The roster of creatures available for use in Pokemon Champions includes some of the best competitive picks in the series, like Incineroar, Sneasler, and Garchomp. Alongside these VGC powerhouses, Pokemon Champions has nearly an equal number of virtually useless Pokemon as well. When building the ideal team for climbing the competitive ladder, Pokemon Champions players will want to avoid these critters.
The worst mons for both Single and Double Battles in Pokemon Champions are included here, but the two overlap for the most part.
This Gen 1 Pokemon is Dominating Pokemon Champions, and It’s Basically a Legendary
Now that Pokemon Champions’ launch meta has settled down a bit, it’s clear that one Gen 1 Pokemon is now dominating it as Tornadus did in Gen 9.
The Worst Pokemon for Singles in Pokemon Champions
- Rotom
- Castform
- Paldean Tauros (Combat Breed)
- Watchog
- Simisage
Rotom
Rotom might seem like an unexpected critter to see ranked among the worst Pokemon for Champions, given how prominent it is on some of the best Pokemon Champions teams. However, when Rotom is not in one of its appliance forms, it’s woefully underpowered. Appliance-less Rotom has 80 fewer total points in its base stat total, and doesn’t get the useful type coverage moves that Wash Rotom or Heat Rotom gets either.
Castform
Despite how strong weather teams are in Pokemon Champions, the mascot of weather moves in the Pokemon series is pretty awful for competitive battles. Castform doesn’t excel in any stat, with 70 points in all stats, and its utility as a weather setter is far outclassed by other mons with the Drought, Drizzle, or Snow Warning Abilities, such as Mega Froslass. While Castform may have marginal utility in Pokemon Champions‘s Double Battle format when partnered with an offensive powerhouse, it’s largely unusable in Single Battles.
Paldean Tauros (Combat Breed)
Paldean Tauros has three different forms: Blaze Breed, Aqua Breed, and Combat Breed. While Blaze and Aqua Breed Paldean Tauros can be useful for their Fire/Fighting and Water/Fighting Types, respectively, Combat Breed Tauros is a pure Fighting Type. Even if Combat Breed Paldeaon Tauros gets the Intimidate Ability, there is almost no situation where the pure Fighting-Type Combat Breed is better than one of the other two dual-type breeds.
Watchog
As an underpowered pure Normal-Type Pokemon, Watchog has very few situations where it can carve out a competitive niche. Although the Analytic Ability can take advantage of its mediocre Speed stat to give its attacks a 30% damage boost if it goes last, it doesn’t have the bulk to survive many offensive sweepers, especially in a Singles format that is dominated by fast, Physical Attackers like Garchomp.
Simisage
The Gen 5 elemental monkeys are often considered some of the worst Pokemon in the entire franchise, and Simisage lives up to this reputation in Pokemon Champions. Its only saving graces are a decent 101 Speed stat and access to Fake Out. Unfortunately, there are many better options for Grass-Type Pokemon, such as Mega Meganium, and Fake Out users like Incineroar or Sneasler.
The Worst Pokemon for Doubles in Pokemon Champions
- Galarian Stunfisk
- Samurott
- Gourgeist
- Slurpuff
- Simisear
Galarian Stunfisk
While Galarian Stunfisk isn’t completely terrible in competitive Double Battles, it needs a lot of help to be usable. Galarian Stunfisk’s Mimicry Ability requires Terrain to be set up, something that is largely missing from the current Pokemon Champions meta, and its incredibly low Speed stat means it will need Trick Room active to have any chance of getting a move off. Despite having immunity to both Poison and Electric-Type attacks, a critter like Excadrill is a much better Ground/Steel-Type than Galarian Stunfisk.
Samurott
Samurott is in the unfortunate position of having a poorly optimized stat spread, along with being a pure Water type, the most common type in all of Pokemon. Most of Samurott’s best competitive moves, such as Flip Turn and Knock Off, are Physical attacks, while its highest stat is its Special Attack. There isn’t a situation where a Water-Type Pokemon like Milotic or Primarina wouldn’t be a better pick for a Doubles team over Samurott.
Hisuian Samurott does have some decent utility, with access to the STAB Dark-Type attack, Ceaseless Edge, that also scatters Spikes on the opponent’s side of the field, and a better stat spread that gives it a higher base Speed and Physical Attack than its Unovan form.
Gourgeist
Although it’s usable to a degree, Gourgeist has an unfortunate mechanic relating to its size that can hinder its utility in competitive Pokemon battles. Gourgeist can be found in four different sizes: Small, Medium, Large, and Jumbo, and each has a slightly different stat spread. Jumbo Gourgeist is the only one potentially worth using in Pokemon Champions, since it trades Speed for a higher Attack and HP stat, making it useful in Trick Room. Other forms of Gourgeist don’t have this same utility and should be avoided.
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Slurpuff
The Fairy-Type is quite strong in Pokemon Champions, but Slurpuff is one of the worst options among the type. Slurpuff doesn’t really excel in any particular stat, and only has any real utility as a somewhat bulky support Pokemon that can use Wish to heal its partner and Fake Tears to lower an opponent’s Special Defense. Other Fairy-Types like Mega Floette, Mega Gardevoir, or Sylveon are far more useful for players wanting to bring arguably the strongest Pokemon type to battle.
Simisear
Like Simisage, Simisear lives up to its reputation of being one of the worst Pokemon in the entire franchise. None of the Gen 5 elemental monkeys are worth using in Pokemon Champions, but Simisear is a particularly bad choice due to how many powerful Fire-Type Pokemon dominate the Doubles meta. Mega Charizard Y, Incineroar, Torkoal, and Hisuian Arcanine are all much better options, meaning there’s never going to be a situation where Simisear is the preferable option.
