Rescued From The Scrappy Heap / Pokémon

Hated characters from the Pokémon franchise who've subsequently been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. This includes characters who were hated due to play balance (High-Tier Scrappy or Low-Tier Letdown) as well as those who were unintentionally hated for narrative reasons (The Scrappy and its related tropes).

A No Recent Examples rule applies to this trope. This is measured from the point when the character was introduced or became hated.

• Examples that were a High-Tier Scrappy or Low-Tier Letdown due to gameplay issues shouldn't be added for 1 month.
• All other examples (e.g. characters who were The Scrappy or related tropes such as Ethnic Scrappy or Damsel Scrappy) shouldn't be added for 9 months.

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Humans

• Nate and Rosa were hated when they were first revealed for looking like goofier versions of previous player characters Hilbert and Hilda. Especially Nate. Cue the animated trailer, which changed Nate into a badass comparable to Red in much of the fandom's eyes. Rosa's Hot-Blooded nature in spite of her adorable design caught on as well. Pokémon Masters also did wonders for Rosa's popularity by ramping up her expressiveness, and giving her an energetic and adorable personality.
• Team Magma and Team Aqua in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire. In the original games, they were undeveloped villains with bland designs, motives that made no sense, and to make things worse, their dialogue was mostly interchangeable despite supposedly having opposite goals. Emerald isn't particularly kind to Team Magma either, as Team Aqua was the team of choice when it came to redistributing R/S plot points, further reducing Team Magma's prominence and exacerbating the complaints that Hoenn has too much water. The remakes revamp their arcs and motives entirely: Team Aqua is now an Animal Wrongs Group who wants to return the world to a more primal state for the sake of Pokémon, while Team Magma are Visionary Villains who want to expand the land to aid humanity's advancement. The leaders and admins each got their own distinctive personalities as well, with Archie's change to an Affably Evil Boisterous Bruiser being particularly well-received.

Pokémon

• With each new generation often come new evolutions or variants for preexisting mons, as well as new moves and Abilities. This means previously average and/or forgettable Pokémon become awesome after getting a new evolution (Kingdra, Magnezone, Scizor, Steelix, Porygon2, Togekiss, the list goes on and on), a new ability (Weezing's Levitate and Neutralizing Gas, Machamp's No Guard, Azumarill's Huge Power, etc.), or a new move (Focus Punch, Stone Edge, Volt Tackle, Energy Ball, Stealth Rock, Toxic Spikes, Slack Off, Close Combat, Sticky Web).
• The introduction of Mega Evolutions in Gen VI saved several Pokémon from the scrap heap to become juggernauts in competitive play. Namely Charizard, Blastoise, Kangaskhan, Pinsir, Aerodactyl, Ampharos, Houndoom, and Mawile, just to name a few. Some of them would have to be nerfed in later games because they became such threats.
• Sceptile. While never outright despised, it was somewhat of a Low-Tier Letdown for not gaining a secondary type, with many people thinking They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character, since Swampert and Blaziken gained more thematic moves and extra utility from their secondary typing. But then in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Sceptile gains a secondary type upon Mega Evolution. The type? Dragon. Making it one of only two starters that can become Dragon, along with Charizard. What's more? Upon evolution, it learns Dual Chop - and its Mega Evolution gives it a notable increase to its physical attack.
• Gen VI also saw the introduction of the Fairy-type. Every single Pokémon retconned into having the type (including weak or mediocre Pokémon like Mawile and the Azumarill line) greatly benefited from the increased movepool and type changes.
• Jynx was immensely heavily disliked in the West due to their original design being depicted with a black face and big lips, causing some people to believe it was based on African American stereotypes. While this stigma still persists to this day despite being recolored to purple, some warmed up to Jynx after the design change as well as fans finding more likely origins, such as that Jynx may have been meant to be based on ganguro, a fashion style which is completely unknown outside of Japan, or the yama-uba Youkai legend. While the company hasn't tried to make Jynx more prominent, fans are less likely to see her as a racist design.
• Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire turned Wobbuffet into a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass with the introduction of its ability Shadow Tag, which prevents Pokémon from switching out. This made Wobbuffet a Lethal Joke Character thanks to its movepool only consisting of counterattacks, forcing its opponent to do more damage to itself than it does to Wobbuffet. Its prior evolution Wynaut also helped by giving it a few more moves (most notably Encore) and isn't too shabby for a baby Pokémon.
• Heracross, a Pokémon introduced in Gen II, received new life in Gen III by learning the move Brick Break upon level-up. In Gen II? It was super super hard to find, and not worth using that much since it learned only Counter and Megahorn. While Megahorn was great, the greater availability of moves like Bite and Crunch were better for dealing with Psychic-types. Gen IV and beyond have made Heracross even better.
• Houndour and Houndoom, never so much a scrappy in terms of gameplay, were simply available too late for a player to consider using them for anything more than Pokédex entries. Platinum in particular finally gave them the justice they needed by letting the player catch a Houndour at a time when it's just about ready to evolve. What's more? The Physical/Special split had happened and Houndour would learn moves that would take advantage of its high special attack power. X and Y then gave it a mega-evolution.
• Tyranitar was severely hampered by Late Character Syndrome in Gen 2 simply because by the time you got one, you only had one real opponent worth using it on and that was the True Final Boss, and you always needed to waste time leveling it so it was actually on par with the rest of your team^note Larvitar was only levels 15-20, had the slow leveling group, and the minimum ideal level for fighting Red is 60. Future games made Larvitar available much earlier, or at least added extra content to reward players who sought it out and took the time to raise it.
• While Scizor was never outright despised, it was initially considered fairly underwhelming in spite of its great stats and typing due to its horrible movepool; at one point, the 60-power Silver Wind was legitimately one of its best attacking options. This all changed in Gen IV, which gave it the coveted Technician ability^note which gives a 50% damage boost to moves with 60 base power or less along with the moves to use it with, like Pursuit, Bug Bite, and especially the infamous Bullet Punch. It also got other great moves like Roost for healing, Superpower for coverage, and U-Turn for utility, causing Scizor to instantly shoot up into competitive relevance.
• Feebas has an interesting example of this. It wasn't disliked as a character because its evolved form, Milotic, is a formidable Pokémon. It was disliked because the method of obtaining it is purely a Scrappy Mechanic. Before, it was found on random tiles while fishing and requires you to raise its Beauty stat so it can evolve. Gen IV attempted to buff it by allowing players to mix records to increase the odds of finding it, Gen V upped it a bit more by changing the way Feebas evolves by trading it with a Prism Scale, since the blending mechanics did not return. ORAS ultimately saved it by making Feebas much more easy to find by putting it underneath a bridge, and giving you two options to evolve it: either blending Pokéblocks or trade it with a Prism Scale.
  • The Beauty evolution itself was received much better in ORAS than it was in the original RSE. Previously, you could only feed Pokémon a limited number of Pokéblocks, and they were slightly affected by the Pokémon's nature. In Gen VI, not only can you give Pokémon an infinite number of Pokéblocks, but they're much easier to make this time around. Overall, it makes evolving Feebas the old-fashioned way much simpler if you choose to go that route.
• Pachirisu, of all Pokémon, received this treatment after one of the winners of the 2014 World Championships used one on his team successfully, and it was even made into a very good assist Pokemon in Pokkén Tournament, which helped it even more.
• This happened to the Generation V water starter, Oshawott (or "Wotter"), long before Black and White were even out. When first revealed, Oshawott was largely considered inferior to the other two new starters, and was often bashed even without the comparison. Cue someone creating a comic of a poor, cute Oshawott being sad about not getting picked by anyone, and some speculation (which turned out to be true) that its evolutions would be samurai sea otters. A lot of people reconsidered their coming choice of a starter after all that. This happened once again in Pokémon Legends: Arceus; while Samurott was a Base-Breaking Character for its mono-Water typing, Master of None stats and design divergence from Dewott, its Hisuian variant was better received for its more visually intersting design, secondary Dark typing, better stat distribution and signature move.
• Trubbish and Garbodor were disliked by many fans because they're literally based on a pile of garbage. However, some fans warmed up to them because of articles like this being made, as well at Let's Players like Chuggaaconroy and Marriland who used them on their teams when when playing through Black & White. Joe Zieja making a joke at Rhea's expense helped as well.
• It happened with the Generation VI Grass-type starter: Chespin was received decently well, but its second evolution, Quilladin, turned out to look like a pinata, earning tons of ire from the fan base for how ridiculous it looked. Then its final evolution, Chesnaught, was revealed: a gigantic^note Well, 5'3"/1.6m compared to Delphox and Greninja at 4'11"/1.5m, armored, Grass-and-Fighting-type beast that easily looks the most badass out of all the starters, though the thing is still outclassed in popularity by Greninja.
• It happened again with Generation VII's water starter: Popplio. Much like Oshawott, it was widely hated due to its clownish design. Its middle evolution Brionne redeemed its status in the eyes of many fans, and then its final evolution, Primarina, won a good many over thanks to its much more elegant looks, its very good Water/Fairy typing, and its Mighty Glacier stats, blessed with a massive Special Attack stat (126, the highest to date of all Non-Mega starters), and a very wide movepool. Primarina became yet another example of a Badass Adorable. Nowadays the Popplio line has a lot more fans than haters.
• Sun and Moon ended up saving Pelipper. Before then, Pelipper was seen as a worthless, stupid-looking pelican with mediocre stats. However, Generation VII blessed it with a small stat buff and Drizzle, the same ability that saved Politoed. Now, Pelipper is praised in the competitive community for being the new premier rain setter due to its access to rain-boosted Water attacks, STAB Hurricanes with perfect accuracy, and U-Turn. Similarly, Torkoal gained Drought, turning it from a fairly forgettable Stone Wall to a terrifyingly powerful Eruption-user.
• Another Water/Flying Pokémon that was saved in Generation VII was Mantine. While it was supposed to be the specially defensive equivalent to the physical Skarmory, its inferior typing, bad HP, and poor movepool caused it to become Generic Water Type #226. As the generations went on, however, the manta slowly improved, gaining Air Slash in Gen V and the buffed Defog in Gen VI. The acme of its improvements came in Sun and Moon, where it gained two notable buffs. The first one is a stat boost to its HP, going from the poor 65 to the much more palpable 85. The second one is the addition of Roost, a much-needed addition to the ray's otherwise poor movepool. Now, with reliable recovery, better stats, and hazard removal, Mantine is one of the better Water-type special walls in the meta. The addition of the widely-praised Mantine Surf minigame also granted it a boost in popularity.
• Until the introduction of Alola Forms, Muk had little to no competitive success. But with its new form adding a Dark subtype, Muk is now one of the best counters to Psychic and Ghost-types; with its Psychic weakness turned into an immunity and its Poison type reducing the damage from the common Dark-type counter Focus Blast, Muk can take advantage of its Attack and bulk to take out normally overpowered foes, tanking their attacks and knocking them out in return. Its new movepool is just icing on the cake: it gets Pursuit to trap opponents, Shadow Sneak to pick off weakened foes, and Knock Off for huge damage, not to mention its Poison Touch ability affording it the capability of poisoning without Toxic.
• The new pseudo-legendary from Sun and Moon, Kommo-o, received lackluster response given that its Dragon/Fighting typing meant it took quadruple damage from Fairy moves and its stat distribution was too generalized, leaving it largely unable to do anything better than its predecessors. Not helping matters was that Kommo-o's strongest physical Fighting move was the underwhelming Sky Uppercut, forcing it to run off its (slightly) weaker special attack and use the inaccurate Focus Blast. Then Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon not only gave it a unique Z-Move that deals heavy damage and raises all of its stats, it also now learns Close Combat, which, along with move tutors, make a physical set much more viable than before.
• Pokémon Sword and Shield saved Mr. Mime. Mr. Mime was often regarded as among the worst Gen I had to offer, having an unsettling design and inexplicably receiving the Fairy type in Gen VI. Gen VIII does away with this by giving Mr. Mime a Galarian form based on tap dancers and an evolution, Mr. Rime, whose Charlie Chaplin-inspired design is an example of a humanoid Pokémon done right. Not to mention it now gets a brand new ability that removes screens when it enters the field, giving it a unique niche in the metagame.
• Sword and Shield also saved Black Kyurem. In the past, outside of the one turn charge Freeze Shock, it doesn’t learn any ice attacks to abuse its 170 base physical attack, not to mention its mediocre base 95 speed. Then it gained the multi hit move Icicle Spear and the stat boasting Dragon Dance in the generational shift. The buffs were enough for it to go from OU to Ubers in the Smogon Meta.
• While their status as "Scrappies" is debatable as their designs all had fans, the Galarian forms in addition to Mr. Mime above also gave a few Pokémon some new life:
  • Zigzagoon. In Gen 3, it was the Com Mon that was best kept as an HM Slave or ditched early on. In Sword and Shield, Zigzagoon evolves into Obstagoon, which can actually scale to the endgame and thematically has an amazing design. Its signature move, Obstruct, is a buffed version of Protect; in addition to blocking any non-Max move, it lowers the Defense of anything that tries to use a contact move on it during that turn by two stages (effectively doubling all physical damage done to that Pokémon from that point onwards). Being the signature mon of the franchise's first and only Dark Gym also helps.
  • Farfetch'd was in many ways the Pokémon Codifier of the Junk Rare. It was always very hard to obtain but when you finally got it, there wasn't any real reason to use it as you can easily get better Pokémon. However, Galar made it Fighting-type instead and gave it an evolution in Sirfetch'd. Its design also ends up calling attention to jousters and even Monster Hunter's lance users
  • Corsola was, like many Pokémon in Generation 2, a Junk Rare that was hard to get, but not worth using. Especially because Water/Rock was a somewhat poor type combination. In Galar, Corsola not only can scale to the endgame by having its Galarian evolution hit like a truck but also it's a Ghost-type and learns moves dedicated to slowing down opponents and punishing those with effects.
  • While Gen 4 made Ponyta and Rapidash useful by giving them physical oriented moves to fit with their physical attack being their main stat, Generation 8 gave them another rescue from the scrappy heap by making Galarian Ponyta and Rapidash be Psychic/Fairy and gaining a signature ability that blocks it or its allies from being poisoned. Among this, they are still physical attackers - something very very rare for Psychic or Fairy type. (Amongst Fairy? One of only three - the others being Grimmsnarl and Mimikyu)
  • Weezing was essentially written off as a Pokémon you get for your collection and then never use again, or at best of limited use. Poison just had a limited use until Generation 6 when it gained a purpose of being a Fairy counter, and its main shtick (Damage Over Time) could be learned by almost anyone regardless of type. Generation 8 heavily cut back on the number of Pokémon that can learn Toxic (going from "almost everything in the entire franchise" to only Poison types and a very small list of others), helping it stand out more in its intended niche. In addition, it gained access to the ability Neutralizing Gas, which neutralizes all other abilities on the field, giving it a new niche in an assist teammate for Pokémon like Regigigas who are heavily weakened by their abilities, and helping it shut down strategies such as Intimidate spam. To go even further, it also gave Weezing a new Galarian form, which not only gives it a thematically-fitting design (with smokestacks shaped like top hats, fitting of its British theming of Galar) but also making it the franchise's first Poison/Fairy type, and giving it a signature ability that causes it to set up the immensely-useful Misty Terrain just by being sent out onto the field.
• Pokémon Legends: Arceus saved a number of oft-maligned creatures by introducing new Hisuian forms and evolutions for them:
  • Samurott was a Base-Breaking Character among fully-evolved starter Pokémon for its odd quadrupedal design compared to its pre-evolutions, along with its lackluster stats and typing failing to live up to the potential of its samurai sea lion design. Its Hisuian form has been much better-received and is generally considered to have executed Samurott's initial concept to its full potential, being a dual Water/Dark type like Greninja and having a more visually interesting design that fits its new typing (with its still-quadrupedal design being more welcomed in an era where many fans got sick of bipedal starters). On top of this, it also boasts a better stat distribution than Unovan Samurott, being a moderately fast Glass Cannon rather than an underwhelming Jack of All Stats, and boasts its own Secret Art in Ceaseless Edge.
  • Ursaring was regarded by many fans as being wasted potential thanks to not following up on its pre-evolution's moon motif, having a design that is best described as "bipedal brown bear with a circle on its chest". Its poor stats outside of Attack did it no favors either (though it did have a niche as a Trick Room wallbreaker with Guts + a Flame Orb). Legends: Arceus gave it an evolution in Ursaluna, which emphasizes the line's connection to the moon in its design and evolution method, has a great and uncommon typing in Ground/Normal (previously only exclusive to Generation VI's Diggersby), and has tremendous defenses in addition to a great Attack stat. Generation 9 helped it even more with the re-introduction of Abilities, meaning it keeps Guts or can get Bulletproof, meaning that it can take on either an offensive or defensive role, in contrast to its pre-evolution being a Poor, Predictable Rock. It's also liked for being a quadruped when all other bear-based Pokémon are bipedal, as well as for being Legends: Arceus's dowsing machine ride, even doing a cute little happy dance when it finds an item!
  • Stantler was widely disliked thanks to its Gonky face and, in its home games and their remakes, being a Demonic Spider thanks to a combination of high speed and a STAB flinching move in Stomp, and just not even being very good period. Legends: Arceus blessed it with Wyrdeer, a badass reindeer Horse of a Different Color that offsets its pre-evo's gonkiness by adding a Santa Claus motif thanks to its beard. It also becomes a Magic Knight thanks to having good offenses on both ends of the spectrum and finally gains the Psychic type, which many fans believe that Stantler should've had from the start.
  • Voltorb is a commonly forgettable Pokémon that is mocked by fans for its "unoriginal" design that resembles a very simple Poké Ball. The introduction of Hisuian Voltorb's friendlier, more detailed, design and expressive Keet personality (helped by the Pokémon YouTube channel's adorable two shorts on it) quickly won over fans' hearts. It helps that it's an Electric/Grass type, a typing previously exclusive to Mow Rotom.
  • If comments on 4chan and Reddit are anything to go by, Basculin was considered one of, if not the most despised Pokémon of all time due to its bad stats, lack of an evolution, and getting into Sword & Shield over more popular (and powerful) Pokémon. That all changed when White-Striped Basculin was introduced, because unlike its Unovan counterparts, this Basculin has an evolution, Basculegion, with an additional Ghost-typing and rather dark backstory behind its evolution (it evolves by absorbing the souls of its fellow Basculin who died). It's also coded to have Swift Swim or Adaptability as its ability, meaning it can either be a monstrous Rain sweeper, or a strong wallbreaker.
  • Qwilfish was a long-standing joke among fans, being one of many weird one-off species from Generation II with nothing to make it stand out above other Water/Poison types like Tentacruel and Toxapex (not helping is that an evolution for it was scrapped). Hisuian Qwilfish helped turn around its reputation by dropping its Water typing in exchange for Dark, giving it a wonderful defensive combination only weak to Ground. This form also received a much-needed evolution that was first foreshadowed in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl in the form of Overqwil, which got a number of fans for its name and design being both intimidating and goofy, as well as being a solid attacker with physical bulk to back it up. Even Qwilfish in a roundabout way was saved, as it now gained the ability to hold Eviolite, further making it better as a tank.
  • Even Arceus itself undergoes this. While it wasn't as unpopular as the previous ones listed, it went through a rather noticeable Badass Decay with its base stat total being overtaken by Pokemon in later generations. Legends Arceus justified this by revealing this Arceus is only a fragment of its true form, and also massively buffed it by giving it the Legend Plate, which allows it to change into the best possible type to counter the Pokemon both offensively and defensively.

Elemental Types

• Gen IV saved Grass: Grass was inferior to Electric when it came to defeating Water-typed Pokémon, due to its poor selection of attacks. Many of them had low base damage, or had high damage but had some limitation (a turn of charge-up, guaranteed to Confuse your own Pokémon after use, or was only available to one 'mon). Electric had no such problem, thanks to the widespread availability of Thunderbolt. Grass' other selling point, its ability to hit Rock- and Ground-type Pokémon, was undercut by the aforementioned Water type doing the exact same thing, plus the fact that any Player Versus Environment team has a Water-type so that they can travel across seas and rivers with Surf. And just to add insult to injury, practically every single Water-type has access to Ice-type moves, which are super-effective on Grass-type Pokémon. Gen IV added more reliable attacks such as Energy Ball and Seed Bomb, and made Leaf Blade non-exclusive to Sceptile. There's still the overlap when it comes to fighting Rock and Ground types, but at least now Grass can reliably deal good damage to Crasher Wake's, Misty's, and Cress' lineups. Gen IV also introduced some powerful grass types, where as prior to this they had basically nothing. Roserade is a decently fast special sweeper with the phenomenal offensive typing Grass/Poison which is only resisted by Steel and other Poison types, and has access to powerful coverage moves like Shadow Ball, Extrasensory, and in later generations Dazzling Gleam. Torterra is a physically bulky Grass/Ground type, with the ground type taking Grass's offensive coverage from a laughable 3 strengths and 7 resistances to a highly respectable 7 strengths and 3 resistances. We also got Abomasnow, which earned itself a place on the Underused Banlist due to its ability Snow Warning on top of its phenomenal offensive typing. It got even more saved in Gen V, with the introduction of several more good Grass-types, most notably Ferrothorn, who sports awesome defensive stats, good entry hazards and support movepool, and decent attack stats, and remains competitively viable well over a decade later. To a much lesser extent, Gen V introduced Lilligant, a strong but speedy Grass-Type with one of the best Status Buff moves in Quiver Dance, and the ability to spam the now 120-base powered Petal Dance without any drawbacks at all. Grass also benefited from the steady addition of more and more Water/Ground types to the roster over the last few generations, against whom Electric attacks are utterly useless while Grass moves deal quadruple damage (and are literally their only weakness). Also in Gen 5, Giga Drain had its PP raised to 10 and its power boosted to a very solid 75, turning it into one of the most reliable Grass-Type moves around, dealing good damage, while healing the user at the same time. Grass also gained another boost in Gen VI, as the typing has gained the ability to ignore, among other things, the two best sleep-inducing moves in the game, Spore and Sleep Powder.
  • Also worth noting is that in consideration to all of the above, it can more safely switch in to a Water opponent for a revenge kill — which, again, Electric types aren't as capable. Grass-type Pokémon resist Water-type attacks, and thus have a higher chance of surviving the switch-in turn. Electric-type Pokémon do not, and are generally very frail defense-stat wise, so it is surprisingly easy to fall to a STAB water-type attack. However, as previously mentioned, Grass-types have to beware of Water-types packing Ice-type moves.
• Gen IV also saved Dark. Introduced in Gen II, Dark-types were intended to serve as a counter for Psychic-types, which were overpowered in Gen I. The problem, however, was the fact that the typing was incredibly underutilized; Dark-type moves originally ran off a Pokémon's Special Attack, which very little Dark-types at the time excelled at. Only a select few, like Houndoom and Tyranitar, were really able to take advantage of Dark-type moves. The Physical/Special split in Gen IV finally allowed Dark-type Mons to take advantage of their typing.
• Fighting. Like Poison, it seemed to be designed as a punching bag to Psychic-types, which again are overpowered in Gen I. Gen II introduced Dark and Steel types, both weak to Fighting. Gen IV saved them further with the introduction of more coverage moves for them to abuse thanks to the Physical/Special split. By Gen V, the presence of powerhouses from Fighting-types buffed and introduced in that generation, as well as their great synergy with Dark-types, got so bad that Fairy-types were introduced in Gen VI to bring both of them down.
• While Gen IV brings it into the spotlight, Gen V truly saves yet another type: Bug. In previous generations, "new Bug types" usually meant "early-game bugs, usually early evolving as well, whose stats just plain sucked". Also, half of them were Bug/Flying, a typing that made it weak to many attacks. The only ones that were decent were Scyther/Scizor, Yanmega, the Nincada family, Heracross, and Pineco/Forretress. Gen IV, despite also being the origin of Stealth Rock, started to save them by giving them two new powerful attacks: U-Turn, which means they can play a scouting role while dealing awesome damage, and Bug Buzz, which is just a good special move overall. Many preexisting Bug-types also got stat buffs, most notably Scizor and its infamous Bullet Punch. Then Gen V came around and introduced eighteen new bugs. All of them with great stats. Not a single one evolves early. And none of them Bug/Flying.
  • Scolipede is very fast and is able to learn Earthquake and Rock Slide. Come Pokémon X and Y, and this already impressive Bug-type got its rather situational Hidden Ability of Quick Feet retconned into the considerably more useful Speed Boost.
  • Galvantula gets STAB Thunder with much better accuracy thanks to its Compoundeyes ability. As of Pokémon X and Y, it's also one of the best users of the move Sticky Web, which lays a trap that lowers an opposing Pokémon’s speed on entry. In addition, it's one of the few Electric-types able to reliably use Electro Ball, a move that requires much greater speed than the enemy to be effective and combos well with the aforementioned Sticky Web.
  • Durant has very high attack power with its Hustle ability, albeit with a little less accuracy, and can be taught Hone Claws, which boosts Accuracy and Attack, as well as Rock Slide. It's Bug/Steel too, which means that it has only one weakness.
  • Volcarona has the awesome Quiver Dance (boosts Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed) and a strong STAB signature move, Fiery Dance, which boosts its Special Attack half the time. It was so strong that people considered using it worth the effort despite the four times Stealth Rock weakness, which was previously only achieved by Ho-Oh (in fact, many have expressed the opinion that the Stealth Rock weakness is the one thing keeping it from being an all-out Game-Breaker).
  • Genesect has the honor of being the first Bug-type legendary ever (not counting Insect-plate Arceus). It's also Bug/Steel, which means that it has only one weakness.
  • While Gen VI introduced Vivillon, and it's a Bug-Flying type, it shows that Game Freak seems to have learned even when it comes to this infamously poor typing. It put more appropriate focus on Speed than its main competition of Butterfree, and has Quiver Dance alongside Compoundeyes-boosted Sleep Powder and STAB Hurricane, making it surprisingly deadly in the right hands. Outside of battle, it also has another gimmick that made it surprisingly popular: its wing patterns are dependent on where the game originated from, meaning that you'll need to trade with others to collect all 20, some of them rarer than others.
  • Gen VI also notably introduced a Mega Evolution for Pinsir, which turns it from a straight Bug type to — once again — Bug/Flying. The people who initially mocked it for this typing ended up eating their words when it turned out that Mega Pinsir's Aerilate Ability gave it a powerful priority move in a Flying-type Quick Attack, as well as a pants-shittingly powerful Return attack^note after a Swords Dance boost, even Skarmory, physical tank extraordinaire, has trouble taking it. With a coverage move like Close Combat or Earthquake and Swords Dance to boost its power to even more absurd levels, the thing is an absolute terror to anyone who neglected to prepare for it. It's not even as vulnerable to Stealth Rocks as it looks, as its first switch-in will be as regular Pinsir, which only has a single weakness to Rock, and Defog provided a new and more reliable way to get rid of entry hazards.
  • Gen VII, just like Gen V, introduced no average early route bug-type (even though they can be found very early, Grubbin evolves into Charjabug at level 20, and can't evolve into Vikavolt until the player reaches Poni Island), all 4 bug-type families are pretty strong in their own way, and none of them suffer from a x4 weakness. From the strong physical Mighty Glacier Golisopod with a signature attack that allows it to attack hard and fast on the first turn, the fast supporting Ribombee with Pollen Puff, which can be used to heal allies or deal lots of damage to enemies, the Stone Wall Araquanid whose main ability reduces Fire-type and burn damage while boosting its Water-type attack greatly, to the Glass Cannon Vikavolt with very high Special Attack and a pre-evo that can support other ally Pokémon. This gen also buffed lots of old Bug-type Pokémon's stats. There is a reason why this generation's Bug-type specialist is also its villainous team leader, Guzma of Team Skull.
• Generation IV and V also worked hard to help rebalance the Ghost type. For the first three generations, Ghost suffered strongly from having poor availability as well as all its moves being physical, when only really one Ghost type from the first three Gens was oriented towards physical attacking. Gens IV and V added more moves to help Ghost Pokémon take advantage of physical and special attack status, whilst keeping its moves gimmicky but still with the capability of becoming a Lethal Joke Character. Additionally? More Pokémon were added, among them an evolution to Misdreavus and Pokémon that could function as a tank. Generation V also added the Eviolite, which would turn Dusclops into a Stone Wall that would take a lot of abuse before going down.
• Generation VI introduced the Fairy type, which saved a lot of things at the same time. Some older Pokémon were given this new type or were changed into them, which made them even better. Since Fairy-type moves are super-effective against Dragon, and Fairy Pokémon themselves are immune to Dragon-type moves, this upped the status of mons that received the new typing as well as giving the somewhat game-breaking Dragon types a much-needed Nerf.
  • The introduction of the Fairy type also saved Poison. For the longest time, Poison was the Butt-Monkey of Pokémon Types. It was horribly outclassed on offense, as it hit only Grass-types effectively (it used to be good against Bug in Gen I), which Fire, Ice, Flying, and Bug all did better, and it was outclassed as a defensive type by Steel. The only saving grace was the ability to poison things, which didn't even work on Steel-types, and was mostly redundant anyway since almost every Pokémon was capable of learning Toxic. It was so bad that even good Poison-types like Gengar wouldn't even bother using their Poison-type STAB in movepools. Then the previously mentioned Fairy-type came in, and Poison finally hit the jackpot. Poison is one of only two types that are super-effective against Fairy. Because of this, Poison-type moves shot up as an in-demand coverage since Fairy Pokémon became popular to take on Dragon-types. It gets even better, because Toxic got buffed to where if used by a Poison-type, it would never miss, thus giving Poison-types a real niche and eliminating the tactic of just sticking the move on any bulky Pokémon and expecting the same production. Generation VIII took it even further by removing Toxic from the learnset of almost every non-Poison Pokémon, giving them a much more useful niche as Toxic setters.
    • The Pokémon that exemplifies the boost in Poison more so than any other is found in Generation VII: Toxapex. It can learn Toxic and Toxic Spikes by level-up, and it has a Signature Move in Baneful Bunker, which protects it from attacks that turn and inflicts Poison on anything that touches it (besides those naturally immune to Poison in the first place). It also has the Stone Wall stats and recovery moves to remain in play as the opponents suffer. In previous generations, Toxapex would've been something of a joke, but the current mechanics allow Toxapex to inflict Poison so consistently that it's become one of the most feared Pokémon of Generation VII. Further, it is one of the very few Pokémon in the entire metagame capable of running Haze consistently.
• Gen VII also made Ice more viable than before. Before Gen VII, the only reason to use it was to deal with Dragons. However, most Dragons could use a Fire-type move, and Ice-types suffered from poor stats, few good moves, multiple weaknesses, its only resistance is itself, most Water-types being able to learn an Ice-type move, and later the introduction of the Fairy-type to make it easier to deal with Dragons. Gen VII introduced Ice-types with good movepools and stats (Alolan Ninetales and Alolan Sandslash), and made using Hail a viable strategy with the creation of the Slush Rush Ability (which doubles Speed in hail akin to Swift Swim) and the move Aurora Veil (which can only be used during hail, but acts as a simultaneous Reflect and Light Screen). Then Gen VIII came along and finally fixed the issue of Ice-types being relegated to late game areas, and instead there's a whole host of Ice-type Pokémon to be captured in the Wild Area before even starting the Gym Challenge. Some of the most feared Ice-types in competitive play, such as Galarian Darmanitan, Eiscue, and Glastrier,^note Though they find their uses in different modes of play, with Galarian Darmanitan being strong enough to be Kicked Upstairs on Smogon where Glastrier has that reputation in VGC rules also debuted in Generation VIII.

Moves

• Generation VI saved a lot of useless moves:
  • Rock Tomb has limited uses, pitiful damage, and poor accuracy which made it guaranteed that no one looked twice at it. Then it got more uses, far better accuracy, and buffed enough to make it a viable replacement for Stone Edge on Technician users.
  • Incinerate, previously known as the weakest fire move in the game that’s only good for destroying berries, got saved when its power was doubled from a pitiful 30 to a decent 60 and can also destroy gems.
• When Defog was introduced in Gen IV, it was one of the most hated moves in the franchise - an arbitrary HM move that the player was forced to waste a move slot on to get through the game, but almost entirely useless in battle since all it could do was remove the target's screens (which is better handled by Brick Break) and lower the target's evasiveness (which is only useful against opponents that boost their Evasiveness - a tactic almost no trainers in singleplayer ever use, and which is outright banned in most competitive formats). Gen VI gave it a massive boost by allowing it to remove entry hazards on the user's side of the field, then it was buffed again in Gen VIII by giving it the ability to remove terrains. Defog is one of only three non-Max moves capable of removing terrain, making it a useful tactic for shutting down teams that rely on it for support.
• Despite not being anywhere close to the infinite lockdown potential of their RBY ancestors, Gen V and VI gave a notable increase of utility to the partial trapping moves by first extending their duration and then increasing their damage output, going from virtually useless to a viable option to stack passive damage, especially when combined with Perish Song or Toxic. The advent of Z-moves has solidified them as a powerful option to catch an opponent and guarantee that their devastating power will hit their intended target, in addition to their previous utility.
• Gen VII managed to rescue the franchise's very first Bug-type attack, Leech Life. Before, it was an awful move from Gen I that had a pitiful base power of 20 and was only useful if you wanted to get the Marsh Badge more easily. But now that base power has been quadrupled, which not only makes the move worthwhile, but also gives some mons a viable recovery option.
• Gen IV saved numerous moves with the physical/special split, perhaps most notably: Waterfall. In previous games, Waterfall was little more than a poor man's Surf, but making it into a physical move made it the STAB move of choice for physical-inclined water types like Feraligatr and Gyarados. Its 20% chance to make the target flinch also gave it a genuine use that kept it in use even as Gen VII onward massively increased the number of physical Water-type moves.
• Let's Go ended up saving Teleport. It was once seen as a poor man's Fly, teleporting the player to the last Pokémon Center and having no use in battle outside of fleeing from wild Pokémon. As of Let's Go, Teleport now switches the user out at the end of the turn, making it incredibly useful in competitive, letting a teammate switch in safely. Notably, this was the only buff to carry over from Let's Go to Sword and Shield, an act that was praised throughout the community.
• Downplayed with Rapid Spin in Gen VIII. Rapid Spin was always seen as a good move thanks to its hazard-removing capabilities, but its laughably-pathetic 20 base power meant it had little value outside of that. Sword and Shield not only increased the move's power to 50, but also made it so that it would boost the user's Speed upon use. This gave it some use outside of hazard removal, acting as a Normal-type Flame Charge.
• Legends: Arceus saved moves with recharge turns. The likes of Hyper Beam, Giga Impact, and Roar of Time suffered from forcing the user to skip a turn after using them, with only a few choice Pokémon such as Porygon-Z implementing them. Due to the changed battle system, these moves are slightly weaker, but in exchange only have a high action speed penalty, which doesn't always guarantee a lost turn with good usage of Agile and Strong Style. This gives both special and physical-oriented Normal-types powerful STAB options, and lets Dialga's signature move be more equal to Palkia's Spacial Rend.

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