History LowTierLetdown / Pokemon

* Parasect and its memorable, creepy design has never seen success in any Singles format. The reasons are obvious: its horrendous defensive typing in Bug/Grass gives it a wide range of weaknesses, said weaknesses of one typing effectively cancelling out the strengths of the other, and its lack of offensive stats or moves. This all being said, Parasect did have a moment of glory: VGC 2010, with its many Pokemon weak to its STAB combo and its prevalance of Trick Room, gave it a legitimate niche.
* Golduck has been in this boat since day one. It does get access to Amnesia, originally an event in ''Pokémon Stadium'', but its stats are too mediocre to take advantage of it. It also must compete with Slowbro, who gets Amnesia as well, and the latter has a far better movepool to take advantage of. Then when later generations came out, it gained a small niche for being able to nullify weather when it's on the field. Being able to bypass ''Primal Groudon's'' Desolate Land ability and [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman destroy it]] with Water-type Moves. Even that hasn't been enough to warrant it as a serious contender on a team because Rayquaza completely outclasses it while non weather teams would find more consistent way to kill off the opposing weather setter. It had a bone thrown to it in early Sun and Moon competitive, where the limited Pokédex left it the Swift Swim sweeper of choice with some success, but then was immediately rendered irrelevant when better Swift Swim users came in.

* Slaking is the community-held standard alongside [[JunkRare Regigigas]] on how to positively ''murder'' a Pokémon's usability in competitive even if you have stat totals rivaling or even surpassing resident OlympusMons. Slaking comes with the ''single highest BST of any common Pokémon in the series'', with a monstrous '''''670''''' stat total, the same stat total of Groudon and Kyogre. Combine this with a sky-high Attack stat, monstrous HP and bulk, an expansive moveset most Pokémon would kill to have, and a surprisingly decent Speed stat, you'd expect Slaking to [[KingMook live up to its name]] and just be a mass-murdering LightningBruiser who'd dominate the meta. Sadly, to say its ability serves to balance it would be a massive understatement. In fact, [[GoneHorriblyRight the ability does its job]] ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight well]], and turns what would've been a phenomenal Pokémon into an utter joke with its "ability" in Truant. One of ''the'' worst abilities in the game, it prevents Slaking from doing ''anything'' on every other turn and leaves what would've been a terrifying Pokémon into an utter joke due to being stone-walled by any user of Protect. Even without Protect on the enemy team, the sheer momentum loss from Truant means the opponent gains advantage just by virtue of Slaking existing; even if Slaking gets a takedown, the opponent can simply switch in a boosting sweeper, set up on the Truant turn, and revenge sweep your team. This ability effectively killed any semblance of use Slaking could've had, and it languishes in the bowels of [[MedalOfDishonor Untiered]] as soon as the format was created in Gen. V. As a small consolation prize, there ''are'' ways to help remove its ability with the help of Cofagrius's Mummy ability in single battles and Skill Swap in double battles, but this in no real sense alleviates Slaking's problems as the process takes far too much set-up to be worth it, even given Slaking's extremely high stats, and any viability would require similar strategies as Regigigas (See below). Another massive embarrassment for Slaking is that ever since Gen 3, its pre-evolution Vigoroth (who doesn't have Truant) has outclassed it, even getting banned from PU in Gen 6, which shows just how horrible of an ability Truant is.

* Rotom's appliance forms’ loss of their Ghost typing might have benefited Rotom-Wash and Rotom-Heat, but still nonetheless eliminated their coveted niche as spinblockers (which admittedly became less relevant after Defog was buffed). Rotom-Frost and Rotom-Fan suffered the most from the change because blocking Rapid Spin was their sole draw and their new types left them with some glaring new weaknesses, mainly Stealth Rock. Rotom-Frost fell out of favor due to the inherent curse of being a defensively oriented Ice type and having its strongest Ice move being the inaccurate Blizzard, but Rotom-Fan infamously gained a ''double immunity'' to Ground type attacks that left its once-helpful Levitate ability totally superfluous. This, along with its form-exclusive move Air Slash lacking power compared to those of the other forms and a lack of relevant strategies that other Rotom forms (and other Pokémon) couldn't perform better, rendered it the least relevant and viable of Rotom's forms, even vanilla Rotom. However, with the removal of abilities in ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'' Rotom-Fan is NotCompletelyUseless since all the other forms have lost the Levitate ability and can be seriously hurt by Ground type attacks, something Rotom-Fan is still safe from due to its Flying typing.

* Poor Wigglytuff has [[ConfusionFu a movepool]] most Pokémon would kill for, but it is severely let down by its atrocious stats. The only meaningful stat it has is its gargantuan HP, [[DamageSpongeBoss which means nothing]] with its awful Defenses, its offenses are just mediocre, and to top it all off, it's ''slow''. Even getting a BalanceBuff in Gen 6 with a new Fairy-type and a neat ability in Competitive (which doubles its Special Attack with every stat drop) wasn't enough to rescue it from the absolute bottom tiers, where it has stayed for its entire existence. Even in the current bottom tier (PU), it's considered utterly useless.
* Parasect is another Pokémon who frequently gets the shaft for a lot of reasons. Its stats seem to point it towards being a Mighty Glacier, but its decent defenses are undermined by its middling HP and ''horrendous'' defensive typing in Bug/Grass, giving it ''two'' easily-exploitable 4x weaknesses. Offensively, it took four generations to get any good Bug moves, its only decent Grass moves run off of its poor Special Attack, and Parasect has atrocious Speed. The only niche it really had going for it was exclusive access to the 100% accurate sleep-inducing Spore, but it only took three generations for it not to be exclusive anymore - Amoonguss and Breloom have long been better Spore users due to them having viable competitive stats. It does have the interesting Dry Skin ability, but it only makes it immune to a type it already resisted (Water) while making it even weaker to Fire moves. Because of its flaws and shortcomings, there's a good reason why it has been Untiered since Generation 6.

* Of the ElementalRockPaperScissors, [[AnIcePerson Ice]]. Offensively, it's one of the best in the game, being strong against Dragon (the only one along with Fairy and itself), Grass, Ground, and Flying. Defensively, it's by far the worst. It only resists itself, and is weak to Fire, Fighting, Rock, and Steel — all of which are common attacking types. Because nearly all Water-type Pokémon have access to Ice-type moves and have much better defensive matchups, there's considered very little reason to use them in the current metagame. To add insult to injury, when the type effectiveness chart was updated for Gen 6, Ice got absolutely no changes. If anything, it became ''worse'' due to sharing a weakness with Fairy-types. On top of that, for whatever reason, the majority of Ice-types are designed with a MightyGlacier or StoneWall mindset[[note]]Regice, Beartic, Avalugg, Walrein, Lapras, Abomasnow, Aurorus, Cloyster, Crabominable, Dewgong, Eiscue, Glastrier, Calyrex-Ice, arguably Articuno — notably, all the successful Ice-types are either {{Fragile Speedster}}s like Jynx, Weavile, Alolan Ninetales, Mega Glalie, Froslass, and Galarian Darmanitan, or have some way to circumvent their Speed like Mamoswine and Abomasnow's priority moves, Cloyster's Shell Smash, Calyrex-Ice's Trick Room, or Glastrier's Trick Room support in Doubles, though Eiscue's immunity to physical attacks and subsequent incredibly Speed boost puts it in an unusual niche as a LethalJokeCharacter[[/note]], meaning they rarely get to utilize their powerful offensive moves before being outsped and flattened. It's telling when the few Ice-types that are seen with any regularity (Jynx (for the first 3 Generations), Cloyster, Mamoswine, Froslass, Weavile, Kyurem-B, Mega Glalie, G-Darmanitan, Glastrier, and Calyrex-Ice) do well ''in spite of'' their typing, though most of them do enjoy its offensive benefits.[[note]]The exceptions are Froslass, who truly does work in spite of her typing as an annoyer and occasional suicide lead, Abomasnow whose bulk and slow speed allow it to overwrite the enemy weather setters then proceed to flatten them with its STAB priority and/or super effective attacks, Alolan Ninetales and Gigantamax Lapras, whose entire viability revolves around setting up [[BarrierMaiden Aurora Veil]], as well as Glastrier and Calyrex-Ice's sheer stats and [[ConfusionFu great coverage movepool]], which would be absolutely bonkers on any type that isn't Ice[[/note]] As an extra backhanded insult, the Ice type has a weather condition -- Hail -- made exclusively for them... and it's the most useless weather condition in the game. Up until Gen VII, it provides no inherent benefit to the Pokémon it's meant for aside from making Blizzard hit regardless of accuracy and evasion. With old punching bag Poison receiving massive buffs in Gens VI and VII, and Fairy pretty much doing Ice's calling card even better than Ice can (as in, killing Dragon-types), Ice has unfortunately become ''the'' new bottom-tier ButtMonkey of Pokémon types. However, Gen VII threw the type a small bone by buffing the Gen V Ice-types, as well as adding more Hail summoners, a move that acts as both Light Screen and Reflect if used in Hail, and the much requested ability of doubling the Speed of the Pokémon in Hail, on top of making Ice-types immune to [[OneHitKO Sheer Cold]].
* [[GreenThumb Grass]] and [[BigCreepyCrawlies Bug]] are other types that frequently get the shaft. Offensively, they both have the most resistors in the game, with ''seven'' apiece. [[note]]They share resistors in Fire, Flying, Poison, and Steel; Grass is also resisted by Grass, Bug, and Dragon, while Bug is also resisted by Fighting, Ghost, and Fairy.[[/note]] They are also hampered by poor movepool, [[note]]Grass-types often have terrible movepools, usually their own type mixed with some Normal-type moves; Bug-types had almost ''no usable moves'' in Gen 1 and didn't get anything good until Gen 4; about the only good Bug-type move before this was Megahorn, which was introduced in Gen 2 exclusively to Heracross, and even to this day is only learned by a fairly small pool of Pokémon[[/note]] vulnerabilities to Fire and Flying, and many, many other problems.
** Grass-types are strong against Water-types... but when nearly every Water-type can (and will) use Ice-type moves, it's not impressive. To add insult to injury, unlike Water-types getting Rain all to themselves, Grass-types are forced to share the Sun condition with Fire-types, their designated loss on the starters ElementalRockPaperScissors chart. Despite Grass-types getting far more moves, abilities, and even entire Pokémon species that are geared specifically for use in the Sun, Fire-types are not only given all the Pokémon with Drought, an ability which sets up Sun automatically, but they were also given the much more BoringButPractical advantage of having their attacks deal more damage in Sun, meaning any Grass-types hoping to take advantage of the sunny conditions are even more screwed than usual. Even worse, it could almost be said that Grass attacks are for Fire-types what Ice moves are for Water-types.[[note]]Grass is a fantastic coverage type for Fire-types to have, beating the Water, Rock, and Ground-types that would threaten them otherwise, and plenty of Fire-types have access to either Solar Beam or Energy Ball. While Rock does cover most of Grass' weaknesses the same way (beating Fire, Flying, Bug, and Ice), almost no Grass-types learn any Rock-type coverage moves.[[/note]] That being said, Grass types often make excellent partners for sun-setting Fire types, often as Rain checks, and also carry the most utility. Their StatusAilment powders are among the most accurate (Spore even being 100%) and boast the LifeDrain passive damage in Leech Seed. Gens 6-8 gave the Grass type some major upgrades to their offense, with Grassy Terrain that boosts the power of their Grass moves and weakens the common Earthquake, and incredible offensive juggernauts like Serperior[[note]]its great speed, decent bulk and Hidden Ability Contrary allows it to abuse Leaf Storm - a base 120 power Special Grass attack - to raise its Special Attack by 2 stages,[[/note]] Tapu Bulu[[note]]a Grassy Terrain setter, packs Rock coverage, and has Fighting coverage to crush Steel types,[[/note]] Kartana[[note]]which can muscle through Grass's common resists with its absurd 181 base Attack and outrun them with its great Speed, Sword Dance, and great neutral attacks like Knock Off and Sacred Sword,[[/note]] and Rillaboom.[[note]]its STAB Grassy Glide becomes a priority move in Grassy Terrain coming off a meaty 125 base Attack, which allows it to bypass its mediocre speed, while packing U-turn to pivot out and Knock Off to cripple Grass's common resists.[[/note]]
** Bug-types may have it worse; while Grass is quite good at spreading status ailments and resisting them, Bug is stuck with otherwise pathetic [[ComMons early-game Pokémon]], with only a handful of Bug-types having success in the metagame. This is especially bad in Gen 1, where Bug is the only type that is super effective against Psychic since Ghost moves are bugged but has ''no viable move'' to use, turning Psychic into a powerhouse monsters. Thankfully, things ''are'' getting better for Bug, with the addition of more Bug-type moves and many more viable Bug-types.[[note]]such as Volcarona, Scolipede, Ribombee, Araquanid, Buzzwole, Pheromosa and Genesect.[[/note]] Even the early-game bugs in Gens 5 through 8 are somewhat viable competitively.[[note]]most notably Beedrill, Pinsir and Heracross received a Mega Evolution that made the first two incredible FragileSpeedster and the latter a strong, if vulnerable, MightyGlacier; Venomoth received Baton Pass and Quiver Dance, allowing it to become a dangerous low-tier threat set up sweeper/passer; Shuckle and Galvantula received the highly coveted Sticky Web, rescuing them from obscurity to become incredible suicide leads; and Butterfree, of all things, got a Gigantamax form and the accompanying G-Max Befuddle, one of the most feared status-spreading moves, which actually got it some use in high-level [=VGCs=] before the return of better sleep inducers that outclass it like Amoonguss.[[/note]]
* In general, the [[PoisonousPerson Poison]] type. It was the last type in the series that didn't have a Legendary Pokémon associated with it[[note]]Unless one counts Ultra Beasts as "legendary", or counts Toxic Plate Arceus, who has a form for every type[[/note]]; it only got one in Eternatus in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield''. It does have Toxic as one of the most popular moves in the metagame, but this barely affects Poison's position as a typing, since basically every Pokémon in existence can learn it, at least until Gen 8, which curtailed Toxic's eligibility drastically. Since Gen 2, where it inexplicably ''lost'' its super effectiveness against Bug, it's only strong against Grass but resisted by Ghost, Ground, Rock, and Poison, and Steel is [[NoSell completely immune]] to it. It did fare better defensively, resisting Grass, Bug, Poison, and the ever-present Fighting, but a weakness to the equally, if not more common Ground, as well as the relatively common Psychic, still put a damper on its defensive utility. It did see a rise in utility in Gen 6, where the newly-introduced Fairy type was revealed to be weak against Poison, but it still remains one of the less-used types overall. However, in Gen 7, the introduction of the Island Guardians finally gave trainers a reason to use Poison over Steel. Their Fairy typings made all of them vulnerable to Poison, two of them have a secondary typing that resists Steel, one is 4x weak to Poison, and all four of them became huge prominent threats, so Poison ''attacks'' are seen more often as better anti-Fairy coverage than Steel.
* The [[DishingOutDirt Rock]] type. Offensively, Rock coverage is highly coveted since it hits four types super-effectively, particularly the common Fire- and Flying-types. It pairs exceedingly well with the Ground type due to how well they cover each of their offensive weaknesses, meaning that very few Pokémon resist the combination. Defensively, however, Rock is a complete joke. While it does have a few useful resistances to common types such as Normal and Flying, it's not enough to make up for the fact that it ties with fellow Scrappy type Grass for the most weaknesses of any type, with five. Making matters worse is that '''four''' of those five weaknesses (Grass, Water, Fighting, and Ground) are some of the most common and popular attacking types in the metagame and hit quite a few other types to boot,[[note]]While its fifth weakness (Steel) still isn't anywhere near as ubiquitous as the other four, it did still see an uptick in use after it became one of Fairy's only two weaknesses in Gen VI[[/note]] and to add insult to injury, the resistances that the type has are done better by other types, namely Steel-types having all of the Rock type resistances and more (with the exception of Fire). This means that a good chunk of Rock-types with a secondary typing have at least one 4x weakness, with several having two. Rock-types are also almost always built as {{Mighty Glacier}}s/{{Stone Wall}}s, and thanks to their copious amounts of weaknesses, they're almost always unable to do their job. In fact, Aggron's Mega Evolution removing the Rock-type is only a ''benefit'' rather than a hinderance. Adding insult to injury is that Rock coverage is often unreliable, as very few Rock moves have 100% accuracy, and those that do usually have mediocre Base Power and/or low distribution. As a salt-in-the-wound fun fact, Rock is the only type to not have any Pokémon KickedUpstairs to Ubers (not counting Arceus with a Stone Plate); in fact, it's arguably one of the biggest factors ''preventing'' High-Tier Scrappy Tyranitar from being such.

* While it ''does'' see use in Gens 6 and 7 UU due to its Mega Evolution, normal Pidgeot was known prior to Gen 8 (when it was removed from the game) as a complete joke even in PU, to the point that even Dodrio and Articuno (who are also on the list, detailed below) outclass it. Its bulk is mediocre at best, its offenses are underwhelming, its movepool is shallow, and its only decent stat is Speed. It’s best used as a Defogger, and even then, Skuntank does it much better.
* Fearow. Oh, poor, poor Fearow. If you thought Dodrio had it rough, Fearow's journey through the competitive scene makes Dodrio's look like Zapdos in comparison. Fearow is completely statistically outclassed by Dodrio and nearly every other Normal/Flying type in the game, with absolutely nothing to distinguish itself except for a weak Drill Run off its mediocre Attack stat that probably won't even KO the Electric-types it was meant to hit. After a decent run in early low tiers including a surprisingly good showing in Gen 3 UU, it has been completely unviable everywhere it ended up, and it didn't help that Dodrio began following it into those same tiers and destroying any hopes of it finding a niche even in the weakest metagames. It doesn't even have Brave Bird, meaning its best Flying-type STAB is the much weaker Drill Peck. Fearow has been Untiered ever since Generation 5, and for ''very'' good reason.
* Pikachu, the world-famous SeriesMascot, is infamously one of the weakest Pokémon in the metagame, being too unviable for even the lowest tiers. While this is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] due to its not being fully evolved, it remains one of the least useful and most fragile {{Glass Cannon}}s in the series ''despite'' having a very powerful signature move (Volt Tackle), an item (Light Ball) that doubles its offensive stats to make it hit as hard as most Legendary Pokémon, and a ''huge'' number of event-exclusive moves of varying degree of usefulness. Pikachu's iconic status makes this case particularly notable; its fans wish there was a way for it to show the same level of power it does in [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries the anime]] (at times), the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' and ''VideoGame/PokkenTournament'' games, and (to a lesser extent) the TCG, while its HighTierScrappy status is also frequently brought up by the character's detractors as a point against its favor (similar to Charizard in older generations). In Generation 8, this was ''finally'' properly addressed with the Dynamax mechanic, as both Dynamax and Gigantamax Pikachu are genuinely good Pokémon that have seen competitive use because their doubled HP offsets their severe GlassCannon defenses while the Light Ball makes their extremely powerful Max Moves hit even harder.

* Specialized {{Stone Wall}}s are extremely undesirable in Doubles because there is twice the chance of the opposing Pokémon being able to break through their defenses with proper typing. In addition, if the opponent decided to gang up on their partner, the inherent passivity of Walls means that they cannot damage the enemy back. Common passive walls in Singles like Blissey/Chansey, Skarmory, Quagsire, Umbreon, Lugia, Toxapex, Wobbuffet and Giratina all languish in unviability in Doubles. Walls that see a bit more viability tend to have actual offensive presence (Ferrothorn, Snorlax, Slowbro, Tyranitar), well-rounded stat on both Defense and Special Defense (Corviknight, Aegislash, Mandibuzz and Tyranitar again) and/or additional utility (Arcanine, Gastrodon, Cresselia, [=Porygon2=], Suicune).
* Poison-type Pokémon are notably worse in Doubles than Singles since they are weak to the extremely common Earthquake while the Poison status and spreading Toxic Spikes, the main draw to most Poison-types, is notably much less useful in the format. Poison-types that see play (most notably Venusaur, Nidoqueen, Amoonguss, Nihiligo, Naganadel, Gengar and its Mega form and Galarian Weezing) do well ''in spite'' of their typing, though they do enjoy having super effective STAB against Fairy-types.
* Coalossal is an absolute monster in VGC, but is highly reliant on Dynamax for its viability due to needing the extra HP to activate Weakness Policy and Steam Engine at the same time. However, once Dynamax is out of the picture, Coalossal starts crumbling apart hard. Tellingly, Doubles OU having Dynamax banned meant that Coalossal was completely unviable there and Series 10 VGC not allowing Dynamax caused its usage to take a [[JustForPun colossal]] hit.
* Despite Regieleki establishing itself as a dominant force in VGC, the official Doubles format, it was an entirely different story in Doubles OU. This is due to a combination of Dynamax being banned, more Tailwind setters being available, the existence of Zygarde, and having to compete with Zeraora that has a more acceptable bulk while providing support with Fake Out, Taunt, or Coaching. All those elements have resulted in Regieleki being unviable there.

* When they debuted in VGC, Celebi and Diancie were thrown into the low end of this trope. Celebi was completely outclassed by other Grass and Psychic types, like Mew and Venusaur, while its weakness-laden typing, especially the Fire, Ghost, Ice and Dark weakness, were an extremely poor match against a metagame dominated by Sun teams (bolstered by Victini and Volcanion), Yveltal, Kyogre, both forms of Calyrex and Inceneroar. Diancie was in a similar boat due to its ×4 Steel weakness in a meta where Zacian and Magearna were top tier Pokémon.
* Gen 8 was extremely rough for the Tapus. Not only were they in a horrible position for the Dynamax mechanic, due to Max Moves frequently overriding their Terrian or used to set up Terrains by the players themselves, almost all of them found themselves being outclassed by a new Galarian addition; Tapu Koko was weak and slow compared to Regieleki, Tapu Lele's offensive Fairy firepower was outclassed by Zacian-Crowned and its priority blocking niche was taken over by Indeedee, who has better bulk and a better support movepool, while Tapu Bulu was outclassed by Rillaboom. The only Tapu seeing play was Tapu Fini since its niche in blocking status effects was harder to replicate.

* Chikorita is the worst traditional starter Pokémon both in-game and competitively. It has a type disadvantage against three of the Johto Gyms while its sole type advantage is over part of Pryce's Gym, where most of the trainers have at least one Water, Water/Ice, or Ice/Ground Pokémon, despite being weak to the actual theme of the gym (Ice). It also fares poorly against Morty's Gym due to a shallow movepool not being effective against the Ghost/Poison-type Ghastly line that makes up the entire gym. While it does provide utility with Reflect and Poison powder against [[ThatOneBoss Whitney]], she’ll still be difficult anyway with just a starter [[note]due to every starter being significantly more likely to be Male, making them vulnerable to Attract[[/note]]. Chuck's Poliwrath is literally the only Pokémon it has a clear advantage over. They won't fare well against Team Rocket either, as they frequently use Poison and Flying-types. It has a type advantage against many of the Kanto gyms, but by that point, most players have access to better Grass-types like Vileplume. Its stats are also focused on defense and support over offense, which is less practical in the story. ''Sun and Moon'' mitigates things a little by having Chikorita available early on in the game for those who didn't pick Rowlet, but even then it is outclassed by other Grass-types such as Tsareena.
* Following Chikorita, Snivy is the second most difficult starter in the main series. While its Hidden Ability Contrary lets it hit like a tank with Leaf Storm, this isn't legitimately obtainable in-game (their Hidden Abilities only first became available in Gen 6). The Snivy line's intended strategy is to stall and drain opponents away with Leech Seed and Giga Drain, which is time-consuming and impractical in non-competitive formats. It has a prohibitively small offensive movepool and average offensive stats that necessitate buffs with Coil or Calm Mind to be threatening. Its advantages lie in its high Speed and access to Glare, which is useful in disabling opponents and making legendaries easier to catch... but outside of trades, the move is unavailable until after beating the game, because it is an egg move and breeding is impossible until then.

** When they debuted in VGC, Celebi and Diancie were thrown into the low end of this trope. Celebi was completely outclassed by other Grass and Psychic types, like Mew and Venusaur, while its weakness-laden typing, especially the Fire, Ghost, Ice and Dark weakness, were an extremely poor match against a metagame dominated by Sun teams (bolstered by Victini and Volcanion), Yveltal, Kyogre, both forms of Calyrex and Inceneroar. Diancie was in a similar boat due to its ×4 Steel weakness in a meta where Zacian and Magearna were top tier Pokémon.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fall_of_golem_rby_ou_art_8.jpg]]

[-[[caption-width-right:350: [[https://www.smogon.com/articles/rby-golem-fall Image]] by [[https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/shadowshockers-smogon-sketch-section.3686227/post-8888942 Shadowshocker]]. Used with permission]]-]

[-[[caption-width-right:350: Image by Shadowshocker. Used with permission]]-]

* Phione is a Pokémon introduced in Gen IV that can only be obtained by breeding a Manaphy[[note: an event exclusive Pokémon]] with a 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.

** Regice is widely considered to be the worst of the Golems. It started off strong in Gen 3, working as a special-oriented tank that could take hits with its mammoth Special Defense and dish them out with a decent 100 Special Attack and a wide movepool that sported the coveted [=BoltBeam=] combo. Gen 4, however, crippled it with not just the advent of Stealth Rock (which knocked off 25% of its HP) and stronger Rock-type moves, but also the physical/special move split, giving opponents more options to exploit its good-but-still-weaker Defense and pure Ice typing, which was already a problem to begin with (see Ice typing in the "Low Tiers - Types in General" section above ^). As power creep reared its ugly head, Regice continued to tumble further into the lower tiers with each passing generation. Nowadays, what was once a massive threat in the ADV days is now stuck with the [[MedalOfDishonor dishonorable badge of "Untiered"]].

* Specialized {{Stone Wall}}s are extremely undesirable in Doubles because two opposing Pokémon means double the chances of the opposing Pokémon having/being the attacking type that the wall can't sufficiently stall out. In addition, if the opponent decided to gang up on their partner, the inherent passivity of Walls means that they cannot damage the enemy back. (In)famous passive walls in Singles like Blissey/Chansey, Skarmory, Quagsire, Umbreon, Lugia, Toxapex, Wobbuffet and Giratina all languish in unviability in Doubles. Walls that see a bit more viability tend to have actual offensive presence (Ferrothorn, Snorlax, Slowbro, Tyranitar), well-rounded stat on both Defense and Special Defense (Corviknight, Aegislash, Mandibuzz and Tyranitar again) and/or additional utility (Arcanine, Gastrodon, Cresselia, [=Porygon2=], Suicune).

* Chikorita, Bayleef, and Meganium have the dubious honor of being the worst traditional starter Pokémon both in-game and competitively. What really makes Chikorita the worst (or at least most challenging) choice in-game is that it has a type disadvantage against three of the Johto Gyms (Flying, Bug, and Ice) while its sole type advantage is over part of Pryce's Gym (all but one of the Trainers use Water, Water/Ice, and Ice/Ground Pokémon), which ''has an innate type advantage against it''. It also fares poorly against Morty's Gym due to them exclusively using the Gastly line (with the Chikorita line's shallow movepool, they won't be able to deal effective damage against the Poison-type of the line), and while it does provide utility with Reflect and Poison powder against [[ThatOneBoss Whitney, she’ll still be difficult anyway]] thanks to the overwhelming odds of Attract being usable[[note]]Thanks to fact that every starter is significantly more likely to be Male[[/note]] as well as the addition of a Lum berry in the remakes, Chuck's Poliwrath is literally the only Pokémon it has a clear advantage over. They won't fare well against Team Rocket either, as they frequently use Poison and Flying-types. Granted, it has a type advantage against many of the post-game Kanto Gyms, but by that point, most players should have a well-rounded team and shouldn't be depending exclusively on their starters anymore and have access to better Grass-types like Vileplume. Its stats are also focused on defense and support over offense, which is less practical in the story and makes defeating opponents more difficult as the NPC Pokémon get stronger later in the story. ''Sun and Moon'' mitigates things a little by having Chikorita available on Melemele Island via Island Scan early in the game as an option for those who didn't pick Rowlet, and it has a clear advantage against the Water trial, but even then, it is outclassed by other Grass-types such as Tsareena.
* Following Chikorita, Snivy is the most difficult starter to use in Gen 5's main story. While its Hidden Ability Contrary lets it hit like a tank with Leaf Storm, this isn't legitimately obtainable in-game (their Hidden Abilities only first became available in Gen 6). The Snivy line's intended strategy is to stall and drain opponents away with Leech Seed and Giga Drain, which is time-consuming and impractical in non-competitive formats. It has a prohibitively small offensive movepool and average offensive stats that necessitate buffs with Coil or Calm Mind to be really threatening. Its advantages lie in its high Speed (fully evolved it's one of the fastest Pokémon readily available in the main story of both sets of games) and access to Glare, which is useful in disabling opponents and making legendaries easier to catch... but outside trades, the line can't use that move until ''after beating the game'', as it's an egg move passed by Pokémon that weren't introduced in Unova, and while ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' has such Pokémon available earlier, breeding is impossible until then anyway.
* However, it's generally agreed that the worst starter of ''all time'' is ''VideoGame/PokemonYellow'''s Pikachu. Chikorita and Snivy may be flawed at best, but at least they can evolve. Meanwhile, Pikachu is stuck with its horrid base stats (''barely'' better than an unevolved starter, with only Speed being more than dreadful) and it lacks almost all the equalizers that the games would go on to give it: no Light Ball, no Volt Tackle, no Gigantamax forms, nothing but a slightly upgraded movepool over the ''Red and Blue'' Pikachu, which wasn't considered especially great to begin with even after evolving. And the upgraded movepool isn't that helpful, since it still learns basically nothing but Normal and Electric moves, plus Submission through a TM. Even if you get around its stat issues, Pikachu has terrible matchups against the Kanto Gym Leaders and Elite Four, with only Misty, Lorelei, and some assorted Flying-types being weak to it (and they're still a lot stronger than Pikachu, and it doesn't resist their attacks). Brock in particular becomes a full-on WakeUpCallBoss in ''Yellow'', because while Bulbasaur and Squirtle could stuff him easily and Charmander could do surprisingly well with Ember, there's simply nothing Pikachu can do to his team--the designers actually had to alter the movepools of Mankey and the Nidorans just to give the player a way to beat him. When they revisited the concept in ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGo'', they had to retool Pikachu very heavily to make it viable as a starter: buffing its stats, giving it significantly overpowered moves, and handing a whole bunch of other mechanics to the player.

* The AI trainers provided in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'''s Max Raid Battles are purposefully underwhelming to encourage playing with real people, so they aren't really that powerful against higher-ranked raid battles. For example, Isabella's Magikarp that knows Hydro Pump (thanks to a buff introduced in the game that allowed it to learn that move by level up eventually) is ''not the most useless trainer available''. That dubious distinction goes to Alfie's Wobbuffet, Poke Kid Freya, and/or Martin's Solrock, which kind of go overboard with the whole "encouraging sociability" act. The Wobbuffet, as it is usually meant to be, cannot attack the target directly, and often relies on Counter. The problem is, said target doesn't always target the Wobbuffet, leaving it doing no better than using Splash. Sadly, often when it is attacked, it's doing something else like using Amnesia, or just goes down anyway. The Eevee will never use anything other than Helping Hand despite having 3 attacking moves, which does not help at all when the target has 12 total shields and just needs to be attacked. The Solrock, despite having Psychic, would rather spend its time buffing its stats via Cosmic Power and Rock Polish, which the raid boss will simply reset the next turn. Martin is so widely hated, even Pokemon.com's official Max Raid Battle guide made fun of him and his "darn Solrock".

** The Hisuian Zorua line has it even worse! Like Bergmite and Avalugg above, these foxes are also found in the last area of the game. However, multiple other factors absolutely screw them over without some serious workaround. Zorua only spawns in an easy-to-miss hole in the ground in the Bonechill wastes. It's level 26 in an area filled to the brim with mons in the late 40s to early '50s, due to abilities being DummiedOut in this game, can't take proper advantage of its unique typing. Finally like its Unovan counterpart, Hisuian Zoroark has very few options in coverage moves. In fact, it only has ROCK SMASH as coverage for its only weakness (and its only strong non-STAB options are Flamethrower and Sludge Bomb). It doesn't help that it's just as frail as its regular version, and debuts in a game whose combat system often puts GlassCannon Pokémon at a disadvantage. All these factors make Hisuian Zoroark incredibly hard to use during the main story. Postgame, however, it can be used to great effect against [[spoiler: Giratina]], especially since the game gives you one chance to catch a decently-levelled Zoroark.

** Of all Pokémon, ''Garchomp''. While it's still powerful, the mass move cut hit the landshark '''hard'''; it loses Earthquake (which isn't in the game), Swords Dance (which is in the game but Garchomp can't learn), and even [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Dragon Pulse]] (which it could learn in previous games). All and all, it's seen as an inferior choice compared to Goodra, who not only can be obtained much earlier (the second area has an Alpha Sliggo), but ''does'' get Dragon Pulse, making Goodra invaluable against [[spoiler:Giratina.]]

* Phione is a Pokémon introduced in Gen IV that can only be obtained by breeding a Manaphy with a Ditto. Manaphy can only be obtained by beating the spin-off game ''VideoGame/PokemonRanger'' and transferring a Manaphy egg to your Gen IV save file. One might expect from this that Phione is pretty strong, or at least has something unique about it... but in reality, it does absolutely nothing that Manaphy can't, can't do things that Manaphy can, and is completely unremarkable across the board. It's a generic Water-type with [[MasterOfNone 80 in every stat]], 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.

** Despite being a Normal ComMon based on a mammal, Lillipup avoids being lumped in with the others and is well-liked. Factors for this include having two evolutions instead of just one, the generally handy ability Pickup, it not being modeled after a rodent, and Stoutland being a ride Pokémon in Gen 7.

* Golem had a fairly strong start in RBY as one of the primary checks to Zapdos and Jolteon thanks to its combination of a Normal resist and Electric immunity, making it unlikely to get paralyzed. Additionally, its Explosion was the second most powerful attack in the game, right behind Snorlax's Self-Destruct, and it could take out most Pokémon even when it was crippled. Even though it had fierce competition from Rhydon, it was still a strong contender in RBY OU. However, in 2014 it was discovered that Pokémon could not be statused by the moves of the same type, meaning that Normal-types were unable to be paralyzed by the ubiqitous Body Slam. This led to a shift towards a bulkier metagame, which did not treat Golem kindly. As a result, Golem's usage tumbled while its former understudy Rhydon swiftly rose due to its higher overall bulk. Though Rhydon had decent (though not dominating) showings in GSC and ADV, its viability would only continue to plummet in the following generations, as its typing's numerous weaknesses became more and more glaring, especially as PowerCreep left its once-solid stats in the dust. Its Alolan form did find a niche as a trapper capable of taking out the many Steel-types of SM OU, but regular Golem remained Untiered with little-to-no niche.

* Poor Bellossom could never achieve competitive fame anywhere it went throughout the years. Due to it constantly being AlwaysSecondBest to other Grass-Types (Including its sibling Vileplume) at it's main calling card being a defensive/support Grass-Type. Every hopeful move and buff Bellossom received, the other Grass-Types received as well including other moves and items that allow them to perform Bellossom's role better, ruining any chance of it to stand out on its own role. Generations 2 and 3 were easy on it at the very least, because Bellossom could always move into a lower tier and perform its role there. Bellossom's luck finally ran out in Generation 4 however, because its harsh competition moved into the NU tier to outclass it in its role once again, leaving the poor hula dancing flower with nowhere to go. Even receiving a boost in ''Quiver Dance'' in Generation 7 wasn't enough to save Bellossom from obscurity. As a result of this misfortune, Bellossom's been stuck in the void of ''Untiered'' in every generation since Gen 5.

* The [[DishingOutDirt Rock]] type. Offensively, Rock coverage is highly coveted since it hits four types super-effectively, particularly the common Fire- and Flying-types. It pairs exceedingly well with the Ground type due to how well they cover each of their offensive weaknesses, meaning that very few Pokémon resist the combination. Defensively, however, Rock is a complete joke. While it does have a few useful resistances to common types such as Normal and Flying, it's not enough to make up for the fact that it ties with fellow Scrappy type Grass for the most weaknesses of any type, with five. Making matters worse is that '''four''' of those five weaknesses (Grass, Water, Fighting, and Ground) are some of the most common and popular attacking types in the metagame and hit quite a few other types to boot,[[note]]While its fifth weakness (Steel) still isn't anywhere near as ubiquitous as the other four, it did still see an uptick in use after it became one of Fairy's only two weaknesses in Gen VI[[/note]] and to add insult to injury, the resistances that the type has are done better by other types, namely Steel-types having all of the Rock type resistances and more (with the exception of Fire). This means that a good chunk of Rock-types with a secondary typing have at least one 4x weakness, with several having two. Rock-types are almost always built as {{Mighty Glacier}}s, and thanks to their copious amounts of weaknesses, they're almost always unable to do their job. Adding insult to injury is that Rock coverage is often unreliable, as very few Rock moves have 100% accuracy, and those that do usually have mediocre Base Power and/or low distribution. As a salt-in-the-wound fun fact, Rock is the only type to not have any Pokémon KickedUpstairs to Ubers (not counting Arceus with a Stone Plate); in fact, it's arguably one of the factors ''preventing'' high-tier Scrappy Tyranitar from being such.

* Of the ElementalRockPaperScissors, [[AnIcePerson Ice]]. Offensively, it's one of the best in the game, being strong against Dragon (the only one along with Fairy and itself), Grass, Ground, and Flying. Defensively, it's by far the worst. It only resists itself, and is weak to Fire, Fighting, Rock, and Steel — all of which are common attacking types. Because nearly all Water-type Pokémon have access to Ice-type moves and have much better defensive matchups, there's considered very little reason to use them in the current metagame. To add insult to injury, when the type effectiveness chart was updated for Gen 6, Ice got absolutely no changes. If anything, it became ''worse'' due to sharing a weakness with Fairy-types. On top of that, for whatever reason, the majority of Ice-types are designed with a MightyGlacier or StoneWall mindset[[note]]Regice, Beartic, Avalugg, Walrein, Lapras, Abomasnow, Aurorus, Cloyster, Crabominable, Dewgong, Eiscue, Glastrier, Calyrex-Ice, arguably Articuno — notably, all the successful Ice-types are either {{Fragile Speedster}}s like Jynx, Weavile, Alolan Ninetales, Mega Glalie, Froslass, and Galarian Darmanitan, or have some way to circumvent their Speed like Mamoswine and Abomasnow's priority moves, Cloyster's Shell Smash, Calyrex-Ice's Trick Room, or Glastrier's Trick Room support in Doubles, though Eiscue's immunity to physical attacks and subsequent incredibly Speed boost puts it in an unusual niche as a LethalJokeCharacter[[/note]], meaning they rarely get to utilize their powerful offensive moves before being outsped and flattened. It's telling when the few Ice-types that are seen with any regularity (Jynx (for the first 3 Generations), Cloyster, Mamoswine, Froslass, Weavile, Kyurem-B, Mega Glalie, G-Darmanitan, Glastrier, and Calyrex-Ice) do well ''in spite of'' their typing, though most of them do enjoy its offensive benefits.[[note]]The exceptions are Froslass, who truly does work in spite of her typing as an annoyer and occasional suicide lead, Abomasnow whose bulk and slow speed allow it to overwrite the enemy weather setters then proceed to flatten them with its STAB priority and/or super effective attacks, Alolan Ninetales and Gigantamax Lapras, whose entire viability revolves around setting up [[BarrierMaiden Aurora Veil]], as well as Glastrier and Calyrex-Ice's sheer stats and [[ConfusionFu great coverage movepool]], which would be absolutely bonkers on any type that isn't Ice[[/note]] As an extra backhanded insult, the Ice type has a weather condition —- Hail -— made exclusively for them... and it's the most useless weather condition in the game. Up until Gen VII, it provides no inherent benefit to the Pokémon it's meant for aside from making Blizzard hit regardless of accuracy and evasion. With old punching bag Poison receiving massive buffs in Gens VI and VII, and Fairy pretty much doing Ice's calling card even better than Ice can (as in, killing Dragon-types), Ice has unfortunately become ''the'' new bottom-tier ButtMonkey of Pokémon types. However, Gen VII threw the type a small bone by buffing the Gen V Ice-types, as well as adding more Hail summoners, a move that acts as both Light Screen and Reflect if used in Hail, and the much requested ability of doubling the Speed of the Pokémon in Hail, on top of making Ice-types immune to [[OneHitKO Sheer Cold]].

* Of the ElementalRockPaperScissors, [[AnIcePerson Ice]]. Offensively, it's one of the best in the game, being strong against Dragon (the only one along with Fairy and itself), Grass, Ground, and Flying. Defensively, it's by far the worst. It only resists itself, and is weak to Fire, Fighting, Rock, and Steel — all of which are common attacking types. Because nearly all Water-type Pokémon have access to Ice-type moves and have much better defensive matchups, there's considered very little reason to use them in the current metagame. To add insult to injury, when the type effectiveness chart was updated for Gen 6, Ice got absolutely no changes. If anything, it became ''worse'' due to sharing a weakness with Fairy-types. On top of that, for whatever reason, the majority of Ice-types are designed with a MightyGlacier or StoneWall mindset[[note]]Regice, Beartic, Avalugg, Walrein, Lapras, Abomasnow, Aurorus, Cloyster, Crabominable, Dewgong, Eiscue, Glastrier, Calyrex-Ice, arguably Articuno — notably, all the successful Ice-types are either {{Fragile Speedster}}s like Jynx, Weavile, Alolan Ninetales, Mega Glalie, Froslass, and Galarian Darmanitan, or have some way to circumvent their Speed like Mamoswine and Abomasnow's priority moves, Cloyster's Shell Smash, Calyrex-Ice's Trick Room, or Glastrier's Trick Room support in Doubles, though Eiscue's immunity to physical attacks and subsequent incredibly Speed boost puts it in an unusual niche as a LethalJokeCharacter[[/note]], meaning they rarely get to utilize their powerful offensive moves before being outsped and flattened. It's telling when the few Ice-types that are seen with any regularity (Jynx (for the first 3 Generations), Cloyster, Mamoswine, Froslass, Weavile, Kyurem-B, Mega Glalie, G-Darmanitan, Glastrier and Calyrex-Ice) do well ''in spite of'' their typing, though most of them do enjoy its offensive benefits (with the exception of Froslass, who truly does work in spite of her typing as an annoyer and occasional suicide lead, Abomasnow whose bulk and slow speed allow it to overwrite the enemy weather setters then proceed to flatten them with its STAB priority / super effective attacks, Alolan Ninetales and Gigantamax Lapras, whose entire viability revolves around setting up [[BarrierMaiden Aurora Veil]], as well as Glastrier and Calyrex-Ice's sheer stats and [[ConfusionFu great coverage movepool]], which would be absolutely bonkers on any type that isn't Ice). As an extra backhanded insult, the Ice type has a weather condition — Hail — made exclusively for them... and it's the most useless weather condition in the game. Up until Gen 7, it provides no inherent benefit to the Pokémon it's meant for aside from making Blizzard hit regardless of accuracy and evasion. With old punching bag Poison receiving massive buffs in Gens VI and VII, and Fairy pretty much doing Ice's calling card even better than Ice can (as in, killing Dragon-types), Ice has unfortunately become ''the'' new bottom-tier ButtMonkey of Pokémon types. However, Gen 7 threw the type a small bone by buffing the Gen 5 Ice-types, adding more Hail summoners and a move that acts as Light Screen and Reflect if used in Hail, adding the much requested ability of doubling the Speed of the Pokémon in Hail and making Ice-types immune to [[OneHitKO Sheer Cold]].

* Regular Necrozma has a disappointing performance in Smogon singles for such a prolific Gen 7 legendary, performing well in the middle tiers but struggling to make an impact in OU, despite being a MightyGlacier with the benefit of a defensive ability unaffected by Mold Breaker. For one thing, it doesn’t have any special Fighting-type moves[[labelnote:*]]Not even Hidden Power, as it always has three perfect [=IVs=][[/labelnote]] to combat Dark- or Steel-types, and its offensive coverage only consists of Psychic-type attacks, Power Gem, Dark Pulse, and Flash Cannon. Baton Pass and Extreme Evoboost being banned from single formats and Doubles OU (respectively) doesn’t help matters either, as Necrozma would otherwise benefit from those via Stored Power. Even when ''Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon'' gave it some great improvements by adding Photon Geyser, Heat Wave, Earth Power, Signal Beam and Knock Off, and ''Sword and Shield'' gifted it Dragon Dance, Future Sight, Cosmic Power, Psychic Fangs, Meteor Beam and Expanding Force, those still aren't enough to make Necrozma a top OU threat in Singles.

[[folder: Smogon Doubles]]

[[folder: Smogon Singles]]

* Midnight Form Lycanroc is agreed to be inferior to its Midday Form counterpart in every way. While the Midday Form gets an exclusive Rock-type [[ActionInitiative priority move]] in Accelerock, Midnight Form instead gets Counter, with no way to learn its counterpart's move. Its stats also screw it over; while Midday Form is a FragileSpeedster with base 112 Speed, Midnight Form tries to be defensive...except that aside from having a fair number of common weaknesses as a Rock-type, it loses 30 points of Speed which are redistributed into its HP, Defense, and Special Defense — and the 10-point increase does nothing to make it less frail while simultaneously hampering its Speed significantly. It does enjoy a 100% accurate Stone Edge with its Hidden Ability No Guard but lacks the Speed to effectively take advantage of it.

[[folder: In-Game]]

** Of all things GARCHOMP. While still powerful, the mass move cut hit the Landshark HARD. It loses Earthquake (which isn't in the game) and Swords Dance (which is in the game but Garchomp can't learn.), along with losing [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Dragon Pulse.]] (Which it could learn in previous games). All and all it's seen as an inferior choice compared to Goodra, who not only can be obtained MUCH earlier (The second area has an Alpha Sliggo)but does get Dragon Pulse. Making Goodra invaluable against [[spoiler: Giratina.]]

* Phione is a Pokémon introduced in Gen IV that can only be obtained by breeding a Manaphy with a Ditto. Manaphy can only be obtained by beating the spin-off game ''VideoGame/PokemonRanger'' and transferring a Manaphy egg to your Gen IV save file. One might expect from this that Phione is pretty strong, or at least has something unique about it... but in reality, it does absolutely nothing that Manaphy can't, can't do things that Manaphy can, and is completely unremarkable across the board. It's a generic Water-type with [[MasterOfNone 80 in every stat]], 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 Pokemon should be removed from his then-upcoming ''VideoGame/PokemonHeartGoldAndSoulSilver'' hack in favor of including Sylveon, Phione won in a landslide.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Metagame]]

''Pokémon'' also has many Low-Tier Letdowns. Either they happen to be [[JokeCharacter completely worthless]] in the first place or they perform poorly in competitive battles.

* While it ''does'' see use in UU due to its Mega Evolution, normal Pidgeot was known prior to Gen 8 (when it was removed from the game) as a complete joke even in PU, to the point that even Dodrio and Articuno (who are also on the list, detailed below) outclass it. Its bulk is mediocre at best, its offenses are underwhelming, its movepool is shallow, and its only decent stat is Speed. It’s best used as a Defogger, and even then, Skuntank does it much better.

** Of all things GARCHOMP. While still powerful, the mass move cut hit the Landshark HARD. It loses Earthquake (which isn't in the game) and Swords dance (which is in the game but Garchomp can't learn.), along with losing [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Dragon Pulse.]] (Which it could learn in previous games). All and all it's seen as an inferior choice compared to Goodra, who not only can be obtained MUCH earlier (The second area has an Alpha Sliggo)but does get Dragon Pulse. Making Goodra invaluable against [[spoiler: Giratina.]]

* Phione is a Pokemon introduced in Gen IV that can only be obtained by breeding a Manaphy with a Ditto. Manaphy can only be obtained by beating the spin-off game ''VideoGame/PokemonRanger'' and transferring a Manaphy egg to your Gen IV save file. Phione has abysmal stats, [[MasterOfNone posessing an 80 in everything]]. It's so disliked that when popular ROM hack creator ''Creator/Drayano60'' put out a poll asking which Pokemon should be removed from his then-upcoming ''VideoGame/PokemonHeartGoldAndSoulSilver'' hack in favor of including Sylveon, Phione won in a landslide.

* To say Altaria suffers from an identity crisis is an understatement. When it was introduced in Gen III, it seemed to be intended as a Bulky Physical Sweeper that utilizes Dragon Dance in combination with Flying type moves, with its Dragon-typing meant largely to enhance its at the time impressive defenses and not really meant to enhance its offensive capabilities. Gen IV greatly enhanced the effectiveness of Dragon-type attacks on offensive Altaria sets with the physical special split. After a brief stint of competitive viability in Gen VI and VIII on account of its Mega Form which turns it into a MagicKnight with the offensively jacked Dragon/Fairy typing, in Gen VIII Gamefreak decided to transition Altaria into being a purely special-focused Pokemon by either restricting or outright removing a lot of its physical options such as Dragon Dance and Outrage, but neglected to give it a move that buffs its special attack, such as Calm Mind or Nasty Plot, to replace Dragon Dance. Problem is, both of Altaria's offensive stats without its Mega Form are complete garbage. Even by Gen III standards they were mediocre at best. The only viability it's ever had without its Mega Form is as a purely defensive Pokemon, and it doesn't have the movepool to support such a playstyle.

* Zubat is the franchise's definition of GoddamnBats for a reason. They appear relentlessly in caves and other dark, damp places in every generation (it's saying something when this line of all things appears in every regional Pokédex). It's Poison/Flying, meaning that its signature attacks can often poison your Pokémon, and comes with Supersonic/Confuse Ray, to put confusion on top of poison. It's fast too, meaning that you can't escape with a slow Pokémon on the field. Its final evolution, Crobat, is a BaseBreakingCharacter when it comes to popularity, but nobody can deny that Zubat and Golbat justify the Repel item just to stay sane.

* Many ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' Pokémon that evolve by leveling up have abnormally higher thresholds than their contemporaries in earlier generations [[note]]This worked in ''Black and White'' when the main story only had these newer Pokémon and the ones that evolved "late" were also initially encountered at high levels in the main story[[/note]]. Some like Larvesta and Tynamo are clear examples of MagikarpPower, but others like Rufflet only evolve at ''Level 54''. This causes issues in later generations, where you can catch a Rufflet on Route 3 on Melemele Island early in the game and get nowhere near evolving it into Braviary until you've reached the Elite Four, or even after the credits and into the postgame.

''Pokémon'' also has many Low-Tier Scrappies. Either they happen to be [[JokeCharacter completely worthless]] in the first place or they perform poorly in competitive battles.

* Pikachu, the world-famous SeriesMascot, is infamously one of the weakest Pokémon in the metagame, being too unviable for even the lowest tiers. While this is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] due to its not being fully evolved, it remains one of the least useful and most fragile {{Glass Cannon}}s in the series ''despite'' having a very powerful signature move (Volt Tackle), an item (Light Ball) that doubles its offensive stats to make it hit as hard as most Legendary Pokémon, and a ''huge'' number of event-exclusive moves of varying degree of usefulness. Pikachu's iconic status makes this case particularly notable; its fans wish there was a way for it to show the same level of power it does in [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries the anime]] (at times), the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' and ''VideoGame/PokkenTournament'' games, and (to a lesser extent) the TCG, while its TierInducedScrappy status is also frequently brought up by the character's detractors as a point against its favor (similar to Charizard in older generations). In Generation 8, this was ''finally'' properly addressed with the Dynamax mechanic, as both Dynamax and Gigantamax Pikachu are genuinely good Pokémon that have seen competitive use because their doubled HP offsets their severe GlassCannon defenses while the Light Ball makes their extremely powerful Max Moves hit even harder.

** Patrat, [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black and White's]] version of the early-game {{Mon}}, is even more hated than Bidoof. Bidoof's evolution, Bibarel, is at least a good HM slave. Patrat and Watchog, on the other hand, only learn a few HM moves. The creepy [[TheStoner stoned eyes]] [[UncannyValley 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!

[[/folder]]