History LowTierLetdown / Pokemon

* Phione is a Pokémon introduced in Gen IV that can only be obtained by breeding the event-exclusive Manaphy with Ditto. It suffers from the same problem as baby Pokémon, where obtaining one requires already having a better version of itself. Unlike Manaphy, it can't use the very rare Tail Glow or the [[SecretArt signature move]] Heart Swap, and overall offers nothing that you can't get from the common Water-types you pick up while surfing or fishing. It's so disliked that when popular ROM hack creator Creator/Drayano60 put out a poll asking which Pokémon should be removed from his then-upcoming ''VideoGame/PokemonHeartGoldAndSoulSilver'' hack in favor of including Sylveon, Phione "won" in a landslide.
* Ponyta and Rapidash in ''Diamond and Pearl''. Rapidash's stats aren't ''terrible'', but it doesn't evolve until Level 40 and its best Physical STAB until Level 58 is the Flame Wheel (which has a measly 60 BP). Not helping matters is that this line is the only Fire-Type Pokémon in the ''Diamond and Pearl'' Sinnoh Pokédex outside of the Chimchar StarterMon line, which means those who didn't choose it had no choice but to use Rapidash if they wanted a Fire-Type.
* In addition to already being overshadowed by a myriad of other Water-types, Wiglett and Wugtrio don't have much going for them even in single-player ''Scarlet and Violet''. While Wiglett can be obtained very early on, you have to go pretty far out of your way to find them, while Buizel is a common spawn in the very first area of the game and outclasses Wiglett in pretty much every way imaginable, and Magikarp isn't much harder to find and is much easier to raise in later generations as the experience system means you don't have to switch it in and out anymore. Players who don't stray too far off the beaten path will likely not find a Wiglett until around level 20+, at which point you can easily have a Floatzel or Gyarados instead, both of whom have better stats and movepools than Wugtrio. To make manners worse, one can also find Finizen very close to where Wiglett can be found, which, while requiring multiplayer to evolve at level 38, becomes Palafin, who has a much better movepool and, when transformed into its Hero Form, has base stats on par with a [[OlympusMons Legendary Pokémon]]. Even Wugtrio's SecretArt, Triple Dive, is effectively just Aqua Tail divided into three hits, rendering it more vulnerable to contact effects, with no benefits for doing so.

* '''Gligar'''' was this for some fans back in Gen 2. Pokémon Gold had Gligar, the first Ground/Flying type, while Pokémon Silver had [[EnsembleDarkhorse Skarmory]], the first Steel/Flying type. The reason Gligar was seen as a joke back then was because its moveset is terrible. As a result, people only caught it for Pokédex data. [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap However, it was saved from its unfortunate status as the Pokémon Generations moved on.]] Now able to learn moves like X-Scissor, Sky Uppercut, and even Earthquake, the fans began to see it as invaluable when fighting Poison, Electric, and Rock types. [[TookALevelInBadass It also helps that since Sinnoh, it gained an evolution in Gliscor]].

** '''Patrat''', [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black and White's]] version of the early-game {{Mon}}, is a contender for the most hated. Most of the other early-game Normal types can serve as good HM users and have appealing, if a bit simple, designs. However, the game's downplaying of HMs hinder Patrat and Watchog heavily, and the line only learns a few HM moves anyways. While it does have the typical wide move pool of early-game rodents, it doesn't have the stats to take real advantage of it, and it's severely outclassed by other easily-available Normal types, such as Audino and Stoutland - the latter is especially notable as Lillipup can be found on the ''exact same route'' as Patrat but has a strictly better movepool, ability and evolutions. The creepy [[TheStoner stoned eyes]] on a chipmunk design didn't help matters. Fans often describe Patrat as "the next Bidoof". Watchog also gained a reputation of being an absolute pain to deal with in-game, due to getting Hypnosis and learning several powerful moves early on. It's also notorious for being spammed in the early game by other trainers, especially Team Plasma grunts--more than half of all Plasma grunts have at least one Patrat or Watchog on their team!

* '''[[BigCreepyCrawlies Bug]]''' has historically been one of the worst types in the franchise, which is equal parts fitting (like Normal, it's more of a "starter type") and ironic[[note]]''Pokémon'' was born from Creator/SatoshiTajiri's fondness of collecting ''bugs'' when he was younger and his desire for kids to feel the same when [[GottaCatchThemAll catching and collecting creatures]][[/note]]. Offensively, it's got awful effectiveness, hitting Grass, Psychic and Dark (the former of which is the most useful and the other two being generally mediocre), but resisted by a whopping ''seven'' types[[note]][[PlayingWithFire Fire]], [[BareFistedMonk Fighting]] (a mutual resistance), {{Poison|ous Person}}, [[BlowYouAway Flying]], [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Ghost]], [[ExtraOreDinary Steel]] and [[TheFairFolk Fairy]][[/note]]. It's actually better defensively, resisting Grass, Fighting and Ground, but its also weak to common offensive types in Fire, Flying, and Rock[[note]]And thus to Stealth Rock, like Ice[[/note]]; not to mention many of the type's mons have low stats and poor type combos, causing Flying itself to fill whatever defensive niche Bug can do better (having in fact, an ''[[NoSell immunity]]'' to Ground as opposed to just a resistance). Generally speaking, most Bugs are forced to run Heavy-Duty Boots in an attempt to function offensively, or Sticky Web-centric lead sets for utility. It's also not much better in Doubles, as the weaknesses of Bug Pokémon leave them wide open to spread moves such as Heat Wave and Rock Slide. And to hit the nail in the coffin, while Grass also hits seven types for not very effective damage, its former's matchups in Water, Ground and Rock[[labelnote:*]]So, one of the best defensive types, and two of the best offensive ones[[/labelnote]] are miles more useful than Bug's own matchups[[labelnote:*]]A specialized but otherwise passable type, a type infamous for its bad defensive typing (as seen above), and a type that's defensively ''countered'' by the other types that can hit it super-effectively[[/labelnote]]. It's telling that most competitively useful Bug-types thrive thanks to their stats and traits rather than (or actually, in spite of) their typings. Probably the ''only'' real advantage Bug has is that its lack of immunities (be it to types or Abilities) is partially what makes [[SwitchOutMove U-turn]] one of the best moves in competitive play; other than that, all of this amounts to what's usually considered one of the worst types around -- and for some, the outright worst.

* '''Arbok''' has been a miserably weak Pokémon since its inception. It started out as one of the worst Pokémon in gen I, with [[MasterOfNone middling stats all around]], an awful mono-Poison typing with no STAB moves stronger than ''Acid'', and a galaxy of other Wrap users that could do everything it did better. Arbok's stats have not taken well to PowerCreep at all, and despite a few useful buffs like Intimidate, Coil, and a boost to its attack stat, it's remained in the lowest tiers -- though, to its credit, it has found some success in bottom-tier play in the later generations.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to wear foes down due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness (even having access to Defog), although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic and Defog, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. While in theory the new Heavy-Duty Boots item should have helped Lugia with its Stealth Rock weakness and made Multiscale more consistent, its typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of Dusk Mane Necrozma, the newly popular Origin Forme Giratina,[[note]]which is one of the few viable Defoggers in Gen IX Ubers,[[/note]] and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. Furthermore, Lugia has a horrendous matchup against Skeledirge, an UU Pokémon commonly used in Ubers, as it's weak to Skeledirge's Ghost typing and Unaware cancels out any stat boosts that Lugia may try. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability. Although a few fans theorize that Lugia could be balanced in OU, this is largely a minority opinion as most players believe that it would be too problematic and hard to take down for the tier.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to wear foes down due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. While in theory the new Heavy-Duty Boots item should have helped Lugia with its Stealth Rock weakness and made Multiscale more consistent, its typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. Furthermore, Lugia has a horrendous matchup against Skeledirge, an UU Pokémon commonly used in Ubers, as it's weak to Skeledirge's Ghost typing and Unaware cancels out any stat boosts that Lugia may try. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability. Although a few fans theorize that Lugia could be balanced in OU, this is largely a minority opinion as most players believe that it would be too problematic and hard to take down for the tier.

* '''[[NonElemental Normal]]''', par for the course for ''the'' "starter type"[[note]]As in, a type meant to teach the player to get familiar with the type chart[[/note]] was bound to be this. Offensively, it doesn't hit any type super-effectively, and fails to meaningfully hurt [[DishingOutDirt Rock]] and [[ExtraOreDinary Steel]] (or in the case of [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Ghost]], [[NoSell at all]]); defensively, it only has one weakness to [[BareFistedMonk Fighting]], but doesn't resist any type save for Ghost, which it is mutually immune to. The result is a type that [[MasterOfNone excels at nothing]]. Notably, in Gen I, the type previously dominated competitive battles (on par with Psychic as the InfinityPlusOneElement), but started to become this as subsequent generations buffed each type and gave them more of an identity -- the introduction of the Steel-type in Gen II and the increasing relevancy of Fighting and Ghost starting with Gen II/Gens III-IV, respectively, would start taking the wind out of Normal's sails, and eventually, the type's MasterOfNone status came back to bite it, especially with PowerCreep in play. Normal-types have thus been rare in the higher tiers since then, with the few viable ones being either perennial {{Stone Wall}}s Chansey and Blissey as well as [=Porygon2=], or those that make up for Normal's lack of super-effective hits with their sheer power like [[{{God}} Arceus]] without a Plate (due to the mon already being a MasterOfAll), Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Lopunny. Unfortunately, Gen VIII removed Return and Frustration, removing the niche of providing strong, neutral coverage the type once had and forcing physically offensive Normal-types to either rely on weaker moves like Body Slam, or the less accessible Double-Edge. In Generation IX, the ''only'' Normal-types to rank above UU are Blissey, Arceus, Bloodmoon Ursaluna, and Terapagos with even promising candidates such as Maushold and Hisuian Zoroark falling to the wayside.
* '''[[AnIcePerson Ice]]''' is infamous for being one of the most misunderstood types by ''Game Freak'', as determined by fans. It's notorious for being one of the most dangerous offensive types in the game, hitting various offensive and defensive types in Grass, Ground, Flying and Dragon for massive damage, and more often than not, these types are rarely paired with the types that resist Ice in Fire, Water, Ice itself and Steel; in fact, thanks to the other types' utility in higher tiers, [[AchillesHeel 4x weaknesses to Ice]] tend to be very common. However, it has far and away the worst defensive profile in the game; Ice not only has common weaknesses in Fire, Fighting, Rock[[note]]And thus to [[ThatOneAttack Stealth Rock]][[/note]] and Steel, but it has no immunities and only resists '''''itself'''''. This tends to overcompensate for Ice's offensive strengths; simply having an Ice-type on your team tends to detract from its defensive integrity as, in an inverse of the Steel-type, pairing Ice with another type tends to worsen said other type. This wouldn't be so bad if the Ice-type Pokémon in question was sufficiently fast, but sadly, many of the type's mons tend to be [[MightyGlacier lumbering and bulky]] instead of [[FragileSpeedster speedier but fragile]], and are thus shoved to the lower rungs of competitive play. However, in an oxymoron, the type's balance is so lopsided, that a mon that makes up for Ice's defensive shortcomings can [[GoneHorriblyRight get out of control quickly]] and shove it into [[HighTierScrappy the opposite realm]], such as with Weavile from Gens VI-VIII, Kyurem in Gen VIII and Chien-Pao and Baxcalibur in Gen IX (the latter three even getting banned to Ubers). Regardless, even after the introduction of Aurora Veil[[note]]A status move that combines the effects of Reflect and Light Screen, halving damage from both physical and special attacks for 5 turns (8 with Light Clay) and even ''stacking'' with dual screens[[/note]] in Gen VII, the type still struggled. It took until Gen IX where hail (and its related move Hail) was replaced with snow and Snowscape, losing the passive damage but granting any Ice-types a very useful Defense boost, further upping the viability of the type; this particular change combined with Snow Warning pushing the previously-good but not amazing Alolan Ninetales into HighTierScrappy territory and was a major contributing factor in sending Baxcalibur to Ubers. For Ice-Types unable to fully abuse Snow however, the introduction of Terastallization also allows these mons to become any type that's ''not'' Ice, with the least to lose and most to gain from changing their type.
* '''{{Psychic|Powers}}''', after a stint in Generation I where it was notoriously [[HighTierScrappy unbalanced]], has had its viability slowly tumble down a cliff as time has gone on. Offensively, while not outright ''bad'', it only hits Fighting and Poison hard, while itself and Steel resist it and Dark is [[NoSell immune to it]]; the niche of a type that can hit much of the cast at least neutrally is also already done by other types like Electric, Ghost, Dragon and Dark, causing Psychic to be outclassed. It's also pretty lackluster defensively, resisting only itself and Fighting, while possessing no immunities and weaknesses to Bug, Ghost and Dark. Its broken status in Gen I was mainly due to having basically no weaknesses (Bug had weak moves with zero good abusers, and due to a programming error, Psychic was outright ''immune'' to Ghost) and abusing the Special stat to full effect; after Gen I, the introduction of Dark and Steel, two types specifically made to nerf Psychic, was a huge blow to the type's viability, though the type still saw use due to its niche of being able to check Fighting-types while not being weak to Stealth Rock. However, the type has significantly declined from Gen VI and on no thanks to the buffs to Ghost and Dark, and the introduction of Fairy, which does everything else Psychic did (except hitting Poison) but better. Game Freak is at least aware of Psychic's problems and have attempted to solve it, with Gen VII onward emphasizing on their offensive prowess with the introduction of Psychic Terrain as well as a wonderful setter and abuser in Tapu Lele, though this otherwise requires setup due to no other Pokémon receiving the Ability (until Indeedee in Gen VIII). All in all, Psychic's problematic offenses make it outclassed by types that can already hit just as hard and better, like Ground or Flying, while its defensive profile remains laughable.
* '''[[BigCreepyCrawlies Bug]]''' has historically been one of the worst types in the franchise, which is equal parts fitting (like Normal, it's more of a "starter type") and ironic[[note]]''Pokémon'' was born from Creator/SatoshiTajiri's fondness of collecting ''bugs'' when he was younger and his desire for kids to feel the same when [[GottaCatchThemAll catching and collecting creatures]][[/note]]. Offensively, it's got awful effectiveness, hitting Grass, Psychic and Dark (the former of which is the most useful and the other two being generally mediocre), but resisted by a whopping ''seven'' types[[note]][[PlayingWithFire Fire]], [[BareFistedMonk Fighting]] (a mutual resistance), {{Poison|ous Person}}, [[BlowYouAway Flying]], [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Ghost]], [[ExtraOreDinary Steel]] and [[TheFairFolk Fairy]][[/note]]. It's actually better defensively, resisting Grass, Fighting and Ground, but its also weak to common offensive types in Fire, Flying, and Rock[[note]]And thus to Stealth Rock, like Ice[[/note]]; not to mention many of the type's mons have low stats and poor type combos, causing Flying itself to fill whatever defensive niche Bug can do better (having in fact, an ''[[NoSell immunity]]'' to Ground as opposed to just a resistance). Generally speaking, most Bugs are forced to run Heavy-Duty Boots in an attempt to function offensively, or Sticky Web-centric lead sets for utility. It's also not much better in Doubles, as the weaknesses of Bug Pokémon leave them wide open to spread moves such as Heat Wave and Rock Slide. And sure, Grass also hits seven types for not very effective damage, but the former's matchups in Water, Ground and Rock are miles more useful than Bug's own matchups. It's telling that most competitively useful Bug-types thrive thanks to their stats and traits rather than (or actually, in spite of) their typings. Probably the ''only'' real advantage Bug has is that its lack of immunities (be it to types or Abilities) is partially what makes [[SwitchOutMove U-turn]] one of the best moves in competitive play; other than that, all of this amounts to what's usually considered one of the worst types around.
* '''[[DishingOutDirt Rock]]''', much like Ice above, is a type that's designed more like a MightyGlacier or StoneWall, but ends up a GlassCannon in practice. It's awesome offensively, hurting Fire, Ice, Flying and Bug, while only being resisted by Fighting, Ground and Steel and having no types immune to it; this offensive profile is part of the reason for Stealth Rock's infamy, limiting a notoriously high amount of Pokémon, while also making it an excellent type to pair with Ground on offense. However, defensively, Rock suffers from a deluge of weaknesses in Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground and Steel, while not resisting as many types in Normal, Fire, Poison and Flying; of these, only Fire stands out, while the Steel-type otherwise outclasses Rock defensively due to its fewer weaknesses and drastically more resistances. Rock had a great start in Gen I, being one of two types (along with Ghost) that resisted Normal; starting with Gen II, however, the type would start dwindling due to Steel's introduction in Gen II and the buffs to Fighting and Grass. A Normal resistance is no longer much of a selling point, and ''many'' Rock-types have at least one [[AchillesHeel 4x weakness]] -- which is a terrible thing when most Rock Pokémon have, again, MightyGlacier stats. It really says something when Aggron losing this type post-Mega Evolution proved to be a ''boon'' than a ''detriment''. Despite its stupendous offensive matchups, the type surprisingly struggles in terms of offense, as its main physical attacking moves (Rock Slide and Stone Edge) suffer from imperfect accuracy, and its special attacking ones have nonexistent distribution or poor power. While there are numerous strong Rock-type Pokémon that take full advantage of its strengths, the type also has the curious dishonor of never having a Pokémon be banned to Ubers[[note]]Besides Arceus-Rock, but Arceus is a Pokémon that can have any of the 18 types in the game, and Arceus-Rock isn't viable in Ubers[[/note]]; additionally, many of the Rock-types that were introduced in Gen IX are exceptions that prove the rule -- Garganacl often Terastallizes into a better defensive type, while Glimmora is best used as a lead, making the defensive weaknesses of its typing not nearly as relevant.

* While its Tao Dragon brethren have found various levels of success throughout the generations, '''Reshiram''' holds the dubious honor of being one of the most unviable box legendaries in ''every generation of its existence''. At the start of Generation V, it was feared as a powerful wallbreaker in Ubers with an unresisted STAB combo (Dragon/Fire with a renamed Mold Breaker to hit Heatran) and an amazing SecretArt in Blue Flare, but required an inordinate amount of babysitting due to its Stealth Rock weakness and dependence on sun, especially with Kyogre running amok and Reshiram having no really effective way to deal with it. Its base 90 Speed also held it back significantly, as it could be outsped by other Pokémon that could threaten it easily. ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' then introduced White Kyurem, which was slightly faster and stronger, and could do everything Reshiram could but better despite lacking Blue Flare (only having access to Fusion Flare) and having Ice STAB instead of Fire. On top of that, Reshiram had no way to naturally boost its Sp. Atk, a problem plaguing fellow fiery dragon Charizard in lower tiers. In every generation since, despite being one of the few Dragon-type Pokémon to only take neutral damage from the new Fairy type, it's sat near the bottom of the Ubers viability rankings while Zekrom and Kyurem's forms have all been viable in their respective tiers at different points. Not helping matters was the introduction of Primal Groudon, which could easily OHKO Reshiram with a Precipice Blades despite its weather being beneficial to it, and discouraging the use of team-wide Sun support due to how much better it was than regular Groudon. Generation VIII was especially harsh to Reshiram; while its whole trio got [[StatusBuff Dragon Dance]] and it was able to make Zekrom better than it had ever been, Reshiram didn't benefit much from the move as a special attacker, already being able to boost its Speed via the similarly un-synergistic Flame Charge. In a twist of irony, Charizard's Gigantamax form was introduced in the same generation and outclassed Reshiram in formats where both were allowed, largely thanks to its own DamageOverTime SecretArt. Meanwhile, Reshiram's high stats and the positive traits that made it feared in early Gen V ensure that it will never drop to OU, at least until PowerCreep catches up to it. Even in Ubers UU, where ''Dawn Wings Necrozma'' is a broken threat, Reshiram still struggles to find a niche and is considered outclassed by Chi-Yu; meanwhile, Reshiram's counterpart Zekrom was ''quickbanned'' from the tier.

* '''Fearow's''' another generic and oft-neglected Flying-type that's bad for similar reasons as Pidgeot. While it had its places in Gen II NU and Gen III UU, {{power creep}} made its base 90 Attack and base 80 Flying STAB pale in comparison to every Flying type from Gen IV and beyond, where base Attacks greater than 100 and base 120 Flying STAB moves are the norm.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to wear foes down due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. While in theory the new Heavy-Duty Boots item should have helped Lugia with its Stealth Rock weakness and made Multiscale more consistent, ts typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma, and the newly buffed Dark- and Ghost-types in general. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. Furthermore, Lugia has a horrendous matchup against Skeledirge, an UU Pokémon commonly used in Ubers, as it's weak to Skeledirge's Ghost typing and Unaware cancels out any stat boosts that Lugia may try. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability. Although a few fans theorize that Lugia could be balanced in OU, this is largely a minority opinion as most players believe that it would be too problematic and hard to take down for the tier.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to score KO's due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. While in theory the new Heavy-Duty Boots item should have helped Lugia with its Stealth Rock weakness and made Multiscale more consistent, ts typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma, and the newly buffed Dark- and Ghost-types in general. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. Furthermore, Lugia has a horrendous matchup against Skeledirge, an UU Pokémon commonly used in Ubers, as it's weak to Skeledirge's Ghost typing and Unaware cancels out any stat boosts that Lugia may try. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability. Although a few fans theorize that Lugia could be balanced in OU, this is largely a minority opinion as most players believe that it would be too problematic and hard to take down for the tier.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to score KO's due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. While in theory the new Heavy-Duty Boots item should have helped Lugia with its Stealth Rock weakness and made Multiscale more consistent, ts typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma, and the newly buffed Dark- and Ghost-types in general. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability. Although a few fans theorize that Lugia could be balanced in OU, this is largely a minority opinion as most players believe that it would be too problematic and hard to take down for the tier.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to score KO's due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. While in theory the new Heavy-Duty Boots item should have helped Lugia with its Stealth Rock weakness and made Multiscale more consistent, ts typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma, and the newly buffed Dark- and Ghost-types in general. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to score KO's due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. Its typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Lunala, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma, as well as the newly buffed Dark- and Ghost-types in general. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability.

* Despite its majesty and popularity, '''Lugia''' is one of the series' biggest victims of PowerCreep. For the first few generations of its existence, it was a seemingly unkillable StoneWall that had to rely on DamageOverTime and ScratchDamage to score KO's due to its low offenses, but could do so very well thanks to moves such as Toxic and Calm Mind. It got even better in Generation V, with its hidden ability Multiscale letting it tank powerful attacks from full HP, and continued to be decently viable as the generations went on despite its Stealth Rock weakness, although it did start to drop in usage. Generation VIII, however, is where Lugia's flaws were all laid bare: as it lost access to Toxic, it became far more passive, making said flaws much easier to exploit. Its typing of Psychic/Flying didn't do much for it defensively, and caused it to struggle against top threats such as Yveltal, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Dusk Mane Necrozma, as well as the newly buffed Dark- and Ghost-types in general. This turned Lugia into little more than a sitting duck on most Ubers teams. Despite Yveltal being removed and Shadow Rider Calyrex being banned in Gen IX Ubers, Lugia continued to struggle especially with the prevalence of both Dusk Mane Necrozma and the new Miraidon, one of the most powerful Electric-type attackers ''ever''. As such, Lugia is completely unviable in both Generation VIII and IX Ubers, and even in Ubers UU it still isn't a great choice and only just ''barely'' hangs on to viability.

* In addition to already being overshadowed by a myriad of other Water-types, Wiglett and Wugtrio don't have much going for them even in single-player ''Scarlet and Violet''. While Wiglett can be obtained very early on, you have to go pretty far out of your way to find them, while Buizel is a common spawn in the very first area of the game and outclasses Wiglett in pretty much every way imaginable, and Magikarp isn't much harder to find and is much easier to raise in later generations as the experience system means you don't have to switch it in and out anymore. Players who don't stray too far off the beaten path will likely not find a Wiglett until around level 20+, at which point you can easily have a Floatzel or Gyarados instead, both of whom have better stats and movepools than Wugtrio. To make manners worse, one can also find Finizen very close to where Wiglett can be found, which, while requiring multiplayer to evolve at level 38, becomes Palafin, who has a much better movepool and, when transformed into its Hero Form, has base stats on par with an OlympusMon. Even Wugtrio's SecretArt, Triple Dive, is effectively just Aqua Tail divided into three hits, rendering it more vulnerable to contact effects, with no benefits for doing so.