Competitive Pokemon History - Mesprit Quiz

Answer: Yes

Mesprit is a good pick on UU balanced teams, a playstyle which was quite common at the time. Despite being outclassed by Uxie on stall and Alakazam on offensive builds, Mesprit had advantages over the two on balanced teams. It had a decent offensive presence, unlike the passive Uxie, and had respectable bulk unlike Alakazam. Unlike Alakazam, Mesprit also had access to Ice Beam and Thunderbolt, giving Mesprit the coverage to hit just about everything for at least neutral damage.

This meant Mesprit could use its bulk to switch into resisted attacks, then its respectable offenses to throw a couple punches back at the opposition if need-be. Mesprit was not a common sight in fourth generation UU, but it was definitely viable for the tier.

Answer: Levitate

Levitate gives Mesprit a handy immunity to Ground type attacks. Alongside its decent bulk, Mesprit could pivot into Pokémon such as Rhyperior or Hippowdon, then threaten them with a super effective Ice Beam or Grass Knot, gathering its trainer some momentum in the process. Unlike Azelf, directly switching Mesprit in with the intent of making use of Levitate was nowhere near as risky, as Mesprit could afford to take a hit should the opponent predict its switch in. Unlike Uxie, making an aggressive play off the heels of Levitate was also generally quite profitable.

As such, Levitate was a great ability for Mesprit to have.

Answer: Yes

Unfortunately, Mesprit is a Pokémon embodiment of "jack of all trades, master of none" which meant it actually had troves and troves of counters. Very bulky Pokémon could handle Mesprit's good-but-not-great offenses, and whittle away at it while staying healthy quite easily.

There is a big laundry list of Pokémon in fourth gen UU who fit that distinction, including but not limited to Milotic, Clefable and Chansey. Dark types could feast on Mesprit quite easily, especially Spiritomb, Houndoom and Drapion, with certain variants of any of them posing a threat to setup on Mesprit and sweep its team.

Unfortunately, Mesprit had tons of counters, and a lot of them were hard for the average team to adequately account for.

Answer: 105

Good enough to not suck, but not good enough to seriously stand out. Such was life for the Emotion Pokémon.

Answer: Healing Wish

Healing Wish sacrifices Mesprit in return for fully restoring the incoming teammate's HP and relieving them of any status effects they may have been afflicted with. While generally a better move for offensive teams, for which Alakazam is often plainly superior on, Mesprit could theoretically be run in tandem with Alakazam as an accessory on its team for this specific move.

However, this was quite rare, so Mesprit players often did not equip Healing Wish, as the move was not the absolute best fit for the balanced teams Mesprit would be best suited for.

Answer: Yes

Spiritomb fell to RU along with Mesprit, which just about answers this question as firmly as possible as Spiritomb could shut Mesprit down 100% of the time regardless of what it tried to do. Escavalier with Occa Berry, or facing Mesprit without Hidden Power Fire, was also really dangerous to take on.

There were less counters for Mesprit than in fourth generation UU due to the smaller metagame, along with the fact that many of Mesprit's fourth generation counters actually stayed in UU or even got better.

But there were still a couple of straightforward answers to it.

Answer: Weather setter

Access to Rain Dance and Sunny Day would allow Mesprit to support its team by using either weather and creating favorable field conditions, in tandem with setting Stealth Rock. Unfortunately, Mesprit was mostly outclassed by Regirock as a Sunny Day setter, and there were limited opportunities for rain teams to perform noticeably well in sixth generation low tiers. So while it was something Mesprit could do, it was not a particularly common sight to see it actually perform in this role.

Answer: NeverUsed

Mesprit was, predictably, a merely average Pokémon in sixth generation NU. Its average stats and wide movepool made it so that it was never really bad at doing mostly anything, but it was never particularly good at doing anything either.

Answer: No

Mesprit ended up in Pokémon Purgatory; too strong to be allowed in PartiallyUsed, but too weak and pathetic to garner any sort of viability in NeverUsed. It was outclassed big time as an entry hazard setter by Druddigon, Steelix and Rhydon. It was not viable in any offensive role due to the number of sturdy defensive answers in the tier, due to its middling offenses.

It was not viable in a defensive role due to its lack of healing options causing it to get easily overwhelmed, in conjunction with its merely decent bulk and poor defensive typing. Simply put, Mesprit was a plainly unattractive option in seventh generation NU.

It was now the 'joke' of all trades.

Answer: Middling all around stats

Mesprit's stats are such where it is merely average at taking hits and merely below-average at dishing hits back. Its utility-laden movepool has stopped it from being banished to the complete depths of competitive usability, but its unexciting stats have led to it never really being particularly good at doing anything, no matter what tier it has ended up in. Sad to say, Mesprit is doubtlessly the worst legendary Pokémon to come out of the Sinnoh region, and because of its dull base stats and bland mono-Psychic typing, it may go down in history as the most competitively boring legendary Pokémon of all time.