Pokémon whose mechanics fit a different generation(s) better than its own

[bdt2002]

A while back I made a thread discussing Pokémon who would fit better in a different region than whichever one it normally belongs to. In that thread, I also got the initial topic of the thread mixed up with a different thread entirely. This time, however, I want to look at things in a bit of a different lens as a follow-up to that discussion. Last time we looked at the regions where a Pokémon is from, but talking about the Snivy line in Gen 6 got me thinking. Sure, making that into the Kalos Grass-Type starter might screw up both trios quite a bit, but I stand by what I say when I believe that if Snivy and its evolutions were a part of the new Gen 6 roster (most likely not as a starter choice), it would be far from the craziest idea in the world.

My aim with this new thread is to try and create some space between that and the focus of the original thread by taking a look at more Pokémon whose development cycles and/or mechanics may suit a different generation better than its own, based off of what kinds of things were introduced and when they were added. Aside from the Snivy example, I can think of a certain duo of Legendaries off of the top of my head in an effort to get some discussion rolling:



The "eon duo" as they're often called are some of the most recognizable Pokémon that came out of the third generation. They were the first Legendaries to have set genders and they also serve as Hoenn's resident roaming Pokémon in the GBA versions of the Hoenn games. This is great and all, but realistically there isn't too much going on with them that the third generation added specifically. They have Levitate... but so do other Pokémon. They're Dragon and Psychic-Type special attackers... but so are other Pokémon. They have a signature held item (two if you count their respective Mega Stones in XY/ORAS)... but again, so do a few other Pokémon. There does happen to be one generation out there that specifically introduced a lot of what the eon duo is all about. What do roaming Legendaries, gender ratios, Special Attack and Special Defense, and held items all have in common? The answer is that these are all "Gen 2 features", again, going back to when they were introduced. This, in tandem with Gen 2 also being the first generation where Dragon-Type STAB damage properly exists (RBY only has Dragon Rage), as well as the fact that Gen 2 only has one native Dragon-Type normally, that being Kingdra, means that if Latias and Latios were introduced as proper Gen 2 Pokémon, not only would people think it's confusing but it actually makes a bit more sense if it happened that way in my honest opinion.

I'm interested in seeing what kinds of ideas you guys can come up with. Here's a few of several reference points to get you started- breeding and baby Pokémon were introduced in Gen 2, Abilities were introduced in Gen 3, the physical/special split happened in Gen 4, and the Fairy-Type was introduced in Gen 6. Thanks for your help in advance :)

 

[CTNC]

When I read the title, I immediately thought Ditto. Transform works well enough for a fun gimmick, but gaining Imposter in Gen 5 made Ditto become a good "gimmick" Pokemon instead of something that was only used less serious players. If Ditto was introduced in Gen 3 or 4, I'm sure it'd have Imposter and would've done much better in those gens. Even though Abilities were introduced in Gen 3, I'm not entirely sure if it'd be good because the Choice Scarf was added in Gen 4. Still, good competitively or not, an Ability transforming Ditto immediately instead of having to use a turn to use the move Transform and possibly getting KOed or close enough before actually doing what it was supposed to do made it much better at being what it's supposed to be.

You could also argue Ditto started being good in Gen 2 because of the gaining its other gimmick of breeding with anything, including male only or genderless Pokemon. It's probably for the best that it was a Gen 1 Pokemon instead because being added at the same time as breeding would lead to way more Route 34 jokes.

 

[SpiritGuy]

Zoroark

It could've been broken in Gen 3 or 4 when team preview didn't exist at that time.

 

[Codraroll]

Nidoran. A clunky implementation of gender differences, three generations before it became an actual thing, and now we're stuck with a hodgepodge of band-aids to make them compatible (or not, as it turns out) with the various gender-related mechanics the games have since introduced.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I always wondered why Abomasnow, or more to the point Snow Warning, was introduced a generation too late. I imagine a lot of people were expecting a "hail generator" akin to Drizzle, Drought, and Sand Stream in the eventual Gen IV, and we got one, but it's odd that Gen III didn't introduce one. Hail was a few steps behind the other weather conditions in Gen III; there weren't many abilities that could take advantage of it, and very few field effects activated as a result of it. Better late than never, but it's an omission I've always found strange.

 

[Ironmage]

I always wondered why Abomasnow, or more to the point Snow Warning, was introduced a generation too late. I imagine a lot of people were expecting a "hail generator" akin to Drizzle, Drought, and Sand Stream in the eventual Gen IV, and we got one, but it's odd that Gen III didn't introduce one. Hail was a few steps behind the other weather conditions in Gen III; there weren't many abilities that could take advantage of it, and very few field effects activated as a result of it. Better late than never, but it's an omission I've always found strange.

On the other hand, hail had it's setting ability one gen after it was introduced, which matches the timescale of the other weathers as well as non-psychic terrain. Hail as a whole was introduced in gen 3, while rain, sun, and sand are all from gen 2.


Here's one that leans in the opposite direction. One of the main features for gen 4 was form differences, with distinction between genders being a common way of presenting it. We even had different learnsets between forms in Wormadam. Meowstic has a gen 4 gimmick for its primary design choice.

 

[Celever]

I always wondered why Abomasnow, or more to the point Snow Warning, was introduced a generation too late. I imagine a lot of people were expecting a "hail generator" akin to Drizzle, Drought, and Sand Stream in the eventual Gen IV, and we got one, but it's odd that Gen III didn't introduce one. Hail was a few steps behind the other weather conditions in Gen III; there weren't many abilities that could take advantage of it, and very few field effects activated as a result of it. Better late than never, but it's an omission I've always found strange.

It's probably making a connection that simply isn't there, but I always thought the original plan in the early stages of Hoenn were for exactly 4 Pokémon to have weather setting capabilities: Kyogre, Groudon, Regice, and Regirock. Rayquaza and Registeel would both be anti-weather for their respective trio to try and balance things out. Yes this is 99% because Regice and Regirock are the right typings for their weather, but I don't think that's entirely irrelevant.

I expect they dropped the idea because they decided to give Sand Stream to Tyranitar, and didn't want to double up, so they just threw Clear Body on all the regis and then forgot to find a hail setter in the chaos of developing a whole game. It happens. There aren't really any Ice-Type Pokémon that feel like they could reasonably have Snow Warning though. Jynx for a FE, maybe? I actually think Snorunt fits best, it's a little odd on Glalie but Glalie is an odd guy so that could have also worked.

My trepidation with saying Snover and Abomasnow should be Gen III Pokémon is there's absolutely nowhere in Hoenn where those Pokémon might actually live. The nearest thing would be Mt. Pyre, but it would be odd to find them on top of Mt. Pyre when Vulpix is right there anyway.

When I read the title, I immediately thought Ditto. Transform works well enough for a fun gimmick, but gaining Imposter in Gen 5 made Ditto become a good "gimmick" Pokemon instead of something that was only used less serious players. If Ditto was introduced in Gen 3 or 4, I'm sure it'd have Imposter and would've done much better in those gens. Even though Abilities were introduced in Gen 3, I'm not entirely sure if it'd be good because the Choice Scarf was added in Gen 4. Still, good competitively or not, an Ability transforming Ditto immediately instead of having to use a turn to use the move Transform and possibly getting KOed or close enough before actually doing what it was supposed to do made it much better at being what it's supposed to be.

You could also argue Ditto started being good in Gen 2 because of the gaining its other gimmick of breeding with anything, including male only or genderless Pokemon. It's probably for the best that it was a Gen 1 Pokemon instead because being added at the same time as breeding would lead to way more Route 34 jokes.

Don't forget that Ditto actually probably exists as a result of Mewtwo. It's basically the chemical pollution from the science expirements used to try and create Mewtwo. While it's possible that a Pokémon that transforms into the opposing Pokémon would have been created after Gen I, that Pokémon would probably be very different to Ditto, and I'm not sure Imposter would have ever been a thing if Ditto hadn't been bad for 4 generations already.

--------------------

For the past few generations, Mythical Pokémon have been used to hint at the next generation's location. While this is cool, the Mythical Pokémon would still make way more sense if they were actually the mythicals of the generation after. The Swords of Justice are based on a French tale; Marshadow is based on boxing (a British invention in the terms that we know boxing as today) while Magearna is a British robo-maid; Volcanion is literally based on the Ring of Fire, while Hoopa hinted at ultradimensional wormholes and therefore could have had actual lore and relevancy to Alola if it were an Alolan Pokémon. The hinting aspect is pretty cool but I think foregoing that so that Mythical Pokémon can actually be relevant to their regions again would be way better.

 

[R_N]

I'm not gonna lie some of these examples feel a bit off. Like the conceit is weird. Generations often iterate on each other, some more directly than others.

Meowstic doesn't necessarily belong in Gen 4 anymore than eh I dunno...Deerling. Yeah seasons weren't in DP, but the concept of aesthetic-exclusive form change based on various factors was present in Burmy and Shellos/Gastrodon. Or Oricorio.
Frillish line & Unfezant have gender dimorphism which fits right in with gen 4, which introduced the concept, and took it tmuch mroe obvious extremes but like...that's just iterating on a concept. So is Meowstic, even if threading the needle between "different form" + "different gender" was a ways off. Same with Indeedee.

it'd be like saying Kyurem is 2 gens late because Gen 3 had the first conciet of a Legendary pokemon changing forms, or 1 gen late because Gen 4 had the conceit of Legendary Pokemon changing forms freely.

Sometimes they take a break for a gen or two before returning to a certain well. Tsareena was the first pokemon to evolve by knowing a specific move since gen 4 introduced the concept, but it's not really something that feels like it should have happened in gen 4 because of that. Stuff like that.

 

[Magcargo]

Not sure how well these examples count since these are more so related to initial balancing problems which later got ironed out. If it weren't for the initial failures, I'm not sure if these mons would have benefitted from being in a newer generation since the balancing problem might have not been noticed or solved.

Kecleon. The color change mechanic it was introduced with was so poorly implemented in Gen 3 because what type Kecleon would change too would always be in the foe's control rather than Kecleon's. In Gen 6, Kecleon was gifted Protean,, which is substantially better than Color Change since what type Kecleon changes to is in its control. As such, perhaps Kecleon should have been introduced in gen 6 with protean instead of Color change.

Deoxys. The way it changed forms in Gen 3 was really weird and kinda made no sense in link battles. I think it would have been better if it was introduced in Gen 4, where it would be much more convenient for it to change forms via the meteorites.

Meloetta and Darmanitan. These two Pokemon have the ability to change their forms mid-battle in different ways: the former requires the use of relic songs and the latter needs to be below 50% HP. While their alternate forms are good Pokemon in a vaccum, the issue is that the way they are meant to be played is completely differently from their base forms. Meloetta turns into a physical attacker and Darmanitan turns into a special attacker. However, Meloetta and Darmanitan start out as a special attacker and physical attacker respectively. As such, both Pokemon need to run both physical and special attacks, and must deal with half their moves being useless when they are in a given form. It would have been better if they were introduced in Gen 7, where the in-battle transformation gimmick was better realized with Pokemon like Ash Greninja and Zygarde-Complete. In both cases, the alternate form of the Pokemon is a direct upgrade over their base form, rather than being something completely different.

 

[Bull Of Heaven]

Zoroark

It could've been broken in Gen 3 or 4 when team preview didn't exist at that time.

I don't know if there are any recent leaks on this, but isn't it widely believed that they created team preview because of Zoroark?

 

[R_N]

I don't know if there are any recent leaks on this, but isn't it widely believed that they created team preview because of Zoroark?

I think the more likely answer is just they wanted team preview because they wanted it for competitive.

In Stadium 1 & 2,Colosseum/XD and PBR Team Preview was always there. With the stadiums it kind of had to be by default, but less so with the gen 3 & 4 3d battle games. These are ealso the ones used in almost all the big tournaments because they're flashy.
Gen 5 didn't get a battle sim, and probably they thought hte game was presentable enough as-is, so it got team preview.


I always thought all the despair over team preview back in the day was bizarre because I played a lot of PBR.
Honestly, thought for sure that DP had battle preview. Like I can so perfectly envision it in my mind, memories of fighting a friend on w-ifi and seeing their team and that they had a milotic and went "oh no, have to be careful of that" but apparently im crazy. Maybe I was conflating PBR with this.

anyway it's possible that with team preview being A Thing they went forward with Zoroark but i dunno if the inverse is true and honestly them both happening at the same time could just be a coincidence.

 

[Bull Of Heaven]

anyway it's possible that with team preview being A Thing they went forward with Zoroark but i dunno if the inverse is true and honestly them both happening at the same time could just be a coincidence.

Makes sense. I didn't have a source or anything; it was just a thing I remembered hearing sometimes.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

It's probably making a connection that simply isn't there, but I always thought the original plan in the early stages of Hoenn were for exactly 4 Pokémon to have weather setting capabilities: Kyogre, Groudon, Regice, and Regirock. Rayquaza and Registeel would both be anti-weather for their respective trio to try and balance things out. Yes this is 99% because Regice and Regirock are the right typings for their weather, but I don't think that's entirely irrelevant.

I expect they dropped the idea because they decided to give Sand Stream to Tyranitar, and didn't want to double up, so they just threw Clear Body on all the regis and then forgot to find a hail setter in the chaos of developing a whole game. It happens. There aren't really any Ice-Type Pokémon that feel like they could reasonably have Snow Warning though. Jynx for a FE, maybe? I actually think Snorunt fits best, it's a little odd on Glalie but Glalie is an odd guy so that could have also worked.

My trepidation with saying Snover and Abomasnow should be Gen III Pokémon is there's absolutely nowhere in Hoenn where those Pokémon might actually live. The nearest thing would be Mt. Pyre, but it would be odd to find them on top of Mt. Pyre when Vulpix is right there anyway.

Interesting theory about the Regis, but Golduck kind of throws a wrench into it. It's the only Pokemon barring Rayquaza to get a weather-nullifying ability, and it feels like more Pokemon should have had that in a generation where weather became a more important battle mechanic; later generations haven't been shy in giving more species weather-nullifying abilities. Honestly I think Tyranitar was given Sand Stream simply because... it's a good ability. And Golduck was probably given Cloud Nine because it's not an OP Pokemon and wouldn't be gamebreaking.

I'm also not saying that Snover/Abomasnow should have been Hoenn Pokemon - I literally said that Snow Warning was the thing that felt out of place. That ability could have been given to anything. I see no reason why Glalie couldn't have been the one to get Snow Warning though - as the first non-legendary pure Ice-type it fits and it's decidedly underwhelming as it is. Not saying I think Glalie was specifically meant to have it, just that it makes sense if one had been given it in Gen III.

 

[bdt2002]

Came up with a few more examples for us to feast on. As for the posts we’ve seen so far, I think I’m going to have to agree with the masses on the “form-changing” debate for most of them, but a few of them like Meowstic I can understand if I squint hard enough.



IMO, Meowstic actually fits better with Gen 3 for a couple of different reasons. While they aren’t different species, the two forms do play differently enough and also have different Abilities. The XY anime in particular also made an effort to emphasize the idea that Meowstic’s two forms could be good partners with each other in a Double Battle, another one of Gen 3’s new features. Coincidentally, these two forms would be excellent for Tate & Liza, now that I think about it.



This one’s pretty simple. Hardcore Haxorus fans likely already know the story of how this Pokémon was designed during the development of Platinum, and how its pre-evolutions were reverse engineered from there. Looking at Haxorus as a species, this could absolutely have been a Gen 4 Pokémon if they didn’t wait until 2017 to start adding new Pokémon in the middle of a generation. Physical Dragon-Type moves, two different Gen 4 abilities, and similar to the eon duo example, it allows for more Dragon-Type diversity.



There isn’t too much to say for this one, but I do think seeing this Unova pair as potential Gen 2 candidates could be a nice change of pace. The generation as a whole tried to give some more love to the Bug-Type across the board, but this was also the generation that started branching out more with trade evolutions. For Escavalier in particular, if the Game Boy Color couldn’t support the Karrablast & Shelmet trade thing, they could just make it another Metal Coat evolution like Onix and Scyther were, although that method seems to be restricted to Kanto Pokémon for the time being.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

This thing would have been a monster in Gen 5. Dragon and Fighting are the two reasons Fairy exists in the first place.

 

[Hugin]

Honestly, I'm shocked the starters for Gen 2 and Gen 1 aren't swapped. The typings and designs are both simpler and easier to grasp on the Gen 2 starters, it would have made a lot more sense to begin with mono-typed plant animal/water animal/fire animal and then next gen have Dragon/Squirrel+Turtle+Water Cannons/Dinosaur+Plant symbiosis, with no two having the same approach to type.

 

[misterdarvus]

I don't know if there are any recent leaks on this, but isn't it widely believed that they created team preview because of Zoroark?

No, I believe its because someone on Gen 4 VGC cheated by noting every participant's team they saw. Then GF/TCPi decides that PvP team should be transparent.

--

Of course this fella would be on every weather team in Gen 5. It has Solar Power for Sun, Sand Veil for Sand (I think this ability is banned actually), and Dry Skin for Rain. Plus, those abilities didn't break the Weather + Speed Ability Clause.

 

[QuickBH]

Sneasel and Absol were both statted and given types of gen 4 but were gen 2 and gen 3 respectively. Why you would give Pokemon embarassingly low special stats special STAB(s) and only a versatile move pool in its specially based attacking types.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I have another one. Remember the pledge moves introduced in Gen V? It seems that they (or a very similar concept) were planned for Gen III to take advantage of double battles.

From TCRF:

Hidden in the code is a dummied-out function that allows the player to combine multiple moves into a single, different move during double battles. The function only contains information for the move Gust and Ember, which would combine into Heat Wave.

A text string seemingly corresponding to this combination still exists as well:

The wind turned into a
HEAT WAVE!

Interesting. It's curious that this has never gone further than the three Pledge moves - maybe they couldn't quite make it work and decided to hold off, but apparently didn't work on for Gen IV. Or maybe it was just too ambitious a concept to handle - after all, the potential combinations are practically limitless. And the concept sort of lends itself better to special/elemental moves rather than physical ones. I'd love to know more about this, though.

 

[Plague von Karma]

If you put Ursaluna in RBY, you would probably break the game in two.

Assuming it gets everything Ursaring gets + PLA, you get a Slash user with 140 Attack - double Persian's - and immunities to Thunder Wave and Body Slam paralysis at once. Not only that, but Normal/Ground is actually perfect coverage in this generation (No, Aerodactyl is not a real Pokemon) and it gets STAB on both. The sole thing that would keep this demon from shattering it rather than cleaving it in two is the Blizzard weakness.

[Ursaluna] Slash vs. Tauros on a critical hit: 192-226 (54.3 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
[Ursaluna] Slash vs. Alakazam on a critical hit: 294-346 (93.9 - 110.5%) -- 64.1% chance to OHKO
Holy crap.

Ursaring was already a monster in the obscure RBY 251 mod, but Ursaluna? I don't think the game would last a second.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Gen 5 was the generation of weather, and the last time ability-induced weather was permanent before the nerf in, incidentally Gen 6, the generation Goodra debuted in. In the Gen 5 metagame, when weather teams were rampant, Goodra would've thrived as both a tank on rain teams and a countermeasure against weather teams itself. One of its abilities is Hydration, and with Hydration+Rest combined with its godly special bulk, alongside magnificent coverage in rain with Hydro Pump/Surf and Thunder, Goodra would've performed magnificently on rain teams, also serving as a sponge to wall Thundurus-T's mighty Thunders in terms of opposing rain teams, and also absorbs powerful Hydro Pumps thanks to the beautiful resistances its Dragon type provides in addition to its amazing Special Defense.

But Goodra would not only have been a rain team asset as well as a weapon against opposing rain teams, but its other abilities would've rendered it a viable weapon against Sun teams. Sap Sipper would've made it a magnificent Venusaur switch in back when Drought+Chlorophyll was legal, to absorb Sleep Powder completely, without falling asleep, as well as absorbing Giga Drain/Solar Beam, while its sheer bulk and Fire resistance would've allowed it to sponge Fire Blasts from the Fire-type wallbreakers. If Heliolisk existed in Gen 5, Goodra would've been a great wall to any variant of it. And Goodra's offensive movepool comes in handy too, because it would also be able to use a sun boosted Fire Blast to incinerate Venusaur, Earthquake or Rock Slide to take down Sun team Fire-types, and whatnot. Gooey would've been a somewhat situational ability but it could be used to slow a weather sweeper down if needed, especially back when Sand+Sand Rush was legal and Hippowdon+Stoutland was a powerful combo, to slow down Stoutland then send in a fast Pursuit user to revenge kill would've been a clutch use of it.

Goodra did do very well in the Gen 6 VGC metagames where weather was still strong, as well as subsequent VGC 2017 and 2018, as a hard counter/check to many special attackers such as Greninja, Charizard Y, Ludicolo, Tapu Koko, Zapdos, you know the drill, but in Singles it would've thrived in the Gen 5 era when weather was a powerful force in competitive OU, as its capabilities are almost made to both thrive in and combat weather teams.

 

[Eeveeto]

Honestly, I'm shocked the starters for Gen 2 and Gen 1 aren't swapped. The typings and designs are both simpler and easier to grasp on the Gen 2 starters, it would have made a lot more sense to begin with mono-typed plant animal/water animal/fire animal and then next gen have Dragon/Squirrel+Turtle+Water Cannons/Dinosaur+Plant symbiosis, with no two having the same approach to type.

So true. An additional benefit would be Meganium having a 33% chance to become a Pokemon mascot, just like Charizard is.

Girafarig is another Mon that would be cool in Gen 1. Normals and Psychics are the best Mons and he is both, also learning Amnesia and Agility to circunvent paralisis from Chansey ( who he can also hit hard with Stomp or Hyperbeam).

 

[Samtendo09]

If you put Ursaluna in RBY, you would probably break the game in two.

Assuming it gets everything Ursaring gets + PLA, you get a Slash user with 140 Attack - double Persian's - and immunities to Thunder Wave and Body Slam paralysis at once. Not only that, but Normal/Ground is actually perfect coverage in this generation (No, Aerodactyl is not a real Pokemon) and it gets STAB on both. The sole thing that would keep this demon from shattering it rather than cleaving it in two is the Blizzard weakness.

[Ursaluna] Slash vs. Tauros on a critical hit: 192-226 (54.3 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
[Ursaluna] Slash vs. Alakazam on a critical hit: 294-346 (93.9 - 110.5%) -- 64.1% chance to OHKO
Holy crap.

Ursaring was already a monster in the obscure RBY 251 mod, but Ursaluna? I don't think the game would last a second.

And if Ursaluna is in GSC, no doubt it would be one of the more threatening Normal-type thanks to Ground-type STAB nullifying Steel-type from stopping Ursaluna. A much higher physical bulk but lower special bulk means it have a niche over Snorlax by tanking physical hits better, including opposing Normal-type.

 

[bdt2002]

This thing would have been a monster in Gen 5. Dragon and Fighting are the two reasons Fairy exists in the first place.

Gen 5 was the generation of weather, and the last time ability-induced weather was permanent before the nerf in, incidentally Gen 6, the generation Goodra debuted in. In the Gen 5 metagame, when weather teams were rampant, Goodra would've thrived as both a tank on rain teams and a countermeasure against weather teams itself. One of its abilities is Hydration, and with Hydration+Rest combined with its godly special bulk, alongside magnificent coverage in rain with Hydro Pump/Surf and Thunder, Goodra would've performed magnificently on rain teams, also serving as a sponge to wall Thundurus-T's mighty Thunders in terms of opposing rain teams, and also absorbs powerful Hydro Pumps thanks to the beautiful resistances its Dragon type provides in addition to its amazing Special Defense.

But Goodra would not only have been a rain team asset as well as a weapon against opposing rain teams, but its other abilities would've rendered it a viable weapon against Sun teams. Sap Sipper would've made it a magnificent Venusaur switch in back when Drought+Chlorophyll was legal, to absorb Sleep Powder completely, without falling asleep, as well as absorbing Giga Drain/Solar Beam, while its sheer bulk and Fire resistance would've allowed it to sponge Fire Blasts from the Fire-type wallbreakers. If Heliolisk existed in Gen 5, Goodra would've been a great wall to any variant of it. And Goodra's offensive movepool comes in handy too, because it would also be able to use a sun boosted Fire Blast to incinerate Venusaur, Earthquake or Rock Slide to take down Sun team Fire-types, and whatnot. Gooey would've been a somewhat situational ability but it could be used to slow a weather sweeper down if needed, especially back when Sand+Sand Rush was legal and Hippowdon+Stoutland was a powerful combo, to slow down Stoutland then send in a fast Pursuit user to revenge kill would've been a clutch use of it.

Goodra did do very well in the Gen 6 VGC metagames where weather was still strong, as well as subsequent VGC 2017 and 2018, as a hard counter/check to many special attackers such as Greninja, Charizard Y, Ludicolo, Tapu Koko, Zapdos, you know the drill, but in Singles it would've thrived in the Gen 5 era when weather was a powerful force in competitive OU, as its capabilities are almost made to both thrive in and combat weather teams.

On paper, these two actually have a lot in common. They're both slower psuedo-Legendary Dragon-Types that could see an advantage against weather-based team compositions (Goodra beats sun and rain, while Kommo-o beats sand and hail especially with Overcoat). However, there's one small issue with the idea that a powerful Dragon-Type will perform well in Gen 5. See, as a metagame develops, the most popular Pokémon tend to be those who can both compete with and contend against the most powerful ones. Since Dragon and Fighting were both powerful types, we see the metagames naturally respond. The problem for these two in particular is that Dragon-Types beat themselves. Being on the slower end isn't traditionally what you want from a viable Dragon-Type option because the opponent's Dragon-Type(s) can outpace your own. Kommo-o especially would have some other issues to deal with, such as the rise of Alakazam and Reuniclus in modern-day Gen 5 play, as well as Overcoat generally being less useful with hail being considered the least viable weather and the universal ban on sleep moves that includes stuff like Breloom's Spore. This is to say nothing of the fact that both of these Pokémon lose hard to the omnipresent Choice Specs Lati@s sets running around.

If you put Ursaluna in RBY, you would probably break the game in two.

Assuming it gets everything Ursaring gets + PLA, you get a Slash user with 140 Attack - double Persian's - and immunities to Thunder Wave and Body Slam paralysis at once. Not only that, but Normal/Ground is actually perfect coverage in this generation (No, Aerodactyl is not a real Pokemon) and it gets STAB on both. The sole thing that would keep this demon from shattering it rather than cleaving it in two is the Blizzard weakness.

[Ursaluna] Slash vs. Tauros on a critical hit: 192-226 (54.3 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
[Ursaluna] Slash vs. Alakazam on a critical hit: 294-346 (93.9 - 110.5%) -- 64.1% chance to OHKO
Holy crap.

Ursaring was already a monster in the obscure RBY 251 mod, but Ursaluna? I don't think the game would last a second.

I don't deny anything you said in this post, but I would like to make some very slight notes. First off, Ursaluna is still on the slower end of Normal-Types. I ran the math and found that its critical hit rate with Slash isn't actually the 99.6% we all know and love, rather falling just short of 90% in most scenarios. (The same is true for Ursaring, by the way.) Second, the added Ground-Type is a double-edged sword here- while the benefits against Electric and Rock-Types are both nice to have, I personally think that the three added weaknesses to Water, Grass (Razor Leaf), and Ice (Blizzard/Ice Beam) provide a negative trade-off overall. It's definitely not all bad news, as its stats are MUCH better than the other Normal/Ground Pokémon we've seen so far (that being Kalos's Diggersby, who would notably lack Huge Power in RBY), and the complete immunity to all forms of Gen 1 paralysis is an excellent bonus. RBY also has maxed EVs in every stat unlike later games, helping to mimick Hisui's stat mechanics just a teeny bit more.

There are two Normal-Types I would like to single out in this post as options who would both be on the same level of, if not even stronger than Ursaring and Ursaluna in RBY competitive. Those would be the famous duo of Slaking and Regigigas. It shouldn't be hard to see why- even more monstrous base stats with the Normal typing, wide movepools (Slaking especially), and the most obvious change being the removals of Truant and Slow Start respectively. However, this would bring into question the merits of why I made this thread in the first place. Slaking (and to an extent Regigigas) works as a Gen 3 Pokémon because of the new Abilities mechanic. Regigigas is also the trio master of a Hoenn trio, so there's that.

 

[MoonlightRose]

Crawdunt. Huge attack, learns Swords Dance and the most powerful physical attacks of both its STABs by level up, was introduced the gen before the physical/special split when both its STABs were always special.