Now, it’s 2019, friends. ♛We really should all be a little more enlightened. We’re not, though, because we’re gamers, and you know how gam🉐ers tend to be.
Take PC gaming, 🔯for instance. Y⛄es, dedicated gaming rigs give the best gaming experience currently possible, a good way beyond anything that consoles can offer right now. Can PC gamers just enjoy that in peace, without commenting on the inferiority of consoles? Some can, absolutely, but some can’t.
There’s always some snark or other flying around. In the case of Nintendo systems, it’s usually their family-friendly nature that’s the butt of the joke. Despite the fact that I once saw a huge, tattooed Hugh Jackman of a man shriek with joy because he’d found a rare Dragonite in Pokémon GO, many insist that the series is for children.
None of these people have ever experienced competitive Pokémon play, that’s for darn sure. It’s a super-serious environment, where only th☂e very best Pokémon get used and t🧔he rest are left to rot in PC purgatory. This is such a shame, with a roster as huge and absurd as this. How many Pokémon are there now? Way too darn many, that’s how many.
Despite all of this, somꦗe Pokémon are still far more popular than they have any right to be. Something unconventional like a Pachirisu will perform well in a tournament team, and suddenly everybody’s got one. Some Pokémon are nothing without their mega form but suddenly became hugely popular as a result of it, like Kangaskhan.
Let’s take a look at these cases, along with other P🌟okémon that are among the worst (for a whole variety ofꩲ reasons) but just keep cropping up regardless.
25 Pachirisu𝄹: The Nichest Niche That Ever Filled A Niche 𝓰
That’🐲s right, friends. No💝t only that, but it had a pivotal role in the victory.
This is the way of competitive Pokémon. If you’re new to the scene, it’s natural to start out by taking a look at pro players’ successful teams and borrowing for them (if not just outright copying them). For this reason, around the time of Se 🐟Jun Park’s historic win, a whole spate of Pachirisu started appearing on teams.
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl’s resident Electric Rodent™ brings precious little to the table in terms of 🧔raw stats, but it had the perfect combination of typing, movepool and supportive utility (Follow Me to draw attacks to itself instead of its partner, mostly) to work wonders on Park’s particular team.
It’s not a Pokémon you can just shoehorn in anywhere and expect to perform well, though. You can probably tell th🐎at by looking at it.
24 Charizard: The Buffed-To-Heckola One ꦆ
Now, I’m one of those old-school fans who’s firmly in the Charmander for Life camp. In every generation since, I’ve chosen the Fire-type starter in homage to the lovely lizard. At the same time, though, I’m fully prepare꧅d to admit that the Charizard life is not an easy one.
I’ve known that even since I came up against Brock and Misty’s gyms with Charmandꦫer. Do you know what isn’t fun? Scratching a Rock-type to its slow and protracted demise, that’s what. Competitively, meanwhile, Stealth Rock seemed to have been introduced purely to dump on my dreams of having any success with Charizard. Half HP♒ just for switching in? What kind of benevolent Game Freak would allow this nonsense?
With the advent of Pokémon X and Y, though, Charizard was thrown a🐻 lifeline: not one by two super powerful Mega Evolutions. Mega Charizard Y, in particular, is a monstrous special attacker, setting automatic sun and incinerating its foes in a blaze of Fire.
23 Pikachu: The Mascot Who Nobody Ash-ked ❀ 🐲
Yes, yes. We see you there, Pikachu. Always demanding all of the attention, a▨ren’t you? Your own special edition version of the original games, the one whose face is most commonly plastered on the merchandise… you are the face of the franchise around the world.
As such, Game Freak have always been desperate to find🌞 some way to make this thing usable in the games, even over its own evolution. The Light Ball, for instance (a held item which only works for Pikachu, doubling its offensive stats) make this thing the ver💙y definition of a glass cannon.
It’s 🌄a novelty at best, though. How often do you see Pikachu in action i🏅n serious competitive matches?
22 😼 Chansey: The Damage-Sponge From Heckola♔
If you’ve been part of the Pokémon scene for a few ye🌠ars now, you’ve almost certainly found yourself staring down the business end of a Chansey several⛄ times.
While it may look completely innocuous, Cha🌌nsey has a unique way of making you hate yourself and the life that you live. With an Eviolite in hand🐭, it’s even more specially defensive than Blissey, and can be really, really darn difficult to take out. The combination of Soft Boiled (for reliable healing) and Minimise (to boost its evasion and make your opponent curse your entire family tree) is… well, it’s not a good time.
21 🤡 Garchomp: The One That’s Not Landorus And Is Quite Bitter About That Fact
I know what you’re thinking. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just hold on a darn minute here. Garchomp, notoriously bad? Have I just slipped through a wormhole into Bizarro World? That’s💧 probably not exactly 🙈it, but the basic sentiment is there.
You’re totally right. Garchomp has been a competitive mainstay since it was introduced in Generation IV. It’s absolute🃏ly not a bad Pokémon. One of the best and most popular, in fact. Do you know what it isn’t, though? It isn’t Landorus-T.
In any format where Landorus is allowed, its Therian Forme will tend to be used over Garchomp (its fellow Ground-type) on many teams. The combination of a Ground immunity and Intimidate ability just wins out. Especially with all those newfangled Fairy-types roaming about now (Garchomp i𝄹s not a fan).
20 Eevee: The One-Trick ♔Wonder
We all like Eevee. Of course we do. It’s got that incredible nostalgia factor that only a popular first gen Pokémon can offer. It has an interesting USP in the multiple-evolutions thing. It’s a constant source of discussion in the Pokémon community (will Pokémon Sword and Shield add a new Eeveelution to the 🦂mi▨x? If so, which type will it be?).
As a result of its💛 love from the community, Eevee was given its own exclusive Z-Move: Extreme Evoboost. This move sees all of the Eeeveelutons come together to fire a special ray that gives Eevee a +2 to all of its stats. This is a neat idea, for sure, but the sad truth is that it’s usually j💟ust used for a cheesy Baton Pass strategy. A real one-trick pony.
19 Gengar: The One That Was Totally Fine 💝Wi𒀰th The Ability It Had, Thanks Very Darn Much
As was the case with Garchomp, Gengar is definitely no slouch in the ba๊ttling department. In Generation I, it was the only Ghost-type and had precisely zero decent Ghost moves, but after that low point, it broke out the Rocky training montages and became a real competitive powerhouse.
What’s💖 it doing in this list, then? I’ll tell you.
It recently lost its excellent Levitate ability, that’s what. As a Pois♚on-type, it greatly appreciated its immunity to Ground moves, and this was quite the nerf.
Still, Genga🍸r remains a speedy and potent special attacker, and you’ll still see them doing the rounds.
18 𒊎 Nidoking: The Jack Of All Trades
If you’ve ever used a Nidoking, you’ll know that it can wreck some absolute havoc. Before the introduction of Fair🃏y, Poison was a pretty darn bad type (especially offensively), but Nidoking didn’t care about any of that. Why? Because it had (and still has) access to just about 🎃every darn TM known to Pokékind. Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Flamethrower, Shadow Ball…
Why it get𒆙s all of these moves, Arceus doe𓃲sn’t even know, but it does.
Thr🔴ow in the damage boost from its Sheer Force ability (which removes the secondary effect from a move but makes it a bit stronger), and you’ve got a real threat on your hands. The t🐬rouble is, Nidoking’s offenses aren’t all that strong to begin with, and super effective coverage isn’t everything.
17 Smeargle: The One That Nobod✨y Wants To Invite To Their Birthday Party ❀
Ah, yes. The dreaded Smeargle. At face value, this thing is o🎃ne of the most feeble Pokémon in the whole game, but there’s one thing that it📖 does very, very well: supporting its team and aggravating its opponents.
Competitive play typing uses the doubles format, and this was where Smeargle would shine. It gets access to Dark Void (by Sketching it from Darkrai),ܫ making it the only user of the only move that can put both opponents to sleep a once. Does this sound like a good time? That’s because it isn’t.
This is much less of threat now, with the accuracy nerf to Dark Void, but it’s such a cheap and simple way to become a huge threat. Smeargle has also been known to enjoy using Traꦏnsform to give the opponent TWO MEGA KANGASKHANS to deal with🎶, and that’s when Game Freak just need to be collectively sent to their room to think about what they’ve done.
16 Kangaskhan: The *Other* One That’𒅌s Been Buffed Out The Wazzoo
For most of its existence, Kangaskhan has been just another unspectacular Normal-type. Just the sort of Pokémon, you might have thought, that deserved a Mega Evolution to give it a new lease of life. While you’d be totally right on꧋ that one, I really don’t think the world was ready for the menace that M♌ega Kangaskhan would become.
While its stats alone weren’t too excessive (although excellent all around), the real issue here was its ability. Parental Bond allowed it to deal a second hit (which dealt half the damage of the first) after every singleꦺ-target attack. Suddenly, everybody was on the Kangaskhan bandwagon, after years of ignoring the ‘mon entirely.
Thankfuܫlly, for Generation VII, Parental𓄧 Bond was nerfed; the second hit now only deals a quarter of the damage of the first.