Blastoise does have a small niche, but it's as a lead. You forgot to mention that it has access to both counter and mirror coat so with some defensive investment it can potentially k.o. a would be check while also denying early hazards. Helps that it's also a pure water type as to leverage its defensive typing, not to mention it only needs stab and ice coverage making it pretty customizable, but that goes for most pure water types.
Buffs to Blastoise : Abilities : Shell Armor NO Critical Hits would land on it, Hydration would allow itself to Cure itself of Status in the Rain, & ether Storm Drain or Water Absorb take your pick! Give it the Steel Type for Not only its Cannons, but Immunity to Poison! Mega Laucher : Now includes Beam Moves (ie. Psybeam, Ice Beam etc.)!
@@GoldGuard trust me when I say the Pokemon who get Shell Smash (Torterra, Torkoal, Crustle, Carracosta, for some examples) are not going to be winning any races.
@@josephbulkin9222 I'm not saying that Shell Smash is great on every single Pokemon that can learn it. But certain Pokemon such as Cloyster, Barbaracle, and Polteageist become amazing sweepers because of it. Your argument is flawed because it's basically the same as saying Earthquake is a bad move just because Blissey sucks at using it.
Blastoise should have gotten steel type in the switch to gen 2. I think it fits quite well with the cannons, and it would make it so the three Kanto starters become dual types. I don't think it would have make it broken, ut it would have been much more interesting and I'm sure it would have retained viability at least over a couple generations.
It should’ve at least gotten Steel when it mega evolved, considering the canons are what’s being emphasized in the form change. Plus it would’ve made for an interesting dynamic with Mega Venasaur and Zard X, where all of their matchups are neutral or resisted (fire is neutral on Mega Venasaur thanks to Thick Fat).
@@CaptainObliviousV Steel typing + make mega launcher work for bomb and cannon moves, so Flash Cannon works too. Plus, give it a freakin' good water move (ideally a signature move) that works with mega launcher because why the hell do people need to use Water Pulse!?
And for those wondering, the Special Contact moves are: Draining Kiss, Grass Knot, Electro Drift, Petal Dance, Trump Card, Wring Out and Infestation. Most don’t really help Tough Claws users, but Mega Metagross does consider Grass Knot for certain Water/Ground blobs that it cannot muscle through too easily.
@@DemonRaticateI can justify all of those moves except petal dance. How am I taking rocky helmet damage from spinning around and chucking flower petals?
@@Chrjstheshadow sooo, from what I know, the attack basically summons a tornado of petals around you and then you SLAM into the opponent with your actual body. So its more like Ice Spinner (for Pokemon like Liligant) or Outrage (for Pokemon like Venusaur). And the petals then do the elemental part by slashing and tearing at the opponent.
Only in the speedrunning community, and then only in standards. Mediocre in solo runs since it's only peak performance is early game to set up Nidoran for success
Bulky water type is such a common niche that unless you do something special, you get left behind. Maybe give Blastoise a signature move like a water type Torch Song that increases special attack when used. Not only does this address it's major flaw, but also plays into blastoise as a snowballing rain sweeper
I completely agree. A water move that utilizes the cannon that heats up or oils up the cannons to make it more potent. That or maybe give it mega launcher innately
I like how the moment you started talking about G-Max Blastoise and Cannonade, you can hear what appears to be a bunch of fireworks in the background 😅
At least in Nat Dex Mega Blastoise is bonkers because it can combine shell smash with its greatly improved power, and as a result it's banned from Nat Dex OU.
Even in the Gen 1 beta, Blastoise wasn't meant to be a part of the Squirtle evolution line, but its own separate two stage evo line. This just adds more insult into the injury.😢
A tiny buff that would feel perfectly reasonable and actually benefit not just Blastoise would be to give Withdraw the Refresh effect of healing negative status as well as the 1 stage Defense boost, I think. Like... it's an iconic move from Gen 1 which doesn't have a wide distribution. Why not make it feel a bit more unique than just a Water type Harden? At first I was thinking it could recover some HP instead, but then I remembered how hard Game Freak nerfed recovery moves in Gen 9, so I figured it was a bad idea.
It’s water can break through steel so give it a special clone of Stone Ax but instead of stealth rock it sets the steel surge that copperah’s g max move used. They already programmed it might as well give it to someone else
He has a shell and a launcher. He’s the literal definition of a tank which he NEEDS to be. He needs to have extremely high defense and special def and needs to hit extremely hard with Special attack. His speed can be low. His ability needs to be any special water type attack has a dmg multiplier of 1.5X or has a small chance to flinch
There is actually one really obscure official meta in which Blastoise was a top-tier pick: Gen 6 Triple battles. Triples is played very similarity to doubles, so most Pokémon that are good in the doubles format will also be good in triples, but the primary difference is that the position of the Pokémon matters. A Pokémon on the corners can't attack or be attacked by Pokémon on the opposite corner with a few exceptions, and Pokémon in the center can attack or be attacked by everyone. In general, you want big spread attackers in the center to threaten all opponents, and support in the corners that can boost or protect the center Pokémon. Mega Blastoise feels almost like it was fine-tuned for the triples format specifically, because every quirk of the triples meta is something that Blastoise has tools to exploit. It just happens to be really good in all positions making it an extremely versatile pick. It gets Water Spout, which is really good for putting out heavy spread damage to all 3 opponents when it's in the center position, but it can also be used in the corner for support, since it gets a lot of good moves like Fake Out, which is good for all the same reasons as doubles, and also Mega Launcher-boosed Aura Sphere, Dark Pulse and Water Pulse, which might not sound like much, until you realize that Pulse moves and Flying-type moves are the two exceptions to the rule limiting what a corner Pokémon can target or be targeted by. This means that Blastoise can launch extremely powerful attacks from anywhere on the field, potentially hitting a Pokémon that literally can't touch it. Source: I used to be a worldwide top 100 player in ranked triples back when that was a thing in-game. I would see or use Mega Blastoise about as often as most of the other big megas like Charizard, Kangaskhan, etc.
Statwise, blastoise is very similar to Meganium which is an even more unfortunate starter who also has a mediocre hidden ability. As I am unsure on gamefreak being willing to do a stat buff for starter Pokémon, I feel like the best chance for blastoise to become useable in the modern day are to either hope to achieve a regional variant which made samurott go from worst water starter to one of the greatest thanks to hisui, or a lot of movepool buffs (like water pulse being 80 bp before a mega launcher boost) and reclaiming that mega launcher ability to make its measly special attack stat look threatening with the ability boost and shell smash. Nidoking is a mon with a subpar special attack stat but its ability sheer force makes it look like a demon, so an ability change for blastoise should hopefully make it feign that power level as well
I just remember the Kanto starters Death Battle that concluded that, more often than not, Blastoise would take the victory. That animation was frickin wild too
Theres one cool lower tier niche that blastoise used to have (alingside hitmons, mainly hitmontop though), and thats being able to learn foresight (prior to move being outight removed from games). While on the surface, you may think that its not important, it actually allows for rapid spinners to spin on ghost types. One of the cooler things that blastoise used to be capable of, though losing it for shell smash is a pretty good trade i think
the funniest thing about mega launcher is that heal pulse is considered a pulse move so mega launcher boosts it. blastoise doesn't learn it but clawitzer does
I think you underrated blastoise. Sure, its never been good in OU, its one of the most consistent UU pokemon of all time, a pillar of the tier from gen 2 through 5
Yeah in terms of base forms Blastoise has the best performance overall, but venusaur and zard both were top tier in ou with their megas while their gmax forms were powerful in vgc. Blastoise however never achieved anything with those forms, outside of Natdex at least.
you're right but you must be new here if you expect Jim to care about lower tiers lol. absolutely 0 research goes into any lower tier metas, it's absolutely this channel's biggest sin. it feels like early FSG honestly where anything that isn't OU gets only a cursory look before concluding that the pokemon is worthless, of course the only exception here being gen 3 where he will wax poetic about the tiniest of tiny niches that something has in ADV OU to promote the tier as a beacon of competitive balance and diversity. still love Jim but it kinda is what it is at this point, you do what you gotta do for content
@@nicolaistuhlmuller8718 venusaur is the best base form overall imo. defining top tier mon in the early nintendo cup formats (bring 6 pick 3) even if it didn't stand the test of time in RBY 6v6 formats, decent niches in GSC/ADV OU and crushed BW OU when chlorophyll + drought was legal, and the single best pokemon in DPP UU and top 3 in ORAS RU. also had a lot of diversity in its game being able to go both offensive and defensive w/ utility while blastoise has really only been one note. venusaur has taken a backseat in recent gens but blastoise hasn't really been faring much better constantly getting stuck in limbo tiers from being banned, and base venusaur's highs are a lot better than what base blastoise has historically been able to do.
Hey, at least it is RUBL currently in SV, while Venusaur is PU and Charizard is ZU. That's something, at least. Some of the Pokedex entries for Blastoise mention how extremely accurate it is, so I think something like no guard could be interesting. Would make up for the lack of power and the loss of mega launcher a little bit by making it so Blastoise can fire unmissable blizzards, focus blasts and hydro pumps. I am also perpetually bummed out by the fact Blastoise is the one Kanto starter that is still monotype. Considering it is a turtle tank, water/steel would have made sense as soon as gen 2, but with Empoleon being a thing now that boat has sailed. Realistically I think the best I can hope for is that they do regiomal variants of starters again in Legends Z-A and Blastoise gets some love there. As you mentioned, Blastoise's stats are bad, so I really feel like they could afford to just go full optimization and take some of its attack to give it either more speed so it is harder to outspeed after smashing or more special attack so it can put a dent on things better.
Only reason Mega Blastoise is bad is because for some weird reason gamefreak didnt guve it Shell Smash It has Shell Smash in NatDex and as expected, it was banned to Ubers there
Blastoise using Shell Smash is a horrifying image, that would simply kill it given that the shell is a modified spine, and he can't just "break it off" to be lighter and move faster. Though I guess that's why I don't like Shell Smash as a move for anyone except the hermit crab pokemon it was first given to.
it wouldnt even take over in natdex if they ever bring it back down, common revenge killers would easily stop it from sweeping 252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Blastoise-Mega in Grassy Terrain: 320-380 (107 - 127%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252+ SpA Protosynthesis Raging Bolt Thunderclap vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Blastoise-Mega: 302-356 (101 - 119%) -- guaranteed OHKO
I’m hoping Legends Z has mega Blastoise with shell smash, and that Gen 10 keeps mega evolution from Legends Z, like Gen 9 did with Alolan forms in Legends Arceus…
It's always bugged me how Blastoise has ears (Tortoises/Turtles don't have those), and it's classified as a "Shellfish" Pokemon. There's so much wrong with that.
According to the Gen 1 beta, Blastoise was originally not part of the Squirtle evolution line, but it's own separate two stage Evo line with its own pre-evolution. The true final Squirtle Evo has ears and a tail similar to its pre -evolutions like Wartortle.
Another reason why I want Squirtle to be one off the starters in legends Z-A. We need a better mega blastoise than the mega that blastoise actually got.
@@spice2nice664even if it isn't the best pokemon, I still find Blastoise my favorite Kanto starter (Even if Feraligatr is my favorite starter in general)
Jimothy, I cannot believe you would forget to include Blastoise-Mega's highest catridge legal position in LGPE OU. The Turtle Council may not be happy with this exclusion (cool video as always).
I was wondering where the RuneScape music was coming from, I checked Spotify because I thought it was coming from there, then I realized it was from the video, loved it!
I'd give Blastoise Volcanion's signature move "Steam Eruption" if I were to buff it. It makes sense thematically too with Blastoise's huge cannons it uses.
I think a flat stat buff is impossible, with all starters roughly at the same BST, but a stat swap? Put 20 from Attack (or possibly Speed, thematically) to Special Attack?
Up until Gen 5, not all starters BSTs were equal: Charizard (534) > Blastoise (530) > Venusaur (525) Typhlosion (534) > Feraligatr (530) > Meganium (525) Swampert (535 which is the highest of them all) > Sceptile/Blaziken (530) Infernape (534) > Empoleon (530) > Torterra (525) Even in Gen 6, they still have Delphox 4 more BST points than the other two starters
@@goGothitaLOL True, but they are roughly the same, and usually had these differences paired with different evolution levels. Blastoise isn't gonna be much better with 4 additional points in SpAtt
That's what I was hoping developers would do, and give it maybe some recovery move. Also maybe mega launcher could be it's ability instead of rain dish. Or something new moves.
Every other Pokemon that got the broken category of g max move (max wildfire, vine lash, cannonade, and coalossols one that i forgot the name of) was good in Gen 8 expect my boy Blastoise He deserves so much better, give him wonder guard
Gmax Blastoise was really good imo. Definitely underrated. Good support option that could launch a broken max attack. I used a support weakness policy set pretty successfully and it did good in tournaments in general.
@@Goldeneye3336 I feel so stupid for dooubting that extra effect on those G moves lol. I was like "G Water/Fire weather improve your damage by 50% so this sucks" completely not realizing those moves math to around 66% damage boost lol(if you do 50% damage, the extra effect is equal 33% x 2) except better due to acting as a residuals
I'd personally love this guy to have Drizzle - Rain Dance Blastoise is an iconic part of Early TCG meta, with his ability being able to empower all of his Water buddies. Having him serve the same role would be great. Also I want Megas back. The Shell Smash & Mega combo should be allowed. Let my Turtley Boy be OU or Ubers one time.
Blastoise is the definition of "Good in a vacuum" in generation 1. "But it's bulky!" So is Vaporeon and Lapras. Starmie has powerful sustain with recover also. Dewgong even has some good bulk AND ice stab. Practically every other option just has something better to offer. Heck even omastar's rock typing gives it a normal resist. "But it can learn earthquake and blizzard to cover its weaknesses!" Starmie can learn thunderbolt and blizzard. Lapras again can also gain stab on blizzard and thunderbolt. If you still want a earthquaking water type, poliwrath has better attack. My hot take is that if it was not a starter, nobody would care about this pokemon. It's a sad fate honestly.
Terrible final take with people not caring about it fi it isn’t a starter I have zero personal connection to. This mon and yet it’s in my top 10 favs of all time,cannon turtle is cool. Objectively And competitive players would still have a reason to care,cool mega,cool shell smash Draft players would also love the bulky spinner that can threaten
That last bit reminds me that Kanto Expansion Pak (excellent romhack btw) explores the idea of Blastoise not being a starter as that might have been the plan at one point in the development of Red / Green
It needed a move that did water damage and spins hazards away at the same time by using it's cannons. Something like 60 base power water physical. A personal ability to give hydro pump perfect accuracy would also make a lot of sense.
As the next Pokemon Legends game is in Kalos, I think it's pretty likely' we're going to see Shell Smash Mega Blastoise outside of National Dex for the first time.
8:58 it's also strong in Natdex Ubers UU. It's beena while but i remember losing to a psychic spam team using terrain pulse which was like 190 power or something
Always found it so weird that Blastoise is known for having these water cannons that can apparently cut through steel Yet it has a base SpA stat of 85.
Let the record show blastoise had made a splash in gen 9 RU with various shell smash sweeping and more niche bulky spinner sets. Most popular among these was the shell smash white herb tera electric set, a staple of HO at the time it utilized tera blast to gain bolt beam coverage that ripped through the tier after chipping an ever-present cyclizar. Another notable shell smash set was the mixed set, utilizing the 100 bp ground type attack earthquake to smash specially defensive empoleon, a normally suitable counter, and many other steels looking to shut down it's sweep. The mixed set had a variety of threating tera types like ground, to boost it's earthquakes to terrifying levels, or a more defensive tera type like grass or ghost to abuse a previously offensive check, turning what should have been an easy KO into a 6-0. The oppressive nature of it's tera abusing and set variety led to it's eventual suspect and ban. Thank you for reading folks.
I have a support Blastoise I love using in doubles. It clears when paired with a Breloom. Fake Out, Yawn, Scald, Life Dew, Impish with defense investment.
Water/Steel typing and Shell Armor would somewhat help and be thematically fitting? If Blastoise got that and a recovery move like Slack Off or Recover then it could do something, it always had solid defensive stats but no consistent way of recovery which always held it back a lot. Storm Drain would also be great but not sure if fits as much, Swift Swim also could at least help in Rain teams if Blastoise were to be a Shell Smash user.
Move Mega Launcher from Mega Evolution to alternate ability. Pair that with Shell Smash and you get incredible sweeper potential. Very much fits the concept of the pokemon with those cannons. Torrent as standard ability for water starters is lame anyway. (same with Blaze and Overgrow)
@@nicolaistuhlmuller8718 it has all 3 moves that abuse it That said, the few moves it does boost is very very small like you implied. Surprised it doesn’t boost cannon moves like Flash Cannon (might be because of Zap Cannon but who the hell would use it without No Guard?)
@@goGothitaLOL yes it does but none of the moves that get boosted are worth using. In gen 6 and 7 the most effective Mega Blastoise set was Scald, Ice Beam, Rapid Spin and Toxic.
I hosted a Furret-Only Pokemon Tournament. It was insane.
th-cam.com/video/cq5QyEV3Epo/w-d-xo.html
Blastoise does have a small niche, but it's as a lead. You forgot to mention that it has access to both counter and mirror coat so with some defensive investment it can potentially k.o. a would be check while also denying early hazards. Helps that it's also a pure water type as to leverage its defensive typing, not to mention it only needs stab and ice coverage making it pretty customizable, but that goes for most pure water types.
Buffs to Blastoise :
Abilities : Shell Armor NO Critical Hits would land on it, Hydration would allow itself to Cure itself of Status in the Rain, & ether Storm Drain or Water Absorb take your pick!
Give it the Steel Type for Not only its Cannons, but Immunity to Poison!
Mega Laucher : Now includes Beam Moves (ie. Psybeam, Ice Beam etc.)!
Bladtoise has speedruns
Has literal cannons on its body and the dex is always hyping up how strong they are but it's special attack is 85
Blastoise really would be much better if they gave it the Oliwrath treatment
Cannons should increase physical attack tho
Blastoise Blastoise is meant to be more defensive than the other two starters.
It has pretty OK bulk for early gens but can't really exploit it without reliable recovery.
Blastoise wouldn't even be a first-route pokemon with modern powercrep
Holding back Shell Smash until Megas were gone was disrespectful. Blastoise was done dirty😔
It got banned in Natdex, so it was held back for good reason.
Why would you bother with Shell Smash? It cripples your defenses.
@@josephbulkin9222 Defense doesn't matter if you're outspeeding and 1-hit KOing everything in sight
@@GoldGuard trust me when I say the Pokemon who get Shell Smash (Torterra, Torkoal, Crustle, Carracosta, for some examples) are not going to be winning any races.
@@josephbulkin9222 I'm not saying that Shell Smash is great on every single Pokemon that can learn it. But certain Pokemon such as Cloyster, Barbaracle, and Polteageist become amazing sweepers because of it.
Your argument is flawed because it's basically the same as saying Earthquake is a bad move just because Blissey sucks at using it.
I don't care about The Horse Council. The Turtle Council is where it's at.
real af; Turtle Council, and whole Palate of Aquatic-adjacent Pokémon is where it is
Finally, a metagross council.
@@Gspoinknever thought of metagross as a turtle, I can see it though
@HuneeBruh No, it’s a council of only Metagross.
Bro what are u talking about, we all know Blastoise is a horse
Blastoise should have gotten steel type in the switch to gen 2. I think it fits quite well with the cannons, and it would make it so the three Kanto starters become dual types. I don't think it would have make it broken, ut it would have been much more interesting and I'm sure it would have retained viability at least over a couple generations.
It should’ve at least gotten Steel when it mega evolved, considering the canons are what’s being emphasized in the form change. Plus it would’ve made for an interesting dynamic with Mega Venasaur and Zard X, where all of their matchups are neutral or resisted (fire is neutral on Mega Venasaur thanks to Thick Fat).
@@CaptainObliviousV Steel typing + make mega launcher work for bomb and cannon moves, so Flash Cannon works too.
Plus, give it a freakin' good water move (ideally a signature move) that works with mega launcher because why the hell do people need to use Water Pulse!?
@@GyroCannonwater pulse gets buff from mega launcher I think
@@pat1r1ck yes but it's a pitiful 60 base power.
@@GyroCannon with mega launcher it becomes base 90 and stab increase it I think?
07:11 Minor correction, Tough Claws only boosts moves that make contact, not all physical moves.
And for those wondering, the Special Contact moves are:
Draining Kiss, Grass Knot, Electro Drift, Petal Dance, Trump Card, Wring Out and Infestation.
Most don’t really help Tough Claws users, but Mega Metagross does consider Grass Knot for certain Water/Ground blobs that it cannot muscle through too easily.
Drain Kiss and Grass Knot pokemon with Tough Claws wen
Infestation making contact is insane.
Why?
@@DemonRaticateI can justify all of those moves except petal dance. How am I taking rocky helmet damage from spinning around and chucking flower petals?
@@Chrjstheshadow sooo, from what I know, the attack basically summons a tornado of petals around you and then you SLAM into the opponent with your actual body. So its more like Ice Spinner (for Pokemon like Liligant) or Outrage (for Pokemon like Venusaur). And the petals then do the elemental part by slashing and tearing at the opponent.
currently blastoise is the highest ranked kanto starter in RUBL, meanwhile venusaur is PU and charizard is all the way down in ZU
Oh damn, thats nice
I will add that out of all the gen 1 starters squirtle is the faster for red and blue speedruns.
@@_Sinduss 👍👌
This is true but it's important to note that sun/drought is banned in quite a few tiers. Still great for Blastoise.
@@violebanshee even with that, Blastoise still comes out on top. Drought is banned in NU and allowed in RU where it is a C rank strategy at best
He is not a failure. He is my favorite pokemon so therefore he is a winner.
PREACH
I appreciate your passion
Amen. Love that gremlin turtle tank.
That is the correct answer
Only in the speedrunning community, and then only in standards. Mediocre in solo runs since it's only peak performance is early game to set up Nidoran for success
At 2:46 we can see a successful attempt by popular Star Wars miscreant “Salacious B. Crumb” to sneak his way into GSC. This is insane.
Together with Torkoal, Golem and Shuckle, Blastoise forms the renowned Turtle Council. Truly insane.
What about Torterra, Carracosta, and Terapagos? And Turtnator?
@@HongMiyo Blastoise is a Boomer. He only knows other Pokémon up to Gen 3.
what about macargo? it has a shell.
Shuckle and his fake ID pretending to be a turtle
even lapras is closer to a turtle than shuckle
Bulky water type is such a common niche that unless you do something special, you get left behind. Maybe give Blastoise a signature move like a water type Torch Song that increases special attack when used. Not only does this address it's major flaw, but also plays into blastoise as a snowballing rain sweeper
I completely agree. A water move that utilizes the cannon that heats up or oils up the cannons to make it more potent. That or maybe give it mega launcher innately
I like how the moment you started talking about G-Max Blastoise and Cannonade, you can hear what appears to be a bunch of fireworks in the background 😅
My G-Max Blastoise has a very Special Attack.
At least in Nat Dex Mega Blastoise is bonkers because it can combine shell smash with its greatly improved power, and as a result it's banned from Nat Dex OU.
sadly… i would love to play in OU again
blastoise is one of those iconic lower tier spinners, never really cuts it in ou, but is very splashable in tiers uu and below usually
Even in the Gen 1 beta, Blastoise wasn't meant to be a part of the Squirtle evolution line, but its own separate two stage evo line. This just adds more insult into the injury.😢
A tiny buff that would feel perfectly reasonable and actually benefit not just Blastoise would be to give Withdraw the Refresh effect of healing negative status as well as the 1 stage Defense boost, I think.
Like... it's an iconic move from Gen 1 which doesn't have a wide distribution. Why not make it feel a bit more unique than just a Water type Harden? At first I was thinking it could recover some HP instead, but then I remembered how hard Game Freak nerfed recovery moves in Gen 9, so I figured it was a bad idea.
With body press this could actually work, tho I doubt it'd get much success anyway
Blastoise is cool in gen 3 at least, always love playing the Bluesenergy team
Blastoise is among the most famous Pokemon of all time.
It was on the box art of the very first generation.
With an iconic design that inspired all and wonder.
Blastoise is a childhood favourite of many players
Who started their journey with the first pokemon games
While Charizard is the most well known Gen 1 starter pokemon
Blastoise is among the most famous pokemon of all time
Blastoise has an iconic place in our hearts.
Could’ve been a candidate for Water/Steel
Mirror Venasaur's Clorophyl by giving Blastoise Swift swim, and then give it a unique attack to make the back mounted cannons make some sense
…you mean like Hydro Cannon?
@@linkthepringlesman3951 a GOOD move that makes the back cannons make sense
Swift Swim + Water Spout would be enough for good viability
It’s water can break through steel so give it a special clone of Stone Ax but instead of stealth rock it sets the steel surge that copperah’s g max move used. They already programmed it might as well give it to someone else
I mean it already gets Shell smash. Unfortunately, the move came too late. The power creep has become insane for Blastoise's stats
Blastoise has needed reliable recovery for the longest time
He has a shell and a launcher. He’s the literal definition of a tank which he NEEDS to be. He needs to have extremely high defense and special def and needs to hit extremely hard with Special attack. His speed can be low. His ability needs to be any special water type attack has a dmg multiplier of 1.5X or has a small chance to flinch
There is actually one really obscure official meta in which Blastoise was a top-tier pick: Gen 6 Triple battles.
Triples is played very similarity to doubles, so most Pokémon that are good in the doubles format will also be good in triples, but the primary difference is that the position of the Pokémon matters. A Pokémon on the corners can't attack or be attacked by Pokémon on the opposite corner with a few exceptions, and Pokémon in the center can attack or be attacked by everyone. In general, you want big spread attackers in the center to threaten all opponents, and support in the corners that can boost or protect the center Pokémon.
Mega Blastoise feels almost like it was fine-tuned for the triples format specifically, because every quirk of the triples meta is something that Blastoise has tools to exploit. It just happens to be really good in all positions making it an extremely versatile pick. It gets Water Spout, which is really good for putting out heavy spread damage to all 3 opponents when it's in the center position, but it can also be used in the corner for support, since it gets a lot of good moves like Fake Out, which is good for all the same reasons as doubles, and also Mega Launcher-boosed Aura Sphere, Dark Pulse and Water Pulse, which might not sound like much, until you realize that Pulse moves and Flying-type moves are the two exceptions to the rule limiting what a corner Pokémon can target or be targeted by. This means that Blastoise can launch extremely powerful attacks from anywhere on the field, potentially hitting a Pokémon that literally can't touch it.
Source: I used to be a worldwide top 100 player in ranked triples back when that was a thing in-game. I would see or use Mega Blastoise about as often as most of the other big megas like Charizard, Kangaskhan, etc.
Statwise, blastoise is very similar to Meganium which is an even more unfortunate starter who also has a mediocre hidden ability. As I am unsure on gamefreak being willing to do a stat buff for starter Pokémon, I feel like the best chance for blastoise to become useable in the modern day are to either hope to achieve a regional variant which made samurott go from worst water starter to one of the greatest thanks to hisui, or a lot of movepool buffs (like water pulse being 80 bp before a mega launcher boost) and reclaiming that mega launcher ability to make its measly special attack stat look threatening with the ability boost and shell smash. Nidoking is a mon with a subpar special attack stat but its ability sheer force makes it look like a demon, so an ability change for blastoise should hopefully make it feign that power level as well
Blastoise may not be good, but Psychic Terrain + Shell Smash scratches an itch in my brain that nothing else can reach
The best blastoise buff was his model update in scarlet and voilet
I just remember the Kanto starters Death Battle that concluded that, more often than not, Blastoise would take the victory.
That animation was frickin wild too
"Charizard had it's place in the sun" I see what you did there, mr. jimothy.
Theres one cool lower tier niche that blastoise used to have (alingside hitmons, mainly hitmontop though), and thats being able to learn foresight (prior to move being outight removed from games). While on the surface, you may think that its not important, it actually allows for rapid spinners to spin on ghost types. One of the cooler things that blastoise used to be capable of, though losing it for shell smash is a pretty good trade i think
the funniest thing about mega launcher is that heal pulse is considered a pulse move so mega launcher boosts it. blastoise doesn't learn it but clawitzer does
I think you underrated blastoise. Sure, its never been good in OU, its one of the most consistent UU pokemon of all time, a pillar of the tier from gen 2 through 5
Yeah in terms of base forms Blastoise has the best performance overall, but venusaur and zard both were top tier in ou with their megas while their gmax forms were powerful in vgc. Blastoise however never achieved anything with those forms, outside of Natdex at least.
you're right but you must be new here if you expect Jim to care about lower tiers lol. absolutely 0 research goes into any lower tier metas, it's absolutely this channel's biggest sin. it feels like early FSG honestly where anything that isn't OU gets only a cursory look before concluding that the pokemon is worthless, of course the only exception here being gen 3 where he will wax poetic about the tiniest of tiny niches that something has in ADV OU to promote the tier as a beacon of competitive balance and diversity. still love Jim but it kinda is what it is at this point, you do what you gotta do for content
@@nicolaistuhlmuller8718 venusaur is the best base form overall imo. defining top tier mon in the early nintendo cup formats (bring 6 pick 3) even if it didn't stand the test of time in RBY 6v6 formats, decent niches in GSC/ADV OU and crushed BW OU when chlorophyll + drought was legal, and the single best pokemon in DPP UU and top 3 in ORAS RU. also had a lot of diversity in its game being able to go both offensive and defensive w/ utility while blastoise has really only been one note. venusaur has taken a backseat in recent gens but blastoise hasn't really been faring much better constantly getting stuck in limbo tiers from being banned, and base venusaur's highs are a lot better than what base blastoise has historically been able to do.
blastoise has had its redemption this gen with it residing in RUBL and gaining shell smash in gen 8
Agree, still could use either a stat buff or hidden ability change though
Hey, at least it is RUBL currently in SV, while Venusaur is PU and Charizard is ZU. That's something, at least.
Some of the Pokedex entries for Blastoise mention how extremely accurate it is, so I think something like no guard could be interesting. Would make up for the lack of power and the loss of mega launcher a little bit by making it so Blastoise can fire unmissable blizzards, focus blasts and hydro pumps.
I am also perpetually bummed out by the fact Blastoise is the one Kanto starter that is still monotype. Considering it is a turtle tank, water/steel would have made sense as soon as gen 2, but with Empoleon being a thing now that boat has sailed.
Realistically I think the best I can hope for is that they do regiomal variants of starters again in Legends Z-A and Blastoise gets some love there. As you mentioned, Blastoise's stats are bad, so I really feel like they could afford to just go full optimization and take some of its attack to give it either more speed so it is harder to outspeed after smashing or more special attack so it can put a dent on things better.
I don't really mind him being slightly weak, because I've always liked Blastoise. He's neat.
Only reason Mega Blastoise is bad is because for some weird reason gamefreak didnt guve it Shell Smash
It has Shell Smash in NatDex and as expected, it was banned to Ubers there
Blastoise using Shell Smash is a horrifying image, that would simply kill it given that the shell is a modified spine, and he can't just "break it off" to be lighter and move faster. Though I guess that's why I don't like Shell Smash as a move for anyone except the hermit crab pokemon it was first given to.
it wouldnt even take over in natdex if they ever bring it back down, common revenge killers would easily stop it from sweeping
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Blastoise-Mega in Grassy Terrain: 320-380 (107 - 127%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Protosynthesis Raging Bolt Thunderclap vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Blastoise-Mega: 302-356 (101 - 119%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Bro has not seen the shell smash blastoise in rain clip
Blastoise is my favorite Pokémon. At least in Nat Dex, Shell Smash Mega Blastoise was so fun…then he got sent to Ubers to fight Regieleki
Blastoise in ADV OU: “I pump, I spin, I stand uselessly while my opponent accrues boosts.”
blastoise farts and shits through his cannons
Ok im glad someone finally said it.
Blastoise? More liek ASSTOISE MIRITE?
blastoise farts and shits through his cannons
This is highly inappropriate.
@@toolofthelord No, it's appropriate. Blastoise is terrible
I’m hoping Legends Z has mega Blastoise with shell smash, and that Gen 10 keeps mega evolution from Legends Z, like Gen 9 did with Alolan forms in Legends Arceus…
"Of the 3 starters, it's the worst..."
*Me about to type a rant about Gen 1 starter usefulness in Kanto.*
"... competitively."
Okay, nevermind.
6:01 unfortunate doesn’t even begin to describe
It's always bugged me how Blastoise has ears (Tortoises/Turtles don't have those), and it's classified as a "Shellfish" Pokemon.
There's so much wrong with that.
According to the Gen 1 beta, Blastoise was originally not part of the Squirtle evolution line, but it's own separate two stage Evo line with its own pre-evolution. The true final Squirtle Evo has ears and a tail similar to its pre -evolutions like Wartortle.
Heartbroken to see the position the once mighty Macargo has found himself in.
Another reason why I want Squirtle to be one off the starters in legends Z-A. We need a better mega blastoise than the mega that blastoise actually got.
Blastoise is a childhood favourite of many players.
Although this is true, it’s not considered a “good pokemon”
@@spice2nice664even if it isn't the best pokemon, I still find Blastoise my favorite Kanto starter
(Even if Feraligatr is my favorite starter in general)
@@TarosTheVoid my favorite Pokémon is zebstrika, I’ve never seen it used competitively
At least Blastoise was great in the early days for speedrunning 😊
Nah, my Blastiose laid out my brothers Charizard (his favorite pokemon) when we were kids. So it's objectively the best
The Blastoise Line did get some water type healing moves in recent gens.
85,3% of the people after seeing this video: Who cares i'm using Blastoise anyway.
Ngl Blastoise got the short end of the stick next to Typhlosion. Thank you for covering both of them
Jimothy, I cannot believe you would forget to include Blastoise-Mega's highest catridge legal position in LGPE OU. The Turtle Council may not be happy with this exclusion (cool video as always).
Give Blastoise a signature ability, like a Parental Bond for Water Type moves as he has two cannons.
Now that it has Shell Smash, with Mega Evolution returning in the next game, Blastoise will be pretty good.
For a different hidden ability you could give it strong jaw, or shell armor, but that just makes it a lot like Drednaw.
Folks it's a Blastoise Blastastrophre
i hear that RuneScape music
I was wondering where the RuneScape music was coming from, I checked Spotify because I thought it was coming from there, then I realized it was from the video, loved it!
I'd give Blastoise Volcanion's signature move "Steam Eruption" if I were to buff it. It makes sense thematically too with Blastoise's huge cannons it uses.
MinMax its stats a little, give it a Water-type Torch Song, Slack Off, and Unaware. Damn yes.
This is the first time I have ever seen the Gen 3 Blastoise front sprite.
I think a flat stat buff is impossible, with all starters roughly at the same BST, but a stat swap? Put 20 from Attack (or possibly Speed, thematically) to Special Attack?
Up until Gen 5, not all starters BSTs were equal:
Charizard (534) > Blastoise (530) > Venusaur (525)
Typhlosion (534) > Feraligatr (530) > Meganium (525)
Swampert (535 which is the highest of them all) > Sceptile/Blaziken (530)
Infernape (534) > Empoleon (530) > Torterra (525)
Even in Gen 6, they still have Delphox 4 more BST points than the other two starters
@@goGothitaLOL True, but they are roughly the same, and usually had these differences paired with different evolution levels. Blastoise isn't gonna be much better with 4 additional points in SpAtt
That's what I was hoping developers would do, and give it maybe some recovery move. Also maybe mega launcher could be it's ability instead of rain dish. Or something new moves.
Every other Pokemon that got the broken category of g max move (max wildfire, vine lash, cannonade, and coalossols one that i forgot the name of) was good in Gen 8 expect my boy Blastoise
He deserves so much better, give him wonder guard
G-Max Blastoise had a lot of results in VGC. Pretty decent with Fake Out option too, Life Dew and 2 big moves.
Gmax Blastoise was really good imo. Definitely underrated. Good support option that could launch a broken max attack. I used a support weakness policy set pretty successfully and it did good in tournaments in general.
@@Goldeneye3336 Really? I didn’t know that
@@HerMajestyVelvet Yeah. It was not major but did decent. Enough to win events online. G-Max moves from Kanto starter and Colossoal were op.
@@Goldeneye3336 I feel so stupid for dooubting that extra effect on those G moves lol. I was like "G Water/Fire weather improve your damage by 50% so this sucks" completely not realizing those moves math to around 66% damage boost lol(if you do 50% damage, the extra effect is equal 33% x 2) except better due to acting as a residuals
Needed a signature move called Garrison, in which it recovered slightly and boosted defense.
Never played gen 8 or 9 but damn, they actually gave Blastoise an animation where he shoots out of his cannons
Got me fucked up
-surf -ice beam
-earthquake -body slam and he’s unstoppable
Give Blastoise a new hidden ability that works like that one walking wake move so he can be a water type that retains its functionality under Sun.
What game are you playing in the vid ? Are you playing online ??
Mega-Blastoise should be able to learn shell smash now, so it'll probably be very good in Legends Z
Origin pulse would make mega-blastoise scary just in time for ZA
You kinda glossed over Gens 4 and 5, in which Blastoise was arguably the best Rapid Spinner in UU while Charizard was unviable outside of NU.
I'd personally love this guy to have Drizzle - Rain Dance Blastoise is an iconic part of Early TCG meta, with his ability being able to empower all of his Water buddies. Having him serve the same role would be great.
Also I want Megas back. The Shell Smash & Mega combo should be allowed. Let my Turtley Boy be OU or Ubers one time.
Blastoise is the definition of "Good in a vacuum" in generation 1.
"But it's bulky!"
So is Vaporeon and Lapras. Starmie has powerful sustain with recover also. Dewgong even has some good bulk AND ice stab. Practically every other option just has something better to offer. Heck even omastar's rock typing gives it a normal resist.
"But it can learn earthquake and blizzard to cover its weaknesses!"
Starmie can learn thunderbolt and blizzard. Lapras again can also gain stab on blizzard and thunderbolt. If you still want a earthquaking water type, poliwrath has better attack.
My hot take is that if it was not a starter, nobody would care about this pokemon. It's a sad fate honestly.
Terrible final take with people not caring about it fi it isn’t a starter
I have zero personal connection to. This mon and yet it’s in my top 10 favs of all time,cannon turtle is cool. Objectively
And competitive players would still have a reason to care,cool mega,cool shell smash
Draft players would also love the bulky spinner that can threaten
That last bit reminds me that Kanto Expansion Pak (excellent romhack btw) explores the idea of Blastoise not being a starter as that might have been the plan at one point in the development of Red / Green
@@EclipseKirby
That's what I was thinking honestly. Like it was gonna stay 2 stages but then they went "nah let's make it a 3 stage starter"
It needed a move that did water damage and spins hazards away at the same time by using it's cannons. Something like 60 base power water physical. A personal ability to give hydro pump perfect accuracy would also make a lot of sense.
This is not the biggest failure in Pokémon, for I am here!
Banana's provide more value to me than Blastoise ever has.
You can't call blastoise a failure when ik ill fuck you up with him on my team
As the next Pokemon Legends game is in Kalos, I think it's pretty likely' we're going to see Shell Smash Mega Blastoise outside of National Dex for the first time.
That gen 3 slaking team was pretty cool
Blastoise is my GOAT. I still have my original Blastoise from FireRed when I was a kid chilling on Pokemon Diamond. We hang out every now and then.
8:58 it's also strong in Natdex Ubers UU. It's beena while but i remember losing to a psychic spam team using terrain pulse which was like 190 power or something
They missed the opportunity to give it the Steel typing in gen 2 and I don’t understand why. It’s the only monotype final stage gen 1 starter.
Imagine if when Megas return they add Hydro Pump to the list of moves boosted by Mega Launcher
It either needs to be more speedy or more bulky. Being slow and unable to take a hit is a death sentence.
My favorite time using Blastoise was in BDSP OU where the power lv was more manageable compared to Gen 9
It sucks cuz Blastoise is literally my favorite Pokemon.
Shell Smash took mega blastoise from UU straight to ubers. Crazy what one move can do huh
Blastoise shows just how criminally outdated early gen stats are.
Always found it so weird that Blastoise is known for having these water cannons that can apparently cut through steel
Yet it has a base SpA stat of 85.
Give it Storm Drain! Or, something new where Sun doesn't derail its water attacks.
Let the record show blastoise had made a splash in gen 9 RU with various shell smash sweeping and more niche bulky spinner sets. Most popular among these was the shell smash white herb tera electric set, a staple of HO at the time it utilized tera blast to gain bolt beam coverage that ripped through the tier after chipping an ever-present cyclizar. Another notable shell smash set was the mixed set, utilizing the 100 bp ground type attack earthquake to smash specially defensive empoleon, a normally suitable counter, and many other steels looking to shut down it's sweep. The mixed set had a variety of threating tera types like ground, to boost it's earthquakes to terrifying levels, or a more defensive tera type like grass or ghost to abuse a previously offensive check, turning what should have been an easy KO into a 6-0. The oppressive nature of it's tera abusing and set variety led to it's eventual suspect and ban. Thank you for reading folks.
I GOTTA know what that outro song is!! I tried searching that Spotify name and can't find it! Any help??
Fascinating that a pokemon so good in speedrunning that it completely outclassed the other starters would be useless in gen 1 competitive.
I have a support Blastoise I love using in doubles. It clears when paired with a Breloom.
Fake Out, Yawn, Scald, Life Dew, Impish with defense investment.
Only looking at it from the angle of competition and not how it matches up in its debut game on a playthrough
Water/Steel typing and Shell Armor would somewhat help and be thematically fitting? If Blastoise got that and a recovery move like Slack Off or Recover then it could do something, it always had solid defensive stats but no consistent way of recovery which always held it back a lot.
Storm Drain would also be great but not sure if fits as much, Swift Swim also could at least help in Rain teams if Blastoise were to be a Shell Smash user.
Move Mega Launcher from Mega Evolution to alternate ability. Pair that with Shell Smash and you get incredible sweeper potential. Very much fits the concept of the pokemon with those cannons.
Torrent as standard ability for water starters is lame anyway. (same with Blaze and Overgrow)
Mega Launcher is one of the most useless abilities in the entire game for it though.
@@nicolaistuhlmuller8718 it has all 3 moves that abuse it
That said, the few moves it does boost is very very small like you implied.
Surprised it doesn’t boost cannon moves like Flash Cannon (might be because of Zap Cannon but who the hell would use it without No Guard?)
@@goGothitaLOL yes it does but none of the moves that get boosted are worth using. In gen 6 and 7 the most effective Mega Blastoise set was Scald, Ice Beam, Rapid Spin and Toxic.
Scalds power should be lowered anyways.
Something thematic with the canons. Like.... All water moves over 100 power have a 50% chance to roar the enemy Pokemon off the field
As cliche as it is, I think swift swim would be a better hidden ability/mega ability for Blastoise, giving it a unique role as a fast Water Spout lead