The History of Competitive "Pokémon": RBY & GSC Quiz

Answer: Mewtwo

Generation 1 Mewtwo was the undisputed most powerful Pokémon in all of "Pokémon" history. This is a title that has withstood the test of time even through the introduction of future behemoths, such as Mega Rayquaza in Generations 6 and 7, Darkrai in Generation 4, and Kyogre in Generations 3 and 5.

The recipe to Mewtwo's success is simple but deadly: Its Psychic typing, which was only resisted by itself at time, which allowed Mewtwo to potentially get away with running Psychic as its only attacking move, possibly used alongside Ice Beam to hit Exeggutor or Thunderbolt to hit Starmie, Recover to keep itself healthy, and the main cog in Amnesia. Due to the fact that Special Attack and Special Defense were the same stat, Amnesia was essentially giving Mewtwo 2 boosts to both with each use.

The only halfway decent checks to Mewtwo at the time were Chansey, Exeggutor, and Starmie, and all three of them could easily fail to check Mewtwo if the slightest thing went awry for them; be it a Special drop from Mewtwo's Psychic, a freeze from Ice Beam, or an untimely critical hit, if Mewtwo took these threats down, or if they were too weakened to put up a fight, it was game over.

This obviously blatant overcentralization earned Mewtwo the title of the 1st Pokémon to have ever been banned from a competitive "Pokémon" tier.

Answer: Alakazam

A common misconception is that Chansey earned this role, when surprisingly, it was actually Alakazam! Despite its reputation in later Generations as a glass cannon, Alakazam benefitted majorly from its Psychic typing, which only had a weakness to the irrelevant Bug and Ghost typings and also allowed Alakazam to get away with running Psychic as its only attacking move. Due to the fact that special defense and special attack were the same stat, Alakazam was actually quite specially bulky. Even though its physical defense was quite poor, Alakazam could easily fit Reflect into its moveset to patch this deficiency up.

The selling point to Alakazam over its competition was its massive speed tier, which allowed it to get off a speedy Recover, Reflect, or Thunder Wave in a desperate situation, while also rendering it less susceptible to critical hits than its competition.

While Chansey, Starmie, and to a lesser extent Slowbro were all important parts of a stall team, it was Alakazam who was the star of the show.

Answer: Slowbro

Slowbro's superior immediate physical defense to the other three made it arguably the best switch in to Snorlax and Tauros in the game. Tauros in particular would be shut down completely if Slowbro managed to hit it with Thunder Wave, as this would prevent Tauros from recording a critical hit on Slowbro, meaning that Slowbro would wall Tauros and be able to defeat it slowly with repeated Surfs.

While Alakazam can check these two threats, it cannot switch in to either of them, which would be quite troubling for a stall team being pressured by them.

Answer: Pin Missile

Night Shade was a Ghost type move, but it dealt fixed damage, meaning that it would not be effected by the target's typing unless it was a Normal type, in which case it would do no damage. Bite was a Normal type move back in Gen 1, and it would become a Dark type attack in Gen 2 and onward. Bug Bite did not exist as a move until the 4th Generation, leaving the useless Twineedle as the correct choice here.

The only Pokémon capable of using Pin Missile were Beedrill and Jolteon, and neither of them could use the move effectively, with Beedrill being totally unviable and useless to begin with, and Jolteon being unable to effectively use the move due to the fact that its Thunderbolt would hit any Psychic type not named Exeggutor harder than Twineedle, due to the fact that Thunderbolt receives STAB and comes off Jolteon's much higher special attack stat.

Answer: Wrap

Wrap's unusual mechanics in the 1st Generation had it so that any Pokemon hit by the move would be immobile until the user either switched out or stopped using the move after its effect wore off. After an Agility boost, Dragonite would be the fastest Pokemon in the game, meaning it could Wrap opponents to death quite reliably and could sweep this way if the opponent did not have a Ghost type, usually Gengar, on their team.

Answer: Snorlax

Snorlax was easily the most centralizing Pokémon in all of OU; it was on virtually every single well built team of all archetypes, to the point where oftentimes, teams wouldn't bother getting a Snorlax check on their team, as it would be more efficient to just have a Snorlax of your own to face the opposing Snorlax! The infamous CurseLax set, a moveset of Curse/Body Slam/Rest/Sleep Talk, could sweep entire teams in the blink of an eye.

However, there was counter play to the King of OU. Any Snorlax lacking Fire Blast could be handled by Skarmory or Steelix, especially if either of these two were also running Curse themselves. Perish Trap variants of Gengar could trap and kill any Snorlax without Earthquake, while Perish Trap Misdreavus could do this regardless of the moveset as long as Snorlax wasn't running a move capable of damaging Misdreavus while simultaneously having boosted with Curse multiple times, and Snorlax's low special defense could be exploited by powerful special attackers such as Zapdos or Raikou.

However, do not let that trick you into thinking Snorlax wasn't the hands down best Pokémon in Generation 2, as it had ways of beating all of its checks depending on the moveset it ran.

Answer: Mewtwo in Gen 2 ran predominantly physically attacking sets as opposed to special attacking ones

Stalltwo, a Mewtwo set born in the 5th Generation, involved Mewtwo heavily investing EVs into bulk, employing the use of Will O Wisp and Taunt, and essentially burning the enemy to death while preventing it from healing or removing the status condition.

As Calm Mind did not exist in the second Generation, that was also an incorrect answer. The Uber tier grew a little bit in the second Generation, with newcomers Lugia, Ho Oh, and Celebi joining the tier. Alongside Mew, these four Pokémon either resisted Psychic, or in the case of Ho Oh, had such massive special defense that Psychic would do essentially nothing to them. Due to this, it was often unwise to run Psychic on Mewtwo, as the move itself was mostly useless in the Uber environment, and would just have Mewtwo end up getting walled by the aforementioned threats, in addition to newcomers such as Tyranitar and Blissey. Mewtwo often ran a moveset of Shadow Ball, Submission, Curse, and Recover, which was definitely effective in the metagame, keeping Mewtwo solidified as a dangerous threat.

Answer: Entei

Articuno and Moltres would eventually end up joining Entei, but Entei began its inception in UU play. The reason for this was quite simple: Entei was just plain useless. It had good base stats defensively, but its Fire typing was simply not conducive to these stats. What's worse is that Entei's stats favored a physical attacking role, but due to a combination of Entei's poor movepool (its best physical option was the uninspiring Return) and a lack of physical/special split, Entei was left to utilize its lesser special attacking stat to become a mediocre SunnyBeamer. Entei was a truly niche pick for OU play, often being passed over for more powerful special attackers such as Zapdos or Raikou, who could accomplish Entei's goal faster, more effectively, and with less team support, meaning that Entei was only really useful on an OU team that needed Entei's specific typing.

Answer: Spikes

Neither Will O Wisp or Stealth Rock existed in the 2nd Generation, rendering them incorrect. There were five Pokémon in the 2nd Generation who had access to Spikes. Those five were Cloyster, Delibird, Forretress, Pineco, and Qwilfish. Of the five, Delibird and obviously Pineco were totally unviable in OU play, with Qwilfish being an extremely niche and pretty gimmicky choice as well. Cloyster and Forretress were the go to Spikes users, but Forretress was typically chosen due to its ability to run Hidden Power Bug and 2HKO the best spinner in the tier in Starmie, something Cloyster could not do.

However, Cloyster was still useful due to having superior offensive synergy with offensively inclined teammates and higher speed than Forretress.

Answer: The introduction of Hidden Power

The introduction of Hidden Power was one of the biggest changes in the Generation transition. Pokémon such as Forretress who would be useless without Hidden Power, are actually quite impressive forces in the competitive metagame with Hidden Power. Additionally, the physical/special split did not exist yet, meaning that even physical attackers could run Hidden Power if their type of choice was a physical typing.