Each new 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokémon game has always brought new changes and additions to its ba📖ttle mechanics. Often these take the form of buffs where weaker Pokémon are higher stats, remarkable moves, and entirely new abilities. Many of these have gone from being utterly obsolete to being some of the strongest Pokémon in the series, helpi🌠ng each game feel constantly fresh.
While it's more common to see Pokémon receive these buffs, there have also been a few points in the series that specific Pokémon have been regrettably stronger than others, and needed to be substantially weakened to prevent them from becoming too dominant. Here are just a few of the Pokémon that have received some of the most ser🍬ious nerf♑s, and the reasons they were so overpowered in the first place.
10 Aegislash
There are extremely few Pokémon who have ever had their stats directly decreased. It’s extremely common for old species to get additional boosts, such as Lunatone and Solrock receiving additional maximum health in Pokémon Sun & Moon, butꦯ having stats directly decreased is an extremely uncommon form of we🦋akening them.
To fix this, Aegislash's stats were directly decreased in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokémon Sword & Shield, losing ten points in all of its defensive and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:offensive stats. Be⛄cause of its unusual Stance Change ability to become suddenly more protective or aggressive, this Pokémon was exceptionally ha🐻rd to deal with, and simply needed a little less numerical power.
9 Mimikyu
A much more common form of nerꦿfing Pokémon is by changing its abilities, some of which can make an average Pokémon into an unstoppable fighter. Mimikyu hasn’t been around for a long time, but its🍸 signature ability Disguise meant it always required two hits to deal any damage, causing this aggressive fighter to take way too long to defeat.
The solution to this was to make Disguise deal damage to Mimikyu once it was broken, removing an eighth of its health upon taking damage. This also 𝔉meant that it wouldn’t stack with items like the Focus Sash that let Pokémon barely survive after a strong att🦹ack, making Mimikyu into a less time-consuming foe.
8 ▨ ♉ Talonflame
Talonflame has had a similar problem to Mimikyu, in that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:its primary ability was far too efficient to be fair. Its Hidden Ability, Gale Wings, allowed all of its Flying-type att🏅acks at the same speed as priority moves like Quick Attack. This helped an already-fast Pokémon be nearly impossible to outrun, and guarantee🥃d it to always land a few hits.
The ability still mostly functions the same way, but Pokémon Sun & Moon changed it so this speed priority boost on🃏ly occurs if the user is at full health. This enables it to make a fast attack at least once, but prevents it from outrunning an opponent’s team for the entire battle.
7 🐈 Kangaskhan
Many trainers miss 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mega Evolutions in Pokémon Sword & Shield, but many of these new forms are still abnormally powerful compared to other strong fighters. Having one in your team was essentially required in most competitive battles, and as a result, many had their unique abilities rebalanced in Pokémon Sun & Moon.
Perhaps the most significant of these was Mega Kangaskhan, which received an ability where its child wou🎀ld deal half of Kangaskhan’s damage attacks as a follow-up move. This made it deal a ludicrous amount of damage, even compared to other mega evolutions, so the ability was changed to only deal a quarter of Kangaskhan’s damage instead.
6 Sylveon
Sylveon may not have had a Mega Evolution♕, but its nerf is somewhat consequential to the obscene power they had. This is because Sylveon is one of the only Pokémon to potentially gain the ability Pixilate, which changed all Normal-type moves into Fairy-type attacks with an additional 30% more power.
This ability was shared by both Mega Gardevoir and Mega Altaria, and to decrease their dam꧅age output the ability now only boosts the user’s Normal-type attacks by 20% of thei💜r original power. Sylveon wasn’t as horrifically powerful as Mega Evolutions, but unfortunately had to take this nerf that wasn’t truly its fault.
5 Alakazam
One of the earliest nerfs in Pokémon history is an extremely complicated one, based mostly around the poor balance between different Pokémon types in Pokémon Red & Blue. Psychic-type Pokémon were disturbingly powerful in these games, with the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:intellectual powerhouse Alakazam being the strong🔥est and fastest while lacking any weaknesses besides Bug-type attac🐲ks.
This nerf essentially occurred in Pokémon Gold & Silver through the addition of Dark-type, whꦰich was immune to Psychic attacks, and Steel-type, which were simply resistant to Psychic attacks. This, alongside making Psychic-types weak to Ghos😼t-type moves, would ensure that Alakazam wasn’t substantially more powerful than other Pokémon.
4 Tangela
Tangela is one of the few Pokémon who might have been accidentally nerfed, mostly due to another change that came with Pokémon Gold & Silver. This would be the new Special Defense stat, which was originally combined with offense with the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:broader Special stat in Pokémon Red & Blue. This would give more diversity to battle, and ga🦄ve much more diversity between each Pokémon's build.
Tangel🐭a wasn’t overpowered by any means, but in this shift, it was given a ridiculously low Special Defense stat compared to its physical defense. This was only made worse by its weaknesses of Fire and Ice being exclusively Special Attacks, making Tangela mostly useless for several generations.
3 Hydreigon
Similar to Psychic-types in Pokémon Red & Blue, Dragon-types have also been the reason for new Pokémon types being added to the game. Fairy-type Pokémon were introduced in Pokémon X & Y as a deterrent to the growing list of Dragon-type Pokémon, which had grown massivel🎃y in number and power over the years 𝕴despite often lacking weaknesses.
This succeeded in making Dragon-types be slightly less dominant, but Hydreigon undoubtedly got hit the worst thanks to its additional Dark-typing that mad it additionally vulnerable to the new typing. Its stats remained quite powerful, but this new massive weakness made it much moreඣ of a liability ⭕to run.
2 Tyranitar
Weather teams have always been popular in competitive Pokémon, but few have been as dominant and popular as Tyranitar. Its Sand Stream ability not only did damage to most other Pokémon by creating 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:an irritating Sandstorm, but weather effects before Pokémon X & Y never faded away, meaning Tyranitar always created a permanent stream of damage when it was 🌼sent ♔out.
Ty൲ranitar was nerfed alongside other weather-setting Pokémon that came later on, such as Torkoal and Abomasnow, when weather effects were changed to only last five turns. This meant that weather teams needed far more effort to maintain their effects, making Tyranitar much more of a niche teammate.
1 Gengar
Gengar has had a complex history, but has consistently remained 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:on💟e of the ಌstrongest Pokémon in the series since Pokémon Diamond & Pearl. Before this game, all Ghost-type attacks dealt physical damage despite Gengar’s much higher Special stats, so with attacks that made use of its stats it could finally reach its potential as a Ghost-type counterpart to Alakazam. With its Mega Evolution in Pokémon X & Y, 🍬it immediately became one of the most common fighters to encounter💟 online.
To nerf Gengar, it literally had to be grounded by removing its ability Levitate in Pokémon Sun & Moon. This had been its only ability for generations, but having this extr▨a vulnerability made it significantly easier for players to take down. It’s still quite exceptional, and has recently received another new tool in the form of a Gigantamax Form, but it’s certainly not the unstoppable force it waꦚs before.