the Fighting-types means it's more difficult to take down Mega Kangaskhan otherwise. As a result, Kangaskhanite got banned from Gen VII Doubles OU. |
| 319 | * The {{nerf}} done to Swagger has led to the move being unbanned in Generation VII, though that didn't last there, as Swagger found its place in Doubles OU for giving an attack boost to physical attackers without taking their own moveslot, which is crucial since most Pokémon carry Protect. Tapu Fini has Misty Surge, which prevents being confused by Swagger if they are on the ground, and Heal Pulse for increased longevity to its partner. The straw that broke the camel's back was the arrival of the then-legal Marshadow using Spectral Thief to steal stat boosts from the opponent while being able to OHKO most of them with it, leading to the Doubles OU council banning Swagger yet again. |
| 320 | * With most Fighting-types phased out in Generation VII, Snorlax finds itself acting as a set-up attacker with Curse or Belly Drum in DOU. Gaining High Horsepower[[note]]Earthquake does 25% less when it targets multiple Pokémon, so High Horsepower is preferred[[/note]] and [[BalanceBuff buffing pinch berries to restore 50% HP]] while making them interact with Gluttony vastly helps its role. However, when Marshadow was banned from its second suspect test, Snorlax lost one of its best checks. This caused the rise of the Belly Drum variant that ended up being too overwhelming to handle, even with ways that can prevent it in one way or another. Pairing Snorlax with Gothitelle, another Pokémon that benefited from Marshadow being banned, also serves as a factor, as Gothitelle can trap opponents with Shadow Tag and supports Snorlax with Heal Pulse and Trick Room. This resulted in Snorlax being the subject of a suspect test, and it was subsequently banned from Doubles OU. |
| 321 | * Mega Gengar ended up becoming one of the worst nightmares in Generation VII. In addition to what it can do with Shadow Tag, Mega Gengar can support Kommo-o by defeating Fairy-types (mainly the Tapu), enabling Kommo-o to use [[StatusBuff Clangorous Soulblaze]] without any roadblock. Additionally, Incineroar has great synergy with it by threatening Mega Gengar's threat, which in turn disallows any safe switch out when Incineroar uses Fake Out. It narrowly avoided being banned in its first suspect test. However, a second suspect test was held when matches being determined by speed ties with itself was deemed to be unhealthy, with the result being a ban this time around. |
| 322 | [[/folder]] |
| 323 | |
| 324 | [[folder:Generation VIII]] |
| 325 | * Dynamax and Gigantamax end up becoming the first battle mechanics to be banned. To start off with, Dynamax doubles the amount of HP of a Pokémon, allowing them to soak up even a 4x weakness with the increased bulk. Unlike Mega Evolution and Z-moves before it, Dynamax does not require a specific held item, meaning that any Pokémon can Dynamax at any point and can further bolster its firepower with a Life Orb[[note]]Which has its recoil damage halved for the duration of Dynamax[[/note]] or Weakness Policy. Additionally, all of the Max and G-Max moves come with devasting effects such as providing a stat boost for all allies, a stat debuff for all opponents, weather change, or terrain change. Players using Protect or similar will still take 25% damage and have the secondary effect occur, thus requiring a type immunity (if possible), inflicting statuses such as sleep or paralysis, or Max Guard that requires a Dynamax/Gigantamax. Furthermore, Dynamaxed Pokémon have immunities to phazing, Encore, and weight-based moves for the duration of it. This resulted in players using more specific counterplays such as Ditto with Choice Scarf just to stand a chance against Dynamax. To illustrate the power of Dynamax, Dynamax is banned all across almost every Smogon tiers with Anything Goes being one of the few exceptions, becoming one of the few elements that resides in AG alongside Mega Rayquaza and Baton Pass. |
| 326 | * Zacian-Crowned is one of the most powerful [[OlympusMons cover legendaries]] in the franchise alongside RBY Mewtwo and Mega Rayquaza. It packs the infamous Steel/Fairy typing that gives it 9 resistances and 2 immunities while having a massive 170 base attack stat (the fifth highest of any Pokémon as of its release), and the ability Intrepid Sword raises the attack by 1.5x when ever it switches in, granting it a higher effective attack stat than Mega Mawile and the highest attack power in the ''entire series.'' Unlike Mega Mawile, it also isn't slow, having base 148 speed, making it one of the fastest Pokémon around. It also has one of the best movepools of any offensive Pokémon, having access to coverage moves such as Crunch, Psychic Fangs, Wild Charge, Close Combat and Swords Dance while having great 92/115/115 defences meaning even if you outspeed it, it can still take a hit unless it's at low HP which makes it very difficult to OHKO it even if you outspeed.[[note]]A Choice Specs Eternatus' Flamethrower does slightly less than 90%.[[/note]] Its signature move Behemoth Blade also does double damage to Dynamax/Gigantamax'd Pokémon while having 100 BP with no drawbacks. The only disadvantage is that it can't hold any items other than the Rusted Sword to stay in this form. At the start of National Dex Anything Goes[[note]]This is Anything Goes with all the Pokémon in the game[[/note]], at top level play it was used ''20% more than Mega Rayquaza!'' In normal Ubers and Anything Goes with no National Dex, [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome it was used more than 90% of the time]]. After the Crown Tundra's release, its absolutely phenomenal speed was outclassed by Shadow Rider Calyrex (who can easily one-shot it), Pheromosa (who cannot one-shot it, but can revenge kill a weakened one), and Regieleki (who can turn it into a pile of ash with a terrain-boosted Rising Voltage), but none of them can switch in to it at all, meaning something will die to it no matter what. As a result, it's still considered one of the best in the metagame to the point where it was eventually banned to Anything Goes, the third Ubers-tiered Pokémon to do so after Mega Rayquaza and Gen IV Arceus. It also holds the dubious honor of being one of the few Pokémon that were directly nerfed between generations, as ''Scarlet'' and ''Violet'' reduced its attack by 20 (the largest inter-generation stat change in the series to date) while making it so Intrepid Sword can only trigger once per battle, causing it to drop back to Ubers. |
| 327 | * A few months later, Zacian's regular form was banned from Ubers, since while it wasn't as strong as its Crowned form stats-wise, its speed stat was still amazing, and unlike Zacian-Crowned, it could hold an item, most notoriously Choice Band, which similar to Galarian-Darmanitan, meant it was essentially holding two Choice Bands due to also having Intrepid Sword, and could amass even more horrific damage as a result. It is telling that the one Pokémon that could reliably check it, Unaware Quagsire, is used in Anything Goes specifically because of Zacian. |
| 328 | * Eternatus is another one of the legendary trio and despite the lower BST than Zamazenta-Crowned, is much better even if it's not as powerful as Zacian-Crowned. Eternatus has the great Dragon/Poison typing, which is one of the best typings in the game and it has Fire coverage just like Naganadel. It has great Speed and one of the best special attacking stats in the game with 130 and 145 respectively. Its bulk is also very high due to having 140 base HP, meaning it can run a bulky set thanks to having reliable recovery in the form of Recover and Cosmic Power to buff its defenses. Its Choice Specs set is the scariest however, with very powerful Draco Meteors, Dynamax Cannons and Sludge Waves which are very hard to switch into unless you are Steel and Fairy type in which it has Flamethrower for. Due to that great 140/95/95 defensive spread and fantastic speed it is virtually impossible to revenge kill, especially considering it has access to Choice Scarf and Agility making it even faster, making the best way to do so Ditto or a Choice Scarf Shadow Rider Calyrex. |
| 329 | * Black Kyurem was once considered the weakest of the box legendary Pokémon; although it had a massive 700 BST and a whopping base ''170'' Attack stat, it also had an "only" decent base 95 Speed stat and a lackluster move pool that ensured it couldn't use its monstrous Attack stat to its fullest. In particular, the only Physical Ice move it could learn was Freeze Shock, which had a great 140 base power, but took two turns to charge up and had only 90 accuracy, meaning it could miss. The result of these weaknesses? Black Kyurem was bad enough to be tested out of Ubers into OU, and while it did certainly see play there, it still wasn't game breaking. Gen VIII, however, gave Black Kyurem the ability to learn Icicle Spear and Dragon Dance. Icicle Spear is a 25 base power move that can hit 2-5 times, but most importantly is a ''physical'' Ice type move, finally giving Black Kyurem a decent Ice type move that can use its massive attack. Dragon Dance allows Black Kyurem to improve its mediocre speed and further buff its already monstrous attack. These two moves fixed basically every problem Black Kyurem ever had, allowing it to be a terrifying sweeper especially when combined with Dynamaxing. It was quickly banned in National Dex OU and when it was released after Pokémon Home, it was later banned in normal OU due to the same problems, even with Dynamaxing being banned. |
| 330 | * After the Dynamax ban from OU, one of the big winners from this change was Galarian Darmanitan. With its Gorilla Tactics Ability, it got a Choice Band-like boost ''without carrying an item'', and that boost could be increased further with another Choice item, either with a Choice Band for ballistic physical damage coming from 140 base Attack, or with a Choice Scarf to outspeed other threats and still inflict tons of damage. Its movepool was ideal to take down threats with ease, not suffering from four moveslot syndrome. Usually, it was able to either use U-Turn or Icicle Crash without getting punished too often, only needing Earthquake and Flare Blitz for anything that resisted Icicle Crash and U-Turn, and in top of that, it sits at an amazing 95 Speed, which was perfect for the Gen VIII OU metagame, outpacing all the defensive roster in OU. Its Zen Mode hits like a wrecking ball too, gaining an extra Fire typing and boosting its Attack to an absolutely nuclear 160 while boosting its Speed to a blistering 135, a far cry from the 95 it has in Standard Mode, in which it may need a Choice Scarf to be viable. It has some disadvantages, like Stealth Rock vulnerability, or being weak defensively, but even then, the matter that it was near-uncounterable, being able to inflict massive damage, even against its counters. After a council decision, it became the first Pokémon banished to the Ubers tier post-Dynamax ban. |
| 331 | * Melmetal released after Pokémon Home and was the biggest threat in the metagame at the time. Having 135/143/65 defenses combined with the Steel typing allowed it to be one of the most bulkiest mons in the metagame without much investment being even more bulky than '''Giratina''' on the physical side, taking very little damage from most physical attackers outside of Fire, Fighting and Ground types and was also good with Assault Vest to patch up its bad special defense. In addition, it could also run a variety of sets, and had access to a combination of Acid Armour and Body Press. However the deal breaker was the Choice Banded set with Double Iron Bash, which was a 60 base power move that hits twice (Effectively being base 120 power) combined with Iron Fists 1.2x multiplier and Melmetal had a 143 base attack stat, in addition to having 100% accuracy and no drawbacks for Double Iron Bash, making it hit incredibly hard compared to most other Pokémon. This also allowed it to go through Sturdy and Substitutes with ease not unlike the situation with Mega Kangaskhan from Gen 6, and most special attackers couldn't come in on it without getting 2HKO'd by that move, with the exception of Rotom-Heat and Rotom-Wash which took around 80% from Superpower. Even bulky physical walls that could resist Steel type such as Corviknight couldn't do much to it after switching in, even with Body Press, and Corviknight also got hit hard by Thunder Punch. This led to Melmetal being quickbanned from OU 2 days after its release. It was unbanned upon the release of the Crown Tundra due to more Pokémon that could deal with it both offensively and defensively. |
| 332 | * Dracovish became one of the most infamous Pokémon in Gen VIII with its lethal combination of Fishious Rend and Strong Jaw that proved to be a devastating addition to the metagame. Fishious Rend is a Water-type 85 base power move that doubles in power when the user moves first, including when the target switches in. Because Fishious Rend is a biting move, Dracovish's Strong Jaw ability further boosts its power by 50%. It's most powerful with either Choice Band as a wallbreaker, or a Choice Scarf as a revenge killer. With a Choice Band, it can KO even the bulkiest of walls in 2 hits. A Choice Scarf allows it to outspeed everything in OU save for Dragapult and Zeraora, and the lack of power from giving up the Choice Band can be made up for by setting rain. This combination was so powerful that it essentially [[CharacterSelectForcing forced you to run a 'mon with Water Absorb or Storm Drain]] (which meant that almost every single OU team ran Seismitoad or Gastrodon just to wall it), or use a dedicated physical wall (and, if it's running a Choice Band set and your wall isn't Water-immune, even ''that'' is getting [=2HKOed=]; to put it into perspective, even Ferrothorn and Toxapex have to worry about this thing, and they both resist Fishious Rend ''and'' have sky-high Defense), to avoid getting destroyed by Fishious Rend. To demonstrate how overcentralizing Dracovish was in OU, it got banned from its suspect test with over 90% vote. |
| 333 | * Generation 8 gave Magearna several moves that made it more overwhelming than before. To start off, Trick allows Magearna to utilize Choice Specs set more efficiently, letting it cripple defensive Pokémon such as Blissey and Amoonguss by exchanging its held item, then locking them into repeating the same move. Draining Kiss and Stored Power enabled Double Dance sets that consist of Calm Mind, Shift Gear, or Iron Defense to wreak havoc, the former restores HP by 75% of the damage dealt while the latter increases in power the more stats boosts it has. Combined with its excellent Steel/Fairy type combination and its sheer versatility, Magearna received a suspect test and was subsequently banned during Isle of Armor, and while Crown Tundra unbanned it, it didn't take long for Magearna to be quickbanned as it is still devastating as before. |
| 334 | * Cinderace initially had a headstart with the combination of Court Change, which switches which side of the field entry hazards are on, and Heavy-Duty Boots, which protects it from those entry hazards. Then it reached new heights with the release of its hidden ability, Libero, a variant of Protean that changes its type to match the move it's using that goes well with its excellent 116 Attack and a blistering 119 Speed. This is further backed up by Cinderace's hard-hitting attacks such as [[SecretArt Pyro Ball]], High Jump Kick, U-turn for pivoting, Gunk Shot to steamroll through Fairy-types such as Clefable and Tapu Fini, Sucker Punch against faster Pokémon such as Dragapult, and not even Toxapex is safe with its Zen Headbutt. In addition to Court Change, Cinderace is also able to utilize Taunt to prevent the foe from using status moves or Bulk Up to further boost its firepower. Cinderace was such a versatile powerhouse with Libero that it was banned from its suspect test in Isle of Armor after it was quickbanned when Magearna's suspect test concluded and received a quickban treatment along with Magearna in Crown Tundra. |
| 335 | * Shadow Rider Calyrex possesses a crazy Special Attack stat of 165 and base 150 Speed, which allows it to be one of the very few Pokémon that can outspeed the now banned Zacian-Crowned, and its signature move Astral Barrage has 120 base power with no drawbacks while not getting revenge killed by much other than Scarf Kyogre, [[FastestThingAlive Regieleki]], Pheromosa with Throat Chop, and either Dark or Ghost types with strong priority moves such as Yveltal and Marshadow, but many teams gave Shadow Rider Calyrex support with Psychic Terrain coming from either Tapu Lele or Indeedee, so priority wouldn't work. Its coverage is also fairly good with Leaf Storm, Expanding Force which can be combined with Psychic Terrain[[note]]When Psychic Terrain is up, Expanding Force becomes a 156 base power move that is STAB coming off of a 165 special attack making it stronger than Rampardos’s Head Smash in power[[/note]] to absolutely nuke any non-Dark type opponent, Psyshock which hits Pokémon on the physical side allowing it to deal more damage to mons like Chansey or Blissey (who would otherwise check it), Draining Kiss to hit Dark Types, and Nasty Plot to increase its Special Attack even further. When it takes out a Pokémon, it gets a special attacking version of Moxie, allowing it to potentially sweep teams with little effort while also having Unnerve on top of that. It can also hold an item like most legendaries, meaning it doesn't have the same flaw that Zacian-Crowned and the Primal forms have. Its main weakness is that it's [[GlassCannon rather frail on the physical side]] and has a horrible defensive typing in Psychic/Ghost making it 4x weak to Ghost and Dark, which are common offensive types in Ubers. Its general ability to sweep teams with little effort has made it a huge threat in the first month of Ubers after the DLC drop, having the [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome overall highest usage stats of any Pokémon in Ubers]] as well as discussion on potentially suspect testing the mon to Anything Goes due to the meta only revolving around this Pokémon and its main counter Yveltal (who can effortlessly OHKO it with a boosted Sucker Punch) and the occasional Marshadow (who can also OHKO it with a boosted Shadow Sneak). However, it never did get banned into Anything Goes in Gen 8 after Dynamax and both forms of Zacian was banned, as Dynamax helped it improve its bulk to live Dark-type attacks and become an even more threatening sweeper, and Zacian was an excellent teammate that supported Shadow Rider Calyrex very well, as Shadow Rider Calyrex helped beat out Necrozma Dusk Mane, which was one of Zacian's few good checks, while Zacian helped beat out Shadow Rider Calyrex‘s best counter in Yveltal. It is still one of the best Pokémon in Ubers alongside Yveltal, and though it initially was much more balanced as it was beaten by Yveltal, later sets such as [=SubSeed=] and Taunt+Disable were discovered that could potentially turn the tables on Yveltal, which forced many Yveltal to run specially defensive EV spreads instead of something more useful, or even suboptimal moves like Snarl, to avoid getting destroyed and then swept by Shadow Rider Calyrex. This led to Shadow Rider Calyrex getting suspect tested and nearly banned to Anything Goes, although the playerbase ultimately let it stay in Ubers. |
| 336 | * Urshifu Single Strike Style dominated OU through its brute force. To start off with, its SecretArt Wicked Blow always lands a critical hit, essentially having the same power as Close Combat but without any drawback and coming off from its 130 Attack stat. Additionally, Urshifu can plow through faster threats such as Dragapult with Sucker Punch, Poison Jab to wreck Fairy-types that would've otherwise been its biggest obstacle, and U-turn for pivoting. It's also no slouch in the defensive department with both its HP and Defense being 100, allowing Urshifu to take several powerful physical hits before going down and it being part Dark-type eliminates its Psychic-type weakness. Urshifu can also opt for Choice Band to wreak havoc immediately or Bulk Up to boost its firepower further. Eventually, Urshifu was suspect tested as players deemed it broken and subsequently banned. Urshifu happens to be just as wicked in Doubles OU with its Unseen Fist ability that enables it to break through one of the most important moves in Doubles, Protect. As a result, it was banned earlier on during Isle of Armor via a suspect test, and Urshifu was quickbanned again in Crown Tundra as it's proven to be the same terrifying beast as before. |
| 337 | [[/folder]] |
| 338 | |
| 339 | [[folder:Generation IX]] |
| 340 | * Flutter Mane has a great offensive profile with its excellent Special Attack and Speed, nice Fairy/Ghost STAB duo and valuable coverage moves. It has Protosynthesis, which can boost its highest stat by 30% (50% if said stat is Speed) at the expense of an item slot or Sun support without any further restriction. That's not even mentioning how you can Terastallize it to make it ''even stronger'' or change its typing to save it from a revenge kill. All of this means there's so little defensive counterplay to Flutter Mane that the OU council unanimously quickbanned it to Ubers a few days after its release. |
| 341 | * Iron Bundle is blessed with effectively the perfect stat spread and movepool for a special sweeper: 136 Speed with a humongous 124 Sp. Atk, and an ungodly combination of both Hydro Pump and Freeze-Dry, giving it unresisted STAB coverage. It also boasts a whopping 114 Defense, and Quark Drive giving it a free boost to a stat of its choice is just the icing on the cake. It can further capitalize on Terastalization, with Water Tera allowing it to power up its Hydro Pump while removing the defensive liability of its Ice typing, or Ice Tera to boost up Freeze-Dry and cinch earlier and easier [=KOs=]. The immense offensive pressure Iron Bundle put on OU was devastating enough for it to get kicked to Ubers alongside Palafin. |
| 342 | --> "It was the night after Thanksgiving, and all was well... [[https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/palafin-and-iron-bundle-are-banned-from-sv-ou.3711440/ but then robot Santa came and brought OU hell.]] Yes, we live in the timeline where a Delibird form is quickbanned from OU, and yes, it is absolutely hilarious." |
| 343 | * Palafin is designed with official formats in mind — having it switch out once to transform into its Hero Form is considered risky, as these formats limit the amount of Pokémon a player can bring. However, the slower-paced, more switch-oriented nature of OU lets Palafin break loose, wreaking havoc with its massive 160 Attack in its Hero Form and an excellent SecretArt in Jet Punch, a 60 Power [[ActionInitiative priority move]] with STAB as well as Liquidation or Wave Crash for other STAB options, and Close Combat, Drain Punch, Ice Punch, and Zen Headbutt as coverage options, and a strong 100/97/87 bulk that can use the aforementioned Drain Punch for healing. What really clinched the deal however was Bulk Up, which with a single use could turn Palafin nigh-unstoppable thanks to its already insane Attack, and with it having Taunt as well just to eliminate the danger of status moves such as Will-O-Wisp or Haze. While not without weaknesses, Palafin just proved to be too strong for OU to handle, and it was quickbanned within a week of Scarlet and Violet being out. |
| 344 | * Out of the four [[OlympusMons Treasures of Ruin]], the one that got banned first is Chi-Yu. Already, it has a frightening Special Attack at 135[[note]] This is actually the ''nerfed'' version; the non-patched base game has Chi-Yu's Special Attack at ''145''[[/note]], but what pushes it over the edge is its ability Beads of Ruin. Functioning as a stackable Special Defense drop for anything else but Chi-Yu on the field, it essentially turns Chi-Yu's Special Attack stat into ''197'', the highest out of any Pokémon ever. Add in Chi-Yu's decent bulk, its solid speed, the fact that Chi-Yu can learn Nasty Plot to strengthen its Special Attack, ''and'' hold either Heavy Duty Boots to stop Stealth Rock, or Choice Specs to make its Special Attack be even nastier. Terastallization only made it even more powerful when combined with Sun teams, as Tera Fire Overheat with Choice Specs under Sun could even OneHitKill walls that outright resist the move, such as Toxapex, as well as threaten an OHKO on Blissey. This led to Chi-Yu getting quick-banned into Ubers after the Terastallization suspect test concluded. |
| 345 | * Annihilape took the mediocre Primeape and turned it into an unstoppable monster. Its ace in the hole is [[SecretArt Rage Fist]], which, while starting out at 50 power, increases every time it's hit by an additional 50 power, up to 350 BP. Its 110/80/90 bulk is tailored towards taking advantage of Rage Fist at its fullest, and it can bait other Pokémon into hitting it with Taunt, as well as eliminate the threat of Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave. It can also increase its defenses and its 115 Attack further with Bulk Up, and heal up with Drain Punch, which also provides it with an unresisted STAB combo (outside of Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark, who are immune to both moves but are so frail and exploitable by either Annihilape slotting a third offensive move or switching into an appropriate teammate that they almost never make a difference). Add on being able to Terastalize to cover its weaknesses with Water or Fairy, and Annihilape is able to snowball out of control pretty quickly. Eventually, Annihilape got banned to Ubers alongside Chi-Yu. |
| 346 | * Chien-Pao joined fellow [[OlympusMons Treasure of Ruin]] Chi-Yu in Ubers, and considering that it's essentially a physical version of Chi-Yu, it isn't too shocking. But to elaborate: while Chien-Pao doesn't have as high of an Attack stat as Chi-Yu's Special Attack, it still hits like a freight train thanks to Sword of Ruin shredding enemy Defense, and is faster than Chi-Yu, to boot. This meant that nothing unboosted in OU could outspeed it short of [[FragileSpeedster Dragapult]]... [[MortonsFork who falls to its priority STAB anyways]]. Speaking of which, Chien-Pao's STAB cleaves nearly anything in half, and anything that could resist it falls to Sacred Sword or Psychic Fangs. Its Attack could be amplified even further with either Choice Band, Swords Dance, and/or Tera Dark, which gave it the benefit of shedding Ice's common weaknesses while strengthening its Crunch and Sucker Punch. The fact that it could easily tear down walls, outspeed pretty much everything in the game, and it adapting to all of its counters and then some made the frigid feline a menace that was too much for OU. Even after HOME came out and introduced theoretical answers in the form of Magearna and Zamazenta, those weren't enough to keep Chien-Pao in the tier, and thus it was banned again alongside Zamazenta-Crowned. |
| 347 | * [[FragileSpeedster Espathra]] was a Pokémon that didn't see much play at the beginning of the Scarlet and Violet metagame, dropping down to UU. However, competitive players soon found that Espathra is, in essence, a Psychic-type offshoot of ''Gen V Blaziken''. It only had one reliable set, but it's a damn good one that takes advantages of its unique attributes. Being the only Pokémon in Scarlet and Violet to have Speed Boost, it could combine this with Stored Power to gain a STAB attack that grew in power each turn it was in battle[[note]] As a bonus, due to stat boosts increasing the BP of the move in general, Unaware Mons like Clodsire and Skeledirge could not just sit there and take it[[/note]]. Add on to Calm Mind to boost its Special stats even further, and you can already see this thing going berserk. Terastallization allows Espathra to turn into a Fighting-type, completely turning its weaknesses into resistances and use a powered-up Tera Blast to destroy them anyway. It could also go Fairy, and nuke things with either Tera Blast or Dazzling Gleam. Anything [[HighlySpecificCounterplay highly specified to counter the bird]] (i.e. Tera Dark Unaware Clodsire) would have to sacrifice the once-per-match Tera to deal with it. It rose back up to OU, and it proved to be too much to handle ''there'', so it ended up in Ubers in a rare quickban after Chien-Pao's ban. [[note]]Notably, Flittle, its pre-evolved form with horrendous base stats, ended up being banned from Little Cup prior to Espathra's ban for the same reason.[[/note]] |
| 348 | * Miraidon, the box Legendary of ''Pokémon Violet'', is a great example of what happens when Game Freak doesn't learn from the mistakes of Crowned Form Zacian. Unlike its counterpart Koraidon, who is superficially similar in nature but is considerably more balanced since it does not gain as much immediate benefit from its own Ability due to its Fighting/Dragon typing and Fighting STAB, Miraidon is a Special sweeper cranked way up to eleven. It is packed up the wazoo with inherent damage multipliers: Hadron Engine to set Electric Terrain, giving its Electric STAB (already dealing 50% more damage) an additional 30% damage boost, getting an additional ~33% Sp. Atk boost from Hadron Engine, and its signature move Electro Drift being a 100 BP Electric Special move that gets a 33% damage bonus on a super effective hit. Being even grazed by any Electric move from this monstrosity is the equivalent of being steamrolled by a jet plane, and it's not for want of coverage either, with Calm Mind to jack up its already immense 135 base Sp. Atk, STAB Draco Meteor to kick opposing Dragons in the teeth, U-Turn and Volt Switch to apply pivot pressure, and Overheat and Tera Blast to get over anything defensive that may attempt to buy time against its sheer unstoppable force. Its choices in Terastalization are diverse and make it hard to predict; Electric to eliminate its Fairy and Ice weakness while doubling up on Electric STAB to flatten anything that dares to look its way, Water and Dragon to deal with pesky Ground types that try to take advantage of their Electric immunity, or Fairy to counter opposing Dragons, especially Koraidon or other Miraidon. There is damn near nothing that can stop Miraidon from taking over the game, and with its base 135 Speed it is also one of the fastest Pokémon in the game next to Koraidon and Flutter Mane, only beaten by Dragapult and Iron Bundle. |
| 349 | * Shed Tail was a point of contention for a long while in the Scarlet/Violet metagame. Picture Baton Pass + Substitute and [[CastFromHitPoints a 50% HP loss]]. Its main user was Cyclizar, who has access to Regenerator, which mitigated the health loss downside to a 16% HP loss. This allowed it to pass full health Substitutes on to things like Dragonite, Roaring Moon, Chien-Pao, Espathra, etc. [[note]]Prior to Chien-Pao and Espathra's later bans to Ubers[[/note]] to let them set up and sweep for free, or outright get free switch-ins against would-be threats, and worse if combined with Grimmsnarl to get Double Screens up and make Cyclizar twice as unbearable. Additionally, it got utility moves like Knock Off, U-Turn, and Taunt to make it that much more unbearable to fight, forcing either to run a faster Pokémon or use Infiltrator Pokémon to try and stop it, which weren't viable in the long run. Cyclizar got banned from OU, [[HereWeGoAgain but that just led to Orthworm rising up and becoming OU in itself.]] Orthworm, while not having the support movepool Cyclizar had, had better physical bulk, and its low speed, ironically, was a boon for it, since it could send full-health substitutes via slow pivots. In April 2023, Shed Tail, which was concluded to be the problem, was banned, with Cyclizar getting unbanned. |
| 350 | * Last Respects is an ''insane'' move. For every fainted Pokémon you have, the power of Last Respects goes up by 50, up to a maximum of ''300 base power,'' and this isn't even taking STAB into account! On top of that, Houndstone, the premier user of the move, also has Sand Rush as an Ability, doubling its Speed in a sandstorm, ensuring it's going to sweep up the enemy team if it's the last Pokémon standing. A very common strategy with Houndstone is to bring five Pokémon to act as a suicide squad, with at least one Sandstorm setter, and then bring out Houndstone to destroy the enemy team. That strategy was so powerful, Houndstone received instant bans from competitive play. Upon Pokémon HOME's release, Basculegion, a new user of the move who had slightly better Attack [[note]]For the male, the female has a slightly lower Attack than Houndstone[[/note]] and Speed and a similar ability in Swift Swim was potentially able to do the same thing. As such, Last Respects was banned. [[note]]Due to Smogon policies, Houndstone was banned due to being the only user of Last Respects, but now that it was determined the move was the issue, Houndstone got unbanned.[[/note]] And even then, its power in Ubers as an easy to set up win condition resulted in a suspect test, which lead to it being banned to Anything Goes. |
| 351 | * Regieleki was already powerful in Gen VIII thanks to its high speed and Transistor ability boosting its electric moves, but was held back by its lack of coverage beyond Normal and Rock type moves leaving it hopelessly outmatched against any decent Ground Type. Then came HOME's release in Gen IX and Regieleki was made transferable in ''Scarlet/Violet'', allowing it to Terastalize and learn Tera Blast, which it could then use to become an Ice Type and wreak havoc on anything that once would've given it pause. With the combination of Transistor-boosted Thunderbolt and Terastalization-boosted Ice Tera Blast (essentially a stronger version of the [=BoltBeam=] coverage) boosted by either Choice Specs or Life Orb it was impossible to safely switch into it and even beating it one-on-one was hard to pull off due to it having the highest speed stat of all Pokémon at base 200 (often letting it outspeed fast sweepers ''using a Choice Scarf'' with only its base speed), making even revenge killing nigh-impossible. Even attempts to circumvent its coverage could be stopped dead in its tracks if Regieleki used Substitute, giving itself protection and a chance to set up against a would-be check or scout out entire teams allowing it and its teammates to have an overwhelming advantage against any team. It was quickly banned barely a day after the release of HOME to the surprise of no one, earning the dubious honor of the fastest quickban in any OU tier's history at the time, beating out Marshadow's previous record of 2 days in Gen VII's OU. As of now, the only Pokémon to beat its record is Terapagos. |
| 352 | * Magearna returns with a vengeance as of the release of HOME. It had a multitude of broken sets, from the "double dancing" set with Shift Gear, Calm Mind and Stored Power dealing obscene damage that blew everything around it to smithereens, to Shift Gear+3 Attacks essentially being able to handpick its own counterplay and a Trick Room set that supported mons such as Ursaluna to do serious damage to a team. As a result, it was, also to the surprise of absolutely nobody, banned just four days after Regieleki got the boot. |
| 353 | * Zamazenta-Crowned was initially allowed in OU following the release of HOME, being seen as unworthy to be in Ubers. This, however, turned out to be a ''big'' mistake, as just like Black Kyurem in Generation VIII, Zamazenta-Crowned received one crucial new move that pushed it over the edge: Body Press, a move practically tailor-made for it. With that move, Zamazenta-Crowned now had a STAB move that ran off of its immense 140 base Defense, and combined with its great defensive typing of Fighting/Steel, and the potential for further boosting through the already existing Iron Defense (and even Dauntless Shield, nerfed though it may be), allowing it to hit stupefying levels of power and bulk, allowing it to actively destroy generally physically bulky, Fighting-resistant Pokémon like Landorus-Therian with Body Press while not even being 3HKO'd by Lando's Earthquake in return. Compounding this difficulty in checking it is the fact that Zamazenta-Crowned was also tied for being the third-fastest Pokémon in OU (the only faster Pokémon being Zamazenta's own Hero form and Dragapult), eventually leading to Zamazenta-Crowned being sent back to Ubers alongside Chien-Pao, just four days after Magearna got the axe. |
| 354 | * Urshifu Rapid Strike was a solid part of the OU Metagame in the eighth Generation, but once the ninth rolled around, a few changes occurred that pushed Rapid Strike over the edge. Chief among them being Swords Dance, giving Urshifu a boosting move, Punching Gloves, removing the ability to punish Urshifu with chip from Rocky Helmet and contact-trigger abilities like Rough Skin (while also boosting the power of Surging Strikes), forcing people to choose from a very small pool of Pokémon (the examples mentioned being Toxapex, Amoonguss and Water Absorb Clodsire) to try to stop it, and as a result, the metagame became warped around it, resulting in Urshifu Rapid Strike joining its Single Strike sibling in Ubers, leaving OU alongside Volcarona. |
| 355 | * Volcarona has always been a particularly polarizing 'mon, deemed the 'Matchup Moth' for its ability to either completely break a match wide open or flounder around helplessly, and while it has received changes that assisted it greatly in the past few generations, (Fairy-types to prey upon in Gen 6, Z-Moves to nuke with for Gen 7 only, Heavy-Duty Boots to ignore Stealth Rocks in Gen 8), ''nothing'' could have prepared players for the terror of a Volcarona that can use Terastalization. One would think that the returning Heatran would be a solid answer, as it has been for the past three generations, but Terastalization ruins that, as Volcarona can run Tera Ground or Tera Water to obliterate Heatran where it stands, while also slaughtering the similarly difficult Unaware Skeledirge. It could run Substitute for Sucker Punch, or even run Tera Ghost to blank Extreme Speed Dragonite. The average Choice Scarfers can't even reliably revenge kill it because they get outsped after Volcarona gets a Quiver Dance (which is very easy considering how many Pokémon Volcarona threatens now) it can essentially handpick its counterplay, similarly to Magearna, and as a result, in a very controversial move (many saw Zamazenta-Hero as a more pressing concern), Volcarona was banned from OU alongside Urshifu Rapid Strike. It would be unbanned after the release of the ''Indigo Disk'' DLC, however. |
| 356 | * Shadow Rider Calyrex was already strong in Ubers in Gen 8, but the addition of Terastallization, as well as the loss of Yveltal and Ho-Oh [[note]]Prior to the ''Indigo Disk'' for Ho-Oh[[/note]] made it become one of the few Pokémon to be banned from Ubers in Gen 9. Not only did it keep its fast 150 base speed, but also kept its 165 base special attack, and its ability allowed it to become more menacing every time it got a KO, so sacking other Pokémon to safely switch in a check wasn't an answer. It gained access to Tera Blast Fighting or Fairy to deal with Dark types instead of the mediocre Draining Kiss or Pollen Puff, and Psyshock could be used to deal with special walls such as Blissey/Chansey and Clodsire, making options very limited. Even Ting-Lu, one of the bulkiest Pokémon ever, got 2HKO'd by Tera Blast Fighting, as did Arceus-Dark. This meant it had no effective counters and became one of the few mons to be in Anything Goes for a standard metagame, alongside Mega Rayquaza, both forms of Zacian in Gen 8 and Arceus in Gen 4. |
| 357 | * Baxcalibur, the regional [[InfinityMinusOneSword pseudo-legendary]], begun life in Scarlet and Violet's metagame as an inferior option to the aforementioned Chien-Pao, being a physically-attacking Ice-type. However, after the ban, Baxcalibur began to shine and gain the ire of OU players. With its 145 attack (the currently fifth highest in the entire game, tied with Landorus-T and Glastrier), it could punch holes in teams, and everything else it had was nothing to laugh at either. Packed with Dragon Dance to boost its Attack and Speed, powerful physical Ice-moves in Icicle Spear and Icicle Crash, and a signature 120 BP STAB attack in Glaive Rush, it had everything it needed to set up and sweep. Any attempts to burn and neutralize it were futile, since its main ability, Thermal Exchange, made it immune to burns, and ''raising'' its already great Attack if it's damaged by any Fire-type attack. That being said, most counterplay revolved around its slower speed and its myriad of weaknesses, being part Ice and weak to the common Fairy type. The HOME update provided a great ally in G-Slowking, which was able to pivot out with Chilly Reception, giving its meaty 115/92 physical defenses a 50% boost with snow (though its special bulk of 86 was decent as well.) The straw that broke the camel's back was the release of the ''Teal Mask'' DLC, which brought two unique tools for Baxcalibur to abuse. First was the release of an ''even better'' snow setter in Alolan Ninetales, who didn't need to waste a turn to set it up thanks to Snow Warning, and could provide Aurora Veil to make Baxcalibur even tankier, not to mention Baxcalibur's Hidden Ability, Ice Body, giving it a passive healing option. The second was access to Scale Shot, which ran off of its physical attack as a STAB option, heightened its Speed upon usage in exchange for Defense (not much of a loss given the previous Aurora Veil + Snow combo), and could hit multiple times, synergizing well with the Loaded Dice[[note]] Which makes multi-hit moves like Scale Shot hit 4-5 times instead of the regular 1-5 times range.[[/note]] set that was already common with Icicle Spear. [[LightningBruiser This made Baxcalibur hit like a freight train, with the defense and speed of one too.]] Add in the ubiquitous issue of Terastalization fixing its type or making it hit even harder, and it became the first post-''Teal Mask'' ban of SV OU, with the decision being so unanimous that it took just '''ten minutes''' of deliberation, the shortest in the history of OU. |
| 358 | * Out of all Ogerpon’s masks, her Hearthflame Mask ends up generating the most heat. In addition to the masks giving a 20% power boost to all her moves coming off of her 120 attack along with a blazing 110 speed alongside Swords Dance to sharply raise Ogerpon's attack and Trailblaze to boost her speed, Ogerpon has a SecretArt in Ivy Cudgel that has 100 base power with a high critical ratio, which becomes a Fire-type move with Hearthflame Mask. However, the main aspect that makes Hearthflame Mask a dangerous powerhouse lies in Ogerpon's ability, Mold Breaker, which enables Ogerpon to ignore crucial abilities and break past Pokémon such as Heatran and Skeledirge. Furthermore, when Ogerpon terastallizes, she gains Embody Aspect as her ability, giving Ogerpon a free attack boost if she's in Hearthflame Mask. While not without weaknesses, Hearthflame Mask proved to be too difficult to handle and was quickly banned from OU. |
| 359 | * Bloodmoon Ursaluna fine-tunes Ursaluna to a notch, and removing any noticeable issues the latter has. Turning from a [[DiscardAndDraw physically-bulky physical attacker to a physically-bulky special attacker]], it has Earth Power for STAB and [[ActionInitiative Vacuum Wave]] to offset its low speed. However, it ends up being much better than the original Ursaluna for various reasons. For one, it has a SecretArt in Blood Moon, a 140 BP Normal-Type special move which has the only drawback of not being able to be selected twice in a row. Additionally, its Mind's Eye ability allows Bloodmoon Ursaluna to hit Ghost-types with its Normal- & Fighting-type moves, meaning it will maul almost everything in sight with Blood Moon and land a KO on weakened Gholdengo or Dragapult with Vacuum Wave. Regular Ursaluna's main drawback was the fact that, while it could similiarly do heavy damage, it's on a timer due to Guts Facade combined with Flame Orb being its main source of damage, which would eventually KO it, since it had no reliable recovery. Bloodmoon Ursaluna solves this issue by having a reliable recovery in Moonlight. And to top it all off, it can further boost its already terrifying Special Attack as well as patching up its mediocre Special Defense with Calm Mind. With these qualities combined, Bloodmoon Ursaluna ends up being too [[{{Pun}} unbearable]] for OU and was promptly banned from its suspect test with over 90% pro-ban votes. |
| 360 | * Roaring Moon ended up taking the metagame by storm. [[LightningBruiser With a blistering 119 Speed and 139 Attack]], it could mow down anything that wasn't prepared. Thanks to Booster Energy, this could ramp up its Speed or Attack with strong moves such as Earthquake and Acrobatics[[note]]110 power if it's not holding anything, which Booster Energy gets immediately consumed upon switching in[[/note]], STAB with Outrage, pivoting with U-turn, and strong coverage like Iron Head, it could end up being a force to be reckoned with. This was further exacerbated by Terastallization, which could mitigate its weaknesses by turning into Flying or Steel. However, Roaring Moon proves to be a terror to behold with ''Teal Mask DLC'' blessing it with Knock Off, singlehandely solving its issue of its matchup against Unaware Pokémon such as Dondozo by [[NoItemUseForYou removing its held item]] as well as being stronger than Crunch/Throat Chop. [[ConfusionFu Add on the unpredictability of its Tera type making countering it nigh-impossible]], a suspect test was held. While divisive, it ultimately led to Roaring Moon getting hit by the ban hammer, following in Gen 4 Salamence and Mega Salamence's footsteps. |
| 361 | * [[ScaryScorpions Gliscor]] was an OU metagame staple[[note]]Aside from Generation VIII, where it's inaccessible[[/note]] with its [[JackOfAllStats balanced yet great stats]] and a great typing in Ground/Flying, making it a Pokémon that could slot into many teams well. Gen V improved it further with its Hidden Ability Poison Heal, giving it a passive healing option with Toxic Orb that blocked other statuses like Paralysis. However, Gen IX is where Gliscor goes out of hand. While losing some of its old reliable moves like Defog and [[HealThyself Roost]], Gliscor receives Spikes & Toxic Spikes, making it a crucial component to Gholdengo, which could negate any attempt to remove them (short of [[CharacterSelectForcing Cinderace's Court Change or Maushold's Tidy Up]]), they become easy ways to whittle down nearly anything. And Gliscor has Knock Off to remove held items, most notably Heavy-Duty Boots that prevent the holder from being affected by entry hazards. While Gholdengo enabled Gliscor's hazard-setting strategy, it's far from the only thing the flying scorpion can pull, with Swords Dance sets just being one common set. It's easy to see why a ban with a 2/3rds majority hit the scorpion for the first time in 17 years. The ''Indigo Disk'' DLC would see Gliscor being unbanned, however. |
| 362 | * Sneasler is min-maxed to the extreme, packing an amazing 130 Attack with 120 Speed and proceeding to terrorize with its ability and movepool. Poison Touch gives it a 30% chance to inflict Poison with contact moves such as Close Combat, and Unburden doubles its speed after the usage or loss of its held item, and will proceed to outspeed everything without priority attacks. Combined with a Grassy Seed to raise its defense and Grassy Terrain set up by a frequent partner, Rillaboom, it could set up and sweep provided it gets an easy opening. Packing the aforementioned Close Combat and its SecretArt, Dire Claw has a high chance (50% to be exact) of inflicting poisoning, paralyzing, or putting an opponent to sleep, with Acrobatics, Shadow Claw, and Lash Out serving as coverage, with U-Turn as a pivot option. As well as the ubiquitous Tera Blast, it could prove to be unpredictable. Being able to outspeed and sweep, combined with its unpredictability, led to Sneasler getting a near-unanimous quickban. |
| 363 | * Archaludon, the evolution of Duraludon, has proven itself to be a tricky nuisance to face off against in Singles. Though reliant on rain, it's easily one of the best Pokémon that can abuse it, thanks to its amazing [[SecretArt signature move]], [[ShockAndAwe Electro Shot]][[labelnote:*]]A 130 base power, Electric-type special move that [[ChargedAttack charges on the first turn]] ''and'' [[StatusBuff boosts Sp. Atk by +1]], then fires on the second; under rain, the charge turn is skipped[[/labelnote]]. This move powers up its already great 125 Sp. Atk. ''and'' skips its charge turn in rain, making it very deadly. As for the Ground-types that could stomach it, Archaludon also has great special STAB options in Flash Cannon and Draco Meteor. Defensively, its Steel/Dragon typing is superb, and complementing it is a good base 90 HP and an outstanding 130 Defense stat, the latter of which is [[CastFromHitPoints boosted one stage each time it's hit]] thanks to its Ability, [[StatusBuff Stamina]]. Its access to Body Press is icing on the cake, allowing it to contest any special walls or Steel-types sent to combat it. While it has a mediocre base 65 Sp. Def., Archaludon commonly carries an Assault Vest as its held item to fix that, and its downside isn't much of a detriment seeing how Archaludon's not much of a support/defense Pokémon. The big Terastal button only worsens the deal, usually opting for Tera Fairy as a strong defensive type that changes its Fighting and Ground weaknesses into a resistance/neutrality. And sending Ground-types to defeat it will just lead to it switching out to one of its Rain-boosted Water-type teammates, making it a lose/lose situation. All of this makes it so that Archaludon's one of the biggest pains to deal with when team-building, with any counters usually forced to Tera in order to switch in easily and neutralize it. Granted, outside of Rain teams, Archaludon is more manageable, but the fact that minimal counterplay for the bridge dragon exists in comparison to the ease of letting it set up led to it being suspect tested and then banned over strong but more manageable related threats like [[GlassCannon Barraskewda]] or Rain itself. |
| 364 | * Terapagos was initially deemed as legal in OU, but it didn't remain for very long. Its Tera Shell ability allows it to resist any damaging move it takes at full health[[note]]Unlike Multiscale and Sturdy, this includes every hit from multi-strike moves as well[[/note]], giving it what is effectively a free turn (or multiple if Terapagos manages to heal to full again) to set up or do anything it wants if its opponent isn't packing a PowerNullifier like Mold Breaker ''and'' an attack powerful enough to one-shot it through its high bulk. Upon transforming into its Stellar Form by Terastallizing, its stats increase further (notably its HP is increased from 95 to a whopping ''160'') to give it a staggering BST of 700, it swaps Tera Shell for Teraform Zero that wipes all weather and terrain once per battle, and it gains its own special version of the Stellar type which gives it a 20% power bonus (100% for Normal-type moves) to ''all moves, permanently'', which combined with its broad coverage and access to Calm Mind let it wreak havoc with virtually anything. This is on top of all forms of Terapagos having Tera Starstorm, a 120-power STAB attack with no drawbacks that, if Terapagos is in its Stellar form, hits all types for neutral damage due to becoming a Stellar-type attack, on top of hitting all targets in Double Battles and any Terastallized foe for super-effective damage. Its only real let-downs are it taking up the Terastallization slot if one wants to use its full power and its average 85 base Speed; the former is of little downside considering how much havoc Stellar Form Terapagos can wreak, while the speed issue can easily be sorted with Rock Polish or Rapid Spin, the latter of which also gives it utility for clearing hazards. It wasn't surprising that it got banned from OU shortly after it was introduced, beating out Regieleki's ban (the exact timing as to how quickly it was banned is up for debate, with values ranging from twenty-seven to as low as '''''twenty-three''''' hours) and therefore giving it the current record for the fastest ban in any OU tier's history. Many question why the thing was even legal in OU in the first place, given how even a brief glance showed how overtuned it was for the tier. |
| 365 | [[/folder]] |
| 366 | |
| 367 | [[folder:Other Metas]] |
| 368 | * On Pokémon Showdown during Gen 7, one of the spin off metagames is 350 Cup, which doubles the base stats of any Pokémon below 351 base stat total as well as allowing Pokémon in the Ubers tiers. A lot of unevolved Pokémon became particularly good, but there was 2 in particular that got banned for being overpowered which was Pawniard and Rufflet[[note]]Mega Rayquaza also got banned for the same reasons as why it was sent to Anything Goes and is the only fully evolved Pokémon to be banned from the tier[[/note]]. Pawniard was noticeably [[LightningBruiser too bulky, fast and strong]] as its base 85 attack became base 170, alongside now buffed HP and defense stats to be 90/140/80 alongside a new base speed of 120. Its typing of Dark/Steel is also incredibly strong offensively and defensively, and it had priority STAB in the form of Sucker Punch, so the likes of revenge killers such as [[GlassCannon Abra]] or Staravia could still lose. In addition, Pawniard had Defiant or Swords Dance to raise its attack even higher and Z-Moves to break through certain checks. Rufflet had a similar issue of being far too fast, strong and bulky, due to its new increase in stats. It now had 166 base attack alongside 140/100/100 in the defense department giving it similar bulk to ''Giratina's Origin Forme'' and 120 base speed, meaning even the fastest of Pokémon and strongest of revenge killers were unlikely to take it out in one hit. It also had powerful attacks such as Brave Bird, Return, U-Turn, and Close Combat, giving it near unresisted coverage, alongside Sheer Force or Hustle to boost its attacks even further and it had Bulk Up to become a physically bulky monster that was hard to take down and be fast enough to defeat Pokémon that could take it out in one or two hits and also could use Z-Moves to break through checks. As such, there was no surprise that both Pawniard and Rufflet weren't allowed in tournament play for 350 Cup. |
| 369 | ** Some items notably also got banned. Light Ball made Pikachu far too strong, as it now doubled its 110 base attack and base 100 special attack, allowing Pikachu to have the highest attack stat in the game, surpassing even Cranidos's 250 base attack, and unlike Cranidos, Pikachu came at an astounding 180 base speed, compared to Cranidos's 116 base speed[[note]]Cranidos's speed tier is considered good but its not good enough to be game breaking[[/note]]. As such, it made Pikachu far too broken of a revenge killer and was banned as a result. Eviolite was also broken as it made physically defensive walls even harder to break through, allowing some Pokémon to be even more bulky then Zygarde-Complete. The Deep Sea Tooth was also too powerful as it increased Clamperl's Special Attack to astonishing levels that made it extremely broken and hard to wall, and Clamperl also had solid defenses with the increase in its stats due to the format. Finally, Extreme Evoboost was too powerful as it made Eevee a very strong sweeper with how it increased every stat by +2, allowing Eevee to be very fast, strong and bulky. |
| 370 | * In the wake of "Dexit", an alternative metagame called National Dex was introduced, which features all 1000+ mons ever released in a ''Pokémon'' game, as well as every single gimmick, including Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, Dynamax, and Terastallization all at once. Experimentation has proved that there's very good reasons most of these mechanics and Pokémon cannot coexist simultaneously. Gen IX Nat Dex Anything Goes became so horrifically unplayable and beyond all forms of uncompetitive that Smogon staff opted to delete the format from the list of common metagames entirely by removing its ladder, prompting the creation of Gen IX National Dex Ubers in its place (which is just AG but with bans). The only way to play the tier now is through challenges to other players with customized rules, as those lack a ladder by default. |
| 371 | ** The move Revival Blessing, introduced in ''Scarlet and Violet'', is the first method in the entire series of reviving your Pokémon in PVP and other competitive formats. [[NecessaryDrawback For obvious reasons, it's limited to a single PP and being stuck on the mediocre Pawmot and Rabsca]], which is the only reason it hasn't been insta-banned in Generation IX formats. In the National Dex format, though, things get ''nasty'', thanks to Assist. Assist is a move that calls a random other move known by the rest of the user's team -- but with some crucial exceptions that, if you're careful, you can use to ensure that Assist will always call whichever move you want, including Revival Blessing. Combine this with the ability Prankster, which [[ActionInitiative increases priority]] of non-damaging moves like Assist, and you can build a team with easy access to ''ninety-six'' revivals, allowing for absolutely ridiculous stalling potential. As a result of all this, Assist has been banned from the National Dex format.[[note]]Notably, while Assist is not present in ''Scarlet/Violet'', the internal flags that indicate moves that cannot be called by Assist are still present. Revival Blessing does not have this flag, but it is commonly assumed that if Assist were in the game it would not be able to call Revival Blessing; however, for the sake of integrity Showdown has opted not to implement this adjustment since it would contradict what is stated in the game data.[[/note]] |
| 372 | ** While Shedinja in most Pokémon games is a relatively weak Pokémon, in National Dex Gen IX it was sent to Anything Goes due to the combination of Terastallization and Wonder Guard. It had a variety of different Tera types that had very little counterplay, particularly Tera Ground or Tera Fairy when combined with Heavy Duty Boots[[note]]Tera Electric with Air Balloon wasn't considered very good and was shut down by much more Pokémon including Zygarde-Complete[[/note]]. Heavy Duty Boots makes it immune to Stealth Rock, Spikes and Toxic Spikes, and with a Shed Tail from Cyclizar, it could be immune to Sandstorm damage or status like Poison/Burn. With the variety of sets, it was very hard to prepare for, with the only true reliable answer being a Mold Breaker Pokémon like Zekrom, Reshiram and Black/White Kyurem or something that had moves that ignored abilities such as Sunsteel Strike or Photon Geyser, but all forms of Necrozma, and Solgaleo and Lunala are all weak to Shedinja's Ghost type STAB. Fighting Shedinja was sometimes an instant forfeit just on Team Preview if you didn't pack the correct answer, and combined with Revival Blessing + Prankster Liepard[[note]]Also called Revive Cats[[/note]], it lead to the death of National Dex Anything Goes as a ladder. |
| 373 | ** Other Pokémon in the National Dex tier have become broken. Regieleki got sent to the Ubers tier due to possessing the same strengths it always had (fastest Pokémon ever, hits hard with electric moves due to its ability Transistor), but the big issue is because of Tera Blast Ice which has allowed it to get past what previously countered it in Ground types, making it near unwallable, especially when combined with Electric Terrain support from Tapu Koko. [[note]]This same factor would later get Regieleki banned to Ubers in Scarlet/Violet proper when it was added in via HOME.[[/note]] |
| 374 | ** Shadow Rider Calyrex was quickbanned to Anything Goes in National Dex due to getting access to Tera Fairy, typically with Tera Blast to get through Dark types such as Yveltal, Chien-Pao and Kingambit, leading it to still have all of its insane power, speed and ability to get stronger everytime its get a KO, while losing all its counters that just barely kept in the Ubers tier.[[note]]When it was introduced in Scarlet/Violet through HOME, Shadow Rider Calyrex was banned to Anything Goes ''there'', too, for the exact same reasons (except in that meta, [[FromBadToWorse there was no Yveltal to try to stop it.]])[[/note]] |
| 375 | ** Miraidon, the main Legendary and Game Mascot of ''Violet'', got sent to Anything Goes in the National Dex format. This is because of its insane power, where its ability increases its special attack by 1.33x once it comes in, and sets up Electric Terrain. This effectively means it comes in with one of the highest overall special attack stats in the game[[note]]Chi-Yu with Beads of Ruin is stronger, but only slightly[[/note]], and has strong moves such as Draco Meteor, Electro Drift, which also gets powered up in Terrain and is incredibly spammable due to not having a drawback, Overheat and a pivot move in Volt Switch and like any Pokémon, it can Terastallize to make its STAB Electric/Dragon attacks even more powerful or go Tera Fire to live a Play Rough from Zacian-Crowned and shred through it with Overheat. It's also very fast at 135 base speed, and possesses a good offensive and defensive typing in Dragon/Electric and has [[LightningBruiser overall strong defenses]]. It has potential to 2HKO or OHKO almost every Pokémon in Ubers with a Choice Specs, including very bulky walls like Blissey, meaning Miraidon manages to surpass even Mega Rayquaza, Zacian (which got nerfed in Gen 9) or Shadow Rider Calyrex damage output. However, what made it uniquely broken in National Dex however was that it had access to Calm Mind + Dragonium Z to take out checks for the Choice Specs set such as Arceus-Ground, allowing it to have a way to seemingly deal with anything that could threaten it depending on what set it was running, with some very good players claiming that it may be the best Pokémon since RBY Mewtwo. |
| 376 | ** Already a powerhouse in OU, Kingambit is considered so absurd in National Dex that it was banned due to gaining two of Bisharp's old moves: Knock Off and Pursuit. It ended up being the best user of those two moves by far, as its humongous bulk allowed it to easily trap the strong Ghost and Psychic-types such as Latios, Gholdengo, and Dragapult, and its Knock Off also did significant damage to some of its counters and made progress no matter what by removing the opponent's held item. Just like in regular OU, it often caused several 50/50s because of how it was the best at Terastallization with the wide variety of Tera types it could use alongside having STAB Sucker Punch to play mindgames with, while also solving Kingambit's low speed stat. Furthermore, Kingambit has [[ComebackMechanic its Supreme Overlord ability]], boosting the power of all its moves based on the number of its fainted allies, which complements well with Kingambit's excellent 135 attack. If sent out last, Kingambit could very well solo weakened teams on its own without much support due to the combination of Supreme Overlord and Swords Dance, causing a very unhealthy metagame where one mistake could cause a Kingambit to checkmate. |
| 377 | * One of the many Pokémon Showdown alternative metagames is called Almost Any Ability, which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, as all Pokémon allowed can run any ability they wish to (besides a few universally broken ones such as Huge Power and Ice Scales), making many go from mediocre to legitimate threatening. A few mons have proven unbearable there no matter what: |
| 378 | ** Normally, Archeops is a reasonably strong Pokémon at base, but is severely hampered by one of the worst abilities ever made, Defeatist, which halves its offenses when it loses 50% or more health and thus prevents it from employing its most fearsome traits to wreak havoc beyond one or two turns. Not so much in AAA where it will inevitably never run Defeatist and instead run something else like Magic Guard to avoid Stealth Rock chip and the recoil damage of Life Orb and Head Smash so it can spam the move undeterred and unchallenged. Archeops quickly got banned upon the tier's implementation and is more or less destined to remain banned as long as the tier exists. |
| 379 | ** Noivern is a particularly infamous example, all thanks to Boomburst. Normally Boomburst would be a threatening attack albeit objectively inferior to the STAB-boosted Draco Meteor and Hurricane, which hit more things effectively. This problem goes away with Aerilate, which allows Noivern to turn its Boomburst from a reasonably strong attack into an ungodly broken one-button nuke thanks to the power boost and STAB of Aerilate, and it can boost the attack further with either Choice Specs, Life Orb or even Throat Spray to bring down would-be walls or counters trying to switch in. As a result, Noivern has more or less been quickbanned in every generation's AAA once there is any tiering actions. |
| 380 | * One of many several spin-offs off of the main Competitive metagame on Pokémon Showdown is Pure Hackmons, which allows everything that's allowed in the game, as long as you can use [=PkHex=] to obtain it, such as having all Pokémon having all moves, all potential abilities and having all [=EVs=] maxed out in everything. While this metagame has potential for all sorts of obviously broken stuff, there is one thing that tops over the rest: [[PurposefullyOverpowered Eternamax Eternatus]], the most overpowered Pokémon in ''any'' competitive format. Its stats are not just far higher than anything else in the game, [[https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/pure-hackmons.3656851/page-8#post-9035816 but so high that if you invest a positive nature into either one of its defense stats and put 240 [=EVs=] into it, the stat will overflow and become 0]], which means that the Pokémon would only take [[NighInvulnerable 1 damage per hit no matter what]], unless you get a CriticalHit which does 2. [[DamageSpongeBoss It also has 255 base HP, so its HP stat can reach a maximum of 714]] and keep in mind that the other defensive stat is also going to be so high as to make Eternamax Eternatus the bulkiest thing in history. The metagame revolves around this monster and what can possibly KO it. Any competent player would run at least two Eternamax Eternatus forms, one for special defense and the other for physical defense, giving Eternamax Eternatus [[BrokeTheRatingScale a usage rate of over 200%.]] Just to put icing on the cake, people then gave it Neutralizing Gas to turn off opposing abilities, making most strategies unusable and forcing people to rely on 30% accurate OHKO moves to take out Eternamax. This ended up causing the ''Sword'' and ''Shield'' Pure Hackmons metagame to collapse and people to abandon it. It was eventually brought back in July 2022 after popular demand and also because the ''Brilliant Diamond'' and ''Shining Pearl'' version didn't work out, but it's still considered an uncompetitive novelty. |
| 381 | * Pokémon Showdown has its own take on Metronome battling, where it is a 2v2 format with Hackmons-esque limitations with even stuff like the Pokéstar Studios opponents being allowed in the format. Because the format is highly luck based, there aren't that many bans, which proves how overcentralizing the things listed here are. |
| 382 | ** Most Pokémon banned from the format fall into one of the two blanket bans of no Pokémon with a BST over 625 or having the Steel type (due to their defensive viability being overpowered) the sole exception to this is Pokéstar Spirit, which has the same statspread as [[MasterOfAll Mew]] and is also one of only 3 Pokémon with the Ghost/Dark typing. With only a single weakness that Metronome is unlikely to select and generally being better than the already good Mega Sableye[[note]]Keep in mind this format allows Megas to run other items making it even better than it already is in standard competitive[[/note]] Pokéstar Spirit was banned before even the blanket ban on Steel-types was introduced. |
| 383 | ** Out of all the things added to ''Scarlet and Violet'' the ability Commander proved to be the most overcentralizing thing allowed into the format. While the Tatsugiri and Dondozo gimmick of boosting all of Dondozo's stats by two stages in exchange for Tatsugiri being unelectable but invincible until you faint Dondozo is fairly good in standard doubles, it becomes nigh unstoppable in a format where getting the moves to counter it is luck based. To make matters worse, Metronome lacks the ability to target a Pokémon, meaning that it is possible to attack Tatsugiri when it is invincible, and waste a turn. Even if you manage to faint Dondozo, Tatsugiri will be at full health while your Pokémon will have taken some damage. The meta devolved into this strat, and trying to counter it with Unaware, and it was quickly banned because of this. When the ability was banned Dondozo became fairly decent but nowhere near as good while Tatsugiri's viability absolutely plummeted. |
| 384 | [[/folder]] |
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