"Worst Pokémon Ever"

[HyperRaichu17]

As for my nomination on this list....Sigilyph I guess. It’s design is really bad, it looks like that thing from donkey Kong country returns and it generally just really stupid. It doesn’t have an in game use, it has a bad shiny and no evolutions or pre evolutions. While I have had some fun setting up to +6 on both defenses with cosmic power and then psycho shifting a burn, then stored power and roosting, it requires too much to pull off, and when you do, you can be stopped cold by a dark type with item swapping moves. It only really works in random battles because then your opponent may not have checks, but in a real battle, this strategy will be stopped cold by the likes of houndoom etc. Not only that, but you need to set up quite a bit, and when you do, they can treat you as set up fodder and then mow you down, while you can’t do anything because stored power is gimmick central. To add salt to the wound, they haze your efforts away. But magic guard is helpful and it’s a good enough defogger I suppose. Idk, I was really annoyed by it in gen 5. It’s so damn forgettable. Even the typing and capabilities are the same or worse than lugia, with sigilyph’s only saving grace being magic guard. But even multi scale is useful, and lugia has some actual attacks. And attack stats because the ones sigilyph has are ok, so even with the insane damage from stored power, it still isn’t enough to ko some neutral special walls.



But all that said, I had fun sweeping with sigilyph. I have the replay here https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7unratedrandombattle-779661756. I think the name is nice. And while I can’t put them on the list because they are good in the competitive scene, I despise blaziken and the mega, lucario and the mega, and infernape wayyyyyyyy more than sigilyph. Sigilyph is at least fun to use, and it makes them embarrassed to say, “I was swept by sigilyph.” But these 3 Pokémon’s are just so loved by everybody, i cant help but hate them. Even before I related everybody loved them, I still hated them, and even if evryeone starts hating them, I will still be hating them.

 

[legend slayer]

I haven’t alread all these but I haven’t seen qwillfish on here. It’s design is literally just a pufferfish(I forgot this thing exsisted until I encountered one) It was supposed to be a good defencive pokemon, but it’s special defence is horrible, and regular defence isn’t much better. You would be much better off using Toxapex for a water/poison defence pokemon.(In fact qwillfish and toxapex even look similar so maybe I wasn’t alone in forgetting it’s exsistance)

qwilfish is very good in rain teams u forgot to mention,being able to overwhelm some teams with just one boost. it has great stabs and the only real checks can be taken care of by other rain mons or a explosion, namely pex, ferro, mega zam and gastro. it can kill pex and a
gastro with boosted explosions, zam is easy if it didnt get a chance to trace swift swim and well the only way to beat ferro is if plus 4 explosion. however, ferro and pex are both much easier to tske care of wirh swampert, and gastro to a lesser extent. realise i might have just explained qwilfish competitively but it is to a point, which is unlike pex it isnt meant to be used defensively, at least in ou. in lower tiers it does use a black sludge intimidate set which is actually good in low tiers. at least it unlike pex doesnt look like a umbrella with flaps lol, both their designs are awful though tbh

 

[OrangeGuru]

As for my nomination on this list....Sigilyph I guess. It’s design is really bad, it looks like that thing from donkey Kong country returns and it generally just really stupid. It doesn’t have an in game use, it has a bad shiny and no evolutions or pre evolutions. While I have had some fun setting up to +6 on both defenses with cosmic power and then psycho shifting a burn, then stored power and roosting, it requires too much to pull off, and when you do, you can be stopped cold by a dark type with item swapping moves. It only really works in random battles because then your opponent may not have checks, but in a real battle, this strategy will be stopped cold by the likes of houndoom etc. Not only that, but you need to set up quite a bit, and when you do, they can treat you as set up fodder and then mow you down, while you can’t do anything because stored power is gimmick central. To add salt to the wound, they haze your efforts away. But magic guard is helpful and it’s a good enough defogger I suppose. Idk, I was really annoyed by it in gen 5. It’s so damn forgettable. Even the typing and capabilities are the same or worse than lugia, with sigilyph’s only saving grace being magic guard. But even multi scale is useful, and lugia has some actual attacks

Nothing like reviving a dead thread with a quadruple post -_-

Look, this shouldn't bother you as much as it appears to bother you; it's just a thread on a pokemon site about your least favorite pokemon. Everyone will have a different opinion; some will hate Unown, others will disagree with that sentiment, others will hate Infernape like you say, etc. It's all for fun my dude

 

[HyperRaichu17]

Nothing like reviving a dead thread with a quadruple post -_-

Look, this shouldn't bother you as much as it appears to bother you; it's just a thread on a pokemon site about your least favorite pokemon. Everyone will have a different opinion; some will hate Unown, others will disagree with that sentiment, others will hate Infernape like you say, etc. It's all for fun my dude

If you read the update I posted, you’ll realize it doesn’t bother me. But I just posted a long one because it was harder to justify an acceptably good NU Pokemon with an ugly but memorable enough design, and a fantastic ability.

 

[Pikachu315111]

If you read the update I posted, you’ll realize it doesn’t bother me. But I just posted a long one because it was harder to justify.

Board rules. We don't want pages of threads to be clogged up with one user's post. Mods will combine multiple posts into one post and give a warning, though if the behavior keeps going they will suspend the repeat offender. Please, respect the rules.

Anyway, if we're reviving this thread I guess I can contribute.

The thing is, I think we gone through individual "worse" Pokemon. So instead I'm going to try another idea: judging a worst Pokemon within a group. Basically I look at a group of Pokemon, compare them to one another, and decide which is the worst within that group. So, let's start with an easy one: the Eeveelutions.

Yeah, there's no real investigation here, the worst Eeveelution (aside from Eevee, though that's now questionable with it able to use Extreme Evoboost) is, sadly, Flareon.

(Don't worry Flareon, you'll always be my favorite)

It all comes down to stats. Every other Eeveelution seemingly was made with a focus: Vaporeon & Sylveon are Special wall & attacker, Jolteon & Espeon are speedy Special mon, Umbreon is a wall, Leafeon is a physical mon with good speed, and Glaceon is a defensive Special attacker. While some are better than others, if set up right or in the right situation any of them can perform well at what they do.

Then we have Flareon. Very high Attack, high Special Defense, and good Special Attack. It's it focusing on both offensive stat and having low Speed that does it in, heck the Special Attack is only good (95). Had they give the 130 and 110 to the offense stats and 95 to Speed maybe they could have made Flareon a promising dual attacker with good speed, putting it on a similar level as Leafeon. But no, instead it has low Speed and a high Special Defense which I guess is alright though defensive Fire-types never really worked out due to them having too many common weaknesses (and its defense is still low, not to mention also low HP).

Also Flareon doesn't get any great Abilities and took it years to finally get Flare Blitz (which hurts it, though the next "best" Physical Fire-type move it has is 65 Power Fire Fang).

 

[HyperRaichu17]

@pickachu3511 I see your point. I guess I’ll condense some posts together. But I didn’t know how I’d end up replying. Also, you make complete sense. I think we should start going by type.

 

[hypno28]

@pickachu3511 I see your point. I guess I’ll condense some posts together. But I didn’t know how I’d end up replying. Also, you make complete sense. I think we should start going by type.

There should be an "Edit" button in the lower left of your posts that you can use to update them if you realize you want to add things.

 

[HyperRaichu17]

I know, o have edited several times already

 

[MegaFlareon]

Board rules. We don't want pages of threads to be clogged up with one user's post. Mods will combine multiple posts into one post and give a warning, though if the behavior keeps going they will suspend the repeat offender. Please, respect the rules.

Anyway, if we're reviving this thread I guess I can contribute.

The thing is, I think we gone through individual "worse" Pokemon. So instead I'm going to try another idea: judging a worst Pokemon within a group. Basically I look at a group of Pokemon, compare them to one another, and decide which is the worst within that group. So, let's start with an easy one: the Eeveelutions.

Yeah, there's no real investigation here, the worst Eeveelution (aside from Eevee, though that's now questionable with it able to use Extreme Evoboost) is, sadly, Flareon.

(Don't worry Flareon, you'll always be my favorite)

It all comes down to stats. Every other Eeveelution seemingly was made with a focus: Vaporeon & Sylveon are Special wall & attacker, Jolteon & Espeon are speedy Special mon, Umbreon is a wall, Leafeon is a physical mon with good speed, and Glaceon is a defensive Special attacker. While some are better than others, if set up right or in the right situation any of them can perform well at what they do.

Then we have Flareon. Very high Attack, high Special Defense, and good Special Attack. It's it focusing on both offensive stat and having low Speed that does it in, heck the Special Attack is only good (95). Had they give the 130 and 110 to the offense stats and 95 to Speed maybe they could have made Flareon a promising dual attacker with good speed, putting it on a similar level as Leafeon. But no, instead it has low Speed and a high Special Defense which I guess is alright though defensive Fire-types never really worked out due to them having too many common weaknesses (and its defense is still low, not to mention also low HP).

Also Flareon doesn't get any great Abilities and took it years to finally get Flare Blitz (which hurts it, though the next "best" Physical Fire-type move it has is 65 Power Fire Fang).

I think Flareon's stat spread is hurt by the special split in Gen 2. Two of its good stats (130 and 95) went to its offenses, leaving it with 3 bad stats that matter. It has high Attack and Special Defense, but if it's running a full physical set, it's good stat of 95 is utterly wasted.

 

[Worldie]

Flareon got hurt also by not having an ability. Guts is very known to be abused on phisical atkers with a Flame Orb as well as negating Burn atk penality allowing to switch into it...except...he's a fire type, so to self trigger Guts he needs to use Toxic orb or external more detrimental status like Paralysis.
Flash Fire isn't terrible but if he had an ability that allowed him to abuse that solid attack, things could have been different.
(Or well, if he had a real moveset)

 

[ty_taurus]

Unown by far.

I know that a lot of people try and not consider Unown, but that's really now how the game works. Pokemon includes Unown as a fully evolved Pokemon, doesn't do anything interesting with Unown's alphabet theme or supposed power in numbers, and just exists to waste data space.

 

[nameless90]

Unown by far.
I know that a lot of people try and not consider Unown, but that's really now how the game works. Pokemon includes Unown as a fully evolved Pokemon, doesn't do anything interesting with Unown's alphabet theme or supposed power in numbers, and just exists to waste data space.

I agree.
In GSC, the reward for collecting them all was so lame that wasn't worth the effort by any means.

I'd like to talk about Remoraid and Octillery: so much potential wasted.
Originally designed to be a mixture between fishes and weapons, from a gun to a cannon (considering the signature move Octazooka), I have difficulties understanding why a fish should evolve into an octopus. Keep in mind that I think their sprites are beautiful, though.
In my opinion, these two pokemons lack a "middle stage", which should be able to connect a fish (Remoraid) with an octopus (Octillery).
Stats-wise, they leave a lot to be desired, so something should be done even here.

 

[yourDeadGrandad]

Unown by far.

I know that a lot of people try and not consider Unown, but that's really now how the game works. Pokemon includes Unown as a fully evolved Pokemon, doesn't do anything interesting with Unown's alphabet theme or supposed power in numbers, and just exists to waste data space.

I'd like a sort of 'Unown Scrabble' feature where having more than one Unown in your team unlocks a secret new move, and it's power changes based on the words you spell out.

 

[Pikachu315111]

I'd like a sort of 'Unown Scrabble' feature where having more than one Unown in your team unlocks a secret new move, and it's power changes based on the words you spell out.

I thought of a fun idea of having six unique items called the "Unknown Tablets". As long as there's two or more un-fainted Unown on your team that's holding an "Unknown Tablet" all their non-HP stats are doubled, they are the same Type of their Hidden Power's Type, and Hidden Power has its Power increased by 1.5x, given +1 Priority, and ignores immunities & resistances. :P

 

[Zowayix]

I'd like a sort of 'Unown Scrabble' feature where having more than one Unown in your team unlocks a secret new move, and it's power changes based on the words you spell out.

That would be terrible to set up for a multilingual game, and effectively impossible in Chinese (barely possible in Japanese or Korean depending on how you choose to set it up).

 

[Pikachu315111]

Since my last post was a bit wishlist-y, how about another one of my "worst of the bunch"? A month or so ago a massive poll took place where all Pokemon were ranked, and it was revealed that the "worst" (or rather least voted for) Pokemon turned out to be Simisear! So let's see how true that is by taking a look at all:

Now there's not a lot of stats I need to write out as all Elemental Monkey share the same stats and Abilities.

Pans: 50/53/48/53/48/64
Simis: 75/98/63/98/63/101
Ability: All have Gluttony as their sole normal Ability. Their Hidden Ability's are Overgrow for Pan/Simisage), Blaze for Pan/Simisear), and Torrent for Pan/Simipour

Honestly what separates them is their movesets and Type match-ups, though before we go on let's quickly analyse their stats. They're clearly meant to be mixed attackers with good Speed to boot, but their defensive stats and HP are subpar.
Their normal Ability is situational, requiring them to hold a Berry which they could eat earlier than they would normally (at 50% and below HP instead of 25%). On one hand you could use it with say a Liechi, Salac, Petaya, or one of the 50% healing Berries depending on the set you're running, of course this does mean you're giving up your item slot for a one time power-up (or healing) that'll go away if switched out.
Their Hidden Ability isn't any better, activating at low HP to increase the Power of their STAB. On one hand you have your item slot for whatever you want (say a Life Orb) and if you can get their HP below 1/3rd you also get a boost to STAB, but on the other hand if they're that low of HP they're probably going to faint the next time they're hit.

Type Match-Ups: One of the immediate differences between them, let's see how each of them do against other types. Being a pure Grass, Fire, and Water-type, this is really simple:

Pan/Simisage:
Weak: Bug, Fire, Flying, Ice, Poison
Resist: Electric, Grass, Ground, Water
Super Effective Against: Ground, Rock, Water
Resisted By: Bug, Dragon, Fire, Flying, Grass, Poison

The problems with Grass-types are well known: a lot of weaknesses and Pokemon who resist them. However Grass-types are super effective (and resist) against not only popular types but types that are usually have "tanky" Pokemon. Normally another gimmick of a Grass-type is that to counterbalance all their weaknesses they have many ways of healing themselves. But, while Pan/Simisage learns plenty of such moves, its low defensive stats isn't going to let it stay long in battle.

Pan/Simisear:
Weak: Ground, Rock, Water
Resist: Bug, Fairy, Fire, Grass, Ice, Steel
Super Effective Against: Bug, Grass, Ice, Steel
Resisted By: Dragon, Fire, Rock, Water

Speaking of glass canons, that is usually what Fire-types are. Weak to those popular Types that Grass is good against, when not up against those Types Fire-types either can do a lot of damage or at least leave a nasty mark (and maybe a Burn). What they're strong against is a bit of a strange group of Types, though its also a lot of Types including the defensive Steel and dragon slayers Fairy and Ice. Pan/Simisear doesn't really astray from this, their good Speed serving them well here.

Pan/Simipour:
Weak: Electric, Grass
Resist: Fire, Ice, Steel, Water
Super Effective Against: Fire, Ground, Rock
Resisted By: Dragon, Grass, Water

Water a very balanced type, able to be both defensive (only two weaknesses and resisting certain special-focused types) and offensive (hitting popular types and only resisted by three others). Not only that, but Water-types also normally learn a fair amount of Ice-type moves which helps with two Types they have a disadvantage against (Grass & Dragon). Water-type moves also have a wide range of effects making them versatile.

Going by types alone, gotta say the weakest looking one of them is Pan/Simisage. Sadly they can't take as much advantage of one of Grass-types main gimmicks which was meant to counterbalance having a lot of weaknesses. Another factor also come to Weather, the other two have a weather condition which strengthens them while at best Pan/Simisage has Strong Sunlight (shared with Pan/Simisear) which increases the Power of one of their weaknesses while also weakening one of their resistances.

But Type match-ups can be overcome if the Pokemon has the right moves! To make things easier I'm going to separate their moves by Category:

Pan/Simisage:
Physical: Grass isn't well known for their Physical moves, the "strongest" they can learn is Seed Bomb (though it can also learn Bullet Seed). Seed Bomb isn't bad, but it has no secondary effect. Like the other Pans/Simis it can learn a plethora of Physical Fighting- and Dark-type moves, though aside Fighting hurting Ice they don't really provide that much coverage. Rock Slide is probably the most useful coverage it gets.
Special: Special isn't looking much better as it pretty much only learns Special Grass-type moves with any other Types not being that helpful. But with that said the Special Grass-type moves it can learn are very nice, notably Energy Ball, Giga Drain, and Leaf Storm.
Status: This is where things get a bit more interesting. As a Pansage it can Leech Seed. Through Breeding it can learn Grass Whistle, Nasty Plot, and Spiky Shield. And from Tutors gets Gastro Acid, Synthesis, and Recycle which might be handy for ones with Gluttony.

Pan/Simisear:
Physical: Thank goodness for Flare Blitz (and also Fire Punch, we don't have a Flareon situation here). But for coverage it has a similar story to Pan/Simisage, with Fighting-type the only one providing coverage to its Rock-type weakness (though that does knock them down to two weaknesses while Pan/Simisage still had four).
Special: Hahaha, do Fire-types have powerful Special Fire-type moves? Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Overheat, and Heat Wave, take your pick. However Fire-types have one more trick up their sleeve: they can learn a few Grass-type moves: Solar Beam and Grass Knot. This is notable as Grass is super effective against all their weaknesses. If on a Sunny Day/Drought team Solar Beam can be used instantly, though Grass Knot can still be good as their as many heavy Ground, Rock, and Water-types (especially the ones usually considered "tanky"). It may be a two trick pony, but those two tricks cover all its weaknesses.
Status: This is where Pan/Simisear falters. Will-O-Wisp, Nasty Plot, Gastro Acid, and maybe Recycle. *shrugs*

Pan/Simipour:
Physical: It gets two decent STABs with Waterfall and Aqua Tail. And while it doesn't have anything for Electric, for Grass it does get two notable moves that cover it. The first one is Ice Punch, which is also good for handling those Dragons. The other is one for all the Elemental Monkeys learn: Acrobatics. If using Gluttony, once they eat the Berry it'll also then have a 110 Power Flying-type move. While all of them can do this, Pan/Simipour is the only one with a weakness that it covers. And it also learns all those shared Fighting and Dark-type moves.
Special: Like the other two it has some good Special Water-type moves: Surf, Scald, and Hydro Pump. This also goes for Ice-type moves getting Ice Beam and Blizzard. But outside of that not much else the others don't get.
Status: Something that Pan/Simisears have in common, just replace Will-O-Wisp with Aqua Ring.

With all things considered, I gotta once again give it to Pan/Simisage. When it comes to Physical moves it doesn't get a powerful STAB nor that many coverage and though it gets plenty of healing moves with Special and Status Moves it's not really built to be a defensive Pokemon. The other two also do a better job at covering their weaknesses even if what Status moves they learn is more limited.

So overall I think the poll got the wrong monkey. I'll admit that Simisear may not be the best designed of the Elemental Monkeys, but if we take a look at how they play you'll find that the one that puts up the toughest image is just as soft as the leaves it's made from.

 

[Detective Barricade]

Since my last post was a bit wishlist-y, how about another one of my "worst of the bunch"? A month or so ago a massive poll took place where all Pokemon were ranked, and it was revealed that the "worst" (or rather least voted for) Pokemon turned out to be Simisear! So let's see how true that is by taking a look at all:

Now there's not a lot of stats I need to write out as all Elemental Monkey share the same stats and Abilities.

Pans: 50/53/48/53/48/64
Simis: 75/98/63/98/63/101
Ability: All have Gluttony as their sole normal Ability. Their Hidden Ability's are Overgrow for Pan/Simisage), Blaze for Pan/Simisear), and Torrent for Pan/Simipour

Honestly what separates them is their movesets and Type match-ups, though before we go on let's quickly analyse their stats. They're clearly meant to be mixed attackers with good Speed to boot, but their defensive stats and HP are subpar.
Their normal Ability is situational, requiring them to hold a Berry which they could eat earlier than they would normally (at 50% and below HP instead of 25%). On one hand you could use it with say a Liechi, Salac, Petaya, or one of the 50% healing Berries depending on the set you're running, of course this does mean you're giving up your item slot for a one time power-up (or healing) that'll go away if switched out.
Their Hidden Ability isn't any better, activating at low HP to increase the Power of their STAB. On one hand you have your item slot for whatever you want (say a Life Orb) and if you can get their HP below 1/3rd you also get a boost to STAB, but on the other hand if they're that low of HP they're probably going to faint the next time they're hit.

Type Match-Ups: One of the immediate differences between them, let's see how each of them do against other types. Being a pure Grass, Fire, and Water-type, this is really simple:

Pan/Simisage:
Weak: Bug, Fire, Flying, Ice, Poison
Resist: Electric, Grass, Ground, Water
Super Effective Against: Ground, Rock, Water
Resisted By: Bug, Dragon, Fire, Flying, Grass, Poison

The problems with Grass-types are well known: a lot of weaknesses and Pokemon who resist them. However Grass-types are super effective (and resist) against not only popular types but types that are usually have "tanky" Pokemon. Normally another gimmick of a Grass-type is that to counterbalance all their weaknesses they have many ways of healing themselves. But, while Pan/Simisage learns plenty of such moves, its low defensive stats isn't going to let it stay long in battle.

Pan/Simisear:
Weak: Ground, Rock, Water
Resist: Bug, Fairy, Fire, Grass, Ice, Steel
Super Effective Against: Bug, Grass, Ice, Steel
Resisted By: Dragon, Fire, Rock, Water

Speaking of glass canons, that is usually what Fire-types are. Weak to those popular Types that Grass is good against, when not up against those Types Fire-types either can do a lot of damage or at least leave a nasty mark (and maybe a Burn). What they're strong against is a bit of a strange group of Types, though its also a lot of Types including the defensive Steel and dragon slayers Fairy and Ice. Pan/Simisear doesn't really astray from this, their good Speed serving them well here.

Pan/Simipour:
Weak: Electric, Grass
Resist: Fire, Ice, Steel, Water
Super Effective Against: Fire, Ground, Rock
Resisted By: Dragon, Grass, Water

Water a very balanced type, able to be both defensive (only two weaknesses and resisting certain special-focused types) and offensive (hitting popular types and only resisted by three others). Not only that, but Water-types also normally learn a fair amount of Ice-type moves which helps with two Types they have a disadvantage against (Grass & Dragon). Water-type moves also have a wide range of effects making them versatile.

Going by types alone, gotta say the weakest looking one of them is Pan/Simisage. Sadly they can't take as much advantage of one of Grass-types main gimmicks which was meant to counterbalance having a lot of weaknesses. Another factor also come to Weather, the other two have a weather condition which strengthens them while at best Pan/Simisage has Strong Sunlight (shared with Pan/Simisear) which increases the Power of one of their weaknesses while also weakening one of their resistances.

But Type match-ups can be overcome if the Pokemon has the right moves! To make things easier I'm going to separate their moves by Category:

Pan/Simisage:
Physical: Grass isn't well known for their Physical moves, the "strongest" they can learn is Seed Bomb (though it can also learn Bullet Seed). Seed Bomb isn't bad, but it has no secondary effect. Like the other Pans/Simis it can learn a plethora of Physical Fighting- and Dark-type moves, though aside Fighting hurting Ice they don't really provide that much coverage. Rock Slide is probably the most useful coverage it gets.
Special: Special isn't looking much better as it pretty much only learns Special Grass-type moves with any other Types not being that helpful. But with that said the Special Grass-type moves it can learn are very nice, notably Energy Ball, Giga Drain, and Leaf Storm.
Status: This is where things get a bit more interesting. As a Pansage it can Leech Seed. Through Breeding it can learn Grass Whistle, Nasty Plot, and Spiky Shield. And from Tutors gets Gastro Acid, Synthesis, and Recycle which might be handy for ones with Gluttony.

Pan/Simisear:
Physical: Thank goodness for Flare Blitz (and also Fire Punch, we don't have a Flareon situation here). But for coverage it has a similar story to Pan/Simisage, with Fighting-type the only one providing coverage to its Rock-type weakness (though that does knock them down to two weaknesses while Pan/Simisage still had four).
Special: Hahaha, do Fire-types have powerful Special Fire-type moves? Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Overheat, and Heat Wave, take your pick. However Fire-types have one more trick up their sleeve: they can learn a few Grass-type moves: Solar Beam and Grass Knot. This is notable as Grass is super effective against all their weaknesses. If on a Sunny Day/Drought team Solar Beam can be used instantly, though Grass Knot can still be good as their as many heavy Ground, Rock, and Water-types (especially the ones usually considered "tanky"). It may be a two trick pony, but those two tricks cover all its weaknesses.
Status: This is where Pan/Simisear falters. Will-O-Wisp, Nasty Plot, Gastro Acid, and maybe Recycle. *shrugs*

Pan/Simipour:
Physical: It gets two decent STABs with Waterfall and Aqua Tail. And while it doesn't have anything for Electric, for Grass it does get two notable moves that cover it. The first one is Ice Punch, which is also good for handling those Dragons. The other is one for all the Elemental Monkeys learn: Acrobatics. If using Gluttony, once they eat the Berry it'll also then have a 110 Power Flying-type move. While all of them can do this, Pan/Simipour is the only one with a weakness that it covers. And it also learns all those shared Fighting and Dark-type moves.
Special: Like the other two it has some good Special Water-type moves: Surf, Scald, and Hydro Pump. This also goes for Ice-type moves getting Ice Beam and Blizzard. But outside of that not much else the others don't get.
Status: Something that Pan/Simisears have in common, just replace Will-O-Wisp with Aqua Ring.

With all things considered, I gotta once again give it to Pan/Simisage. When it comes to Physical moves it doesn't get a powerful STAB nor that many coverage and though it gets plenty of healing moves with Special and Status Moves it's not really built to be a defensive Pokemon. The other two also do a better job at covering their weaknesses even if what Status moves they learn is more limited.

So overall I think the poll got the wrong monkey. I'll admit that Simisear may not be the best designed of the Elemental Monkeys, but if we take a look at how they play you'll find that the one that puts up the toughest image is just as soft as the leaves it's made from.

But Simisear is ugliest of them all. Not that any of them are exactly pretty to look at...

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

Since my last post was a bit wishlist-y, how about another one of my "worst of the bunch"? A month or so ago a massive poll took place where all Pokemon were ranked, and it was revealed that the "worst" (or rather least voted for) Pokemon turned out to be Simisear! So let's see how true that is by taking a look at all:

Now there's not a lot of stats I need to write out as all Elemental Monkey share the same stats and Abilities.

Pans: 50/53/48/53/48/64
Simis: 75/98/63/98/63/101
Ability: All have Gluttony as their sole normal Ability. Their Hidden Ability's are Overgrow for Pan/Simisage), Blaze for Pan/Simisear), and Torrent for Pan/Simipour

Honestly what separates them is their movesets and Type match-ups, though before we go on let's quickly analyse their stats. They're clearly meant to be mixed attackers with good Speed to boot, but their defensive stats and HP are subpar.
Their normal Ability is situational, requiring them to hold a Berry which they could eat earlier than they would normally (at 50% and below HP instead of 25%). On one hand you could use it with say a Liechi, Salac, Petaya, or one of the 50% healing Berries depending on the set you're running, of course this does mean you're giving up your item slot for a one time power-up (or healing) that'll go away if switched out.
Their Hidden Ability isn't any better, activating at low HP to increase the Power of their STAB. On one hand you have your item slot for whatever you want (say a Life Orb) and if you can get their HP below 1/3rd you also get a boost to STAB, but on the other hand if they're that low of HP they're probably going to faint the next time they're hit.

Type Match-Ups: One of the immediate differences between them, let's see how each of them do against other types. Being a pure Grass, Fire, and Water-type, this is really simple:

Pan/Simisage:
Weak: Bug, Fire, Flying, Ice, Poison
Resist: Electric, Grass, Ground, Water
Super Effective Against: Ground, Rock, Water
Resisted By: Bug, Dragon, Fire, Flying, Grass, Poison

The problems with Grass-types are well known: a lot of weaknesses and Pokemon who resist them. However Grass-types are super effective (and resist) against not only popular types but types that are usually have "tanky" Pokemon. Normally another gimmick of a Grass-type is that to counterbalance all their weaknesses they have many ways of healing themselves. But, while Pan/Simisage learns plenty of such moves, its low defensive stats isn't going to let it stay long in battle.

Pan/Simisear:
Weak: Ground, Rock, Water
Resist: Bug, Fairy, Fire, Grass, Ice, Steel
Super Effective Against: Bug, Grass, Ice, Steel
Resisted By: Dragon, Fire, Rock, Water

Speaking of glass canons, that is usually what Fire-types are. Weak to those popular Types that Grass is good against, when not up against those Types Fire-types either can do a lot of damage or at least leave a nasty mark (and maybe a Burn). What they're strong against is a bit of a strange group of Types, though its also a lot of Types including the defensive Steel and dragon slayers Fairy and Ice. Pan/Simisear doesn't really astray from this, their good Speed serving them well here.

Pan/Simipour:
Weak: Electric, Grass
Resist: Fire, Ice, Steel, Water
Super Effective Against: Fire, Ground, Rock
Resisted By: Dragon, Grass, Water

Water a very balanced type, able to be both defensive (only two weaknesses and resisting certain special-focused types) and offensive (hitting popular types and only resisted by three others). Not only that, but Water-types also normally learn a fair amount of Ice-type moves which helps with two Types they have a disadvantage against (Grass & Dragon). Water-type moves also have a wide range of effects making them versatile.

Going by types alone, gotta say the weakest looking one of them is Pan/Simisage. Sadly they can't take as much advantage of one of Grass-types main gimmicks which was meant to counterbalance having a lot of weaknesses. Another factor also come to Weather, the other two have a weather condition which strengthens them while at best Pan/Simisage has Strong Sunlight (shared with Pan/Simisear) which increases the Power of one of their weaknesses while also weakening one of their resistances.

But Type match-ups can be overcome if the Pokemon has the right moves! To make things easier I'm going to separate their moves by Category:

Pan/Simisage:
Physical: Grass isn't well known for their Physical moves, the "strongest" they can learn is Seed Bomb (though it can also learn Bullet Seed). Seed Bomb isn't bad, but it has no secondary effect. Like the other Pans/Simis it can learn a plethora of Physical Fighting- and Dark-type moves, though aside Fighting hurting Ice they don't really provide that much coverage. Rock Slide is probably the most useful coverage it gets.
Special: Special isn't looking much better as it pretty much only learns Special Grass-type moves with any other Types not being that helpful. But with that said the Special Grass-type moves it can learn are very nice, notably Energy Ball, Giga Drain, and Leaf Storm.
Status: This is where things get a bit more interesting. As a Pansage it can Leech Seed. Through Breeding it can learn Grass Whistle, Nasty Plot, and Spiky Shield. And from Tutors gets Gastro Acid, Synthesis, and Recycle which might be handy for ones with Gluttony.

Pan/Simisear:
Physical: Thank goodness for Flare Blitz (and also Fire Punch, we don't have a Flareon situation here). But for coverage it has a similar story to Pan/Simisage, with Fighting-type the only one providing coverage to its Rock-type weakness (though that does knock them down to two weaknesses while Pan/Simisage still had four).
Special: Hahaha, do Fire-types have powerful Special Fire-type moves? Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Overheat, and Heat Wave, take your pick. However Fire-types have one more trick up their sleeve: they can learn a few Grass-type moves: Solar Beam and Grass Knot. This is notable as Grass is super effective against all their weaknesses. If on a Sunny Day/Drought team Solar Beam can be used instantly, though Grass Knot can still be good as their as many heavy Ground, Rock, and Water-types (especially the ones usually considered "tanky"). It may be a two trick pony, but those two tricks cover all its weaknesses.
Status: This is where Pan/Simisear falters. Will-O-Wisp, Nasty Plot, Gastro Acid, and maybe Recycle. *shrugs*

Pan/Simipour:
Physical: It gets two decent STABs with Waterfall and Aqua Tail. And while it doesn't have anything for Electric, for Grass it does get two notable moves that cover it. The first one is Ice Punch, which is also good for handling those Dragons. The other is one for all the Elemental Monkeys learn: Acrobatics. If using Gluttony, once they eat the Berry it'll also then have a 110 Power Flying-type move. While all of them can do this, Pan/Simipour is the only one with a weakness that it covers. And it also learns all those shared Fighting and Dark-type moves.
Special: Like the other two it has some good Special Water-type moves: Surf, Scald, and Hydro Pump. This also goes for Ice-type moves getting Ice Beam and Blizzard. But outside of that not much else the others don't get.
Status: Something that Pan/Simisears have in common, just replace Will-O-Wisp with Aqua Ring.

With all things considered, I gotta once again give it to Pan/Simisage. When it comes to Physical moves it doesn't get a powerful STAB nor that many coverage and though it gets plenty of healing moves with Special and Status Moves it's not really built to be a defensive Pokemon. The other two also do a better job at covering their weaknesses even if what Status moves they learn is more limited.

So overall I think the poll got the wrong monkey. I'll admit that Simisear may not be the best designed of the Elemental Monkeys, but if we take a look at how they play you'll find that the one that puts up the toughest image is just as soft as the leaves it's made from.

One quality which makes them all pretty equally awful to me is that they only exist for one terrible gym gimmick. It seems like the Pokémon available before Striaton were chosen with this forced bad matchup in mind. You can either grind through with just your starter, choose one or more of the three uninspiring wild Pokémon available to get a neutral option, or pick up the free gift monkey which trivialises the Leader battle, as the game seems to want you to.

They’re all pretty competent battlers, but their ‘function’ in this part of the game along with their meh designs places them among the few Pokémon I genuinely dislike. If I’m being honest, I’d like to get rid of -pour and -sear and keep Pansage and Simisage, because their designs, while not super exciting, are the least jarring to me.

 

[Worldie]

Since my last post was a bit wishlist-y, how about another one of my "worst of the bunch"? A month or so ago a massive poll took place where all Pokemon were ranked, and it was revealed that the "worst" (or rather least voted for) Pokemon turned out to be Simisear!

To be honest I think you're being too harsh on the poor monkeys :P

Ultimately they were not built to be "good", they were just meant as being a pseudo-starter-replacement to have early game to cover a Pokemon type you might have difficulty obtaining early in the game. I doubt any of the 3 was created with the intention to be the kind of Pokemon you bring to the end of the story nor one you'd really use competitively :)

 

[Pikachu315111]

To be honest I think you're being too harsh on the poor monkeys :P

Ultimately they were not built to be "good", they were just meant as being a pseudo-starter-replacement to have early game to cover a Pokemon type you might have difficulty obtaining early in the game. I doubt any of the 3 was created with the intention to be the kind of Pokemon you bring to the end of the story nor one you'd really use competitively :)

True, and BTW if anyone disagrees with me feel free to post your thoughts, my posts are meant to be discussion starters bringing both facts and my opinions (which I'll admit are limited when it comes to competition).

 

[Codraroll]

I disagree too! You're not being harsh enough on these shitty simians. They might not have been designed to be anything but early-game gym counters, but one aspect of their implementation pushed them into "annoying" territory for me: their ubiquity. BW had a pretty repetitive pattern of Pokémon distribution for route trainers. They generally used the same Pokémon available in the area. Plus the monkeys. All of the monkeys. Every time.

It seemed like everywhere, you'd find somebody who used them. And you never saw one in isolation. Either the same trainer would use all three, or there were three consecutive trainers with one each, or a double battle against two of them with the next trainer down the road having the third. For some reason, the monkeys were also used by both your rivals, Morimoto, and, of course, the first Gym. They were thrown in your face all throughout the game, and the game was virtually shouting "THERE ARE THREE OF THEM!" the whole time.

And of course, they are completely ass in combat. They might have been saved by a secondary typing or even a higher evolution level, but as-is, those Pokémon have no redeeming qualities. They make me flinch every time I see them. Particularly Simisear. Seriously, screw that thing.

 

[Tazonite]

What a waste of Dex space.

As of late, I feel myself and many others have become completely desensitized to legendaries. Not many of them are super good in competitive anymore. Gen 6 had some good hits, but nobody really remembers Reshiram or Zekrom or Solgaleo as these big powerhouses. They're powerful, but so are a bunch of other legendaries.

Still, I don't mind Solgaleo or Necrozma or whatever. I do mind Cosmog and Cosmoem. They're just dumb old narrative devices. It's nice that Solgaleo/Lunala don't just wait to show up at the end, and a legendary that evolves isn't a horrible idea. It would've been so nice if the preevolutions were actually competent at life, though. They do nothing. Unown can do something. Even Pyukumuku is more capable than these two. They can't do shit, and I don't even care if they contribute to the narrative or not, they're just so annoying useless. You could've had Solgaleo and Lunala be single stage Pokemon that show up in the game and do cool stuff to help you. I don't know, I just wish that Cosmog and Cosmoem never existed.

Image credit to: https://www.deviantart.com/kenthenekomata/art/Cosmog-and-Cosmoem-653102421

 

[Merritt]

Cosmoem is probably the least necessary Pokemon. It adds nothing to the line, not being a competent Pokemon in its own right, and, in terms of lore, (U)SM's plot could 100% have worked with a comatose Cosmog instead of shoving a Cosmoem in. The design isn't bad but Cosmoem feels like it's just there to take up space.

 

[Worldie]

To be honest having Cosmog and Cosmoem as actual Pokemon in the Pokedex was not completely necessary. Think of Zygarde cells and cores: they're separate living entities but do not appear in the Pokedex

 

[La Mareanie]

I really hate Gumshoos and Yungoos. They both have a terrible design, i just can't stand the appearence and the cry of these pokemon, to be honest i avoid playing ultra sun during the day so i can be sure that i will not find these abominations around. Their pokedex entries also say they were introduced to alola region to reduce rattata population... that does not makes any sense, how a diurnal pokemon is supposed to hunt a nocturnal pokemon? Also, alola has many other potential predators to Rattata(Meowth line, Litten line, Ekans line, Birds, etc.). To complete, they are both practically useless in competitive, even in ZU, Gumshoos have the same viability of f*ckin CORSOLA. Indeed i think that the alola inhabitants made a terrible decision introducing yungoos to Alola.