A method of coding video data, the method comprising: determining a set of spatial candidates associated with a current portion of a current video frame, wherein the set of spatial candidates corresponds to neighboring portions of the current video frame adjacent to the current portion and wherein each of the spatial candidates has associated motion information; determining a temporal candidate associated with the current portion of the current video frame, wherein the temporal candidate corresponds to a portion of a reference video frame and wherein the temporal candidate has associated motion information; generating a list of candidates based on a subset of the set of spatial candidates and the temporal candidate by excluding a spatial candidate with duplicate motion information from the list of candidates; in response to the candidate list comprising less than a specified number of candidates, adding artificially generated candidates to the list of candidates until the candidate list comprises the specified number of candidates, wherein the artificially generated candidates include one or more of a combined bi-predictive merge candidate, a scaled bi-predictive merge candidate, and a zero vector merge candidate wherein the combined bi-predictive merge candidate is created by combining candidates of the list of candidates, the scaled bi-predictive merge candidate is created by scaling candidates of the list of candidates, and the zero vector merge candidate is created by combining zero vectors and reference indexes which can be referred; and performing a pruning operation by comparing each artificially generated candidate to the existing candidates in the list, wherein the pruning operation is limited to combined bi-predictive merge candidates and all other candidates including scaled bi-predictive merge candidates and zero vector merge candidates are not pruned. determining a set of spatial candidates associated with a current portion of a current video frame, wherein the set of spatial candidates corresponds to neighboring portions of the current video frame adjacent to the current portion and wherein each of the spatial candidates has associated motion information; determining a temporal candidate associated with the current portion of the current video frame, wherein the temporal candidate corresponds to a portion of a reference video frame and wherein the temporal candidate has associated motion information; generating a list of candidates based on a subset of the set of spatial candidates and the temporal candidate by excluding a spatial candidate with duplicate motion information from the list of candidates; in response to the candidate list comprising less than a specified number of candidates, adding artificially generated candidates to the list of candidates until the candidate list comprises the specified number of candidates, wherein the artificially generated candidates include one or more of a combined bi-predictive merge candidate, a scaled bi-predictive merge candidate, and a zero vector merge candidate wherein the combined bi-predictive merge candidate is created by combining candidates of the list of candidates, the scaled bi-predictive merge candidate is created by scaling candidates of the list of candidates, and the zero vector merge candidate is created by combining zero vectors and reference indexes which can be referred; and performing a pruning operation by comparing each artificially generated candidate to the existing candidates in the list, wherein the pruning operation is limited to combined bi-predictive merge candidates and all other candidates including scaled bi-predictive merge candidates and zero vector merge candidates are not pruned.