History LowTierLetdown / Pokemon

* In addition to already being overshadowed by a myriad of other Water-types, Wiglett and Wugtrio don't have much going for them even in single-player ''Scarlet and Violet''. While Wiglett can be obtained very early on, you have to go pretty far out of your way to find them, while Buizel is a common spawn in the very first area of the game and outclasses Wiglett in pretty much every way imaginable, and Magikarp isn't much harder to find and is much easier to raise in later generations as the experience system means you don't have to switch it in and out anymore. Players who don't stray too far off the beaten path will likely not find a Wiglett until around level 20+, at which point you can easily have a Floatzel or Gyarados instead, both of whom have better stats and movepools than Wugtrio.

* 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 month after the ''Indigo Disk'' DLC's release, it found itself in ''PU''. Only time will tell if it can find an effective role there.

* '''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[[labelnote:*]]who's considered one of the best Pokémon in the tier as of this writing thanks to his good all-around bulk, excellent Fairy typing, and irritating stallbreaking capabilities with Calm Mind + Taunt[[/labelnote]] as a Toxic Chain user doesn't help either.

* '''Electivire''' mostly suffers from this due to HypeBacklash and its early {{Skill Gate Character|s}} status. In the early Generation IV days, it was seen as a brand-new powerhouse, due to its incredibly high Attack, a defensive typing giving it only one weakness, a good 95 Speed that could be boosted with Motor Drive by switching it into an Electric attack (which meant you could potentially pair it with the newly-buffed Gyarados to cover each other's weaknesses), and most importantly, a large movepool that gave it the potential to hit just about anything super-effectively. But then people discovered that Electivire's offense wasn't all that great, due to most of its coverage moves lacking power. Without a Motor Drive boost, which was hard to come by due to the scarcity of Electric moves in OU and "Gyaravire" becoming a very predictable strategy, its Speed was a lot worse than you'd expect, especially since it couldn't viably run Choice Scarf as that would take away its coverage and make its offense even worse. It also offered no defensive utility to teams, due to an Earthquake weakness and few notable resistances. Consequently, Electivire struggled to fit a niche: it wasn't fast or damaging enough to blitz an opponent and kill them in a single shot, but it wasn't sturdy enough to slug it out with a fellow offensive threat. And then the Rotom forms came along, able to laugh off all its attacks before neutering it or Gyarados with Will-O-Wisp and then three-shotting it with Shadow Ball. Although Electivire stayed OU throughout Gen IV, the vast majority of the playerbase agrees that it shouldn't have, and it sees no serious usage in modern DPP OU. What little viability it could have gained in Generation V, with Wild Charge finally giving it a stronger Electric move than Thunder Punch, was destroyed by Team Preview, which pretty much ruined any hope of it ever activating Motor Drive against a competent opponent. Once the new-toy syndrome wore off, Electivire fell off hard, plummeting to Untiered by the time of Generation VII and having limited use wherever it wound up before then. Gen VII cut poor Electivire a bit of a break in the unofficial ZU format, where it is a legitimately viable Pokémon, and not just a gimmick... only for PowerCreep in Gen VIII to push it out of viability even there.

* '''Eiscue''' is an example of trying to be [[StanceSystem two archetypes in one]] and [[MasterOfNone failing at both]]. Its primary form, with Ice Face active, is primarily [[StoneWall defensive]]... except its Defenses are fairly mediocre, it lacks reliable recovery, and it has to deal with being a defensive Ice type. Once its face is broken, it turns into the Noice Face form, which [[ShedArmorGainSpeed lowers its defenses in exchange for boosting its speed]]. However, this form also has flaws. This includes the lack of boosting moves other than Belly Drum, having a mediocre attack stat even with the boosts, and anything that (likely) won't get KO'd will KO it in return. Eiscue also suffers from being [[PoorPredictableRock predictable]], with Ice Face being easy to play around by utilizing special moves. Lastly, there are much better physical Ice type attackers in higher tiers [[note]]Such as Weavile, Arctozolt post-Crown Tundra, Mamoswine, and Cloyster[[/note]], leaving it without any real niche. As such, it's been untiered both generations it's been in.

* '''Octillery''' got off to a decent start in the early generations, being an effective tank in the NU tiers of gens II and III with its solid typing, good [[MagicKnight mixed offensive stats]], and [[SwissArmyWeapon vast movepool]]. After that, however, general {{power creep}} kicked Octillery to the bottom tiers -- its once-usable defensive stats became too flimsy to function with its terrible speed, while its offensive stats declined from good to unimpressive, especially with mixed attackers in general declining in prevalence. It did get Moody in gen V, but as that ability is universally banned on Website/{{Smogon}}, this did nothing to help it, causing it to plummet to ZU in that same generation. By gen VIII, Octillery was considered so terrible that its analysis for the generation just flat-out said [[https://www.smogon.com/dex/ss/pokemon/octillery/ "Don't use Octillery."]]

* While Zangoose is quite pitiful in competitive, as seen above, its rival '''Seviper''' is infinitely worse, and it is often mocked for being completely inferior. Seviper is a total MasterOfNone; both of its offensive stats are merely above-average as opposed to having one good one, its defenses are too low to take many hits, and it's too slow to outspeed all but the slowest of opponents. While it's usable against slower teams due to its versatile offense, it's practically dead weight against any sort of offensive pressure. Seviper started in PU in Gen III and just went downhill from there, finally plummeting to Untiered in Gen VI. Even in the semi-official ZU tiers, it's often seen as one of the weakest Pokémon there, being seen as inferior to just about any other Poison-type in the tier.

* '''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, yet it finds itself unable to escape to OU as its stats are far too powerful to even consider allowing into any generation of OU, ''ever''.

* '''Ambipom''' has a similar issue to Forretress in that it's not a terrible Pokémon on its own, but it finds itself in tiers where it's unviable due to being a [[SkillGateCharacters noob trap]]. In its debut generation, it was legitimately effective in UU as a lead, since it was the only Pokémon with STAB Technician Fake Out, which allowed it to get in a free hit on the opponent's lead, and then follow up with a Taunt to shut down hazard-setters, a tag-out with U-turn, or a few swings with your choice of Pursuit, Return, or Low Kick. Then the fifth generation added Team Preview, and Ambipom's viability fell off a cliff: without the surprise factor, it was easily countered, since the opponent could now bring in a bulky Normal-resist and watch Fake Out barely scratch them before two-shotting Ambipom with a STAB move of choice. Add in Gen V's signature PowerCreep, and a bunch of formerly OU Pokémon dropping, and Ambipom was left as a GlassCannon that didn't hit hard enough nor had the set-up moves to justify using it--outclassed not only by Snorlax in the same tier, but by Cinccino in the tier below. Nonetheless, because of players remembering its fourth-gen glory days, and players lower on the ladder fearing Fake Out, it saw far more use than it had any right to and remained in UU for the entire generation. It would go on to repeat this feat multiple times in future generations (with its Gen VI RU days being particularly infamous), as though it kept dropping, powercreep more than kept pace with those drops, leaving it with multiple competitive analyses that read like desperate pleas aimed at lower-ladder players to stop using it. It really doesn't get Scrappier than a Pokémon that got ''blacklisted from discussion'' on the Smogon forums. If it helps, it has finally dropped to Gen IX NU on December 2023, but only time will tell if it's popularity with low ladder players will doom it once again to rise to RU/UU or if it for once will find a true niche in its new home.

* '''Electivire''' mostly suffers from this due to HypeBacklash and its early {{Skill Gate Character|s}} status. In the early Generation IV days, it was seen as a brand-new powerhouse, due to its incredibly high Attack, a defensive typing giving it only one weakness, a good 95 Speed that could be boosted with Motor Drive by switching it into an Electric attack (which meant you could potentially pair it with the newly-buffed Gyarados to cover each other's weaknesses), and most importantly, a large movepool that gave it the potential to hit just about anything super-effectively. But then people discovered that Electivire's offense wasn't all that great, due to most of its coverage moves lacking power. Without a Motor Drive boost, which was hard to come by due to the scarcity of Electric moves in OU and "Gyaravire" becoming a very predictable strategy, its Speed was a lot worse than you'd expect, especially since it couldn't viably run Choice Scarf as that would take away its coverage and make its offense even worse. It also offered no defensive utility to teams, due to an Earthquake weakness and few notable resistances. Consequently, Electivire struggled to fit a niche: it wasn't fast or damaging enough to blitz an opponent and kill them in a single shot, but it wasn't sturdy enough to slug it out with a fellow offensive threat. And then the Rotom forms came along, able to laugh off all its attacks before neutering it or Gyarados with Will-O-Wisp and then three-shotting it with Shadow Ball. Although Electivire stayed OU throughout Gen IV, the vast majority of the playerbase agrees that it shouldn't have, and it sees no serious usage in modern DPP OU. What little viability it could have gained in Generation V, with Wild Charge finally giving it a stronger Electric move than Thunder Punch, was destroyed by Team Preview, which pretty much ruined any hope of it ever activating Motor Drive against a competent opponent. Once the new-toy syndrome wore off, Electivire fell off hard, plummeting to Untiered by the time of Generation VII and having limited use wherever it wound up before then. Gen VII cut poor Electivire a bit of a break in the unofficial ZU format, where it is a legitimately viable Pokémon, and not just a gimmick.

** Unlike the other Unova starters, '''Emboar''' has a second type and a wide movepool. Unfortunately, it's held back by its poorly-distributed stats -- while its design suggests a bulky MightyGlacier, it's instead a DamageSpongeBoss GlassCannon, with high HP and Attack but paper-thin defenses and horrid speed. It fares better with its Hidden Ability, Reckless, but like with Serperior, this isn't very helpful in-game and isn't as notable an improvement as Serperior's Contrary is. In ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'', Emboar is completely outclassed by Blaziken once again due to the lack of Abilities, as well as having lower stats and a more limited movepool than the fire chicken.

* Despite '''Dedenne''' having the valuable Fairy-type, isn't anything to write home about. One notable issue of Dedenne is up until Gen VIII giving it Dazzling Gleam, Dedenne has to rely on Play Rough as its only Fairy-type attack, a physical move that runs off from its abysmal Attack stat of 58. Dedenne has no niche and nothing to justify its use over other {{Mons}} of its type and caliber, even in the lowest of tiers and even among the other Pikaclones (which while usually being gimmicky [[{{Main/FragileSpeedster}} Fragile Speedsters]] have at least something to work with, like Morpeko's [[SecretArt Aura Wheel]]). The only things it has going for it are being [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter adorable]] and its ItemCaddy capacity due to its Pickup ability (it's much more useful in-game).
* '''Aurorus''' sounds great at first glance. Impressive 123/72/92 bulk sounds like it should have good staying power, it's got two great abilities in Refrigerate and Snow Warning, its movepool is ''huge'', including Freeze-Dry, Thunderbolt, and Earth Power for near-perfect coverage, and it's got a decent 99 Special Attack to use it. There's two problems, however. It's got the dreaded Ice/Rock typing, giving it weaknesses to Water, Grass, Rock, and Ground, and double weaknesses to Fighting and Steel. Also, its base Speed is an abysmal 58. Its bulk is a lot less impressive when it's so easy to hit for double or quadruple damage, and since its so slow, it has to soak a lot of hits. While it can learn Rock Polish to fix its Speed, it still generally doesn't have the knockout power to avoid taking hits, and its lack of reliable recovery moves is the final nail in the coffin. Aurorus plummeted to the lowest tiers almost immediately after it was released, and further generations haven't given it anything to make it shine.

* Regular '''Necrozma''' has a disappointing performance in Smogon Singles for such a prolific Gen VII 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[[note]]Not even Hidden Power, as it always has three perfect [=IVs=][[/note]] 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. ''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, so while Necrozma may not be cutting it as a top OU threat in Singles, it's still made itself a big name in the lower tiers like UU and RU.

* '''Eldegoss''' is simply a PoorPredictableRock, even in PU. While it has the excellent ability in Regenerator and decent Special Defense to back it up, it falls flat on its face for several reasons. First, it has a piss-poor movepool, consisting nothing more than Grass moves and Rapid Spin. It doesn't even get any coverage moves, U-turn or ''Toxic'' to use its amazing ability or defensive capabilities to its maximum potential. Second, Grass is not a decent defensive typing by any means as it is weak to several common attacking types in the metagame, severely diminishing its viability. Third, it is heavily outclassed by other Rapid Spin users such as Tsareena, Hitmontop and Claydol. It should be no surprise that it got a one way ticket to Untiered.

* '''Forretress''' is an interesting case in that it's not loathed for being weak per se, but rather for finding itself in tiers that it does not belong in. On paper, Forretress's phenomenal Bug/Steel typing and sky-high Defense combined with access to three hazard-setting moves (Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and Stealth Rock) and Rapid Spin make it seem highly appealing. However, its mediocre HP, barely-existent Special Defense and passive, predictable nature prevent it from succeeding in higher tiers. It's certainly viable in the lower tiers... that is, if it's able to drop down to them. Unfortunately, Forretress's on-paper strengths make it a highly appealing [[SkillGateCharacter noob trap]], and this often keeps it in tiers where it's unusable (namely Gen V OU and, for about 8 months, Gen IX UU) to the chagrin of more skilled players.

* '''Electivire''' mostly suffers from this due to HypeBacklash and its early SkillGateCharacter status. In the early Generation IV days, it was seen as a brand-new powerhouse, due to its incredibly high Attack, a defensive typing giving it only one weakness, a good 95 Speed that could be boosted with Motor Drive by switching it into an Electric attack (which meant you could potentially pair it with the newly-buffed Gyarados to cover each other's weaknesses), and most importantly, a large movepool that gave it the potential to hit just about anything super-effectively. But then people discovered that Electivire's offense wasn't all that great, due to most of its coverage moves lacking power. Without a Motor Drive boost, which was hard to come by due to the scarcity of Electric moves in OU and "Gyaravire" becoming a very predictable strategy, its Speed was a lot worse than you'd expect, especially since it couldn't viably run Choice Scarf as that would take away its coverage and make its offense even worse. It also offered no defensive utility to teams, due to an Earthquake weakness and few notable resistances. Consequently, Electivire struggled to fit a niche: it wasn't fast or damaging enough to blitz an opponent and kill them in a single shot, but it wasn't sturdy enough to slug it out with a fellow offensive threat. And then the Rotom forms came along, able to laugh off all its attacks before neutering it or Gyarados with Will-O-Wisp and then three-shotting it with Shadow Ball. Although Electivire stayed OU throughout Gen IV, the vast majority of the playerbase agrees that it shouldn't have, and it sees no serious usage in modern DPP OU. What little viability it could have gained in Generation V, with Wild Charge finally giving it a stronger Electric move than Thunder Punch, was destroyed by Team Preview, which pretty much ruined any hope of it ever activating Motor Drive against a competent opponent. Once the new-toy syndrome wore off, Electivire fell off hard, plummeting to Untiered by the time of Generation VII and having limited use wherever it wound up before then. Gen VII cut poor Electivire a bit of a break in the unofficial ZU format, where it is a legitimately viable Pokémon, and not just a gimmick.

* '''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[[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]]. On the other hand, while Thorns 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, something that was made ''painfully'' clear whenever Tyranitar was in the same tier and proceeded to outclass its robotic descendant. 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.

* '''Wailord''' has a ludicrously high HP stat (170) and passable offenses (90 each) on both sides, but its defenses are so horrible (45 each) that its high HP doesn't make much of a difference (which means it is worn down more easily than one would initially think) and it's also very slow, boasting a meager 60 Speed. Jellicent outclasses it both offensively and defensively due to a better movepool, much better typing, and superior defensive stats. Its only real niche in the metagame is as a PP staller, and even then Pyukumuku (which itself is a less than stellar Pokémon) does the job better. As Wailord is ultimately a waste of a teamslot on non-stall teams, it has languished in Untiered since Gen VI.

* '''Minior''' seems like a very dangerous Shell Smash sweeper on paper, yet it ends up crashing down in practice. While in Meteor Form, it's immune to any status conditions. It also packs powerful moves such as Acrobatics, Stone Edge, and Earthquake. However, Meteor Form has pitiful offensive stats, meaning that it won't be too threatening even after the boosts from Shell Smash. Its low HP and average defensive stats also mean that Minior can easily be OHKO'd even in Meteor Form, so changing it to the more offensive Core Form by having its health reaching below half can be a hassle. Not only did Minior plummet all the way to NU, but it managed to get a D-rank in the NU tier's viability ranking thread, while being used too much to fall to a lower tier where it could have been more usable.

* You'd think with exclusive, high-powered moves and a broken item on any other mon, SeriesMascot '''Pikachu''' would be a dangerous presence. However, even the Light Ball can't fix Pika's dreadful bulk and good-but-not-great Speed tier, making it an attacker that's trivially easy scare out or prevent from hitting the field. It still had a solid presence in Gens II-III lower tiers, and even early Gen VIII formats thanks to its Gigantamax form spreading harmful paralysis, but it's a far cry from what fans of the [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries anime]] and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' wanted to see from one of their favorite Pokémon. Somewhat {{justified|trope}} in that Pikachu is an unevolved Pokémon that merely happens to be the face of the franchise, so of course it'd be underpowered compared to its fully-evolved brethren. That said, its evolution '''Raichu''' isn't much better; despite having a great Speed stat of 110 (compared to Pikachu's 90), it suffers from many of the same problems such as awful bulk and a limited movepool.

* Years before '''Magneton''' would receive Magnet Pull, a coveted Steel typing, and a powerful evolution, it languished in the depths of Gen I's tiering rung as one of the least useful (or even interesting) Electric types in the game. Without any special attributes, it was simply a bland Electric attacker with a terrible movepool even by Gen I Electric type standards (at least Zapdos, Jolteon, and even Raichu got the odd coverage move here and there) and an odd stat spread, lacking the trademark Speed of Electric types and only having average defenses in return, which wasn't going to help with its weakness to the ubiquitous Earthquake. It did have a high Special to fire off Thunderbolts with, but with such a terrible movepool lacking any coverage whatsoever to hit its resistances, the opponent could just switch in any Rock/Ground type and make its efforts completely moot. It didn't do much better in Gen II either, suffering a lot of the same problems despite gaining a type and the new Hidden Power helping its coverage, but truly came into its own with the introduction of Abilities, with its Magnet Pull ability being instrumental and trapping and removing the infamous [[HighTierScrappy Skarmory.]]

* '''[[DishingOutDirt Rock]]''', much like Ice above, is a type that's designed more like a MightyGlacier or StoneWall, but ends up a GlassCannon in practice. It's awesome offensively, hurting Fire, Ice, Flying and Bug, while only being resisted by Fighting, Ground and Steel and having no types immune to it; this offensive profile is part of the reason for Stealth Rock's infamy, limiting a notoriously high amount of Pokémon, while also making it an excellent type to pair with Ground on offense. However, defensively, Rock suffers from a deluge of weaknesses in Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground and Steel, while not resisting as many types in Normal, Fire, Poison and Flying; of these, only Fire stands out, while the Steel-type otherwise outclasses Rock defensively due to its fewer weaknesses and drastically more resistances. Rock had a great start in Gen I, being one of two types (along with Ghost) that resisted Normal; starting with Gen II, however, the type would start dwindling due to Steel's introduction in Gen II and the buffs to Fighting and Grass. A Normal resistance is no longer much of a selling point, and ''many'' Rock-types have at least one [[AchillesHeel 4x weakness]] — which is a terrible thing when most Rock Pokémon have, again, MightyGlacier stats. Despite its stupendous offensive matchups, the type surprisingly struggles in terms of offense, as its main physical attacking moves (Rock Slide and Stone Edge) suffer from imperfect accuracy, and its special attacking ones have nonexistent distribution or poor power. While there are numerous strong Rock-type Pokémon that take full advantage of its strengths, the type also has the curious dishonor of never having a Pokémon be banned to Ubers[[note]]Besides Arceus-Rock, but Arceus is a Pokémon that can have any of the 18 types in the game, and Arceus-Rock isn't viable in Ubers[[/note]]; additionally, many of the Rock-types that were introduced in Gen IX are exceptions that prove the rule — Garganacl often Terastallizes into a better defensive type, while Glimmora is best used as a lead, making the defensive weaknesses of its typing not nearly as relevant.

* '''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 and Castform]] are metagame staples.

** '''Patrat''', [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black and White's]] version of the early-game {{Mon}}, is a contender for the most hated. Most of the other early-game Normal types can serve as good HM users and have appealing, if a bit simple, designs. Patrat and Watchog, on the other hand, only learn a few HM moves. The creepy [[TheStoner stoned eyes]] on a chipmunk design didn't help matters. Fans often describe Patrat as "the next Bidoof". Watchog also gained a reputation of being an absolute pain to deal with in-game, due to getting Hypnosis and learning several powerful moves early on. It's also notorious for being spammed in the early game by other trainers, especially Team Plasma grunts--more than half of all Plasma grunts have at least one Patrat or Watchog on their team!

* You'd think with exclusive, high-powered moves and a broken item on any other mon, SeriesMascot '''Pikachu''' would be a dangerous presence. However, even the Light Ball can't fix Pika's dreadful bulk and good-but-not-great Speed tier, making it an attacker that's trivially easy scare out or prevent from hitting the field. It still had a solid presence in Gens II-III lower tiers, and even early Gen VIII formats thanks to its Gigantamax form spreading harmful paralysis, but it's a far cry from what fans of the [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries anime]] and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' wanted to see from one of their favorite Pokémon. Somewhat {{justified|trope}} in that Pikachu is an unevolved Pokémon that merely happens to be the face of the franchise, so of course it'd be underpowered compared to its fully-evolved brethren. That said, its evolution '''Raichu''' isn't much better; despite having a great Speed stat of 110 (compared to Pikachu's 90), it suffers from many of the same problems such as awful bulk and a limited movepool. Pikachu, Kantonian Raichu and Alolan Raichu have all resided in the lowest tiers since their introduction, where at least both forms of Raichu could occasionally make a name for themselves.

* BreakoutCharacter '''Charizard''' has had multiple temporary {{Super Mode}}s that have all been successful in various competitive formats, and despite its crippling weakness to Stealth Rock, its base form has nonetheless proven to be one of the best Pokémon in the lowest tiers such as NU and PU throughout the generations. It even managed to rise to OU in Gen III, where it is held as a genuinely decent wallbreaker with a lot of viable movesets. The problem lies in its PopularityPower; many players will lament Charizard's lack of potency compared to many OU Pokémon and attempt to make it work in standard play,[[note]]or even, egregiously, tiers such as ''Gen V Ubers'',[[/note]] usually with [[GlassCannon Solar Power]] sets on sun teams with their extreme wallbreaking power (often trying to fill the void left by its Mega Evolutions and Gigantamax form in generations where they don't exist).[[note]]It doesn't help that Charizard physically resembles many Dragon-type Pokémon (such as its own X Mega Evolution), many of which are in OU and UU, furthering the negative comparisons and psychologically encouraging some players to use it in the same way.[[/note]] However, Charizard is a flat-out MasterOfNone compared to the OU titans, with many other Fire-types in most generations (especially Moltres, Volcarona and Iron Moth) able to fill its offensive and defensive roles much more effectively. While many Charizard fans were quick to blame the introduction of Stealth Rock for Charizard's lack of viability, factors such as the aforementioned Moltres and Volcarona and the fact that the Heavy-Duty Boots item[[note]]allows the holder to ignore entry hazards[[/note]] didn't do much to improve Charizard's standing showed that Stealth Rock was merely one of its many, ''many'' woes. Its Solar Power sets fall into this trope quite hard; they are only really usable in higher tiers with automatic weather setters such as Torkoal, but are too frail and predictable to use effectively,[[note]]and are also too weak if Charizard foregoes a Choice item to instead use Heavy-Duty Boots to overcome its Stealth Rock weakness, which is especially problematic in Generation IX OU where Gholdengo exists,[[/note]] giving them no real niche in any metagame. Additionally, Solar Power Charizard is ''directly'' outclassed in Gen IX by Iron Moth, which is faster and stronger by default, and can use Booster Energy to activate a similar power boost ''without'' the self-damage. Thankfully, Charizard has improved within the bottom tiers throughout the generations (where, ironically, its Stealth Rock weakness sometimes ''[[CursedWithAwesome helps]]'' it by making it easier to consistently activate its [[TurnsRed Blaze]] ability), but its popularity will always cause it to be compared to far stronger Pokémon that it has no place competing against and its Solar Power gimmick has never risen out of AwesomeButImpractical territory, never finding a true home outside of Gen VIII VGC.

* You'd think with exclusive, high-powered moves and a broken item on any other mon, SeriesMascot '''Pikachu''' would be a dangerous presence. However, even the Light Ball can't fix Pika's dreadful bulk and good-but-not-great Speed tier, making it an attacker that's trivially easy scare out or prevent from hitting the field. It still had a solid presence in Gens II-III lower tiers, and even early Gen VIII formats thanks to its Gigantamax form spreading harmful paralysis, but it's a far cry from what fans of the [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries anime]] and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' wanted to see from one of their favorite Pokémon.

* While Origin Form Palkia is considered to be an upgrade to base Palkia thanks to its improved Speed stat[[note]]though there are a few niche cases, such as on Trick Room teams, where base Palkia is preferred[[/note]], poor '''Origin Form Dialga''' is considered to be nothing but a PowerUpLetdown. In theory, moving 20 points from its seldom-used Attack stat to its Special Defense stat would make for a defensive behemoth, especially when combined with Dialga's excellent defensive typing. In practice, Dialga-Origin flounders thanks to a lack of recovery, something the base form struggled with but could at least alleviate with Leftovers, which the Origin Form can't use by virtue of being locked into holding the Adamant Crystal. While both forms of Dialga are considered poor in standard Ubers play, base Dialga is at least a fairly solid utility Pokémon, thoroughly outclassing its Origin Form, which languishes in the D-Rank, with even the likes of ''Maushold'' and ''Smeargle'' being considered more useful than it.

* '''Golem''' had a strong start in Generation I: with its valuable set of resistances and Explosion, there was a genuine debate about whether Golem or Rhydon was better. Sadly, further exploration of Gen I mechanics led to a much bulkier metagame that Golem despised; its Explosions could get absorbed by Reflect Normals, and its lesser staying power than Rhydon showed. While not awful in a vacuum, and maintaining a ranking in the tier to this day, its good points over Rhydon became far less worthwhile, and so it dropped out of the tier due to being seen as simply outclassed. These days, its home tier is Gen I NU, since Water-types were everywhere in UU and the Electrics there have ways around Golem and aren't so threatening that a team needs it over other Grounds, like the dangerous Dugtrio, instead. While Golem saw a resurgence in the Explosion and Rapid Spin-centric Gen II OU metagame, even eclipsing its old rival Rhydon, general power creep would kick Golem down several tiers because of its increasingly exploitable weaknesses and stat spread that wasn't that strong anymore. It still finds a niche in the lowest tiers, but only as a lead that's meant to have little staying power, a far cry from the rock-solid tank fans liked it for.

* '''Heatmor''' is in a similar situation to Seviper: it's billed as a counterpart and equal to a Pokémon it's far weaker than. While both it and Durant have the same base stat total, Durant's stats are [[MinMaxing min-maxed]], sacrificing [[ArmoredButFrail HP]] and [[WeakToMagic special stats]] to become a physical LightningBruiser with a great defensive typing. Heatmor, on the other hand, is far weaker and less focused than Durant, despite being is predator; its attacking stats are well-rounded but unremarkable, while it's too slow to land the first hit on most foes and too frail to take even neutral hits for long. Even when it was first introduced, it was mediocre even in the lowest tiers, and by the time Gen VIII rolled around, all Website/{{Smogon}} could say was [[https://www.smogon.com/dex/ss/pokemon/heatmor/ "Don't use Heatmor."]]

* While Origin Form Palkia is considered to be an upgrade to base Palkia thanks to its improved Speed stat[[note]]though there are a few niche cases, such as on Trick Room teams, where base Palkia is preferred[[/note]], poor '''Origin Form Dialga''' is considered to be nothing but a PowerUpLetdown. In theory, moving 20 points from its seldom-used Attack stat to its Special Defense stat would make for a defensive behemoth, especially when combined with Dialga's excellent defensive typing. In practice, Dialga-Origin flounders thanks to a lack of recovery, something the base form struggled with but could at least alleviate with Leftovers, which the Origin Form can't use by virtue of being locked into holding the Adamant Crystal. While both forms of Dialga are considered poor in standard Ubers play, base Dialga is at least a fairly solid utility Pokémon, thoroughly outclassing its Origin Form, which languishes in the D-Rank, with even the likes of ''Maushold'' and ''Smeargle'' being considered more useful than i.t

* You'd think with exclusive, high-powered moves and a broken item on any other mon, SeriesMascot '''Pikachu''' would be a dangerous presence. However, even the Light Ball can't fix Pika's dreadful bulk and good-but-not-great Speed tier, making it an attacker that's trivially easy scare out or prevent from hitting the field. It still had a solid presence in Gens II-III lower tiers, and even early Gen VIII formats thanks to its Gigantamax form spreading harmful paralysis, but it's a far cry from what fans of the [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries anime]] and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' wanted to see from one of their favorite Pokémon.

* '''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 due to its utility movepool being highly useful there.

* While Zangoose is quite pitiful in competitive, as seen above, its rival '''Seviper''' is infinitely worse, and it is often mocked for being completely inferior. Seviper is a total MasterOfNone; both of its offensive stats are merely above-average as opposed to having one good one, its defenses are too low to take many hits, and it's too slow to outspeed all but the slowest of opponents. While it's usable against slower teams due to its versatile offense, it's practically dead weight against any sort of offensive pressure. Seviper started in PU in Gen III and just went downhill from there, finally plummeting to Untiered in Gen VI. Even in the semi-official ZU tiers, it's often seen as one of the weakest Pokémon there, being seen as inferior to just about any other Poison type in the tier.

* 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 Creator/GameFreak decided to transition Altaria into being a purely special-focused Pokémon 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 Pokémon, and before Generation IX it didn't have the movepool to support such a playstyle. However, ''Scarlet and Violet'' blessed it with Will-O-Wisp and Fire Spin, as well as letting it keep Defog even as other Pokémon lost it, giving it a defensive niche in the lower tiers. Still, its other numerous flaws keep it back from being a top defensive threat. Additionally, in ''VideoGame/PokemonGO'', Altaria gained a massive reversal of fortune, to the point of qualifying for [[HighTierScrappy/{Pokemon}} the opposite trope]] in Great League.

* 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 Creator/GameFreak decided to transition Altaria into being a purely special-focused Pokémon 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 Pokémon, and before Generation IX it didn't have the movepool to support such a playstyle. However, ''Scarlet and Violet'' blessed it with Will-O-Wisp and Fire Spin, as well as letting it keep Defog even as other Pokémon lost it, giving it a defensive niche in the lower tiers. Still, its other numerous flaws keep it back from being a top defensive threat. Additionally, in ''VideoGame/PokemonGO'', Altaria gained a massive reversal of fortune, to the point of qualifying for [[HighTierScrappy/{{Pokemon}} the opposite trope]] in Great League.

* While Zangoose has seen decent amounts of success in the lower tiers, the same can't be said for its rival '''Seviper''', which is often mocked for being completely inferior. While the two have the same below-average base stat total, Zangoose's stats are [[MinMax min-maxed]] to make it a powerful and decently fast GlassCannon. Seviper, however, is a total MasterOfNone; both of its offensive stats are merely above-average as opposed to having one good one, its defenses are too low to take many hits, and it's too slow to outspeed all but the slowest of opponents. While it's usable against slower teams due to its versatile offense, it's practically dead weight against any sort of offensive pressure. Seviper started in PU in Gen III and just went downhill from there, finally plummeting to Untiered in Gen VI.

* '''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 moves that directly induce sleep- effectively banning sleep outright save for extreme fringe cases (Relic Song Meloetta and Dire Claw Smeargle) or one putting themselves to sleep with Rest.[[/labelnote]].

* '''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.[[/labelnote]].