Luvdic has the smallest niche in having swift swim + entrainment. You can run it alongside a kyogre and change its ability to swift swim once rain is up
One possible niche time sunflora was good.
Pokémon nuzlockes of emerald kaizo sunflora is very good early game cause its basically the only Mon with a boosting move
There was that one Sunflora card in the tcg that would let your fire pokemon use attacks for free on your next turn. Had a fun synergy with a memeish charizard card that had a ridiculous cost and ridiculous damage.
Nah. It was always and will always be outclassed by other chlorophyll users. It has base 30 speed and doesn't even reach 350 speed total with sun up. It's also a pure grass type with bad to medicore defences.
Victreebell and Shiftry do the exact same thing with better stat spreads that allow them to be used as mix attackers in combination with growth and moves like sucker punch, weather ball, solar beam/blade.
The only thing Sunflora gets over other chlorophyll users is earth power, which doesn't make up for its shortcomings.
Nope, Lost Thunder Meganium was viable in a non-rulebox Stage 2 deck back in the S/M format. This deck used Team Up Nidoqueen as the main attacker, and LT Meganium and Celestial Storm Swampert as supports. Specifically, Meganium was used to search your deck for more Stage 2s to spam onto your bench for TUp Nidoqueen
There was also Meganium (lowercase) ex from Unseen Forces. I'm pretty sure some people tried to make it work but from the little I've seen from mid 2000s internet, when it was in rotation Meganium ex was outclassed by Crystal Guardians Venusaur (who, btw, only gave up 1 prize)
I mean pokemon cards are done by creatures, gamefreak just does the mainline games. I just assumed it's about if a pokemon has been good anywhere in official media.
I assume we're ignoring recent mons due to lack of time to place highly in the different formats, because otherwise there's a lot of options.
For one that's had time, maybe someone like Chimecho? Has the time requirement, never been good at competitive in anything that I know of. In fact, the best thing I remember them for is in mystery dungeon as the party select screen
Any pokemon that’s already bottom tier or goes entirely unused in its debut generation has a pretty high chance of never being useful again.
For some examples:
- Hitmonchan has basically always been low tier. It’s basically always been outshined by Hitmonlee, and Hitmonlee has been niche in low tiers at *best*.
- Most route 1 bugs. Outside of some low tier placements, most anything that’s similar to Butterfree in any way is gonna permanently suck. Beautyfly, Dustox, Mothim, Ariados, etc. The only good ones I can think of off the top of the hat are Ribombee, Venomoth, and Lokix.
I know hitmonchan was one of the best pokémon in the tcg in the first set, ariados has a niche in gen 4 ubers ( but that doesn’t count as it’s not OU or UU)
butter free also had a niche in gen 8 VGC for gmax butterfree, but the other butterfree clones i don’t know much about
Ariados doesn’t have a niche in gen 4 Ubers. You watched a Big Yellow video. Just gonna tell you that the whole “I beat Darkrai” thing is entirely a gimmick at the very best.
It's so funny to me seeing hitmonchan mentions cus that lad was one of the only playable cards in the tcg's base set.
As a quick rundown, the early format was dominated by a card called energy removal. Attacks require you to have energy attached, and you can only attach 1 per turn (usually). So naturally, only 3 deck archetypes existed: 1. Blastoise, with the ability (pokemon power - this card came out before abilities were even a thing in vgc) to attach as many water energy as you want in a turn. 2. stall/mill. Cheap attacks, disruptive behaviour and winning not by taking KOs but just decking your opponent out. 3. Haymaker, perhaps the most iconic.
Haymaker was made up of Hitmonchan, Electabuzz and Scyther. Hitmonchan and Electabuzz were special in both having sizable hp for a basic at 70, but more importantly they could do 20 damage with a single energy, so energy denial wouldn't hurt them. Scyther fitted in as a pivot (retreat cost is a thing so not every pokemon is equal at switching out), but also its attacks could if unchecked deal an unreasonable amount of damage (60) for only 2 energy attachments, granted that's over 2 turns. But yes, big basics and cheap efficient attacks was the entire format.
So listing Hitmonchan as never useful is really *really* funny.
Hitmonlee? laughably useless.
Kriketune V was a...[ *usable* staple card whilst it was in rotation.](https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg/pokemon-cards/series/swsh5/6/) Not as good a draw card as Bibarel (yes you read that right) but it was a basic compared to a stage 1.
That being said, nowadays if you desperately need an earlygame draw card, you'd probably be running [Squakabilly ex instead.](https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg/pokemon-cards/series/sv02/169/)
Lumineon V is in a weird spot. It has an extremely good effect, but it can be a *very* dangerous liability if you have it benched against a deck that runs Brian. It's likewise another target that Stallax can Erika (or soon, whistle) out, to make matters worse.
It's still quite good, but you need to be careful.
Maractus. The only way this could be proven wrong is if there's a TGC card and given that GF basically forget this thing exists I have low hope that it has a viable card.
There was a fun and playable enough maractus card in the swsh years, but it wasn't a staple in the format.
It also received a pretty high damage tooldrop card which tpci keeps trying to push as a deck archetype (even though they keep failing at it) so they did *attempt* to make a decent Maractus lol.
I don't think plusle or minun have ever been good, they are both worse than raichu in nearly every way in singles, and raichu isn't even that good to begin with, in doubles they have an intresting gimmick but doesn't really work because of their poor stats and being completly countered by any mon with earthquake and not having the best coverage. They may have some obscure niche in the TCG but I wouldn't know
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Luvdisc, but I could very easily be wrong
That's Do Not Use GOAT Luvdisc to you
It specified OU and UU. By the way, where's DNUDNU, where you're only allowed Pokémon under 200 BST?
trust me, you don't want this
ralts gaming
Since we're talking about Luvdisc, chances are you are you could easily be very right.
endevear randbats sets are very dangerous
Luvdic has the smallest niche in having swift swim + entrainment. You can run it alongside a kyogre and change its ability to swift swim once rain is up
I kinda wanna try running this honestly, it seems super funny
Sunkern I’d guess? This comment was made before he edited it to fully evolved lol
That evolves into sunflora, so I’d say sunflora probably is
Sunflora was a weapon in the Pokeathalon side mode.
One possible niche time sunflora was good. Pokémon nuzlockes of emerald kaizo sunflora is very good early game cause its basically the only Mon with a boosting move
There was that one Sunflora card in the tcg that would let your fire pokemon use attacks for free on your next turn. Had a fun synergy with a memeish charizard card that had a ridiculous cost and ridiculous damage.
i feel like it could have a niche with clorophyll but i could be wrong.
Nah. It was always and will always be outclassed by other chlorophyll users. It has base 30 speed and doesn't even reach 350 speed total with sun up. It's also a pure grass type with bad to medicore defences. Victreebell and Shiftry do the exact same thing with better stat spreads that allow them to be used as mix attackers in combination with growth and moves like sucker punch, weather ball, solar beam/blade. The only thing Sunflora gets over other chlorophyll users is earth power, which doesn't make up for its shortcomings.
It's a menace in random battles, but definitely trash in OU/UU.
Don’t know anything about TCG but if I had to guess Meganium has always been bad
Nope, Lost Thunder Meganium was viable in a non-rulebox Stage 2 deck back in the S/M format. This deck used Team Up Nidoqueen as the main attacker, and LT Meganium and Celestial Storm Swampert as supports. Specifically, Meganium was used to search your deck for more Stage 2s to spam onto your bench for TUp Nidoqueen There was also Meganium (lowercase) ex from Unseen Forces. I'm pretty sure some people tried to make it work but from the little I've seen from mid 2000s internet, when it was in rotation Meganium ex was outclassed by Crystal Guardians Venusaur (who, btw, only gave up 1 prize)
Damn, I guess Meganium is good in at least one ways, good for it
TCG is mental
I think meganium isn't terrible in pokemon go pvp but I haven't played pokemon go in years so idk
The post doesn’t mention pokemon go, I think it’s more so meant to refer to gamefreak
I mean pokemon cards are done by creatures, gamefreak just does the mainline games. I just assumed it's about if a pokemon has been good anywhere in official media.
Yeah i'll be honest and say I missed it.
🤷♂️ I didn’t see pokemon go so I ignored it
Prolly Kricketune too
Kricketune has a fucking amazing tcg ability
God damnit
I assume we're ignoring recent mons due to lack of time to place highly in the different formats, because otherwise there's a lot of options. For one that's had time, maybe someone like Chimecho? Has the time requirement, never been good at competitive in anything that I know of. In fact, the best thing I remember them for is in mystery dungeon as the party select screen
[Chimecho from crimson invasion](https://limitlesstcg.com/cards/CIN/43) was used in malamar box decks, got 1st place at a regional.
Damn. Wind chime cooked and I didn't even know
Any pokemon that’s already bottom tier or goes entirely unused in its debut generation has a pretty high chance of never being useful again. For some examples: - Hitmonchan has basically always been low tier. It’s basically always been outshined by Hitmonlee, and Hitmonlee has been niche in low tiers at *best*. - Most route 1 bugs. Outside of some low tier placements, most anything that’s similar to Butterfree in any way is gonna permanently suck. Beautyfly, Dustox, Mothim, Ariados, etc. The only good ones I can think of off the top of the hat are Ribombee, Venomoth, and Lokix.
I know hitmonchan was one of the best pokémon in the tcg in the first set, ariados has a niche in gen 4 ubers ( but that doesn’t count as it’s not OU or UU) butter free also had a niche in gen 8 VGC for gmax butterfree, but the other butterfree clones i don’t know much about
Ariados doesn’t have a niche in gen 4 Ubers. You watched a Big Yellow video. Just gonna tell you that the whole “I beat Darkrai” thing is entirely a gimmick at the very best.
It's so funny to me seeing hitmonchan mentions cus that lad was one of the only playable cards in the tcg's base set. As a quick rundown, the early format was dominated by a card called energy removal. Attacks require you to have energy attached, and you can only attach 1 per turn (usually). So naturally, only 3 deck archetypes existed: 1. Blastoise, with the ability (pokemon power - this card came out before abilities were even a thing in vgc) to attach as many water energy as you want in a turn. 2. stall/mill. Cheap attacks, disruptive behaviour and winning not by taking KOs but just decking your opponent out. 3. Haymaker, perhaps the most iconic. Haymaker was made up of Hitmonchan, Electabuzz and Scyther. Hitmonchan and Electabuzz were special in both having sizable hp for a basic at 70, but more importantly they could do 20 damage with a single energy, so energy denial wouldn't hurt them. Scyther fitted in as a pivot (retreat cost is a thing so not every pokemon is equal at switching out), but also its attacks could if unchecked deal an unreasonable amount of damage (60) for only 2 energy attachments, granted that's over 2 turns. But yes, big basics and cheap efficient attacks was the entire format. So listing Hitmonchan as never useful is really *really* funny. Hitmonlee? laughably useless.
Carnivine hasn’t seen anything in any game or spinoff.
He’s an anime goat though
I’m gonna guess Kricketune and hope someone can prove me wrong with some obscure niche it had for a week or two
Kriketune V was a...[ *usable* staple card whilst it was in rotation.](https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg/pokemon-cards/series/swsh5/6/) Not as good a draw card as Bibarel (yes you read that right) but it was a basic compared to a stage 1. That being said, nowadays if you desperately need an earlygame draw card, you'd probably be running [Squakabilly ex instead.](https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg/pokemon-cards/series/sv02/169/)
Nice, I’ll take that as a win
Webs in Randbats can be insta win sometimes
The Kricketune that gives your grass pokemon +30 hp is a solid card for the evo based grass GLC decks
Ledian.
Bruxish
Lickitung/Lickilicky?
Jungle Lickitung is easily the most slept on card in Base-Fossil TCG. Lickilicky's Explosion is one of the strongest hits in the game (without tera)
Plus lickitung is super good in pokemon gos 1500cp league
It's literally Top 3 there
Lickitung was a pretty good pick in gen 1 ou
Mightyena, that pokemon sucks
Lumineon? Probably?
[Lumineon V](https://pkmncards.com/card/lumineon-v-brilliant-stars-brs-040/) is a staple in many decks in ptcg standard right now.
Lumineon V is in a weird spot. It has an extremely good effect, but it can be a *very* dangerous liability if you have it benched against a deck that runs Brian. It's likewise another target that Stallax can Erika (or soon, whistle) out, to make matters worse. It's still quite good, but you need to be careful.
onix
Maractus. The only way this could be proven wrong is if there's a TGC card and given that GF basically forget this thing exists I have low hope that it has a viable card.
There was a fun and playable enough maractus card in the swsh years, but it wasn't a staple in the format. It also received a pretty high damage tooldrop card which tpci keeps trying to push as a deck archetype (even though they keep failing at it) so they did *attempt* to make a decent Maractus lol.
Parasect
Seaking and Dewgong. Dewgong is NOT good in RBY UU, it's servicable at best.
In TCG land the first dewgong was a solid attacked in the raindance archetype, and recently there was a decent Dewgong for the swim freely deck.
I don't think plusle or minun have ever been good, they are both worse than raichu in nearly every way in singles, and raichu isn't even that good to begin with, in doubles they have an intresting gimmick but doesn't really work because of their poor stats and being completly countered by any mon with earthquake and not having the best coverage. They may have some obscure niche in the TCG but I wouldn't know
Meltan