Beyond the Barrel: Pokémon You REALLY Shouldn't Use in Overused

By Arcticblast and jas61292. Art by Birkal.

Introduction

Everyone hears about how this Pokémon is "so good in OU it's ridiculous" and "when given the opportunity this Pokémon can sweep teams". There's even a cry of "Infernape and Metagross need to leave OU" every so often. There's another side to these arguments, though. This side begs the question "Just how low can I go without getting my butt kicked?" This kind of thinking leads to outrageous things ranging from Swords Dance Keldeo to... well, keep reading. Here are some firsthand accounts of things you just shouldn't use in Overused under any circumstances.

Swadloon

Swadloon @ Eviolite
Ability: Leaf Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 232 SpD / 28 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Synthesis
- Magic Coat
- Air Slash
- Toxic

As we all know by now, Black and White gave us the wonderful gift of Eviolite, which is widely credited with making just about every NFE good in Overused. This description is a bit wrong, though. Enter Swadloon. It looks good at first, resisting Water, Electric, Ground, Grass, and Fighting and having higher bulk than a similarly invested Rotom-A. That's where the good ends, though. Swadloon is weak to Flying, Rock, Fire, Ice, Poison, and Bug. It can't do much damage to anything it's supposed to check (even Air Slash barely damages Breloom, for example). Its movepool is pretty terrible, and its only recovery is nerfed by any non-sun weather. Fortunately, if you can support it just a bit (a Rapid Spinner and Ninetales, basically) it's surprisingly sturdy when it isn't taking a super effective hit or being used as a pivot or trying to switch in on Politoed or yeah just don't use it.

Wigglytuff

Wigglytuff @ Light Clay
Ability: Cute Charm
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Seismic Toss

If you have played competitive Pokémon for a while, one thing that you probably know is that fat pink Normal-type blobs make special walls. Blissey, Chansey, heck, even Clefable can play the part. Just based on appearance you get a feeling for what role Wigglytuff is going to take. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean it's very good at it. It has fantastic HP, but its pathetic defenses leave it about as bulky as Starmie. Probably the only thing it has going for it is that it can run Dual Screens while still being able to pass huge Wishes. After screens are up it dies slightly less easily, and its Wishes are substantial enough to get most Pokémon back in the game, making it a decent supporter. On the offensive front, its awful attacking stats mean that its wonderful movepool goes very much to waste. Like Blissey, it has plenty of coverage should you need it, but the power is so weak it's usually not worth it. Fortunately, it has Seismic Toss, so when you are floundering around, waiting to be knocked out, there is at least something worthwhile to click on. Well, if you can call anything Wigglytuff does worthwhile, that is.

Bellossom

Bellossom @ Salac Berry
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch
- Leaf Blade

Hey look, a Chlorophyll sweeper that still needs another Speed boost! Bellossom has a hilarious movepool (partly inherited from Gloom's Poison typing) consisting of such moves as Sludge Bomb, Drain Punch, Nature Power (essentially Earthquake), Swords Dance, and even Teeter Dance. In an ideal world you could fit all of this wonderful movepool onto it, but sadly Bellossom can't run Substitute / Swords Dance / Leaf Blade / Drain Punch / Nature Power / Moonlight / Sleep Powder. Actually, it can barely run four moves. It's pretty pathetic, actually. Swords Dance boosts its Attack to somewhat acceptable levels, but its low Speed means that even in sun it's still outsped by common Choice Scarf users. The only way to make it any faster is with a Salac Berry, which then demands an Adamant nature so it isn't pathetically weak. Drain Punch, which gets the best possible coverage with Leaf Blade, is completely counter-productive to the Salac Berry anyway. In Bellossom's defense, its Leaf Blade actually hits slightly harder than Venusaur's Seed Bomb, but who's running physical Venusaur, exactly?

Corsola

Corsola @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Scald

When first looking at Corsola, what stands out first are a nice movepool and a pair of fantastic abilities. Almost any wall would love to have this combo of useful supportive moves and the ability to recover health both directly and passively. And, while it may not have the greatest typing for tanking hits, it comes with a couple of useful resistances to types such as Fire and Ice. Unfortunately for Corsola, you kind of need to have some stats to put all these things to use, and stats are something Corsola distinctly lacks. Its Defense and Special Defense stats are somewhat passable, but all of the others are completely awful. If Corsola is going to do anything in battle at all, it needs to start by pumping up its Defense to the max. Recover and Regenerator help keep it alive, assuming the opponent isn't just knocking it out in one hit, but even then it's not going to be sticking around long. The best it can really hope to do is get up Stealth Rock. Or maybe status an opponent. Or be knocked out before it moves. Yeah, that last one is especially easy to do. Hey, at least its good at something.

Ledian

Ledian @ Leftovers
Ability: Early Bird
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Agility
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
- Encore

Ledian is one cool Pokémon. It's always looked amazing, and with the introduction of Dream World abilities, the bad-ass bug gained an awesome ability in Iron Fist to go along with a movepool containing nearly every punching move you could ever want. What could possibly be better than that? Well, having a remotely usable Attack stat would be a good start. Oh, and having a typing that wasn't weak to just about everything would be even better. Yeah, when it comes right down to it, there is really not that much Ledian can do with the awesome tools it was given. Yet, despite these flaws, Ledian does have one upside: it is a pretty decent Baton Passer. Decent Speed along with access to Encore let it set up Agility on a number of Pokémon and pass it off to something that can actually do damage. So, if you ever find yourself in dire need of a Agility Passer that is 100% inept at anything else, you could certainly do worse than Ledian. Though if you ever find yourself in that situation, you probably have more important problems to worry about.

Drifblim

Drifblim @ Ghost Gem
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 76 Def / 252 SpA / 180 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power Fighting
- Substitute

Alright, I've got to hand it to Drifblim. At first glance, it's got a bit of Breloom syndrome—one really good stat and a bunch of bad ones. The good one doesn't really help it though, since Ghost/Flying is a pretty weird defensive typing and is weak to way too many things to work. Drifblim's assets lie in its movepool and Unburden, however, and this set actually works sometimes. Substitute provides a barrier to status and attacks, Calm Mind boosts Special Attack, and then it has pretty basic Ghost/Fighting coverage. Ghost Gem triggers Unburden, and suddenly you've got a sweeper as fast as Chlorophyll Venusaur on your hands. But if it works so well, why is it on this list? The big issue is the massive amount of support it requires and the power it doesn't really have. Stealth Rock needs to be off the field and you need Politoed or Ninetales to clear away Sand or Hail, since SubCM without Leftovers drains HP pretty quickly on its own. Drifblim can't set up if there are any particularly fast Pokémon on the opposing team. Opposing priority users basically need to be gone, since Drifblim can't just OHKO them all and they'll punch right through Drifblim's puny Defense stat. Jirachi needs to be out of the game or at least greatly crippled. Basically anything with decent special bulk needs to be weakened or it'll overload Drifblim. Essentially, all of OU can threaten Drifblim in some way or another, and it isn't worth using over another special attacker like Latias or Keldeo. Unless you're bored.

Conclusion

We are both moderators on PS!, so we swear to God if we catch you using any of the sets we included in this article you will get kicked.

Swadloon, Bellossom, and Drifblim written by Arcticblast
Wigglytuff, Corsola, and Ledian written by jas61292

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