How Bad Are "Negative" Pokémon Abilities ACTUALLY 

Note: I’m not ranking the abilities strictly from best to worst. I’m ranking them more based on how their drawbacks affect them. So abilities like Prankster make otherwise useless mons good, they still have some risk/counterplay to them. So I have some abilities like Lightning Rod “above” them for being really good and having less notable risk/counterplay. Hope you understand what I mean there buds😂.

Wimp out turning into emergency exit which does exactly the same but treats the pokemon as an smart strategist rather than a coward is so funny

Slow Start would be so much more workable if it did not reset on switch out. If you needed it to be on the field for five turns, not necessarily consecutively, then Slow Start wears off and Regigigas doesn't need to deal with it for the rest of the match.

Truant should have allowed you to use "lazy" moves on turns it takes effect. Yawn, Slack Off, Rest, maybe a few others that fit. Then it would balance out the stats without being completely unviable.

Metagross is so heavy, that Light Metal (its Hidden Ability, don't use it) doesn't change anything.

I don't like how Anger Shell activates for every stat one by one.

Regigigas: "Legends Arceus doesn't have abilities, that means I'll finally be usable, right?" Gamefreak: "..." Regigigas: "...right?"

27:13 Imagine hating a Pokémon so much, that you give it its shitty Signature Ability in a game with *NO ABILITIES* ?

Doubles Regigigas and Galar Weezing is a level of terror I love to inflict on occasions in local pvp meetups, just because people forget Neutralizing Gas exists because no one really uses Weezing

Normalize has one niche use: It turns Skitty into an absolute GOD in Mystery Dungeon. Still not good in the main series games, but at least it can have one place where it's great

I'll never forget the time that I cheesed one of my friends by using Truant Entrainment Durant against them. Swapped into a setup mon and got +6 Atk and Spd by using Protect every other turn, proceeding to go 6-0. Truant has such a strong downside that it actually has a usecase that it wouldn't have if it were better.

i feel like gorilla tactics is rlly under ranked for how good of an ability it is. the immediate damage boost that can be even further accentuated by band or made more difficult to revenge kill with scarf makes it rlly good. it patches the weakness of all scarfers which is the reduction in power while having no extra downsides.

What I hate about slow start is the fact that his signature move... does more damage at the beginning of the battle

Our favorite ancient golem Sadigigas will never not be included when it comes to negative Abilites in Pokemon. Good that he isnt able to use the internet (yet)

Stall would be good on a bulky pokemon with lots of pivot moves to always give you switching advantage

As a VGC player, my fuckin jaw dropped seeing you rank prankster as "generally worth it"

The other advantage of sheer force is that it also removes NEGATIVE secondary effects, which mostly includes stat drops or self-damage, basically making it a free buff. You can also pair this with life orb, which secondary effect is also negated, while still keeping the damage boost.

Klutz should be buffed to also be like Unaware regarding the opponent's held item. No extra damage if the opponent Pokemon holds a damage boosting item like Life Orb. Unaffected by an item that would affect a Klutz Pokemon like Destiny Knot. No damage from Rocky Helmet.

Honestly I would move prankster up. Most of the Pokémon with prankster are only good because of priority on status moves. It is a clear choice between no priority and hitting dark types or priority and being immune to dark types.

Rivalry was used sometimes on haxorus in VGC to deal more damage to the genies in gen 5

Normalize Delcatty and levitate Haunter were used by Wolfe Glick to pretty much make haunter unbeatable on a tournament as well! Quite creative use of the ability

I think Curious Medicine could be good if it worked exactly like Haze, you could stop your opponents for setting up and would actually be useful in singles. Anger Shell should be identical to Shell Smash too

The positives of Avalugg is that it has zero negative abilities unlike Great Tusk.

I remember playing Dynamax Adventures with my girlfriend one time, and she had a Manetric with lightning rod and it was the single most annoying thing ever because the npcs kept using electric moves

Mega Lopunny with Klutz as its initial ability. Klutz didn't affect mega stones so you could use entrainment to give an opponent Klutz and take away both its ability and item, then go into mega lopunny and possibily crippled the opponents mon.

I like Dry Skin because I like to make rain based teams..

Regigigas may be initially extremely lacklustre, but Ninjask is his best friend if you ask me. A perfect recepient that just needs to keep the heat off for a few turns before he grows even more powerful than normal. Unfortunately it would still be difficult to get that to work.

In PokeMMO I'm running around with a Klutz Lopunny unironically, because Klutz-Switcheroo Assault Vest is the nightmare of any pokemon that would try to heal or status your mons...

The fun part of slow start is when a lot of people paired it with a neutralizing gas mon like Weezing and then just 1-shot everyone with Regigigas.

No Guard is more of a benefit to the user than the opponent, the reason being is that you build your No Guard mon around having No Guard, so you can throw as many low accuracy moves on it as you like. Your opponent doesn't have that luxury and will only benefit from it situationally, as opposed to you who will ALWAYS benefit from it. Sure it can bite you in the butt every now and then, but that's not going to happen 100% of the time. Also it's good on Mega Pidgeot for Heat Wave, yes it has 95% accuracy, but if it's not 100% accurate it might as well be 50% accurate when you need it to land. Also in STABmons, an OM on Showdown! where Pokemon can use almost any moves of their types (even pre-evolutions), Simple made Bibarel into a monster. While in more recent versions of the meta Shell Smash is only allowed on things that normally get it (understandably as Mega Altaria could use it AND Boomburst on top of Arceus knows who else), however that wasn't always the case. Simple Shell Smash Bibarel with Aqua Jet and Extreme Speed, need I say more? Yes a lot of thing could abuse Shell Smash due to it being a Normal type move, but few were as terrifying as a Bibarel after it gets a Shell Smash up.

Let's go early gang!! I gotta say I love Comatose for enabling Choice Band + Last Resort on Komala. Sleep Talk is guaranteed to pull it and you get 16 shots instead of 8.

I feel like a lot of these abilities are judged solely based on the mons who wield them (namely Screen Cleaner).

Although unofficial, Slacking in Elite Redux can get stall as its ability instead of Truant, so it no longer has to attack every other turn

remember everyone, the reason durant gets truant is because hidden abilities represent a pokemon's dreams, and durant is a false ant that dreams of being a true ant

Slow Start should of given Regigigas a sharp defense and special defense buff that would stay on Regigigas even after Slow Start is finished. They can also buff it to 4 turns instead of 5.

There are a couple form-change related abilities that have (situational) negative effects, but are usually positive. Shields down: While above half health, you're immune to status, and minior swaps its attack and defensive stats and gains +60 base speed when it drops below half health. The usual set with this is shell smash white herb, and when you get put under half, you can start spamming acrobatics. downside: you can't be skill swapped, and when you change forms, you have reduced defense whether you want it or not. Stance change is usually great, but using king's shield leaves you vulnerable to status, and if you get taunted or want to use a status move after attacking, you're left in your vulnerable sword form. zen mode is similar because it switches your attacking stats, meaning you kind of have to run a mixed set, and it also lowers your speed

Klutz on Lopunny actually works. You can switcheroo an Assault Vest and give it to someone who doesnt want it like a Ferrothorn or Skarmory.

They should really buff slow start so the turn couter doesn't reset if swapped out. This would help to play around the ability a little better.

Fun Fact: Slow Start can be removed by Worry Seed and Skill Swap So if you predict one of those moves coming, you can give your Regigigas a turbo charge early.

the thing with contrary is your basically screwed if your opponent has the move swagger

Imagine Bibarel getting Tidy Up. Together with the Simple Ability and Clear Amulet it would be absolutely insane. I would love to see the outcome competitively. 😂❤

Emergency Exit should be paired with moves like First Impression that does lots of damage the first time they're used after coming out

Toedscruel's ability is probably a good thing Because imagine having to deal with a base 100 speed spore user

One thing to consider is that some of these abilities see use purely to be Skill Swapped onto an opponent's Pokemon. If you can force them to have a terrible ability, and maybe even nab a good ability in the process, then sometimes taking those abilities can actually be well worth it.

Rivalry haxorus was actually used to counter the forces of nature in gen 5 vgc. It was such a staple that it was more optimal to run female genders on your pokemon that could be female

You don't have to worry about Slow Start if you remove it from Regigigas altogether. You can always have an ally mon Skills Swap Slow Start form Regigigas to an enemy mon,or use contact movies with Cofagrigus or Runerigus to switch Regi's ability to Mummy/Wandering Spirit.

If Slow Start didn't reset when switching, and after 5 additional turns after it stops halving Attack and Speed, it will now doubles them, then that would make it very useful. Pair it with a held item that only works for Regigigas that makes it count as having been out for 1 more turn than it actually has been per unique Regi (other than Regigigas) you have on your team, and it would be tremendous. PS: That last part has to be a held item and not a part of the Slow Start ability since Varoom has Slow Start as its hidden ability, and it wouldn't make sense for it to be enhanced by the Regis.

Klutz nullifying the held item, can lead to shenigans with Lopunny giving the opponent a Toxic orb or a choice item with Switcheroo.

How good is the fsg title actually

Contrary has a niche use with stat boosting moves, actually. Shuckle gets both Contrary and Shell Smash and is very much intended to be a defensive pokemon. If you use Shell Smash on a Contrary Shuckle, the defensive stats are raised at the cost of your offensive stats that don’t matter much to you, so it’s actually an interesting option if you don’t use it as a hazards mon with sticky web and rocks.

Solution to slow start if game freak hates regigigas too much: during the turns it's startign up, it heals 1/4 max HP each turn and both defense stats are doubled

Durant's Truant deserves a mention in that it can also learn Entrainment. Generally not worth it, but it can be a fun strat to build around.

In defense of Defeatist, and as an interesting fun fact, Archeops is the Pokemon that, not counting Legendaries, Mythicals, Pseudo-Legendaries, Ultra Beasts, and Paradox Pokemon, with the highest BST at 567, with the next highest being Pokemon like Arcanine with 555. Still one of the worse abilities, but makes it more interesting.

Stall would be much more interesting on a pokemon actually capable of making use of it- Sableye lacks the stats to use those attacks or the attacks that can benefit from it like revenge or metal burst.

I got surprised by your subscriber count, i thought it would be a lot higher. Really nice video.

One nice thing about bruxish is that dazzling makes it that prankster pokemon can't use status moves while it's on the field.

Truant and Durant have a nice combo with the move entrainment. Giving the opponent truant.

Great; Well Worth Any Negatives: Comatose, Contrary, Storm Drain, Lightning Rod, the Ruin abilities, Mold Breaker. Generally Worth It: Gorilla Tactics, Fluffy, Moody, Dry Skin, Simple, Unaware, No Guard, Prankster, Neutralizing Gas, Soundproof, Weak Armor, Anger Shell Telepathy. Even Risk/Reward: Solar Power, Hustle, Perish Body. Nothing Much: Screen Cleaner, Rivalry, Light Metal, Heavy Metal. Generally Negative: Curious Medicine, Mycelium Might, Normalize, Klutz. Ruins Viability: Emergency Exit, Wimp Out, Defeatist, Stall, Truant, Slow Start.

The only reason I can even think of using Stall is just to make Assurance do extra damage in a double battle, and that's literally it

Slow start should double your attack & speed after 10 turns of staying out just to compensate.

i think you overestimate how bad klutz is. its like contrary where you keep the ability in mind when building. in addition, if you do wanna use items on thoose pokemon, every user has an alternative ability that you can use instead.

Gorilla Tactics is a great ability imo. I won many battles with G-Darmanitan and I partner it up with Kingdra sometimes with amazing results

My favorite ability with a drawback? Triage. It gives +3 priority to all healing moves, including draining kiss and giga drain. The drawback is conveyed in four words: farigiraf and psychic terrain. Basically, you outspeed almost everything when attacking, including fake out, but are deathly allergic to anything that prevents priority.

26:53 Mold Breaker, when your Pokémon just says, screw the ability rules.

8:49 Thank goodness you did. I was literally in the process of typing that 20 second earlier.

I'm still salty about Light and Heavy Metal and Duraludon. It could maybe be a cool ability, but it has a G-max form and the generation's gimmick ignores it

I used Klutz trick toxic orb Golurk to cripple a bulky pokemon... Was pretty fun.

I feel like some abilities could fall under “just give it to team rocket because you are not making this work”

nuh uh, a 100% accurate move with hustle is 50%, because if its not 100 its 50

Contrary has the added benefit that, as far as I'm aware, it's the only way to get an evasion boost in normal smogon formats. If for example someone uses defog against a Pokémon with contrary which would drop the evasion by a stage, contrary increases it instead

If Emergency Exit worked like it did in the anime, where if the Pokemon were to faint in 1 hit, they switch to the last Pokémon on your team, that would somehow be crazily viable. Imagine getting slammed by a Shadowball or something, and Emergency Exit activates and swaps in Blissey or something.

Always appreciative of your uploads

I said to a friend that slaking had a new hidden ability, they initially thought I was being genuine until I told them it was slow start, lol.

Technically going last has 1 key use: being able to use "switching" moves last to ensure the mon you switched in basically gets in without being attacked by the opponent.

24:20 Emergency Exit is surprisingly good in Nuzelockes such as Run and Bun (you can use it to plan a free switch as you know the enemies team and how much damage they can do)

One of the best uses of Normalize was a Weedle Twineedle team. They made a Normalize Delcatty that could use Assist and pull V-Create. 210 STAB Normal type move, even on a Delcatty, can one shot most things.

Great video bud my favorite ability that has a negative effect is sheer force

I never knew that no gaurd also made theopponents never miss

Was using a Weak Armor Skarmory on Showdown for some reason, opponent spends like 2 minitues insulting me for "ruining" a good wall. I typed "for the lolz" after they finished and they forfeited.

in gen 8 ubers, you can use cottonee with sticky webs and then a move that lowers speed to switch into entrainment durant with the item that switches u out when hit. then you go into dugtrio with setup moves and protect and then you sweep As you mentioned with rivalry, there are some mons forced to be certain types. in gen 5? the genies are male so haxorus ran female. in gen 9 enamorus is female so everything runs female. you can run male

Y'know I don't understand why Wimp Out and Emergency Exit both exist. They do the exact same thing. There was no need to create two abilities.

I had an assault vest golisopod that was able to make pretty good use of it's ability py using First Impression/Sucker Punch to bully most faster mons before getting a free switch into a counter. Assualt |Vest gave it the ability to tank and survive some impressive hits even after going down to half, leech life allowed it tn heal after getting lowered to half to proc the ability again. Final move was just liquidate for that water stab. Would love to see folks play around with this idea to catch opponents unaware

It would be funny if Simple had a side effect of not being effected by calm mind, or mind reader, or even future sight.

Mega Slowking would be hilarious. He just replaces Truant with Guts and there’s zero other changes.

While technically a positive ability, I think Schooling should get lumped in with Defeatist since they're functionally very similar.

Ye, I sometimes play random battles and every time I get Regigigas, I mainly use it as a sacrifice. Even if you somehow stall out those five turns, you need to waste moveslots on protect/substitute/thunder wave. So when slow start is over,you can basically only use knock off/body slam. And you're at 30% health at best.

Prankster is hella good. Keep two things in mind: 1. Knowing your opponent might switch to a Dark type isn't always detrimental. Grimsnarl for example can punish this by clicking 120 base attack stab fairy move to punish it - or you can just switch yourself. Granted, that's way less predictable and i do consider it a nerf to the ability most of the time but wanted to point out it's not all the time. But that's just a warm up, a real argument is as follows 2. so many great status moves don't target your enemy tho. Switching a dark type in cant stop you from getting a priority recover off. From getting that calm mind boost. From setting up sun. Not only you can do all that and much more in face of a dark type, switching it in in such circumstance is just free turns for the Prankster user. That's free money baby. 3. Sure it can feel bad to get your priority Toxic nullified but remember you didnt click it against the dark type. Switching in takes a turn and at worst it will just make you switch out next turn, you still stopped your enemy from attacking/setting up. Is it as good as paralyzing something or getting toxic off? Maybe not but its not nothing. And maybe you're not forced out at all since you can still set up priority screens or do 85% of stuff you would want to do with Prankster mon anyway To sum up i agree there is a downside there but it's straight up not even true to say that Dark types are immune to Prankster. Just to SOME Prankster moves in practice. That aint too bad

I love that sheer force makes nidoking a better special attacker

Slow start at the end is kind of meta. Like it makes mon slower and move last. And it's so bad that it got moved to the end of the video

Good as gold would be so much more balanced if it prevented your own status moves. Just give it clear body as a hidden ability so it's movepool doesn't get too close to being a move puddle.

In a fangame, "Slow Start" is remplaced after the 5 turns of charge by "Active", a talent which raise Atk, SAtk and Speed by one stage at the end of each turn. And it is a good way of balancing the downsides of Slow Start (Bad english sorry)

27:44 Slow Start should AT THE VERY LEAST buff your attack and speed in exchange when those 5 turns finish

Shout out to Pokerogue for giving Slaking the hidden ability Stall. Stall may ruin any Pokemon it’s on except for Slaking.

I named my Regigigas "Regimpotent" because it "can't get it going."

Slow start would be so cool if Regigigas had access to entrainment. It would be an interesting buff and give Regigigas a unique support tool

fun fact: heliolisk can be used in all weather teams except hail because of its abilities

Stall would actually be a pretty decent ability if sableye had better bulk and typing, or on a much better mon entirely. Imagine always having access to slow switch moves like Parting Shot or Volt Switch which would give you the counter action advantage

Hustle is the most fun for me. I would purposely catch a Durant with that ability. Also, Durant was my favorite pokemon in that gen.

Im still early in the vid, but I saw Normalize and was hoping you'd bring up the possibility of using Skill Swap and switching to a ghost type or a similar strategy. It's a possible niche strategy that someone actually used in a tournament setting with the team of delcatty and haunter so that haunter would just be immune from damage

11:57 I love this ability. I have a Shiny Glalie on SV and run it. It CAN be hard to use but once you get the ball rolling with stalling you become a force to be reckoned with.