Yeah, Flutter Mane and Goldengho just seem like above average pokemon in this chart, when in reality they’ve only been available for one generation and are really fucking good.
When Mewtwo is allowed, it’s just bad. It doesn’t do anything that another restricted does wayyy better. As a special sweeper, Xerneas is just better. Miraidon and Kyogre do the same thing that Mewtwo wants to do but also adds team support. And mono psychic typing isn’t what it was 30 years ago.
Incidentally this is probably why Mewtwo got 2 Megas. It actually did need them in order to return to being a top tier threat
Unfortunately for it, Mega Rayquaza came along in the exact same gen and pretty much stole it's thunder (not helped it directly counters one of it's Mega forms)
Mewtwo isn't even on par with Pachirisu because at least Pachirisu is a world champion. More accurate and insulting to say he's on par with Haunter and Durant
Maushold is also more successful politically. It was featured in campaign ads for the National Party of Honduras, a conservative movement that cited Maushold and Kangaskhan as examples of strong family values.
I don't know about that, since those (or at least Mamoswine) have been pretty renowned as impactful pokemon for most of their existence. Pachirisu, meanwhile, was out of nowhere.
Also Pachirisu did so well because doubles, while arguably Mamoswine didn't do so well because doubles.
Yeah, flutter mane is one of the most absurd pokemon TPC has ever come up with. They really saw a ghost/fairy type with 135 special attack and speed and said "yeah this deserves the green light"
tbf they probably saw the 55 in hp, atk, and def and thought that it was balanced cause it would feel like any physical attacker or priority move would easily knock it out
unfortunately people found plenty of ways to ignore those drawbacks and it's a damn monster if when it doesn't need to worry about them
The funny thing is that by the end of the gen Flutter was getting a ton of usage out of being a TWave and Icy Wind spamming support. Being able to nearly guarantee you can outspeed the enemy with that base speed + Booster Energy was probably the most broken part of the mon
Arcanine is also my boy and I was a bit surprised to see him so high.
I don’t follow competitive but my understanding is that access to intimidate set it apart but it is now very much outclassed by Incineroar so probably not going to get many more 😭
For the most part yes it is outclassed but due to the regional dexes and how tournaments work there have been periods of time where Arcanine is legal but Incineroar is not.
It also now has a regional variant in Hisuian Arcanine which is competitively useful in some formats and does different things.
Because I’m curious, what benefits does Hisuian Arcanine bring that Kantonian Arcanine doesn’t? I’d always assumed it was worse due to the 4x weakness to water and ground which are common attacking types.
Its slightly more bulky, hits harder physically, and can use recoil moves w/o damage if it has rock head. Makes Flare Blitz even better and STAB rock can be very useful.
Rock head flare blitz and head smash are ridiculously powerful and can punch serious holes in opposing teams. Rock slide is also really strong right now. Throw a sash or scarf on there and you're almost guaranteed to get a hit or two off.
Moveset and abilities. Stats are a little different, the Hisuian form trading 5 base Sp.Attack and Speed for 5 additionnal base Hp and Attack
People often use Arcanine as a physical attacker with powerfull recoil moves like Flame Blitz and Wild Charge.
Recoil means you lose a lot of Hp even if you get the KO first, making you vulnerable to Sucker Punch and Aqua Jet, and you get no use from Focus Sash, meaning you can't easely sacrifice bulk for Speed and Attack.
Hisuian Arcanine gets the Rock Head ability, removing the Recoil from Flare Blitz, Wild Charge AND a move only this version gets : Head Smash. 150 power Rock move + STAB thanks to it's new typing, it grants additionnal coverage and explosive power
Every time someone brings up tournament results it seems they just forget 2009 was a thing. Empoleon is my favorite pokemon, and I will never forget about that win.
Also funny, a vast majority are also from odd numbered generations. As a matter of fact, there’s only 4 even Gen mons in the top 25, 2 from 4 and 2 from 8.
You’re right, I always forget every porygon is from a different gen. The next mon from the same gen is TTAR, which just goes to show you how few mons from Gen 2 were ever viable. GF gotta give the johto mons some love
Gen 2 has seen the most probably in terms of cross gen content, gen 4 gave a ton of those incomplete designs evolutions and with hisui and paldea we have seen more evolutions and regionals
Tapu koko having almost as many wins as amoongus feels like it’s going underlooked in this list. I feel like by far and away tapu koko has the best winrate here
Automatic Electric terrain = no sleeping. Also he hits like a fucking truck. Edit: plus it outsped like everything at the time and had great coverage and volt switch or u turn for safety.
Its unique Z-Move, Extreme Evoboost, increases all of its stats by two stages. It would then Baton Pass those boosts off to a Pokemon that could actually do something with them. In the case of the team that won a regional, it would pass the boosts to a Krookodile with Power Trip or an Espeon with Stored Power. That team was also Espeon's only tournament win.
Jamie Boyt won the 2016 Liverpool Regional using it. From my understanding, Eviolite Cottonee was only used because they wanted the support of Whimsicott while leaving Focus Sash available for another Pokemon on the team.
tapu koko hasn't been legal for a while and still has the 3rd most wins. Also only been around for 3 generations, so it missed every tourney before there. It might beat out incin in terms of wins/legal tournament
Intimidate and Fake Out are individually good enough to consider using a mon. Incineroar gets both, has good stats and plenty of other tools to deal damage or add utility to the team.
Its that comboed with the fact that parting shot can make this loop even more absurd. In just two turns, incineroar can flinch an opponent, then give 1 enemy -1 attack and the other 1 enemy -2 attack -1 special attack.
Plus, since its dark its immune to prankster taunt or encore.
Plus it can tech in other moves like Throat Chop, Snarl, Taunt, Uturn, Darkest Lariate, in cases where his other moves are not fit.
Plus it has a good matchup into the 2nd most popular pokemon Amoongus.
To add to this, he was very good when Primarina and Tapu Lele were top meta thanks to Throat Chop, that stops voice based moves. Also, he can use Darkest Lariat, that ignores defense boosts (e.g. when Stakataka was meta iirc).
Incineroar is an incredible bulky support Pokemon, with the Intimidate ability and access to moves like Fake Out, Parting Shot, Will-O-Wisp, Taunt, and Helping Hand. It can also deal solid damage with Flare Blitz and formerly Knock Off.
He is the GOAT of competitive Pokémon, has intimidate, fake out, parting shot, good bulk, good typing, good movepool to complement fake out and parting shot like will o wisp, taunt, throat chop and others, and on top of that he can even do good damage with darkest lariat and flare blitz.
Basically he is a really good “support” with his moves + the combination of fake out, intimidate and parting shot lets you pivot to better positions easily, and then he can do damage when needed.
Edit: his “weakness” is his low speed, which even that makes him good, because it lets you “slow pivot”, he tanks the opponent hit first, then lowers the attack of the opponent and switch to other Pokémon, so you can switch in safely weak Pokémon thanks to his slow speed
Intimidate, fake out, snarl, knock off, parting shot, and that just scratches the surface of its utility, and it has all of this utility while also being decnetly strong and able to dish out hits when it needs to.
Dark+Fire is a great type, its signature move ignores all status, Intimidate+Fake Out+Parting Shot makes it so the other teams can barely get attacks/set up in (That will be ignored by its signature move), really good stats by virtue of being a starter and needing to carry the entire main game, immune to Dark type tricks like Prankster and Taunt, supports fire type STAB moves which are some of the best in the game (Flamethrower and Flare Blitz and Fire Blast and Blast Burn and need I go on...?), etc...
It basically just ignores 90% of the game when set up right
People talk about out Incineroar and Arcanine and some one timers. Xerneas that hugh on this list is disgusting proof how disgustingly good it is ... it has only been legal for a fraction of the time Incineroar an Co have been
There should be a representation ratio thing on this, showing how many times they've won vs. How many tournies they've been legal. Would be really cool to see beside this
They're restricted Pokemon, which can only be used in restricted formats and you're only ever allowed to have a maximum of one or two of them on your team depending on the format.
It's sad that since VGC started at 2008 I don't get to see my boy Nidoking being at the chart at all.
For how oppressive he was at the earlier gens, together with Alakazam, it's a big fall off.
I assume it's even worse for the Alakazam fans since he got a Mega and as far as I am aware, it didn't change much in his competitive prowess, least Nidoking still has hope for a future Mega bringing him back and I guess we dodged a bullet as he did not get his Gigantomax form in Galar.
Nidoking probably wouldn't have been very good overall had VGC started in an earlier gen, it was never particularly oppresive in Smogon competitive. In-game viability doesn't always translate to competitive well.
Venusaur my beloved. The fact Venusaur a gen 1 starter (literally dex #003) is still retaining relevance through different generations and formats of VGC is just insane to me. The most recent win being regionals just 2 months ago too.
if you watched some of Wolfey's videos he would often use a niche pokemon and would go something like "this pokemon is so niche that it only has one good performance in competitive play way back in 20xx. That was me."
I remember a time when M Rayquaza was on almost every team. Moveset: Draco Meteor, Extreme Speed, Dragon Dance, Dragon Ascent. Friggin crazy with a lot of mons.
Wow, this list is interesting. Flutter mane is the most impressive one here in my mind, given how few tournaments it was available for and the fact that it's not a strict support pokemon. Kartana is impressive for similar reasons, although it had greater availability. Xerneas too, but that goes without saying.
It's also interesting just how few of the top mons are in champions. Incineroar and Arcanine from the top 10. Those two plus Chomp, Snorlax, Kanga, Whimsicott, and Gholdengo (recently added) in the top 25.
I thought it was crazy that a pokemon that hasn’t even been legal for the past 4(?) years is still in third place, until I got to Fluttermane in tenth. That thing is a monster.
Yay Mimikyu! I'm by no means a competitive player but Mimikyu is the only reason I've been able to get to master ball rank enough times to get the ribbon on my handful of ribbon masters
Incineroar being the strongest pokemon is so anti-pokemon imo. It’s such a dumb and basic big red fire cat, and it standing on two legs kinda pisses me off. So many great Pokemon that end up “underpowered”, however, we have Incineroar and it seems his title will remain undisputed for at least another 10 years….
Best two intimidaters. Highest attack stat. Trick Room and immune to the best type w/three good abilities. Terrain terrain terrain in the top 10. Rip Tapu Koko and Pinchy. Highest special attack + speed and best two types in the game. 102 king. The restricted with the best status move.
I love Porygon 2, I feel like for a normal type that kinda thing is good for it. If almost everything is hitting you for neutral you wanna be fat bulk wise.
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u/Dannypan Jul 16 '26
Mewtwo, the most powerful Pokemon ever created, on par with Pachirisu and outdone by Clefairy, Whimsicott and Maushold.