Competitive Pokemon History L-Z Trivia

1. One of the things which made Volcarona a deadly threat in fifth generation standard play was having arguably the best boosting move in the game at its disposal, to quickly turn nuclear and easily threaten a sweep. What boosting move was this?

From Quiz Competitive Pokémon History - Volcarona

Answer: Quiver Dance

Quiver Dance boosts the user's Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed by one stage each upon being used. This made Volcarona out to be quite fast after a boost, hit unbelievably hard, and be fairly sturdy against retaliating special attackers- if it's assailant somehow managed to survive an attack from it first, that is.

From Quiz Competitive Pokémon History - Victini

Answer: 100

A 100 in everything makes Victini about to be barely average, with mediocre offenses, average at best bulk and merely decent speed. As such, Victini never would've established itself as a threat if it had to do so off the strength of its stats.

From Quiz Competitive Pokémon History - Meloetta

Answer: 128

A 128 in Special Attack was decent, while a 128 in Special Defense made for a very specially tanky Pokémon. As such, if not at an obvious disadvantage, Meloetta could fairly reliably check specially offensive threats with its good stat build.

From Quiz Competitive Pokémon History - Landorus I & T

Answer: Ubers

Landorus-Incarnate would go on to spend the entirety of the next three generations in Ubers, sheltered away from standard play. It doesn't look particularly overwhelming at first glance, but when meshing good offenses, a stellar offensive ability, perfect offensive movepool and lack of reliable counterplay, Landorus-I proved over the next three generations time and time again that it was simply too much to be allowed in standard play.

From Quiz Competitive Pokémon History - Shedinja

Answer: 1

Having but a single hit point which cannot in anyway be raised, Shedinja would be OHKOed by literally anything capable of dealing damage to it. Obviously, this means it can't exactly be played particularly recklessly.

From Quiz Competitive Pokémon History - Onix & Steelix

Answer: Bind

Lacking access to the other three moves, Onix could become a viable partial trapper using the move Bind. In generation one, partial trapping moves such as Bind, Wrap and Fire Spin will completely immobilize the target until the user stops repeatedly using the move, or the move itself eventually misses. Because of this, Onix could choke a threat out as long as it didn't possess the means to immediately greatly threaten Onix right on the spot. With its very high defense stat, this typically meant Onix could accomplish this as long as the target was not a speedy special attacker, or Haunter due to the fact Haunter was immune to Bind.

From Quiz Competitive Pokémon History - Persian

Answer: 115

Persian, crucially, was able to outspeed the king of standard play, Tauros, which could let it revenge kill it if weakened. This was huge for its viability. Speed also influenced critical hit rate, and every attack Persian used therefore had an eye-popping 22.46% chance to critically hit.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Toxicroak

Answer: Its stats were too poor

Toxicroak's overall stat build was poor. It had merely slightly above average Attack, and its other stats were all well below average. Unfortunately, this took away any real chance it had of performing in the high power levels of standard play.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Torterra

Answer: Three

Only having three resistances looks fairly ho-hum on paper, but when having a look at what those resistances are, the prospects improve. Being resistant to both Ground and Rock is amazing, enabling Torterra to take on offensive Ground types incredibly effectively, hitting them with super effective Grass attacks while resisting whatever they throw at it. An immunity to Electric is helpful, giving Torterra the ability to ignore Thunder Wave and pivot into Electric type attacks.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Luxray

Answer: 120

Luxray could thus generally hit pretty hard with its physical attacks, provided that they were hitting super effectively or were striking frail offensive threats.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Sneasel & Weavile

Answer: It lacks STAB options

At the time, the physical/special split did not exist. Sneasel's Ice/Dark typing was excellent offensively, but both typings could only ever be specially offensive. Sneasel's laughable Base 35 Special Attack meant it could not take advantage of its STAB. Its ridiculously poor bulk combined with its middling offenses meant Sneasel went down way too easily and didn't do anywhere near enough damage to compensate, making it a genuinely terrible Pokémon in the second generation.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Pachirisu

Answer: NeverUsed

The Untiered designation didn't actually exist at the time, but if it did, Pachirisu would no doubt have ended up here. The fourth generation is known for being the most accommodating for mid-tier and low-tier Pokémon to find some sort of useful niche in. The list of threats viable for UU is extensive, and is larger than any other generation in franchise history. Thus, the fact that Pachirisu fails to appear on this list should tell you all you need to know about how great it was. Pachirisu's pathetic offenses and below average bulk made it miss out on this list. In NU, Pachirisu was really not viable, but it could at least be somewhat functional with a mediocre support set that could weaken walls with Super Fang, pivot threats in with U-Turn and maybe spread paralysis with Discharge or Thunder Wave.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Regigigas

Answer: 160

At 160, Regigigas was just short of Rampardos' 164 and Deoxys-Attack's 180 for highest in the game. However, it was far bulkier than either of them and had much better Speed (in theory) than the former.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Shaymin-S

Answer: 127

Base 127 was absolutely brilliant at the time, getting the jump on standard play staples such as Starmie, Salamence and Garchomp until they also got banned, Gengar and Dugtrio. In Ubers, this trait was even more useful, outspeeding immensely prominent figures such as Darkrai, all formes of Arceus, Mewtwo sets that did not maximize their speed (which was semi-rare, unfortunately) and the fourth generation cover legendaries of Palkia, Dialga and Giratina's formes. Simply put, one of the first things the average player will think of when spotting a Shaymin-S on the opposing team will probably be either "Good thing I have a healthy Mewtwo, or I'd be done for" or "Uh oh, I'm in trouble!"

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Uxie

Answer: 130

Uxie is slightly bulkier than Cresselia and is only a small bit behind Lugia - sharing the same Defense stat as the latter while trailing it slightly in Special Defense. Between the three Lake Guardians, it is clear that Uxie truly embodies the concept of being a "Guard"ian!

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Zangoose

Answer: A Swords Dance sweeper with physical STAB

With a nice 115 Attack stat, workable 90 Speed and STAB Return, Zangoose could lay the hurt on teams after a Swords Dance boost. Access to a physical Shadow Ball kept Ghost types from totally blanking it, while Brick Break could take out Tyranitar, Rock and Steel types.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Medicham

Answer: 80 in Speed

A base 80 Speed is thoroughly mediocre for an offensive Pokemon. It would be just enough to outspeed most walls, but not enough to outspeed most other offensive Pokemon. Believe it or not, Medicham's next highest stats are its defenses! Yet, in spite of that, they are very low base 75s. Mixed with an auspicious defensive typing and measle 60 HP, and Medicham cannot take hits well at all. A mere base 60 for Attack and Special Attack makes Medicham look impotent at first. Fortunately, it had the tools to easily mitigate this shortcoming, and to be an elite wallbreaker.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Latios + Latias

Answer: Ubers

Thanks to their signature item, Soul Dew, the Latis were obviously far too strong to be legal in standard play. Even without Soul Dew, their high base stats and expansive movepools likely would have had them banned from standard play anyway.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Registeel

Answer: It is immensely passive

Registeel's bulk is great, but bulk alone is insufficient. Its low 75/75 offenses and bad offensive typing makes it very easy to switch into. It has nothing with which to threaten Substitute or Rest + Sleep Talk users, making the former into a near hard counter, and the latter into an outright hard counter. Registeel's inability to threaten the majority of the meta undermines its great bulk, rendering it unviable in the tier.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Typhlosion

Answer: It was banned from UU

Over numerous generations, Typhlosion would be known as the poster child for Pokemon stuck in "Poke Purgatory"- an unfortunate state of being ineffective in one metagame, but being too strong to be allowed in the metagame right underneath that one. Such is life for Typhlosion, who is simply ineffective to the max in standard play while being a notch too strong for UU play.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Scizor

Answer: It had a terribly small movepool

Scizor's puny movepool did have two genuinely appealing options- Swords Dance and Baton Pass. That said, it couldn't threaten Skarmory, Suicune or Steelix at all, causing them to easily switch in on it, use Whirlwind or Roar, and remove any Swords Dance boosts it had accumulated. Scizor wasn't as vulnerable to being phazed out by Raikou, since a Swords Dance boosted Hidden Power Bug or Silver Wind would hurt a lot, but its advantages over the competition end there. It was ultimately outclassed on Baton Pass chains by the likes of Jolteon and Ariados, who had ways around being phazed and could more reliably get off Baton Pass.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Skarmory

Answer: 140

Skarmory's Defense stat was tied with Forretress and was only beaten by Steelix and Cloyster. Cloyster had a miserable defensive typing, terrible HP stat, and excellent all around offenses, so it wouldn't compete with Skarmory in the slightest. Meanwhile, Steelix somewhat competed with Skarmory for its role, but Skarmory was generally superior. Steelix's weaknesses to Fighting and Ground were heavily detrimental to a physical wall, while Skarmory was immune to the latter and only took neutral damage from the former thanks to its Flying typing.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Unown

Answer: Hidden Power

Unown can potentially access one of sixteen different kinds of Hidden Power to ravage the enemy with. Take that, Mewtwo! Unown does not need the sheer power offered by moves like Fire Blast, Earthquake, Hydro Pump or Thunder. Or a move with a base power higher than 70. This would simply make Unown overpowering, and would prevent it from maintaining its guise as a Pokemon fit for the NeverUsed tier. Using Unown is making use of the ultimate element of surprise; upon seeing it, the opposing trainer is going to become awestruck, to the point where their emotions will overwhelm them, granting you an easy victory. Hidden Power is part of that magic!

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Wobbuffet

Answer: Five

Wobbuffet could learn Counter, Mirror Coat, Safeguard, Destiny Bond and Mimic. None of those moves are capable of dealing direct damage to the opponent unless they're stupid enough to actually attack Wobbuffet. Using Wobbuffet in any competitive meta was the equivalent of putting up a sign that reads "please come setup in my face for free!" since Wobbuffet couldn't actually threaten or pressure the enemy in any way. For these reasons, Wobbuffet was generally accepted to be the worst fully evolved Pokemon in the game.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Lugia

Answer: 106/130/154

Lugia was near invincible on both sides, with good HP, incredibly high Defense and absurdly high Special Defense. Because of this, even STAB super effective attacks would often fail to 2HKO, especially if they were specially offensive. Lugia's immunity to Spikes also meant it couldn't be whittled into 2HKO range with the entry hazard.

From Quiz Competitive Pokemon History - Mew

Answer: Learn every teachable move in the game

Mew's power in the first generation largely owed to its ability to learn literally every teachable move in the entire game. Clearly, this meant it had a rather large amount of versatility.

From Quiz Competitive Pokémon History - Volcarona

Answer: 135

At 135, Volcarona's good complementary movepool meant that it could easily threaten a sweep if the opponent dared falter in allowing their answer to Volcarona to even get slightly chipped. This made it out to be a deadly threat.

From Quiz Competitive Pokémon History - Meloetta

Answer: Speed

A 128 in Attack was good, but a 128 in Speed was marvellous. If used in standard play, Meloetta-Piroutte could get the jump on many prominent Pokémon such as Alakazam, Starmie, Gengar, the Lati twins and a Tyranitar wielding a Choice Scarf. As such, it made for quite the threat.

From Quiz Competitive Pokémon History - Landorus I & T

Answer: OverUsed (standard play)

Landorus-T would go on to be the #1 most used Pokémon, per Smogon statistics, from the fifth to the seventh generation without that distinction being challenged. Landorus-T was not immediately available for use in the eighth generation, so this broke the streak up. However, it would eventually find its way into Galar, and when it did, it was right back to the tippity top. Simply put, if you were to pull a hundred competitive trainers aside and ask them what Pokémon they think of when they think standard play, it is likely that most, if not all of them would tell you Landorus-T.

From Quiz Competitive Pokémon History - Ninjask

Answer: Speed Boost

Speed Boost provides a +1 to the user's speed at the end of every turn. With the use of Protect, Ninjask could now find a way to outspeed the opponent even if they had already used a speed boosting move on a prior turn. If tasked to be a revenge killer, this ability made Ninjask more consistent at performing in this role. That said, overdoing it on Protect usage could become predictable, which could prompt the opponent to use a speed boosting move to maintain their speed advantage, so the Ninjask player did have to be a bit clever about how to use this ability.

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