@@beeorsomething2230 Nah, it's a reference to a Smogon player. The FSG would be "It's like running a choice band and a Choice scarf on the same set" or something like that.
@@N12015 The "Choice Band and Choice Scarf" actually came from ANOTHER comment referencing Genesect's Download + Scarf Set. Oh and Genesect has STAB U-Turn for more comedic factor.
Slaking: 160 ATT, but balanced by the fact that it skips every turn G-Darm: 140 ATT, but balanced by the fact that it gets to hold a second choice band
@@iantaakalla8180 I was suggesting a downside only ability, not that it functionally gets gorilla tactics. galarian darm effectively has at least 180 base attack plus more, already easily outclassing slaking's 160 in terms of raw power.
@@Tojikuna if you slapped on it a choice scarf it outspeed a good amount of pokemon while still have dizzying power. So why would you care about that anymore ?
@@sheillasyahputri472 zacian crown is uber with great typing but zacian has quagsire as his natural wall but galar dama is no natural wall worthy of him.
It's far from being a better ability ._. It's way worse. Sheer force is a ×2 with no drawback while Gorilla tactics is a ×1.5 with the drawback of not being able to change move. Yes, if you put a choice band on top of Gorilla tactics then the ×1.5 becomes a ×2.25 but if you put a choice band on top of Sheer Force the ×2 becomes a ×3 so it's still strictly better. What makes Damaritan G busted is Gorilla tactics on top of his base 140 in attack that is already crazy high.
I remember getting darumaka in a trade and it evolving into Gurilla Tactics Darmanitan. I've never had a Pokemon game crumple after the third gym so bad, and I played XY
Sword and shield really be filled with that "destroys almost everything instantly" pokedex. Calyrex (ice/shadow), zacian, gal darm, dracovish, regieleki, etc etc... Hard to believe dexit happened for balance reasons at this point.
Uhh actually it was balance reasons. I think what happened is the overly strong things they introduced were decided on after they concluded on doing dexit. Like. Do you really think Arceus would make the meta more balanced? It's certainly not balanced NOW but if all 894 species were present it would be worse
@@SnoFitzroy considering arceus has medicre offensive but great defensive capabilities yes it would, but honestly they just couldn't finish the game, that's all.
Ah yes, the no brainer pick. It used to be on every team so I ran a meme Hitmonchan set with Iron Fist Choice Band Mach Punch to OHKO Garmanitan leads since they'd always open with it and click U-turn or Icicle Crash It wasn't a Seismitoad situation either, I'd legitimately OHKO mixed/SpDefensive Ferrothorns with Fire Punch as well. It actually pulled its weight But the most effort I'd always get from Chan was 30% of players forfeiting turn one because their no thoughts head empty hulk smasher was instantly taken out
@havier bardem three reasons: 1. Opponents don't switch out because they know they outspeed and one shot with icicle crash. They know that my mon in return doesn't KO with MP unless it runs this exact set. 2. I honestly wanted something for Ferrothorn. I had fire punch and rapid spin (although close combat is still stronger, I just preferred not to get any stat drops after hitting it). It was my only hazard remover so it did something outside beating Galarm 3. Lmao Hitmonchan in OU
Love how Gamefreak decided that an already strong Pokemon with a broken ability should also get another broken ability where it becomes stronger and faster at half health as well as access to belly drum. I imagine whoever designed Archeops at Gamefreak had to physically pin Darm's designer to the ground before the madman gave it Extremespeed as well
@@dorkmork7349 I think they're trying to talk about Zen Mode Galar darm, since belly drumming to half health does all the things they mentioned with that ability.
Though it’s still broken regardless, I think it’s important to note Darm-G was banned around when dynamax was still in effect, meaning for a long time you could lock yourself into a move, the opponent sends out a “counter” and then you dynamax, allowing you to break out of your choice lock at any time and still deal serious damage. Super dumb
It's also important to note showdown dynamax gave you choice item boosts while in dynamax at the time, meaning you could also be banded and get both boosts
for the people wondering "Why not just ban gorilla tactics?": Smogon doesn't like to ban abilities/moves just because it's few users turned out to be broken with them. actually, low sample size makes it less likely for smogon to ban the move/ability in question because it makes the sample size too small for them to determine if the ability itself is uncompetitive or if it's because gamefreak gave it to a pokemon with 140 base attack. and they won't just ban specific pokemon from using specific abilities since Smogon doesn't like complex bans because, well, they don't want to make their ruleset too complex and set precedents that would lead to such. take Libero/Protean (same fucking ability) for instance. Cinderace and gen 6 greninja were banned for how well they abused the ability, but kecleon being bad showed that libero/protean aren't ultra-broken just for existing. As such, smogon can't really justify banning the ability as a whole, and their tendency to avoid complex bans means they won't just go "lets unban this mon but prevent it from using what made it broken" unless they absolutly have to.
When you really think about it Gorilla Tactics is a worse version of Pure/Huge Power and even Hustle if you don't get unlucky. Nothing that has these abilities is even close to being overwhelming in OU so there's no reason to ban these abilities and as such no reason to ban Gorilla Tactics. Darmanitan-G might not be too strong without Gorilla Tactics and I'd be lying if I said that I'm not curious about how Zen Mode would perform but the argument for banning Gorilla Tactics isn't there.
I guess, but banning a pokemon + ability combo has been fairly standard for some time, it's not exactly a complex ban and would let people get to see what fire ice zen mode would be like
@@Matt_Silverwolf to complex and its just easier ot ban the pokemon itself since what if zen mode is broken then u have to go back again to prevent it... and people can make shit up as to why a pokemon can be ou. Such as deoxys-a should be ou if you remove psycho boost and superpower from it or cinderace can be ou if it cannot use heavy-duty boots, etc etc
Galar Darmanitan makes Gen 4 Salamance a joke. Galar Darm literally has nothing that can wall it and only has very shacky checks like Avalugg which can check the Scarf and Salac set but loses to the Band set. Mega Slowbro would be another shacky check if it was legal, but easily loses to banded u-turn spam.
Would the Zen Mode Belly Drum set have been overpowered too if they banned Gorilla Tactics rather than Garm outright? True that it requires a lot of setup, but the reward seems nothing short of catastrophic (160 Atk with a +6 boost is insane)
If they did keep zen mode darm while banning Gorrila Tactics, zen mode darm will easily be expected, and it won't have the opportunity to set up as much, not to mention after the dynamax ban hazards have been more popular making it more harder for galarian darm to set up and let alone having to deal with dragapults speed tier since dragapult is always in top 10 usage. So no, it won't be too OP
Zen Mode would make for an interesting suspect, its definitely not as braindead broken as Tactics and if Darm runs Salac 2 Attacks it doesnt have the power to force switches and get a sub and it also has moveslot issues as you usually want to run BD, Sub, icicle and EQ. It could also just run scarf or banded and spam Flare Blitz or take rocks damage two times to activate Zen Mode which doesnt seem too bad. Dont think it would be broken and it gives me some Blaziken vibes but who knows.
@@acekun6493 It wouldn't run salac at all. Galar Zen Mode gets 135 base speed instead of 55 like normal zen mode. It would just be belly drum + 3 attacks or maybe sub, flare blitz and eq. There aren't many pokemon it's able to set up on and get away with tho, so I feel like a banded set would be the most popular and get the most mileage. With the metagame now I feel like if they brought back only zen mode darm, that it would fall to UU. With all the fat water types in UU it could even drop to rubl. It's bulk is non existent, even pivots and passive mons will do major damage
I think the biggest move that pushed gorilla tactics over the edge was not even its stab or coverage; it was u turn. Regular darm's flare blitz is actually stronger than gtactics crash because of sheer force, but the 1.5 times boost to scouting was ridiculous. Chip was effortless to spread throughout the team, and the only way to avoid it is to sponge with pex, one of the most easily taken advantage of mons in the game. Defensive teams were forced to sponge uturns with walls that invited other deadly wallbreakers (especially when dynamax was allowed) while offensive teams fared even worse by getting constantly worn down into submission by scarf darm spamming uturn on anything it outsped I think that's a general topic that would also make for a good why-does-smogon-do-what-it-does video: every time an overpowering offensive mon is banned, i see a lot of new players believe that top players are trying to preserve "stall" when in fact a lot of these mons stifle offense and balance way more since stall can afford to run multiple dedicated hard checks to certain mons while offense can't afford these passive countermeasures
Idk I think people dont realize that having one single mon over centralize and become neccessary to run offensive teams is Unhealthy to both stall and Offensive teams they just see one archetype and assume favoritism
RT about uturn bro, that move is so ridiculous Definitely pushed darm over the edge - there are so many mons where you can give them u-turn and change them from unviable to ridiculous threats
The Belly Drum set is another example of a "bad" set that is only good because gorilla tactics garm is so terrifying that the responses people have to it leave room for it to set up. The Belly Drum set would not be viable at all if the Scarfed/Banded variants of gorilla tactics garm weren't so good.
Well, I wouldn't say "werent so good" as much as I would say "if they didn't exist". As long as there's an alternate set that is meta viable, sub salac drum zen mode would be a viable alternate set preying on the usual counterplay.
I remember when I ran banded Zen mode Darmanitan just to trick randoms into thinking I had enough power as is and waited til I got to under half health.
I remember when this menace was around I built a team around modest scarf dragapult to counter lead and ohko with fire blast if they didn't suspect it.
The great thing is that sheer force normal darm’s flare blitz is still way stronger than garm’s icicle crash. Recoil factors in ofc but I swear darm is underrated
Stupid good movepool, really good attack nice speed and built in band, plus the option of having sub with zen mode and option of running boots for hit and run option since you still have gorilla tactics boost, yeah this thing is overpowered like zacian in their respective tiers
In short.. Garchomp after an SD OHKO’d everything not named Skarmory. And most skarms got trapped by Mag or Chomp could just 2hko with fire move. Some Chomps could even brute force through Skarm with outrage spam + rocks. It also never died in 1 hit with a yache berry. Mence kind of the same issue, but moreso that it’s mixed set had no counters instead of a setup set.
Darmanitan-Galar got banned because it utterly ridiculous to stop it from automatically picking up a ko after it switches in with the switch moves. Let the damage calc speak for it. 252+ Atk Choice Band Gorilla Tactics Darmanitan-Galar Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Filter Aggron-Mega: 196-232 (56.9 - 67.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO Something as insanely bulky as max physical defense mega aggron takes 56% minimum from banded adamant flare blitz. Its quite literally "unwallable", also it's not like mega aggron is frail it is the most physically bulky pokemon in the entire game, I will show another calc regarding mega aggron's obnoxious bulk. Edit: This is the calc regarding mega aggron's bulk. +2 252+ Atk Garchomp-Mega Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Filter Aggron-Mega: 253-298 (73.5 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock It survives +2 adamant Mega Garchomp's earthquake after stealth rock. Edit 2: It's not like mega Garchomp is weak either and what I just showed was +2 yes but see this calc. +2 252+ Atk Garchomp-Mega Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Mega: 410-486 (104 - 123.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO It does minimum 104% to max physical defense mega slowbro which one of the most unbreakable tanks on physical end. I would not continue by showing how bulky mega slowbro is and bla bla bla but you get the idea darmanitan-Galar is utterly unwallable.
@@伯龍亥的路博巴士頻道 ik bro but I'm talking all over the national dex. Like you wouldn't find something as ridiculously bulky in gen 8 as mega slowbro or mega aggron.
Weavile is the only proper Ice type they have made that is competitive wherever it goes but never broken. The rest suck or are blatantly overpowered in the meta they landed in.
Exactly. And Weavile is an accident specifically because Weavile is based on the Kamaitachi, a youkai meant to represent chilling wind. Had that not been it’s basis, the Sneasel line would most certainly have fallen by now. Froslass is useless in a world where Heavy Duty Boots exist and now is slightly-more-guaranteed Glalie, while Mamoswine is just edged out of being useful because of speed creep. There are no good Ice types at all, just Pokémon with the Ice type that have a meta with lower power levels and speed levels.
@@antoinepolnareff8970 he isnt for one main reason: Dynamax disables Gorilla Tactics, and without Dynamax it's far too frail on a bad typing in a metagame that has a ton of Rock Slides and similar moves. Same problem as Dracovish essentially: can't abuse Dynamax, and without it it doesn't offer enough to justify using in a bulker and slower metagame where Fake Out , redirection and Protect exist and are everywhere.
Terrains: Mega Metagross was good at using all the terrains (Misty made it unstatusable; psychic gave immunity to priority; electric made thunder punch do more so Skarmory isn't a counter; grassy made Earthquake users ineffective). Also Toxapex made the main Mega Metagross check in gen 6 (Slowbro/Slowking) obsolete but Toxapex couldn't check Mega Metagross. Turn 1 Speed difference in gen 6 (base) instead of gen 7 (Mega) made Gen 6 Mega Metagross more manageable back then as well.
Main reason is that in gen 7 megas got their mega form speed on the turn that they evolve. So you have something that can 2HKO the entire meta, is really bulky and is rarely one shot, and has the same speed as Lati twins. In gen 6 they had their base form speed on the first turn. This is why almost every single mega had to waste a move slot for protect.
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Let's not forget it can unlock itself from Gorilla Tactics with Dynamax and even get some stat boosts or get passive hail damage as well.
Not to forget Icicle Crash's flinch chance which is relatively high Allowing it to break some things it wouldn't normally especially the Scarf sets lmao
One thing I've always thought, why wasn't Gorilla Tactics banned instead of the Pokemon as a whole? As far as I'm aware, Zen Mode Galarian Darmanitan was strong but nowhere near as big of a threat since it needs to safely set up a Belly Drum rather than having immediate power.
Because A, Smogon likes to avoid Complex Bans, and B, Gorilla Tactics is specifically broken on G-Darm, but wouldn't be broken on something like Primape. If Gorilla Tactics, itself, was banned from OU, that would automatically ban Gorilla Tactics from all lower tiers, so if another pokemon later got the ability it would have to be suspect tested back into OU, and then back into the lower tiers. It's much easier to just say "okay, Zen Mode has less than a 10% usage on this pokemon, so there would be no real loss just banning the pokemon as a whole instead of making a complex ban."
To put simply, they haven't banned the ability because there is not enough of a sample size to show that the ability itself is uncompetitive, and how much of it is tied to the fact that they gave such an ability to a mon with 140 base attack and a good speed tier for scarf. Smogon typically does not like complex bans for various reasons (a combination of rule complexity and not wanting to set precedents that would result in such). Every once in a while they do it begrudgingly, but only if they REALLY need to bring a pokemon back because the meta got fucked, hi gen 5 Excadrill
It's not a complex ban though, it's only a complex ban if something else has the ability. Surely it would make more sense to ban G-tactics in the gen 8 OU metagame since we know that *Gen 8* will never have a second Gorilla Tactics Pokemon? When a new gen comes around, non-legendary Ubers are often unbanned at first anyway, so they can look at it again in Gen 9 and ban the 'mon as a whole in Gen 9 if there are other 'mons with the ability.
@@Milesprowerthegamer But it's much easier to just ban the mon and then look at it later. Zen Mode G-Darm had less than a 5% total usage compared to Gorilla Tactics, so it's safe to say that almost no one used its Zen Mode form. This way instead of having to test G-Darm AND any other mon that might have the ability, they can just test G-Darm and be done with it.
Even if G-Darm had sheer force only, it would still be a solid scarfer because it still has access to both flare blitz and fire punch, sacrificing STAB on it for some of the most ridiculous coverage on any one Pokémon with EQ and U-turn. This thing would have been UU at the absolute least, but seeing how people caught onto Dracovish there's no way nobody takes a look at G-Darm regardless of ability and thinks "Oh the nuke button"
And Zen Mode is still never the ability you want to run because even a redistribution of stats like that pales to Gorilla Tactics. Galarian Darmanitan is really overpowered.
I think it's also worth mentioning that the popularity of Gorilla Tactics made Zen Mode more relevant, since opponents would often play as if you have Gorilla Tactics until you use the Belly Drum, at which point it's too late
I love how there is no good reason for Zen Mode to exist on either Darmanitan since while Galarian Darmanitan’s Zen Mode makes its stuff worth using, its Gorilla Tactics is basically worse Zacian’s Intrepid Sword and normal Darmanitan’s Zen Mode is useless save strange mixed jank.
This is a great example on how a great ability can make a mediocre Pokémon good. Same stats, worse type, and it jumps from RU to Uber. As a Gengar fan, I hope it'll get a better ability in Gen9 (although I'm aware that in BDSP it's broken...).
Ahh good times. I remember resorting to max defense flame orb Milotic to counter this thing. Marvel Scale meant Milotic easily shrugged off Earthquake. Bit of a meme pick but it literally was the only true counter at the time.
Gmanitan also has the better zen mode and it gets belly drum, that's literally a game ender right there, the enemy also has to scout for the right ability
I'm honestly not even convinced that regular Darm would be broken with this ability; its STAB have greater drawbacks + bulkier/more survivable resists than GDarm's STAB, making it kinda similar to the DarkShifu/WaterShifu situation
So basically, you have the middling Galarian Darmanitan that doesn’t hurt itself but has the worst defensive type vs the Darmanitan that has lots of power but hurts itself and has a slightly better defensive type? That actually is not a bad trade-off, and would be very nice to see.
when i first read body press i thought it used the users defense instead of the opponents def, not instead of the users atk, and i think for the first few days it worked like that on showdown because i used a min def garm with body press, and ohkod a tyranitar with it
that's a x4 super effective hit - if the tyranitar had no bulk investment and you had a neutral defense nature, that actually has a shot at ko'ing ttar, regardless of whether the mis-implementation you supposed happened.
Question, if you belly drum on a scarf set then have a healing ally use something like healing pulse that same turn... After it comes out of dynamax (provided it lives until then), do you get to pick a new move to use the rest of the battle or are your relocked into belly drum? And yes, I know even if this works it's an unreliable gimmick set... But I like gimmicky playstyles, it's just so fun when they work by some miracle.
Nice Vid. Can we get an indepth video on OG Kyurem? I'm really mindboggled by that dragon's journey. It always seemed like a lower tier threat from a noob's perspective, and was RUBL for XY and SM. Even just UUBL on its debut generation. If I recall correctly, wasn't Kyurem in UU when it first got out in SS? I don't even know anymore. I know it's pretty bombusted and the surroundings change probably helped a lot, but getting a video on its journey to Ubers in Gen 8 would be really interesting.
Freeze Dry let it have way too many sets with way too few actual answers, basically. Between subroost being able to hit most mons with freeze dry+earth power and flipping the matchup on special walls like bliss, 3 attacks roost hitting hard with good coverage, ddance sets, while not considered the best, still being nevertheless game-ruining if you're not prepared, and specs still hitting like a truck, it had way too many sets with way too different counterplay between each other. Getting freeze dry and actual physical ice stab broadened its plausible kit options too much.
@Nicolai Stuhlmüller Yeah, because it was even more broken before that. Heck, Defog at some point used to only remove the opponent‘s hazards, so before Gen 6 that wasn’t an option to clear your side either. Heavy Duty Boots is another baby step in the right direction. It’s bs that certain Pokémon types (especially the underpowered Ice and Bug) become instantly unviable just because SR lacks counterplay options, especially now that it’s possible for certain Pokémon such as the Frosmoth line to faint from full health due to nothing but entry hazards. I hope in Gen 9, they introduce something that doesn’t just remove or ignore Stealth Rocks, but actively punishes setting them up if you’re not careful. Closest thing we have right now is Magic Bounce which is given to so few Pokémon you can see it coming a mile away. As long as Stealth Rocks can be learned by everyone and their grandma and there is no downside to setting them up, they will keep determining which Pokémon are viable based on nothing but how weak they are to Rock.
@@rainpooper7088 then why was Volcarona OU in Gen5 and Gen7? Especially in Gen5 where Defog didn't even work as a hazard removal? "rocks alone decide viability" is absolutely not true. We had Talonflame, Mega Pinsir and Mega Charizard Y in OU, Volcarona, Weavile, so many more mons weak to rocks. Meanwhile Gen8 has made some mons like Zapdos plain up disgusting just because of hdb. Imagine Zapdos having the advantages of hdb with an item on top. That would be pretty strong. The thing is, rocks already is a punishment for excessive switching, because it makes switching risky. Remember how in Gen 6 stall became broken simply because they got a good magic bounce user that takes care of hazards so stall can freely switch as much as they want? Rocks are a major balancing factor in the game and don't affect viability as much as you think. And a lot of unviable rocks weak mons would also be unviable if rocks were removed. Moltres is pretty much the only exception to that. And in what would do rocks lack counterplay options. You can always remove them before going into your hazard weak mon.
I mean it's an undeniable truth that Stealth Rock was inherently imbalanced before Gen 8 due to the sheer number of Pokémon that could learn the move Vs the amount of mons that could learn hazard removal (not even counting how good those individual mons are). It wasn't until HDB was released that the anti-hazard faction finally got a more universally accessible method than Stealth Rock, finally tipping the balance
darmanitan was countered by dynamax while not benefitting very much from it himself (since it disabled the boosts from choice items.) Once dynamax got banned, darmanitan became unbeatable.
GF has seen that Darmanitan was only ever used with its Choice Band set and never with Zen Mode and said "Ok, you know what, now you either use Zen Mode or you'll never use more than one move!". And immediately regretted it.
is there an item that boosts defense when you get hit with a physical move like with special defense? if so, avalugg might be able to wall it I've been using avalugg in OU at least and it seems to wall super effective moves with no effort.
Yes it is, but it's one time only. Avalugg already walls it decently but even if it can avoid the 2hko by flare blitz, darm could just switch into a special attacker while you recover and next time you can no longer wall it, and you practically need heavy duty boots on top anyways. Rotom-Heat and Rotom-Wash were pretty much the best walls against it, heat even more because of its U-Turn resistance. And Corsola-Galar. Darm-G was practically the reason Corsola-Galar was OU, that thing was the best answer to it.
@@moneykenny119 In the case of stuff like Speed Boost Blaziken, yeah, cause they'ed rather say you can't use Blaziken than you can't use Speed Boost on Blaziken. But Darm-G is the only pokemon with Gorilla Tactics so just banning Gorilla Tactics wouldn't affect anything else.
@@RikiazGaming but that doesnt make any sense to do. Darm is op bc of its op ability. Should you just ban geomancy and keep xern? Or ban fleur cannon and keep mag? Ban wicked blow and keep urshifu? Like half the mons in urbers have a signature move or ability. Should they ban every signature move and reintroduce them all to ou and see what isn't op anymore? If you ban specific parts of a bunch of different pokemon at that point you are playing CAP, not gen8 ou
Generation 8 is a failure in every single way possible and no one will talk about those games again save the occasional Legends: Arceus talk and that assumes there is no better Legends game to come out. Then again, preparing a Pokémon for competitive this easily may be Galar’s feature because the story is explicitly about an official tournament, so who knows? The Pokémon games will be messed even further, and we’re just here to witness in which ways they’ll fuck up.
But why did they ban G-Darmanitan and not just Gorilla Tactics? I doubt the Zen Mode set was too strong as well. It’s like if they looked at Arena Trap/Shadow Tag as problem abilities and decided “Dugtrio/Gothitelle must go.” Which iirc they didn’t do.
Arena Trap and Shadow Tag are uncompetitive abilities that are detrimental to a skill based competitive environment by removing player agency and interaction. They didn't ban gTactics because it isn't a broken or uncompetitive ability in any way.
But isn’t G-Darmanitan the only Pokemon that can have the ability? If other Pokemon can have the ability then I would agree that banning it isn’t the answer. But considering the only Pokemon that can have the ability is considered too strong with that ability, and has an alternative to make it more balanced, I do wonder why Zen Mode G-Darmanitan isn’t allowed. I could see it getting out of hand if they start taking that approach though. Like what if they just have Fishious Rend banned and not Dragovish?
@@gravity8120 they don't ban elements of a pokemon singularly UNLESS said ability is problematic by being broken or uncompetitive. It isn't darm broken by gtactica. It is gtactics broken by darm.
That’s a better way of looking at it, actually. I guess we did also have Greninja banned for Protean in the past, even though Torrent Greninja was perfectly manageable.
@@HowlingOneify that's not really true though. For example look at when gen6 PU had a problem with two mons that coincidentally both used damage inflicting moves with a 100% confusion chance: Machoke and Chatot, the former with No Guard + Dynamicpunch, the latter with Chatter. In the former case the combination of No Guard + Dynamicpunch was also available to Golurk, which was still pretty mediocre even with it while Chatter was exclusive to Chatot, so what happened was that both Machoke got banned (since neither No Guard nor Dynamicpunch were problematic on any other mon than Machoke) and Chatter got banned (because it was problematic on 100% of the mons that got it). The gen7 Dugtrio case is another example on broken on one mon vs. broken on every mon that gets it. At first Dugtrio was suspected, so what happened was players switched to using Diglett in their teams and actually achieving similar success, so instead of Dugtrio the ability got banned. Same for Shadow Tag, the Trickscarf-shenanigans that made Gothitelle disgusting to deal with are just as possible with Gothorita, so the ability got banned and not the mon. Power Construct - broken on both Zygarde 50% and Zygarde 10% so it got banned. Thousand Arrows - only broken on Zygarde 50% and fine on Zygarde 10% so it stayed. Dragon Dance - broken on Kyurem-Black, fine on everything else, so Kyurem-Black was banned. Baton Pass - broken on multiple setters including Scolipede, Mew and Gliscor so it got banned. But honestly, Darmanitan-G Zen is disgustingly powerful with 165 attack and 135 speed and a ridiculously good dual stab, so it makes sense to ban the full mon.
I still wonder why they banned G-Darm as a whole and not just Gorilla Tactics, since it's exclusive to it. Zen Mode G-Darm was a fun and perfectly balanced mon with a good movepool and a lot of flexibility, you don't have to build around its Zen mode because it's strong even without activating it.
The reasoning is that if Huge Power was allowed to exist without being banned despite being an objectively superior ability to Gorilla Tactics, implies that GDarm itself was just as much at fault of being broken rather than just being "carried by its ability". It's kind of like why Blaziken was banned instead of Speed Boost being banned in general, except in this case GDarm still managed to be busted despite having a weaker version of the ability.
@@breloommaster12 Blaziken coexisted with Ninjask, Sharpedo and a bunch of other mons that did not deserve bans as they were far more limited in their application. G-Darm is the only mon with Gorilla Tactics and is likely to stay that way.
@@TheLaXandro the point is that Gorilla Tactics is objectively weaker than Huge Power, so it's not a case of banning Gorilla Tactics because it's an "overpowered ability"; it is very obvious that this ban is only considered to "preserve Zen Mode GDarm in OU", and unfortunately bans are only aiming to get rid of broken elements rather than trying to preserve certain aspects of the Pokémon. This can be seen when NU banned both Snow Cloak and Slush Rush which effectively made the Alolan Sandshrew line unusuable in that tier, which is unfortunate but the banning rules aren't going to bend over backwards just to accommodate these two Pokémon, just as it won't for Zen Mode Galarian Darm
@@GravityIsFalling banning Gorilla Tactics would not be considered complex since they can "ban Gorilla Tactics from everything" and have it still target only one mon. The reason is that Gorilla Tactics itself is not a banworthy ability.
If normal Darmanitan got Gorilla Tactics Galarian Darmanitan would never be used anymore. It is only viable because it has a unique ability that works nicely. If literally any other Pokémon as powerful as it that had a move to switch out, that monkey would never be used because you never want Ice types - you want good Pokémon that happen to be Ice type.
if in ubers, I suggest max defense kyogre to take Icicle Crash and flare blitz. However, the checks to darmanitan usually come in the form of pokemon that either A: outspeed/outprioritise and hit it hard eg, Caly-S or B: deal chip damage to it over time, notable examples being DM-necrozma with rocky helmet. Of course, i don't understand the whole ubers metagame, so just take the above with a grain of salt.
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As a wise man once said, "Darmanitan-G's ability is called Gorilla Tactics because even a gorilla could lead with it and click U-turn".
FSG reference, my man
LOOOOL
@@beeorsomething2230 Nah, it's a reference to a Smogon player. The FSG would be "It's like running a choice band and a Choice scarf on the same set" or something like that.
@@N12015 The "Choice Band and Choice Scarf" actually came from ANOTHER comment referencing Genesect's Download + Scarf Set.
Oh and Genesect has STAB U-Turn for more comedic factor.
bro this sounds like some shit blunder would say, agency agency
Slaking: 160 ATT, but balanced by the fact that it skips every turn
G-Darm: 140 ATT, but balanced by the fact that it gets to hold a second choice band
it'd be cool if they made a regional variant of slaking line that was choice locked instead of getting truant.
And then no one would use Galarian Daramanitan ever again unless Slaking does not get a pivot move.
@@iantaakalla8180 I was suggesting a downside only ability, not that it functionally gets gorilla tactics. galarian darm effectively has at least 180 base attack plus more, already easily outclassing slaking's 160 in terms of raw power.
@@KLIXORthe but it has paper thin defense with being choice locked whereas slaking has high defense also
@@Tojikuna if you slapped on it a choice scarf it outspeed a good amount of pokemon while still have dizzying power. So why would you care about that anymore ?
gamefreak: let's give a 140 base attack pokemon a built in choice band! im sure it'll go well!
Let's give a 170 base attack Pokémon a built in Howl! Im sure it'll go well!
@@sheillasyahputri472 but giving a refrigerate pokemon extreme speed is too much
@@sheillasyahputri472 zacian crown is uber with great typing but zacian has quagsire as his natural wall but galar dama is no natural wall worthy of him.
@@jettlucashayes8508 sorry we're talking about bh?
@@jettlucashayes8508 What Pokémon got both Refrigerate and Extreme Speed?
They really looked at Sheer Force and said "yeah it needs a stronger ability"
It's far from being a better ability ._. It's way worse. Sheer force is a ×2 with no drawback while Gorilla tactics is a ×1.5 with the drawback of not being able to change move. Yes, if you put a choice band on top of Gorilla tactics then the ×1.5 becomes a ×2.25 but if you put a choice band on top of Sheer Force the ×2 becomes a ×3 so it's still strictly better.
What makes Damaritan G busted is Gorilla tactics on top of his base 140 in attack that is already crazy high.
@@nijimazero Sheer force is not 2x. It's 1.3x. Gorilla tactics is much stronger and also keeps additional effects like icicle crash flinching.
@@nijimazero Sheer force only works with certain moves. Gorilla tactics works with all moves.
@@nijimazero what crack u smoking
@@nijimazero yo, I want some of that sheer force you're smoking
Last year friends wanted to do a monotype doubles tourmament and they laughed when I chose Ice. A-Ninetales and G-Darmanitan went undefeated
Wow that is nice
Wow that is ice
It was a very chilling experience for your friends
Alolan Ninetales? Based. 2nd favorite Ice Type behind Glaceon. Frosmoth probably takes 3rd.
@@mintymango3717 mamoswine reins supreme
I remember getting darumaka in a trade and it evolving into Gurilla Tactics Darmanitan. I've never had a Pokemon game crumple after the third gym so bad, and I played XY
And trade Pkm get much more exp than your own pkm, so It would be also always on level or over it. It happened to me with a Honedge
@@lyg483 technically they do, but it was an egg trade, so it didn't get the EXP boost when it hatched. Though it did get the EXP boost from the camp
Now I can only imagine Leon wanting darmanitan banned from the main story
@@TNTmasta07 I gave mine the elemental punches (Fire and Ice) with Super Power and U-Turn, turns out those moves turn Leon into mush
@@TNTmasta07 lmao
Sword and shield really be filled with that "destroys almost everything instantly" pokedex. Calyrex (ice/shadow), zacian, gal darm, dracovish, regieleki, etc etc... Hard to believe dexit happened for balance reasons at this point.
Oh, yeah. And dynamax.
Balance, in this case, is just an excuse people give when they can’t give you 600 Pokémon that further power creep everywhere except Ubers.
Uhh actually it was balance reasons. I think what happened is the overly strong things they introduced were decided on after they concluded on doing dexit. Like. Do you really think Arceus would make the meta more balanced? It's certainly not balanced NOW but if all 894 species were present it would be worse
@@SnoFitzroy The actual reason for dexit is to force people to pay the monthly fee of pokehome to host their old pokemons in the cloud
@@SnoFitzroy considering arceus has medicre offensive but great defensive capabilities yes it would, but honestly they just couldn't finish the game, that's all.
Godspeed, G-Darmanitan. You actually made Flareon useful for a while.
Dare I ask how?
@@sagacious03 it was a niche check that could switch in on certain ice stab if I remember correctly. More of a meme pick bit still usable.
@@thehatcaseonyoutube yeah, g darm is faster without scarf and learns eq, flareon is barely enough
Yeah, Flareon was used to counter Clefable in early SwSh, not Darm-G
Ah yes, the no brainer pick. It used to be on every team so I ran a meme Hitmonchan set with Iron Fist Choice Band Mach Punch to OHKO Garmanitan leads since they'd always open with it and click U-turn or Icicle Crash
It wasn't a Seismitoad situation either, I'd legitimately OHKO mixed/SpDefensive Ferrothorns with Fire Punch as well. It actually pulled its weight
But the most effort I'd always get from Chan was 30% of players forfeiting turn one because their no thoughts head empty hulk smasher was instantly taken out
"hmmm i wonder what this hitmonchan could possibly do. support maybe?"
_one turn later_
"oh."
One i think is that if you are neutral to ice types
CB Darmantian's icicle crash basiclly counts as super effective on you
@havier bardem three reasons:
1. Opponents don't switch out because they know they outspeed and one shot with icicle crash. They know that my mon in return doesn't KO with MP unless it runs this exact set.
2. I honestly wanted something for Ferrothorn. I had fire punch and rapid spin (although close combat is still stronger, I just preferred not to get any stat drops after hitting it). It was my only hazard remover so it did something outside beating Galarm
3. Lmao Hitmonchan in OU
He is trained in gorilla warfare and graduated top of his class in the Showdown Ubers and has over 3000 confirmed faints.
Needless to say, you're nothing to him but just another target.
Love how Gamefreak decided that an already strong Pokemon with a broken ability should also get another broken ability where it becomes stronger and faster at half health as well as access to belly drum.
I imagine whoever designed Archeops at Gamefreak had to physically pin
Darm's designer to the ground before the madman gave it Extremespeed as well
Belly drum access is irrelevant to guerilla tactics
@@p0oka261 Not in Ubers it ain't
@@Chimera-man-man how so
This made me lol so hard because it could actually be true XD
@@dorkmork7349 I think they're trying to talk about Zen Mode Galar darm, since belly drumming to half health does all the things they mentioned with that ability.
Though it’s still broken regardless, I think it’s important to note Darm-G was banned around when dynamax was still in effect, meaning for a long time you could lock yourself into a move, the opponent sends out a “counter” and then you dynamax, allowing you to break out of your choice lock at any time and still deal serious damage. Super dumb
It's also important to note showdown dynamax gave you choice item boosts while in dynamax at the time, meaning you could also be banded and get both boosts
Uh... No? Dmax was banned around the 16th of December while DarmG was banned odn the 29th of December.
@@HowlingOneify the bans happened close enough together where most people were familiar with darm within the dynamax meta game.
@@HowlingOneify Wow! They gave Darm 13 days!? That’s such a long time to let a meta develop!
@@Dragonstorm1234 this is not true, your were effectively itemless during dynamax with a choiced item
Don’t let this video let you forget that Blunder got 6-0d by darm
Lead zen darm that is 😁
for the people wondering "Why not just ban gorilla tactics?":
Smogon doesn't like to ban abilities/moves just because it's few users turned out to be broken with them. actually, low sample size makes it less likely for smogon to ban the move/ability in question because it makes the sample size too small for them to determine if the ability itself is uncompetitive or if it's because gamefreak gave it to a pokemon with 140 base attack. and they won't just ban specific pokemon from using specific abilities since Smogon doesn't like complex bans because, well, they don't want to make their ruleset too complex and set precedents that would lead to such.
take Libero/Protean (same fucking ability) for instance. Cinderace and gen 6 greninja were banned for how well they abused the ability, but kecleon being bad showed that libero/protean aren't ultra-broken just for existing. As such, smogon can't really justify banning the ability as a whole, and their tendency to avoid complex bans means they won't just go "lets unban this mon but prevent it from using what made it broken" unless they absolutly have to.
When you really think about it Gorilla Tactics is a worse version of Pure/Huge Power and even Hustle if you don't get unlucky. Nothing that has these abilities is even close to being overwhelming in OU so there's no reason to ban these abilities and as such no reason to ban Gorilla Tactics. Darmanitan-G might not be too strong without Gorilla Tactics and I'd be lying if I said that I'm not curious about how Zen Mode would perform but the argument for banning Gorilla Tactics isn't there.
Then why not just ban specifically the Darm + GT combo 🤨
It seemed to work just fine when (Speed Boost + Blaziken) were banned to ubers. You don't have to blanket ban an ability.
I guess, but banning a pokemon + ability combo has been fairly standard for some time, it's not exactly a complex ban and would let people get to see what fire ice zen mode would be like
@@Matt_Silverwolf to complex and its just easier ot ban the pokemon itself since what if zen mode is broken then u have to go back again to prevent it... and people can make shit up as to why a pokemon can be ou. Such as deoxys-a should be ou if you remove psycho boost and superpower from it or cinderace can be ou if it cannot use heavy-duty boots, etc etc
Galar Darmanitan makes Gen 4 Salamance a joke.
Galar Darm literally has nothing that can wall it and only has very shacky checks like Avalugg which can check the Scarf and Salac set but loses to the Band set.
Mega Slowbro would be another shacky check if it was legal, but easily loses to banded u-turn spam.
GDarm's actual true counter is Alomomola, but not only is it the only one, it also doesn't exist lol
Would the Zen Mode Belly Drum set have been overpowered too if they banned Gorilla Tactics rather than Garm outright? True that it requires a lot of setup, but the reward seems nothing short of catastrophic (160 Atk with a +6 boost is insane)
If they did keep zen mode darm while banning Gorrila Tactics, zen mode darm will easily be expected, and it won't have the opportunity to set up as much, not to mention after the dynamax ban hazards have been more popular making it more harder for galarian darm to set up and let alone having to deal with dragapults speed tier since dragapult is always in top 10 usage. So no, it won't be too OP
Zen Darm was infinite broken when dynamax was allowed.
Force a switch, BDrum on the switch to activate Zen Mode and then sweep.
@@warcriminalyes to be fair dynamax just isnt competitive friendly its fun the game to fight gyms but very dumb in pvp
Zen Mode would make for an interesting suspect, its definitely not as braindead broken as Tactics and if Darm runs Salac 2 Attacks it doesnt have the power to force switches and get a sub and it also has moveslot issues as you usually want to run BD, Sub, icicle and EQ. It could also just run scarf or banded and spam Flare Blitz or take rocks damage two times to activate Zen Mode which doesnt seem too bad. Dont think it would be broken and it gives me some Blaziken vibes but who knows.
@@acekun6493 It wouldn't run salac at all. Galar Zen Mode gets 135 base speed instead of 55 like normal zen mode. It would just be belly drum + 3 attacks or maybe sub, flare blitz and eq. There aren't many pokemon it's able to set up on and get away with tho, so I feel like a banded set would be the most popular and get the most mileage. With the metagame now I feel like if they brought back only zen mode darm, that it would fall to UU. With all the fat water types in UU it could even drop to rubl. It's bulk is non existent, even pivots and passive mons will do major damage
I think the biggest move that pushed gorilla tactics over the edge was not even its stab or coverage; it was u turn. Regular darm's flare blitz is actually stronger than gtactics crash because of sheer force, but the 1.5 times boost to scouting was ridiculous. Chip was effortless to spread throughout the team, and the only way to avoid it is to sponge with pex, one of the most easily taken advantage of mons in the game. Defensive teams were forced to sponge uturns with walls that invited other deadly wallbreakers (especially when dynamax was allowed) while offensive teams fared even worse by getting constantly worn down into submission by scarf darm spamming uturn on anything it outsped
I think that's a general topic that would also make for a good why-does-smogon-do-what-it-does video: every time an overpowering offensive mon is banned, i see a lot of new players believe that top players are trying to preserve "stall" when in fact a lot of these mons stifle offense and balance way more since stall can afford to run multiple dedicated hard checks to certain mons while offense can't afford these passive countermeasures
Idk I think people dont realize that having one single mon over centralize and become neccessary to run offensive teams is Unhealthy to both stall and Offensive teams they just see one archetype and assume favoritism
RT about uturn bro, that move is so ridiculous
Definitely pushed darm over the edge - there are so many mons where you can give them u-turn and change them from unviable to ridiculous threats
The Belly Drum set is another example of a "bad" set that is only good because gorilla tactics garm is so terrifying that the responses people have to it leave room for it to set up. The Belly Drum set would not be viable at all if the Scarfed/Banded variants of gorilla tactics garm weren't so good.
Meh
Well, I wouldn't say "werent so good" as much as I would say "if they didn't exist". As long as there's an alternate set that is meta viable, sub salac drum zen mode would be a viable alternate set preying on the usual counterplay.
I loved using galarian darm in early Sword and Sheild VGC. I ran the choice band variant to deal disgusting damage.
I am actually learning competitive pokemon, and all of your "why was xyz banned" taught me a lot, thank you
HE HAS NO COUNTERS
HE HAS NO CHECKS
THIS MONSTER OHKO'S HALF THE DEX
Editors note: If pronounced "Oh koh" it lines up with the song.
Galar-Darm is coming to town
He can U-Turn, when he needs to
And stretch his arms out to do a move
Inflated stats just like a baboon
This crazy yeti just digs this tune!
Huh!
Remember kids: don’t give free attack buffs to Pokémon w/ already good attack
Sad Zacian noises
Never expect any semblance of balance with Pokémon.
I got one of these in random the other day and it single-handedly swept the last 5 Pokémon of my opponent’s team. It’s even worse with dynamax.
Darm-G isn't as threathening with a real sprite 😂. The 2D sprite one-shotting my leads with U-turn still haunts me
Don't let this video distract you from the fact that blunder got 6-0'd by lead zen mode darmanitan
Gamefreak logic: Let's give a Pokemon monstrously high Attack an built Choice Band what would go wrong? Yeah
I remember when I ran banded Zen mode Darmanitan just to trick randoms into thinking I had enough power as is and waited til I got to under half health.
band zen mode's only situation where it has more power than banded gtactics is when you get the fire stab on fire blitz
"Finally, some f-ing good Ice-types"
~ Gordon Ramsay adding U-Turn to his G-Darmanitan
(2019 colourized)
I remember when this menace was around I built a team around modest scarf dragapult to counter lead and ohko with fire blast if they didn't suspect it.
gamefreak: umm so what ability would you like to have?
G-Darmanitan: Choice Band
gamefreak: Yeah that sounds great!
The great thing is that sheer force normal darm’s flare blitz is still way stronger than garm’s icicle crash.
Recoil factors in ofc but I swear darm is underrated
It’s funny that the only reason Galarian Darmanitan is used is because of a perfect alignment that will get broken come Scarlet/Violet.
Stupid good movepool, really good attack nice speed and built in band, plus the option of having sub with zen mode and option of running boots for hit and run option since you still have gorilla tactics boost, yeah this thing is overpowered like zacian in their respective tiers
Nothing compares to Zacian despite the fact that both their abilities do give a 1.5x boost.
As King Koopa from the OG Super Mario Bros. Movie would say ... _A MONKE_
I thought this one was gonna lead the same way as Dracovish's video, "You already know, but thank you for clicking on anyways"
Nice video.
Maybe a "Why Garchomp and Salamence were Uber in gen 4?"
cuz no fairies
In short.. Garchomp after an SD OHKO’d everything not named Skarmory. And most skarms got trapped by Mag or Chomp could just 2hko with fire move. Some Chomps could even brute force through Skarm with outrage spam + rocks. It also never died in 1 hit with a yache berry.
Mence kind of the same issue, but moreso that it’s mixed set had no counters instead of a setup set.
Darmanitan-Galar got banned because it utterly ridiculous to stop it from automatically picking up a ko after it switches in with the switch moves. Let the damage calc speak for it.
252+ Atk Choice Band Gorilla Tactics Darmanitan-Galar Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Filter Aggron-Mega: 196-232 (56.9 - 67.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Something as insanely bulky as max physical defense mega aggron takes 56% minimum from banded adamant flare blitz. Its quite literally "unwallable", also it's not like mega aggron is frail it is the most physically bulky pokemon in the entire game, I will show another calc regarding mega aggron's obnoxious bulk.
Edit: This is the calc regarding mega aggron's bulk.
+2 252+ Atk Garchomp-Mega Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Filter Aggron-Mega: 253-298 (73.5 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
It survives +2 adamant Mega Garchomp's earthquake after stealth rock.
Edit 2: It's not like mega Garchomp is weak either and what I just showed was +2 yes but see this calc.
+2 252+ Atk Garchomp-Mega Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro-Mega: 410-486 (104 - 123.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
It does minimum 104% to max physical defense mega slowbro which one of the most unbreakable tanks on physical end.
I would not continue by showing how bulky mega slowbro is and bla bla bla but you get the idea darmanitan-Galar is utterly unwallable.
megas are not in gen 8 bro
@@伯龍亥的路博巴士頻道 ik bro but I'm talking all over the national dex. Like you wouldn't find something as ridiculously bulky in gen 8 as mega slowbro or mega aggron.
GameFreak be like
"Overpowered or extremely weak ice types, take it or leave it."
Weavile is the only proper Ice type they have made that is competitive wherever it goes but never broken. The rest suck or are blatantly overpowered in the meta they landed in.
@@iantaakalla8180 Mamoswine?
@@iantaakalla8180 Mamoswine's not happy right now.
Exactly. And Weavile is an accident specifically because Weavile is based on the Kamaitachi, a youkai meant to represent chilling wind. Had that not been it’s basis, the Sneasel line would most certainly have fallen by now. Froslass is useless in a world where Heavy Duty Boots exist and now is slightly-more-guaranteed Glalie, while Mamoswine is just edged out of being useful because of speed creep. There are no good Ice types at all, just Pokémon with the Ice type that have a meta with lower power levels and speed levels.
Would like to see a short video on why Aegislash went from Uber to UU!
Stat drop it went from 150 defenses to 140 which effectively dropped it's BST by 40
The generational power creep of the meta also managed to adapt to Aegislash, similar to what happened to Blaziken
they also nerfed king shield
It probably won’t be OU any time soon
It’s bad in VGC so nerf is unlikely
In reality I think he is really good in VGC if you use him right
@@antoinepolnareff8970
Yeah no shit
Anything’s good “if you use it right”
@@antoinepolnareff8970 he isnt for one main reason: Dynamax disables Gorilla Tactics, and without Dynamax it's far too frail on a bad typing in a metagame that has a ton of Rock Slides and similar moves.
Same problem as Dracovish essentially: can't abuse Dynamax, and without it it doesn't offer enough to justify using in a bulker and slower metagame where Fake Out , redirection and Protect exist and are everywhere.
@@worldiefeard8396 Use Zen mode instead and life orb. That isn't bad in any way posible.
@@antoinepolnareff8970
How would you ever activate zen mode
You die to any attack nothing getting to you half
A video on why Mega Metagross was allowed in gen 6 but banned in gen7? Or maybe megas that was banned in gen 6 but allowed in gen 7
Terrains: Mega Metagross was good at using all the terrains (Misty made it unstatusable; psychic gave immunity to priority; electric made thunder punch do more so Skarmory isn't a counter; grassy made Earthquake users ineffective). Also Toxapex made the main Mega Metagross check in gen 6 (Slowbro/Slowking) obsolete but Toxapex couldn't check Mega Metagross.
Turn 1 Speed difference in gen 6 (base) instead of gen 7 (Mega) made Gen 6 Mega Metagross more manageable back then as well.
Main reason is that in gen 7 megas got their mega form speed on the turn that they evolve. So you have something that can 2HKO the entire meta, is really bulky and is rarely one shot, and has the same speed as Lati twins.
In gen 6 they had their base form speed on the first turn. This is why almost every single mega had to waste a move slot for protect.
Let's not forget it can unlock itself from Gorilla Tactics with Dynamax and even get some stat boosts or get passive hail damage as well.
Imagine if noivern had aerialate. The best way I can put it is that we now have a special attacking darmanitan G
Not to forget Icicle Crash's flinch chance which is relatively high
Allowing it to break some things it wouldn't normally especially the Scarf sets lmao
and the thing is this Monster also has Flare blitz
that's broken and nothing like scizor or corv could switch in, so glad he was Banned
It's like giving a pokemon choice band and choice scarf at the same time
One thing I've always thought, why wasn't Gorilla Tactics banned instead of the Pokemon as a whole? As far as I'm aware, Zen Mode Galarian Darmanitan was strong but nowhere near as big of a threat since it needs to safely set up a Belly Drum rather than having immediate power.
Complex bans or whatever. Since G-Tatics wasn't an HA or something like that.
Because A, Smogon likes to avoid Complex Bans, and B, Gorilla Tactics is specifically broken on G-Darm, but wouldn't be broken on something like Primape. If Gorilla Tactics, itself, was banned from OU, that would automatically ban Gorilla Tactics from all lower tiers, so if another pokemon later got the ability it would have to be suspect tested back into OU, and then back into the lower tiers. It's much easier to just say "okay, Zen Mode has less than a 10% usage on this pokemon, so there would be no real loss just banning the pokemon as a whole instead of making a complex ban."
To put simply, they haven't banned the ability because there is not enough of a sample size to show that the ability itself is uncompetitive, and how much of it is tied to the fact that they gave such an ability to a mon with 140 base attack and a good speed tier for scarf.
Smogon typically does not like complex bans for various reasons (a combination of rule complexity and not wanting to set precedents that would result in such). Every once in a while they do it begrudgingly, but only if they REALLY need to bring a pokemon back because the meta got fucked, hi gen 5 Excadrill
It's not a complex ban though, it's only a complex ban if something else has the ability. Surely it would make more sense to ban G-tactics in the gen 8 OU metagame since we know that *Gen 8* will never have a second Gorilla Tactics Pokemon?
When a new gen comes around, non-legendary Ubers are often unbanned at first anyway, so they can look at it again in Gen 9 and ban the 'mon as a whole in Gen 9 if there are other 'mons with the ability.
@@Milesprowerthegamer But it's much easier to just ban the mon and then look at it later. Zen Mode G-Darm had less than a 5% total usage compared to Gorilla Tactics, so it's safe to say that almost no one used its Zen Mode form. This way instead of having to test G-Darm AND any other mon that might have the ability, they can just test G-Darm and be done with it.
This thing is very hard to deal with in ubers
One of my past sets was Zen G-Darm with Endure and a Weakness Policy, still very strong but you can switch moves and it's kinda hard to set up.
Even if G-Darm had sheer force only, it would still be a solid scarfer because it still has access to both flare blitz and fire punch, sacrificing STAB on it for some of the most ridiculous coverage on any one Pokémon with EQ and U-turn. This thing would have been UU at the absolute least, but seeing how people caught onto Dracovish there's no way nobody takes a look at G-Darm regardless of ability and thinks "Oh the nuke button"
You oughta do one on the gen 6 xerneas that only ran 2 moves. Ubers players from back in the day know what I'm talking about
That is very extreme.
I always loved using Zen Mode on Galar Darmanitan. A lot of fun.
The fact they made even Zen Mode viable on it scares me
And Zen Mode is still never the ability you want to run because even a redistribution of stats like that pales to Gorilla Tactics.
Galarian Darmanitan is really overpowered.
Weirdly I don't recall this being to bad, though stall has a habit invading power
how is that related to stall
@@user-hb7bo4mr2i its not just a statement
Galarian Darmanitan is my favorite Gen 8 pokemon, and it’s absolutely on my top 5
Who do you think was stronger overall? Dracovish or Galarian Darm? I gave it some thought, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on the matter.
Vish can at least be walled by an Ability (Water Absorb), but nothing is immune to Ice or U-Turn.
G-Darm. Vish had it's fair share of checks at least. G-darm just killed everything in sight :/
We asked for a good ice, and this happened
I think it's also worth mentioning that the popularity of Gorilla Tactics made Zen Mode more relevant, since opponents would often play as if you have Gorilla Tactics until you use the Belly Drum, at which point it's too late
I love how there is no good reason for Zen Mode to exist on either Darmanitan since while Galarian Darmanitan’s Zen Mode makes its stuff worth using, its Gorilla Tactics is basically worse Zacian’s Intrepid Sword and normal Darmanitan’s Zen Mode is useless save strange mixed jank.
You could even use heavy duty boots and still be busted while being immune to stealth rock.
This is a great example on how a great ability can make a mediocre Pokémon good. Same stats, worse type, and it jumps from RU to Uber.
As a Gengar fan, I hope it'll get a better ability in Gen9 (although I'm aware that in BDSP it's broken...).
Gengar was deliberately nerfed with a worse ability. I'd be surprised if it suddenly got buffed back up.
Ahh good times. I remember resorting to max defense flame orb Milotic to counter this thing. Marvel Scale meant Milotic easily shrugged off Earthquake. Bit of a meme pick but it literally was the only true counter at the time.
Gmanitan also has the better zen mode and it gets belly drum, that's literally a game ender right there, the enemy also has to scout for the right ability
It doesn’t really have to scout because virtually every Galarian Darmanitan runs Gorilla Tactics.
I think a comment said it best:
Is a monke? ✅
Can learn U-Turn? ✅
_Monke Flip_
Wish they gave regular darmanitan this ability as well
I'm honestly not even convinced that regular Darm would be broken with this ability; its STAB have greater drawbacks + bulkier/more survivable resists than GDarm's STAB, making it kinda similar to the DarkShifu/WaterShifu situation
So basically, you have the middling Galarian Darmanitan that doesn’t hurt itself but has the worst defensive type vs the Darmanitan that has lots of power but hurts itself and has a slightly better defensive type?
That actually is not a bad trade-off, and would be very nice to see.
when i first read body press i thought it used the users defense instead of the opponents def, not instead of the users atk, and i think for the first few days it worked like that on showdown because i used a min def garm with body press, and ohkod a tyranitar with it
that's a x4 super effective hit - if the tyranitar had no bulk investment and you had a neutral defense nature, that actually has a shot at ko'ing ttar, regardless of whether the mis-implementation you supposed happened.
Question, if you belly drum on a scarf set then have a healing ally use something like healing pulse that same turn... After it comes out of dynamax (provided it lives until then), do you get to pick a new move to use the rest of the battle or are your relocked into belly drum?
And yes, I know even if this works it's an unreliable gimmick set... But I like gimmicky playstyles, it's just so fun when they work by some miracle.
yo that serene grace player in the vid looks really powerful
I prefer Zen Mode sets just because I love how zen mode looks
Facing this thing during early swsh randbats was a nightmare lmao
Nice Vid.
Can we get an indepth video on OG Kyurem? I'm really mindboggled by that dragon's journey. It always seemed like a lower tier threat from a noob's perspective, and was RUBL for XY and SM. Even just UUBL on its debut generation.
If I recall correctly, wasn't Kyurem in UU when it first got out in SS? I don't even know anymore. I know it's pretty bombusted and the surroundings change probably helped a lot, but getting a video on its journey to Ubers in Gen 8 would be really interesting.
I mean that journey can be described in one move: Freeze Dry.
bro is asking for a full on FSG video
@@noishhater9138 i'm waiting for fsg to pull one up
but getting a small video on kyurem being banned to ubers is enough for me
Freeze Dry and a Set Up move and Icicle Crash and Heavy Duty Boots. Then it has the power when needed but can also stall anything.
Freeze Dry let it have way too many sets with way too few actual answers, basically. Between subroost being able to hit most mons with freeze dry+earth power and flipping the matchup on special walls like bliss, 3 attacks roost hitting hard with good coverage, ddance sets, while not considered the best, still being nevertheless game-ruining if you're not prepared, and specs still hitting like a truck, it had way too many sets with way too different counterplay between each other. Getting freeze dry and actual physical ice stab broadened its plausible kit options too much.
Gamefreak really said "Let's break the meta and give all our mons god tier power this gen"
And Stealth Rock is still beyond broken this gen
Stealth Rock is weaker than ever thanks to hdb.
@Nicolai Stuhlmüller
Yeah, because it was even more broken before that. Heck, Defog at some point used to only remove the opponent‘s hazards, so before Gen 6 that wasn’t an option to clear your side either. Heavy Duty Boots is another baby step in the right direction. It’s bs that certain Pokémon types (especially the underpowered Ice and Bug) become instantly unviable just because SR lacks counterplay options, especially now that it’s possible for certain Pokémon such as the Frosmoth line to faint from full health due to nothing but entry hazards.
I hope in Gen 9, they introduce something that doesn’t just remove or ignore Stealth Rocks, but actively punishes setting them up if you’re not careful. Closest thing we have right now is Magic Bounce which is given to so few Pokémon you can see it coming a mile away. As long as Stealth Rocks can be learned by everyone and their grandma and there is no downside to setting them up, they will keep determining which Pokémon are viable based on nothing but how weak they are to Rock.
@@rainpooper7088 then why was Volcarona OU in Gen5 and Gen7? Especially in Gen5 where Defog didn't even work as a hazard removal? "rocks alone decide viability" is absolutely not true. We had Talonflame, Mega Pinsir and Mega Charizard Y in OU, Volcarona, Weavile, so many more mons weak to rocks. Meanwhile Gen8 has made some mons like Zapdos plain up disgusting just because of hdb. Imagine Zapdos having the advantages of hdb with an item on top. That would be pretty strong.
The thing is, rocks already is a punishment for excessive switching, because it makes switching risky. Remember how in Gen 6 stall became broken simply because they got a good magic bounce user that takes care of hazards so stall can freely switch as much as they want?
Rocks are a major balancing factor in the game and don't affect viability as much as you think. And a lot of unviable rocks weak mons would also be unviable if rocks were removed. Moltres is pretty much the only exception to that.
And in what would do rocks lack counterplay options. You can always remove them before going into your hazard weak mon.
I mean it's an undeniable truth that Stealth Rock was inherently imbalanced before Gen 8 due to the sheer number of Pokémon that could learn the move Vs the amount of mons that could learn hazard removal (not even counting how good those individual mons are). It wasn't until HDB was released that the anti-hazard faction finally got a more universally accessible method than Stealth Rock, finally tipping the balance
@@breloommaster12
It became broken in Gen 7
It's even worse in Gen 8 even with Boots
Loved to see the S1 G-darm getting reminisced
Btw tomorrow it's showdown at SLC vgc s12 regionals😄😄😄😄
Now that I think about it, couldn't galarian darmanitan still be used if the ability was banned instead
darmanitan was countered by dynamax while not benefitting very much from it himself (since it disabled the boosts from choice items.) Once dynamax got banned, darmanitan became unbeatable.
Monke see "checks" and monke laughs.
I mean zen mode isn't half bad if u can get the set up off and not miss your moves
This guy is one of the better funny Pokémon
GF has seen that Darmanitan was only ever used with its Choice Band set and never with Zen Mode and said "Ok, you know what, now you either use Zen Mode or you'll never use more than one move!".
And immediately regretted it.
is there an item that boosts defense when you get hit with a physical move like with special defense? if so, avalugg might be able to wall it
I've been using avalugg in OU at least and it seems to wall super effective moves with no effort.
Yes it is, but it's one time only. Avalugg already walls it decently but even if it can avoid the 2hko by flare blitz, darm could just switch into a special attacker while you recover and next time you can no longer wall it, and you practically need heavy duty boots on top anyways. Rotom-Heat and Rotom-Wash were pretty much the best walls against it, heat even more because of its U-Turn resistance. And Corsola-Galar. Darm-G was practically the reason Corsola-Galar was OU, that thing was the best answer to it.
This guy was even able to 6-0 blunder!
Gotta love Choice D Dance/Swords Dance
I was recording while this was uploading..
My Archeops with Choice Scarf and Head Smash B)
I still don't understand why Darm-G was banned and not just Gorrilla Tactics though. Zen Mode could be strong, but nowhere near as overpowered.
Cuz Smogon tends to ban an entire Pokémon instead of just an ability
I don't think having a mon with 135 speed and 170 attack,even if it has to be in half health in OU is a good idea
@@moneykenny119 In the case of stuff like Speed Boost Blaziken, yeah, cause they'ed rather say you can't use Blaziken than you can't use Speed Boost on Blaziken. But Darm-G is the only pokemon with Gorilla Tactics so just banning Gorilla Tactics wouldn't affect anything else.
complicated ban?
@@RikiazGaming but that doesnt make any sense to do. Darm is op bc of its op ability. Should you just ban geomancy and keep xern? Or ban fleur cannon and keep mag? Ban wicked blow and keep urshifu? Like half the mons in urbers have a signature move or ability. Should they ban every signature move and reintroduce them all to ou and see what isn't op anymore?
If you ban specific parts of a bunch of different pokemon at that point you are playing CAP, not gen8 ou
Game Freak really fucked up with Gen 8 balancing. I don't think any generation has had this much power creep before.
Generation 8 is a failure in every single way possible and no one will talk about those games again save the occasional Legends: Arceus talk and that assumes there is no better Legends game to come out.
Then again, preparing a Pokémon for competitive this easily may be Galar’s feature because the story is explicitly about an official tournament, so who knows? The Pokémon games will be messed even further, and we’re just here to witness in which ways they’ll fuck up.
Gen 5
But why did they ban G-Darmanitan and not just Gorilla Tactics? I doubt the Zen Mode set was too strong as well.
It’s like if they looked at Arena Trap/Shadow Tag as problem abilities and decided “Dugtrio/Gothitelle must go.” Which iirc they didn’t do.
Arena Trap and Shadow Tag are uncompetitive abilities that are detrimental to a skill based competitive environment by removing player agency and interaction.
They didn't ban gTactics because it isn't a broken or uncompetitive ability in any way.
But isn’t G-Darmanitan the only Pokemon that can have the ability?
If other Pokemon can have the ability then I would agree that banning it isn’t the answer. But considering the only Pokemon that can have the ability is considered too strong with that ability, and has an alternative to make it more balanced, I do wonder why Zen Mode G-Darmanitan isn’t allowed.
I could see it getting out of hand if they start taking that approach though. Like what if they just have Fishious Rend banned and not Dragovish?
@@gravity8120 they don't ban elements of a pokemon singularly UNLESS said ability is problematic by being broken or uncompetitive.
It isn't darm broken by gtactica. It is gtactics broken by darm.
That’s a better way of looking at it, actually.
I guess we did also have Greninja banned for Protean in the past, even though Torrent Greninja was perfectly manageable.
@@HowlingOneify that's not really true though. For example look at when gen6 PU had a problem with two mons that coincidentally both used damage inflicting moves with a 100% confusion chance: Machoke and Chatot, the former with No Guard + Dynamicpunch, the latter with Chatter. In the former case the combination of No Guard + Dynamicpunch was also available to Golurk, which was still pretty mediocre even with it while Chatter was exclusive to Chatot, so what happened was that both Machoke got banned (since neither No Guard nor Dynamicpunch were problematic on any other mon than Machoke) and Chatter got banned (because it was problematic on 100% of the mons that got it).
The gen7 Dugtrio case is another example on broken on one mon vs. broken on every mon that gets it. At first Dugtrio was suspected, so what happened was players switched to using Diglett in their teams and actually achieving similar success, so instead of Dugtrio the ability got banned. Same for Shadow Tag, the Trickscarf-shenanigans that made Gothitelle disgusting to deal with are just as possible with Gothorita, so the ability got banned and not the mon.
Power Construct - broken on both Zygarde 50% and Zygarde 10% so it got banned. Thousand Arrows - only broken on Zygarde 50% and fine on Zygarde 10% so it stayed.
Dragon Dance - broken on Kyurem-Black, fine on everything else, so Kyurem-Black was banned. Baton Pass - broken on multiple setters including Scolipede, Mew and Gliscor so it got banned.
But honestly, Darmanitan-G Zen is disgustingly powerful with 165 attack and 135 speed and a ridiculously good dual stab, so it makes sense to ban the full mon.
We need to buff ice types.
Game Freak: Yes
I refuse to believe gorilla tactics isn't a reference to the navy seal copypasta
Wonder what would happen if he had a second ability maybe then only the OP would be banned
It'd be interesting a video about why was Articuno banned in BDSP
He already did that, and basically its only ability is an evasion ability.
And here I thought Darmanitan couldn't get more fucked up
I still wonder why they banned G-Darm as a whole and not just Gorilla Tactics, since it's exclusive to it. Zen Mode G-Darm was a fun and perfectly balanced mon with a good movepool and a lot of flexibility, you don't have to build around its Zen mode because it's strong even without activating it.
The reasoning is that if Huge Power was allowed to exist without being banned despite being an objectively superior ability to Gorilla Tactics, implies that GDarm itself was just as much at fault of being broken rather than just being "carried by its ability". It's kind of like why Blaziken was banned instead of Speed Boost being banned in general, except in this case GDarm still managed to be busted despite having a weaker version of the ability.
@@breloommaster12 Blaziken coexisted with Ninjask, Sharpedo and a bunch of other mons that did not deserve bans as they were far more limited in their application. G-Darm is the only mon with Gorilla Tactics and is likely to stay that way.
@@TheLaXandro the point is that Gorilla Tactics is objectively weaker than Huge Power, so it's not a case of banning Gorilla Tactics because it's an "overpowered ability"; it is very obvious that this ban is only considered to "preserve Zen Mode GDarm in OU", and unfortunately bans are only aiming to get rid of broken elements rather than trying to preserve certain aspects of the Pokémon. This can be seen when NU banned both Snow Cloak and Slush Rush which effectively made the Alolan Sandshrew line unusuable in that tier, which is unfortunate but the banning rules aren't going to bend over backwards just to accommodate these two Pokémon, just as it won't for Zen Mode Galarian Darm
That’s a complex ban aka a no no
@@GravityIsFalling banning Gorilla Tactics would not be considered complex since they can "ban Gorilla Tactics from everything" and have it still target only one mon. The reason is that Gorilla Tactics itself is not a banworthy ability.
Scarf tactics darm ouspeeds and one hits Zacian crowned with flare blitz.
Hey man how did you get that custom avatar in showdown I wan't one with a gengar on it or something lol
Thank you gamefreak very cool
I’m curious what the spread was for the vote to ban?
Would Normal Darmanitan with the Galar Ability be even better or overall worse? 🤔
Better, because it has a better type
If normal Darmanitan got Gorilla Tactics Galarian Darmanitan would never be used anymore. It is only viable because it has a unique ability that works nicely. If literally any other Pokémon as powerful as it that had a move to switch out, that monkey would never be used because you never want Ice types - you want good Pokémon that happen to be Ice type.
Imagine being one of the only pokemon in existence that can 1 shot melmetal and necrozma dusk mane with a physical move.
what's a good pokemon to beat galar darmanitan?
M-rayquaza if you play anything goes. But if you play Gen 8 Ubers you better wait Gen 9.
if in ubers, I suggest max defense kyogre to take Icicle Crash and flare blitz. However, the checks to darmanitan usually come in the form of pokemon that either A: outspeed/outprioritise and hit it hard eg, Caly-S or B: deal chip damage to it over time, notable examples being DM-necrozma with rocky helmet. Of course, i don't understand the whole ubers metagame, so just take the above with a grain of salt.
How do you get the automatic possible moves for randbats without the command
Damn, ive never even heard of this ability, banded is broken af.