Forums · The Year 2009 in Pokémon: Winners and Losers

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Slowflake

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Jan 9 '10

Another year goes by, and with it yet another game to throw a wrench into the metagame. Who benefitted the most from the changes HGSS brought? Or rather, as it will be a recurring theme (that means SPOILER!), from the LACK of changes?

WINNERS

STAR OF THE YEAR
GAMEFREAK

I'm breaking my own rules here - usually non-Pokémon are a footnote at the end of each section, but I think no one will disagree with me on this one. Gamefreak was well and truly superior to any of its creations this year, and by a wide margin. Pokémon GSC was one of the most requested remakes of the last few years - not quite as much as FF7, of course (though if you believe the increasingly loud rumors this one will be coming sooner than later). Ever since FRLG came out the hype machine started gaining momentum, unless finally it was confirmed in early May. Which incidentally happened mere days after yours truly began his Crystal LP. TIMING!

But... the people to whom the task of making it fell already had one strike on their side. Namely, the aforementioned FRLG. It was a nice blast to the past to be sure... but most people agree that outside of the graphics, it went waaaaaaay out of its way to feel just like Red and Blue with a fresh coat of paint. That was simply not good enough. Sure, there was some new content, but not enough. And let's not get into the blocked evolution issue... Metroid Zero Mission came out around the same time, and it really showed FRLG up in terms of how to do a remake, despite (but maybe because of) remaking a far more outdated game.

Speaking of outdated games, GSC has the nostalgia factor to be sure, but otherwise the more recent games (especially Emerald onwards) make it look just that by comparison. Outdated. So Gamefreak's mission was to mix GSC's classic factor with DPP's technical prowess and massive content - a balance FRLG failed to nail. And while I could moan all day about how the underground, the Vs. Seeker and the Pokéradar are missing, those are rather minor features. Awesome features, but still relatively minor.

So the end result was a huge, HUGE success. Just about everything else that Platinum featured was included. Battle Frontier, gym leader rematches, and Elite 4 rematches are a few big ones. There's also a brand new rendition of Mt. Silver, featuring a Red that's more powerful than ever. New areas were added, like the Safari Zone, which has a very interesting and refreshing gimmick this time around (unlike DPP's horrid Great Marsh). And judging by the sheer amount of Pokémon you can get in there, this might become the new standard from generation 5 on, especially if they stick by their policy of making nearly every Pokémon available in each game. With around 600 Pokémon by then, expect a TON of Safari Zone Pokémon.

Still on the subject of new areas, one of my favorite features has to be the inclusion of areas that were present in RBY and FRLG, but sadly axed in GSC, either because of time or cartridge space contraints. Viridian Forest, the Seafoam Islands, they're all there. Mt. Moon still sucks though... but the Pal Park returns at the Safari Zone's former location, which is good news after all the speculation that HGSS might cater to the DSi a little bit too much (though the inclusion of Mewtwo and most of the RSE legendaries gives everyone the best of both worlds). There's also the Pokéwalker, which is meant to be a (vastly superior) replacement of that Pikachu device I can never remember the name of. And naturally, the numerous movepool expansions that will be covered in more detail in the rest of this column.

One request that was declined, though, was fixing the level curve in Johto, despite early hype that they had done it after Falkner's and Bugsy's rosters were released. However, that level curve was there for a reason - namely, that Kanto would remain a challenge without having gym leaders in the 70s. Sadly, GSC backed down from that as well, as everyone but Blue was at levels similar to the Elite 4. Not anymore! Everyone but Janine is in the 50s and 60s now, and even veteran players are feeling challenged here.

For those who look forward to Brain Crystal though... it's not gonna happen. Everything that was Crystal-exclusive is back here, to the sole exception of the Odd Egg. And I don't know about you, but I don't think they're going to make a brand new game for a freaking egg, even with the tantalizing 50% chance of getting a shiny baby (which means a guaranteed one if you reload until you get one).

All in all, Gamefreak produced another masterpiece here. I was among the many skeptics who wondered if they would repeat their past mistakes. Instead, they learned from them, and aside from those few missing features I mentioned earlier, HGSS could not have been done better. And that is why they trampled the competition this year.

HONORABLE MENTION #1
#212 - SCIZOR
Who else? It was at the top of the world at the same time last year, and at the time I thought it could go nowhere but down, but look who got the biggest raw percentage increase this year in OU - almost seven points! What's more amazing, in October its lead over Gyarados, the #2 at the time, was of over 11 points! Despite that, it doesn't appear to be anywhere near suspect though (some people are looking in Salamence's corner, though, but what else is new?), at least not as much as Garchomp was. And Garchomp never had 11 full points over second position. Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming Scizor should be uber, I'm just pointing out some fun facts. Speaking of Scizor and ubers, it still keeps going strong, keeping the ninth position that was its last December. Its Bullet Punch makes UBERS quake in their pants. This is how good Scizor is, and given how much HGSS failed miserably at denting its dominance, it looks like we'll have a few more years of these shenanigans.

HONORABLE MENTION #2
#149 - DRAGONITE
Last year it was Dragonite, not Cresselia or Heracross, who was the poster boy for "really strong Pokémon who might fall out of OU". However, even though HGSS focused on making non-OUs better (or at least trying), Dragonite really won the lottery this year, as it was the only OU who got a move that made it much better instantly. Namely, Extremespeed. It was Dragonite's big money move back in the Crystal days, but it lost it when generation 3 wiped the slate clean. And for seven years, SEVEN YEARS, it had to endure the sight of Salamence flying circles around it while it could do nothing but watch. And now it's... well, not payback time, because Dragonite gained 20 ranks instead of the needed 41, but Dragonite now has its lifetime subscription to OU. A few numbers to illustrate the Dragonite revolution: In December, 47.9% of Dragonites carried Extremespeed. It went from #43 to #23, and from being on 4.32% of all teams to 7.93%. BARNEY SMASH.

HONORABLE MENTION #3
#202 - WOBBUFFET
Here's a weird one. At the same time last year, Wobbuffet was #22 in ubers, which for all intents and purposes means you're not gonna be seeing much screentime. This year? Number six! Looking at the frequency, it went from 6.07% to 31.40%. That's five times more common! How the heck could this happen? Wobbuffet gets a new move once in a blue moon, and that didn't occur in HGSS. It didn't get better or anything like that. Is it just that people started having a good look at it and realized how much havoc it could actually cause, and people started using it as a result, which caused a vicious cycle? Maybe... after all, I didn't pay much attention to it until it came out of the mothballs, and I fell in love with the thing afterwards. Looking at the evolution of the situation throughout the year, it seems the big bang occured in March, after repetitive, but smaller increases over the previous months (including the end of 2008). No matter what this was caused by, this is the uber tier's representative in this year's awards. By the way, yes, I broke my own rules again by having a third honorable mention, but not only did I did so last year, but I wanted to have three actual Pokémon in the rewards section.

#135 - JOLTEON
Jolty isn't going to break records with the boost it got this year (#37 at 5.22% to #29 at 6.94%), but when you read into the overall scheme of things you realize that 2009 was a year that highlighted Jolteon's inherent qualities. Why am I saying this? Overall, Zapdos and Jolteon are quite similar Pokémon, with Jolteon sacrificing Zapdos' great bulk for speed, speed and more speed (and an awesome ability that allows it to switch into T-Waves for free, too!). And with Zapdos taking quite the tumble this year (more on that later), I'm getting the feeling that several of the people who ditched Zapdos did it because it wasn't quite fast enough, which is where Jolteon comes in. Of course, this is just conjecture since I'm one player out of... well, a lot more than that, but nonetheless Jolteon went quite a ways towards destroying the impression I've always had that Jolteon was a good Pokémon on its own, but a bad Zapdos. Maybe someday Zapdos will be a bad Jolteon?

#160 - FERALIGATR
HGSS added quite a few egg moves that Gamefreak thought were tailored specifically for the Pokémon that got them... and in so many cases they ended up failing (the Losers section is full of those guys). Feraligatr is not one of these guys, much to the delight of some Gatr fans who I'm sure are reading this. Much like Aggron has always had an inferiority complex towards Rhyperior, Gyarados was the bane of Feraligatr's existence. But the big blue machine managed to nail Aqua Jet, and instantly the hype machine went to work. And if you believed it, Feraligatr was bound for OU. Not quite, but it DID manage to at least get into the top 100 (#82 in December, with 28.4% using Aqua Jet). And more importantly, it can do something Gyarados can't (outside of not being as pitiful with special attacks) - get the first strike without the need for Dragon Dance.

#169 - CROBAT
I'll be honest - I toyed with the idea of having Crobat as BOTH a winner and a loser, but I ultimately decided against it. Why? Well, it was designated as being "the best non-Mew Pokémon that got Super Fang", and looking at the charts it went from #73 to the outskirts of OU, at #51. Makes enough sense, right? Well, get a load of this: that improvement took place BEFORE HGSS came out. So for some unknown reason Crobat use surged a lot early in the year, and it gets what was long thought to be one of the best moves in the game, and it stays the same. It did crack the top 50 once, but that was the same month where Aggron almost made it, which goes to show October was still the time of experiments. Nonetheless, Super Fang was still Crobat's sixth most popular move last month, at 22.9%.

#195 - QUAGSIRE
A great pick for an honorable mention that fell just short, and made even better by the fact that I can't explain how the heck this happened. Let's recap the situation... Quagsire gained Recover, a move Gastrodon used to hog all for itself within this typing. Even with that advantage gone, Gastrodon still has superior stats all-around, except for a slight drop in defense that should, by all means, be plugged somewhat by the extra HP. Nearly all of the moves Quagsire uses commonly, except for Ice Punch, can be done by Gastrodon as well, and the latter has much more special attack to boot, so it can attack on both sides of the spectrum. So how does Quagsire go from #178 to #107, while Gastrodon goes from #107 to #144? Is Water Absorb so much of a big deal that the lower stats are worth it, and then some? I'm well aware that a hypothetical Quagsire evolution with a BST similar to Swampert's would likely obsolete the latter because of Water Absorb, but can it overcome even the aforementioned stat disadvantage? Looks like it, though I'd still take Gastrodon any day. Between the two, that is! If Swampert is an option, gimme the overgrown mudfish! I liek mudkipz!

#205 - FORRETRESS
Forry had a fairly anonymous year in OU, though it did gain five places to end up 31st. At least the continuation of Scizor's ascension didn't supernova it, so I guess that increase may be a little miracle in itself. Though as I pointed out in the last iteration of this column, the niches occupied by Scizor and Forretress are different enough that Forretress had a good chance of surviving the onslaught of its big brother unscathed. But the big news is how it performed in ubers this year. It climbed from #21 (as I said earlier, you're not going to appear that much there) to #12, and just like Wobbuffet the variation in frequency tells a lot more: from 6.54% to 21.52%! Over three times as common in a year... and a look at the detailed stats reveals a variation in how Forretress is used, which has to be for the better. Of course, its main function is utility: set up entry hazards and spin away your opponents'. However, in 2008, Explosion and Gyro Ball were far more common, whereas this year, Explosion's a lot less common, and Gyro Ball almost nonexistent. Instead, make way for Payback and its metric ton of super-effectives, and now there's room for three support moves.

#235 - SMEARGLE
I'll be honest: even with all the moves in the game (except for Chatter, but who cares about THAT?), I always thought Smeargle was never going to be more than novelty, with those lousy stats. And once again, I'm proven wrong in spectacular fashion. #56 in December 2008, #42 in December 2009. That means it's comfortably OU, for those of you keeping score. And once again, it's not like it CAN gain a move to begin with, so obviously HGSS is a non-factor. I'll readily admit, though, that it's a blast to use. It's so fun to try and make a Pokémon with such horrid stats work, and the fact that it has access to every move in the game, no matter how broken it might be (hi2u Spore with 94.3%, and BPing every possible move too!), actually gives it great potential. I don't know if the fun factor is how it got so popular, but I'll be damned if it's not deserved.

#243 - RAIKOU
I've always believed Raikou was a criminally underrated Pokémon, and it's so nice to be proven right! Could this be where many of those former Zapdos users went (in addition to Jolteon and Rotom), by any chance? The 25-rank gain (92 to 67) isn't the only wild fluctuation, either: Shadow Ball gained tremendous popularity this year, at the expense of Substitute and HP Ice. Held items go the same way: the formerly rare Life Orb became almost as popular as the old Leftovers standard. Quite fitting, because in my opinion Raikou should be an offensive powerhouse, even if it IS one of the bulkiest mono-Electrics out there. Then again, look at the gaping void in the bulky mono-Electric niche...

#250 - HO-OH
It's been a long, long time, and finally Ho-Oh gets a viable STABbed move that's not Sacred Fire! Don't get me wrong, Sacred Fire is a fantastic move, but the quirks of the uber metagame means it's going to rain more often than not, and Ho-Oh was always left without anything stronger than a non-STABbed Earthquake. Not anymore! Although it started out the year at #20, it got as low as #24, before reaching #13 in October and November. That's all the proof you need that Brave Bird patches a gaping hole here... Earthquake is a lot less seen, and Punishment and Return simply aren't options anymore. Yes, Return had a 41.8% frequency in December 2008! And further down the list, you see fun stuff, like Toxic, Light Screen, Thunder, Thunderbolt and Calm Mind. On Ho-Oh. I wish I was making this up. Well, Brave Bird wiped all those moves off the map, and who's gonna complain?

#306 - AGGRON
150. 158. 59. 95. What are those numbers, you ask? Aggron's rankings in December 2008, August, October and December 2009, respectively. This sums up Aggron's year better than anything else. No one really cared about Aggron prior to HGSS. It had a horrid defensive typing, and like both of its Rock/Steel brethren, it was stuck with... a defensive stat spread. However, Aggron had an attack stat that could take it places if it only could get something to fully exploit it. And that something came with HGSS. The combination of Head Smash and Rock Head, which was previously Relicanth's territory, made Aggron a force... for one month. In October it looked like it could potentially break into OU, with that #59 rank and a frequency of well over 2%, but it all fell apart the next month, when people realized that it was still a bad Rhyperior, Head Smash or no Head Smash, and Rhyperior had a miserable year itself... But even with this late breakdown, it still gained 55 ranks this year, and its frequency went up from 0.38% to 0.99%.

#340 - WHISCASH
Explain something to me. What is Whiscash, a catfish, doing with Dragon Dance? Well, it's not the first weird move it has, since it's the only non-Electric that packs Spark, but Dragon Dance? Nonetheless, I don't think Gamefreak really cared when they created that combination, they just wanted to make the thing better. And it worked. By God it worked. I really, really considered it for an honorable mention, but you don't give an honorable mention to someone who's ranked #184 at 0.22%. Nonetheless, when you got there after starting the year at #276 with a measly 0.02%, you know you're riding a Cadillac. Other nonsensical Pokémon, such as Crawdaunt and Tropius, got Dragon Dance, but they only got slight, expected increases out of the deal (even though it's the second most common move on Crawdaunt nowadays). Whiscash truly is the star of the Dragon Dance show, with a whopping 81.2% appearance rate, second to the expected Earthquake, but in front of Waterfall!

#376 - METAGROSS
I've already mentioned Scizor's utter statistical dominance, but behind it the battle for second is heated, month after month after month. The same actors month after month, however there are a few that really impressed me. And this one isn't the most spectacular in terms of stats - it gained four ranks to end up at #7, but it did gain four percentage points as well. And on top of that, it's become the second most common lead, just behind the sempiternal Azelf. Nonetheless, Metagross was already a Pokémon I liked very much, but it did a lot to gain a few more brownie points with it. A Pokémon that I love to use, and that I hate to face. And this is the beginning of a trend, the one where the Steel type quite literally assaulted the higher rungs of OU. It's not just Scizor and Heatran anymore, a lot of others had a great year, and Metagross is the first of them.

#379 - REGISTEEL
I didn't write about Registeel last year, and now it's time to make amends. It already rose to the top of the Regi ladder (#100 in December 2008), and now it's really showing what a pure Steel with heavy, balanced defenses can do. Take a good, long, hard look at this guy, Gamefreak. Bastiodon and Probopass are miserable failures, and Aggron only rose out of mediocrity because of an offensive move. This is my message, stop slapping the Rock type on every freaking Steel tank you try to make! Registeel is doing it right, with just enough support, just enough offense and just enough defense to be able to threaten numerous top threats. Oh yeah, and it loves exploding too. Wonder what giant robot guts look like? Don't get me wrong, it still has a long way to go if it wants to trump Cresselia, but Registeel used to be a farce on the same level as Entei, and now it's the #69 Pokémon in OU.

#381 - LATIOS
I'm over 20000 characters into this column already, and this is the first mention of stage 3 of suspect testing. So there... whereas Latias confirmed that it was a very competent, yet not overpowered OU (more on that later), Latios' extra attack power is still enough to keep it firmly in ubers. Which is good news, especially considering the blowout decision in the first round, which was more than enough to seal its fate. And it's not like it shied away from its regular duties in ubers, either. It climbed from #24 to #17 there, and had its frequency increase from 5.59% to 11.11%. So close to doubling its previous score... but the victory is very, very sweet nonetheless. At the risk of repeating myself, more on that later. Hey, I gotta keep some material for when I get to Latias, right?

#383 - GROUDON
Ho-Oh has always been among Groudon's favorite partners, and with Ho-Oh getting so much better with the addition of Brave Bird, it was to be expected that Groudon would be riding on its coattails. Not enough to trump Kyogre, of course, but it still managed to nail the #2 spot three months in a row, a small exploit considering how heated the competition was. Incidentally, it nabbed the spot from Palkia, who just had three #2s in a row itself.

#385 - JIRACHI
Steel power! Remember what I said about the Steels of OU having a blast? Jirachi was one of the notables. Having always assumed the role of excellent OU, but not quite top of the mountain, 2009 can be described as a breakout year for Jirachi, who finished the year at #8 after starting it seven positions lower. Just like its cousin Celebi, it has immense versatility, but whereas Celebi suffers from having the most weaknesses in the game, Jirachi is blessed with one of the game's great typings. Add that to 100/100/100 defenses, and you got yourself one hard Pokémon to kill. This difficulty is further increased by Iron Head's 60% flinch chance, and unfortunately for anyone who tries to lay a hand on Jirachi, Iron Head's usage has seen a sharp increase this year (from 49.0% to 74.5%). And did I mention that the Choice Scarf has become its favorite item as well? This guy makes Togekiss flat-out look like an amateur. It was the #4 lead in December, but in my opinion it's #1 when it comes to killing your opponent's... patience.

#386E - DEOXYS-E
If Deoxys-E shut everyone up last year about not being good enough to be uber, it shut everyone up this year about being nothing more than a low-end uber. It seems that its stay in OU taught everyone how to use it in ubers, and as a result it's just about the be-all-end-all lead, and managed to break the top 10 overall. It's long been thought that defense was what you needed more than anything for support, but as Aerodactyl in OU and Deoxys-E in ubers are proving, speed can be just as good if not better, especially in a game where even defensive Pokémon don't last as long as they used to, so getting in that one extra turn because you're faster can be very beneficial. On a more personal note, I find it quite funny how Extremespeed is by far the most popular offensive move on the fastest Pokémon in the game...

#395 - EMPOLEON
It's not just here because it's the coolest-looking Pokémon in the game - it's yet another Steel-type with a stellar year. Dragonite's great leap forward was impressive, but Empoleon's 16-rank gain gives it a run for its money. And unlike Dragonite, who needed divine intervention to make it happen, Empoleon did it with what it had to begin with. After all, no fanfiction plot bunnies could make Featherdance a viable option (though knowing the anime, a Pokémon was probably taken down by Featherdance there). Seriously, it's hard to waste this unique and fantastic typing. The Subpetaya set remains as popular as ever, especially since it's one of the rare Pokémon that can make this work. In fact, looking at the detailed stats, the only other Pokémon on which it's common is Mothim, and it just barely shows up on Typhlosion's list as well. So you might as well say it's the exclusive province of Empoleon. As for the other sets, the lead and Life Orb sets dented Leftovers' usage significantly. In fact, in the leads category, Empoleon was catapulted from #96 to #24! Looks like this is the bulk of Empoleon's increase... it's amazing how Steels make good leads, isn't it? Makes you wonder what they were thinking when designing a type with 12 resistances...

#407 - ROSERADE
Last year, I mentioned how it stayed a few months in OU before going back down. So right now we're in the middle of its second stay in the top tier, and there's no telling how long it'll last. One thing's for sure, though: the UU metagame misses it. A lot. How much? Well, just like how Scizor is head and shoulders above everyone else, Venusaur is much the same in UU. I'm very happy at that development, since I'm a big fan of Venusaur's, but one thing I'm hardly a fan of is the UU metagame, so I'll leave it at that. But back to Roserade, the recipe for success hasn't changed one bit: it's one of the best, if not the best, status spreader in the game. Sleep Powder and Toxic Spikes are everywhere you look, and its debilitator role allows it to use Leaf Storm off an amazing 125 special attack without much of a penalty. If you haven't taken a look at it before, try it now! (And no, this isn't an elaborate plot to keep Roserade in OU for as long as possible, so that Venusaur's UU reign may continue. Not at all.)

#462 - MAGNEZONE
With such a marquee year for the Steel type, it's only natural that their natural predator would benefit a lot from it as well, right? To put it in perspective, Magnezone is now the second most popular Electric, behind the lone Rotom-H. And to think, at the outset of this generation people complained about Dusclops and Rhydon evolving, while overlooking Magneton. Well, look where each of the three stands now.

#479H - ROTOM-H
It's the most popular Electric in the game. And it's been getting closer and closer to Gengar all year for the Ghost crown. And by that I mean the Heat form alone, putting all forms together gives us the #3 Pokémon overall, a mere 800 uses away from Salamence's #2! That's right, the Plasma Pokémon is duking it out with what some people see as a potential uber. Amazing. And the Heat and Wash forms meet the OU threshold on their own, with the Cut form coming mighty close. Nonetheless, in this column I'm giving a mention to two of the forms because of how they rose to the occasion thanks to the various opportunities their overall design gave them. Spin blocker? Check. Bulkiest Electric this side of Magnezone? Probably. Special moves that allow them to act as the game's top threats? Absolutely. And with Overheat being the special move of choice, it's no wonder Rotom-H, on its own, ends up in the outskirts of the top 10... as opposed to the outskirts of the top 25 like last year. Odds are, a lot of former Zapdos users went to Rotom for their Electric needs, which makes sense since they're the only two Electrics that are known for their bulk.

#479C - ROTOM-C
As I just said, the lawnmower fell just short of the OU barrier, but as a consolation prize it finished the year inside the top 50. Now, with the overall increase in Rotom usage, of course all forms will benefit from it, but the Cut form appears here because of how useful Leaf Storm can turn out to be. The most notable use is, of course, destroying Swampert, who otherwise poses a considerable threat to Rotom. However, a close look at the numbers reveals that Leaf Storm is by far the least common of the special moves relative to their respective forms. In fact, barely over half (51.1%) of all Rotom-Cs pack Leaf Storm! This means Swampert will often get bluffed away from the field by a Rotom that actually poses no threat at all, and players who caught on to this fact are in for some sweet mind games. And they say Pokémon is for kids. Psssh.

#487O - GIRATINA-O
Last year, in this very column, I called Giratina-O a failed experiment. But as anyone who played FF7 should know, calling someone a failed experiment is bound to backfire in spectacular fashion. And it did here too. Meet the current #7 on the uber ladder. Mr. "I can only use one item". Mr. "No instant recovery". Mr. "I need Arceus to make me look good". Turns out the Griseous Orb is pretty good on its own... you know how Palkia enjoys using the Lustrous Orb with three STABbed moves? Giratina-O does the same, with Outrage, Draco Meteor, Dragon Claw and Dragon Pulse all garnering some serious usage. But the real cause of its explosion is the acquisition of Shadow Sneak. Dialga's Metal Burst and Palkia's Hydro Pump were non-factors, but Shadow Sneak fixes a lot of what's wrong with Giratina-O. It's bulky and it hits hard, but it's slow. Very slow. 90 speed isn't so bad in OU, it's pretty good in UU, but in ubers you're not going to be winning any races. Problem solved. There's the STAB, there's the Griseous Orb boost, now you just have to sit back and watch the havoc.

#492S - SHAYMIN-S
Once again referring back to last year's column, I mentioned the odd way in which the so-called Skymin was banned. It wasn't used that much in OU prior to its ban, and the decisive vote couldn't have been any closer. Stage 3 lifted the clouds over the beast's head, as we got a pretty good idea of what it could do. It definitely had enough usage this time around, and it got a supermajority right off the bat in round 1, so the case was closed: it's going to stay uber for a few more years.

Shoddy Battle
It seems it comes back in this same column, in this same spot, every single year. Shoddy's popularity just keeps on growing month after month, and when you add all twelve months of this year you get an incredible picture. In December 2008, the Smogon server hosted 264825 battles. One year later, this number reached 531307, just over double the amount! In December 2008, not a single Pokémon in OU was used 100000 times, whereas in December 2009, no less than 14 Pokémon managed this feat, with Scizor getting used over 250000 times! The numbers speak for themselves, even in the era of Wi-Fi, simulators remain the superior way of battlingé

Chunsoft
Can't write this column without saying something about Explorers of the Sky, the deluxe version of Mystery Dungeon 2. The rich tradition started by Pokémon Yellow, then continued by Crystal, Emerald and Platinum continued here, and it was fully deserving of being mentioned in the same breath. With several new items that add more depth to the game, several new dungeons, one new Pokémon (Shaymin), the Mystery Dungeon experience remains as great as ever. But the highlight, in my opinion, is the new special episodes that give some extra backstory to the major characters, especially shedding light on what happens to Grovyle and Dusknoir after heading back to the future. And with those special episodes, one of the greatest soundtracks ever only became greater, with the addition of old MD1 classics, like the Magma Cavern theme (along with the Magma Pit rendition and a brand new remix), and brand new tracks, such as the majestic Vast Ice Mountain Peak. If you haven't picked up MD2 yet, I strongly suggest you look out for Explorers of the Sky. Worth every penny.

Nintendo of Greece
For those of you who constantly shudder at the rulesets of official tournaments, there's a ray of hope on the horizon! And it comes from one of the countries you'd expect the least. Instead of following in the footsteps of big brothers Japan and America, Greece decided to do things... well, not exactly the Smogon way, but still very close to it. In their latest official tournament, Wobbuffet, who's usually allowed with no strings attached (and, may I remind you, is capable of stopping most UBERS dead in their tracks), was BANNED with no strings attached instead, and Garchomp, while allowed, had several restrictions that made it flat-out unusable. Namely, no held item, which is perhaps the key element of Garchomp's dominance, and no Tyranitar or Hippowdon in the same team as a Garchomp. Of course, there are a few mismatches with what the community calls the "standard rules": Latios was allowed, but not Shaymin-L. Nonetheless, it's a fine example of a company actually paying attention to what's going on with one of their games and reacting accordingly. Now if only the bigger countries could follow suit...

Me
No, no, don't worry, this isn't about how awesome I am or anything, it's something else entirely. You know, ever since I began doing these yearly columns there's been so much to talk about. Although D/P was released in Japan in 2006, it's the 2007 American release that saw the rise of the new metagame. In 2008 Platinum shook things up a lot, and in 2009 there was HGSS. So I consider myself blessed that there's enough material to churn out columns that go over 60 KB in length every time. However, every coin has two sides, and since I'm not expecting a new game before 2012 at the earliest, this means at least two years where I'm just not going to have as much material to write with. This is going to be difficult... but I believe with the experience that I acquired during these "easy" years, that I can be up to the task.

LOSERS

TURD OF THE YEAR
#429 - MISMAGIUS
In life, for everything that's hyped and delivers, there's something that falls flat on its face. Mismagius is the prime example of that this year. Everyone's already aware of the gift Gamefreak gave to it this year, but in case you've been living under a rock for the past four months, it was the excellent Nasty Plot. And with it, Gengar was supposed to meet its 2012 right then and there, if you believed all the speculation. And even a lot of the more moderate and level-headed people believed in Mismagius' chances of breaking into OU. But theorymon has a way of being completely wrong sometimes, and it received a massive middle finger there. Sure, Nasty Plot is Mismagius' sixth most popular move at 30.6%, but it's not the number that's important. Mismagius started the year in 74th position, wanna guess where it ended up? 50th? 60th? You wish. The right answer is 77th. Don't adjust your computer screen, you read that right. Mismagius got a move it could seemingly get unlimited mileage out of, and it LOST THREE POSITIONS. In fact, Calm Mind still remains its favorite setup move! Of course, its popularity fell a bit this year to the profit of Nasty Plot, but one thing to remember, one that may explain why things happened the way they did, is that unlike Gengar, Mismagius isn't a totally lost cause against a special attack that's not Tri Attack, Focus Blast, Aura Sphere or Earth Power. So a special defense boost can actually cause a good enough difference in Mismagius' survivability to favor it over even Nasty Plot. When will people stop going wild over a change that's not even guaranteed to be all that profitable? This is the biggest example since the changes to sandstorm were supposed to catapult Tyranitar straight into ubers. I learned my lesson on that one, but it seems others didn't - if you listen to them, this slap to the face would be akin to giving Flare Blitz to Flareon, only to find out it couldn't break the top 150. (And yes, I just checked, and it's inside the top 200 right now. I honestly didn't expect that.)

DISHONORABLE MENTION #1
#437 - BRONZONG
Considering that both of Bronzong's Steel/Psychic brothers, Jirachi and Metagross, had a great year, is it really a surprise that the weak link of this typing had a bad one? (Oh, if only more typings could have a weak link as good as Bronzong, imagine how varied the game would be!) Anyway, Bronzong's drop from #13 to #32 was gradual, spread all over the year, much like... Rotom's rise! Yep, Rotom is a formidable check for Bronzong. It doesn't care about Reflect, it doesn't care about Earthquake, it doesn't care about Explosion, and Zong gets murdered by Overheat. It's not for nothing that just over 20% of all Bronzongs pack the "inferior" Heatproof. But the way this drop happened doesn't make it any less spectacular.

DISHONORABLE MENTION #2
#145 - ZAPDOS
For some reason, the way the metagame evolved in 2009 made it a lot harder for Zapdos to get by. In fact, it's ranked lower now (#24) that it was in August 2008 (#23), right before it gained Heat Wave! Of course, Heat Wave did Zapdos a lot of good, hence its rise all the way to #6 in December 2008, but ever since then it went nowhere but down. I don't claim to have all the answers, but obviously Latias' inception has much to do with it. It was demoted to OU early on in the year, and incidentally that's when Zapdos took the brunt of the fall. And just as Latias' popularity kept rising and rising, Zapdos went the other way. Makes sense to me. Of course, there are probably more minor factors, but undeniably that record-scratching sound plays in a player's head whenever a Latias pops up in front of his Zapdos. And it's not like there are no acceptable substitutes - I already mentioned Jolteon, Raikou and Rotom.

#031 - NIDOQUEEN
Super Fang already got a solitary mention in the Winners section with Crobat, and even there it was for the wrong reason - it had nothing to do with Crobat's surge in usage this year. Well, now that we're covering the losers, it's only going to get worse. Our first stop is Nidoqueen - a defensive Pokémon that you'd think would be able to get a lot of mileage out of it, especially since it's one of the best Pokémon that got it. Yep, we got a hint that Gamefreak was already aware of what was good and what was not, and did not give Super Fang to a single OU, and among ubers only the obvious Mew got it. So that left us with Nidoqueen and a few others that could really get a boost out of this. Nope. Nothing at all. Nidoqueen dropped from #115 to #120 over the course of the year, and if you try finding Super Fang among Nidoqueen's more common moves (that is, 5% or more), you'll fail. Hard to believe it's been said to be one of the best moves in the game for 13 years, and now that it gets to shine on something better than Bibarel... nothing comes out of it. Then again, the fact that only one average Pokémon and two awful ones have ever had it prior to HGSS might have a lot to do with that misconception. Raticate and Pachirisu absolutely need it to do any damage whatsoever, while Bibarel actually has the tools to do some other things and do them reasonably well. Heck, Super Fang only has 20.4% usage on Bibarel, so maybe we should've taken a look at that statistic and read between the lines. Something with a movepool as massive as Nidoqueen's has no use for that. Of course, there's Nidoking too, but since both would do the same damage with Super Fang anyway, it's always a better idea to slap it on the defensive one. Maybe it would've thrived more in the stallfest of generation 2, but with a metagame as offensive as it is now, you won't be seeing it too much.

#076 - GOLEM
In an attempt to inject new life into a Pokémon that began as one of the rare OUs in generation 1, then kept rolling and rolling further down the pecking order, Gamefreak gave it... Curse. I guess it didn't sound so horrible in their minds, it increases Golem's two main stats while lowering an already hopeless one. Sounds good enough... but they should've taken a look at how popular Curse was on Rhyperior. Or not, its percentage is too low for us to know since it's not in the top 12 moves. Wait, did I mean on Golem or Rhyperior? Well... both. Golem did gain four spots to land at #186, but it's certainly not because of Curse. Rock Polish remains the superior setup move on both Pokémon, because it actually does something with that "hopeless" speed.

#087 - DEWGONG
A potential copy-paste of Golem's paragraph here. Dewgong picked up Stockpile this year, a move that Walrein already had, and had no use for whatsoever. So obviously Dewgong would fare better with it, right? Well, nope. Once again, neither Pokémon has Stockpile in their top 12. Trust me, even if I didn't run Walrein's signature set, I wouldn't ever bother with Stockpile - in fact, I wouldn't bother with Walrein at all, I'd use Lapras instead.

#122 - MR. MIME
This guy's situation truly mirrors that of Mismagius. The chief difference is that no one went around pretending Mr. Mime would be much more menacing now. Good thing too, because while, unlike Mismagius, it didn't suffer the supreme humiliation of losing ground (#139 to #127), Nasty Plot is at least used somewhat on Mismagius. Mr. Mime doesn't even have it in its top 12! Just like with Mismagius, it's able to take a special hit and live to tell the tale, so both of Calm Mind's boosts end up being useful. Not only that, but Barrier and Iron Defense also get some use for doubling Mr. Mime's physical defense, one that Smogon qualifies as "cardboard" - a great choice of words. Now, I'm just nitpicking here (though this is what I do best), but why are people using Iron Defense when Barrier is available? Both are identical, but Iron Defense has 24 PP to Barrier's 48. I know, I know, no one should ever run out of PP on a move you can use 12 times under Pressure, especially not on a setup move, but still.

#124 - JYNX
*sigh* If this keeps up, I'm going to get tired before long of writing about Pokémon that got Nasty Plot, but like Calm Mind better. Because once again, this is exactly Jynx's situation. Nasty Plot at least shows up at the very bottom of the top 12 moves this time (at 9.2%), but it's not exactly hard to figure out why Jynx didn't gain any ground (in fact, it dropped 14 places, to #170... two ranks behind Flareon, oh my!). Can you imagine Luna, Jynx's signature set, working without the boon of special defense boosts? Didn't think so. It could hit like a rocket launcher with Nasty Plot, but the whole set is centered around surviving special attacks.

#151 - MEW
This disappointment is a little more personal than the rest, but it's still a shame how many new moves Mew gets with every game, and yet it's unable to make any headway - 2009 was a step back, in fact. Okay, so it was ONE step back (to #19), but it's still a shame. There's now an uber trappasser, an uber Super Fang user, and no one uses either Block or Super Fang. Sure, it's a testament to how much stuff Mew can do, but I'm still a bit sad at this development. In fact, Mew is becoming the uber metagame's equivalent of Smeargle - it can do a lot of stuff that's not offense-based, but is vastly outdone by others whenever it's time to attack. By the way, remember how I mentioned trappassing? Well, despite having a Block tutor now, Mew is the only new trappasser HGSS introduced. As well as the only Super Fang user between OU and uber. You'd think it'd stand out more that way... guess not.

#172 - PICHU
Time to step out of the competitive world for an instant (which should be obvious, since it's Pichu we're talking about). HGSS and movie 12 featured the most insulting addition in the franchise's history - a Pichu that can't evolve. Specifically, the Spiky-Eared Pichu. Yes, read that again. It can't evolve. There are some really pathetic Pokémon out there, but none quite as abhorrently bad. Magikarp can evolve. So can Caterpie. Luvdisc sucks horribly, but its stats are a lot closer to Pikachu's than Pichu's. So we have to find our answers with the worst of the worst... Unown. It has one solitary move, but it's probably still more threatening than a Pichu despite that. It's an unassailable wall compared to Pichu. It's a devastating cannon compared to Pichu. As unbelievable as it may be, Unown is being outsucked! And just to insult us even further, the Spiky-Eared Pichu gets Pain Split, a move that's best kept for defensive Pokémon. And nothing screams defensive like a Pokémon whose three defensive stats total 70. The one positive thing I have to say, though, is that it's said that this Pichu can't evolve because it traveled through time. This should be awfully familiar to those who played MD2, as it's the very reason why you can't evolve your starter and partner until you can rally both Dialga and Palkia to your cause, and use their limitless power to lift the "time traveler's curse". At least that's how I see it, since the game never actually tells you you can evolve once you recruit them, and why, so I just made it up. But that wasn't my point... what I wanted to say was that Gamefreak actually used a plot point that was invented in a game made by another company. I didn't expect that, and to be honest I sort of like it. But that's the only thing there is to like about that horrid thing.

#184 - AZUMARILL
The frenzy surrounding a new Pokémon game is always something to behold. Everyone always wants to read up on the details as they come, but sometimes accidents happen. There was one such incident this year, when someone leaked a fake move tutor list. That list included a buttload of priority moves, and as such, obviously everyone was thinking of a new metagame based around priority (and I don't need to tell you a lot of people didn't like it). But what everyone realized in an instant was that Aqua Jet and Belly Drum were no longer illegal on Azumarill, something that is, in many people's minds, the one thing that stops Azumarill from being a high OU, and perhaps even the new Scizor. (But let's not jump the gun just yet, especially after what I wrote in Mismagius' paragraph.) Unfortunately for the wascally wabbit, the tutor list was proven to be fake not long after that, and the real one turned out to have a lot less of an impact on the game. (Hilariously enough, the learnbases for each tutor were figured out a day or two before the moves themselves!) Yeah, so Azumarill didn't really lose anything, but I wanted to talk about that fiasco, and it fits a lot more in the Losers section than the Winners.

#214 - HERACROSS
Well, the good news is that we're soon going to know how a really brutal Pokémon can fare in UU, and Heracross isn't the guinea pig. That about stops there, though. We already had a few hints that something was going to happen eventually in 2008, where Heracross finished the year at #36. This year, though, it got even worse - its #45 in December means that it's the cut-off line for the OU tier. (Note that while #46 Rotom-W could be OU on its own, all the Rotom forms are tiered collectively for obvious reasons.) Worse, it's a late charge by Heracross that prevented it from being sent to purgatory, meaning that before December that's right where it was headed. It's hard to imagine that a demotion seems inevitable in 2010, but that appears to be the case, thanks to a combination of Scizor's meteoric rise to snag the title of top bug, the Flying type not being a forgettable weakness anymore, and overall slight lack of bulk and speed. But you can remain sure that if the next metagame doesn't have the quirks that hinder Heracross so much in this one, it WILL come back in full force. But that's sadly a question of years, not months.

#242 - BLISSEY
A strong contender for a dishonorable mention, and you might be surprised that it didn't clinch one. It was in the same situation last year, after taking a dive from #1 to #7, and now it's not only out of the top 10, but at #15 it's actually pretty far from it. No doubt this is a first, after the incredible domination that was Blissey's ever since its inception, and even including Chansey in RBY. Blissey is without a shadow of a doubt the Pokémon of the decade, but the ending doesn't bode well for the next one!

#249 - LUGIA
When I said on my YouTube activity stream that there were a lot of possibilities for dishonorable mentions, I was not kidding. As far as ubers go, Lugia is without a doubt 2009's greatest disaster. It began the year at #7, ahead of none other than Mewtwo, only to finish it at #21. And it's not one sharp drop at a certain point of the year, as you might expect from a calendar year that saw a new game come out. The fall has been slow and steady, a few places every month or two. The explanation? After looking up the detailed stats, my idea is that Lugia's greatest fear, Taunt, has increased exponentially in use. Let's look at the numbers, shall we? For Deoxys-E, Taunt use went DOWN, from 74.8% to 70.6%, but Deoxys-E is so much more common that it more than compensates. But where it gets really impressive is Mewtwo, from 18.7% to 48.2%! And Mewtwo itself increased in the rankings as well. And although it's not as common, Mew now has Taunt as its most popular move at 66.3%, up from 39.3%. So if it gets Taunt, expect to see a lot of it... and as a result, Lugia's FEARSOME unboosted, non-STABbed Ice Beam as well.

#251 - CELEBI
After an annus horribilis in 2009, Celebi is no longer worth of the title of "high OU", after falling from #14 to #28. I've always found it funny how the Pokémon with the most weaknesses in the game could still manage to do stall relatively well, but I guess its inherent qualities just aren't enough anymore. 2009 was marked by a tendency to shy away from pure stall teams (we already saw the tumble Blissey took), which doesn't really help its cause. That, and the ever-present Tyranitar, who gained two percentage points in usage this year, doesn't help its cause any, especially with the rise in usage of the Choice Scarf build. Incidentally, while I'm talking about Tyranitar, Celebi's salvation may come in the form of... Shoddy 2? More on this at 11.

#346 - CRADILY
Looks like I have some homework to do. I always thought the chief problem with Cradily was that it could either increase its defensive potential, or its offensive potential. So I expected Curse, who could provide both attack and defense while sandstorm would take care of special defense, would be just the ticket for a surge in Cradily use... but nope. Well, to be fair, it gained seven positions to end up at #84, but much like Honchkrow, its usage actually went down from 1.29% to 1.17%. And looking at the individual moves, 27.3% of all Cradilys run Curse, which came at the expense of Swords Dance (30.9% to 13.9%), but Stockpile use actually increased (10.9% to 15.8%). So I guess at least I was right with the issue of Swords Dance leaving a gaping hole in Cradily's defense... but come on now. It has Curse. It has Swords Dance. It has Stockpile. What the heck is it going to take for Cradily to become better? More PP on Stone Edge? Because that's something else, Cradily is just about the only one who uses Rock Slide over Stone Edge, and that's for PP considerations. And Rock Slide, shamefully, hardly qualifies as a good move on something like Cradily that won't flinch a damn thing.

#365 - WALREIN
Perhaps more than on Crobat and Nidoqueen, it was on Walrein that Super Fang was expected to shine the most. In theory, it was supposed to be the perfect match for the set Walrein is known for. But things just like to go the opposite of what theorymon suggests, and Super Fang (18.0%) ended up being less popular than both Surf (48.4%) and Blizzard (31.1%). But should we really be surprised? Super Fang might put on the hurting on an opponent at full HP, but you got something that's pretty much useless against a battered opponent. Super Fang isn't going to finish off anything, but Surf and Blizzard just might. Of course, there's also the presence of ghosts, Rotom especially, to add an extra nail to the coffin. However, it's interesting to note that ever since Super Fang popped up, another move, usually a bad choice, appeared right alongside it: Brine! It's a great idea when you think about it. If the opponent's above half, Super Fang will deal solid damage, and if it's below, it'll have to take a 130-power, 100-accuracy move with no drawback right in the noggin. Nonetheless, you can't deny the value of Roar or Toxic on a Stallrein, and so a lot of them will be left with only one offensive move, so that's where you go with the reliability of Surf or Blizzard.

#380 - LATIAS
When Latias was demoted to OU, a lot of people weren't too sure it was a good idea. Well, it seems it was - in the first round of stage 3 voting, the decision to keep it OU was almost unanimous! Yeah, so 10 people voted to ban it, but given how votes like that tend to be, that's about as low as you could possibly hope to get. Salamence would've probably gotten more than that! Anyway, Latias really found its niche in OU, finishing the year at #4 and being responsible for a shift in the usage of several Pokémon, most notably Zapdos. Nonetheless, the resulting metagame is stable, non-centralizing, and in a way that's bad news for Latias, because the benefit of the doubt that it used to have prior to this whole suspect ordeal has been utterly shattered. It also had a nasty year in ubers, falling from #12 to #20... whereas as I pointed out, Latios largely took its place. Last year, I said the points in defense were more valuable than the ones in attack - turns out the metagame has shifted enough that the extra defense doesn't mean anything anymore, and the extra attack does. It really doesn't change much to change such a delicate balance, so it really shouldn't be a surprise.

#386FR - DEOXYS-FR
If Mr. Mime's defense is "cardboard", Deoxys-FR's would be "thin air". Obviously, part of why it's having such a bad year is because it's being largely replaced by the Emerald form; I believe Species Clause doesn't allow for different forms of the same Pokémon on the same team. I'm not going to teach anyone anything new by telling you that Deoxys-FR fears priority like the plague, and with Scizor always lurking around, among others, it's always going to meet its Waterloo. In fact, taking a look at the brave ones who still stick with the Fire Red form, usage of both Extremespeed and Focus Sash increased a lot this year. Is that enough to keep the most offensively powerful of all the Pokémon relevant? If it does... then it's just barely.

#423 - GASTRODON
In the time it took me to write all this, I still haven't figured out what the heck happened with this guy. Of course... I mean, if I did, I would've gone back and redone Quagsire's paragraph completely. As it is now, I have no more to say on the matter.

#430 - HONCHKROW
The Misdreavus and Murkrow lines have always been closely related, and in a poetic twist of fate you could quite literally copy-paste Mismagius' paragraph, replace a few names, and that'd be it. In Honchkrow's case, the move that was supposed to let it soar to OU was Brave Bird, a move that already made a name for itself with Staraptor. But there are a few things people forgot too easily. First, unlike Staraptor, Honchkrow has access to a strong non-recoil option, Drill Peck, whereas Staraptor is stuck with Aerial Ace. Second, Honchkrow is a lot slower, so it's going to have to take more hits (and fortunately, it's got enough HP to do just that, even though the defenses still suck), so HP isn't merely ammo for Brave Bird. Oh, and let's not mention how Honchkrow already has to put up with Life Orb recoil in 42.3% of the cases. Third, Honchkrow already has access to the second strongest priority move in the game (just behind Absol's own Sucker Punch), so the Flying move is the secondary STAB, not the primary one. While this doesn't have too much to do with Drill Peck being more popular than Brave Bird, because even in a backup role both have their pros and cons, it DOES have a lot to do with why Honchkrow use didn't skyrocket. In fact, while it did, unlike Mismagius, improve its ranking (up one spot to #80), its percentage still went down from 1.41% to 1.34%. And it doesn't have to do with anything, but I have a lot of difficulty to type out Honchkrow without pressing backspace once. I blame the five consonants in a row.

#445 - GARCHOMP
One of my major complaints about Garchomp's ban was that it occured mere days before Platinum's release, and thus we wouldn't get to know how it was affected by the changes it brought about. Stage 3 testing, among other things, addressed this problem (along with the issues brought forth by Latias' demotion), and we got to see for ourselves if Garchomp was still too good for OU. Round 1 was notable, as unlike D/P OU, it pitted Garchomp against two of its worst nightmares - the Lati twins. They impacted the suspect ladder in such a way that when the time came to vote, the uber side just barely won by the score of 44-41. However, the other results meant that Garchomp would benefit from a slight reprieve in round 2, as Latios, the most dangerous of the twins, easily netted the supermajority necessary to remain uber without need for further testing. And the prediction I made afterwards later came true: Garchomp had a slightly easier time keeping its head above the water in round 2 with a score of 70-52. It remains uber to this day, and probably will for a few more years. I'm under the impression that Garchomp is going to be to DPP what Celebi was to GSC: just barely uber, but a strong OU in the following generations. But what's true is this: Garchomp is still broken, but would have a much harder time than it did in 2008, prior to its ban. Hence its appearance in this Losers section.

#464 - RHYPERIOR
Rhyperior is one of those Pokémon that have shuttled a few times between OU and UU, and unlike last year (#42) the end of the year comes at a bad time for the rocky tank, who finished the year at #61, which I think is the lowest a Pokémon from this evolutionary line has ever been at. 2009 didn't do it any favors, as not only is its competition for a team slot as nasty as ever, it introduced an ultra-common counter in Latias. Yes, friggin' Latias again. When it's not Rotom, it's Latias. And then Aggron obtained Head Smash, which no doubt replaced some Rhyperiors out there, no thanks to the similarities they share. Oh yeah, let's not forget the overwhelming increase in Scizor's usage. Because if there's anyone who can give the proverbial middle finger to 115 HP and 130 defense, it's Scizor. And to think lots of people were outraged that Rhydon was given an evolution... can you imagine where it would be had it not gotten it?

#469 - YANMEGA
I thought if I was going to write about this thing, it was going to be a lot higher up. Remember what I said about Rotom and Latias? Yanmega's rather effective against both of them, so one would think it would have ended up better than the crappy #62 it has now. Guess not. Platinum, the Hypnosis accuracy drop, and the other things it meant had already crushed the poor thing, how could it get any worse? I guess that nasty, nasty Stealth Rock damage, along with a fallout from Hypnosis' accuracy drop (Hypnosis' usage dropped by 10 full points this year, and December 2008 was already removed enough from Platinum's release!), didn't help any. If that's any consolation, it was subsequently banned from UU... but for someone to drop the ball that much in circumstances in which it should've thrived is puzzling.
Rating: 1

Slowflake

0 +0

Jan 9 '10

#487A - GIRATINA-A
I guess this 9-rank drop to #22 is to be expected... after all, just like Lugia, Giratina-A very rarely carries more than one offensive move, so Taunt just about shuts it down completely. I already listed the users of Taunt, the numbers and everything, so just check Lugia's paragraph for the full scoop. There's also Species Clause which comes into play; since the Origin form is vastly superior at what it does (ah, how I wish for my past self from a year ago to read these lines and go WTF!), there's just not enough room for the Altered form. That, and it has too many freaking weaknesses to be a potent wall in an environment as vicious as ubers. In particular, it's a well known trivia fact that Giratina is weak to its own attacks in a fashion that can only be described as Metal Man-esque.

#488 - CRESSELIA
In last year's column, I said the fact that Cresselia was statistically the sturdiest Pokémon outside of ubers was enough to "be guaranteed a spot in OU for life". Well, I suppose I was right, if by for life I meant for a year and not a single day more. Yep, Cresselia's descent to hell, er, UU has finally happened. And to think, just two years ago it was #9 on the ladder! We're not talking about a Pokémon that was OU several generations ago but ended up further down with every generation, such as Alakazam. This incredible fall took place in the span of two years, over a single generation! Usually, #47 means you're just barely OU, but the increasing centralization of the ladder meant there are only 45 OUs as of this writing. So this is doubly insulting. Throughout the year, both Cresselia and Heracross were popular attractions every month in Stat Park, and speculation as to whether they'd fall or not has been a popular sport. (Hey, gimme that over Price vs. Halak any day!) And one popular question was, would they be sent to BL instantly without a pitstop in UU? (The answer, as it turns out, is no.) Would they break everything instantly and be banned with no need for any voting? Would they be voted BL? Would they remain UU? Those questions are justified, because Cresselia and Heracross are extremely powerful Pokémon that don't quite fit in with the quirks of the current OU metagame. Well, in UU those quirks are gone, and replaced with different ones. I don't pretend to possess the secrets of the gods, but what I do know is that I don't know. Anything can happen... even a trip back to OU on the next tiering update.

#490 - MANAPHY
I've already covered the odd way in which Manaphy was deemed uber countless times, so I will spare you that. But the fact remains that Manaphy stayed uber for over two years based on nothing but the benefit of the doubt. At least with Darkrai we knew it was much too good. Not so for Manaphy, and oddly enough it had never been tested as a suspect prior to stage 3. So that was the first time we got to see Manaphy in an environment that somewhat resembles OU (though with the addition of Latios, Shaymin-S and Garchomp). The end result was somewhat split, but in both rounds there was still a relatively solid majority in favor of demoting it to OU. So the benefit of the doubt is all gone, and the game is afoot. Will Manaphy leave the same dent in the OU metagame as Latias did this year? More on that... in 12 months!

#491 - DARKRAI
Last year Darkrai was featured in the Winners section, riding on the waves of its acquisition of Nasty Plot. It was #2 at the time, and a possible threat to Kyogre's impregnable top spot. A year later, what has become of everyone's favorite uber sleeper? Number 11! Yes, that's TWO 1s, not just one. If you only look at the rank, not the percentage, it did fall a bit early in the year, but that's normal, everyone knows of the fierce competition for the second spot on the uber ladder. The bulk of this dramatic fall (#5 to #10) happened in one month. Not September or October, to match HGSS' release. No, the fall happened in November! However, there's a very important thing to keep in mind: Darkrai lost five places in November, but the brunt of the loss in percentage terms happened early in the year. In December 2008 Darkrai was by far and away the most popular lead, over twice as popular as its nearest competitor (Deoxys-FR). It didn't last long, however, as Deoxys-E was catapulted to the top of the list as early as January, and Darkrai kept going back back back all year. The detailed stats agree too: this year, Scarf usage fell significantly, so did Trick and Spacial Rend, while Nasty Plot increased. This reflects the lead set being dumped in favor or Nasty Plot. Or perhaps it's just the lead set being dumped, since Darkrai usage dropped so much to begin with.

#493 - ARCEUS
It may not be implemented yet on Shoddy... but it's one of the many little reasons why it's here. Because of the fact that the event Arceus came at level 100, it can't be EV trained by anything else than vitamins, which means no more than 100 EVs in a single stat. Unfortunately, the current version of Shoddy can't handle that kind of restriction, so that means no Arceus at all until Shoddy 2 comes out. There are also a few other "little reasons"... It was snubbed out of MD2, despite two or three references, the most relevant one at the end of special episode 5. (If you're wondering, I made the face shot myself, just like I did one for Shaymin-S last year.) It nearly derailed the Speed Gamers' marathon by dying over and over against Bruno's Hariyama, who was at a 38-level disadvantage. And most importantly... a hard C? Keriously? Are you kidding me?

Gravity teams
Let's face it: most of HGSS' tutors sucked. And alongside Super Fang, there was one a lot of people were looking forward to testing: Gravity. Even though Gravity teams are quite gimmicky, they're still a very interesting way of fighting nonetheless, if you want to relieve the tragic boredom of Scizor after Scizor after Scizor. Prior to HGSS, one of the major downfalls of Gravity teams was that there wasn't nearly enough stuff that could actually set up Gravity. You had Clefable, Probopass, Dusknoir, Jirachi, and that was it. Now there's a lot more variety... and yet Gravity teams aren't any more common. Guess Jirachi alone was more than enough to begin with in the end...

Some anonymous Gamefreak programmer
Usually, how glitches are handled in games of the same generation is that they're there in the first games, then fixed in the deluxe version. However, someone must have spilled coffee all over his copy of the game script for Platinum, because that's exactly the reverse that happened. Platinum included a brand new very strange glitch that wasn't there in Diamond and Pearl. I'm not about to explain it in detail, because the results are really complex, but in a nutshell, whenever someone kills an opponent with Pursuit while sandstorm or hail is in effect, the game goes apeshit and starts introducing several weird, nonsensical weather patterns each turn, including rain that hurts Pokémon. It wasn't fixed in HGSS either, even though it was discovered at the beginning of this year, which I thought would give them plenty of time to fix it. And as a result, the implementation of this glitch is one of the haha-larious "features" planned for Shoddy 2. The reasoning is that Shoddy is meant to be as close to battles in the actual game as possible, but to be honest I don't agree at all with that point of view. I think it should represent how battles were intended to be. Sure, there are a few gray areas that pop up every now and then (and here I'm referring to things that get a "bug or feature" debate). However, this isn't one of them, this clearly wasn't meant to be in the game. But you know what? We could argue about this all day, and we wouldn't get anywhere, so let's just leave it at that. Though I'm still hoping the glitch is common enough that people really start complaining about how it shouldn't be there. And it could very well be common... 35.0% of Tyranitars pack Pursuit, which was what I meant when I said Shoddy 2 could give Celebi a hand. It all depends on how the players behave, though. Will they attempt to trigger the glitch, or will they go out of their way not to? Nonetheless, that's a really dumb glitch, and it's not really something that's hard enough to trigger that you don't need to worry about it.

The Giancarloparimango11 impersonator
There are a few people for whom the label "loathsome, despicable douchebag" is an understatement. And whoever this guy is, that certainly applies to him. For all those who missed the frenzy, in early December someone created a Twitter account, posing as someone at the Pokémon Company. One of the messages hinted in a not-so-subtle way at the fifth generation already being in development. While such a thing was hardly a secret, everyone was still thrilled at hearing an "official" announcement, and even Bulbagarden was fooled into making a news item about it. Serebii didn't, though, which made him into either a genius or a really lucky guy (considering he's British, and the whole thing happened overnight over there). The next day, though, we all woke up to this guy "revealing" he "was" "actually" Giancarloparimango11. (By the way, what I said in my LP didn't change: I'm horrid with foreign names I'm not acquainted with, so I'm actually copy-pasting the name over and over.) Later on that day, Giancarlo made a video on YouTube claiming that he wasn't the one behind the Twitter account, and most people decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. But as some people pointed out, why pose as this guy? Why not Serebii, or Marriland? Heck, even Chuggaaconroy would've been an easy, prime target. I guess douches aren't really that brilliant.

Whew, that took forever to write! It took me quite a few evenings to do that one. It's my longest column, too: from 68 kb in 2007 to 65 in 2008 to 71 just now. I hope you've enjoyed it, and no, I won't blame you if you don't read it all in one sitting!
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Ominous Doom

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Jan 9 '10

Hey Cross remember when you said Dragonite would never be good?


NOW YEAH FUCK YEAH DRAGONITE



Although Pokemon is stale.
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CrossDragon

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Jan 9 '10

I just read all of that in one go. No Moltres, Slowflake? Also, Dragonite is still horrible, just not as much.
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Repto

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Jan 9 '10

Someone at NoG needs a high ten and a raise.
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ff7hero

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Jan 9 '10

I read it in one sitting. Great hour, Slowflake, thank you.

To Repto: I think a promotion might be in order.
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Shadian Vise

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Jan 9 '10

Some of them seemed to be labelled winners based on a usage increase rather than the pokemon actually getting better. Personally, I don't agree with that, but it's your list. Stuff like Aggron just seems to be out of place, because Head Smash really didn't do much for it in the end.
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Slowflake

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Jan 10 '10

Increase in usage usually means they did get better. Contrary to popular belief, getting new moves or an evolution isn't the only way to get better. If the metagame around a given Pokémon changes, and that Pokémon is an effective counter to that new threat, I think it becomes better that way too.

Besides, Aggron is in the top 100 now thanks to Head Smash. There's no way, absolutely NO WAY, that it could've been there without it.
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Shadian Vise

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Jan 10 '10

I actually was thinking earlier that I should retract that statement, because I realized how usage tied in with your list. Besides, Aggron was a terrible example for me to use as a defense.

[QUOTE USER="shadianvise" TIME="1263098854"]Head Smash really didn't do much for it in the end.[/QUOTE]

I think that I overlooked the fact that 55 ranks is an extremely significant increase. In addition to that, I forgot that your list is essentially *based* on the usage stats. You analyzed which Pokemon did well this year, which didn't do so well, and attached reasoning for their successes and failures. Of course the stats would be mentioned often, that was the data to your conclusion.
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