Gardevoir

When DPP came along, the male-only counterpart to Gardevoir, Gallade, was introduced. The physically oriented Gallade quickly outclassed the feminine Gardevoir in every aspect: the former possesses the rare Psychic / Fighting typing while retaining the same great Special Defense stat as the latter. Though both are the last in their evolutionary line, Gardevoir and Gallade have never met in the same tier. After a short stay in ADV BL, Gardevoir fell from grace and never saw the glory of the OU tier, instead finding itself in the densely populated NU tier. Post-ADV, it was outclassed by other Psychic-types introduced in DPP and BW, such as Azelf and Reuniclus.

The Embrace Pokemon now finds itself sitting in the NU tier, but is viable in RU. As its elegance suggests, Gardevoir is very frail on the physical side, with a dismal base 68 HP and an even lower base 65 Defense stat. However, Gardevoir fares much better on the special side; it has an outstanding base 125 Special Attack, equal to that of Azelf, backed by a solid base 115 Special Defense. Thus, it can launch powerful special attacks and sponge them as well with nary a scratch to its beautiful gown. However, Gardevoir's pure Psychic typing means that it is in constant danger of becoming Pursuit bait in a tier infested with Dark-types, such as Absol and Spiritomb. As its Pokedex entries often say, Gardevoir will protect its trainer with its life. To express its loyalty, it will serve with its tremendously wide movepool that makes Smeargle drool. Despite its many shortcomings, Gardevoir still has a chance to shine brightly in the RU tier, not letting itself be engulfed in the world of Dark-types.