History Characters / PokemonGenerationIIITreeckoToSharpedo

** Foil: Generation VI has made them foils to Lucario. Both are dual-typed fighters with similar stats (mixed attackers with low defences and speed issues) that get opposing Mega Evolutions. Blaziken's Mega form ability increases its speed and grows its chest fur into an X and was distributed for a short time online. Lucario meanwhile increases its offences, has chest fur in a Y and is the first Mega you have in the story.

** Ninjask was considered an OU in Gens III and IV because of its use as a Baton Passer, but its niche in this area has taken a major hit in V thanks to Shell Smash and Quiver Dance along with its passers.
** Gen VI put the nail in the coffin by giving Speed Boost to [[Characters/PokemonGenerationVVictiniToZoroark Scolipede]]. In addition to having Baton Pass, Scolipede is also quite fast, has much more bulk, has a better typing, can set up hazards, and can fight back with its better Attack and movepool. Ninjask's only advantages are its much higher Speed before Speed Boost kicks in and immunity to Ground-type moves and ground based hazards.

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

* UselessUsefulSpell: Dustox gets the Hidden Ability Compoundeyes. Unfortunately, it doesn't have any low-accuracy moves to abuse the ability with the way Butterfree[[note]]with StandardStatusEffects[[/note]], Galvantula[[note]]with [[ShockAndAwe Thunder]][[/note]], or Vivillon[[note]]with [[BlowYouAway Hurricane]][[/note]] do. The best Dustox can do with Compoundeyes is have a slightly decreased chance to miss with Toxic or Swagger, neither of which missed particularly often anyway.

* {{Foil}}: to Sableye. Both are version exclusives until Gneration VI. And in that particulcar generation they have two of the best defensive typings (Mawile has Steel/Fairy and Sableye and Ghost/Dark) despite one of their types getting {{Nerf}}ed (To compensate for strength against Fairy, Steel lost resistance against Ghost and Dark Moves ironcally Mawile gats the Fairy type which is resitance to Dark so it retains that resistance).

** In an interesting development, Gen V, in addition to allowing Plus to work with Plus and Minus to work with Minus, also gave both Plusle and Minun the Entrainment move, which lets them force any target to have the same Ability that they do, allowing them to get this boost from any allied Pokémon they like (save users of Truant, Multitype, and Zen Mode, anyway), as well as give them the same Special Attack buff. Just make sure that whatever Plusle/Minus are working alongside isn't too attached to the Ability they already have...

* WhosLaughingNow: While extremely convoluted, there is a technique to change a Shedinja's ability to [[LastChanceHitPoint Sturdy]] in Doubles and Triples play. Sturdy always procs when a Pokemon is supposed to go from maximum HP to no HP, but Shedinja only has a single hit point to begin with, [[NighInvulnerable thus keeping it at a perpetual "last" chance]]. It's also a common strategy to give Shedinja Paralysis [[CursedWithAwesome just to prevent Poison or Burn from ruining its day]], and the new [[GogglesDoSomethingUnusual Safety Goggles]] held item in Gen VI prevent weather damage; what is normally a GlassCannon annoyance becomes a nigh-immortal GradualGrinder that is almost impossible to stop.[[note]]It is, however, not immune to self-damage (like from being Confused), Leech Seed LifeDrain. That's about it though.[[/note]] Expertly demonstrated [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ciuAcwbny6w in this battle]].

* WhosLaughingNow: While extremely convoluted, there is a technique to change a Shedinja's ability to [[LastChanceHitPoint Sturdy]] in Doubles and Triples play. Sturdy always procs when a Pokemon is supposed to go from maximum HP to no HP, but Shedinja only has a single hit point to begin with, [[NighInvulnerable thus keeping it at a perpetual "last" chance]]. It's also a common strategy to give Shedinja Paralysis [[CursedWithAwesome just to prevent Poison or Burn from ruining its day]], and the new [[GogglesDoSomethingUnusual Safety Goggles]] held item in Gen VI prevent weather damage; what is normally a GlassCannon annoyance becomes a nigh-immortal GradualGrinder that is almost impossible to stop. Expertly demonstrated [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ciuAcwbny6w in this battle]].

* WhosLaughingNow: While extremely convoluted, there is a technique to change a Shedinja's ability to [[LastChanceHitPoint Sturdy]] in Triples play, [[NighInvulnerable thus keeping it at a perpetual "last" chance]]. Outside of status ailments, weather conditions, or the various NoSell moves/abilities (all of which are mentioned above), this makes it even more difficult to take out (as the most common ways, attacks of its weakness elements, no longer do the job). Expertly demonstrated [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ciuAcwbny6w in this battle]].

Swallow Pokémon that inhabit the early routes of Hoenn. They're not as common in their region as their counterparts Pidgey, Starly, and Pidove are in their regions. They are true {{Determinator}}s, refusing to give up even when they are near defeat. Their Speed is incredible.

* ForMassiveDamage: Breloom to Flying attacks and Flying Press.

** Generation V gave it Mach Punch, a powerful STAB priority move, and Technician as an ability to pump up a lot of its attacks including Mach Punch.

* ForMassiveDamage: Breloom to Flying attacks.

* SecretArt: Volbeat had Tail Glow (that is actually named Firefly Light in Japan) in Generation III. Signal Beam, too, at least before ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]''.

** {{Irony}}: One of Illumise's abilities is Oblivious, which prevents it from being attracted to anything.

* {{Nerf}}: Many examples in Generation 6. It might have received the most {{Nerf}}s of all in that generation.
** Spore, a 100% accurate sleep move and one of its best moves, now that Grass-types are immune to it.
** Low Sweep, one of "Techniloom's" best moves, had its base power increased juuuuuuust enough that Breloom couldn't take advantage of it with Technician.
** Outside of Technician, the line's Substitute sets also got nerfed with a buff to Infiltrator and sound-based moves being able to bypass substitute that can put a hamper on any [=SubPunch=] and other setup opportunities.
** The prevalence of Ghost- and Flying-types such as Aegislash, Gengar, Talonflame, and Togekiss has made it somewhat less effective.
** On the other hand, Breloom gaining a much-improved Rock Tomb (which has the same guaranteed Speed-reducing effect as Low Sweep) to play with, Gen VI having gifted the move with much better accuracy (95%, as opposed to the 80% it had before), a power boost exactly to the highest point that Technician still affects it. Granted, it doesn't get STAB, but it does give those Fire and Flying types that may try to switch in something to think about. Plus, Breloom still has Force Palm, Mach Punch, and the new Power-up Punch to abuse the STAB/Technician combination with, and Mach Punch also serves as a valuable priority attack.

* TookALevelInBadass: Between Spore and its powerful movepool, Breloom was a significant threat to begin with in Gen III. Gen IV gifted it with the second ability Poison Heal, which lets it regenerate while afflicted with Poison or Bad Poison status, and reliable physical Grass STAB as a complement to its Fighting attacks. Gen V gifted it with the Hidden Ability Technician, which lets it Mach Punch with as much power as Scizor can Bullet Punch (with better offensive typing, too) and beefs up other attacks that Breloom can learn to new heights, such as Bullet Seed. As Technician and the still-popular Poison Heal are mutually exclusive, this hasn't so much objectively improved Breloom as it has added new alternative avenues for it to try.

* HealingFactor: Capable of learning a wide array of health restoration moves, plus an ability that restores hit points when the weather is rainy.

* GlassCannon: 68/65/115 defenses are ridiculously frail, and with a base speed of only 80, Gardevoir and Gallade aren't that hard to outspeed.

* LethalJokeCharacter: Breloom has mostly awful stats and a poor defensive typing. However, it has monstrously high Attack, on-par with the infamous Garchomp, and access to great abilities in Technician and Poison Heal. Coupled with the coveted 100% accuracy Spore, Leach Seed, and Bullet Seed and Mach Punch to abuse with Technician, and Breloom is surprisingly dangerous in spite of what seems at first glance like a dead weight Grass-type. It may have low Speed, but being that Mach Punch always goes first its Speed won't matter unless it faces another priority user, and that Mach Punch is going to ''hurt''.

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

* LethalJokeCharacter: Breloom has mostly awful stats and a poor defensive typing. However, it has monstrously high Attack, on-par with the infamous Garchomp, and access to great abilities in Technician and Poison Heal. Coupled with the coveted 100% accuracy Spore, Leach Seed, and Bullet Seed, Mach Punch and Drain Punch to abuse with Technician, and Breloom is surprisingly dangerous in spite of what seems at first glance like a dead weight Grass-type. It may have low Speed, but being that Mach Punch always goes first it won't matter unless it faces another priority user, and that Mach Punch is going to ''hurt''.

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

* LethalJokeCharacter: While not very strong as a Pokémon, one of their possible abilities lets them get faster while poisoned, and they learn the move Me First, which can result in upsets for Dragons when you grab their Outrage or Dragon Claw and throw it back at them for a world of hurt.

* [[BeautyIsBad Beautifly Is Bad]]: Don't let its appearance fool you, Beautiflies aren't exactly nectar sippers...

* GuideDangIt: A ''literal'' example. The Emerald Strategy Guide initially claims that Wurmple's evolution depends on the time of day, but then in its Pokedex it states that Wurmple's evolution is random. Both are incorrect--its evolution depends on its personality stats. (Although the personality stats are random, making the second one partially correct)