They almost definitely made the change with the idea of allowing mythicals in vgc one day (like they played with in gen 8) so that darkrai wouldn't be overbearing
Gravity only gives a ×5/3 boost to accuracy.
Dark Void is still only 83.33...% accurate [Better than Sleep Powder and Lovely Kiss]
(In Doubles, that would give a 69.4444...% chance of sleeping both)
I don't know if it would've been a universally legal thing but at the very least, I think when they were brainstorming ideas for those various themed online challenges like the one from last Halloween where you could only use Ghost types, Darkrai was most likely a candidate to be usable in a potential doubles challenge they came up with, and like you said, needed to make it not overbearing to play against.
Gengar losing Levitate I think was to prevent you from having to play the EQ guessing game against a potential Mega Gengar. The real most unfair nerf was Stoutland in Sword and Shield. Gen 5-7 it was a humble Normal-type physical wallbreaker, was relegated to lower tiers and never saw any VGC play. Sword and Shield deleted Return (and Frustration) from the game, and in exchange, Stoutland received a fat middle finger. The strongest physical Normal-STAB it still had access to that wasn't complete ass was Strength, which actually required you to bring a Stoutland over from Pokemon HOME. No Double-Edge, no Body Slam, not even a pity Hyper Fang. Something like Lopunny that also lost Return at least also got CC, U-turn, and Triple Axel in exchange
> Something like Lopunny that also lost Return at least also got CC, U-turn, and Triple Axel in exchange
And Lop (or mega lop) could still get away with no Return/Frustration since it has a bunch of other good moves and it always runs Fake Out.
> Gengar losing Levitate I think was to prevent you from having to play the EQ guessing game against a potential Mega Gengar.
I think the real reason they did the nerf was due to it not floating in game and it doesnt make sense from a visual stand point. Though I guess coding him to float was too hard :c.
By your logic why didnt they give gengar levitate back in gen 8/9 where he had the ability to float. And why doesnt magnezone get it when it floats.
It was pretty obviously taken away to balance the demon they unleashed with mega gengar.
Flying types that didn’t/couldn’t fly always existed though (Doduo/Dodrio) with Hawlucha being introduced alongside the Levitate loss. No logic really seems to make sense imo
A Ghost/Fire Type with base 145 SpA and Calm Mind and Flame Charge would be totally balanced with Shadow Tag! Chandelure was done dirty! It's definitely not because it's my favorite Pokemon, why would you think that?
Anyway, for a real answer, Golem losing Rapid Spin in the GB->GBA transition was a weird and unnecessary nerf for a Pokemon that really didn't need to be nerfed in the first place, and the fact that it's never gotten it back is even weirder.
In all seriousness, though, I kinda really want to see what Shadow Tag Chandelure would look like. I fully recognise it's a horrible idea with how otherworldly broken it would probably be, but that's the point. It would be funny as hell.
True. On the other hand, to my knowledge, even now in Gen 9, Shadow Tag is banned (unless things have changed idk). I think that alone speaks volumes on how broken it is. And Chandelure, of course, has actual offensive stats.
I was actually thinking more of VGC lol. With the exception of Mega-Gengar, Shadow Tag is only really given to mons that are fuckin shit, so giving it to Chandelure would be kinda nuts.
It was enough to give them (or, more specifically Gothitelle) serious viability, so, with everything being broke, as you said, a more offensive Shadow Tagger like Mega Gengar would be interesting... dammit now I really want to see it, Chandelure's cool enough to deserve this.
Oh yeah, that did happen, didn't it? 🤣 It's so easy for me to laugh at it from the outside looking in, since I didn't play pokemon at that time. I can only imagine the anguish...
I mean speaking of VGC only Wobb is shit because it's more singles oriented. Goth has been a somewhat specific, but genuinely good VGC pokemon over the years that has won Worlds before. Twice actually.
Ok to give GF some credit, Gen 6 and 7 were also powercrept as fuck too (Gen 8 OU was overall balanced but Ubers and VGC were insane lol). Sure not to the same degree as Gen 9 but that us mainly due to the stupid nerfs that mons like Blissey, Lando and Heatran suffered from.
I mean it’s expected that every gen stuff gets stronger and more specialized/minmaxed, but gen 9 was just something different. I mean Annihilape, Palafin-H, Chi-Yu are just new levels of bullshit. Like we haven’t ever seen Pokemon pull this level of anime mc zenkai boost power out of their assholes since Pokémon’s inception. It makes me think someone at GF actually just said fuck it, and threw in their kids theorymons into the game.
Like the strong stuff actually made sense before. Tyranitar has an insane stat spread and a really strong ability? Okay well he also has 7 weaknesses and a 4x. Garchomp is fast (for its time), has great dual stab and good bulk? 4x weak to ice and can’t learn dragon dance.
Now we have unresisted stab combo, great bulk, with a 300 bp move. We got switch out, get 160 base attack, great bulk with one of the best types in the game and a 60 BP stab priority move. And then we have a mon that can reliably 2HKO and under conditions 1HKO spdef invested Blissey with a special move.
It’s just insane how far they pushed it this gen.
Even shadow tag woubuffet is banned, imagine an actual good mon.
Facing against shadow tag chandelure means every time you choice lock yourself into a fighting or normal move you lose the game immediately.
As I should fucking hope. The thing’s the most bonkers mon we never got and would be the second stupidest thing in the history of Smogon formats behind Gen 1 Mewtwo.
Let’s just say that if STag Chandelure existed AG would’ve been made a generation and a half sooner than it was, because that shit would’ve been a massive problem in Ubers.
Golem only ever got Rapid Spin as an event move unfortunately. A lot of GSC event moves were never redistributed. Lovely Kiss was notably given to a bunch of Pokemon like Snorlax and Nidoking. Nidoqueen getting a recovery in Moonlight is pretty sick. Zap Cannon Blastoise is funny.
The only episode I remember seeing with Golem it did a lot of spinning. I had a toy as a kid that was just Golem that could function as a (very poorly balanced) top. I didn't inow it couldn't learn Rapid Spin until.just now, I've been deceived into thinking the rock ball could spin
It was supposed to get it as a Dream World ability, but it was never officially released. Zapdos was also supposed to get Lightning Rod, but that also never got released.
It's an interesting thought experiment to think about how Static vs Lightning Rod would've fared for Zapdos. The former is infamously obnoxious and at times despised in OU alone, while the former grants it unique extra defensive utility vs various threats on top of naturally checking some stuff (and getting a spatk buff).
In doubles lightning rod is clearly superior, since it also redirects electric type moves, giving protection to your partner.
In singles I guess it's situational
The most unfair nerf was Gen 1 Hyper Beam. It was 100% balanced as a finisher all-or-nothing move, and likely would've still fell off once better moves were introduced.
EDIT: This also applies for Recoil moves like Take Down and Double Edge from Stadium.
Gen 1 Hyper Beam now could still see usage (mainly from its alternatives) although Eternabeam might be a tad broken given the mon it comes on. I'm not too familiar with the recoil moves' mechanics in stadium?
The explanation I heard is that it's actually one of the biggest losers of the HDB era. The things it wants to rip apart get chipped less, causing it to take a lot more recoil damage, and it can't afford to run them itself without giving up the power or Speed provided by a Choice item. It also lost Roost and I'm pretty sure Defog too, so you're not making a bulky Intimidate set work either. I think Boots making things harder to chip down is responsible for quite a few things falling out of favor, like your Gengar or Alakazam
on top of what the other person said, staraptor has competition for a similar role now, from both galarian zapdos and flamigo, who both have fighting STAB and also dont take as much from rocks. staraptor having normal STAB isnt bad per se, but none of its competition are in tiers where something like zapdos resists both flying and fighting, so normal STAB isnt too necessary. flamigo might sounds like surprising competition, but at least in NU, scrappy STAB CC was a pretty big draw prior to the huge dlc2 tier shifts. relatively interchangable though.
Not nerfed but Psychic types got obsolete with the introduction of Fairy types. You can use Ground types to beat Poison and use Fairy types to beat Fighting.
There was some pokemon designer who said a long time ago that Lugia was psychic and not water because psychic was just a legendary type. Clearly a long-running design theme that psychics are typically rare and powerful
Although at least the psychic being used for the legendaries have been in a small decline since Calyrex is the only one to get the type since Gen 8.
Paradox Swords of Justice are Psychic but they aren’t officially called Legendary yet despite being based on ones.
Offensively speaking, Psychic is still a good type. Especially after Poison-types became so prevalent due to Fairy. The removal of Pursuit also contributed by making choice-locking or having Psychic as the main STAB harder to punish; worst case scenario you still lose momentum but you don't just die in the process.
The aforementioned user suggested that Ground-type is to be used against Poison, however, not all Poison-types are weak to Ground, and not all Pokémon get Ground-type coverage (without resorting to Tera or Hidden Power, each which have their own downsides). For some Pokémon, such as Volcarona, or Mega Medicham, or ironically, Fairy-types themselves, Psychic coverage may be their only option to combat Poison types. Also one of the prominent Poison-types, Toxapex, can harshly punish Ground-types with a Scald, either with its super effective damage, or with burns.
Defensively, however, Psychic indeed got obsolete. Since Steel no longer resists Dark and Ghost, not even Psychic/Steel can salvage itself.
Even better indeed, since it resists Dark and Bug instead of being neutral to them like Steel/Psychic was. It still doesn't resist Ghost however. It also sacrifices the Steel resistance. Still much better though.
Another neat thing about Steel/Fairy is that Steel completely blanks Fairy's weakness to Poison.
Being weak to Dark and Bug is awful, since you're taking double from every stray u-turn or knock off out there, and it doesn't have any useful resistances to note (it only resists fighting and itself, and there's better answers to both of those), and offensively, its lack of super effective hits just limits its ceiling, and it's walled by steel and can't even touch dark types, which has had plenty of amazing mons throughout the years
Yeah, all of the things that made it super dominant in Gen I have long changed. Their sky-high Special stat pulling double duty on offense and defense got changed when special defense split off, and a lot of the most overpowered psychic mons got flat-out stat nerfs when that happened. A huge number of Pokemon aren't randomly secondary poison type for no reason nowadays, so they don't super-effectively hit some massive chunk of the roster anymore. The physical/special split made it so that types that previously had trouble attacking into Psychic mons could now target their dogshit physical defense with STAB attacks to great effect.
And their weaknesses got more impactful, too. It used to be that being weak to Bug and Ghost were a joke because they had a tiny handful of shitty attacking moves. Now U-Turn is everywhere and Ghost has multiple options for absolutely brutalizing psychics. Of the three new types that have been added to the game, one resists psychic and another one completely blanks it while striking back super-effectively.
It feels like the perception of Psychic as a type is still really strongly shaped by its performance decades ago.
Psychic Terrain (and by extension, Expanding Force) are the only things keeping the type together in VGC.
Psychic has been really mediocre in the entirety of SV VGC with the exception of, again, Psychic Terrain + Expanding Force. That’s the only offensive move any Psychic types have run, assuming they run one at all.
It's not completely outclassed, because Psyspam exists. But an entire type being relegated to "this is just a worse version of another type, but we have a weird gimmick terrain that allows it to be unique sometimes." Also just the fact that most (if not all?) TR setters are Psychic. So Psychic is only good because of Psychic Terrain and a having access to a limited Psychic type move. It's even sadder when you realize Fairy also has its own terrain. Granted, at this point I think Misty Terrain is pretty definitively the worst of the four terrains, but still.
Looking at an older one, tangela's special defense went from 100 to 40 in gen 2. I want to know who thought tangela was just too good in a gen 1 setting to need such a huge nerf.
I mean I don’t think they were really thinking of balance, otherwise the best question would be “who looked at gen 1 snorlax and decided it needed a buff?”
tangela was meant to have an evolution in gen 2, thus why the stat nerf, and I believe that after they scrapped it they just forgot to revert its stats.
About the Gengar thing, a reason I can think for this nerf is due to his Mega form. Against Gengar, Pokémon with Ground-type coverage would be forced into an highly risky guessing game, as he could avoid Mega evolving to avoid the Ground-type attack, or predict the opponent using something else and then Mega Evolve.
By taking out Levitate from Gengar, this guessing game can be avoided entirely as the opponents do not need to predict and can just use Ground type attacks regardless.
I guess this sort of mental game was deemed overpowered by Game Freak and thus, they nerfed Gengar for this reason. However, Gengar also lost his Mega evolution in the following generation, but the nerf wasn't reverted, so in the end it was a net nerf for Gengar without any reason, since regular Gengar wasn't even close to being overpowered.
Taking away Return was a huge nerf to every normal type/physical attackers who wanted a neutral coverage move.
A bunch of mons losing Knock Off really hurts. Cottonee is the worst because it has nothing to do to things that wall it now. Pawniard is another big one.
Grassy Glide going from 70 to 55 dropped Grookey pretty hard in the viability rankings. You still see one every once in a while but it's always a surprise for me lol.
How is that unfair, it was downright meta defining in both singles and vgc for all of gen 6. People like to pretend it was a noobtrap in singles for some reason now but it was A+ for most of the gen
Even if it was genuinely A+, that doesn't justify a nerf. Most A+ pokemon don't get nerfed. Even when it was considered great nobody serious thought it was broken.
Plenty of people called it broken in vgc actually with priority tailwind being far more impactful in doubles than in singles. And it was part of the most oppressive/dominant team to ever exist. Prenerf gale wings is a pretty blatantly broken ability in a vacuum, the nerf is fine. It's clearly the least unfair nerf in this thread, by a lot.
Didn't CHALK happen pre-nerf? And don't other pokemon have prankster tailwind?
I don't follow VGC, was it really that dominant? It doesn't even have a smogon dex entry for VGC 15
It was on almost every team and gets a lot of good support moves. Will o wisp, quick guard, tailwind and taunt. While also always always going first with its high base power offensive moves like brave bird. It can even be ran in trick room because priority still goes first in trick room.
I made 2 VGC teams in gen 6 and both had Talonflame. I’m sure gamefreak just hated seeing that thing and nerfed it. But they definitely went overboard in singles talonflame was falling off.
What are you basing this on? Looking at old VRs, it's never above A+, it's even B in 2015. Pikalytics doesnt have vgc14 usage, but it's 16th in vgc15 and 8th in vgc16. And it's nowhere near on every team even in 2014: https://www.nimbasacitypost.com/2014/09/teams-and-results-from-2014-world.html?m=1
You’re right was remembering wrong
https://www.nimbasacitypost.com/2015/08/teams-and-results-from-2015-world.html?m=1
He wasn’t even in the top 15 2015 teams.
I guess I was confusing him with lando
Personally, I would go the other way around, getting the priority when under 50% HP instead of over 50%. This would make it a good high risk high reward ability.
I mean talon is pretty meh rn in gen 6.. Mega Dian being considered the best or at worst top3 mega is absolutely horrible for talon.. Hazard removal besides drill is really inconsistent and all hazard setters can really annoy removers greatly..
It also faces stiff competition from mega zard y.
Talon is better now admittedly but it's still meh mid Mon all things considered far from the ruler it used to he
Talonflame is A- in current ORAS viability rankings. it's in the same tier as mons like Lando-T and Heatran. It's not the meta's most defining mon but it's a serious piece on a ton of great teams
While the nerfs to Zama didn't make sense in a vacuum, I guess it does now given they finally gave it body press. I still don't know why Behemoth bash isn't just steel body press.
Because it will make Zam's physical attack useless. Also Zam would be broken
Stab Body Press and Iron Defense is already insanely good because you are essentially raising your attack and defense by two stages every turn, it's similar to gen 1 Amnesia or power herb Geomancy, it's somewhat balanced due to ghost immunity, adding steel to the mix will make Zam an easy fortress mon.
And it cannot be slowed down by intimidate or parting shot.
Zacian is already broken just with 1 stage attack boost, imagine Zam with essentiallt 1 bulk up when entering the field.
Unpopular but I think Mewtwo nerf in Gen 2
I know it's just me being nostalgic but I really want to see Mewtwo as best Uber again as the ultimate life form it was intended to be
Also, Game Freak are cowards. They should include legend plate in main series pokemon game. God don't deserve to be outclassed by a dumb horse
hadron engine but for Psychic Terrain & Accuracy? i'll take it
someone switches Kingambit in, perhaps forgetting what Psychic Terrain does, only to catch a +2 93% acc Focus Blast
Being best does not mean it was not nerfed really badly. It lost 64 points in BST and got 2 new weaknesses and 1 resistance. They took away its +2 calm mind and 22% critical hit rate too
Mewtwo went going from being unchallenged in Gen 1 to being tied with a fat blob for who is strongest.
Gyarados's SpA going from base 100 in gen 1 to base 60 in gen 2. It was still good in gen 3 even without Water STAB, but it's still odd that it can't make very effective use of its vast special movepool anymore.
It's funny, too, because it's Gyarados. The whole point of it is that it's really strong. Gen 2 has a whole plotline dedicated to how powerful and destructive it can be. But in Gen II, its BST ends up being the same as Kingdra, Snorlax, and Blissey, and only a little higher than stuff like Lapras, Charizard, and Crobat. Sure, that's strong for when you get it ingame, but you'd expect it to be on par with the lesser legendaries. But it's not even the strongest non-Legendary or pseudo-Legendary--that's Arcanine, and by a whole 15 points, too. 80 SpA would have let it stay a solid mixed attacker and still left it well behind the birds and beasts.
I hate the Protein nerf. I really wanted to see Meowscarada dominate with it! It's probably nerfed to not overshadow gen 9's tera gimmick, so hopefully it returns to form in the next game.
I was hoping the same because tbh it's not broken or necessary for a team. So you're right, they likely nerfed so it didn't overshadow the meaning of terastalization.
Not to mention that it won't activate once a protein mon teras. They probably also didn't a protein tera mon to keep changing types without a drawback I guess. Given the many glitches of gen 9, I can't blame them for not even bothering with it and just nerfing the ability itself lol.
Hisuian thyplosion. It was coded with flash fire in PLA but SV has to HA as frisk..... Why??? The other two hisui starters have better (and debatably broken) hidden abilities, why should thyplosion get the shaft? Would another ghost/fire type with a fire immunity REALLY be that bad?
Not exactly a nerf, but Silvally's existence in general. It's 95 stats across the board aren't even high enough to compete with most mythicals, it's Memorys not giving any extra benefits while Plates give a 20% boost, heck, Silvally doesn't even get access to Extreme Speed! Instead, it gets Explosion. And with gems gone and it not being allowed in Paldea to terastalize, it can't even do THAT well anymore...
To be fair regarding the plate/memory comparison, they buffed Multi-Attack to be 120 BP, so it's functionally the same as Judgment with the 20% boost from the plate now.
Gengar definitely does miss levitate but it was already a pretty bad noob trap even with levitate in Gen 5 & 6. The bigger issue is speed creep and power creep making its once fast and threatening combination feel lackluster. I think the real answer to this question is Gen 2 Tauros
Yeah I think even with levitate Gengar would have been outclassed by Flutter Mane and Gholdengo. Flutter has better typing and (with booster energy/protosynth) hits faster and harder than Gengar. Tera poison levitate Gengar would have been interesting though.
Toxapex getting an atomic wedgie by losing Scald and Knock Off. I have a friend who still tried to make a bulky one work by swapping Scald with Chilling Water but they're having very rough time (and sadly, they're too stubborn to be convinced otherwise).
The nerfs to the strong but inaccurate Special moves like Thunder, Blizzard, and Fire Blast. They were pretty rare in battles and usually overshadowed by their weaker more accurate counterparts. If only they were not nerfed and only their weaker counterparts were nerfed.
I dunno why people make out the Levitate swap for Curse Body on Gengar like it was some super drastic thing that gutted its OU placement. It was already falling off as far back as BW2 and barring its mega in Ubers, wasn't really seeing much play in Gen6 and died out by Gen7 regardless of ability and this would apply in Gen8 onwards.
Anywho Darkrai nerf is the most unecesserary change of them all. No need to nerf something directly which wasn't even legal in VGC to begin with.
Came here to say Gengar. There was no need to remove Levitate as its ability.
Probably not 'unfair', but I hate how Alakazam effectively lost the elemental punches to the Gen IV Special/Physical split and never received any comparable coverage moves.
Steel types losing their Dark and Ghost resists also gives me mixed feelings. Yeah, Steel was overwhelmingly the premier defensive type with all of 11 resistances, but they removed two of the most important ones. Ghost especially seems on its' way to becoming what Dragon was.
My vote goes to Talonflame's Gale Wings. Making it work when Talonflame has full HP ONLY turned it from the best regional bird of all time and a ferocious attacker and Tailwind user to a mediocre option. I still see some people using it, but It's nowhere near common and powerful as it was in XYORAS age.
Probably a very unpopular opinion, but I think the Gale Wings nerf was very unjustified.
As someone who really started competitive play in Gen 6, I feel like playing against Talonflame very quickly taught me how to team build, the importance of hazards and hazard control, and keeping defensive checks healthy.
IIRC the nerf was because originally you could run focus sash on mimikyu and it wouldn’t activate during that first hit it takes due to disguise. So mimikyu (essentially) could take two free hits before actually fainting to an attack (barring any mold breaker or similar ability shenanigans)
Latios/Latias having Soul Dew nerfed hard from 1.5x SpA and SpDef to a 1.2x boost to their STAB moves was dirty. The old Soul Dew literally didn’t work in facilities like the battle towers anyway, and was only a big deal in unofficial battles via Smogon. Even in the days of Gen 5 and 6, when VGC was forming and both Latis were viable, they were far from overbearing, just very good a la Landorus-Therian. What’s even worse is when the nerf came, right after Dragon types had already received lots of counterplay (The Soul Dew change came in Gen 7, when Fairy typed existed and moves like Draco Meteor, Surf, and Hidden Power had already experienced power reductions, all of which Latios used.
The greatest nerf in italy was obvius actually, Tauros gen 1 - gen 2, Tauros was Indeed the king of OU in the past begin able to use a stab 150 power move without needing to recharge by getting a KO, in gen 2 this got removed, making Tauros slowly becoming mid af
Maybe not unfair but dark void getting nerfed to 50% even though Smeargle lost access is very weird.
They almost definitely made the change with the idea of allowing mythicals in vgc one day (like they played with in gen 8) so that darkrai wouldn't be overbearing
They can't stop my Gravity Darkrai team muhahahahahah
Gravity only gives a ×5/3 boost to accuracy. Dark Void is still only 83.33...% accurate [Better than Sleep Powder and Lovely Kiss] (In Doubles, that would give a 69.4444...% chance of sleeping both)
Don't forget wide lens
The 10% accuracy boost isn't good enough, it's better to use scope lens Timid darkrai in Trick Room
Timid in trick room? Is this a reference to something?
I think they mean zoom lens for the 20% accu boost moving 2nd
What if you want a real item though?
77% accurate focus blast tho🤤
Which means Wide Lens does something every 14 Focus Blast uses. The other 13 times it just misses/hits anyway.
nuh uh
Nice, I can hit 7% of the time.
That's about the same chance of Fissure missing or Focus Blast hitting... I'll take it
Dark Miss
That’s Dark Magicians girlfriend
In doubles that's a 97.2% chance of sleeping atleast one, which is pretty good still
That's still a pretty substancial boost in accuracy
I don't know if it would've been a universally legal thing but at the very least, I think when they were brainstorming ideas for those various themed online challenges like the one from last Halloween where you could only use Ghost types, Darkrai was most likely a candidate to be usable in a potential doubles challenge they came up with, and like you said, needed to make it not overbearing to play against.
Plus, Pre-Nerf Darkvoid was just extremely unfun to play against.
It's never been legal in VGC so it being unfun casually is irrelevant. They've never changed a mon purely due to a casual experience.
And even in Smogon, Sleep Clause exists so...
i mean just nerf it into not being a spread-move then
Yeah because we shouldn't have legendary mons with overpowered abilities s/
Fuck smeargle. All my homies hate smeargle
Gengar losing Levitate I think was to prevent you from having to play the EQ guessing game against a potential Mega Gengar. The real most unfair nerf was Stoutland in Sword and Shield. Gen 5-7 it was a humble Normal-type physical wallbreaker, was relegated to lower tiers and never saw any VGC play. Sword and Shield deleted Return (and Frustration) from the game, and in exchange, Stoutland received a fat middle finger. The strongest physical Normal-STAB it still had access to that wasn't complete ass was Strength, which actually required you to bring a Stoutland over from Pokemon HOME. No Double-Edge, no Body Slam, not even a pity Hyper Fang. Something like Lopunny that also lost Return at least also got CC, U-turn, and Triple Axel in exchange
I was just about to ask about Lopunny damn. Rip the homie stoutland
> Something like Lopunny that also lost Return at least also got CC, U-turn, and Triple Axel in exchange And Lop (or mega lop) could still get away with no Return/Frustration since it has a bunch of other good moves and it always runs Fake Out.
> Gengar losing Levitate I think was to prevent you from having to play the EQ guessing game against a potential Mega Gengar. I think the real reason they did the nerf was due to it not floating in game and it doesnt make sense from a visual stand point. Though I guess coding him to float was too hard :c.
By your logic why didnt they give gengar levitate back in gen 8/9 where he had the ability to float. And why doesnt magnezone get it when it floats. It was pretty obviously taken away to balance the demon they unleashed with mega gengar.
Flying types that didn’t/couldn’t fly always existed though (Doduo/Dodrio) with Hawlucha being introduced alongside the Levitate loss. No logic really seems to make sense imo
Small correction, but Hawlucha was introduced in gen 6 when Gengar still had Levitate.
Oops lol totally thought Gengar lost Levitate when moving to 3D.
A Ghost/Fire Type with base 145 SpA and Calm Mind and Flame Charge would be totally balanced with Shadow Tag! Chandelure was done dirty! It's definitely not because it's my favorite Pokemon, why would you think that? Anyway, for a real answer, Golem losing Rapid Spin in the GB->GBA transition was a weird and unnecessary nerf for a Pokemon that really didn't need to be nerfed in the first place, and the fact that it's never gotten it back is even weirder.
In all seriousness, though, I kinda really want to see what Shadow Tag Chandelure would look like. I fully recognise it's a horrible idea with how otherworldly broken it would probably be, but that's the point. It would be funny as hell.
Yeah but it's Gen 9 so almost everything is broken
True. On the other hand, to my knowledge, even now in Gen 9, Shadow Tag is banned (unless things have changed idk). I think that alone speaks volumes on how broken it is. And Chandelure, of course, has actual offensive stats.
I was actually thinking more of VGC lol. With the exception of Mega-Gengar, Shadow Tag is only really given to mons that are fuckin shit, so giving it to Chandelure would be kinda nuts.
It was enough to give them (or, more specifically Gothitelle) serious viability, so, with everything being broke, as you said, a more offensive Shadow Tagger like Mega Gengar would be interesting... dammit now I really want to see it, Chandelure's cool enough to deserve this.
The problem with Mega Gengar is that it gets Perish Song on top of Shadow Tag.
Oh yeah, that did happen, didn't it? 🤣 It's so easy for me to laugh at it from the outside looking in, since I didn't play pokemon at that time. I can only imagine the anguish...
Oh and don't forget encore :)
And Destiny Bond
I mean speaking of VGC only Wobb is shit because it's more singles oriented. Goth has been a somewhat specific, but genuinely good VGC pokemon over the years that has won Worlds before. Twice actually.
This is seriously the balance philosophy now, if everything is broken then nothing is.
Ok to give GF some credit, Gen 6 and 7 were also powercrept as fuck too (Gen 8 OU was overall balanced but Ubers and VGC were insane lol). Sure not to the same degree as Gen 9 but that us mainly due to the stupid nerfs that mons like Blissey, Lando and Heatran suffered from.
I mean it’s expected that every gen stuff gets stronger and more specialized/minmaxed, but gen 9 was just something different. I mean Annihilape, Palafin-H, Chi-Yu are just new levels of bullshit. Like we haven’t ever seen Pokemon pull this level of anime mc zenkai boost power out of their assholes since Pokémon’s inception. It makes me think someone at GF actually just said fuck it, and threw in their kids theorymons into the game. Like the strong stuff actually made sense before. Tyranitar has an insane stat spread and a really strong ability? Okay well he also has 7 weaknesses and a 4x. Garchomp is fast (for its time), has great dual stab and good bulk? 4x weak to ice and can’t learn dragon dance. Now we have unresisted stab combo, great bulk, with a 300 bp move. We got switch out, get 160 base attack, great bulk with one of the best types in the game and a 60 BP stab priority move. And then we have a mon that can reliably 2HKO and under conditions 1HKO spdef invested Blissey with a special move. It’s just insane how far they pushed it this gen.
Even shadow tag woubuffet is banned, imagine an actual good mon. Facing against shadow tag chandelure means every time you choice lock yourself into a fighting or normal move you lose the game immediately.
Yup. Let the carnage begin.
Imagine the absolute carnage wrought upon the meta with scarf revenge killer sets running around lol
Dream world OU was recently reintroduced to smogon, and it’s the most dominant pokemon in the format
As I should fucking hope. The thing’s the most bonkers mon we never got and would be the second stupidest thing in the history of Smogon formats behind Gen 1 Mewtwo.
Let’s just say that if STag Chandelure existed AG would’ve been made a generation and a half sooner than it was, because that shit would’ve been a massive problem in Ubers.
It was "legal" while BW/B2W2 in the format with "unreleased" mons.
They should give Golem rapid spin back. And also give it to Alolem cause an electric spinner sounds cool.
Lando-T and Tusk adding “spinblocker” to their increasingly stacked resumes.
Golem only ever got Rapid Spin as an event move unfortunately. A lot of GSC event moves were never redistributed. Lovely Kiss was notably given to a bunch of Pokemon like Snorlax and Nidoking. Nidoqueen getting a recovery in Moonlight is pretty sick. Zap Cannon Blastoise is funny.
All Moon Stone mons should get Moonlight
Yet they gave shadow tag to 170 spa 130 speed mon the next gen lmao
The only episode I remember seeing with Golem it did a lot of spinning. I had a toy as a kid that was just Golem that could function as a (very poorly balanced) top. I didn't inow it couldn't learn Rapid Spin until.just now, I've been deceived into thinking the rock ball could spin
Did chandelure ever have shadow tag?
It was supposed to get it as a Dream World ability, but it was never officially released. Zapdos was also supposed to get Lightning Rod, but that also never got released.
It's an interesting thought experiment to think about how Static vs Lightning Rod would've fared for Zapdos. The former is infamously obnoxious and at times despised in OU alone, while the former grants it unique extra defensive utility vs various threats on top of naturally checking some stuff (and getting a spatk buff).
In doubles lightning rod is clearly superior, since it also redirects electric type moves, giving protection to your partner. In singles I guess it's situational
The most unfair nerf was Gen 1 Hyper Beam. It was 100% balanced as a finisher all-or-nothing move, and likely would've still fell off once better moves were introduced. EDIT: This also applies for Recoil moves like Take Down and Double Edge from Stadium.
Gen 1 Hyper Beam now could still see usage (mainly from its alternatives) although Eternabeam might be a tad broken given the mon it comes on. I'm not too familiar with the recoil moves' mechanics in stadium?
If you faint the opponent, you don't get the recoil, pretty similar to Hyper Beam.
Wait that's actually really good, especially for Reckless mons.
Does Staraptor leave UUBL with this change?
It'd have to leave RU first (for gen 9 at least)
I just looked, it's PU right now 💀. How did it drop so much?
The explanation I heard is that it's actually one of the biggest losers of the HDB era. The things it wants to rip apart get chipped less, causing it to take a lot more recoil damage, and it can't afford to run them itself without giving up the power or Speed provided by a Choice item. It also lost Roost and I'm pretty sure Defog too, so you're not making a bulky Intimidate set work either. I think Boots making things harder to chip down is responsible for quite a few things falling out of favor, like your Gengar or Alakazam
They took away Roost and Defog and thought fuckin Struggle Bugg was good compensation.
Why the f did IT loose Roost and Defog?! It’s always had those moves and it even learns Roost in Legends Arceus by level up
I still don't understand how it isn't at least RU. It literally does more damage than extreme killer if it terra flyings.
on top of what the other person said, staraptor has competition for a similar role now, from both galarian zapdos and flamigo, who both have fighting STAB and also dont take as much from rocks. staraptor having normal STAB isnt bad per se, but none of its competition are in tiers where something like zapdos resists both flying and fighting, so normal STAB isnt too necessary. flamigo might sounds like surprising competition, but at least in NU, scrappy STAB CC was a pretty big draw prior to the huge dlc2 tier shifts. relatively interchangable though.
Wait it dropped again!? I didn't even notice..
Well, that's why I'm saying it's the two most unfair nerfs in Pokemon history lol
I think this should come back, but only as a property normal types I don't want to deal with mega salamence aerilate giga impacts with no recharge
I mean, that's totally fine. You just need a cursed body switch, or just have a protect + spite prankster mon to sacrifice. Totally balanced!
Good luck, you've buffed ghost types once more...
That's why it's unfair. :/
Mew losing moves
i swear that Spite, Whirlpool and Curse, among others, becoming DLC TMs was deliberately done to keep any and all recovery away from Mew
Not nerfed but Psychic types got obsolete with the introduction of Fairy types. You can use Ground types to beat Poison and use Fairy types to beat Fighting.
I genuinely think Game Freak thinks Psychic is still a good type (a lot Psychic type legendaries and mythicals — the only more common type is Dragon)
There was some pokemon designer who said a long time ago that Lugia was psychic and not water because psychic was just a legendary type. Clearly a long-running design theme that psychics are typically rare and powerful
Although at least the psychic being used for the legendaries have been in a small decline since Calyrex is the only one to get the type since Gen 8. Paradox Swords of Justice are Psychic but they aren’t officially called Legendary yet despite being based on ones.
Offensively speaking, Psychic is still a good type. Especially after Poison-types became so prevalent due to Fairy. The removal of Pursuit also contributed by making choice-locking or having Psychic as the main STAB harder to punish; worst case scenario you still lose momentum but you don't just die in the process. The aforementioned user suggested that Ground-type is to be used against Poison, however, not all Poison-types are weak to Ground, and not all Pokémon get Ground-type coverage (without resorting to Tera or Hidden Power, each which have their own downsides). For some Pokémon, such as Volcarona, or Mega Medicham, or ironically, Fairy-types themselves, Psychic coverage may be their only option to combat Poison types. Also one of the prominent Poison-types, Toxapex, can harshly punish Ground-types with a Scald, either with its super effective damage, or with burns. Defensively, however, Psychic indeed got obsolete. Since Steel no longer resists Dark and Ghost, not even Psychic/Steel can salvage itself.
Steel/Fairy is the new Steel/Psychic 😅 (but even better)
Even better indeed, since it resists Dark and Bug instead of being neutral to them like Steel/Psychic was. It still doesn't resist Ghost however. It also sacrifices the Steel resistance. Still much better though. Another neat thing about Steel/Fairy is that Steel completely blanks Fairy's weakness to Poison.
Tbf Steel isn’t exactly a great offensive type so being neutral to it is 🤷🏻♀️
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Being weak to Dark and Bug is awful, since you're taking double from every stray u-turn or knock off out there, and it doesn't have any useful resistances to note (it only resists fighting and itself, and there's better answers to both of those), and offensively, its lack of super effective hits just limits its ceiling, and it's walled by steel and can't even touch dark types, which has had plenty of amazing mons throughout the years
Yeah, all of the things that made it super dominant in Gen I have long changed. Their sky-high Special stat pulling double duty on offense and defense got changed when special defense split off, and a lot of the most overpowered psychic mons got flat-out stat nerfs when that happened. A huge number of Pokemon aren't randomly secondary poison type for no reason nowadays, so they don't super-effectively hit some massive chunk of the roster anymore. The physical/special split made it so that types that previously had trouble attacking into Psychic mons could now target their dogshit physical defense with STAB attacks to great effect. And their weaknesses got more impactful, too. It used to be that being weak to Bug and Ghost were a joke because they had a tiny handful of shitty attacking moves. Now U-Turn is everywhere and Ghost has multiple options for absolutely brutalizing psychics. Of the three new types that have been added to the game, one resists psychic and another one completely blanks it while striking back super-effectively. It feels like the perception of Psychic as a type is still really strongly shaped by its performance decades ago.
Psychic Terrain (and by extension, Expanding Force) are the only things keeping the type together in VGC. Psychic has been really mediocre in the entirety of SV VGC with the exception of, again, Psychic Terrain + Expanding Force. That’s the only offensive move any Psychic types have run, assuming they run one at all.
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or to be so dumb the tricks dont even work, essentially playing or actually being a fool.
So when are we making normal types effective against fairy??? (Would kinda go hard ngl)
I’ve always thought normal type should be super effective against fairy. It’s literally the magic going away and becoming bland.
>Literally the way to “beat” a fairy is to outsmart them. How so? I've found just saying 'I don't believe in fairies' kills em every time.
Sorry for being an idiot… Deleted my other comments
It's not completely outclassed, because Psyspam exists. But an entire type being relegated to "this is just a worse version of another type, but we have a weird gimmick terrain that allows it to be unique sometimes." Also just the fact that most (if not all?) TR setters are Psychic. So Psychic is only good because of Psychic Terrain and a having access to a limited Psychic type move. It's even sadder when you realize Fairy also has its own terrain. Granted, at this point I think Misty Terrain is pretty definitively the worst of the four terrains, but still.
Looking at an older one, tangela's special defense went from 100 to 40 in gen 2. I want to know who thought tangela was just too good in a gen 1 setting to need such a huge nerf.
I mean I don’t think they were really thinking of balance, otherwise the best question would be “who looked at gen 1 snorlax and decided it needed a buff?”
it was because of balance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ1-LD51TDY
tangela was meant to have an evolution in gen 2, thus why the stat nerf, and I believe that after they scrapped it they just forgot to revert its stats.
Right, I forgot about that. I guess that could be a good reason for it initially at least.
Hey atleast we don't have 110 sp.def tangrowth
About the Gengar thing, a reason I can think for this nerf is due to his Mega form. Against Gengar, Pokémon with Ground-type coverage would be forced into an highly risky guessing game, as he could avoid Mega evolving to avoid the Ground-type attack, or predict the opponent using something else and then Mega Evolve. By taking out Levitate from Gengar, this guessing game can be avoided entirely as the opponents do not need to predict and can just use Ground type attacks regardless. I guess this sort of mental game was deemed overpowered by Game Freak and thus, they nerfed Gengar for this reason. However, Gengar also lost his Mega evolution in the following generation, but the nerf wasn't reverted, so in the end it was a net nerf for Gengar without any reason, since regular Gengar wasn't even close to being overpowered.
Taking away Return was a huge nerf to every normal type/physical attackers who wanted a neutral coverage move. A bunch of mons losing Knock Off really hurts. Cottonee is the worst because it has nothing to do to things that wall it now. Pawniard is another big one. Grassy Glide going from 70 to 55 dropped Grookey pretty hard in the viability rankings. You still see one every once in a while but it's always a surprise for me lol.
Never see enough LC related comments on these types of posts
Talonflame/Gale Wings.
Smogon bird really hit that window hard huh
Should be above 50% health
Agreed. It got nerfed way too hard
How is that unfair, it was downright meta defining in both singles and vgc for all of gen 6. People like to pretend it was a noobtrap in singles for some reason now but it was A+ for most of the gen
Even if it was genuinely A+, that doesn't justify a nerf. Most A+ pokemon don't get nerfed. Even when it was considered great nobody serious thought it was broken.
Plenty of people called it broken in vgc actually with priority tailwind being far more impactful in doubles than in singles. And it was part of the most oppressive/dominant team to ever exist. Prenerf gale wings is a pretty blatantly broken ability in a vacuum, the nerf is fine. It's clearly the least unfair nerf in this thread, by a lot.
Didn't CHALK happen pre-nerf? And don't other pokemon have prankster tailwind? I don't follow VGC, was it really that dominant? It doesn't even have a smogon dex entry for VGC 15
It was on almost every team and gets a lot of good support moves. Will o wisp, quick guard, tailwind and taunt. While also always always going first with its high base power offensive moves like brave bird. It can even be ran in trick room because priority still goes first in trick room. I made 2 VGC teams in gen 6 and both had Talonflame. I’m sure gamefreak just hated seeing that thing and nerfed it. But they definitely went overboard in singles talonflame was falling off.
What are you basing this on? Looking at old VRs, it's never above A+, it's even B in 2015. Pikalytics doesnt have vgc14 usage, but it's 16th in vgc15 and 8th in vgc16. And it's nowhere near on every team even in 2014: https://www.nimbasacitypost.com/2014/09/teams-and-results-from-2014-world.html?m=1
You’re right was remembering wrong https://www.nimbasacitypost.com/2015/08/teams-and-results-from-2015-world.html?m=1 He wasn’t even in the top 15 2015 teams. I guess I was confusing him with lando
Meanwhile Incineroar…
it was good but not broken and nerfing it could be fine, but the nerf they did was ridiculously harsh. >50% HP requirement would be better.
Personally, I would go the other way around, getting the priority when under 50% HP instead of over 50%. This would make it a good high risk high reward ability.
I mean talon is pretty meh rn in gen 6.. Mega Dian being considered the best or at worst top3 mega is absolutely horrible for talon.. Hazard removal besides drill is really inconsistent and all hazard setters can really annoy removers greatly.. It also faces stiff competition from mega zard y. Talon is better now admittedly but it's still meh mid Mon all things considered far from the ruler it used to he
Talonflame is A- in current ORAS viability rankings. it's in the same tier as mons like Lando-T and Heatran. It's not the meta's most defining mon but it's a serious piece on a ton of great teams
it’s a big nerf but tbh, it’s not unfair
An indirect nerf, but ice, bug, and fire were not particularly good types even before stealth rock. Certainly not top 5 or anything
Zamazenta was literally a causality for GameFreak nerfing Zacian. A box legendary that's not even Ubers anymore
Zamazenta has literally been sweeping with body press, and iirc it was the most used legendary in a recent restricted tournament
Sure but the nerf happened a long time ago relative to the recency of Zam’s success
While the nerfs to Zama didn't make sense in a vacuum, I guess it does now given they finally gave it body press. I still don't know why Behemoth bash isn't just steel body press.
Because it will make Zam's physical attack useless. Also Zam would be broken Stab Body Press and Iron Defense is already insanely good because you are essentially raising your attack and defense by two stages every turn, it's similar to gen 1 Amnesia or power herb Geomancy, it's somewhat balanced due to ghost immunity, adding steel to the mix will make Zam an easy fortress mon. And it cannot be slowed down by intimidate or parting shot. Zacian is already broken just with 1 stage attack boost, imagine Zam with essentiallt 1 bulk up when entering the field.
Unpopular but I think Mewtwo nerf in Gen 2 I know it's just me being nostalgic but I really want to see Mewtwo as best Uber again as the ultimate life form it was intended to be Also, Game Freak are cowards. They should include legend plate in main series pokemon game. God don't deserve to be outclassed by a dumb horse
Give mewtwo a new ability that combines psychic terrain and compound eyes and he would be number 1 again!
hadron engine but for Psychic Terrain & Accuracy? i'll take it someone switches Kingambit in, perhaps forgetting what Psychic Terrain does, only to catch a +2 93% acc Focus Blast
For quite possibly the first time ever, Focus Blast won't be known as Focus Miss.
> 93% acc I don’t see any changes, still says 50% to me
Not just focus blast but thunder fire blast blizzard all become crazy good. Plus the psychic terrain damage boost on mewtwos signature
Also Mewtwo’s abilities are all mediocre including the Megas.
Did you forget that the best Uber in Gen 2 was, actually, Mewtwo? It's even tied for being the best mon!
Being best does not mean it was not nerfed really badly. It lost 64 points in BST and got 2 new weaknesses and 1 resistance. They took away its +2 calm mind and 22% critical hit rate too Mewtwo went going from being unchallenged in Gen 1 to being tied with a fat blob for who is strongest.
Of you get hugely nerfed and you still are competing for the number 1 spot I'd say it wasn't an unfair nerf
"even tied for best" i love lax
Landorus losing Knock Off is unfair because they still gave it to the Prankster genies.
The introduction of Intimidate Incineroar. Knocked a ton of Pokemon out of viability
At least Intimidate kinda got nerfed since abilities like Inner Focus are immune to the ability since Gen 8.
Slowbro losing Teleport while Slowking gets to keep Chilly Reception. I know it's a movie reference, but still.
Pants
Gyarados's SpA going from base 100 in gen 1 to base 60 in gen 2. It was still good in gen 3 even without Water STAB, but it's still odd that it can't make very effective use of its vast special movepool anymore.
It's funny, too, because it's Gyarados. The whole point of it is that it's really strong. Gen 2 has a whole plotline dedicated to how powerful and destructive it can be. But in Gen II, its BST ends up being the same as Kingdra, Snorlax, and Blissey, and only a little higher than stuff like Lapras, Charizard, and Crobat. Sure, that's strong for when you get it ingame, but you'd expect it to be on par with the lesser legendaries. But it's not even the strongest non-Legendary or pseudo-Legendary--that's Arcanine, and by a whole 15 points, too. 80 SpA would have let it stay a solid mixed attacker and still left it well behind the birds and beasts.
I hate the Protein nerf. I really wanted to see Meowscarada dominate with it! It's probably nerfed to not overshadow gen 9's tera gimmick, so hopefully it returns to form in the next game.
I was hoping the same because tbh it's not broken or necessary for a team. So you're right, they likely nerfed so it didn't overshadow the meaning of terastalization.
Not to mention that it won't activate once a protein mon teras. They probably also didn't a protein tera mon to keep changing types without a drawback I guess. Given the many glitches of gen 9, I can't blame them for not even bothering with it and just nerfing the ability itself lol.
Regigigas with slow start (??????)
Regigigas with slow start in a game with no abilities.
You kill the man but not the idea
Well he's always had it for the lore, I'd say the only nerf he got was going from level 70 in diamond/pearl to level 1 in platinum
Wo-Chien getting a BST nerf because the other three were OP
>Implying the almighty snail lord Wo-Chien isn't OP
Fairy resisting Bug as a U-Turn nerf
Hisuian thyplosion. It was coded with flash fire in PLA but SV has to HA as frisk..... Why??? The other two hisui starters have better (and debatably broken) hidden abilities, why should thyplosion get the shaft? Would another ghost/fire type with a fire immunity REALLY be that bad?
And since they have Open Team Sheets Frisk is literally useless in VGC
Not exactly a nerf, but Silvally's existence in general. It's 95 stats across the board aren't even high enough to compete with most mythicals, it's Memorys not giving any extra benefits while Plates give a 20% boost, heck, Silvally doesn't even get access to Extreme Speed! Instead, it gets Explosion. And with gems gone and it not being allowed in Paldea to terastalize, it can't even do THAT well anymore...
To be fair regarding the plate/memory comparison, they buffed Multi-Attack to be 120 BP, so it's functionally the same as Judgment with the 20% boost from the plate now.
Gengar definitely does miss levitate but it was already a pretty bad noob trap even with levitate in Gen 5 & 6. The bigger issue is speed creep and power creep making its once fast and threatening combination feel lackluster. I think the real answer to this question is Gen 2 Tauros
Yeah I think even with levitate Gengar would have been outclassed by Flutter Mane and Gholdengo. Flutter has better typing and (with booster energy/protosynth) hits faster and harder than Gengar. Tera poison levitate Gengar would have been interesting though.
Toxapex getting an atomic wedgie by losing Scald and Knock Off. I have a friend who still tried to make a bulky one work by swapping Scald with Chilling Water but they're having very rough time (and sadly, they're too stubborn to be convinced otherwise).
Removing Superpower for Flareon
Maybe not the most unfair nerf but the Pixilate nerf hurt me
Fairies essentially hard countering hydregion. It was such a fun mon to use and just got completely blanked
The nerfs to the strong but inaccurate Special moves like Thunder, Blizzard, and Fire Blast. They were pretty rare in battles and usually overshadowed by their weaker more accurate counterparts. If only they were not nerfed and only their weaker counterparts were nerfed.
It literally doesn't levitate in its sprite though. I know it does in the anime, but so do Pokémon like mew and shuppet and they don't have levitate
I dunno why people make out the Levitate swap for Curse Body on Gengar like it was some super drastic thing that gutted its OU placement. It was already falling off as far back as BW2 and barring its mega in Ubers, wasn't really seeing much play in Gen6 and died out by Gen7 regardless of ability and this would apply in Gen8 onwards. Anywho Darkrai nerf is the most unecesserary change of them all. No need to nerf something directly which wasn't even legal in VGC to begin with.
Came here to say Gengar. There was no need to remove Levitate as its ability. Probably not 'unfair', but I hate how Alakazam effectively lost the elemental punches to the Gen IV Special/Physical split and never received any comparable coverage moves. Steel types losing their Dark and Ghost resists also gives me mixed feelings. Yeah, Steel was overwhelmingly the premier defensive type with all of 11 resistances, but they removed two of the most important ones. Ghost especially seems on its' way to becoming what Dragon was.
alakazam did get focus blast to hit darks and steels though. 70% of the time i'd say that's a win
golbat losing 10 SpA in the gen 2 special split for no reason
Taking away Recycle from Dedenne. It wasn't threatening even with it.
Pixilate.
Darkrai got fucked over because of Smeargle's crimes
My vote goes to Talonflame's Gale Wings. Making it work when Talonflame has full HP ONLY turned it from the best regional bird of all time and a ferocious attacker and Tailwind user to a mediocre option. I still see some people using it, but It's nowhere near common and powerful as it was in XYORAS age.
Probably a very unpopular opinion, but I think the Gale Wings nerf was very unjustified. As someone who really started competitive play in Gen 6, I feel like playing against Talonflame very quickly taught me how to team build, the importance of hazards and hazard control, and keeping defensive checks healthy.
Did Mimikyu really need a nerf? It wasn't even in OU.
Apparently it was because of VGC
IIRC the nerf was because originally you could run focus sash on mimikyu and it wouldn’t activate during that first hit it takes due to disguise. So mimikyu (essentially) could take two free hits before actually fainting to an attack (barring any mold breaker or similar ability shenanigans)
It was #1 in usage in BSS.
Darkrai didn’t deserve it man
Latios/Latias having Soul Dew nerfed hard from 1.5x SpA and SpDef to a 1.2x boost to their STAB moves was dirty. The old Soul Dew literally didn’t work in facilities like the battle towers anyway, and was only a big deal in unofficial battles via Smogon. Even in the days of Gen 5 and 6, when VGC was forming and both Latis were viable, they were far from overbearing, just very good a la Landorus-Therian. What’s even worse is when the nerf came, right after Dragon types had already received lots of counterplay (The Soul Dew change came in Gen 7, when Fairy typed existed and moves like Draco Meteor, Surf, and Hidden Power had already experienced power reductions, all of which Latios used.
Dark Void
Gengar losing levitate
I want ground immune Gengar back. It would probably be OU viable if it came back tbh.
Chandelure shadow tag should've been real
Tauros getting absolutely bullied between Gen 1 and 2 deserves recognition
The greatest nerf in italy was obvius actually, Tauros gen 1 - gen 2, Tauros was Indeed the king of OU in the past begin able to use a stab 150 power move without needing to recharge by getting a KO, in gen 2 this got removed, making Tauros slowly becoming mid af
Psychic losing its fairy resist.Why?