History LowTierLetdown / Pokemon

* '''Dawn Wings Necrozma''' has gigantic base stats befitting of a box art Legendary (meaning it has no hope of ever dropping to OU or allowed in regular VGC plays short of massive power creep), but is always found lacking compare to its fellow Sun and Moon Legendaries: Dusk Mane has a better typing to become Ultra Necrozma, while Lunala has a better movepool, and its ability allows it to essentially have much bigger bulk, despite sharing the same weakness. The only thing it's got going for it is the ability to become Ultra Necrozma, so when Gen VIII rolled around and removed Z-Moves while powercreeping it with Calyrex Shadow Rider, ''while'' Lunala is still around to fill in any defensive niche it might have, Dawn Wing basically became useless in both Singles and VGC. With the advent of the Ubers UU tier in Generation IX, Dawn Wings Necrozma unsurprisingly dropped down to there... where it promptly became [[HighTierScrappy the opposite of this trope]] thanks to its obscene bulk and power making it a supreme abuser of Calm Mind or even Power Herb + Meteor Beam. As of this writing it's on the Ubers UU council's radar, and many players call it an unhealthy and constraining presence.

* When Calyrex and it steeds are united, they become some of the strongest mons in the series (so much that [[HighTierScrappy Shadow Rider to take a one-way trip to AG in SV]]). While Spectrier at least has a decent Ubers UU showing to its name, Calyrex and Glastrier weren't good in any metagame.

* When Calyrex and it steeds are united, they become some of the strongest mons in the series just far (so much for [[HighTierScrappy Shadow Rider to take a one-way trip to AG in SV]]). While Spectrier at least has a decent Ubers UU showing to its name, Calyrex and Glastrier weren't good in any metagame.

* '''Aurorus''' boasts high HP, a solid movepool, two extremely good abilities in Refrigerate and Snow Warning, the move Freeze-Dry to beat Water-Types, and decent Special Attack that lets it hit hard. Sounds like a recipe for success. Unfortunately, Aurorus is [[MightyGlacier yet another slow]] Ice-Type, with a crippling Ice/Rock typing that gives it many bad weaknesses (including double weaknesses to Fighting ''and'' Steel), making it hard to even function on the most basic level without being in total danger of being pummeled by a faster opponent with super effective move. On top of that, the only special Rock attack it can use is the mediocre Ancient Power, so it can't even use the full potential of its two good offensive [=STABs=]. Unsurprisingly, it sat at the bottom or near the bottom of the tier list for its entire existence.
* '''Avalugg''' is yet another Ice-type StoneWall that struggles to perform the role it's supposed to. In addition to being weak to 4 common types and only resistant to Ice-type, Avalugg suffered from an abysmal special defense, meaning that any reasonable special move can tip it over. Despite possessing a colossal defense of 184 with Rapid Spin and Recover, Avalugg's flaws outweight any benefits it has, sinking all the way down to PU or even untiered. Surprisingly, Avalugg did have a fringe niche in Gen VII OU, particularly as a check to Zygarde prior to its ban. Gen IX's Terastallization did help its standing a bit thanks to allowing it to remove its Ice Type in favor of a more defensive-oriented one, but even then, it was not enough to make it anywhere near a high-tier staple or carve a niche there since there are many other Pokémon that benefit from Terastalization more.

* Whereas its counterpart Spectrier trotted to Ubers (despite being considered useless there thanks to [[HighTierScrappy Calyrex-Shadow (and later on Flutter Mane)]] outclassing it completely), '''Glastrier''' is underwhelming. While having amazing bulk at 100/130/110 and a monstrous 140 Attack, it's let down by its type and [[MightyGlacier horrendous speed]]. Being a slow Ice-type, it can KO an opposing Pokémon, but will usually end up getting crippled by anything that can outspeed it (which isn't a hard task) and/or KO'd. It says something that, even in PU, ''Sneasel'', an unevolved Pokémon, is a better option to fill in its role as a physical Ice-type attacker. It's not much better in Doubles, either; while it has support with Trick Room, it only benefits from it in a Dynamax meta. Without Dynamax, it's easily ganged up on with super-effective moves, has a bad matchup against Incineroar, one of the most common Pokémon, and its best STAB options are either inaccurate or weak. In metas allowing Restricted Pokémon [[note]]Usually reserved for box-art Legendaries[[/note]], it's outclassed entirely by Calyrex-Ice, which is a complete upgrade stat-wise, has Glacial Lance as a decent STAB option, and can set up Trick Room by itself. Gen IX at least gave it Terastalization, which allows it to become a better defensive type, but it's not a common choice in Doubles, and in Singles, it continues to struggle.
* While Calyrex-Ice resides in the Ubers tier and Calyrex-Shadow was eventually banned to Anything Goes, normal '''Calyrex''' may be a contender for the worst Legendary. Its movepool is ''incredibly'' shallow, mostly consisting of STAB moves and Calm Mind, it has an awful defensive typing in Grass/Psychic, its stats are terribly mediocre ("boasting" a 100 in HP and 80 in everything else), and its Ability is the very situational Unnerve. It is completely overshadowed by Celebi and plummeted to Untiered, and even there it’s considered worthless. For what it's worth, this one is actually justified in-universe: Calyrex's subplot in the ''Crown Tundra'' DLC makes it pretty clear that it [[ClippedWingAngel used to be leagues stronger than it is now]], having been severely weakened due to GodNeedsPrayerBadly and can now only regain its full power by merging with its mounts.

* '''Darkrai''' was once one of the most feared Uber Pokémon thanks to its high Speed, Special Attack, and access to Dark Void, which was an 80% accurate Sleep-inducing move that synergized fantastically with its ability, Bad Dreams[[labelnote:*]]deals damage equal to 1/8th of a sleeping opponent's maximum HP every turn[[/labelnote]]. The introduction of Fairy-types in Generation VI was not enough to prevent it from being a terrifying Nasty Plot sweeper. However, Game Freak overcorrected the Pitch Black Pokémon when they nerfed Dark Void to have only 50% accuracy in Generation VII[[note]]which was most likely done to nerf Smeargle instead... despite the move also being changed so that only Darkrai could use it in that same generation[[/note]], which is worse than ''Hypnosis''. This caused Darkrai's viability to tumble off of a cliff and into a burning volcano; ever since then, it's been thoroughly outclassed by nearly any other fast Special sweeper, particularly Yveltal, who shares a typing with it. Even in the semi-official Ubers Underused tier, it's basically worthless due to being completely outclassed by Chi-Yu and its nuclear Special attacks that don't require boosts to hit hard. The prevalence of Magearna, who completely walls Darkrai unless it burns up a Tera, only adds insult to injury. Generation IX's PowerCreep was so severe that Darkrai was finally allowed into Overused with the release of ''The Indigo Disk'', and while not exactly game-breaking there (owing to both power creep and the Dark Void nerf), it served as a major hinderance to the tier with ''Hypnosis'' of all things[[labelnote:*]]Thanks to Sleep Clause preventing multiple Pokemon from falling asleep on a single team, the 100% accurate Spore could thus be baited out into Pokemon that didn't mind getting put to sleep and thus protect the rest of the team. However, Hypnosis's poor accuracy [[CursedWithAwesome ironically proved beneficial]] as it missing the bait could allow Darkrai to simply put another Pokemon to sleep later, or put the bait in a lose-lose situation. Among other things, this would later contribute to Gen IX OU banning Sleep outright.[[/note]].

* '''Darkrai''' was once one of the most feared Uber Pokémon thanks to its high Speed, Special Attack, and access to Dark Void, which was an 80% accurate Sleep-inducing move that synergized fantastically with its ability, Bad Dreams[[labelnote:*]]deals damage equal to 1/8th of a sleeping opponent's maximum HP every turn[[/labelnote]]. The introduction of Fairy-types in Generation VI was not enough to prevent it from being a terrifying Nasty Plot sweeper. However, Game Freak overcorrected the Pitch Black Pokémon when they nerfed Dark Void to have only 50% accuracy in Generation VII[[note]]which was most likely done to nerf Smeargle instead... despite the move also being changed so that only Darkrai could use it in that same generation[[/note]], which is worse than ''Hypnosis''. This caused Darkrai's viability to tumble off of a cliff and into a burning volcano; ever since then, it's been thoroughly outclassed by nearly any other fast Special sweeper, particularly Yveltal, who shares a typing with it. Even in the semi-official Ubers Underused tier, it's basically worthless due to being completely outclassed by Chi-Yu and its nuclear Special attacks that don't require boosts to hit hard. The prevalence of Magearna, who completely walls Darkrai unless it burns up a Tera, only adds insult to injury. Generation IX's PowerCreep was so severe that Darkrai was finally allowed into Overused with the release of ''The Indigo Disk'', and ''even there'' it's not considered anything special, a testament to the severity of both the generation's power creep and the Dark Void nerf.

* '''Politoed''' has rarely seen success in every generation it's been part of. It's a generic, bulky Water-type with [[JackOfAllStats balanced stats across the board]] that [[MasterOfNone fail to make a significant impact]], and the moveset you'd expect of any Water mon. As a result, in every generation that isn't Gen II, there has always been one Pokémon that outclasses Politoed. As explained in the franchise's HighTierScrappy page, it did have its time to shine in Gen V OU after the introduction of [[BattleInTheRain Drizzle]] as its Hidden Ability, but with Gen VI nerfing Drizzle to last five turns instead of permanently, rain teams lost most of their potency, and thus Politoed lost its niche as one of the most influential Pokémon in OU (with the introduction of Mega Swampert in ''[=OR/AS=]'' not being enough to bump it up. In a cruel twist of fate, however, abilities that permanently set up weather are usually banned in the lower tiers, thus leading Politoed to contend in the lowest of tiers with fierce competition that far outclasses it. This became worse in Gen VII, where Pelipper received Drizzle and whose superior movepool lets it outclass Politoed despite its 4x weakness to Electric; rain teams have seen a resurgence since then... just not with Politoed as their anchor.

* '''Spidops''' is yet another mediocre early-game Bug-type, having poor stats for a fully-evolved Pokémon (totalling at a literal 404), offensive stats that don't even reach the 80s, and a laughable 35 base Speed. Its highest stat is its 92 Defense, which it can't even use due to its bad defensive typing and paltry 60 base HP. Even though it has a powerful SecretArt in Silk Trap (which is basically [[ThatOneAttack King's Shield]] but for Speed) and access to the rare Sticky Web, it's still not considered anything special in lower tiers. The re-introduction of Ribombee, a Sticky Web user with better-distributed stats and a valuable Fairy-typing, basically killed any hope that Spidops would have a niche. And with Smeargle being re-introduced and dropping Rimbombee, Spidops is borderline useless, even in the lower tiers.

* '''Scovillain''' has a lot of positive traits at surface value. With a then-unique Grass/Fire typing, decent mixed-attacking stats, a great ability in Chlorophyll[[note]] Its other abilities are the situational Insomnia, and Moody, which is banned in most formats[[/note]], and moves to compliment it like Solar Beam and Fire Blast. However, its downfall comes from an unfortunate mix of factors. To start with, it's got horrible 65/65/65 defenses and a mediocre 75 speed, with the intention of its low speed being fixed by Chlorophyll. This would be fine, except it leads to problem #2: the lowest-tiered sun setter is Kantonian Ninetales[[note]]Setting up sun via Drought is key in keeping momentum[[/note]], which resides in the UU tier, thereby limiting its possible usability[[note]]Prior to Ninetales' release in the ''Teal Mask'' DLC, Torkoal did drop to RU once... though alongside it came Slither Wing, which completely outclasses it[[/note]]. Which leads to problem #3: it was unfortunately introduced alongside the Ancient Paradox Pokémon, which also get benefits from sun, and sometimes don't even need it thanks to Booster Energy giving the same effect. And these aren't mediocre Pokémon, either; Between them, OU and UU have powerhouses in [[LightningBruiser Gouging Fire, Roaring Moon, Walking Wake, Great Tusk,]] [[note]]Which is one of ''the'' most used Pokémon in the Gen IX OU metagame.[[/note]] [[MightyGlacier Raging Bolt]] and [[GlassCannon Sandy Shocks]][[note]]Which was similarly ''the'' most commonly used Pokémon in the UU tier pre-DLC and even moved back to OU.[[/note]], and all outclass it in pretty much anything it can or want to do in stats and/or combat roles, not to mention other Sun users such as the already barely-viable Charizard. This leaves Scovillain unusable in OU or UU, and without any reliable sun setters in the lower tiers, causes the poor plant to descend downwards into Untiered. To add insult to injury, it suffered UniquenessDecay ''in its own generation'' with ''Teal Mask'' introducing Ogerpon and her Hearthflame Mask, which gives her the same Grass/Fire typing, and proved good enough to be ''banned to Ubers'', painting an even worse image for Scovillain. The final nail in the coffin was the re-introduction of Venusaur, which proved itself as one of the best non-Paradox Sun abusers ''with the exact same ability as Scovillain''.

* While an EnsembleDarkhorse, '''Falinks''' certainly wasn't made popular due to its competitive merits. Its highest stats being Attack and Defense at a mediocre 100, with any possible applications as a bulky attacker being let down by its special bulk of 65/60. While gaining access to moves like Close Combat, Megahorn, and the elusive First Impression, the problem is that there are better users of said moves, as Heracross gains access to the former two, and there are better options for the latter in both Generations it's been in[[note]] With Pokémon ranging from the mediocre Sirfetch'd to the decent Haxorus being better users in Generation VII, and the advent of even better users like Lokix and Slither Wing in Gen IX[[/note]]. Even No Retreat, while seeming like a good option on paper thanks to its omniboost effect, suffers due to not being stackable and being completely [[PoorPredictableRock predictable on its moveset]]. While it performs a smidge better in Gen IX, being PU instead of Untiered, it's not a common presence there.

* Whereas its counterpart Spectrier trotted to Ubers (despite being considered useless there thanks to [[HighTierScrappy Calyrex-Shadow (and later on Flutter Mane)]] outclassing it completely), '''Glastrier''' is underwhelming. While having amazing bulk at 100/130/110 and a monstrous 140 Attack, it's let down by its type and [[MightyGlacier horrendous speed]]. Being a slow Ice-type, it can KO an opposing Pokémon, but will usually end up getting crippled by anything that can outspeed it (which isn't a hard task) and/or KO'd. It says something that, even in PU, ''Sneasel'', an unevolved Pokémon, is a better option to fill in its role as a physical Ice-type attacker. It's not much better in Doubles, either; while it has support with Trick Room, it only benefits from it in a Dynamax meta. Without Dynamax, it's easily ganged up on with super-effective moves, has a bad matchup against Incineroar, one of the most common Pokémon, and its best STAB options are either inaccurate or weak. In metas allowing Restricted Pokémon [[note]]Usually reserved for box-art Legendaries[[/note]], it's outclassed entirely by Calyrex-Ice, which is a complete upgrade stat-wise, has Glacial Lance as a decent STAB option, and can set up Trick Room by itself. Gen IX at least gave it Terastalization, which allows it to become a better defensive type, but it's not a common choice in Doubles, and in Singles, it continues to struggle..

* '''Spidops''' is yet another mediocre early-game Bug-type, having poor stats for a fully-evolved Pokémon (totalling at a literal 404), offensive stats that don't even reach the 80s, and a laughable 35 base Speed. Its highest stat is its 92 Defense, which it can't even use due to its bad defensive typing and paltry 60 base HP. Even though it has a powerful SecretArt in Silk Trap (which is basically [[ThatOneAttack King's Shield]] but for Speed) and access to the rare Sticky Web, it's still not considered anything special in lower tiers. The re-introduction of Ribombee, a Sticky Web user with better-distributed stats and a valuable Fairy-typing, basically killed any hope that Spidops would have a niche.

* 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.

* '''Dawn Wings Necrozma''' has a gigantic base stat befitting of a box art Legendary (meaning it has no hope of ever dropping to OU or allowed in regular VGC plays short of massive power creep), but is always found lacking compare to its fellow Sun and Moon Legendaries: Dusk Mane has a better typing to become Ultra Necrozma, while Lunala has a better movepool, and its ability allows it to essentially have much bigger bulk, despite sharing the same weakness. The only thing it's got going for it is the ability to become Ultra Necrozma, so when Gen VIII rolled around and removed Z-Moves while powercreeping it with Calyrex Shadow Rider, ''while'' Lunala is still around to fill in any defensive niche it might have, Dawn Wing basically became useless in both Singles and VGC. With the advent of the Ubers UU tier in Generation IX, Dawn Wings Necrozma unsurprisingly dropped down to there... where it promptly became [[HighTierScrappy the opposite of this trope]] thanks to its obscene bulk and power making it a supreme abuser of Calm Mind or even Meteor Beam. As of this writing it's on the Ubers UU council's radar, and many players call it an unhealthy and constraining presence.

* '''Dawn Wings Necrozma''' has a gigantic base stat befitting of a box art Legendary (meaning it has no hope of ever dropping to OU or allowed in regular VGC plays short of massive power creep), but is always found lacking compare to its fellow Sun and Moon Legendaries: Dusk Mane has a better typing to become Ultra Necrozma, while Lunala has a better movepool, and its ability allows it to essentially have much bigger bulk, despite sharing the same weakness. The only thing it's got going for it is the ability to become Ultra Necrozma, so when Gen VIII rolled around and removed Z-Moves while powercreeping it with Calyrex Shadow Rider, ''while'' Lunala is still around to fill in any defensive niche it might have, Dawn Wing basically became useless in both Singles and VGC.

* '''Luxray''', despite its popularity, has been a consistently poor choice for an Electric-type in competitive play. While its design would suggest a FragileSpeedster, it's instead a slow GlassCannon, except it doesn't even have much "cannon" to it — its main STAB move Wild Charge has underwhelming power and wears it down through recoil, and its special attack stat isn't quite high enough to be useful. Luxray can use its Guts ability to beef up the power of its physical attacks with a Flame Orb, but this cuts into what little bulk it has, prevents it from running Intimidate to improve its matchup against physical attackers, and also takes up its item slot, while doing nothing to improve its poor speed. Tellingly, on ''Website/{{Smogon}}'', its [[https://www.smogon.com/dex/ss/pokemon/luxray/ analysis for Gen VIII]] just flat-out says "Don't use Luxray."

* While it is quite potent when Mega Evolved, regular '''Lopunny''' is a good candidate for worst fully-evolved Pokémon in the entire franchise. It is decently fast and has okay Special Defense (albeit hampered by its low HP stat), but its other stats range from middling to abysmal. None of its abilities are particularly good (Cute Charm is considered to be useless in a competitive setting, Limber is situational, and Klutz outright prevents it from using held items), it has no reliable recovery, and while it has a good movepool, it lacks the offenses to abuse it. Its only real niche is for item-swapping shenanigans, since Klutz prevents it from being affected by an item's negative effects, but it's dead weight after using Switcheroo. It has languished in Untiered since Gen VI, and even in ZU it's worthless; its Gen VIII analysis in that tier bluntly states, [[https://www.smogon.com/dex/ss/pokemon/lopunny/zu/ "Don't use Lopunny."]]
* '''Lumineon'''' stands out in the aspect of just not standing out at all. Lumineon is hardly the best Water-Type, but not among the most infamously awful either. While it does possess two very good abilities in Swift Swim and Storm Drain, it ended up being a very forgettable Water-Type due to its stats, which are balanced but [[MasterOfNone unremarkable]]. It also lacks any specific ability or move to give it a special niche. On the bright side, at least it looks [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter very cute]].

* Dusclops's evolution '''Dusknoir''' received a lot of initial hype early in Gen IV due to its improved Attack and potential as a Pressure staller. But both of these factors proved to be far less useful than they seemed to be for a variety of reasons: it’s still held back by having the same middling movepool as Dusclops, and even using it as a MightyGlacier isn’t worth it as the best STAB move to make use of its physical attack stat is ''Shadow Punch'', which has a base power of ''60''. It took until the first DLC for Gen VIII to get a good move through Poltergeist, which has an impressive base power of 110 so long as the opponent is holding an item... but even this wasn’t enough to help it, so Dusknoir now shares the bottom tier with its pre-evolution. Some fans opine Dusknoir is the most unnecessary evolution in the entire series, gaining small buffs but otherwise being utterly identical to Dusclops in use and execution.
* 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 ''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment 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.

* '''Cursola''' has a frightening 145 base Special Attack and respectable 135 Special Defence, which is unfortunately let down by its HP, Defense, and ''especially'' Speed being soundly awful, meaning it'll likely get knocked out before doing much of anything. Neither of its abilities help, either, as they rely on it taking a physical hit and somehow not keeling over on the spot for an underwhelming benefit: Perish Body will at best put Cursola itself on a timer and at worst just mildly annoy the opponent and make them switch once, and it's so slow that Weak Armor barely helps it outspeed anything. And to further drive the nail into its coffin, Cursola doesn't do anything that Chandelure and Aegislash can't do better. Even [[https://www.smogon.com/dex/ss/pokemon/cursola/ Smogon's analysis]] can only say "Don't use Cursola." Pretty much the only thing its existence achieves is, ironically, to make its own pre-evolution more viable by allowing Galarian Corsola to run Eviolite and become very bulky.

* '''Frosmoth''' initially receives hype as the next Volcarona, with its access to Quiver Dance and Heavy-Duty Boots singlehandely solving its would-be biggest hurdle, Stealth Rock. And to top it all off, Frosmoth has Ice Scales, an ability that halves the damage of special moves. Unfortunately, it's all held back by its lackluster speed of 65. Additionally, Bug/Ice-type is still terrible in general as Frosmoth struggles to find opportunity to set up with its common type weaknesses, even being doubly weak to Rock- and Fire-types, and can't make a dent on Fire- and Steel-types with its underwhelming coverage. Its flaws are too glaring to be ignored, and Frosmoth ended up dropping to PU in Generation VIII. Frosmoth's standing did improve with Terastallization in Gen IX, as it can now hit them with Ground-type Tera Blast, but Frosmoth is still far from a top-tier threat.

* '''Deoxys-Normal''' has been regarded as the worst Pokémon in Ubers for nearly every appearance since its debut. Deoxys forms as a whole have a gimmick of incredibly min-maxed statlines, with Deoxys-Normal having great Speed and attacking stats and terrible everything else. However, Deoxys-Attack has the exact same idea, but moreso, with even lower defenses in exchange for higher attacking stats. The issue is that when its bulk is already on par with an untransformed Ditto, having even less of it doesn't really matter (especially when it's going to be taking hits from OlympusMons), while the extra offense is actually meaningful. And if you don't care about the offensive side and want it to take a hit or two while maintaining its speed, then Deoxys-Speed is even faster while also being significantly bulkier. The result is that Deoxys-Normal is in the unfortunate position of being outclassed by ''itself'', with correspondingly miserable viability rankings and usage statistics.

* '''Lurantis''' is pretty much the embodiment of OvershadowedByAwesome. It's basically beaten in every way by Tsareena, another Mono-Grass Pokémon introduced in the exact same Generation. While Tsareena gets good stats, good utility, and an exceptionally useful signature move and ability in Trop Kick and Queenly Majesty, Lurantis is saddled with higher Special Attack (which isn't important since its attack stat is still higher) and a Physical variant of Solar Beam (which is considered useless outside of Sun teams due to the risk involved). Practically the only thing it has going for it is the rare and coveted Contrary ability, which is downright devastating when combined with Leaf Storm...except that Lurantis' special movepool is quite shallow (consisting of Grass attacks, Hidden Power, Round, and Weather Ball), meaning it gets upstaged anyway by Serperior, a Pokémon whose main fault is its shallow special movepool. Lurantis was eventually thrown a bone in ''Ultra Sun and Moon'' by getting access to Defog and Superpower from move tutors, allowing it to at least carve out some sort of niche in PU as a bulky Defogger and in Doubles as a Trick Room attacker, although it's still pretty much a one-trick pony. ''Then Scarlet and Violet'' took Superpower away, depriving Lurantis the main thing it had going for it.

* '''Hisuian Avalugg''' was considered an utter joke upon its reveal thanks to it being a MightyGlacier Ice/Rock type [[note]] Known as ''the'' worst dual-typing in the game, defensively.[[/note]] with horrible Sp. Def, and after HOME dropped it into the Gen IX metagame, it was unable to escape that fate. It simply has next to nothing going for it due to its cavalcade of weaknesses and bad speed, and it simply brings nothing to the table that its Kalosian cousin does not (already not a good sign when it's already considered a LowTierLetdown).

* '''Spidops''' is yet another mediocre early-game Bug-type, having poor stats for a fully-evolved Pokémon (barely breaking past the 400s), offensive stats that don't even reach the 80s, and a laughable 35 base Speed. Its highest stat is its 92 Defense, which it can't even use due to its bad defensive typing and paltry 60 base HP. Even though it has a powerful SecretArt in Silk Trap (which is basically [[ThatOneAttack King's Shield]] but for Speed) and access to the rare Sticky Web, it's still not considered anything special in lower tiers. The re-introduction of Ribombee, a Sticky Web user with better-distributed stats and a valuable Fairy-typing, basically killed any hope that Spidops would have a niche.

* '''Iron Thorns''' is widely considered to be among the least impressive of the Paradox Pokémon, alongside Scream Tail, Iron Jugulis, and Brute Bonnet. However, all three of them at least ''have'' niches that give them competitive success despite tiering equal to or below Thorns[[note]]Scream Tail enjoys its high speed and bulk giving it use as team support and healing with Wish, Iron Jugulis is a decent GlassCannon for its tier with powerful moves like STAB Hurricane at its back, and Brute Bonnet posseses a combination of high offenses, STAB Sucker Punch, Protosynthesis, and Spore[[/note]], as while it has some use as a wallbreaker and Dragon Dance user in theory, in practice, its poor defensive typing (4x weak to Ground, 2x weak to Fighting, Water, and Grass) and middling Speed simply present too many hurdles. It's also hurting for decent STAB options that aren't inaccurate and don't have recoil, it has to rely on Booster Energy to utilize its Ability due to a dearth of good Electric Terrain setters, and it's simply not bulky enough to offset its serious weaknesses. In general, it brings nothing to the table that other wallbreakers and setup sweepers can't do much better without having to fear an Earthquake or Earth Power, and it has none of Tyranitar's utility, versatility, or ability to wall dominant offensive types. Unfortunately, its in-theory use as a Dragon Dancer is [[SkillGateCharacter highly appealing to newer players]], causing it to stay in RU for most of its life, to the point of becoming the '''tenth''' most-used Pokémon in RU in November of 2023 despite being unviable there. It got a nominal buff in ''Indigo Disk'' by way of access to Supercell Slam, allowing it to finally have a powerful move to capitalize on Electric STAB without the guaranteed recoil of Wild Charge, but the miss recoil presents its own problems, and it's nowhere near enough of a buff to offset its many structural problems, and it dropped to NU the month after its release.

%%* While he is the most loved of the Loyal Three for his design, '''Fezandipiti''' proves to be incredibly disappointing in terms of competitive viability. In spite of having the rare and useful Poison/Fairy typing and the Technician ability, he is shackled by his MasterOfNone stat spread (While Okidogi has a [[MightyGlacier more properly balanced stat spread]] and Munkidori is lightly {{Minmax}}ed), with only his Special Defense being decent, and having a movepool that doesnt make good use of these stats or his Technician ability. This leaves the pheasant floundering for any real niche, being a definitive MasterOfNone.%%

* In stark contrast to its bretheren, poor '''Wo-Chien''' struggles to make anything of itself despite its amazing Tablets of Ruin ability passively weakening enemy Attack stats. This is thanks to its ''abysmal'' defensive typing of Dark/Grass combined with a defensive statline and no real utility, reliable recovery or offensive output to do anything meaningful. Tellingly, while its fellow Treasures of Ruin reside comfortably in OU or ended up outright banned, Wo-Chien fell through the tiering rung until by the ''Indigo Disk'' DLC's release, it found itself in ''NU''. At least there it's a pretty solid wall.

* '''Iron Thorns''' is widely considered to be among the least impressive of the Paradox Pokémon, alongside Scream Tail, Iron Jugulis, and Brute Bonnet. However, all three of them at least ''have'' niches that give them competitive success despite tiering equal to or below Thorns[[note]]Scream Tail enjoys its high speed and bulk giving it use as team support and healing with Wish, Iron Jugulis is a decent GlassCannon for its tier with powerful moves like STAB Hurricane at its back, and Brute Bonnet posseses a combination of high offenses, STAB Sucker Punch, Protosynthesis, and Spore[[/note]], as while it has some use as a wallbreaker and Dragon Dance user in theory, in practice, its poor defensive typing (4x weak to Ground, 2x weak to Fighting, Water, and Grass) and middling Speed simply present too many hurdles. It's also hurting for decent STAB options that aren't inaccurate and don't have recoil, it has to rely on Booster Energy to utilize its Ability due to a dearth of good Electric Terrain setters, and it's simply not bulky enough to offset its serious weaknesses. In general, it brings nothing to the table that other wallbreakers and setup sweepers can't do much better without having to fear an Earthquake or Earth Power, and it has none of Tyranitar's utility, versatility, or ability to wall dominant offensive types. Unfortunately, its in-theory use as a Dragon Dancer is [[SkillGateCharacter highly appealing to newer players]], causing it to become the '''tenth''' most-used Pokémon in RU in November of 2023 despite being unviable there, giving it little hope of dropping to NU. It got a nominal buff in ''Indigo Disk'' by way of access to Supercell Slam, allowing it to finally have a powerful move to capitalize on Electric STAB without the guaranteed recoil of Wild Charge, but the miss recoil presents its own problems, and it's nowhere near enough of a buff to offset its many structural problems.

* '''Munkidori''' seems like a fairly solid wallbreaker on paper thanks to his {{Minmax}}ed stat spread, having excellent Special Attack and solid Speed as well as access to the rare Parting Shot. Having the incredibly powerful Toxic Chain ability also helps. In practice however, the simian Retainer Pokémon flounders for three main reasons. Firstly, his Psychic/Poison typing is poor offensively, leaving his STAB attacks walled by the common Steel-type unless Munkidori uses the unreliable Focus Blast. Second, his Speed, while good in a bubble, is rather slow in a metagame filled with lightning-fast threats unless he equips a Choice Scarf, which can cause him to be exploited by the aforementioned Steel-types. Finally, his laughable 66 Defense leaves him vulnerable to most forms of priority outside of Mach Punch, meaning that even if Munkidori outspeeds something he's prone to getting picked off anyway. Munkidori tumbled down to RU as a result of these flaws, and even there he's considered middling at best; having to compete with fellow Loyal Three member Fezandipiti as a Toxic Chain user doesn't help either.

* '''Munkidori''' seems like a fairly solid wallbreaker on paper thanks to his {{Minmax}}ed stat spread, having excellent Special Attack and solid Speed as well as access to the rare Parting Shot. Having the incredibly powerful Toxic Chain ability also helps. In practice however, the simian Retainer Pokémon flounders for three main reasons. Firstly, its Psychic/Poison typing is poor offensively, leaving its STAB attacks walled by the common Steel-type unless Munkidori uses the unreliable Focus Blast. Second, its Speed, while good in a bubble, is rather slow in a metagame filled with lightning-fast threats unless it equips a Choice Scarf, which can cause it to be exploited by the aforementioned Steel-types. Finally, its laughable 66 Defense leaves it vulnerable to most forms of priority outside of Mach Punch, meaning that even if Munkidori outspeeds something it's prone to getting picked off anyway. Munkidori tumbled down to RU as a result of these flaws, and even there it's considered middling at best; having to compete with fellow Loyal Three member Fezandipiti as a Toxic Chain user doesn't help either.

* '''Scovillain''' has a lot of positive traits at surface value. With a then-unique Grass/Fire typing, decent mixed-attacking stats, a great ability in Chlorophyll[[note]] Its other abilities are the situational Insomnia, and Moody, which is banned in most formats[[/note]], and moves to compliment it like Solar Beam and Fire Blast. However, its downfall comes from an unfortunate mix of factors. To start with, it's got horrible 65/65/65 defenses and a mediocre 75 speed, with the intention of its low speed being fixed by Chlorophyll. This would be fine, except it leads to problem #2: the lowest-tiered sun setter is Kantonian Ninetales[[note]]Setting up sun via Drought is key in keeping momentum[[/note]], which resides in the UU tier, thereby limiting its possible usability[[note]]Prior to Ninetales' release in the ''Teal Mask'' DLC, Torkoal did drop to RU once... though alongside it came Slither Wing, which completely outclasses it[[/note]]. Which leads to problem #3: it was unfortunately introduced alongside the Ancient Paradox Pokémon, which also get benefits from sun, and sometimes don't even need it thanks to Booster Energy giving the same effect. And these aren't mediocre Pokémon, either; Between them, OU and UU have powerhouses in [[LightningBruiser Gouging Fire, Roaring Moon, Walking Wake, Great Tusk,]] [[note]]Which is one of ''the'' most used Pokémon in the Gen IX OU metagame.[[/note]] [[MightyGlacier Raging Bolt]] and [[GlassCannon Sandy Shocks]][[note]]Which was similarly ''the'' most commonly used Pokémon in the UU tier pre-DLC and even moved back to OU.[[/note]], and all outclass it in pretty much anything it can or want to do in stats and/or combat roles, not to mention other Sun users such as the already barely-viable Charizard. This leaves Scovillain unusable in OU or UU, and without any reliable sun setters in the lower tiers, causes the poor plant to descend downwards into Untiered. To add insult to injury, it suffered UniquenessDecay ''in its own generation'' with ''Teal Mask'' introducing Ogerpon and her Hearthflame Mask, which gives her the same Grass/Fire typing, and proved good enough to be ''banned to Ubers'', painting an even worse image for Scovillain.

* '''Scovillain''' has a lot of positive traits at surface value. With a then-unique Grass/Fire typing, decent mixed-attacking stats, a great ability in Chlorophyll[[note]] Its other abilities are the situational Insomnia, and Moody, which is banned in most formats[[/note]], and moves to compliment it like Solar Beam and Fire Blast. However, its downfall comes from an unfortunate mix of factors. To start with, it's got horrible 65/65/65 defenses and a mediocre 75 speed, with the intention of its low speed being fixed by Chlorophyll. This would be fine, except it leads to problem #2: the lowest-tiered sun setter is Kantonian Ninetales[[note]]Setting up sun via Drought is key in keeping momentum[[/note]], which resides in the UU tier, thereby limiting its possible usability[[note]]Prior to Ninetales' release in the ''Teal Mask'' DLC, Torkoal did drop to RU once... though alongside it came Slither Wing, which completely outclasses it[[/note]]. Which leads to problem #3: it was unfortunately introduced alongside the Ancient Paradox Pokémon, which also get benefits from sun, and sometimes don't even need it thanks to Booster Energy giving the same effect. And these aren't mediocre Pokémon, either; Between them, OU and UU have powerhouses in [[LightningBruiser Walking Wake, Great Tusk]] [[note]]Which is one of ''the'' most used Pokémon in the Gen IX OU metagame.[[/note]] and [[GlassCannon Sandy Shocks]][[note]]Which was similarly ''the'' most commonly used Pokémon in the UU tier pre-DLC and even moved back to OU.[[/note]], and all outclass it in pretty much anything it can or want to do in stats and/or combat roles, not to mention other Sun users such as the already barely-viable Charizard. This leaves Scovillain unusable in OU or UU, and without any reliable sun setters in the lower tiers, causes the poor plant to descend downwards into Untiered. To add insult to injury, it suffered UniquenessDecay ''in its own generation'' with ''Teal Mask'' introducing Ogerpon and her Hearthflame Mask, which gives her the same Grass/Fire typing, and proved good enough to be ''banned to Ubers'', painting an even worse image for Scovillain.

* '''Delcatty''' is widely considered the absolute worst fully evolved Pokémon ''ever''. It was seemingly created for the sole purpose being used Contests and deliberately designed to fare poorly in actual battles, as hinted by its Pokédex entries. It has a huge movepool and an interesting ability in Normalize, which makes all its moves Normal-Typed, meaning it gets STAB on all its attacking moves, and can paralyze Ground-Types with Thunder Wave (It's still useless against Electric-Types and Pokémon with the Ability Limber, however). After that one trick, that's where ''any'' good it has ends. Delcatty's stats are downright atrocious (its BST is a paltry '''''380''''', the lowest of any fully-evolved Pokémon that isn’t [[OneHitPointWonder Shedinja]] if you discount standalone Pokémon, leaving it outclassed by even the ''[[CrutchCharacter early-game bugs]]'' before it got buffed to a marginally less pathetic 400) with its highest stat (its Speed) being an average 90 and the rest being no higher than 70 and Normalize also renders Delcatty utterly useless against any Rock, Steel or Ghost-Type, as it now has no type coverage to hit them. Almost anything Delcatty does is horribly outclassed. This is one of the few Pokémon where [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration its Pokédex entries match its performance]], Delcatty is [[{{Pacifist}} extremely passive]] and doesn't fight. Considering just how awful it is, it's sadly accurate and even justified. At least it's [[CuteKitten cute]] and can [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman perform in Pokémon Contests]], maybe. Even with these flaws, Delcatty managed to find a place in ADV ZU... where it got banned due to enabling powerful stall teams that ended up stifling the metagame, leaving Delcatty with no tier to be viable in.

* In stark contrast to its bretheren, poor '''Wo-Chien''' struggles to make anything of itself despite its amazing Tablets of Ruin ability passively weakening enemy Attack stats. This is thanks to its ''abysmal'' defensive typing of Dark/Grass combined with a defensive statline and no real utility, reliable recovery or offensive output to do anything meaningful. Tellingly, while its fellow Treasures of Ruin reside comfortably in OU or ended up outright banned, Wo-Chien fell through the tiering rung until by the ''Indigo Disk'' DLC's release, it found itself in ''NU''.

* While he is the most loved of the Loyal Three for his design, '''Fezandipiti''' proves to be incredibly disappointing in terms of competitive viability. In spite of having the rare and useful Poison/Fairy typing and the Technician ability, he is shackled by his MasterOfNone stat spread (While Okidogi has a [[MightyGlacier more properly balanced stat spread]] and Munkidori is lightly {{Minmax}}ed), with only his Special Defense being decent, and having a movepool that doesnt make good use of these stats or his Technician ability. This leaves the pheasant floundering for any real niche while his compatriots carve decent roles in UU, with Okidogi being a good bulky sweeper with a unique STAB combination and Munkidori having wall-breaking power. He does carve a decent niche in RU as a specially bulky pivot, though he has to compete with Tinkaton and Munkidori as a defensive Fairy-type and a Toxic Chain pivot respectively.

* '''[[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, and Bloodmoon Ursaluna, with even promising candidates such as Maushold and Hisuian Zoroark falling to the wayside.

* '''Delcatty''' is widely considered the absolute worst fully evolved Pokémon ''ever''. It was seemingly created for the sole purpose being used Contests and deliberately designed to fare poorly in actual battles, as hinted by its Pokédex entries. It has a huge movepool and an interesting ability in Normalize, which makes all its moves Normal-Typed, meaning it gets STAB on all its attacking moves, and can paralyze Ground-Types with Thunder Wave (It's still useless against Electric-Types and Pokémon with the Ability Limber, however). After that one trick, that's where ''any'' good it has ends. Delcatty's stats are downright atrocious (its BST is a paltry '''''380''''', the lowest of any fully-evolved Pokémon that isn’t [[OneHitPointWonder Shedinja]] if you discount standalone Pokémon, leaving it outclassed by even the ''[[CrutchCharacter early-game bugs]]'' before it got buffed to a marginally less pathetic 400) with its highest stat (its Speed) being an average 90 and the rest being no higher than 70 and Normalize also renders Delcatty utterly useless against any Rock, Steel or Ghost-Type, as it now has no type coverage to hit them. Almost anything Delcatty does is horribly outclassed. This is one of the few Pokémon where [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration its Pokédex entries match its performance]], Delcatty is [[{{Pacifist}} extremely passive]] and doesn't fight. Considering just how awful it is, it's sadly accurate and even justified. At least it's [[CuteKitten cute]] and can [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman perform in Pokémon Contests]], maybe. Delcatty managed to find a place in ADV ZU... where it got banned due to enabling powerful stall teams that ended up stifling the metagame, leaving Delcatty with no tier to be viable in.

* '''Plusle and Minun''' are one of the first Pikaclones to be introduced, they also happen to be one of the worst out of them in competitive play. Both of them suffer from having subpar stats aside from Speed with their abilities, Plus and Minus only work in Doubles, it isn’t until Gen VI where Plusle and Minun gain Lightning Rod and Volt Absorb which have at least some utility in Singles, respectively. They still pose no threat in Doubles even with the Sp. Attack boost from Plus and Minus, as their abysmal bulk means almost any attacks can knock them out (in particular, Earthquake is very likely to knock them both out in one turn), and their coverage basically doesn't exist (in their most recent playable generations, their only non-Electric Special moves over 60 power are a few Normal-type moves and Signal Beam). Their niche comes from being Baton Pass users in Singles, but unfortunately for them, the increasing PowerCreep led to the ban of Baton Pass from Gen VII onward, leaving Plusle and Minun nothing going for them in modern low tiers.

* '''Beautifly''' and '''Dustox''' have had no luck in the competitive scene. Beautifly has decent Special Attack, pitiful defensive stats, and middling Speed, meaning that it's too slow to land a hit and can't take hits either, and not even getting Quiver Dance, a special boosting option that other mons would die for, was enough to salvage it. Its defensive counterpart Dustox fared a bit better, but with no options to punish switch-ins outside of poisoning them and middling defensive stats even for low-tier standards, it still didn't see any use in any format outside of ADV ZU — and to put things in perspective, that's a tier where [[JokeCharacter Delibird, Delcatty, and Castform]] are metagame staples.

* '''Delcatty''' is widely considered the absolute worst fully evolved Pokémon ''ever''. It was seemingly created for the sole purpose being used Contests and deliberately designed to fare poorly in actual battles, as hinted by its Pokédex entries. It has a huge movepool and an interesting ability in Normalize, which makes all its moves Normal-Typed, meaning it gets STAB on all its attacking moves, and can paralyze Ground-Types with Thunder Wave (It's still useless against Electric-Types and Pokémon with the Ability Limber, however). After that one trick, that's where ''any'' good it has ends. Delcatty's stats are downright atrocious (its BST is a paltry '''''380''''', the lowest of any fully-evolved Pokémon that isn’t [[OneHitPointWonder Shedinja]] if you discount standalone Pokémon, leaving it outclassed by even the ''[[CrutchCharacter early-game bugs]]'' before it got buffed to a marginally less pathetic 400) with its highest stat (its Speed) being an average 90 and the rest being no higher than 70 and Normalize also renders Delcatty utterly useless against any Rock, Steel or Ghost-Type, as it now has no type coverage to hit them. Almost anything Delcatty does is horribly outclassed. This is one of the few Pokémon where [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration its Pokédex entries match its performance]], Delcatty is [[{{Pacifist}} extremely passive]] and doesn't fight. Considering just how awful it is, it's sadly accurate and even justified. At least it's [[CuteKitten cute]] and can [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman perform in Pokémon Contests]], maybe.