History GameBreaker / Pokemon

* The Path of Legends story can be trivialized with a single move: Salt Cure. The signature move of the Garganacl line deals one-eighth of the target's max health damage per turn, which is doubled to one-quarter if the target is a Water or Steel type. This makes the fights against Titan Orthworm, Dondozo, and Tastugiri (also, if you're playing Violet, Iron Treads) a matter of surviving a few turns, while the Garganacl line has a positive matchup against Titan Bombirdier, making Garganacl one of the best Pokemon to use in Path of Legends.

* Terapagos was initially deemed as legal in OU, but it didn't remain for very long. Its Tera Shell ability allows it to resist any damaging move it takes at full health, even resisting all hits from a multi-hit move unlike Multiscale, giving it what is effectively a free turn to set up or do anything it wants if its opponent isn't packing a PowerNullifier like Mold Breaker ''and'' an attack powerful enough to one-shot it through its decently high bulk. Upon transforming into its Stellar Form by Terastallizing, its stats increase further (notably its health which increases from 90 to a whopping ''160'') to give it a staggering BST of 700, it swaps Tera Shell for Teraform Zero to let it wipe all weather and terrain, and it gains its own special version of the Stellar type which gives it a 20% power bonus (100% for Normal-type moves) to ''all moves, permanently'', which combined with its broad coverage and access to Calm Mind let it wreak havoc with virtually anything. This is on top of all forms of Terapagos having Tera Starstorm, a 120-power STAB attack with no drawbacks that, if Terapagos is in its Stellar form, hits ''[[ArmorPiercingAttack all types for neutral damage]]'' due to becoming a Stellar attack, on top of hitting all targets in Double Battles and hitting Terastallized foes for supereffective damage. Its only real let-downs are it taking up the Terastallization slot if one wants to use its full power as well as its mediocre 85 base Speed; the former is little of a downside considering how much havoc a Stellar Form Terapagos can wreak, while the speed issue can easily be sorted with Rock Polish or Rapid Spin, the latter of which also gives it utility for clearing hazards. It wasn't surprising that it got banned from OU shortly after it was introduced, beating out Regieleki's ban by about an hour and therefore giving it the current record. Many question why the thing was even legal in OU in the first place given that it was basically a [[PurposefullyOverpowered Box Legendary]].

* Terapagos was initially deemed as legal in OU, but it didn't remain for very long. Its Tera Shell ability allows it to resist any damaging move it takes at full health, even resisting all hits from a multi-hit move unlike Multiscale, giving it what is effectively a free turn to set up or do anything it wants if its opponent isn't packing a PowerNullifier like Mold Breaker ''and'' an attack powerful enough to one-shot it through its decently high bulk. Upon transforming into its Stellar Form by Terastallizing, its stats increase further (notably its health which increases from 90 to a whopping ''160'') to give it a staggering BST of 700, it swaps Tera Shell for Teraform Zero to let it wipe all weather and terrain, and it gains its own special version of the Stellar type which gives it a 20% power bonus (100% for Normal-type moves) to ''all moves, permanently'', which combined with its broad coverage and access to Calm Mind let it wreak havoc with virtually anything. This is on top of all forms of Terapagos having Tera Starstorm, a 120-power STAB attack with no drawbacks that, if Terapagos is in its Stellar form, becomes ''[[ArmorPiercingAttack unresisted]]'' due to becoming a Stellar attack, on top of hitting all targets in Double Battles and hitting Terastallized foes for supereffective damage. Its only real let-downs are it taking up the Terastallization slot if one wants to use its full power as well as its mediocre 85 base Speed; the former is little of a downside considering how much havoc a Stellar Form Terapagos can wreak, while the speed issue can easily be sorted with Rock Polish or Rapid Spin, the latter of which also gives it utility for clearing hazards. It wasn't surprising that it got banned from OU shortly after it was introduced, beating out Regieleki's ban by about an hour and therefore giving it the current record. Many question why the thing was even legal in OU in the first place given that it was basically a [[PurposefullyOverpowered Box Legendary]].

* Terapagos was initially deemed as legal in OU, but it didn't remain for very long. Its Tera Shell ability allows it to resist any damaging move it takes at full health, even resisting all hits from a multi-hit move unlike Multiscale, giving it what is effectively a free turn to set up or do anything it wants if its opponent isn't packing a PowerNullifier like Mold Breaker ''and'' an attack powerful enough to one-shot it through its decently high bulk. Upon transforming into its Stellar Form by Terastallizing, its stats increase further (notably its health which increases from 90 to a whopping ''160'') to give it a staggering BST of 700, it swaps Tera Shell for Teraform Zero to let it wipe all weather and terrain, and it gains its own special version of the Stellar type which gives it a 20% power bonus (100% for Normal-type moves) to ''all moves, permanently'', which combined with its broad coverage and access to Calm Mind let it wreak havoc with virtually anything. This is on top of all forms of Terapagos having Tera Starstorm, a 120-power STAB attack with no drawbacks that, if Terapagos is in its Stellar form, becomes ''[[ArmorPiercingAttack unresisted]]'' due to becoming a Stellar attack, on top of hitting all targets in Double Battles and hitting Terastallized foes for supereffective damage. Its only real let-down is a mediocre base Speed of 85, which can easily be sorted with Rock Polish or Rapid Spin, the latter of which also gives it utility for clearing hazards. It wasn't surprising that it got banned from OU shortly after it was introduced, beating out Regieleki's ban by about an hour and therefore giving it the current record. Many question why the thing was even legal in OU in the first place given that it was basically a [[PurposefullyOverpowered Box Legendary]].

* Aegislash. This sword is able to go on high offense and defense simultaneously due to its Stance Change ability, which switches the highest of those respective stats whenever an offensive/defensive move is used respectively. This effectively gives it 720 BST, the same stat total as '''Arceus''', and also brings in several mindgames ''simply by being on the field'', where one false prediction means the loss of a Pokémon and possibly the battle. Its Shield Forme is absurdly bulky with 150 in both defenses, while its Blade Forme is a GlassCannon with 150/150 offenses, and it [[ConfusionFu can run numerous sets]] where some can cripple its checks and counters (Mandibuzz and Hippowdon get crippled by [=SubToxic=], for example). Being a Steel/Ghost type, it also has many resistances and three immunities. If that wasn't enough, its SecretArt, King's Shield, acts as a non-status-blocking Protect that harshly lowers its opponent's Attack if they make contact with it. In short, its mere presence was massively overcentralizing and prevented many other Pokémon from performing their fullest in OU, and thus it was eventually sent to Ubers. It was so potent that it's one of the few Pokémon that Game Freak has directly {{nerf}}ed in between generations. In ''Sword'' and ''Shield'', its offensive and defensive base stats were reduced by 10, and the stat drop caused by King's Shield was halved, resulting in it dropping from Ubers into UU.

* Zacian-Crowned is one of the most powerful [[OlympusMons cover legendaries]] in the franchise alongside RBY Mewtwo and Mega Rayquaza. It packs the infamous Steel/Fairy typing that gives it 9 resistances and 2 immunities while having a high 170 base attack stat, and the ability Intrepid Sword raises the attack by 1.5x when ever it switches in, granting it a higher attack stat than Mega Mawile, giving it the highest attack power in the entire series. Unlike Mega Mawile, it also isn't slow, having base 148 speed, making it one of the fastest Pokémon around. It also has one of the best movepools of any offensive Pokémon, having access to coverage moves such as Crunch, Psychic Fangs, Wild Charge, Close Combat and Swords Dance while having great 92/115/115 defences meaning even if you outspeed it, it can still take a hit unless it's at low HP which makes it very difficult to OHKO it even if you outspeed.[[note]]A Choice Specs Eternatus' Flamethrower does slightly less than 90%.[[/note]] Its signature move Behemoth Blade also does double damage to Dynamax/Gigantamax'd Pokémon while having 100 BP with no drawbacks. The only disadvantage is that it can't hold any items other than the Rusted Sword to stay in this form. At the start of National Dex Anything Goes[[note]]This is Anything Goes with all the Pokémon in the game[[/note]], at top level play it was used ''20% more than Mega Rayquaza!'' In normal Ubers and Anything Goes with no National Dex, [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome it was used more than 90% of the time]]. After the Crown Tundra's release, its absolutely phenomenal speed was outclassed by Shadow Rider Calyrex (who can easily one-shot it), Pheromosa (who cannot one-shot it, but can revenge kill a weakened one), and Regieleki (who can turn it into a pile of ash with a terrain-boosted Rising Voltage), but none of them can switch in to it at all, meaning something will die to it no matter what. As a result, it's still considered one of the best in the metagame to the point where it was eventually banned to Anything Goes, the third Ubers-tiered Pokémon to do so after Mega Rayquaza and Gen IV Arceus.

* Eternatus is another one of the legendary trio and despite the lower BST than Zamazenta-Crowned, is much better even if it's not as powerful as Zacian-Crowned. Eternatus has the great Dragon/Poison typing, which is one of the best typings in the game and it has Fire coverage just like Naganadel. It has great Speed and one of the best special attacking stats in the game with 130 and 145 respectively. Its bulk is also very high due to having 140 base HP meaning it can run a bulky set thanks to having reliable recovery in the form of Recover and has Cosmic Power. Its Choice Specs set is the scariest however, with very powerful Draco Meteors, Dynamax Cannons and Sludge Waves which are very hard to switch into unless you are Steel and Fairy type in which it has Flamethrower for. Due to that great 140/95/95 defenses and fantastic speed it is virtually impossible to revenge kill, especially considering it has access to Choice Scarf and Agility making it even faster making the best way to do so is Ditto or a Choice Scarf Shadow Rider Calyrex.

* Chien-Pao joined fellow [[OlympusMons Treasure of Ruin]] Chi-Yu in Ubers, and considering that it's essentially a physical version of Chi-Yu, it isn't too shocking. But to elaborate: while Chien-Pao doesn't have as high of an Attack stat as Chi-Yu's Special Attack, it still hits like a freight train, and is faster than Chi-Yu, to boot. This meant that nothing unboosted in OU could outspeed it short of [[FragileSpeedster Dragapult]]... [[MortonsFork who falls to its priority STAB anyways]]. Speaking of which, Chien-Pao's STAB cleaves nearly anything in half, and anything that could resist it falls to Sacred Sword or Psychic Fangs. Its Attack could be amplified even further with either Choice Band, Swords Dance, and/or Tera Dark, which gave it the benefit of shedding Ice's common weaknesses while strengthening its Crunch and Sucker Punch. The fact that it could easily tear down walls, outspeed pretty much everything in the game, and it adapting to all of its counters and then some made the frigid feline a menace that was too much for OU. Even after HOME came out and introduced theoretical answers in the form of Magearna and Zamazenta, those weren't enough to keep Chien-Pao in the tier, and thus it was banned again alongside Zamazenta-Crowned.

* Miraidon, the box Legendary of ''Pokémon Violet'', is a great example of what happens when Game Freak doesn't learn from the mistakes of Crowned Form Zacian. Unlike its counterpart Koraidon, who is superficially similar in nature but is considerably more balanced since it does not gain as much immediate benefit from its own Ability due to its Fighting/Dragon typing and Fighting STAB, Miraidon is a Special sweeper cranked way up to eleven. It is packed up the wazoo with inherent damage multipliers: Hadron Engine to set Electric Terrain, giving its Electric STAB (already dealing 50% more damage) an additional 30% damage boost, getting an additional ~33% Sp. Atk boost from Hadron Engine, and its signature move Electro Drift being a 100 BP Electric Special move that gets a 33% damage bonus on a super effective hit. Being even grazed by any Electric move from this monstrosity is the equivalent of being steamrolled by a jet plane, and it's not for want of coverage either, with Calm Mind to jack up its already immense 135 Base Sp. Atk, STAB Draco Meteor to kick opposing Dragons in the teeth, U-Turn and Volt Switch to apply pivot pressure, and Overheat and Tera Blast to get over anything defensive that may attempt to buy time against its sheer unstoppable force. Its choices in Terastalization are diverse and make it hard to predict; Electric to eliminate its Fairy and Ice weakness while doubling up on Electric STAB to flatten anything that dares to look its way, Water and Dragon to deal with pesky Ground types that try to take advantage of their Electric immunity, or Fairy to counter opposing Dragons, especially Koraidon or other Miraidon. There is damn near nothing that can stop Miraidon from taking over the game, and with its base 135 Speed it is also one of the fastest Pokémon in the game next to Koraidon and Flutter Mane, only beaten by Dragapult and Iron Bundle.

* Zamazenta-Crowned was initially allowed in OU following the release of HOME, being seen as unworthy to be in Ubers. This, however, turned out to be a ''big'' mistake, as just like Kyurem-Black in Generation VIII, Zamazenta-Crowned received one crucial new move that pushed it over the edge: Body Press, a move practically tailor-made for it. With that move, Zamazenta-Crowned now had a STAB move that ran off of its immense 140 base Defense, and combined with its great defensive typing of Fighting/Steel, and the potential for further boosting through the already existing Iron Defense (and even Dauntless Shield, nerfed though it may be), allowing it to hit stupefying levels of power and bulk, like actively destroying generally physically bulky, Fighting-resistant Pokémon like Landorus-Therian with Body Press while not even being 3HKO'd by Lando's Earthquake in return. Compounding this difficulty in checking it is the fact that Zamazenta-Crowned was also tied for being the third-fastest Pokémon in OU (the only faster Pokémon being Zamazenta's own Hero form and Dragapult), eventually leading to Zamazenta-Crowned being sent back to Ubers alongside Chien-Pao, just four days after Magearna got the axe.

* The Path of Legends story can be trivialized with a single move: Salt Cure. The signature move of the Garganacl line deals one-eighth of the target's max health damage per turn, which is doubled to one-quarter if the target is a Water or Steel type. This makes the fights against Titan Orthworm, Dondozo, and Tastugiri (also, if you're playing Violet, Iron Treads) a matter of surviving a few turns, while the Garganacl line has a positive matchup against Titan Bombirdier, making Garganacl on of the best Pokemon to use in Path of Legends.

* Yveltal, while initially not as flashy as Xerneas or capable of slaughtering an entire team after just one move, is still a massive threat for a variety of reasons. First off, Dark/Flying is a great type combo made even better by its ability, which gives it horrifically powerful Dark Pulses that hit like nukes. Secondly, it is one of the single best [[CastFromHitPoints Life Orb]] users in the game thanks to Oblivion Wing, which is an extremely powerful draining move that is further boosted by STAB, allowing it to essentially negate the Life Orb HP cost. Oblivion Wing coupled with Roost and Foul Play (which also gets boosted by Dark Aura) and its solid natural bulk also makes it an effective tank, and access to the strongest priority move in the game with a Dark Aura-boosted Sucker Punch is yet another plus. All that without mentioning its plethora of other options, including Knock Off, Taunt and U-turn. Its awkward Speed and middling defensive typing are hurdles, but overall, Yveltal is a massive threat that every Ubers team should plan for. In Generation VIII in particular, it proved its worth as a JackOfAllTrades MasterOfAll by being the only true counter to the otherwise terrifying Shadow Rider Calyrex and [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome was seen on every single Ubers team]] in a variety of offensive, defensive and support roles, becoming the most used Pokémon in the tier and surpassing Xerneas in usage and viability.

* Rayquaza itself was already a terrifying prospect, but Mega Rayquaza easily tops nearly everything. It has a BST of 780[[note]]same as the Mega Mewtwo duo[[/note]]: both its Attack stats are at a whopping 180 and it has buffed up Speed and Defense stats. It became the most powerful Pokémon because of one detail: ''it does not need a Mega Stone to Mega Evolve''. It only needs to know the move Dragon Ascent, a powerful Flying-type attack with 100% accuracy. Meaning that Mega Rayquaza can hold any item to either increase its survivability or skyrocket its already formidable power. [[ButWaitTheresMore But that is not the end of it.]] Mega Rayquaza also has the ability Delta Stream, which overrides other weathers (including Primordial Sea and Desolate Land) and weakens moves that would be super-effective against Flying-types — meaning Ice-type moves only do 2x damage rather than the usual x4 damage and its Rock-type weakness is erased; it also becomes resistant to Electric-type moves. Mega Rayquaza is so immensely powerful that Website/{{Smogon}} had to convert Ubers[[note]]known as the banlist for broken Pokémon for the longest time, and not "really" a tier[[/note]] to a standard tier[[note]]unofficially, it's still a banlist first, as they still need a place to put stuff banned from OU[[/note]] and a new tier called Anything Goes had to be created to house it, banning Mega Rayquaza from Ubers.[[note]]Immediately prior to its ban, things had gotten to the point where people were using [[CripplingOverspecialization gimmicky sets]] such as Counter Skarmory and Shuca Berry Rhyperior in Ubers [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman just to beat it.]][[/note]] Anything Goes is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin — all bans (like evasion, Moody, or [=SwagPlay=]) are lifted and the only clause in effect is the Endless Battle Clause. Mega Rayquaza has proven to be so broken that the ''only'' way to balance it was to throw it in a shamelessly unbalanced and uncompetitive format.

* Marshadow. An utter monster from the onset, it packs arguably the best offensive STAB in the game (hitting seven types super-effectively and able to score neutral on literally anything else, something that was unheard of in STAB combos), a very high 125 Speed, having Technician as its ability to boost the power of Shadow Sneak and Hidden Power, a fantastic coverage thanks to the aforementioned Hidden Power boost and deceptively high bulk of 90/80/80. What really put it into this territory, though, is its SecretArt Spectral Thief, a powerful STAB move that ''steals all stat boosts and ignores Substitutes''. Using this, setting up against and revenge killing Marshadow becomes nigh-on impossible, since any attempt to do so would result in Marshadow using Spectral Thief to steal such set-up bar from Normal-type, rendering the time spent worthless and making it even more impossible to kill. What's more, any Pokémon that ''could'' wall it would be instantly KO'ed by its extremely powerful Z-Move. People were begging for it to be banished to Ubers the moment it was revealed, and, sure enough, it was sent there a mere ''two days'' after it was officially released.

* ''Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon'' introduced Ultra Necrozma, with a whopping 754 BST, outmatched only by Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, Mega Mewtwo X and Y, and Mega Rayquaza. Not only does it have a large amount of coverage moves to fight against the weaknesses of both Dragon and Psychic, it has its own Z-move, Light That Burns The Sky. Oh, and said Z-move (and its base move, Photon Geyser) go off the higher of the user's offensive stats. Intimidated or burned Necrozma to keep it from wreaking havoc on you? Now, those moves go off its untouched Special Attack, and vice versa if you lower Special Attack. To top it all off, Ultra Necrozma's signature ability, Neuroforce, acts like a better Expert Belt that boosts the power of super-effective moves by 1.25x; combined with its splendid coverage, it can and will use something super-effective against its counters. And, of course, it can be stacked in a team with [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, and a Mega Evolution]] of your choice. (A player is limited to one Ultra Burst per match, but Necrozma is the only Pokémon able to Ultra Burst, so that's a moot point.)
* Dusk Mane Necrozma has proven itself to be one of the best Pokémon in Ubers thanks to its fantastic bulk coupled with Prism Armor that reduces the damage done by super-effective attacks with the added benefit of being unaffected by Mold Breaker, Turboblaze, Teravolt, and the effect of Moongeist Beam, Sunsteel Strike, and Photon Geyser. Additionally, Dusk Mane Necrozma is immune to Toxic while having a Stealth Rock resistance and it has either Moonlight or Morning Sun for recovery. As for the offensive department, Dusk Mane Necrozma has an amazing attack stat with Solganium Z for extra firepower. While it isn't very agile, it can be easily patched with the assistance of either Rock Polish, Autotomize, or Trick Room. Finally, there's also an initial unpredictability (in the opponent's view) of whether or not it'll Ultra Burst into Ultra Necrozma.

* Out of the four [[OlympusMons Treasures of Ruin]], the one that got banned first is Chi-Yu. Already, it has a frightening Special Attack at 135[[note]] This is actually the ''nerfed'' version; the non-patched base game has Chi-Yu's Special Attack at ''145''[[/note]], but what pushes it over the edge is its ability Beads of Ruin. Functioning as a stackable Special Defense drop for anything else but Chi-Yu on the field, it essentially turns Chi-Yu's Special Attack stat into ''197'', the highest out of any Pokémon ever. Add in Chi-Yu's decent bulk, its solid speed, the fact that Chi-Yu can learn Nasty Plot to strengthen its Special Attack, ''and'' hold either Heavy Duty Boots to stop Stealth Rock, or Choice Specs to make its Special Attack be even nastier. Terastilization only made it even more powerful when combined with Sun teams, as Tera Fire Overheat with Choice Specs under Sun could even OneHitKill walls that outright resist the move, such as Toxapex, as well as threaten an OHKO on Blissey. This led to Chi-Yu getting quick-banned into Ubers after the Terastallization suspect test concluded.

* In the wake of "Dexit", an alternative metagame called National Dex was introduced, which features all 1000+ mons ever released in a ''Pokémon'' game, as well as every single gimmick, including Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, Dynamax, and Terastilization all at once. Experimentation has proved that there's very good reasons most of these mechanics and Pokémon cannot coexist simultaneously. Gen IX Nat Dex Anything Goes became so horrifically unplayable and beyond all forms of uncompetitive that Smogon staff opted to delete the format from the list of common metagames entirely by removing its ladder, prompting the creation of Gen IX National Dex Ubers in its place (which is just AG but with bans). The only way to play the tier now is through challenges to other players with customized rules, as those lack a ladder by default.

** Miraidon, the main Legendary and Game Mascot of ''Violet'', got sent to Anything Goes in the National Dex format. This is because of its insane power, where its ability increases its special attack by 1.33x once it comes in, and sets up Electric Terrain. This effectively means it comes in with one of the highest overall special attack stats in the game[[note]]Chi-Yu with Beads of Ruin is stronger, but only slightly[[/note]], and has strong moves such as Draco Meteor, Electro Drift, which also gets powered up in Terrain and is incredibly spammable due to not having a drawback, Overheat and a pivot move in Volt Switch and like any Pokémon, it can Terastillize to make its STAB Electric/Dragon attacks even more powerful or go Tera Fire to live a Play Rough from Zacian-Crowned and shred through it with Overheat. It's also very fast at 135 base speed, and possesses a good offensive and defensive typing in Dragon/Electric and has [[LightningBruiser overall strong defenses]]. It has potential to 2HKO or OHKO almost every Pokémon in Ubers with a Choice Specs, including very bulky walls like Blissey, meaning Miraidon manages to surpass even Mega Rayquaza, Zacian (which got nerfed in Gen 9) or Calyrex Shadow's damage output. However, what made it uniquely broken in National Dex however was that it had access to Calm Mind + Dragonium Z to take out checks for the Choice Specs set such as Arceus-Ground, allowing it to have a way to seemingly deal with anything that could threaten it depending on what set it was running, with some very good players claiming that it may be the best Pokémon since RBY Mewtwo.

* Terapagos was initially deemed as legal in OU, but it didn't remain for very long. Its Tera Shell ability allows it to resist any damaging move it takes at full health, even resisting all hits from a multi-hit move unlike Multiscale, giving it what is effectively a free turn to set up or do anything it wants if its opponent isn't packing a PowerNullifier like Mold Breaker ''and'' an attack powerful enough to one-shot it through its decently high bulk. Upon transforming into its Stellar Form by Terastallizing, its stats increase further (notably its health which increases from 90 to a whopping ''160'') to give it a staggering BST of 700, it swaps Tera Shell for Teraform Zero to let it wipe all weather and terrain, and it gains its own special version of the Stellar type which gives it a 20% power bonus (100% for Normal-type moves) to ''all moves, permanently'', which combined with its varied movepool made it able to wreak havoc with virtually anything. This is on top of all forms of Terapagos having Tera Starstorm, a 120-power STAB attack with no drawbacks that, if Terapagos is in its Stellar form, becomes ''[[ArmorPiercingAttack unresisted]]'' due to becoming a Stellar attack, on top of hitting all targets in Double Battles and hitting Terastallized foes for supereffective damage. Its only let-down is its low speed, which can easily be sorted with Rock Polish or Rapid Spin. It wasn't surprising that it got banned from OU shortly after it was introduced, beating out Regieleki's ban by about an hour and therefore giving it the current record. Many question why the thing was even legal in OU in the first place given that it was basically a [[PurposefullyOverpowered Box Legendary]].

* Terapagos was initially deemed as legal in OU, but it didn't remain for very long. Its Tera Shell ability allows it to resist any damaging move it takes at full health, even resisting all hits from a multi-hit move unlike Multiscale, giving it what is effectively a free turn to set up or do anything it wants if its opponent isn't packing a PowerNullifier like Mold Breaker ''and'' an attack powerful enough to one-shot it through its decently high bulk. Upon transforming into its Stellar Form by Terastallizing, its stats increase further (notably its health which increases from 90 to a whopping ''160'') to give it a staggering BST of 700, it gains the Teraform Zero ability which immediately clears all weather and terrain, and it gains its own special version of the Stellar type which gives it a 20% power bonus (100% for Normal-type moves) to ''all moves, permanently'', which combined with its varied movepool made it able to wreak havoc with virtually anything. This is on top of all forms of Terapagos having Tera Starstorm, a 120-power STAB attack with no drawbacks that, if Terapagos is in its Stellar form, becomes ''[[ArmorPiercingAttack unresisted]]'' due to becoming a Stellar attack, on top of hitting all targets in Double Battles and hitting Terastallized foes for supereffective damage. Its only let-down is its low speed, which can easily be sorted with Rock Polish or Rapid Spin. It wasn't surprising that it got banned from OU shortly after it was introduced, beating out Regieleki's ban by about an hour and therefore giving it the current record. Many question why the thing was even legal in OU in the first place given that it was basically a [[PurposefullyOverpowered Box Legendary]].

* Terapagos was initially deemed as legal in OU, but it wasn't for too long. Its Tera Shell ability allows it to resist any damaging move it takes at full health, even resisting all hits from a multi-hit move unlike Multiscale, giving it what is effectively a free turn to set up or do anything it wants. Upon transforming into its Stellar Form by Terastallizing, its stats increase further (notably its health) to give it a staggering BST of ''700'', Teraform Zero negates all weather and terrain while it's active, and it gains its own special version of the Stellar type which gives it a 20% bonus (100% for Normal-type moves) to ''all moves, permanently'', which combined with its varied movepool made it able to wreak havoc with virtually anything. This is on top of all forms of Terapagos having Tera Starstorm, a 120-power, 100% accuracy attack with no drawbacks that, if Terapagos is in its Stellar form, becomes ''[[ArmorPiercingAttack unresisted]]'' due to becoming a Stellar attack, on top of hitting all targets in Double Battles and hitting Terastallized foes for supereffective damage. Its only let-down is its low speed, which can easily be sorted with Rock Polish or Rapid Spin. It wasn't surprising that it got banned from OU shortly after it was introduced, beating out Regieleki's ban by about an hour and therefore giving it the current record. Many question why the thing was even legal in OU in the first place given that it was basically a [[PurposefullyOverpowered Box Legendary]].

* Roaring Moon ended up taking the metagame by storm. [[LightningBruiser With a blistering 119 Speed and 139 Attack]], it could mow down anything that wasn't prepared. Thanks to Booster Energy, this could ramp up its Speed or Attack with strong moves such as Earthquake and Acrobatics[[note]]110 power if it's not holding anything, which Booster Energy gets immediately consumed upon switching in[[/note]], STAB with Outrage, pivoting with U-turn, and strong coverage like Iron Head, it could end up being a force to be reckoned with. This was further exacerbated by Terastallization, which could mitigate its weaknesses by turning into Flying or Steel. However, Roaring Moon proves to be a terror to behold with ''Teal Mask DLC'' blessing it with Knock Off, singlehandely solving its issue of its matchup against Unaware Pokémon such as Dondozo by [[NoItemUseForYou removing its held item]] as well as being stronger than Crunch/Throat Chop. [[ConfusionFu Add on the unpredictability of its Tera type making countering it nigh-impossible]], a suspect test was held. While divisive, it ultimately led to Roaring Moon getting hit by the ban hammer, following Gen 4 Salamence and Mega Salamence's footsteps.
* [[ScaryScorpions Gliscor]] was an OU metagame staple[[note]]Aside from Generation VIII, where it's inaccessible[[/note]] with its [[JackOfAllStats balanced yet great stats]] and a great typing in Ground/Flying, making it a Pokémon that could slot into many teams well. Gen V improved it further with its Hidden Ability Poison Heal, giving it a passive healing option with Toxic Orb that blocked other statuses like Paralysis. However, Gen IX is where Gliscor goes out of hand. While losing some of its old reliable moves like Defog and [[HealThyself Roost]], Gliscor receives Spikes & Toxic Spikes, making it a crucial component to Gholdengo, which could negate any attempt to remove them (short of [[CharacterSelectForcing Cinderace's Court Change or Maushold's Tidy Up]]) , they become easy ways to whittle down nearly anything. And Gliscor has Knock Off to remove held items, most notably Heavy-Duty Boots that prevent the holder from being affected by entry hazards. While Gholdengo enabled Gliscor's hazard-setting strategy, it's far from the only thing the flying scorpion can pull, with Swords Dance sets just being one common set. It's easy to see why a ban with a 2/3rds majority hit the scorpion for the first time in 17 years.

* Terapagos was initially deemed as legal in OU, but it wasn't for too long. Its ability upon transforming allows it to turn almost any attacks into resisting it at full health, even resisting all hits from a multi-hit move unlike Multiscale, giving it what is effectively a free turn to set up or do anything it wants. Upon transforming into its Stellar Form by Terastallizing, its stats increase further (notably its health), Teraform Zero negates all weather and terrain while it's active, and it gains its own special version of the Stellar type which gives it a 20% bonus (100% for Normal-type moves) to ''all moves, permanently'', which combined with its varied movepool made it able to wreak havoc with virtually anything. This is on top of all forms of Terapagos having Tera Starstorm, a 120-power, 100% accuracy attack with no drawbacks that, if Terapagos is in its Stellar form, becomes ''[[ArmorPiercingAttack unresisted]]'' due to becoming a Stellar attack, on top of hitting all targets in Double Battles and hitting Terastallized foes for supereffective damage. Its only let-down is its low speed, which can easily be sorted with Rock Polish or Rapid Spin. It wasn't surprising that it got banned from OU shortly after it was introduced, beating out Regieleki's ban by about an hour and therefore giving it the current record. Many question why the thing was even legal in OU in the first place given that it was basically a [[PurposefullyOverpowered Box Legendary]].

* Terapagos was initially deemed as legal in OU, but it wasn't for too long. Its ability upon transforming allows it to turn almost any attacks into resisting it at full health and also resisted all hits from a multi-hit move as long it is at full health. Upon transforming into its Stellar Form by Terastalising, its stats increase further, notably its health and can also negate weather and terrain with its ability. Its only let-down is its low speed, which can easily be sorted with Rock Polish or Rapid Spin. It wasn't surprising that it got banned from OU shortly after it was introduced, beating out Regieleki's ban by about an hour and therefore giving it the current record. Many question why the thing was even legal in OU in the first place given that it was basically a [[PurposefullyOverpowered Box Legendary]].

* Regieleki was already powerful in Gen VIII thanks to its high speed and Transistor ability boosting its electric moves, but was held back by its lack of coverage beyond Normal and Rock type moves leaving it hopelessly outmatched against any decent Ground Type, then came HOME's release in Gen IX and Regieleki was made transferable in ''Scarlet/Violet'' allowing it to Terastalize and learn Tera Blast, which it used to become an Ice Type and wreak havoc on anything that once would've given it pause. With the combination of Transistor-boosted Thunderbolt and Terastalization-boosted Ice Tera Blast (essentially a stronger version of the [=BoltBeam=] coverage) boosted by either Choice Specs or Life Orb it was impossible to safely switch into it and even beating it one-on-one was hard to pull off due to it having the highest speed stat of all Pokémon at 504, making even revenge killing nigh-impossible. Even attempts to circumvent its coverage could be stopped dead in its tracks if Regieleki used Substitute, giving itself protection and a chance to set up against a would-be check or scout out entire teams allowing it and its teammates to have an overwhelming advantage against any team. It was quickly banned barely a day after the release of HOME to the surprise of no one, earning the dubious honor of the fastest quickban in any OU tier's history, beating out Marshadow's previous record of 2 days in Gen VII's OU.

* Terapagos was initially deemed as legal in OU, but it wasn't for too long. Its ability upon transforming allows it to turn almost any attacks into resisting it at full health and also resisted all hits from a multi-hit move as long it is at full health. Upon transforming into its Stellar Form by Terastalising, its stats increase further, notably its health and can also negate weather and terrain with its ability. Its only let-down is its low speed, which can easily be sorted with Rock Polish or Rapid Spin. It wasn't surprising that it got banned from OU shortly after it was introduced.

* For in-game purposes, two of the starters are capable of handling most of the early game story mode opponents.
** Feraligatr is a big one, moreso than any other starter. The entire game can be turned into a giant CurbStompBattle with its surprisingly good movepool for this generation (Ice Punch trivializes both the rival and the last gym). Worse, the only two gyms out of 16 that this Pokémon has a disadvantage at are in the post-game and relatively easy. It can breeze through the Elite Four with its HUGE movepool and [[LightningBruiser fast and strong attacks for this generation,]] curbstomping EVEN THE CHAMPION ([[AnIcePerson Hello, Ice Punch]]). It reaches its final form at level 30, the earliest among the starters in the entire series. This Pokémon alone is the reason some found this gen easy, and it is even a common criticism of Gen II's balancing issues in the wake of some HypeBacklash. Even in the remakes, with better balancing, it is still one tough Mon to best. It actually became a BaseBreakingCharacter in Twitch Plays Pokémon Crystal because of how easy it made the otherwise daunting challenge of controlling a character only with input commands from a mob of random Twitch chat users.
** Typhlosion is no slouch either. Fast, access to a lot of strong Fire-type moves early on, benefits more from sunlight, and packs the absolutely devastating Eruption, which will likely one-shot anything within five levels. It helps that, like Feraligatr, plenty of gyms have a weakness to it, no less than 4 out of 16, compared to Feraligatr's 2 out of 16. (The only three which are resistant are the final gym (fair enough), and the two post-game ones.) Prior to the Physical-Special split it even benefits from great coverage in Thunder Punch! This and Feraligatr's aforementioned Ice Punch is likely the reason elemental punches are much harder to obtain in subsequent generations when they lost their TM status. Although, it is much less this than Feraligatr was in the originals thanks to much better competitive balance, keeping it from being absolutely broken.
%%** While it faces difficulties in the single player early game, Meganium is especially well suited for the late game, as even before Kanto the later gyms often have subtypes disadvantaged against grass (including Chuck’s water type Poliwrath, Olivine’s electric and ground types, Pryce’s ground and water types, and the many water types in Claire’s gym). Once it hits Kanto, it has nearly all the advantages Bulbasaur did in Gen 1 (winning against about half of those gyms). It’s also the strongest choice in Gen 2 competitive play among the starters, as it can run both strong setup sets with Swords Dance, Earthquake, and Body Slam, and has sufficient bulk to not get instantly eliminated on turn 1. It can alternatively run a more tanky support set with several self healing options and team support in Reflect, Light Screen, and Safeguard. Both are viable, meaning that it’s difficult to predict exactly what kind of set it will run, and it can play multiple roles on a team. And it’s bulk means it’s able to switch in reliably and take advantage of useful resistances to water, ground, and electric. It also helps that its weaknesses to flying, bug, and poison were almost entirely irrelevant to the meta (with the exception of Drill Peck on Zapdos). There’s a reason it’s the only Gen 2 starter with consistent OU play in the Gold/Silver/Crystal competitive meta, and the best tier record of the starters on Smogon.

* Out of all Ogerpon’s masks, her Hearthflame Mask ends up generating the most heat. In addition to the masks giving a 20% power boost to all her moves coming off of her 120 attack along with a blazing 110 speed alongside Sword Dance to sharply raise Ogerpon's attack and Trailblaze to boost her speed, Ogerpon has a SecretArt in Ivy Cudgel that has 100 base power with a high critical ratio, which becomes a Fire-type move with Hearthflame Mask. However, the main aspect that makes Hearthflame Mask a dangerous powerhouse lies in Ogerpon's ability, Mold Breaker, which enables Ogerpon to ignore crucial abilities and break past Pokémon such as Heatran and Skeledirge. Furthermore, when Ogerpon terastallizes, she gains Embody Aspect as her ability, giving Ogerpon a free attack boost if she's in Hearthflame Mask. While not without weaknesses, Hearthflame Mask proved to be too difficult to handle and was quickly banned from OU.

* Among starters, [[GreenThumb Bulbasaur]] stands out as having a kit and typing with incredible advantages throughout the entire game. This includes having type advantages against the first 4 gyms and the last gym, and advantages against 2 of the 4 Elite Four (all but one of Lorelei’s Pokémon are water type and relatively slow, totally mitigating the usual advantage ice has over grass types). Bulbasaur’s poison typing makes it immune to getting poisoned, which is a uniquely terrifying status effect in Generation 1 since it could damage you outside of battle. Razor Leaf was also effectively a 110 power attack that ignored enemy stat buffs thanks to having a near 100% crit rate (this was comparable in power to Flamethrower, but learned several levels earlier). And Sleep Powder was devastatingly strong, with sleep being so overpowered that competitive play limits its usage. Thanks to the special stat controlling both special attack and special defense, Growth was essentially a double stat boost (just like Calm Mind in later generations), something no other starter could access. Finally, many of its weaknesses simply weren’t meaningful. There were no actual decent Bug type moves aside from the extremely rare Pin Missile (limited to exactly 2 uncommon Pokémon), Ice type attacks were limited to late game and almost entirely placed on water-type Pokémon that were weak to Venusaur to begin with, and Fire types were so rare they didn’t present a challenge until the second to last gym (by which point you have a team to round things out). The [[VideoGameRemake remakes]] removed some of Bulbasaur’s power by fixing the AI and making Razor Leaf weaker — it’s closer to a CrutchCharacter there, though it’s still a powerful choice.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonUranium'' introduces the Nuclear type and a corresponding new Eevee evolution, Nucleon, which is capable of sweeping almost any team. First, Nuclear is super-effective against every type except Nuclear and Steel -- which means that it's quadruple effective against all dual-typed Pokémon, as most Pokémon in the game are. Then, Nucleon has the Atomizate ability, which converts all Normal-typed moves to Nuclear type -- granting it the Same Type Attack Bonus -- ''and'' directly boosting them. That allows it to use Nuclear-typed Hyper Voice, which has a high base attack power (even before stacking in all of its other bonuses) and hits all enemies. And since Nucleon only needs that one move, it can use a Choice Scarf to boost its speed (which was already quite high), ensuring that it will get the first -- and likely final -- hit on almost any opponent.

* [[ScaryScorpions Gliscor]] was an OU metagame staple[[note]]Aside from Generation VIII, where it's inaccessible[[/note]] with its [[JackOfAllStats balanced yet great stats]] and a great typing in Ground/Flying, making it a Pokémonthat could slot into many teams well. Gen V improved it further with its Hidden Ability Poison Heal, giving it a passive healing option with Toxic Orb that blocked other statuses like Paralysis. However, Gen IX is where Gliscor goes out of hand. While losing some of its old reliable moves like Defog and [[HealThyself Roost]], Gliscor receives Spikes & Toxic Spikes, making it a crucial component to Gholdengo, which could negate any attempt to remove them (short of [[CharacterSelectForcing Cinderace's Court Change or Maushold's Tidy Up]]) , they become easy ways to whittle down nearly anything. And Gliscor has Knock Off to remove held items, most notably Heavy-Duty Boots that prevent the holder from being affected by entry hazards. While Gholdengo enabled Gliscor's hazard-setting strategy, it's far from the only thing the flying scorpion can pull, with Swords Dance sets just being one common set. It's easy to see why a ban with a 2/3rds majority hit the scorpion for the first time in 17 years.

* Shadow Rider Calyrex possesses a crazy Special Attack stat of 165 and base 150 Speed, which allows it to be one of the very few Pokémon that can outspeed the now banned Zacian-Crowned, and its signature move Astral Barrage has 120 base power with no drawbacks while not getting revenge killed by much other than Scarf Kyogre, [[FastestThingAlive Regieleki]], Pheromosa with Throat Chop, and either Dark or Ghost types with strong priority moves such as Yveltal and Marshadow, but many teams gave Calyrex support with Psychic Terrain coming from either Tapu Lele or Indeedee, so priority wouldn't work. Its coverage is also fairly good with Leaf Storm, Expanding Force which can be combined with Psychic Terrain[[note]]When Psychic Terrain is up, Expanding Force becomes a 156 base power move that is STAB coming off of a 165 special attack making it stronger than Rampardos’s Head Smash in power[[/note]] to absolutely nuke any non-Dark type opponent, Psyshock which hits Pokémon on the physical side allowing it to deal more damage to mons like Chansey or Blissey (who would otherwise check it), Draining Kiss to hit Dark Types, and Nasty Plot to increase its Special Attack even further. When it takes out a Pokémon, it gets a special attacking version of Moxie, allowing it to potentially sweep teams with little effort while also having Unnerve on top of that. It can also hold an item like most legendaries, meaning it doesn't have the same flaw that Zacian-Crowned and the Primal forms have. Its main weakness is that it's [[GlassCannon rather frail on the physical side]] and has a horrible defensive typing in Psychic/Ghost making it 4x weak to Ghost and Dark, which are common offensive types in Ubers. Its general ability to sweep teams with little effort has made it a huge threat in the first month of Ubers after the DLC drop, having the [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome overall highest usage stats of any Pokémon in Ubers]] as well as discussion on potentially suspect testing the mon to Anything Goes due to the meta only revolving around this Pokémon and its main counter Yveltal (who can effortlessly OHKO it with a boosted Sucker Punch) and the occasional Marshadow (who can also OHKO it with a boosted Shadow Sneak). However, it never did get banned into Anything Goes after Dynamax and both forms of Zacian was banned, as Dynamax helped it improve its bulk to live Dark-type attacks and become an even more threatening sweeper, and Zacian was an excellent teammate that supported Calyrex very well, as Calyrex helped beat out Necrozma Dusk Mane, which was one of Zacian's few good checks, while Zacian helped beat out Calyrex's best counter in Yveltal. It is still one of the best Pokémon in Ubers alongside Yveltal, and though it initially was much more balanced as it was beaten by Yveltal, later sets such as [=SubSeed=] and Taunt+Disable were discovered that could potentially turn the tables on Yveltal, which forced many Yveltal to run specially defensive EV spreads instead of something more useful, or even suboptimal moves like Snarl, to avoid getting destroyed and then swept by Calyrex. This led to Calyrex getting suspect tested and nearly banned to Anything Goes, although the playerbase ultimately let it stay in Ubers.

** Shadow Rider Calyrex was quickbanned to Anything Goes in National Dex due to getting access to Tera Fairy, typically with Tera Blast to get through Dark types such as Yveltal, Chien-Pao and Kingambit, leading it to still have all of its insane power, speed and ability to get stronger everytime its get a kill, while losing all its counters that just barely kept in the Ubers tier. [[note]]When it was introduced in Scarlet/Violet through HOME, Shadow Rider Calyrex was banned to Anything Goes ''there'', too, for the exact same reasons (except in that meta, [[FromBadToWorse there was no Yveltal to try to stop it.]])[[/note]]

* Pokémon Showdown has it's own take on Metronome battling, where it is a 2v2 format with Hackmons-esque limitations with even stuff like the Pokestar Studios Pokémon being allowed in the format. Because the format is highly luck based, there aren't that many bans, which proves how overcentralizing the things listed here are.
** Most Pokémon banned from the format fall into one of the two blanket bans of no Pokémon with a BST over 625 or having the steel type (due to their defensive viability being overpowered) the sole exception to this is Pokestar Spirit, which has the same statspread as [[MasterOfAll Mew]] and is also one of only 2 Pokémon with the Ghost/Dark typing. With only a single weakness that Metronome is unlikely to select and generally being better than the already good Mega Sableye[[note]]Keep in mind this format allows Megas to run other items making it even better than it already is in standard competitive[[/note]] Pokestar Spirit was banned before even the blanket ban on Steel Types was introduced.

* Even among the strongest pairs in the game, Alder & Volcarona are absolutely ''broken''. Volcarona has Struggle Bug, which while not very powerful, it can lower the Special Attack of 1 every time it's used, meaning that if your opponent uses Special Attacks, they will become pretty much harmless in little time. And its second attack... it's freaking ''[[ThatOneAttack Hyper Beam]]'', which has one of the highest base power of any attack of the game. Even better, Volcarona's Special Attack is incredibly high which only gets higher with Alder's Trainer move, Unparalleled Power!, which for lowering the Defense of 2 grades it raises the Speed and Special Defense of 2... and the Special Attack of '''6'''. And it adds the fact that he also has Dire Hit+ which raises the critical-hit rate of 2 (and considering the max is 3 and you have two uses, you can top it fast). His Passive Skills are Bug Shift, Rejuvenate 6 and Adrenaline 2. While Bug Shift and Adrenaline are not that special, Rejuvenate fully fills the move gauge every time a sync move is used, meaning a fresh Hyper Beam to use right off the bat. And if by any chance you manage to promote him to 6-Star EX, his sync move, which is even ''more powerful than Hyper Beam'', will target ALL enemies.
* Leon & Charizard have disgustingly high Attack and Special Attack with a whooping 448 at level 140 on both (488 at Max Potential). Not to mention he has Hurricane, Earthquake and Inferno, making him a good pick not only against types weak to Fire but to Earth and Flying as well. While Leon's Trainer move, Strike a Pose!, lowers both Defense and Special Defense, it also raises his Attack, Special Attack, and even the critical-hit rate. It also lowers the sync move countdown of 1 and give a Free Move Next effect to add. And his Passive Skills are no joke either. He has Galar Flag Bearer, which powers up the other sync pairs' moves of 10% and the damages are reduced of 20%. And if by any chance the team has two other Galar units, then the percetages raises up to 30% and 26% respectively. Then he has the lethal combo of Piercing Gaze and Super Preparation 4. The former allows the Pokémon to never miss and the latter gives a pretty good chance of giving Supereffective ↑ should the next attack be successful (which will be ''always''). In case you didn't know, Supereffective ↑ ''doubles the damage inflicted by the next supereffective move''.

* Dynamax and Gigantamax end up becoming the first battle mechanic to be deemed too overcentralizing. To start off with, Dynamax increases the health of a Pokémon by 2 times, making a Dynamaxed Pokémon potentially have as much HP as Blissey and Chansey. Dynamaxed Pokémon can fear a lot less of even a 4x weakness when that bulk will help its survivability. Additionally, all of the Max Moves have a secondary effect depending on the type: A stat boost for all allies, a stat debuff for all opponents, weather change, or terrain change. Players using protect or similar will still take 25% damage and have the secondary effect occur, the only way for this to be avoided is by matching a type immunity (if possible), a status effect like paralysis or sleep, or Max Guard that requires a Dynamax/Gigantamax. G-Max Moves for Gigantamax operate almost the same as Max Moves. The only difference is that certain moves will do other special effects instead, such as paralysis, continuous HP drain, piercing through Pokémon's abilities, etc. Furthermore, Dynamaxed Pokémon have immunities to phazing, Encore, and weight-based moves. Unlike Mega Evolution and Z-moves before it, Dynamax does not require an item, meaning that the aforementioned Max Moves can be boosted even further by items such as a Life Orb or Weakness Policy, and ''any'' Pokémon can Dynamax at ''any'' time, which made the mechanic even more unpredictable. This resulted in players using more specific counterplays such as Ditto with Choice Scarf just to stand a chance against Dynamax. To illustrate the power of Dynamax, Dynamax is banned all across almost every Smogon tiers with Anything Goes being one of the few exceptions, becoming one of the few elements that resides in AG alongside Mega Rayquaza and Baton Pass.

* [[ScaryScorpions Gliscor]] was an OU metagame staple[[note]]Aside from Generation VIII, where it's inaccessible[[/note]] with its [[JackOfAllStats balanced yet great stats]] and a great typing in Ground/Flying that gave it an immunity to most hazards while taking normal damage from Stealth Rock, making it a Pokémonthat could slot into many teams well. Gen V improved it further with its Hidden Ability Poison Heal, which when combined with Toxic Orb to near-immediately give it the Poison status, gave it a passive healing option that blocked other statuses like Paralysis. While killable provided the right counters were used, Gen IX ramped up Gliscor to a new level of nasty. While losing some of its old reliable moves like Defog and [[HealThyself Roost]], it was negligible compared to its new moves. Spikes & Toxic Spikes are great moves on its own, but when paired with Gholdengo, which could negate any attempt to remove them (short of [[CharacterSelectForcing Cinderace's Court Change]]), they become easy ways to whittle down nearly anything. And it also gets Knock Off, making Heavy Duty Boots a non-issue while inflicting heavy damage on anything that has an item (which is around 99% of the metagame). While Gholdengo enabled Gliscor's hazard-setting strategy, it's far from the only thing the flying scorpion can pull, with Swords Dance sets just being one common set. And add on to it ''still'' being difficult to knock out before it can pull anything funny, as well as its main competition, Landorus-T, being nerfed with the loss of some of its helpful moves, and it's easy to see why a ban at a 2/3rds majority hit the scorpion for the first time in 17 years.
* Sneasler is min-maxed to the extreme; packing an amazing 130 Attack with 120 Speed, with a bad 40 Sp. Attack and mediocre 80/60/80 bulk. But good stats aren't just what make a good Pokémon, and Sneasler shows it in its ability and movepool. Poison Touch could allow it a 30% chance to hobble any non-Steel or Poison types with contact moves, which, keep in mind, make up its viable attacks. But even worse is Unburden; after the usage orloss of its held item, it will double its speed. And on a [[FragileSpeedster 120 speed Pokémon]], only outsped by a few Pokémon in OU, it will proceed to outspeed ''everything''. Combined with a Grassy Seed to raise its defense and Grassy Terrain set up by a frequent partner, Rillaboom, it could set up and sweep provided it gets an easy opening. With Close Combat and Gunk Shot as great STAB options, Shadow Claw, Acrobatics, and Lash Out as coverage, and U-Turn as a pivot option, as well as the ubiquitous Tera Blast option, it could prove to be unpredictable. And Speaking of moves, its SignatureMove, Dire Claw, deserves special mention, as it's potentially one of the most broken moves added in Pokémon history. Already a decent STAB option with 80 BP, it has the added effect of potentially poisoning, paralyzing, or putting an opponent to sleep ''50% of the time''. Non-Steel types, in essence, have to watch out for the coin-flip leading to potentially getting crippled for the rest of the match, and from a decently-strong move, no less. Being able to outspeed and sweep, combined with its unpredictability, led to Sneasler getting a near-unanimous quickban.

* Mewtwo, the only Pokémon that has been banned from competitive battling ''ever since Pokémon was created'' is the original game breaker. Back in Generation I, Mewtwo (considering the fact that Special counts for both Special Attack and Special Defense) effectively had a BST (Base Stat Total) of ''744'' making it not only higher than every other Pokémon at the time, but higher than every other Pokémon ever released until generation 6 (including [[OlympusMons Arceus]]!). To make matters worse, it was a Psychic type (in itself a game breaker), and a wide move-pool to perfectly use every single one of its stats. From [[KillItWithIce Blizzard]], to [[EnergyWeapon Hyper]] [[WaveMotionGun Beam]], to the resistance-enhancing Barrier, [[TakingYouWithMe to the last-ditch]] [[SuicideAttack Selfdestruct]], to even the feared (and not banned back then) Double Team combined with Recover. The icing on the cake? ''Amnesia''. Which in Gen I boosted its Special by two stages [[note]]Which counted for ''both Special Attack and Special Defense''[[/note]]. And when you combine it with high-power Special moves like Psychic, Thunderbolt, and the aforementioned Blizzard, you've got a nigh unstoppable Pokémon of mass destruction. While Mewtwo has obviously been toned down ''significantly'' since those days, it has remained a mainstay of Ubers for every single generation; even without the Mega Evolutions it gained in Gen VI, it is still an incredibly versatile and adaptable offensive JackOfAllStats that can do most, if not all things well and can shift to fit most roles in a team. To quote Website/{{Smogon}}:
--> ''"[[http://www.smogon.com/rb/pokemon/mewtwo RBY Mewtwo is the single most powerful Pokémon in any generation. Nothing even comes close to the raw destructive power of this thing.]] [[PurposelyOverpowered That's all there is to be said about the joy that enters the heart of a 6-year-old when they capture the Uber and can truly call themselves a Pokémon Master.]]"''

--> ''"'''Checks and Counters''': [[ImplacableMan Nope. Nothing can fully counter a Mewtwo;]] [[http://www.smogon.com/rb/pokemon/mewtwo some can make it think twice, though.]]"''.
* Mew, the only other Pokémon banned from Gen I, has [[MasterOfAll 100 Base Stats on everything]], which is incredible for its time, meaning it was [[LightningBruiser extremely bulky, fast, and strong]]. This, combined with the Psychic typing and the ability to learn [[ConfusionFu every TM]], made Mew extremely unpredictable. However, due to PowerCreep in Gen V, and the extensive restrictions on Baton Pass in Gen VI, Mew's no longer considered a Game Breaker, and its main use is to beat Stall.

* [[ScaryScorpions Gliscor]] was an OU metagame staple[[note]]Aside from Generation VIII, where it's inaccessible[[/note]] with its [[JackOfAllStats balanced yet great stats]] and a great typing in Ground/Flying that gave it an immunity to most hazards while taking normal damage from Stealth Rock, making it a Pokemon that could slot into many teams well. Gen V improved it further with its Hidden Ability Poison Heal, which when combined with Toxic Orb to near-immediately give it the Poison status, gave it a passive healing option that blocked other statuses like Paralysis. While killable provided the right counters were used, Gen IX ramped up Gliscor to a new level of nasty. While losing some of its old reliable moves like Defog and [[HealThyself Roost]], it was negligible compared to its new moves. Spikes & Toxic Spikes are great moves on its own, but when paired with Gholdengo, which could negate any attempt to remove them (short of [[CharacterSelectForcing Cinderace's Court Change]]), they become easy ways to whittle down nearly anything. And it also gets Knock Off, making Heavy Duty Boots a non-issue while inflicting heavy damage on anything that has an item (which is around 99% of the metagame). While Gholdengo enabled Gliscor's hazard-setting strategy, it's far from the only thing the flying scorpion can pull, with Swords Dance sets just being one common set. And add on to it ''still'' being difficult to knock out before it can pull anything funny, as well as its main competition, Landorus-T, being nerfed with the loss of some of its helpful moves, and it's easy to see why a ban at a 2/3rds majority hit the scorpion for the first time in 17 years.

* Yveltal, while initially not as flashy as Xerneas or capable of slaughtering an entire team after just one move, is still a massive threat for a variety of reasons. First off, Dark/Flying is a great type combo made even better by its ability, which gives it horrifically powerful Dark Pulses that hit like nukes. Secondly, it is one of the single best [[CastFromHitPoints Life Orb]] users in the game thanks to Oblivion Wing, which is an extremely powerful draining move that is further boosted by STAB, allowing it to essentially negate the Life Orb HP cost. Oblivion Wing coupled with Roost and Foul Play (which also gets boosted by Dark Aura) and its solid natural bulk also makes it an effective tank, and access to the strongest priority move in the game with a Dark Aura-boosted Sucker Punch is yet another plus. Its awkward Speed and middling defensive typing are hurdles, but overall, Yveltal is a massive threat that every Ubers team should plan for. In Generation VIII in particular, it proved its worth as a JackOfAllTrades MasterOfAll by being the only true counter to the otherwise terrifying Shadow Rider Calyrex and [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome was seen on every single Ubers team]] in a variety of offensive, defensive and support roles, becoming the most used Pokémon in the tier and surpassing Xerneas in usage and viability.

* Yveltal, while not as flashy as Xerneas or capable of slaughtering an entire team after just one move, is still a massive threat for a variety of reasons. First off, Dark/Flying is a great type combo made even better by its ability, which gives it horrifically powerful Dark Pulses that hit like nukes. Secondly, it is one of the single best [[CastFromHitPoints Life Orb]] users in the game thanks to Oblivion Wing, which is an extremely powerful draining move that is further boosted by STAB, allowing it to essentially negate the Life Orb HP cost. Oblivion Wing coupled with Roost and Foul Play (which also gets boosted by Dark Aura) and its solid natural bulk also makes it an effective tank, and access to the strongest priority move in the game with a Dark Aura-boosted Sucker Punch is yet another plus. Its awkward Speed and middling defensive typing are hurdles, but overall, Yveltal is a massive threat that every Ubers team should plan for.