After dominating tournament after tournament and building a huge reputation for itself in Pok\u00e9mon Scarlet<\/em> and Violet<\/em>, Palafin suddenly dropped from the top of the VGC world recently. This isn\u2019t the only time a Pok\u00e9mon has gone from quite good to stinking bad in competitive play, but something about Palafin\u2019s situation is quite unique.<\/p>
In a July 4 Reddit thread, Pok\u00e9mon<\/em> players discussed other times when really strong \u2018mons lost their viability in competitive play.<\/p>
An overwhelming amount of players mentioned Gengar losing its Levitate ability<\/a> (really, its Ground immunity) starting with Generation VII’s release.<\/p>
Other honorable mentions were Talonflame, whose Gale Wings ability was heavily nerfed<\/a> after one generation, and Darkrai, whose saw a huge accuracy cut for its signature move<\/a>, Dark Void.<\/p>
Palafin\u2019s fall, on the other hand, had nothing to do with nerfs.<\/p>
Having claimed two of the last three international titles (Oceania Internationals<\/a> and Europe Internationals<\/a>) and a handful of regional titles throughout the 2023 VGC season, every player saw the dolphin hero as one of the biggest threats<\/a> in the meta. For a time, seasoned veterans thought Palafin was unstoppable<\/a> and weren\u2019t sure how to counter it. By the time Portland Regionals rolled around in May, however, the dolphin saw a sudden, significant drop in usage. And since then, it hasn\u2019t fully recovered.<\/p>
As Pok\u00e9mon Champion Wolfe Glick discussed in his \u201cWhat Happened to Palafin?\u201d<\/a> video, Palafin\u2019s fall from grace had to do with how players adapted and shifted the meta out of the dolphin hero\u2019s favor.<\/p>
