With the release of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, there are now over 1000 pokemon in the series. Even with the limited amount that appear in each game, this is still an insane number of creatures to balance.
Game Freak has their work cut out for them creating Pokemon rosters that can fulfill not only the needs of a casual playthrough but also the competitive battlers who push every Pokemon to their limit. In this balancing act, it’s inevitable that some Pokemon will be worse off than others. However, these are some who are so close to potential greatness but have unfortunately been dealt a poor hand in one particular area.
8 Slaking
Looking at just its stats, Slaking could be mistaken for a legendary Pokemon. It’s quite fast, very bulky, and hits absurdly hard with physical attacks. It even has access to strong physical moves of a variety of types, meaning it can deal with almost any opponent.
The fatal flaw that Slaking has sadly had to deal with its entire life is its ability: truant. Truant is a purposeful limiter on Slaking’s strength, robbing it of half of its turns in battle. This one weakness has kept this monster under control, and players are constantly itching to find a way to remove it.
7 Regigigas
Similarly to Slaking, Regigigas has its ability to blame for its terrible performance. Slow Start is a cruel ability to give to any Pokemon. It halves Regigigas’ speed and attack for 5 turns in battle, severely crippling it.
Had the ability counted five turns in total, it might be possible to work around, but Regigigas needs to be on the field for 5 straight turns without switching out in order to get its full strength. Even with its massive bulk, 5 turns is far too long to ask of it, and opponents can easily force it to switch or hinder it with poison or other status conditions.
6 Archeops
Archeops has fairly balanced stats. It has a massive attack stat and an impressive special attack, allowing it some versatility in its move choices. It also has a very good speed stat. However, its defenses are quite weak to balance this out, making it a glass cannon.
Despite this decent balance, Game Freak saw fit to cripple Archeops with Defeatist. Thanks to this ability, once it drops below half health (which it does quite easily), it loses half of both attack stats, turning it from a glass cannon to more of a glass toy hammer.
5 Toedscruel
Toedscruel has a decent amount going for it. It’s quite fast and has fairly good bulk. It doesn’t have the best attack stats but does have enough to defend itself in a pinch. Combined with its good range of support moves, it should make for a very good support Pokemon for its team.
Unfortunately, its ability Mycelium Might forces it to go last whenever it uses non-attacking moves. The ability attempts to balance this out by ignoring abilities, allowing it to affect Pokemon usually immune to status conditions. However, without being able to cause those statuses in a timely manner, its usefulness is very limited.
4 Avalugg
Usually, Avalugg’s painfully low speed would be a weakness. However, considering the decent popularity of trick room teams, that low speed might actually be an asset, as trick room lets slower Pokemon move first. Avalugg certainly has the attack power to be quite scary inside a trick room.
Unfortunately, its special defense is so low that its otherwise impressive bulk ends up just being window dressing. It can resist physical moves extremely well, but considering how common special attacks like Flamethrower are, it dies surprisingly quickly.
3 Luxray
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Luxray’s situation is a tragedy. Its attacking stats are quite good, its bulk is decent, and even its mediocre speed might be workable under certain conditions. While it’s not Luxray’s only weakness, its typing is a big thing holding it back.
Physically-focused electric types have a hard time, as their best electric move is Wild Charge, a move that deals damage to them as well (despite the special move thunderbolt being just as strong without this drawback). And without a second type to take advantage of, Luxray’s many strengths just end up going to waste.
2 Rabsca
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet introduced a powerful move known as Revival Blessing, which revives a fainted Pokemon mid-battle. As one of only two pokemon with this move, Rabsca should have been poised for success, especially considering its stats aren’t all that bad.
Unfortunately, Rabsca is hurt by the environment it has to compete within. While it doesn’t have a crazy amount of weaknesses, it is weak to fire, dark, and ghost-type moves, which are currently very common. It is also weak to stealth rock. All this means that while it should be fairly bulky, it often ends up dying before it can do anything big. It doesn't help that bug is one of the weakest types in the game.
1 Stonjourner
Looking at Stonjourner’s stats in a vacuum, it’s already clear what its biggest issue is. It has surprisingly high attack, defense, HP, and even speed. However, its special defense is abysmal. Combined with the numerous weaknesses its solo rock typing has, it’s quite easy to take out a Stonjourner.
This is a shame, considering its ability is potentially so useful. Power Spot increases the damage of any attacks from Stonjourner’s ally in a double battle, meaning if it had better bulk, it might’ve been an extremely useful support Pokemon for any strong sweeper.