Update: since I completed my testing of this Pokemon, many of Showdown’s replays were lost (occurred Nov/Dec 2023). Consequently, some of the replays I used as a showcase may no longer work- apologies!
Ditto is, by design, the standard for terrible Pokemon in RBY. Its lack of resistances and atrocious stats make it incredibly difficult to use, and the reward for managing to bring it into play is to transform into a worse version of whatever Pokemon the opponent currently has in play, thanks to it retaining its terrible HP stat, as well as only having 5 PP on each move after transforming. Because its utility peaks at being worse than whatever the opponent is using, and it’s extremely difficult to even accomplish that much, it’s difficult to argue for any other Pokemon (outside a handful of NFEs) to be considered the worst in the game
Despite that, a recurring theme over the years for those who do evaluate the viability of all fully evolved Pokemon has been to rank 1 Pokemon as worse than Ditto. To do so is to truly disparage the Pokemon in question, being worse than a Pokemon whose inherent design is the worst in the game. I can recall this occurring in 2015, where Jorgen argued Golbat was worse than Ditto, and was backed up by Magic9Mushroom. In 2021 I did the same thing myself, with long time veteran Enigami ranking Hitmonchan below Ditto, which was followed by Volk, a solid player in their own right.
Every time this has occurred, the rationale has been that Ditto could maybe Transform into some incapacitated threat such as a paralysed Swords Dance user and then turn the tables, whereas Golbat/Hitmonchan can achieve literally nothing. There’s just one problem with that- I’ve never seen any evidence that anyone tested this. So I decided to change that, originally thinking that I could even bring it to a tournament match, assuming tests on the ladder went well. Suffice to say, I was in for a harsh reality check. It took me over a month of constant grinding to reach an elo of 1500. That’s a level I believe every competent player should be able to easily achieve, but it took a herculean effort in order to reach that threshold. So what was the Ditto experience like?
The first step was building a team. I was thinking that Ditto would seek to countersweep by Transforming into an incapacitated Pokemon, so my goal was to play for sleep and freeze to maximise those opportunities. Otherwise, Ditto is a dead weight in most scenarios, so the rest of the team had to be as consistent as possible to compensate for this.
I started with Ditto, then added a standard Tauros, Ice Beam/Reflect Snorlax and BoltBeam Chansey. For my remaining non-lead slot I chose dual-Powder Exeggutor. Those 5 Pokemon would remain fixed throughout my testing period, however the lead position would change a couple times. I initially started with Jynx in the lead position, with the idea being that it could reliably land sleep, then potentially freeze something later on, creating 2 Transform targets for Ditto.
I later swapped to Jolteon for more defensive utility as well as offensive power out of the lead spot, swapped to Starmie for even more defensive coverage, only to swap back to Jolt when I decided I valued its offensive firepower more (I love Jolteon, there may be no better lead for bullshitting your way to easy wins in the first few turns). The final team, if you really want it, can be found here.
The idea of Ditto countersweeping didn’t really stand up to practice. I was conscious going in that Ditto would have a hard time Transforming without dying, but there were other issues that I failed to consider:
- Ditto frequently couldn’t actually beat the Pokemon it Transformed into. Between certain Pokemon not being able to deal substantial damage to themselves, and the fact Ditto only gets 5 PP per move, Pokemon like Chansey and Slowbro became impenetrable walls
- Transform being Ditto’s only move meant the opponent has the luxury of picking which Pokemon you get to Transform into. No opponent would be stupid enough to let you Transform into a genuine threat, especially if it meant leaving in a Pokemon that was asleep or frozen
- Ditto is a terrible way to punish sleeping Pokemon because it needs 2 turns (switch in, then transform) to be in a position to achieve anything
- Ditto generally requires enormous amounts of support to countersweep, to the point where pretty much anything else would do the trick just as well
- It needs paralysis support to actually have an advantage after Transforming into something that isn’t sleeping or frozen
- You need significant chip damage to make up for the fact that Ditto will be taking massive damage in the process of setting up
- The opponent should have practically no other options available for you to Transform into
Of the flaws listed above, its predictability is by far the greatest. Because your opponent knows that your only options are to Transform or immediately switch out, you’re completely at their mercy in terms of whether or not you can create a threat. Consequently, the idea that Ditto can Transform into something useful is generally a myth, and the idea that there could be a Pokemon worse (aside from Magikarp, Weedle and the like) beggars credulity.
There were a couple occasions where I managed to countersweep, but as mentioned, practically anything else could’ve done just as well, and such instances were still exceedingly rare. This replay showcases one such instance, however I was likely winning regardless even before my little gimmick. It was also a single heavily crippled target that Ditto was able to beat, which isn’t much to boast about. This replay shows Ditto setting up Tauros for a risk-free KO on Alakazam, but it’s such a laughably small contribution that it makes, while dying in the process, that I think it better demonstrates how awful this Pokemon is.
What I found in practice was that rather than countersweeping, Ditto was uniquely suited as dedicated cannon fodder. This meant switching it into sleep or potential explosions, with the idea being that Ditto wasn’t worth much otherwise, and if it didn’t work out it could threaten to Transform into the sleep/boom user and retaliate that way (this replay is the best example of this). This is of course, easily avoided by switching out, but forcing a switch means bringing in a non-threat which still helps. Notable use cases would be Exeggutor (especially if paralysed), and 40ish% Snorlax. In the latter case Selfdestruct or Rest is likely, both work for Ditto. Even though Ditto probably can’t beat a Resting Lax, most opponents won’t want to let you Transform into it.
There are a handful of edge cases where Ditto provides value- it’s uniquely capable of scouting sets, but with few Pokemon in RBY capable of running multiple distinct sets, that’s of little value and it’s also something the opponent can easily control. This replay is an example of scouting, as Ditto revealed that the opposing Chansey lacked Thunder Wave. Still, the value it provided was tiny and not remotely worth the difficulty in using it.
The last thing to note is that I only considered 6 replays of my time using Ditto worth saving, out of well over 200 battles played on ladder- I single-handedly got Ditto to 18th in the March 2022 usage stats, while it also ranked unusually highly in April, despite me achieving my goal partway through the month. In the overwhelming majority of my matches Ditto achieved nothing, where I either won without revealing it or it dying without doing anything, and many games I lost because I didn’t have anything more useful available to me, especially since running a useless Pokemon means I have almost no tolerance for hax. I think that even in the cherry-picked replays that I’ve shown, Ditto’s contributions have been so pathetic as to be laughable.
This was a torturous grind, and in order for it to not be meaningless self-inflicted pain, I implore everyone reading this to never, even for a second, doubt that Ditto is the worst fully evolved Pokemon in RBY. I would challenge anyone who says otherwise to put this to the test, but frankly I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.
Another thing is that I’m unsure if I’ll go into as much depth for future entries in the trashmon chronicles. I don’t have a lot of time to spare for this blog and there are far more interesting things I want to focus on.
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