Other Most Improved Pokemon

[Age of Kings]

I agree with the mention of Kanga, Scolipede, Galvantula, Charizard, Azumarill, etc and I don't want to reiterate what's been done to death so I'll bring up a few "lesser" picks.

1. Blastoise. One of the "dark horse" mega evos that seemed to escape great notice but a Spinner with 79/120/115 defenses with great typing and 135 SpA to discourage switch-ins is amazing to say the least. Base 78 speed isn't horrible for a Pokemon with this kind of build either (beats Heatran by one point). It also got a few new toys in Aura Sphere, Dragon Pulse, and Dark Pulse that allow it to shit on every spinner barring Tentacruel and not suffer from the Ice Beam/Surf/Hydro Pump/Hidden Power nerfs as badly as other Water types *cough*Keldeo*cough*. For this reason you don't even have to use it as a Spinner, just a good bulky Water that dishes out good damage and can force switches with Yawn to keep your enemies on their toes. Since XY seemed to have cut down on the power creep, I think that the meta will be welcoming to mega Blastoise.

2. I think Gamefreak threw Empoleon a few bones. Its defensive typing is immensely useful in the environment XY is shaping up to be and it got Defog, fearing little from three of the four entry hazards. Latias has difficult typing to work around from a defensive standpoint and cannot set up Rocks, leaving a niche for Empoleon to fill. It remains to be seen how it fares but I wouldn't discount it yet.

uhhhh all I can think of for now. :P I'll try to think of something that isn't a Water type.

 

[hidood5th]

While I could just go with Mawile considering its giant leap from low NU to bolstering the possibility for high OU or even Uber, I think this has to go to Banette. Prankster + MUCH better bulk than Sableye + Most powerful Shadow Sneak besides a SD boosted Aegislash = Straight up Uber status.

 

[AOPSUser]

While I could just go with Mawile considering its giant leap from low NU to bolstering the possibility for high OU or even Uber, I think this has to go to Banette. Prankster + MUCH better bulk than Sableye + Most powerful Shadow Sneak besides a SD boosted Aegislash = Straight up Uber status.

lol@Uber Banette.

Pretty much everything has been said about the common picks in this thread, but we haven't yet talked about the most nerfed mons.

Metagross-Now weak to Dark and Ghost. Ghost got way better this gen and if Mega Gengar somehow is not banned from OU it WILL fall to UU. The Steel is nice for Fairies but most of the Fairies already die to strong physical attacks anyways. And you can always just use Scizor.

Venusaur-No more permanent Sun means that Venusaur can't really sweep as effectively as it did before. Also, Sleep Powder was nerfed. Mega Venusaur is very tanky and has an ability that helps with its weaknesses, but lots of other mons can tank similarly. It also eats up a Mega slot that could go to Gengar or Lucario or Mawile.

Breloom-Nerfed Spore, Fairy-type, improved Ghost-type, the fact that it is weak to the STAB of more than half of the Megas, etc.

 

[Iura]

Grr my Breloom...
I like my Togekiss buff though

 

[56k]

Most Improved: Gengar. He gets a Spa boost to compensate for lack of life orb, moves up a speed tier, and got an absolutely epic ability. He can be used on any team.

Most Nerfed: Lati@s. Basically their entire movepool was nerfed, HP Fire already forced lower speed and now it doesn't even ohko ferrothorn and some mega-scizors. Fairys in general have tremendous SpD to shrug off anything they do, and now they have 1 more weakness to fairy types. A Latios used to be splashable into just about every team (breloom not so much) and now it's just a liability, especially with MegaGengar, MegaScizor, Aegislash, and Fairys lurking out there.

 

[Tathens]

Smeargle has access to Sticky Web...

I think Azumarill, Togekiss, Mawile and Kangaskan got major buffs this gen

 

[Parallel]

Seeing as all the obvious "most improved" have been listed, lets try something noone seems to have discussed yet.

I think if Entei does indeed now have access to Sacred Fire, as the Battle Maison seems to have (and if it doesn't, that just trolling on a massive level), it's going to be a massive boon to it.

Slap a Scarf on it, it can go around hitting things hard and spreading burns. And between Sacred Fire, Stone Edge and Iron Head, Azumarill is the only Fairy who could really dare be in against it. Quite nicely walling them with its Fire typing and hitting them back with hard SE damage.

We'll have to wait to see if it got any more moves, as it's currently still got a rather lackluster movepool, but borrowing the Signature Move of its patron is already giving it quite the scary niche.

 

[JayHankEdLyon]

Seeing as all the obvious "most improved" have been listed, lets try something noone seems to have discussed yet.

I think if Entei does indeed now have access to Sacred Fire, as the Battle Maison seems to have (and if it doesn't, that just trolling on a massive level), it's going to be a massive boon to it.

Slap a Scarf on it, it can go around hitting things hard and spreading burns. And between Sacred Fire, Stone Edge and Iron Head, Azumarill is the only Fairy who could really dare be in against it. Quite nicely walling them with its Fire typing and hitting them back with hard SE damage.

We'll have to wait to see if it got any more moves, as it's currently still got a rather lackluster movepool, but borrowing the Signature Move of its patron is already giving it quite the scary niche.

Interesting. Especially considering Defog makes a hit-and-run Fire type way more viable than it's ever been since Stealth Rock came into play.

 

[Parallel]

Interesting. Especially considering Defog makes a hit-and-run Fire type way more viable than it's ever been since Stealth Rock came into play.

I think there's great potential pairing Hit and Run Fire types with pokemon like Scizor or Flygon, who get both Defog and U-turn, to remove hazards then go straight into dangerous threats.

 

[Talpr0ne]

Chatot.
Boomburst, always confusing Chatter, Nasty Plot. Don't fuck whit the parrot.

On a more serious note, it should be noted that Togekiss, while his typing is 10 times better than before, isn't the most improved Pokémon, at all. Electric types now doesn't give the half of a fuck about her paraflinch shenanigans and can KO her easily.

 

[No hugs 4 U]

The Pokemon that got crapped on the most this gen was metagross. Cause of the steel type Nerf he has two more weaknesses which makes it harder to fight a lot of Pokemon plus meteor mash got nerfed and metagross isn't exactly loving that.

 

[Parallel]

Chatot.
Boomburst, always confusing Chatter, Nasty Plot. Don't fuck whit the parrot.

On a more serious note, it should be noted that Togekiss, while his typing is 10 times better than before, isn't the most improved Pokémon, at all. Electric types now doesn't give the half of a fuck about her paraflinch shenanigans and can KO her easily.

Yes, but it now has all dragons to set up a Naty Plot on and sweeeep.
Or Bulky Draining Kiss/ Roost sets. (It does get Draining Kiss, right?)

Togekiss has plenty of unused tools in its bag. Just because thats what it used to use, doesn't mean it will can continue to use them.
(But i don't agree with it being"most improved", it was already too good to have enough room to be most improved. It's like Gengar, absolutely fantastic now, but it didn' improve as much as say.... Banette. Who may not even go OU, but damn it's improved a lot)
(P.S. Offensive Support Mega Banette is going to be amazing, and it will be hard to convince me otherwise)

 

[sidakarya]

Yes, but it now has all dragons to set up a Naty Plot on and sweeeep.
Or Bulky Draining Kiss/ Roost sets. (It does get Draining Kiss, right?)

Togekiss has plenty of unused tools in its bag. Just because thats what it used to use, doesn't mean it will can continue to use them.
(But i don't agree with it being"most improved", it was already too good to have enough room to be most improved. It's like Gengar, absolutely fantastic now, but it didn' improve as much as say.... Banette. Who may not even go OU, but damn it's improved a lot)
(P.S. Offensive Support Mega Banette is going to be amazing, and it will be hard to convince me otherwise)

As far as I can tell, it doesn't get draining kiss. (I'd rather use Dazzling Gleam anyway though).
Togekiss also gets Defog and all kind of support options. Stealth Rock being easier to clear off means it can work as a serviceable pivot too.

As for what I think got nerfed, that hasn't been mentioned already... I think the fairy-types hurt Salamence and Hydreigon pretty badly. While they get moves that can cover their new checks, they really want to cover them all with one move but can't. Scarfmence is much riskier to run now that half of its moveset can just pass through doing nothing, and Hydreigon has a brutal double fairy-weakness to add to its list of problems.

 

[Alice in Pyroland]

It's still not going to be viable, but I'm going to argue Flareon. Perhaps "most improved" isn't quite right so much as "most unexpected improvement" because I'm sure basically everyone had already resigned themselves to the fact Gamefreak hated poor Flareon and Flare Blitz was never, ever going to happen. And yet here we are. By my calculations this means that maybe in about three/four more generations, Flareon will actually be good!


in all seriousness, it's been said dozens of times already but Scolipede and Mawile both received extraordinary buffs this generation and definitely hold the respectively titles for most improved at base and most improved consider M-Evos.

 

[Mystearica Aura]

Let's not forget about Granbull! Though I'm pretty sure he won't be moving up tier-wise, trading a Fighting weakness for a resistance, thus gaining many others, make him a pretty viable Physical Wall in the lowers tiers. He also gets the Fairy-Aqua Tail, which, although far from perfect, has the added effect of further lowering the opponent's Attack stat (taking Intimidate into account). I hope the Fairy Bulldog will finally find it's niche...

Aside from that, I also believe that Scolipede and Mawile are the biggest winners here. Let's not forget that the centipede is now also resistant to Fairy and can even retaliate with Super-Effective STABbed Attacks!

EDIT: I guess he will be moving up tier-wise, as he's actually quite good at what he does. He just won't be enough for OU, though.

 

[Magnemite]

As far as I can tell, it doesn't get draining kiss. (I'd rather use Dazzling Gleam anyway though).
Togekiss also gets Defog and all kind of support options. Stealth Rock being easier to clear off means it can work as a serviceable pivot too.

As for what I think got nerfed, that hasn't been mentioned already... I think the fairy-types hurt Salamence and Hydreigon pretty badly. While they get moves that can cover their new checks, they really want to cover them all with one move but can't. Scarfmence is much riskier to run now that half of its moveset can just pass through doing nothing, and Hydreigon has a brutal double fairy-weakness to add to its list of problems.

Not that it's a good move or anything, but why doesn't it get Draining Kiss? It's called Togekiss for a reason. It can kiss. Can it drain, then? Apparently so, it learns Drain Punch. What? How does that work? It doesn't even have arms! Drain Punch but not Draining Kiss? Draining Kiss even gets STAB! Now watch Smoochum (the Kissing Pokemon) not get it.

 

[the voice of reason]

I don't think this constitutes the largest improvement by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still a large number of subtle improvements.

Volcarona. Fire is better defensively, Bug Buzz hits through Substitute, Defog can easily keep SR off the field, allowing the great moth's bulky offense philosophy to shine, and weather will still frankly be all the rage. While Fire Blast's and Flamethrower's nerfs were annoying, Fiery Dance is still a really interesting and dangerous move. It also makes a decent defensive partner for most steel types, and a pretty good offensive partner for most fairy types, particularly if they're both bulky.

 

[aVocado]

Tyranitar went berserk with it's new mega. It can actually survive a CB Bullet Punch now.

 

[Sazoon]

I think Breloom was one of the biggest losers this gen. All grass types being immune to spore (plus safety goggles users) will really hurt it. Also a pokemon asleep isn't total dead weight now thanks to the reverted sleep mechanics. To top it all off fairy now resists fighting. How do you think Breloom will respond to it. I personally think it would be a lot of fun to use Breloom in uu but it may be too powerful to use there :\

 

[doinktonberry]

Most buffed would be mawile and bannete of course. Mawile is already more powerful than max attack azumarill even without a single point in attack investment and it can use normal intimidate ability to make it easier to switch in. Bannete has more than enough movepool to make use of prankster and its sky-high attack stat will make sure that it isn't completely shut down by taunt while still being able to fully invest in defense stats. Unlike scolipede and the usual pokes they dont even have the right to call themselves decent before they got the mega evolutions so comparatively they improved more than pokemon who were already decent and viable like scolipede. Gardevoir also got a huge boon and kecleon did as well enough to make it actually viable as a defensive poke. (although certainly not ou viable) As for biggest nerf, I can safely say any weather starter ever but especially tyranitar. Tyranitars typing is already horrible as it is before fairy type but the nerf to sandstream took away what was its only niche and the addition of the fairy type makes rock and dark even worse defensively. (especially when you consdier the already threatening pokemon that it had to face before like scizor and terrakion). its still too slow to make use of its offensive presence, so it will be even harder to find a niche for the poor guy.

 

[KingNeedlesThe1st]

While it's true Hydreigon got hit pretty hard with a new 4x weakness, being a bulky Dragon that resists Ghost- and Dark-type attacks will give it a decent niche this gen. I believe it also gets Defog and Dragon Tail/Roar, so maybe a more supportive set could rise in usage?

 

[TheUeki]

Most buffed would be mawile and bannete of course. Mawile is already more powerful than max attack azumarill even without a single point in attack investment and it can use normal intimidate ability to make it easier to switch in. Bannete has more than enough movepool to make use of prankster and its sky-high attack stat will make sure that it isn't completely shut down by taunt while still being able to fully invest in defense stats. Unlike scolipede and the usual pokes they dont even have the right to call themselves decent before they got the mega evolutions so comparatively they improved more than pokemon who were already decent and viable like scolipede. Gardevoir also got a huge boon and kecleon did as well enough to make it actually viable as a defensive poke. (although certainly not ou viable) As for biggest nerf, I can safely say any weather starter ever but especially tyranitar. Tyranitars typing is already horrible as it is before fairy type but the nerf to sandstream took away what was its only niche and the addition of the fairy type makes rock and dark even worse defensively. (especially when you consdier the already threatening pokemon that it had to face before like scizor and terrakion). its still too slow to make use of its offensive presence, so it will be even harder to find a niche for the poor guy.

Tyranitar got assault vest + sandstorm sp.def bonus. That's 2x special defense on the switch-in.. How is that a nerf?

 

[doinktonberry]

Tyranitar got assault vest + sandstorm sp.def bonus. That's 2x special defense on the switch-in.. How is that a nerf?

touche. but assault vest brings up the same that eviolite had last generation with competition over leftovers residual recovery and you'd have to switch out again because sandstorm would eventually wear out. And it still doesnt do anything about the majority of its physical weaknesses. I will admit that saying it got nerfed the most was presumptious, unfair and theorymon-esque of me to say. Also I think its actually a 2.25x boost. Either way, Viable niche yes. Top threat anymore? we'll see

 

[Lord Jesseus]

touche. but assault vest brings up the same that eviolite had last generation with competition over leftovers residual recovery and you'd have to switch out again because sandstorm would eventually wear out.

If Tyranitar is still in after 5 consecutive turns, then it's probably already sweeping the opponent's team.
Tyranitar wasn't just used for Sand Stream you know. Hell, the nerf might actually be good on some teams that don't want their other Pokemon to be buffeted constantly. Ttar will likely remain a threat because Ttar is awesome. It has STAB pursuit, decent offensive typing, huge stats and a plethora of options. Sand Stream is just icing on the cake; 5 turns of icing no less.

 

[Garagara]

Yeah after getting wrecked thoroughly by a kanghaskan earlier, I'ma say him. Scrappy beforehand, and once it sets up, wow. I might need a gengar/mismagius on my team just to deal with it