Pokemon Powerup Project.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the pokemon power up project. In this series we will take a good look at pokemon who are generally considered terrible and unviable and make a theoretically better version while keeping as close to the lore design elements and competitive spirit behind it as possible. The way in which we do this is by taking a look at a pokemon’s assets, [it’s stats, typing, movepool, etc.] and edit them by either adding new things or rearranging them to make them work better.
 To decide what constitutes as an “Unviable”, we will be using Smogon’s tiering system and format, as this is one of the most popular formats available to play in, and give a solid foundation to a pokemon’s overall unviability. If a pokemon is NU or lower, and is likely to be that way for the foreseeable future, then we will cover it. Obviously there is no way to determine metagame trends, but there are qualities in pokemon that will make it likely to never see competitive play, especially in the day and age of power creep.
So first off, how do we define the word “viable”? Viability in any specific tier or metagame is dependent on what trends that metagame will lean towards, and what could be viable in one area may not be so much in another. With that said, there are a lot of pokemon who are mediocre for a couple of reasons. Many pokemon are considered unviable because they don’t neccesarily have the stats to compete with other pokemon who may do what they can but better. Meganium, at least in a vaccum, is a decent bulky tank, but loses to Venusaur, who not only can pose more of an offensive threat due to its higher special attack, but also has access to support and crippling options that Meganium would never be able to make use of such as Sleep Powder and Leech Seed. Other issues involve a pokemon whose tools and attributes don’t necessarily synergize with each other to form a cohesive kit. The poster child for this would be Articuno, who despite its fantastic mixed bulk and raw stats, is held back by a defensive typing that will be more of a liability then a help. Great offensively oriented typing also being held back by its mediocre special attack stat and speed. For the purposes of this series, a “viable” pokemon will be one whose attributes synergizes with themselves to create a cohesive and powerful niche.
As a general guideline, there will be a few restrictions in place to make these videos more interesting.
Rule 1
If I am increasing a pokemon's BST, I am limited to a bst increase of 100 and ONLY if the pokemons new BST doesn’t reach higher than 540. So say we were to buff the stats of Lapras, who has a bst of 530. I am only allowed to increase said BST by 10 points. But If I was to look at a pokemon like Magcargo, who has a BST of 430, I can only make its BST a maximum of 530. For any pokemon in this series who has a higher BST than 540, we will not be adding any stat increases, as at that point it becomes obvious that stats simply aren’t the issue.
Rule 2: 1 new ability limit
Throughout this series I will be adding new possible abilities to help buff the Pokémon in question. I have a limit of one new ability added and can replace one pre-existing ability.
Rule 3:
The only NFE’s I will be covering in this video are Clamperl, Vigoroth, Scyther, Murkrow and Shelgon. These pokemon do not simply act as “their evolved forms with lower stats”, and therefore have a niche that can be filled outside of the roles their parents fulfill.
Rule 4:
No megas or Pokémon who can mega evolve. The idea of buffing them is pretty much redundant at that point
Rule 5:
No pokemon who are balanced by crippling abilities. Everybody knows that Slaking and Regigigas are horrible excuses for pokemon because of their abilities, but without them they’d be instant uber and powerful but balanced is the name of the game.