Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Website / Smogon

Go To

1[[quoteright:165:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Smogon_CoatOfArms_2020.png]]
2
3->''"Pokémon on the Internet. Let's make it happen."''
4-->--'''The website's original {{slogan}}.''' It's still unofficially used.
5
6[[http://www.smogon.com/ Smogon]] is a notable competitive ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' battling community. It provides reports for every fully-evolved and non-evolving Pokémon (as well as a few "special cases" such as Pikachu, [=Porygon2=], Scyther, and Vigoroth that differ play-wise from their evolved forms, plus some others such as Chansey and Magneton that are strong enough to be used in the lower tiers that their fully-evolved counterparts are banned from) that analyze how well they do in the site's competitive battling circuits and give moveset recommendations. ALL Pokémon, regardless of evolution status, get a description of their abilities, base stats, and the moves that they can learn. Smogon also has numerous informative articles that explain things like how Hidden Power works, how to make a good Rain Dance team, and so on.
7
8The site is the current largest influential authority in the English-speaking competitive Pokémon battle scene. Their CharacterTiers for the Pokémon are considered an excellent attempt at balancing what is a ''very'' unbalanced metagame. The tiers are also criticized and most everyone on the site admit that the tiers aren't perfect. The tier that the casual players tend to pay the most attention to is the "Uber" tier, as those Pokémon are deemed [[GameBreaker "too powerful"]] and are typically banned from standard play.[[note]]Casual player =/= {{Scrub}}. The Uber-tier Pokémon receive a lot of attention largely for being overpowered, ''not'' for being [[AwesomeButImpractical noob bait]].[[/note]] Fortunately, only a minority of Pokémon are in this tier, and they all received placement in it for one reason or another. From the looks of things, all but a couple of them were [[PurposelyOverpowered designed to be overpowered in the first place]] by Game Freak. The few that aren't (such as Wobbuffet and Gen IV Salamence and Garchomp) appear to have very good reasons for their placement... and it could be argued that certain mons (the most powerful of the psuedo-legendaries) were ''also'' made powerful on purpose. On the other hand, due to various reasons (primarily PowerCreep, bad typings and movepools), being PurposelyOverpowered does not necessarily guarantee a spot in Ubers; Celebi and Jirachi in Gen III were the first to not make it into Ubers, while Black Kyurem was the highest-profile example thanks to its horrible movepool and awkward typing[[note]]though it finally got sent to Ubers in Gen VIII thanks to Dragon Dance and Icicle Spear[[/note]].
9
10The site was founded in 2004 by one of the creators of Pokémon [=NetBattle=], then the only battle simulator with a GUI (other battle simulators were on IRC and were very hard to follow or use) and then the most popular simulator. The website was born very similarly to a marsupial: undeveloped. At the time of its launch, it only had a bare-bones Pokédex for the third generation. The site's staff spent much of 2005 building up the site. They gave it a revamp when they finished.
11
12Smogon then spent much of 2006 and 2007 on hiatus because they outgrew their servers. The site was relaunched in 2007 as what you see today. Along with the revamping came a name change to "Smogon University" and a slogan change from "Pokémon on the Internet; let's make it happen!" to "[[PretentiousLatinMotto ''Nil Sine'' Pokémon]]"[[note]]"Nothing without Pokémon"[[/note]].
13
14It's unknown why this site is seen as an authority. One reason might be because the founder was one of the creators of [=NetBattle=]. Obviously, in order to create that simulator, they had to do a lot of ROM hacking to see how the Pokémon games worked. The site also claims that many of its staffers have been playing and/or hacking Pokémon since the days of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Red and Blue]]''. Another more likely reason is that the site's staffers simply work ''really'' hard in analyzing the game and its mechanics.
15
16Smogon does the vast majority of its work on battle simulators, with the subsequent analysis fitting more with those simulators than the actual game. This is easily [[JustifiedTrope justified]], though, as it's an extremely hard (not to mention [[LevelGrinding tedious]]) task to manually raise Pokémon to Level 100 in the actual games, especially because some mechanics, such as individual values ([=IVs=]), are mostly beyond the Trainer's control. Also, some things in the game, such as [=TMs=] being [[TooAwesomeToUse one-time use]] in the games until Generation V, or certain moves on certain Pokémon that are only available from Nintendo held events just make it a pain in the neck to make a good team in-game.
17
18Smogon determines which tiers the Pokémon go into by tracking usage statistics on battle simulators. The Uber and Borderline tiers are ban lists for Pokémon too powerful in the Overused tier and too powerful for each tier below OU, with every tier from Underused to PU housing a Borderline tier of its own. What they consider "too powerful" is typically determined via peer review, polling, and analysis of statistics. Anything Goes is a last-ditch tier that throws all rules out the window [[note]]save for Endless Battle Clause, and that's because Funbro and similar sets have no value beyond pissing people off and inviting ragequits[[/note]] and is the final stop for anything that is so stupidly overpowered or toxic that it ruins Ubers; the format was created for Mega Rayquaza after Mega Gengar narrowly avoided its own ban from Ubers and so far, only a select few Pokémon have ever resided in the tier[[note]]Arceus in Generation IV, Mega Rayquaza in Generations VI and VII, both forms of Zacian in Generation VIII and both Shadow Rider Calyrex and Miraidon (in National Dex only) in Generation IX.[[/note]].
19
20Smogon also has a side project known as ''VideoGame/CreateAPokemon'', which attempts to create Pokémon that have specific roles in the metagame. Eleven were created for [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Generation IV]]. The CAP process was then suspended until the ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' metagame stabilized. A popular spinoff, [[Roleplay/PokemonBattleByPost Pokémon Battle-By-Post (BBP)]], was formed to keep the forum alive in the meantime. A new Create-A-Pokémon project for Generation V began in February 2011 and, like the games themselves, restarted the numbering system at one. In addition, a new portion of the process was dedicated to creating a pre-evolution for the CAP. All [=CAPs=] so far can be found [[Characters/CreateAPokemon here]].
21
22[=NetBattle=] was Smogon's official simulator until it was shut down in 2006. In 2008, they adopted a new program called [=ShoddyBattle=]. In April 2009, Smogon and [=ShoddyBattle=] merged. However, in 2010, after a decidedly late entrance and subsequent cutting of ties from Smogon, Shoddy Battle's successor, Pokémon Lab, was generally disowned by Smogon. Meanwhile, Pokémon Online, a simulator formerly known for being {{Scrub}} territory on Smogon, not only had working Generation IV, but also the only working Generation V in existence, as well as a far more active developer. Smogon created a server on the program, officially supporting Pokémon Online until the recent adoption of a new simulator, Pokémon Showdown!, which is being actively developed by one of their users.
23
24They have an IRC channel on synirc (currently #[=smogon=]), and a monthly([[ScheduleSlip ish]]) podcast. Their simulator can be found [[http://play.pokemonshowdown.com/ here]] and the damage calculator they use can be found [[http://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/ here]].
25
26[[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Smogon Bulbapedia also has an article on Smogon.]]
27
28----
29[[foldercontrol]]
30
31[[folder:Metagame-related tropes]]
32* AllYourPowersCombined: The premise of Shared Power. When a Pokémon switches in, their ability is shared with the rest of their team.
33* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Their simulator has a ton of features harder to gauge in actual games to make battling more convenient.
34** First of all, the simulator itself is one, since it cuts out hours of tedious breeding, soft-resetting, RNG abuse, Pokémon catching and LevelGrinding — ultimately just letting you battle. This also makes it an ideal place to test out potential builds and competitive strategies to see if they're worth replicating in the games for official tournaments.
35** Your opponent's team is always visible on a sidebar in the Battle Screen, and scrolling over the icons will show their HP value and if said Pokémon is still conscious. You'd be able to figure this information out in the games by paying attention, but it's easy to forget.
36** Scrolling over a Pokémon's sprite/model will tell you their possible abilities, typing, and stat range.
37** The [[HouseRules clauses]] are listed at the top of the chat at the beginning of each match.
38** The amount of damage received is always announced in the chat, but is listed as percentages. [[note]]This is technically a GameMod.[[/note]]
39** The chat keeps track of turn order, the number of turns that have passed, what moves have been used, and the aforementioned damage percentages.
40** The simulator keeps track of things that players had to memorize while playing the regular ''Pokémon'' games. The main Pokémon games eventually got a similar feature in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon''.
41*** The Battle Screen shows the {{Status Buff}}s (or debuffs) a Pokémon has and their exact boosts.
42*** Effects such as Destiny Bond, Bide, etc. will show whether they are still active or not.
43*** Weather, Light Screen, Reflect, terrain, and other field effects have a turn counter. For weather, terrain, and Light Screen/Reflect, it gives 2 counters (listed as "x or y turns left") since the opponent could possibly be holding the items that extend the effect time.
44*** Stealth Rock, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and Sticky Web have their own graphics to tell you that they're active.
45** When selecting moves for your Pokémon in the Teambuilder, you can choose what type you want Hidden Power to be and the simulator will adjust the [=IVs=] accordingly. If you chose a Hidden Power with this method, the move selection screen will always display what type it is as part of the name (for example, "Hidden Power Fire").
46** You can quickly look up data about a Pokémon's stats or information about moves, abilities, or items in the chat using a command (/data [Pokémon/move/ability/item name]). Useful if you don't want to/can't [[WikiWalk tab out]] to look them up.
47** The simulator will warn players if the opposing Pokémon may have a trapping Ability that locks in otherwise free switches.
48** You can cancel your move choice if your opponent hasn't finished, with the exception of circumstances where doing so would give you an unfair advantage of knowing what your opponent has (such as your opponent's Pokémon possibly having a trapping ability.)
49** The teambuilder has a section for recommended moves, links to pertinent Smogon analyses, and automatically suggests stat spreads depending on the moveset for convenient access to competitive sets.
50** Replays can be uploaded or downloaded, and the replay viewer lets you switch Pokémon Trainer viewing perspectives.
51** The Endless Battle Clause exists to prevent setups like Funbro that have no actual strategic value and exist solely to create {{Unwinnable}} situations and provoke a RageQuit. It's quite telling that even in Anything Goes, the Endless Battle Clause still exists.
52** In Generation 3 Deoxys's forms were based on what game they were in and they all had the same sprite, because of this Generation 3 formats have the Deoxys Camouflage Clause, which reveals which form the Deoxys is before the battle starts. This is meant to be like the player telling their opponent what form their Deoxys is.
53*** The Generation 9 Hackmons Formats would later take this clause to its extreme when it was revealed that just about every Pokémon that wasn't in that generation was still able to be hacked in and used in battle albeit with Pikachu sprites. Since the "Pikachu" could be one of hundreds of Pokémon, this fact about the sprites would be ignored as if the player told the opponent what all of their "Pikachus" were.
54* AprilFoolsDay:
55** Every April 1st on Pokémon Showdown, the standard sprites and models are replaced with [[StylisticSuck poorly-done drawings]] of them, [[ShoutOut references]], or inside jokes about what they do in competitive. A full list can be found [[https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/afd/ here]]. Additionally, some moves, such as Earthquake (which [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou shakes the whole screen when used]]) have additional visual effects.[[note]]The sprites can be viewed on any other day by typing the command /afd into the chat box. To turn them off, type /afd off[[/note]]
56** For April Fool's 2020, Pokémon Showdown became Franchise/{{Digimon}} Showdown, and added special randomized ladders featuring Digimon in the place of Pokémon. Said ladders were kept for about a week after April Fool's.
57** During April Fool's 2016, the Battle Spot forum held a "[[https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/np-battle-spot-singles-suspect-process-round-1-mama-said-knock-you-out.3568819/ suspect test]]" for Mega Kangaskhan, seeking to ban the Pokémon from the Battle Spot ladder on Showdown. Given that Battle Spot was a metagame managed by Game Freak, the so-called suspect test was a joke. However, some members did indeed [[PoesLaw believe that Smogon actually wanted to ban Pokémon from official metagames]].
58** April Fools 2021 was a goldmine of ridiculous, obvious joke suspect tests.
59*** OU unbanned Zacian-Crowned, which proceeded to immediately wreck havoc across the metagame.
60*** UU unbanned Tyranitar and Excadrill, as if trying to bring back a rehash of Gen V's metagame.
61*** RU unbanned Dynamax, something banned from ''Ubers''. Metagross teams immediately popped up to abuse this.
62*** NU banned Ninjask (in reference to another Smogon meme related to Ninjask in NU) and all Ice-types in the tier. Funnily enough, most of the Ice-types in NU were banned or made unviable down the line.
63*** PU unbanned Indeedee-F and banned Team Preview.
64*** ZU unbanned Magmortar and banned Heavy-Duty-Boots.
65*** National Dex OU banned Sablenite, Chansey, and Toxapex. [[labelnote:Explanation]] These are key components of National Dex OU stall teams.[[/labelnote]]
66*** The staff of the Anything Goes ladder released a fake post about [[PurposefullyOverpowered Eternamax Eternatus]] being released in a ''Sword and Shield'' event but due to "confusion" about whether or not the form would be a permanent form change or a temporary one like Dynamax it was only allowed to be used in a separate version of the ladder[[note]] Smogon only allows Pokémon to be used after they are officially obtainable on the console, so if this wasn't an April Fools Joke the confusions would have been cleared up before Eternamax Eternatus was playable on ladder.[[/note]] Just like in Pure Hackmons the meta for that separate ladder was Eternamax Eternatus and the few Pokémon that were able to take it down.
67*** National Dex UU unranked every single Pokémon that wasn't a monkey Pokémon and only ranked the aforementioned Monkey Pokémon.
68*** Finally, a new gamemode was unveiled known as "Just another Random Battle" which turned out to be a 4-player random battle, with all 4 players given Pokémon with doubles movesets. Became an AscendedMeme in the form of the new Free-For-All Random Battle and Free-For-All gamemodes.
69** On April 1st, 2023, the site announced that it would be suspect testing the Species Clause in [=OverUsed=] under the testing prefix "OUWU", allowing players to play OU with multiple copies of the same Pokémon for the day.
70* TheArtifact:
71** For a very long time, Gen III Underused was the only metagame to forbid {{mons}} that were not yet fully evolved ([[ObviousRulePatch except Scyther]]). This restriction had been implemented because it was the first time constructing an Underused metagame ever, and there was fear of UU becoming "OU lite", with people just taking the fully-evolved mons from OU and using their previous evolution instead. Ultimately, time showed that lower tier metagames didn't actually work like that, and no future gen would get such a restriction. This clause lasted until 2022, mainly because by the time people started questioning it, the Gen III metagame was very old and not active enough to merit the necessary evaluation.
72** Dugtrio and Venusaur in BW; the respective bans of Arena Trap and Chlorophyll + Drought after the generation officially ended rendered the once extremely threatening Pokémon to near uselessness. However, due to Smogon choosing not to revisit their tiering, they dubiously remain tiered in OU with their analyses being updated to note that they are trapped in tiers they no longer belong in.
73* AscendedExtra: PU (according to Smogon, the "PU" abbreviation officially doesn't stand for anything, although one could interpret it as ToiletHumor) was once an unofficial metagame for the worst of the worst Never-Used (NU) Pokémon (such as Arbok and Parasect), but has been turned into an official tier by popular demand. The "ZU" format (formerly named "FU") has since taken PU's place as the unofficial lowest tier.
74* AttackAttackAttack:
75** Pokémon holding a Choice item or an Assault Vest are forced to to this, as the first lock you into the first move you use in exchange for a buff to your Attack, Special Attack or Speed and the latter buffs Special Defense but makes them unable to use non-damaging moves.
76** The move Taunt prevents the target from using non-damaging moves.
77* AttackBackfire: Commonly [[InvokedTrope invoked]] with Pokémon that have these abilities; one popular application in Generation IV was to switch Gyarados out for an Electivire that could take the incoming Electric-type attack and gain a speed boost.
78** Explosion and Self-Destruct (before the Gen V {{nerf}}) were extremely powerful moves that also halved defense, near guaranteeing to kill anything that wasn't resistant (and some Pokémon that ''were'') at the cost of fainting your Pokémon. However, trying to explode on a [[NoSell Ghost-Type]] (commonly Gengar) or a substitute, meant that your opponent gained free advantage, making it a severe risk one must watch out for.
79* AwesomeButImpractical: Many Pokémon fall into this trope due to a number of reasons, but these are the most notable ones:
80** Scolipede's Hidden Ability in Generation V is Quick Feet, which increases its speed by 50% if it has a status effect. However, the only two status effects that can be reliably self-inflicted without need for reapplication are poison and burns; being a Poison-type, Scolipede cannot be poisoned and being burned halves its Attack, meaning that, while it can outrun just about anything, it'll be hitting like a feather duster. The ability was changed to the far superior Speed Boost in the following generation.
81** Many Legendary Pokémon tend to show up in the lower tiers. Articuno and Regice get this the worst; although both were initially able to pack a punch in their own respective metagames (Articuno with a 90% accurate Blizzard in a generation where a lucky freeze was equal to death and Regice in a generation before the physical/special split), they both lost viability over time, especially in the transition to the fourth generation as a result of growing power creep in addition to the ever-present Stealth Rock.
82** Kecleon is pretty much the definition of this trope (except [[QuirkyBard with "awesome" replaced with "entertaining"]]). Kecleon's original ability, Color Change, caused it to change into the type of the attack of the move that hit it, which had some uses but was also an AchillesHeel because of how easy it was to exploit with Pokémon that had great coverage options. Fast forward to Generation VI and Kecleon gets a new ability that's much, much better in the form of Protean.
83** Rampardos is a Pokémon that looks like it'd be too strong on paper. With a devastating 165 base attack, as well as access to an assortment of options such as Head Smash, Zen Headbutt, Iron Head, Crunch and even Swords Dance, on top of 2 good abilities in Mold Breaker and Sheer Force, which most of the aforementioned moves are boosted by, it's going to dent pretty much anything it hits, if not KO it. Its problem? It has a pathetically low base speed of 58 (only 8 more than Chansey, the Pokémon designed to be a StoneWall) and due to its typing and generally poor bulk, it can't take a hit well either, making it incredibly difficult to do anything with.
84** Absol has a wide movepool. Unfortunately, Absol's Special Attack is rather mediocre, which is a let-down considering that Absol learns a wide variety of special attacks. Mega Absol fixes most of these problems by gaining a fantastic Ability, as well as vastly-improved Special Attack and Speed — its defenses were not altered, though.
85** Tyrantrum learns Head Smash, one of the most powerful moves in the game, which it even gets STAB on and can negate the recoil via its Hidden Ability of Rock Head. While the thought of a draconic ''T. rex'' abusing a 150 base power STAB move sounds incredibly badass, Rock/Dragon as a defensive typing ''really'' takes the wind out of its sail. Ice, Fighting, Fairy, Dragon, and Ground are very common attacking types and any Pokémon worth their salt that have these moves will likely also outspeed and OHKO Tyrantrum. It doesn't help that Steel-types, resisting both Rock and Dragon and dealing super-effective damage to Rock, were given an offensive buff this generation.
86** Xurkitree has an absolutely horrifying Special Attack stat plus Tail Glow, which raises it to truly obscene levels, and [[KillStreak Beast Boost]] will raise it even more with each kill. Unfortunately, that's literally all it has, as the rest of its stats are thoroughly mediocre at best, and there is literally no way for Beast Boost to boost anything other than Special Attack due to its stat distribution, preventing MinMaxing to help boost its Speed instead. The end result is a slow, fragile and predictable Pokémon that can reduce things to ash but probably won't get to do so; while it can be very effective with proper setup, general consensus is that there are plenty of less extreme but more dependable special wallbreakers out there that won't crumple from a single STAB Earthquake or Earth Power.
87** Possibly the most extreme example of this trope is Machamp when used in National Dex Anything Goes, where he can make use of the No Guard Fissure combination. While No Guard always allows the move Fissure to kill the opponent in one hit so long as they aren't a Flying type or have the abilities Levitate or Sturdy, Machamp is too slow (his speed stat is 55, which is even less than the previously mentioned Rampardos) and he doesn't have enough bulk to get a reliable chance to exploit the combo.
88** Hisuian Ursaluna eventually proved to be this. Yes, it's a horrifically powerful wallbreaker that can delete almost anything that isn't a Ghost-type or a 4x resist with a Guts-boosted Facade, while also being insanely bulky and having plenty of options to deal with its checks. Unfortunately, it's also way too reliant on support, it's quite slow, it needs Flame Orb to be effective (preventing it from running other items), and, most importantly, it's really not all that durable due to its reliance on Flame Orb and lack of reliable recovery. The result is a Pokemon that can splatter almost any wall it's tasked with destroying, but will then probably get revenge killed right after. Ursaluna is not bad by any means, but the general consensus is that it generally isn't useful enough to justify the amount of backup it needs. On the other hand, Bloodmoon Ursaluna was another case entirely, getting banned to Ubers.
89* BaitAndSwitch: Literally! Double Switching is a tactic that involves switching in a Pokémon, then immediately switching it out with the hope that your opponent just sent out that Pokémon's counter, forcing it to deal with ''its'' counter you just sent out. Best used when the Pokémon you're trying to bait out is weak to Pursuit, since you can force a HeadsIWinTailsYouLose[=/=]MortonsFork situation by trapping it.
90* BatmanGambit: Some sets have moves that are meant to hit Mons that would likely switch in to wall you, such as Earthquake on Latios to lure out and hit Heatran.
91* BashBrothers:
92** They're called "Cores", which are made up of Pokémon that have great synergy with each other by covering up each other's weaknesses.
93** In the early sixth generation, Deoxys Defense Form and Bisharp worked extremely well together. Once Deoxys sets up entry hazards, the opponent is pressured to use Defog, which can then be absorbed by Bisharp to double its Attack and sweep the opposition. Then Deoxys Defense form was banned back to Ubers.
94* BeenThereShapedHistory: Might be the case with ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield''. Smogon actually banned the Moody Ability from the Pokémon battles it sanctioned because it modified accuracy and evasion. For the Generation VIII games, Game Freak {{nerf}}ed Moody so it no longer included evasion and accuracy in the values it modified. Smogon unbanned Moody at the beginning of Generation VIII, but re-banned it when it was clear that Glalie was still too much to handle.
95* BoringButPractical:
96** Scolipede is used to lead [[MinMaxing Baton Pass]] chains; it acquires speed while other members obtain other boosts required to allow one member to sweep. Such teams are hard to break without very specific moves or a great deal of luck. This tactic was later disallowed for that reason.
97** Chansey, paired with a Pokémon that can take strong physical attacks and save it from Knock Off, can spread its health around with Wish and remove status from its teammates, undoing turns of effort with a single move.
98** Lugia in a nutshell. It has a decent offensive movepool and stats and sometimes does run an offensive move or two to cover common threats, but its real strength is as a wall. With its monstrous bulk (even without Multiscale), Speed that exceeds many dedicated offensive Pokémon, access to reliable recovery moves, and access to Whirlwind and Dragon Tail to ruin the plans of anything requiring setup, there is a reason why Lugia was considered the best wall in the game. However, general PowerCreep and the increased difficulty of keeping Multiscale up caused it to become less practical in later generations.
99** [[NoItemUseForYou Knock Off]] played this especially straight in Generations III-V, as it was a 20 power move that removed the item of the target. While pitifully weak, making sure that something was losing their passive (and in many cases, their only) recovery in Leftovers[[note]]Exacerbated by the fact that these were the generations where sandstorms set by the Sand Stream ability (and to a lesser extent, Snow Warning's effect) were permanent unless removed, putting the enemy on a timer[[/note]] or removing the speed/power granted by the Choice items was an effective strategy and a viable use of a moveslot. Starting from Gen VI, it was buffed to 65 Power, and had a 1.5x power multiplier added to opponents with items on top of its existing effect, making it less this trope and moreso SimpleYetAwesome in the hands of physical Dark-types such as Bisharp and Weavile, as well as Fighting types, who appreciated a way to hit Ghosts and Psychics who would wall them otherwise[[note]]The introduction of more crucial items such as Heavy-Duty Boots and the buffed pinch berries exacerbates this[[/note]]. Even so, on less offensive mons[[note]]or mons with low Attack stats like Alakazam and Reuniclus[[/note]] who learn the move like Ferrothorn and Toxapex, the trope is still played straight, since it's slapped onto their moveset moreso for the item removal.
100** In Doubles, there's Protect and its variants. While all it does is block almost any move that would hit the Pokémon on that turn, the Pokémon avoids being double-targeted and may allow its partner to land a free attack, making Protect the most important move in Doubles.
101** In Gen IX Ubers, Ribombee is one of the most used Pokémon in the tier solely for the fact that it is the best Sticky Webs user. Because differences in speed tiers flattens significantly the higher you get to the top of usable Pokémon, being able to halve your opponent's Speed without any additional effort required beyond the first turn is invaluable for getting a massive advantage over your opponent. This is compounded by the fact that the available Pokémon in Paldea severely lack decent hazard removal, meaning that once Sticky Webs goes up it is unlikely for it to go away. This is also the case for the unofficial tier "Ubers UU", where Masquerain is used instead because Ribombee is banned, and Ribombee's pre-evolution Cutiefly is used explicitly to check Masquerain due to its superior speed and access to Imprison, preventing the latter from getting up webs to begin with.
102* BlessedWithSuck:
103** Avalugg may be an excellent tank in theory, but having the worst single defensive type in the game makes it underwhelming.
104** In spite of fantastic stats and offenses that any sweeper would kill for, both Kyurem and Black Kyurem lack both the speed and the movepool necessary to take advantage of those properly. It is notable that Black Kyurem has the highest base stat total of any Pokémon in the Overused (OU) tier,[[note]]The Mega Evolutions of Diancie, Tyranitar, Garchomp, Latios and Latias all have a base stat total that tied with Black Kyurem, but all of them required holding a Mega Stone to use so Black Kyurem is technically higher.[[/note]] but still does not find itself banned; its normal form meanwhile had descended well into Underused by now. Black Kyurem was finally deemed strong enough to enter Ubers in Generation VIII, thanks to gaining access to Dragon Dance and Icicle Spear. Base Kyurem would eventually join it since the addition of Freeze-Dry and the item Heavy Duty Boots allowed it to also be too strong for OU.
105** Mega Rayquaza is even more ludicrous than Kyurem. It was so strong, it had to be ''banned from Ubers.''
106** Has on rare occasion become a problem for Pokémon with PopularityPower that far outstrips their actual usability, due to it landing them in a tier where they're thoroughly useless, whereas they could compete better if they were used a little less and allowed to drop down.
107** Pokémon that are so powerful for their official tier that they have to be banned from it. Oftentimes, Pokémon who suffer this fate can't compete well in the tier above that, and thus end up not being used at all.
108** Speaking of Pokémon unable to compete in lower tiers, Mega Garchomp has an absurd base stat total of 700 with a base attack of 170, but it is still outclassed by normal Garchomp due to Mega Garchomp losing 10 base speed and access to an item as well as preventing the use of a better mega. It can't officially drop to UU either, since Normal Garchomp would have to be used there to Mega Evolve, therefore Mega Garchomp is the only Pokémon listed as "OU by technicality."
109* BrokeTheRatingScale: For six gens, Ubers was never technically an official tier, simply a banlist of Pokémon too broken for regular play. This changed after the introduction of Mega Rayquaza, a Pokémon too broken for even Ubers. This led to Ubers becoming an official tier and Mega Rayquaza being banned to "Anything Goes", which also has none of the standard clauses like Sleep and Evasion clause.[[note]]Mega Gengar ''very'' nearly beat it to the punch, but didn't quite manage.[[/note]]
110* ClosestThingWeGot:
111** Hidden Power is used by special attackers to cover up holes in their coverage or hit specific targets.
112** Lower tiers occasionally use the pre-evolutions of high tier Pokémon to fulfill similar jobs. For example, in Generation VI, Fletchinder is the RU tier's version of OU's Talonflame, using priority Flying attacks to revenge kill targets.
113** Whenever a specific Pokémon gets banned from a tier, sometimes people will try to make their pre-evolved form work by using Eviolite to shore up its inevitable bulk problems.
114** Some Pokémon sets will run moves you'd never expect because nothing else they have equals the niche they provide, such as Choice Band Flygon sets occasionally running Gust in Gen 3(to deal with Breloom and Heracross that otherwise take their options just fine), or Landorus running Fly so it can have a high-powered STAB Supersonic Skystrike with a Z-Crystal in Generation 7.
115* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: A Pokémon's usage (which is kept track of on their simulator) determines what tier they end up in, barring it getting banned from a lower tier to one of the Borderline lists. [[invoked]]
116* ConfusionFu:
117** Thanks to their movepools and stats, Pokémon such as Aegislash and Black Kyurem could possibly be running physical sets, special sets, or even defensive sets! And those are only the ''most'' notable examples in the metagame.
118** Charizard's Mega Evolutions have extremely different checks and counters (though M-Altaria and some Gyarados can wall both). Although the item it runs can be guessed with a certain degree of accuracy, determining which one it is with absolute certainty is seldom easy until it reveals itself.
119** Fake Stall, a somewhat rare team archetype, is this at its core. It consists of typical Stall Pokémon like Ferrothorn, Corviknight, and Toxapex with an offensive moveset.
120* CripplingOverspecialization:
121** {{Enforced|Trope}} by the Monotype ruleset. Players have to build a team where every Pokémon shares a single type (dual-type Pokémon are allowed, so you can use stuff like the Dragon/Ground-type Garchomp and Ground/Steel-type Excadrill together on a Ground team) and try to battle with them. Because everything shares a single type, there's a high chance that you'll lose against teams comprised of a type yours is weak against.
122** This is also how "overcentralization" is defined. If a certain Pokémon or strategy is so overwhelmingly effective that multiple slots or entire teams have to be devoted to dealing with it (to the detriment of their effectiveness as a whole), ''especially'' if it forces people to use [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman very obscure and narrowly-tailored Pokémon and strategies]] [[HighlySpecificCounterplay that just happen to counter it]] but are more or less completely useless otherwise (as opposed to just niche), a strong case for a suspect test can be made.
123** Any Pokémon that is strong because of one specific strategy or option will naturally suffer if that strategy gets banned or removed. DPP Ninjask had it especially rough in this regard, as its movepool, stats and Ability are tailor-made for Baton Pass chains and is highly effective...but when Baton Pass was banned, it found itself stuck in OU without any other niche to fall back on, making it one of the worst Mons in the tier. Dugtrio and Wobbuffet are similarly useless without their trapping Abilities.
124* CursedWithAwesome: A Pokémon being relegated to a low tier could arguably be seen as this, as it gives them an opportunity to be a NormalFishInATinyPond, and thus be a feared threat that they never could be with higher-tier Pokémon around.
125* ADayInTheLimelight: The main thing that separates their CharacterTiers system from others; each tier is set up so that the Pokémon in higher tiers cannot participate, giving the lower-tier Pokémon an environment they can shine in. Later generations add more lower tiers to fit the larger amounts of Pokémon, so every Pokémon (save the truly awful ones) gets a chance to prove its worth. The unofficial tier DNU (Do Not Use) takes this to its logical conclusion, giving {{Joke Character}}s like Unown and Luvdisc alongside terrible first-forms like Zubat and Togepi a place where they can be useful.
126* DidntSeeThatComing: Using Pokémon from the Rarely-Used (RU) or Never-Used (NU) tier can catch foes off-guard in the Over-Used (OU) tier, as they might not follow what Pokémon from those tiers run for their sets as closely and sometimes have little to no idea on how to counter them. The same goes for using common Pokémon in a certain tier, but with an unusual moveset. These kinds of movesets are referred to as "lures".
127* DifficultButAwesome:
128** By holding any Choice item, the Pokémon gets a permanent 50% boost to their Attack (Choice Band), Special Attack (Choice Specs), or Speed (Choice Scarf), but this only allows them to use the first move that was selected until they switch out. Despite this drawback, these items are common in competitive, as Band and Specs are usually given to Pokémon to [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown supplement their ability to hit the opponent harder]], while the Choice Scarf enables the holder to outspeed many foes that they otherwise couldn't.
129** A few Pokémon fall into this category. One famous example is Volcarona: it can be difficult to fit Volcarona into a team, plus entry hazards are the bane of its existence, but it also happens to be one of the best Quiver Dance users with its amazing stats and fantastic coverage. With the right support, Volcarona can be a terrifying juggernaut after pulling off several Quiver Dances.
130** In order to transform into Ash-Greninja, a Greninja with Battle Bond must KO a Pokémon by itself. This is actually difficult in practice, since it lacks versatility when compared to a Greninja with Protean and is forced to rely on STAB moves. But once it does become Ash-Greninja, it is rewarded with higher offensive stats and a slight boost to Greninja's speed and Water Shuriken now always strikes 3 times and has 20 Power.
131* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
132** The [[LuckBasedMission Random Battle]] ladder had this in its inception, allowing almost all unevolved Pokémon and a relatively higher chance of underwhelming sets, but the following years have reduced the number of nonviable Pokémon in the pool and attempted to tweak set generation to make it easier to get better sets, partly thanks to community feedback.
133** In RBY, GSC, and ADV, Pokémon are ranked and tiered based on their judged viability, not usage. DPP saw the shift to the modern usage-based tiering system, with BW later weighting the usage towards higher ladder ratings to prevent {{troll}}s from getting Pokémon into a higher tier by themselves. GSC and ADV also have enormous UUBL tiers, due to them having been carried over from when Pokémon were sorted into three categories of "Standard", "Borderline Standard" [[note]]which back then meant anything that was on the fringe of viability[[/note]], and "Not Standard".
134* EliteTweak: Almost as prominent as MinMaxing. While it is true that most mons largely want to invest their EV in relevant stats, depending on the Pokémon you can also add a certain number of speed EV to outspeed a relevant target and OHKO/2HKO on the switch-in before it can do anything, a number of defense EV to avoid a OHKO/2HKO, or a number of attack EV to guarantee a kill on a lured target. A notable example is Stakataka — while it has a whopping 211 Defense, it's possible to make it increase its Attack stat with Beast Boost if Stakataka has two things: a Defense IV of 15 or less[[note]]at Level 100. The same can be applied at Level 50 with a Defense IV of 17 or less[[/note]], and a Lonely nature[[labelnote:*]]+Attack, -Defense[[/labelnote]]. Even with losing some of its physical bulk, Stakataka can still survive from most attacks as long as they don't deal super-effective damage to it and it can now potentially snowball off of [=KOs=] and steamroll the enemy team in Trick Room.
135* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The Anything Goes tier. You can use any Pokémon you would like, and all clauses are lifted (except for the "Endless Battle" clause).
136* ForegoneConclusion: Quickbans are based around this concept, as they are generally given to Pokémon that are far too overcentralizing and would easily be banned if they were voted on in a suspect test.
137* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Happens fairly often with Legendary and Mythical Pokémon, especially older ones. Articuno is a classic example: Articuno is potrayed as a powerful Ice-type Pokémon of near godlike power. Competitively, Articuno suffers from a horrible typing, anemic movepool, and aggressively average offensive stats and Speed have consistently forced it further down the tiers with each new gen.
138* GoYeHeroesGoAndDie: Suicide Leads in a nutshell. Their job is to set up an entry hazard and faint as soon as possible to allow the next Mon (oftentimes a GlassCannon) a free switch-in.
139* HouseRules: Enforced by the simulator for the most part, though there's still the option to play by the original rules if you want (or make up your own in a Custom Battle).
140** Unlike the official battle format, there is no Item clause, thus allowing more than two Pokémon to hold the same items.
141** The Sleep Clause prevents players from putting more than one of the opponent's Pokémon to sleep at a time. While this clause has existed since Gen I (and was even invented by Game Freak), it became even more important in Gen V because the mechanics for sleep were changed. Gen V made it so the sleep counter is reset when the sleeping Pokémon is switched out, which means players could theoretically put their opponent to sleep, force them to switch with Whirlwind or Roar, and repeat the process until every one of the opponent's Pokémon are asleep. The player could then use entry hazards and Whirlwind or Roar to slowly beat the opponent to death without them being able to retaliate. Not applied to Doubles as of Gen VI due to not being as easy to abuse.
142** The OHKO Clause prevents the use of OneHitKill attacks like Sheer Cold.
143** The Evasion Clause prevents players from using moves and some abilities that intentionally raise evasion, as the stat increases how much luck influences the match. Ubers did not have this clause enforced until a policy revision after the release of ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire''.
144** The Endless Battle Clause prevents people from using certain moveset and item combinations that create {{Unwinnable}} situations that can be infinitely prolonged until someone disconnects. Because this strategy is used purely to {{troll}} and piss people off and invite {{Rage Quit}}s, it is the ''only'' clause that Anything Goes kept. The clause was eventually revamped to very specifically stop players ''causing'' endless battles in a way that avoids possibly catching legitimate builds.[[note]]Healing an enemy Mon or using a berry multiple times makes the affected Mon "stale", and if, after 100 turns, all Mons on the field are "stale" and at least one player has no ability to switch to one that isn't, the player with the ability to cause this situation loses (or if both of them could, it's a tie).[[/note]] None of this is that much an issue in the official battle format, as there's always a timer for multiplayer battles.
145** The Swagger Clause prevents use of the move Swagger. This clause came about because of Klefki abusing priority Swagger and Thunder Wave, combined with Foul Play, to wreck pretty much '''everything''' unless the RandomNumberGod felt like [[LuckBasedMission actually allowing its opponent to attack]]. The ban is lifted in Generation VII OU because confusion was nerfed, Misty Surge prevents status, Psychic Surge blocks priority moves, as well as Dark-types now being unaffected by Prankster. However, Swagger got banned in Gen 7 Doubles OU again as Tapu Fini supports its teammate by sharply raising their attack stat with Swagger, then the release of Marshadow landed the final nail in the coffin.
146** The Baton Pass Clause limits the player to one user of the move Baton Pass on each team. This clause came about in Generation VI due to the discovery of several overly-powerful team combinations that required multiple users of the move, and shutting it down being something of a crapshoot (requiring Haze or a SwitchOutMove to pull off). Generation VII straight-up bans the move Baton Pass altogether, even in Ubers.
147** Some Pokémon that are banned in Nintendo/Game Freak-sanctioned tournaments (such as [[MasterOfAll Mew and most of its clones]] and Black Kyurem) are legal to use in the simulator's standard matches and tournaments, due to the community viewing them as AwesomeButImpractical. Inversely, some Pokémon considered tournament-legal by Nintendo are banned due to the differences between the formats making certain threats more powerful (like Mega Kangaskhan in Singles).
148* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: As a result of PowerCreep or sometimes changes in mechanics, very often a top tier in a previous generation(s) will slowly fall down the tiering rung into lower and lower tiers, such as Tauros from Gen 1 to every subsequent generation, and Snorlax from Gens 1-2 and onwards. As a silver lining however, [[NormalFishInATinyPond they might be lucky enough to be kings of the tier down in whatever tier they fell to]].
149* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Thanks to Team Preview, each player knows what their opponent's Pokémon are and can make an educated guess about their sets or general strategy based off of that before the match. It also makes {{Batman Gambit}}s easier to plan out on the fly, as you know what your opponent might switch to based off of various factors.
150* JackOfAllTrades: The reason why Incineroar is one of the most prominent Pokémon in Doubles format is its ability to pretty much work with any given team. Its typing, moves, and Intimidate allows it to be flexible, dubbed as a "Team Player Cat". It can force enemy switches, tank attacks to switch, cripple enemy offenses, and of course, deal damage.
151* JokeCharacter: A few obviously bad sets in [[LuckBasedMission Random Battles]] were this before they were removed, most notably [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Cheri Berry Limber Stunfisk and its predecessor Air Balloon Levitate Rotom-Fan]].
152* KickedUpstairs: How Ubers used to function before it gradually became its own meta, and what Anything Goes filled the void with. This is also what happens to certain Pokémon who get kicked into Ubers and wind up in the unenviable position of being too good for OU but completely outclassed in Ubers, as Mega Kangaskhan, Pheromosa, Solgaleo, and various others will lamentingly tell you. The various Borderline tiers also serve the same function for Pokémon in lower tiers, such as a UUBL mon being too good for UU but not worth using in OU, or a PUBL mon that's too over-centralizing for PU but barely makes a dent in NU.
153* KryptoniteIsEverywhere:
154** Generation IV introduced the very common Stealth Rock, which inflicted continual rock damage to the opposing team. This was especially critical to Fire and Flying Types because they became less viable competitively [[note]]unless they had enough bulk or managed to serve another team function[[/note]], since they would lose 25% of their health upon switching in, and it made the already-horrible Ice/Flying typing even worse and served as the final nail in Articuno's coffin. It wouldn't be until Generation VIII when Heavy-Duty Boots were added to the selection of items to help Pokémon with severe Stealth Rock weaknesses shine more.
155** Thanks to Mega Charizard Y giving rise to a plethora of Sun-based teams, Fire must now always be accounted for in the metagame. As a Steel/Fairy, Fire-type Pokémon are the main thorn in Mawile's side due to being 1) weak to Fire-type moves, and 2) both of Mawile's [=STABs=] being ineffective against Fire-types; Mega Mawile not being able to hold an [[KryptoniteProofSuit Occa Berry]] with the Mawilite doesn't help. It's entirely possible for Mega Mawile to remove such threats with [[ActionInitiative Sucker Punch]] or Rock [[HerdHittingAttack Slide]], but extreme caution must still be employed.
156* LethalJokeCharacter:
157** The classic example: [[OneHitPointWonder Shedinja]]. It's more or less useless in lower tiers because its vulnerability to Stealth Rock (and passive damage in general) means it usually faints on the turn it enters. In Ubers, the face of the tier (Kyogre[[note]]In Gen 3-5, before weather was {{nerf}}ed to only last a number of rounds and the introduction of Primal Groudon[[/note]]) only had a few (otherwise not worth using) moves that could damage Shedinja, making it an effective surprise weapon.
158** An Oblivious Slowbro set with a Leppa Berry, Heal Pulse, Slack Off, Recycle, and Block can force a stalemate against foes unable to defeat it. Oblivious prevents Taunt from working, Leppa Berry and Recycle prevent Slowbro from running out of PP, Block prevents the foe from escaping, and Slack Off allows Slowbro to heal non-lethal damage. When the opponent eventually runs out of PP and starts struggling, Heal Pulse will bring its health back up, making an endless stalemate. This moveset was banned as a result, up until the revision of Endless Battle Clause which simply disallows endless battle from happening.
159* LevelGrinding: Half the appeal of the simulator is that it averts all the LevelGrinding, Effort Value (EV) training, breeding, hunting for Pokémon with the perfect nature/ability without resorting to Ability Capsules (unless the ability in question is a Hidden ability) or Mints, etc. to get competitive Pokémon needed for tournaments in the real games.
160* LimitedMoveArsenal: Or as it's known on the site, "4-Moveslot Syndrome/4MSS"[[note]]Pokémon that have to choose between different moves in order to beat a different threat, since their other moveslots are filled with "must-have" options[[/note]]. Keep in mind that having a rich movepool is by no means a bad thing; what's seen as the problem is that, no matter the moves it picked, the Pokémon will have a hard counter. For example, Mixed Infernape in SM UU needs to choose between Grass Knot and Gunk Shot, and forgoing one or the other leaves it countered by bulky Water-types or by Fairy-types. DownplayedTrope in the sense that it's largely dependent on how the meta evolves and how popular the Pokémon is.
161* LuckBasedMission:
162** Largely {{averted|Trope}}. Strategies that try to invoke this (evasion moves and the Moody Ability) are banned from all tiers (except for the "Anything Goes" tier).
163** Played completely straight with Random Battles, which gives the participates semi-randomized teams to duke it out with each other.
164** Taken even further with "Metronome Battles", battles where every Pokémon has [[RandomEffectSpell Metronome]] and nothing else. Metronome uses an attack at random, and almost any attack can be summoned (except for a few {{Secret Art}}s, Z-moves, and Max Moves). These random attacks include [[TakingYouWithMe Self Destruct and Explosion]], [[SuicideAttack Memento]], Taunt (which prevents the opponent from using status moves, of which Metronome counts as one) and Imprison (a move which stops the opposing Pokémon from using moves that both them and their opponent have in their arsenal). If any one of these moves is called, the battle is more often than not decided there and then, since they either instantly KO the Pokémon using them, or they force the opponent to use Struggle and KO themselves with recoil in just a few turns. Sometimes, the battle can end after ''just one turn''[[note]]If, during a 2 vs 2 battle, both Pokémon in the same team move first and Metronome calls any of the following moves for them both: Self Destruct, Explosion, Misty Explosion, Final Gambit, Lunar Dance, Healing Wish, or Memento[[/note]]
165* MasterOfNone: This is the reason why [[MagicKnight mixed attackers]] are generally in lower tiers than purely physical or special ones, especially in later generations. More focused attackers can afford to invest in both their relevant attacking stat and [[FragileSpeedster speed]] or [[MightyGlacier bulk]], depending on the stat spread. Mixed attackers, by contrast, have to split their [=EVs=] if they don't want to put one of their attacking stats to waste, on top of usually having lower stats overall. Some mixed attackers do manage to avoid this, though, such as Iron Valiant and (to a lesser extent) Infernape.
166* {{Metagame}}: The site is aimed towards enabling some semblance of balance to PVP play.
167* MinMaxing: DownplayedTrope. While most Pokémon would wish to invest all their EV into their relevant stats[[note]]And indeed, most Banded/Scarfed/setup sweeper Pokémon do[[/note]] , there are potential ''huge'' benefits at choosing non-standard EV spreads. As an example, Iron Defense Kommo-o uses 56 Speed EV to outspeed and better deal with Aegislash.
168* MisereGame: Smogon has an Other Metagame called Loser's Game[[note]]formerly Suicide Cup[[/note]], where players try to lose the battle. Self-KO moves like Memento and Healing Wish are banned, so the main strategy is to rely on residual damage from the Black Sludge, Sticky Barb, Toxic Orb, and the move Steel Beam, which damages the user for 50% of their max HP. Alolan Sandshrew is notably banned for having the lowest Special Attack of any Pokémon that can learn Steel Beam, letting it KO itself in 2 turns while barely damaging the foe.
169* NormalFishInATinyPond:
170** Even though Uber is a banlist for Pokémon that are too powerful for the standard Overused metagame, there are some Pokémon that are just incapable of performing any viable roles in the Ubers metagame. Deoxys-N is a prime example of this; it has great offensive stats and a movepool that is capable of sweeping the entire OU tier, but in its native Uber tier, it falls completely flat because its role is completely outclassed by Deoxys-A.
171** A large amount of single stage Pokémon that gained an evolution in a future generation became this in Little Cup, as due to originally being intended to be the final evolution, they were far too strong for the format to handle.
172* NotCompletelyUseless:
173** Toxic Orb is usually a terrible item to give a Pokémon, but in Gliscor's hands, it turns it into a StoneWall that can be incredibly frustrating to take down. It's also the only reliable way to activate the Toxic Boost and Quick Feet abilities [[note]]Quick Feet doesn't prevent burns from halving Attack and most Quick Feet users are physical attackers, so Flame Orb isn't very good for this[[/note]], and can be used to activate Guts.
174** A Pokémon-specific example is Hawlucha and its [[SecretArt signature move]], Flying Press. Normally, the move is passed over in favor of more reliable and powerful Fighting-type attacks, as its unique dual-typing [[AwesomeButImpractical gave the move more resistors than targets]]. However, during Single Strike Urshifu's reign of terror in Gen VIII Overused, the move saw some genuine use - Urshifu is one of the few Pokémon to take quadruple damage from the move, being Dark/Fighting, meaning that the move could OneHitKill it with minimal offensive investment. This gave Hawlucha room to invest [=EVs=] into Defense, making such a set into one of the few answers to Urshifu.
175* ObviousRulePatch:
176** One of the [=CAPs=], Necturna, was designed around learning the move [[PowerCopying Sketch]] exactly once through breeding to give it a single wild card attack. Since ''[[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY X and Y]]'' changed breeding mechanics so that egg moves can be relearned just like level-up moves (and thus giving Necturna any 4 moves it wants), a special rule was made so that Necturna could only be used with one move learned via Sketch.
177** The Baton Pass Clause had to be revised twice since people kept finding ways of abusing the move Baton Pass. The final version prevents having a moveset with Baton Pass and a way to boost Speed + any other stat while restricting the move to only one Pokémon per team. And as of Gen VII, Baton Pass itself is flat-out banned.
178** The Endless Battle Clause had to be added on to a year after its inception since people found some convoluted ways of getting around it.
179** Averagemons is a GameMod metagame where all Mons have 100 base stats across the board, making abilities and movesets the determinant of viability. Smeargle is banned as it can learn nearly every move with Sketch.
180** Speaking of Metagames that are [[GameMod game mods]], if it is possible to change the ability of a Pokémon in a format, then there is a pretty good chance that [[BlessedWithSuck Regigigas and Slaking]] are banned in that format.
181* OriginalCharacter: The [=CAP=] Pokémon are creations of the community, not Creator/GameFreak. They can be used in battle on the special CAP server separate from the standard servers.
182* PoorPredictableRock: Many Pokémon only have one thing they can do well and tend to be obvious about it. [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer That being said, some are still very good due to how well they do that one thing.]]
183* PowerCreep:
184** A Pokémon's tier placement will vary from gen to gen based entirely on new changes to the metagame that Game Freak introduces. For instance, Snorlax, once the undisputed king of Gen II with over 90% usage, saw a decline over time as Fighting-types became more viable and common and Pokémon started getting slightly more [[MinMaxing Min-Maxed]] base stats that overshadowed it.
185** This is also taken into account when banning or unbanning certain Mons. Some banned Pokémon are retested whenever a new game comes out to see if any of the new tools make dealing with them easier, while others may be banned because of getting access to new moves or abilities.
186* PowerAtAPrice: There are many items or Abilities that increase the damage output in exchange to some drawback.
187* RankInflation: A strange [[InvertedTrope inversion]]. Initially, the only Smogon tiers were NU, UU, BL, OU, and Uber, but as more Pokémon came out and NU and UU were filled by a wide variety of Pokémon, the RU and PU tiers were formed to organize this surplus into further tiers. Essentially, instead of making ever-increasing tiers for stronger Pokémon as in typical RankInflation, Smogon made ever-''decreasing'' tiers for mediocre Pokémon, while Ubers went from being a "just for fun" tier to a completely serious format. "Untiered" became the true "trash tier" as each tier evolved into a dedicated format; if something is untiered, it is usually because it is so utterly useless that no one wants to go to the trouble of figuring out which of the bottom-tier formats it belongs in (aside from the unofficial Zeroused tier, or ZU for short). Note, however, that Mega Rayquaza and the AG tier plays this trope straight.
188* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: Several Smogon-recommended Pokémon lack attacking moves in one or both of their types. Such sets are often justified by either the Pokémon’s poor attack stats (namely the defensive {{Stone Wall}}s or tanks), poor offensive coverage in one of its [=STABs=] and wanting room for more practical coverage/status moves as a result, or in Gen 1 to 3, being victim to the pre-Physical/Special Split.
189* SadisticChoice: Mega Gengar's specialty and why it was banned. It works like this: Mega Gengar uses Perish Song[[note]]a move that will make both Pokémon on the field faint in three turns. This normally forces a switch, but Shadow Tag means that that isn't going to happen[[/note]]. It would be tempting to kill it directly, but it can also use [[TakingYouWithMe Destiny Bond]]. Walling it is also a non-option, as most walls are dispatched with Perish Song. Even forcing it out with Roar and such will not get rid of the Perish Song counter, making you lose momentum. Baton Pass and Volt-Turn are the best options to escape, and this is only buying time instead of eliminating the threat. Ghost-type Pokémon can innately escape trapping moves and abilities; however, the problem with that is that Gengar is itself a Ghost-type Pokémon with an absurd amount of Special Attack to boot, and outside of Mega Sableye (who simply does not have any offensive firepower) and Spiritomb (who is not a particularly strong Pokémon in general), there isn't a single Ghost-type that can resist it. There's no reliable way to deal with this setup, and checking it is largely a matter of dumb luck and/or the M-Gengar user being dumb as a sandbag.
190* ShownTheirWork: The simulator keeps track of what Pokémon are used the most and the moves/stat spreads that are most commonly found on them.
191* SkillGateCharacters:
192** If there is one Pokémon defined by this trope, it is ''Ambipom.'' While a Technician-boosted Fake Out is appealing on paper, Ambipom has a ho-hum typing and mediocre stats outside of speed, making it outclassed by basically any offensive pivot or physical attacker. This does not stop people from using it, and for 3 generations straight (and BDSP UU), it was stuck in tiers that it wasn't really cut out for. And this was so severe that the official Smogon set for Gen 6 RU is labeled "Don't Use Ambipom.". Considering it dropped to a lower tier every subsequent generation, there is hope that it will be in a tier that it belongs, but it remains to be seen.
193** In the first generation's competitive scene, Machamp is a common sight in lower brackets due to it being the hardest-hitting Fighting-type in the game in a generation where nearly all teams run three Normal-types. Despite being slow, it's relatively bulky, even tanks like Snorlax and Chansey don't like switching into its STAB moves, and even Tauros (a common candidate for the best Pokémon outside of Ubers) is hard-pressed to take on Machamp if it's been paralyzed. However, Machamp is incredibly vulnerable to paralysis itself, its typing gives it no useful resistances and a positively ''crippling'' weakness to Psychic (which is only slightly less common than Normal), making it far less bulky than it looks, and its strongest STAB move, Submission, is downright terrible, being inaccurate and doing recoil to Machamp. Add in the fact that Rhydon does its job as a MightyGlacier much better, and you have a Pokémon that is almost entirely unseen outside of those lower brackets.
194** Electivire in DP [=OverUsed=] is an infamous example of this trope. To new players, it seems like a strong offensive threat, with its great attack stat, decent speed, [[ConfusionFu wide range of coverage moves]] to hit practically the entire tier for super-effective damage, and Motor Drive ability to boost its speed when hit by an Electric-type attack. However, Electivire's "decent" base 95 speed leaves it outsped by many other offensive Pokémon in the tier, its moves have underwhelming base power, and its GlassCannon nature makes it easy to revenge kill or just take out after tanking one of its attacks, even if it's hitting super-effectively. Players would often pair it with Gyarados to bait in Electric-type attacks, then switch in Electivire to activate Motor Drive, but this strategy is easily predictable at higher levels of play. As a result of these weaknesses, Electivire sees no serious play in modern DP OU, but it's trapped in the tier due to the tiers locking at the end of each generation. Tellingly, it fell to RU once BW started, where it's a legitimately viable choice.
195** Doublade with Eviolite in XY Under-Used (XY UU). Thanks to Doublade's great Attack stat, incredible coverage, excellent Steel/Ghost typing, and Eviolite boosting its Defenses by 50% since it hasn't fully evolved, players who are new to the UU tier often build teams that can't even hurt Doublade, let alone take it out. However, Doublade's poor Special Defense and Speed stats and vulnerability to the ever-common move Knock Off (which doesn't just hit the sword super-effectively, but also removes Eviolite from Doublade) can be taken advantage of quite easily by someone who knows what they're doing, and cause it to be viewed as a perfectly manageable ([[DownplayedTrope albeit still threatening]]) Pokémon in higher-level play.
196** While Marshadow is a viable Pokémon at all levels of Ubers play, there's a specific set for it that falls into this trope: Focus Sash. On paper, it seems like a great idea — Marshadow can come in on a boosted sweeper, steal all their stat boosts with no risk due to its LastChanceHitPoint, and then reverse sweep. In practice, the set completely falls apart to hazards, which will break Marshadow's sash and essentially leave it with no item. Marshadow also really needs the power boost from a Choice Band or Life Orb to fill its role in battle, so if it has to do anything ''other'' than attack a boosted foe, it'll be too weak.
197** While there were many shades of this beforehand with Forretress, it did at least decently in the tiers it was stuck in. But this comes in full force in Gen 9, to almost memetic proportions. While it has some good tools in concept, supported with its newfound Body Press, there are better Rapid Spinners to rely on because Forretress can't really fight back, and has little options against those who want to remove hazards from it. In terms of its typing, Scizor is far more aggressive, and Donphan's better offensive typing and utility options keep it from becoming the sitting duck Forretress is.
198** Maushold seems absurdly broken at first glance, thanks to a combination of Technician, a decent movepool that includes coverage options such as Bite (boosted by Technician) and Tidy Up (a SecretArt that removes hazards ''and'' boosts Maushold's Attack and Speed), and its other SecretArt Population Bomb. In addition to being bolstered by Technician, the move can hit up to an absurd '''ten times''', and while the amount of hits is dependent on Accuracy more hits can be guaranteed via the Wide Lens item, which boosts its Accuracy. However, Maushold's stats outside of Speed are extremely mediocre, including a 75 base Attack (which is pitiful by Overused standards), and Population Bomb's nature as a contact move leaves it easily exploited by contact based abilities and items, most notoriously Rough Skin and/or Rocky Helmet (it will [[HoistByHisOwnPetard literally kill itself]] if it uses Population Bomb against a mon with at least one of those two traits). What's more, its coverage isn't quite strong enough to muscle through Pokémon that check it, namely the Ghost- and Steel-types that run amok in the higher tiers. While it's usable in Overused, you'd be hard-pressed to find a high-level player finding success with it. However, Maushold shines in Underused due to these traits (even though it is quite predictable and easily checked), and in Doubles it's a lot less predictable since it can take on an offensive or defensive role thanks to Friend Guard and its surprisingly wide support movepool.
199* ThereAreNoRules: Subverted. The Anything Goes tier does not enforce any rules... except for the Endless Battle Clause, and it's only there to ensure matches actually end.
200* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman:
201** Many Pokémon from lower tiers are usable due to this, whether it be to check/counter popular threats or to fill out a niche role in their party.
202** This trope tends to be part of the banning process as well. If numerous players are spotted using what is ordinarily considered a sub-par Pokémon for the sole purpose of countering a specific mon or strategy, or an extremely specific setup on a widely-used Pokémon that is objectively not optimal solely because it counters a common threat, said mon or strategy may be suspected for being over-centralizing.
203** It's not given as much attention as the inverse, but many Pokémon, abilities, and moves are ''far'' more useful in the metagame than they are in-game.
204*** The AI rarely switches out Pokémon. So entry hazards such as Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and Stealth Rock aren't especially useful unless the opponent has several Pokémon that are weak to them, or using SwitchOutMove. In the metagame, however, switching out Pokémon is ''critical'', and hindering your opponent's ability to do so is a ''huge'' advantage. While not a hazard, Pursuit also falls in this category, as you'll very rarely see its power boost in-game.
205*** Due to entry hazards being much more useful in competitive play than in-game, the moves Rapid Spin and Defog, which remove entry hazards, also become drastically more useful. In-game, these moves are pretty much dead weight outside of a few specific situations. In the metagame, depending on how you set up your team, it can be downright ''necessary'' to have a Pokémon handy that knows one of the two moves.
206*** Trapping abilities. While trapping moves like Mean Look, Wrap, and their variants have fallen by the wayside due to the faster-paced metagame[[note]]opponents are much more likely to switch out of an unfavorable matchup than stick around long enough for such a move to connect to its intended target[[/note]], abilities like Arena Trap, Magnet Pull, and ''especially'' Shadow Tag remain incredibly useful for the same reasons as entry hazards. To illustrate, Shadow Tag almost single-handedly turned Wobbuffet from a JokeCharacter to a GameBreaker (before Gen V, at least), and it's a large part of why Mega Gengar is considered a GameBreaker in Gen VI. In fact, all trapping abilities except for Magnet Pull are banned to Ubers as of Gen VII.
207*** Recovery moves like Recover and Wish. Sure, in-game they can be pretty convenient, but they're hardly necessary when the right healing item can do the same thing better without eating up a moveslot. In player vs. player matches, when non-held items can't be used, they suddenly become a ''lot'' more vital. The usability of many a MightyGlacier and StoneWall has been made or broken based entirely on whether they have a reliable way to heal back damage.
208*** Pokémon that are {{Mighty Glacier}}s or {{Stone Wall}}s. In-game, players can just {{level grind}} a couple of team members to overpower the ArtificialIntelligence with brute force and use items to heal crippled[=/=]downed members, which is much easier to accomplish with {{Glass Cannon}}s due to their strength and speed. In player vs. player matches, it doesn't work this way: if you want to switch in something, you have to either let your current Pokémon be knocked out or give your opponent a free shot at whatever you're bringing in (barring a SwitchOutMove, of course). In such an environment, highly defensive Pokémon are much more useful, as they can typically take a hit or two and still survive well enough to provide support for the attackers.
209*** One-use items, like Focus Sash, Weakness Policy, and the rarer Berries, as they tend to be hard to come by, and thus highly subject to TooAwesomeToUse in-game. In player vs. player matches, any used items are returned at the end of the match, so it's possible to be much more liberal in their use.
210*** Attacking moves with low Power Points (PP), like Close Combat and Fire Blast. In-game, they're not especially useful since the low PP means having to stop and go back to the Pokémon Center/use up PP-restoring items that much more often, and the minor increase in power generally isn't worth it. Even worse, these moves often have some drawback, like decreasing stats after each use or having low accuracy, which makes the more practical moves like Brick Break and Flamethrower even more appealing. In the metagame, though, the low PP is typically not an issue, since PP is restored after each battle, and the drawbacks of such moves are seen as worth the risk, since the difference in power between Fire Blast and Flamethrower can often mean the difference between, for example, a 2-hit KO and a 3-hit KO, which can snowball into the difference between a win and a loss.
211*** Most PowerAtAPrice tactics, such as the Guts/Quick Feet/Toxic Boost abilities, Choice Items, and Life Orb. In-game, most threats can be utterly overpowered by raw level advantage and simple knowledge of the ElementalRockPaperScissors, so such things are seen as hindering the Pokémon's survivability or versatility for little payoff. In the metagame, though, all Pokémon are the same level, and it is generally taken for granted that every competent player knows what hits what, so such tactics become much more necessary for attackers to dish out the damage they need to.
212*** Numerous Pokémon that tend to be overshadowed by more powerful alternatives in-game can become highly useful players in lower-tier matches, where they don't have to compete with the Pokémon that have blatant advantages over them.
213*** Since the AI almost never uses Status moves in favor of brute force, Taunt is incredibly impractical in single-player modes. Even if they do have status moves in their moveset, since the Pokémon and movesets they use are fixed, it is generally better to abuse type and level advantages against them. But in multiplayer, however, status moves are one of the leading gears of the metagame, and as such, for many offensive or anti-stall teams, Taunt ranks among one of the best moves to directly prevent them from using status moves to cripple your team.
214* TrapMaster: Anything with Entry Hazards. Some users can be less obvious about it due to the weird distribution of Stealth Rock or just because they usually don't run them.
215* UselessUsefulSpell:
216** Gender-dependent moves and Abilities like Attract, since they require your opponent's Pokémon to be the opposite gender to activate, and a decent chunk of popular Pokémon are genderless, and are thus immune anyway. Simulators used to default to making gendered Pokémon male, but genders are now usually randomized. Even in those times, [[CrazyPrepared some players manually randomized their genders anyway to ensure the opponent can't abuse Attract]]. Plus, Attract can be negated just by switching out.
217** Moves that just reduce stats are usually not recommended as the opponent can just swap out (negating the stat change) or will [[AttackAttackAttack just continue to beat on you anyway]]. Memento is an exception to this, as it was used to provide momentum by [[NotTheIntendedUse fainting]].
218** There are several moves and abilities that don't transition well into Doubles. Take Outrage (and its variants) as an example, as the move targets a random foe in Doubles. While that doesn't sound like a hefty drawback on paper, it's easy to lose crucial momentum if Outrage ends up hitting a Fairy-type or Protect, making Outrage a far less ideal choice there.
219* WillfullyWeak: Using teams of Pokémon from lower tiers. About a hundred or so Pokémon outside OU have niches in OU, but generally it's considered a bad idea to use them outside their niches. One exception (and therefore aversion to this trope) is Reuniclus in Gen 7, who is considered a good Pokémon in OU despite not even being UU[[note]]it's in RUBL, as in it was KickedUpstairs to UU despite not having the usage to actually be in UU[[/note]].
220[[/folder]]
221
222[[folder:Analysis-related tropes]]
223* BrutalHonesty: Some of the analyses are very blunt about how terrible the Pokémon they're analyzing are. For example, [[https://www.smogon.com/dex/sm/pokemon/typhlosion/ Typhlosion's SM NU analysis]] just flat-out says "Do not ever use this Pokémon with the intent of winning games."[[note]]Normally, a Pokémon like this would fall to a lower tier, but Typhlosion received too much usage to drop despite being terrible in NU.[[/note]]
224* ButtMonkey: Most Pokémon with terrible attacking moves and/or stats were treated this way in their analyses. Luvdisc, Unown, Spinda, and Delibird are four notable examples. Most of their analyses were written as a joke, but eventually they all just straight up said "don't use this", or have nothing written at all.
225* CrazyPrepared: Smogon provides builds, and strategies for dealing with, most Pokémon, allowing you to know ahead of time how to deal with opponents you might face.
226* DealWithTheDevil: [[https://www.smogon.com/dex/dp/pokemon/rhyperior/ou/ Rhyperior's DP OU analysis]] compares using it to making a deal with the devil, due to it having immense strengths balanced out by crippling weaknesses.
227* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
228** Earlier analyses would refer to Pokémon as "he" or "she" depending on their appearance and it could be written in first person, whereas later analyses will be written in second person and refer to Pokémon as "it" regardless of if it's a OneGenderRace.
229** The original Generation II and III analyses were much more brief, informal, and opinionated than the ones common in later gens, to the extent that the [[https://www.smogon.com/dex/gs/pokemon/ariados/uu/ GSC UU Ariados analysis]] has an "Opinion" section where the creator states his personal opinion on the Pokémon - which would never be seen on any other analysis before or since. Analyses from this time period would also focus much more on the Pokémon's use (or lack thereof) in OU and sometimes UU, due to the lower tiers not being as settled yet. Some of these older analyses remain as TheArtifact, even when the Pokémon in question received an analysis for a tier it was more suited for.
230** Some Gen III analyses have a specific "[=EVs=]" section that would explain in-depth about the [=EVs=] for specific sets. Later Gens would simply explain the [=EVs=] for sets in the set details themselves.
231* FakeUltimateHero: [[http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/unown Unown's Generation IV analysis]] brags about how it can OHKO or 2HKO a number of Pokémon... except all have either low Special Defense or a 4x weakness. The teammates section is basically "team building for dummies", full of advice that is not specific to Unown.
232* GrammarNazi: The Grammar-Prose team ''viz.'' Pokémon analyses. Justified in that their job is, in fact, to catch mistakes and make the analyses look professional.
233* HonorBeforeReason: The analysis for Farfetch'd paints that using the Pokémon is the most respectable thing a player can do… and also that it is completely suicidal.
234* LemonyNarrator: A good indicator on whether the community thinks a Mon is bad or not is how much of their analysis page is written sarcastically. Naturally, {{Joke Character}}s such as Luvdisc had articles ''drenched'' in this trope. As the generations went on, however, they stopped doing the sarcastic joke analyses and either just state matter of factly how terrible the bad Mon is and suggest to use something else, or just don't have anything written period.
235* PoorPredictableRock: The "Other Options" sections for some Pokémon, such as [[https://www.smogon.com/dex/sm/pokemon/hitmonlee/ Hitmonlee]] and [[https://www.smogon.com/dex/sm/pokemon/medicham/ Mega Medicham]], simply say that they have no other viable options. However, some of these Pokémon [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer are still highly viable due to how good their single set is.]]
236* PurpleProse: The [[https://www.smogon.com/dex/bw/pokemon/arceus/ Arceus]] analyses for DP and BW are written in [[LargeHam hammy]], excessive prose.
237* ViewersAreGeniuses: The analyses themselves are optimized for all of the major threats in the metagame, with movesets of specific use as well as comments on the purpose of what stat spreads outspeeds or survives.
238* ViewersAreMorons: The Unown analysis, although it is PlayedForLaughs.
239* WallOfText: The analyses can lean towards this, especially if the Pokémon in question has multiple sets.
240[[/folder]]
241
242[[folder:The Smog Tropes]]
243* TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects: Discussed in the "Movie Critics - The Panel" series.
244** According to critic Kadew in [[http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue28/movie_panel "Johto Journeys"]], it works in ''Spell of the Unown''[='=]s favor since the eponymous Pokémon are supposed to be otherworldly and animating them in 3D emphasizes this. On the other hand, it goes overboard in ''4Ever'' and ''Heroes'' due to being unnecessary and how badly it stands out.
245** In [[http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue29/movie_panel "Direct to Hoenn Video"]], she claims that the real villain of ''Destiny Deoxys'' is a "3D virus," as she finds the effects to be that bad.
246* AuthorAvatar: Articles with multiple contributors like the [[http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue38/movie-critics "Movie Critics"]] or [[http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue38/judge-a-pokemon "Judge a Pokémon"]] series will have the writers represented as Pokémon.
247* BlatantLies: The entirety of the [[http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue28/leaks "Insider X & Y Leaks, Straight From the Playground"]] and [[http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue37/insider-leaks-oras "Insider Leaks: ORAS Edition"]] articles, which are presented as "legitimate" leaks about the (then unreleased) ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' and ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' games.
248* BrokeTheRatingScale: The "Do You Even Lift?" series of articles discusses various aspects of the franchise's Gyms; Layout (which became Gym Puzzle from the second article onward), the fight's Difficulty, Spoils of War (the TM given), and Coolness of the leader. The writer gives them a rating OnAScaleFromOneToTen, with this being a [[RunningGag frequent]] result.
249** Brock's Layout gets a "1 million light-years/10" to poke fun at the line said by a camper in the game.
250** Misty's Layout gets a "ho-hum/10" for being boring.
251** Lt. Surge's Gym Layout got a rating of "-10,000/10" due to the immense frustration it caused the writer.
252** Koga's Layout was rated "blindness/10", due to it causing some damage to the writer's eyes.
253---> So back when I was like 5, I figured out that you could look really close to the screen and see the invisible walls. This indirectly led me to needing glasses.
254** Sabrina's Layout was given a "tedious/10" for the teleporters being time consuming, but not challenging.
255** Giovanni's Layout got a "swoosh/10" for the slide tiles, while Spoils of War was given "miss/10" since the TM (Fissure) has a base accuracy of 30%.
256** Bugsy's Puzzle got a "?/10", since there wasn't one.
257** Whitney's Difficulty was "12/10", due to how [[ThatOneBoss infamously hard her fight can be]] (the writer even goes on a 2 paragraph rant about it). Her Coolness got a "wahhh/10" for [[SoreLoser her crying after being beaten]].
258** Morty's Coolness was given a peace sign out of 10, since he looks like a hippie.
259** Jasmine's Puzzle got "n/a/10" [[RunningGag for the same reason as Bugsy]], while the Spoils rating takes a jab at Iron Tail's accuracy.
260---> '''Spoils of War''': IRON TA—oops i missed the caps lock button due to how low the accuracy of this move is.\
261IO(damn i missed again)/10
262** Pryce got an "[[Music/VanillaIce ice ice baby]]/10" for Coolness.
263** Clair got an 11/10 for Difficulty due to Kingdra having no weakness that can be easily exploited and causing the writer to cry when he first fought her.
264** All of Roxanne's ratings are given as "???/10" for no adequately explained reason.
265** Norman's Puzzle is "N/A/10" [[RunningGag since there isn't one]].
266** Wallace and Juan are given a "[[JokeCharacter Luvdisc]]/10" for Difficulty, but are also given a 20/10 for Coolness since the writer treats them as the ultimate [[TheCasanova Casanovas]].
267** Gardenia's Difficulty is "gg/10" due to [[DiscOneNuke Starly]] obliterating her.
268** Candice gets a "?/10" for Coolness, since the writer doesn't know anything about her.
269** Cress, Cilan, and Chili's Puzzle gets a "[[SarcasmMode brb gonna buy a strategy guide]]/10" for being ridiculously simple, while Difficulty gets "100/10" for the game forcing you to fight the one that has the advantage over your starter.
270** Skyla's ''Black 2 and White 2'' Puzzle gets a "$/10" to go with a joke that the writer makes about [[NoOSHACompliance the hospital bills that you'll need to pay after going through it]].
271** Clemont gets "11/10" in Spoils because Thunderbolt is such a good move overall. For Coolness, he gets a "0_0/10" as the writer questions the ScaryShinyGlasses trope.
272---> As a kid, I never understood the shiny glasses thing that happens in anime, and heck I still don't. Why are his glasses always that white shine; doesn't that make it hard to see?
273* JustHereForGodzilla: In [[http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue27/movie_panel "Movie Critics - The Panel: Golden Oldies"]], critic Layell claims he only watched the movies for the fight scenes and says he fast-forwarded through everything that wasn't some sort of action sequence. [[invoked]]
274* RunningGag:
275** In the "Movie Critics - The Panel" articles discussing the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' movies, critic Jellicent always takes potshots at Ash for being an IdiotHero.
276** The "Do You Even Lift" articles using BrokeTheRatingScale.
277** People who frequent Other Metagames always seem to mention when a metagame idea allows Noivern to get STAB (same-type attack bonus) on Boomburst.
278* SelfDeprecation: [[http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue39/smogon-nutshell "Smogon 2014 in a Nutshell"]] takes a jab at the lack of traffic the Victory Road subforum had been getting ever since it was created.
279* ThatOneBoss: [[invoked]]
280** The majority of [[http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue26/infuriating_pokemon "Top Ten Most Infuriating Pokémon In-Game'']] is about specific instances of this and why players find them frustrating, such as Misty's Starmie in ''Red and Blue'' being extremely powerful for the point in time you fight it, or being unable to weaken Regigigas in ''Platinum'' since it's at level 1 (thus you'll probably make it faint) so you're forced to throw Poké Balls at it and pray the RandomNumberGod will eventually let you catch it.[[note]]Though what the writer neglects to mention is that, you could use [[HPToOne False Swipe]] and Nest Balls (extremely effective on Lv.1 'mons) to weaken it and make catching it easier. Be sure to remember fitting that on your team though.[[/note]]
281** [[http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue24/gym_guide "Do You Even Lift: Johto Jockstrap Edition"]] has a two paragraph rant about how Whitney's Miltank from ''Gold and Silver'' will eat up all of your time and make you depressed trying to beat it.
282* ValleyGirl: The part about Erika in the first "Do You Even Lift?" article looks like it was written by one.
283[[/folder]]
284
285[[folder:Other Tropes]]
286* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: The Tier Leaders, Tier Council Members, and many moderators get their position from being ''really'' good battlers. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as {{Metagame}} knowledge is necessary for them to do their jobs and due to the site's nature in general.
287* BilingualBonus:
288** "Smogon" is the German name for Koffing, the site's mascot.
289** Trou du Cul, a forum used to house the forum's stupidest threads for mockery by the staff, means "asshole" in French.
290* CupHolders: The ''X/Y'' parody leaks in issue 28 of ''The Smog'' claims Gogoat's evolution, [[Anime/SonicX Gagoatfast]], has these.
291* FatAndProud:
292** Whenever someone is quoted on the forums, the attribution line always says "Originally posted by Fat <user name>".
293** The default "Pokémon characteristic" each user may have is "Likes to eat".
294* GameMod: The Other Metagames houses these. The more popular ones, such as Hackmons, Generation Next!, Tier Shift, and VideoGame/CreateAPokemon, can be played on Pokémon Showdown!.
295* PretentiousLatinMotto: "''Nil Sine'' Pokémon" (Nothing Without Pokémon)
296* RageQuit:
297** A few Trou du Cul threads are this — and are subsequently mocked by the staff.
298** This happened rather infamously once, concerning an Energy Ball Jellicent. [[http://pastebin.com/FHFpAivS After a Pokémon Online moderator named Somalia lost to a Jellicent with Energy Ball]] and thus proceeded to use his moderator privileges to [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge systematically rageban all members of the Smogon PO server]] and subsequently was banned, Energy Ball Jellicent has become a regular sight, even becoming part of a temporary new name of the off topic discussion forum.
299* SandboxMode: The custom game format is essentially this, as the only limits to the format are the limits of the Showdown Simulator itself. The most notable separation from it and Hackmons is the ability to bring 24 level 9999 Pokémon that all have 24 moves.
300* SeriousBusiness: Pokémon is this to these guys.
301* {{Unperson}}: The Viability Ranking threads (think a tier list ''within'' a tier list) will occasionally have Pokémon [[WriterRevolt blacklisted from being discussed]] [[OvershadowedByAwesome if they are outclassed by something else available]] or because the people talking about them wouldn't shut up and pissed off the mods.
302[[/folder]]

Top