Gimmick pokémon.

[Morningstar]

Alright want to ask about gimmick pokémon. Your Unowns, your Castforms, etc. mainly because I want to ask where the boundary is between something which is made for a gimmick and us bad because of it, something that is an average mon that happened to have a quirky play style, and the mons that were good because of their gimmick like Aegislash and Palafin. And also because I want to ask where on the spectrum certain mons fit later.

 

[falinksedin]

This is a fun question; I made a tier list to try and do a rough ranking of how I conceptualise the different types of Pokemon gimmickry (it's such a broad and nebulous term I think just ranking them directly would be hard):

Spoiler: Full-Size Image

I'm rating the gimmicks in a vacuum, so a good gimmick is considered good even if it's on a terrible Pokemon. Also, for ability gimmicks considered bad, since it's in a vacuum, that means no Weezing next to them. Some of the categorisations are a little arbitrary, particularly when it comes to the form change ones. What I tried to do was for the ones that define or impact gameplay, those are the ones that to me feel like a major part of the Pokemon's identity. For the ones in "Form Change", it's like yeah, this Pokemon changes forms so is inherently kinda unique, but as an ability it doesn't feel more impactful than the abilities of its peers. Like, Flower Gift isn't exactly more game-changing than Intimidate.

Some mons could also go in multiple categories; I just put them in the ones that I associate most strongly with the mon's identity. Also most legendaries are left out because most legendaries have A unique move/ability so it's kind of a case of "if everyone's special, no one is". The only ones included are the ones that do something a bit more unique. Likewise, for cosmetic stuff, obviously loads of mons have differing cosmetic forms, but I only included the ones where the forms are tied to something unique, rather than genders or "this mon comes in 4 colours just because" or whatever.

The link is here if anyone else wants to make their own. The template is limited to 10 tiers by default but you can manually add more, like I did for Chatot. Also, in spite of all my qualifying above let me know if there are any Pokemon you want added; I tried to take a pretty broad definition of "gimmick" (while keeping it to a manageable size) but there are almost certainly mons I forgot, and I'm down to add whatever else people want regardless.

 

[Morningstar]

This is a fun question; I made a tier list to try and do a rough ranking of how I conceptualise the different types of Pokemon gimmickry (it's such a broad and nebulous term I think just ranking them directly would be hard):
View attachment 235573

Spoiler: Full-Size Image

View attachment 235573

I'm rating the gimmicks in a vacuum, so a good gimmick is considered good even if it's on a terrible Pokemon. Also, for ability gimmicks considered bad, since it's in a vacuum, that means no Weezing next to them. Some of the categorisations are a little arbitrary, particularly when it comes to the form change ones. What I tried to do was for the ones that define or impact gameplay, those are the ones that to me feel like a major part of the Pokemon's identity. For the ones in "Form Change", it's like yeah, this Pokemon changes forms so is inherently kinda unique, but as an ability it doesn't feel more impactful than the abilities of its peers. Like, Flower Gift isn't exactly more game-changing than Intimidate.

Some mons could also go in multiple categories; I just put them in the ones that I associate most strongly with the mon's identity. Also most legendaries are left out because most legendaries have A unique move/ability so it's kind of a case of "if everyone's special, no one is". The only ones included are the ones that do something a bit more unique. Likewise, for cosmetic stuff, obviously loads of mons have differing cosmetic forms, but I only included the ones where the forms are tied to something unique, rather than genders or "this mon comes in 4 colours just because" or whatever.

The link is here if anyone else wants to make their own. The template is limited to 10 tiers by default but you can manually add more, like I did for Chatot. Also, in spite of all my qualifying above let me know if there are any Pokemon you want added; I tried to take a pretty broad definition of "gimmick" (while keeping it to a manageable size) but there are almost certainly mons I forgot, and I'm down to add whatever else people want regardless.

interesting, though I think you missed a few

1. Oricorio is a big one, since its Revelation Dance gimmick means it is lacking in coverage (unless you are desperate for Dragonslayers) and the states while not Gen 3 gimmick bad, are still mediocre.
2. I also think Sableye counts, not because of prankster shenanigans, but because it was clearly balanced around its Dark/ghost type and how it had now weakness at the time. Mawile I'm certain is not a gimmick pokemon but ended up as bad as one due to being a version counterpart to Sableye. Spiritomb could also be applicable here as well
3. As for Gen 3. Plusle and Minum were designed around showcasing doubles.
4. Squakabilly is more borderline. It is a bad pokemon that seems there more for vibes than competition, but at the same time apart from its colors, there isn't really much to it and Oricorio is more representative of that niche anyway
5. Tinkaton also is arguable, as it seems like a similar case to Sableye but focused around Gigaton Hammer. Which resulting in said move being the only viable attack for her and for it being more of a supporter with status moves and attacking every other turn.

 

[Bolt Strike]

I mean it's cynical to think this way, but stats and movesets (especially the former) definitely play a part here. Aegislash and Palafin are stronger because they have higher BSTs and Castform and Unown have lower BSTs. Aegislash and Palafin are also helped by their signature moves whereas Castform doesn't really have a signature move that plays into its gimmick and Unown can't learn anything other than Hidden Power at all. It's definitely not the end all be all because there's some Pokemon that overcome those factors (Wobbuffet only learns 4 moves and can't do direct damage and yet at one point it was in Ubers), but generally it does matter.

 

[falinksedin]

Having thought about it some more, I think the distinction I was trying to articulate (and failing) yesterday was Pokemon that ARE a gimmick versus Pokemon that HAVE a gimmick. Pokemon like Palafin, Slaking, or Wishiwashi (who I forgot but is now added to the list) really have their identity come from their unique ability. If you took that ability away, they'd be completely different mons. Compare that to something like Annihilape or Urshifu, where they have a strong "gimmicky" attribute that gives them a unique flavour, but you could take that attribute away and they'd still mostly feel the same (just weaker, in those two's cases).

I've updated the default categories on the list accordingly (though again, anyone else using it is free to change it however they like lol) and added Wishiwashi along with the ones from your comment, @Morningstar. I also changed "Misc Gimmick" to "No Gimmick"; I personally don't think Squawkabilly is a gimmick mon (having cosmetic forms with nothing else unique about them just doesn't feel unique - with something like Deerling, there's a novel aspect to how the forms are obtained, or at least there was, whereas Squawk randomly coming in four colours feels no different to Gastrodon or male/female Hippowdon or whatever else), so I realised it makes sense to have a place for people to put mons they don't think are gimmicks. I'm also kind of on the fence about the Protean/Libero users. It's a gtimmicky - and strong - ability but it being on three lines (four, if you count Kecleon, but my placement of him is more with Colour Change in mind) kinda detracts from the uniqueness of it.

Spoiler: Updated List

 

[falinksedin]

I mean it's cynical to think this way, but stats and movesets (especially the former) definitely play a part here. Aegislash and Palafin are stronger because they have higher BSTs and Castform and Unown have lower BSTs. Aegislash and Palafin are also helped by their signature moves whereas Castform doesn't really have a signature move that plays into its gimmick and Unown can't learn anything other than Hidden Power at all. It's definitely not the end all be all because there's some Pokemon that overcome those factors (Wobbuffet only learns 4 moves and can't do direct damage and yet at one point it was in Ubers), but generally it does matter.

I agree, and I'd go a step further and say in some cases the stats ARE the gimmick. I don't think considering Blissey, Shuckle, or any of the individual Deoxys forms gimmick mons would be a particularly controversial opinions, because their stats are so tuned for very specific things.

As for the more traditional "gimmick mons" like Slaking, Wishiwashi, Palafin, I think Gamefreak have developed a somewhat better sense over time for how to balance something like that, as part of a bigger general trend of Pokemon being designed more with competitive viability in mind (I think if you showed Flutter Mane's stat spread to a Hoenn Pokemon they'd die). Obviously they're not doing a flawless job but I think a lot of what is (not entirely incorrectly) labelled power creep is just Pokemon having their BSTs allocated in less nonsensical ways than in the past. And for gimmick mons, tradeoffs like the achilles heel abilties' require pretty busted payoff to be worthwhile, which they finally seemed to realise with Palafin (but he was doomed anyway by being a physical water type not named Urshifu </3).