Perhaps the next theorem video could be why move sets (like mix attacking, fast physical, bulky special, etc) are close to everything or the Dragonite theorem
@@zdelrod829 the Flareon therom describes Pokemon in regards to moves they’re missing or have too many, the Dragonite therom would describe how the Pokemon found success with changing the moves they had
@@e94youtubeTwo things can be true at once. This says that it's perfectly valid to like a pokémon simply because it hits hard. It's not my favorite, but I like Amoonguss because it becomes absolutely terrifying when you use Skill Swap to give it Prankster.
@@tiosevenstarsthey should make a defensive grass/steel meganium with iron barbs as an ability and give it spikes and leech seed and knock off… and maybe make it really slow and bulky
@@lickyro1234 lmao XD I'm trying to make meganium different from ferrothorn. A traping hidden ability would be incredible. And it should make use of its ability to use giga drain and other special moves ferrothron couldn't, so they could both shine differently
In Gen 6, I ran Energy Ball Mega Gardevoir, which really only helped against the rare Mega Swampert. And I wondered why I could never break 1500 on ladder. lol
A better example is the guy who topped the ladder with Sudowoodo. It has a genuine niche that no other Pokemon can fill because it has access to both Spikes and Stealth Rock, the combo of Endeavor + Sturdy, and STAB Head Smash with a usable attack stat, making it the ultimate suicide lead.
That reminds me of the guy who showed up this year to worlds with a Scraggy >Intimidate >Slower than Caly Ice in Trick room (it's good as being both a partner and a counter) >Coaching >Foul Play >Depetively very tanky with Eviolite
This is what makes draft leagues fun. They make you actually use those weaker Pokémon and make you bring out their strength and synergy with your draft.
The mark of a skilled player is one that recognises the advantages and disadvantages of bad Pokemon to find a niche they can fill. But to get to that level of playing can require a lot of time, studying, and practice, something a lot of unskilled players fail to understand.
A great example of this is the "Probopass OU team" that also reached the second place in the ladder. Why use a passive wall with many heavy weaknesses? Because it has Magnet Pull, Body Press and a massive 140 base defense, meaning that if played carefully it can turn into the best thing to put your opponent's Kingambit out of commission.
And also to keep the "bad" part of the team limited. The video touches on it a bit, but most people who hear "really strong trainers win with their favorites" won't take it as "I'll take this one and build a top tier team around it to try and make it work", but as "I'll use _nothing_ but my faves". Unfortunately, that doesn't work all that well, as the power of friendship is not really a reliable stat.
@@ExeloMinish i really hate the win with your favourites mentality for many reasons, among them being that competitive play can just make you appreciate certain pokemon a lot more. like, before trying it out in rby ou, i hadn't thought of kingler a single time in the last ten years, but then i tried it out, and...well, it wasn't that good, especially since i'm not the most skilled player, but i had a lot of fun. 130 base attack, swords dance, and gen 1 hyper beam have some genuine potential, especially with the guaranteed crit crabhammer to muscle past the likes of rhydon, gengar, and reflect snorlax (note: in gen 1, crits ignore the user's buffs and all water attacks are special, so that's why crabhammer isn't kingler's main attacking option). for another example, given my tastes, i probably wouldn't have been that fond of ferrothorn or landorus-therian if it wasn't for how good they are competitively.
Funny thing about Moltres is that, not only did it have a legitimate niche in gens 1-3 OU, but much later in gen 9, Moltres is actually one of the top picks in the SV OU metagame because a defensive flame body set is frustratingly hard for Zamazenta and Great Tusk to deal with if they lack rock-type coverage, as they hate getting burned, and flame body can also seriously punish U-Turn users like Rillaboom as well as Dragonite, Kingambit, and Ogerpon-W, the latter of which it can deal with if it runs tera grass, which can also help it against electrics like Raging Bolt. Not to mention it can learn Roar to phase setup sweepers.
I'm glad the "the other 5 need to be good" section brought up Pachi -- this is basically the application of the Pachirisu theorem without using quite such a noted example of "why bad/off-meta mons can be made to work"
Reminds me of when I was building a mono Bug team back in gen 7. It wasn't working because I didn't have a reliable counter to both forms of Mega Charizard, but then I found out Crustle filled that very niche and prevented them from sweeping. Then I kept using Crustle and found it actually worked shockingly well to the point where I would start slapping it on any standard team I made. It was barely fast enough to shell smash sweep late game, could stop other sweepers in their tracks in an emergency where my priority attackers wouldn't work thanks to Sturdy, and could even pull of Custap Berry stuff thanks to the same ability to great effect. Weak Armor patched up its poor speed even further but I used Sturdy more for utility. It got even better in gen 8 when Heavy-Duty boots were introduced since it wasn't reliant on a hold item for most of my sets to work, allowing it to always come in with Sturdy intact. I've seen it compared unfavorably to Carracosta, but I prefer it since it lacks that horrible Water/Rock typing and has better speed in the many scenarios where Aqua Jet wouldn't cut it, plus Bug STAB dropping Tyranitar is very handy. I'm very sad it wasn't brought back in gen 9 and I haven't been able to make another successful mono-bug team without it. I know it's not going to break OU anytime soon but I still really enjoy using it and consider it extremely underrated. But it's not all bad being Untiered. That just means I can slap it on any team in any tier, especially since it doesn't need exceptional teammates to pull its weight. Plus no one ever expects it.
I actually did try this back in gen 8 OU with jellicent. I mainly did it because funny pringles squid. And then I found out that it was actually pretty good. Turns out when Urshifu rapid is punching thing into oblivion like akuma from street fighter. Having an auxiliary check to it is great……..even though toxapex was by all accounts and purposes better
Honestly, I'm not even remotely surprised at this list. All three of these 'mons absolutely have the means to do some nasty damage if given the opportunity, and there's no one that really _wants_ to be eating boosted STAB Returns, Facades, and Explosions!
Personal favourite is Mudsdale in Gen 8. Ground max for special defence and Stamina for physical defense, plus body press could make it a nuisance to get rid of.
Well I used Primeape in my Gen 6 OU team consisting Primeape, Empoleon, Mega Aerodactyl, Darmanitan, Diggersby and Cofagrigus and reached the ladder starting from 1000 on Showdown. Choice Scarf Primeape with defiant and ice punch used to get so many surprise KOs on Landorus-Ts that were everywhere. And its u-turns and close combats came in handy too. Sometimes it would get 3-4 KOs ending the match.😊
Entei is probably my favorite unconventional pokemon to use, it's really interesting cuz u would think it's really easy to wall but it feels like it is very consistently able to force progress thanks to sacred fire being very hard to switch into, Entei also has great bulk and it can stick around for a while to make use of it thanks to boots, and of course u can't forget the amazing utility of extreme speed. From being the worst it feels like today it's keeping up the best compared to it's counterparts, I strongly recommend u try it if you're reading this comment
I’m fortunate that my favourite Pokémon is Gardevoir, and her plethora of coverage moves, access to Choice Scarf for 120 base speed and decent 125 special attack makes her a reliable revenge killer. Especially when paired with Ground and Dark allies to cover her Poison and Ghost weaknesses. She loves Excadrill and Hisuian Zoroark, who can safely switch into her checks and threaten them in turn. Choice Scarf is also optional, since she can also use either Choice Specs for wallbreaking potential, Focus Sash to set up a Calm Mind safely, or Assault Vest to make her unkillable to any unboosted special attacker. She is so damn versatile.
@@MaxiemumKarnage Gardevoir knows Aura Sphere, Focus Blast and Mystical Fire. Unless the Steel-type has the speed to outspeed her or the special defence/HP to survive the first attack, Gardevoir doesn’t need to switch.
In the 2014 I messed around with mega heracross + support talonflame. Tons of fun got me some premier events and that was all I wanted from the teams that included that duo
I think that one was more of a bench warmer. A better example is that one tournament somebody won with an almost mono-Water team which also had a Seaking.
i wish luxray was so much better than it is, it's my favorite Pokémon of all time, favorite shiny of all time, but it just doesn't work in battle. It needs an alternate form or a mega evolution to help make it a useful Pokémon in battle
This video is the epitome of Blunder having a featured mon in a vid and sacking it every damn game but still having a title like “ARBOLIVA TAKES THE AGENCY TO THE TOP (1850+)”
SV OU kilowattrel in rain. Hurricane, thunder, volt switch, weather ball, tera water, boots, volt absorb. Works great with pelipper, the best rain setter in OU. Imagine if Zapdos was a sweeper instead of being bulky. It pummels ground types with weather ball, but it’s not very flexible, it really wants your tera to help deal with electric/flying resists, not bulky at all. But it switches into electric moves aiming at your water types on a rain team perfectly and hits back fast and hard assuming it can be hit by electric or flying. You could probably get some success with pelipper, kilowattrel, barraskewda/floatzel, and some slow bulky pivots like slowbro.
I would love to see Mightyena working, since it's my favorite pokémon. I grew so attached to it when I first played Emerald, and to be honest it is a good mon if you play the game with the physical/special split patch applied.
In VGC I currently like using Umbreon because there's too much psyspam. The over-reliance on that strategy has lead to a few humorous situation where opponents were left unable to win thanks to Umbreon being able to tank long enough to get them down to just Indeedee lol, plus I use it more as an enabler who's annoying for one of the 2 most used strategies (Other being Arch rain, which I have counters for on other mon)
I been seeing weirdly success with abamasnow in the current scarlet and violet as my aurora veil setter. It works surprisingly well, and especially so as the weather disrupter I purposely made it to be. I'm genuinely happy I can bring it to the ladder and have fun with it, especially pairing with glimmora so each can help resist the other's weakness
I was actually one of the first people to try out defensive Houndstone in PU because I wanted to make Zangoose work so badly again in PU. It was before the Indigo Disk DLC came out, and I was looking for a spinblocker for my Hazard Stacking Zangoose team that had a good matchup against Morpeko, the most common spinner in PU, doing that was quite the challenge due to Morpeko's dark typing and after days of testing I found out Houndstone not only could take on Morpeko but also that almost NOTHING in the tier could do much against it, he was even good against setup sweepers because of Roar and Will-o-Wisp. The Houndstone name was Grave Mistake and he pretty much glued the strategy together, after some optimizations it ended up being a surprisingly strong team and best of all, it made Zangoose actually work again in PU.
"Truly skilled trainers should try to win with the Pokemon they love best. And by being way overleveled." ~ Karen if you didn't walk away before she finished talking.
For Ledian, one of my personal favorites, I like running it in gen 3 OU. Run it alongside a whole team that just absolutely do not want to touch grass. Swampert, Quagsire, etc. Since in gen 3 grass type attacks can only be special attacks, and since hidden power grass is a very common coverage option for how popular Swampert is, Ledian's x4 resist to grass and its massive special defense makes it a great defensive pivot. Couple it with screens, and it's very comfy.
I commented this on the Poliwrath video years ago, but here's the perfect video to redo it: Poliwrath has a genuine use in gen 7 OU, for its defensive use against lots of OU's top threats: Heatran, Ash Greninja, Mega Scizor, Blacephalon, Keldeo, Volcarona, Mega Gyarados, and potentially Mega Zard X and Mega Swampert. With a set or Protect, Scald, Circle Throw, Rock Slide, and a specially defensive spread, it can have genuine use against all of these. It's not Toxapex, but it can hit some of these Pokemon for genuine damage and/or phasing. Give it soem healing support and it'll put in some work.
I always used Typhlosion in doubles on sun teams. I almost never see anyone use it but now in the current vgc season people are finally using it. Makes me so happy to see it.
This video is such an allegory for life. You’ll never know if something is good unless you try it out for yourself. If there’s something you love, why not try and make it stand. It may not be the best, but you found out by experimenting and you learned something new. Even if it’s as simple as finding out your favorite pokemon sucks competitively 😂
Dunsparce is probably the most fun I've had trying to make a lower tier mon work in a slightly higher tier. Gen 8 RU had a ton of really great support mons for spreading paralysis and backup flinching like Durant and Cinccinno. The release of Scale Shot made Dunsparce's pitiful speed slightly more usable. Sure, Cinccinno is definitely doing most of the work, but Dunsparce being able to fit 2 separate roles thanks to Glare is pretty cool
Gen 3 is particularly interesting for this sort of thing. Its OU is very well known and shockingly flexible in the sets and styles you can run, so youll occasionally find low tier pokemon filling very specific roles in an OU team.
This reminds me of the fun I had with Flame Orb, Quick Feet, Calm Mind Jolteon. Yeah, they’re better monsters, but I been playing since Blue/Red and Jolteon is a fav. With Quick Feet, you dont need to be timid and can run a modest set and still outspeed a lot of pokemon. And after one CM, you’re doing some heavy damage. Just get you some heal support and MAYBE a t wave user or webber.
I'm more of a doubles player, but I love to find weird niche reasons to use a pokemon in a way that either no other pokemon could be used, or that for the team that gets built around it it becomes the best option. Noctowl, for example, has a pretty interesting niche! It is one of the few pokemon with access to tinted lens, and is only one of two pokemon in gen 9 that can give Tinted Lens to an ally. The other one being Venomoth. Partner it with something that can otherwise hit like a truck, and as a bonus doesn't have an ability that helps it hit like a truck, and that's potentially a lot of mileage out of this one niche.
I haven't played competitive in a few years but I really loved doing this a while ago. I would pick 3 mons I liked and then I would build the rest of the team around them based mostly on the stats and coverage. This way I got to use a lot of mons I might've never tried otherwise and some of them even became favorites of mine. I'll never forget how mons with Scarf and Moxie on not so optimal teams won me so many matches, lol.
My favorite team I’ve ever made was a Gen 7 doubles OU team that used Hydreigon and Bisharp. It required me to play very well to win, but it was insanely fun
Reminds me of a TH-camr from a long while back who would make videos of bad or unexpected Pokémon sweeping, so you would see a video of Magikarp sweeping an entire Uber legendary team for example. However, if you watched even just a few of these, you would quickly realize that every one of these setups relied on a Baton Pass team working under just the right circumstances.
Shiftry is my favourite Pokémon ever and despite issues with it in battle, it’s always done me well with 3 distinct examples: Omega ruby- nasty plot chlorophyll special sweeper with dark pulse solarbeam extrasensory and nasty plot holding a focus sash and pairing with a drought ninetales in the team for long powerful special grass and dark attacks and did well for me despite all the fairies around. It also did great using primal groudon’s sun against it. Shield- dynamax shiftry with solar blade heat wave knock off and rock slide. With this set I used a life orb and would dynamax shiftry on unsuspecting grass or steel or bug types to get a deadly max flare on them and then use the sun for sunny day speed boosted attacks and when I was back to normal rock slide offered amazing coverage for fire types while knock off and solar blade were huge damage. Terra fire shiftry- using terra fire alongside knock off leaf blade terra blast and tailwind with its new wind rider ability my scarlet shiftry manages to surprise unassuming players off with deadly coverage and big tailwind support even if it doesn’t get a kill thanks to focus sash and its immunity to prankster (murkrow have been surprised by it a lot early on). Terra fire becomes a physical attack too really rounding off the set nicely and making it hit harder than the dynamax set which had to split its special attack and attack to help make max flare stronger. My other big example is from shield- Dubwool cotton guard fluffy body press rest and payback. Payback was just there to hit ghost types but you could run anything there while a chesto berry with rest kept status away a turn healed up and helped make the cotton guard boost stronger. Cotton guard body press with fluffy is a three step deadly physical wall strategy only dubwool can do. If it was in scarlet and Violet I would be using this constantly to shut down say, urshifu or zamazenta who can barely touch it even with super effective attacks
Perhaps the next theorem video could be why move sets (like mix attacking, fast physical, bulky special, etc) are close to everything or the Dragonite theorem
Imagine hypothetically gamefreak gave Luxray a Mega that's Electric/Ice and buffed it's speed and offense, with maube a minor defensive buff for the snow defense boost All as a reference to that Luxray that made everyone cry in the anime
I made a gen 8 OU team with Drampa. TR Drampa. Since there is a lot of ghost spam, he is quite useful. Drampa came in as an answer to Spectrier, but stayed after his ban because he turned out to be more useful than he seems. Even today it remains a useful team.
All i do is play with mons i like. I may never get high on the ladder, i can throw together a more meta team if i want, but its also fun to put together things and try to make them work. Then there's just playing with friends and its fun having records against eachother and having a "no team changes til you beat it" kinda thing going on. Thats the beauty of the game and comp in general, yeah you have to come to twrms with loving the game itself over only playing your favorites if you want real success, but you dont have to. Or only playing singles or doubles, its all good.
My fav pokemon is Slowbro and I love seeing him grow in popularity AT LEAST once every 2 years with something either broken, or completely stupid. Remember block/heal pulse/slack off/recycle slowbro?
I remember sweeping some people in the lower tiers (UU iirc) with Moxie Mightyena back in the ORAS days. It didn’t always work, but it was fun when it did.
"Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites... Doesn't mean you can't use some good stuff too, you have 6 team slots, don't you?" -Good advice
![[Cyberpunk 2077] Terrace Ambiance | Woodland Blvd | Westbrook | Charter Hill | Night City](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TxuLsc_t61I/mqdefault.jpg)
Use code FALSESWIPE50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box plus 20% off your next month of orders at bit.ly/3SYO5ng!
Perhaps the next theorem video could be why move sets (like mix attacking, fast physical, bulky special, etc) are close to everything or the Dragonite theorem
@@playersnake see The Flareon Theorem
Call this video what it is. It's the Karen Theroem.
@@zdelrod829 the Flareon therom describes Pokemon in regards to moves they’re missing or have too many, the Dragonite therom would describe how the Pokemon found success with changing the moves they had
2:08 that rice is definitely not keto. i kinda doubt the right side is either tbh
"Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokemon they love best. A Flutter Mane doesn't hurt though." ~Karen
Just forget Karen's words, she herself said "I like Dark mons bcoz they are strong". Also use whatever mons u want & whatever strategies u want
@@e94youtubeTwo things can be true at once. This says that it's perfectly valid to like a pokémon simply because it hits hard.
It's not my favorite, but I like Amoonguss because it becomes absolutely terrifying when you use Skill Swap to give it Prankster.
@@TwiliPaladin Yeah they can, my point is that U shouldn't take her words seriously
Me with my favorites incineroar , great tusks and ogerpon: 🗿
@@tomasturbando9836Me when one of my favorites is the PokeGod 🗿
See yall in a month for "why every pokemon cant work (the meganium theorem)
⚰️⚰️⚰️
I want a regional megnium. Make it grass/steel, and an ability to trap opponents. Oh ofc a cool new move as well
@@tiosevenstarsthey should make a defensive grass/steel meganium with iron barbs as an ability and give it spikes and leech seed and knock off… and maybe make it really slow and bulky
@@lickyro1234 lmao XD I'm trying to make meganium different from ferrothorn. A traping hidden ability would be incredible. And it should make use of its ability to use giga drain and other special moves ferrothron couldn't, so they could both shine differently
In Meganiums defence, it's solid in Gen 2 and passable in Gen 3.
It's rapidly down hill from there
It's funny seeing Floatzel classified as bad like it wasn't a menace in pre dlc gen 9.
I remember it fondly
was a staple on my scarlet team
Banded Tera Water Wave Crash go brrrr.
We love Floatzel the iconic seventh best rain sweeper
Shows up to your tier
OHKOs your water resist
Refuses to elaborate
Dies to recoil
This is like the Energy Ball theorum where you have to sometimes anticipate wacky coverage moves that no sane person would ever run.
If you don't know what the fk you are doing, then neither will your opponent -Sun Two
Me w/ my signature rock polish ice beam flame Ttar so as to fry lando and ferro just cuz
In Gen 6, I ran Energy Ball Mega Gardevoir, which really only helped against the rare Mega Swampert.
And I wondered why I could never break 1500 on ladder. lol
Some guy managed to make it to the number 2 elo in gen 9 OU with probopass since it has the ability to trap and remove kingambit.
imagine a kingambit bringing low kick just for that matchup
@@L_Nivale gambit often runs low kick anyway
unfortunately it was just worse magnezone because it gets ohkod by fallen 3 +2 sucker punch anyways LMAO
A better example is the guy who topped the ladder with Sudowoodo. It has a genuine niche that no other Pokemon can fill because it has access to both Spikes and Stealth Rock, the combo of Endeavor + Sturdy, and STAB Head Smash with a usable attack stat, making it the ultimate suicide lead.
That reminds me of the guy who showed up this year to worlds with a Scraggy
>Intimidate
>Slower than Caly Ice in Trick room (it's good as being both a partner and a counter)
>Coaching
>Foul Play
>Depetively very tanky with Eviolite
I never knew of that , that must have been impressive !! Keep it up !!!
This is what makes draft leagues fun. They make you actually use those weaker Pokémon and make you bring out their strength and synergy with your draft.
So true landorus can never beat ice punch dusknoir
Lets hope on a crit with that one.
The king of OU ain't living through this strat
@@lilyofthatvelley yeah I bet a filthy OU pro will be so mad against me
Someone tell me how to make Dusknoir viable
eviolite dusclops
Hes the only ghost who can simple beam and trap
You need to use lore accurate dusknoir so you can steal your opponent's soul and win.
Ice punch, no one will expect it
Ice Punch an unsuspecting Lando-T
I knew it! I can finally use my Choice Scarf Slowbro competitively!
That is actually usable in defensive team , choice scarf + trick
true and my Choice Specs Tauros!!
Choice Band Blissey
Life Orb Shedinja
The mark of a skilled player is one that recognises the advantages and disadvantages of bad Pokemon to find a niche they can fill. But to get to that level of playing can require a lot of time, studying, and practice, something a lot of unskilled players fail to understand.
A great example of this is the "Probopass OU team" that also reached the second place in the ladder.
Why use a passive wall with many heavy weaknesses? Because it has Magnet Pull, Body Press and a massive 140 base defense, meaning that if played carefully it can turn into the best thing to put your opponent's Kingambit out of commission.
And also to keep the "bad" part of the team limited. The video touches on it a bit, but most people who hear "really strong trainers win with their favorites" won't take it as "I'll take this one and build a top tier team around it to try and make it work", but as "I'll use _nothing_ but my faves". Unfortunately, that doesn't work all that well, as the power of friendship is not really a reliable stat.
@@ExeloMinish it is very reliable… in Gen 6+ if you get the affection stat high enough, and play only the regular game without online battling
@@ExeloMinish i really hate the win with your favourites mentality for many reasons, among them being that competitive play can just make you appreciate certain pokemon a lot more. like, before trying it out in rby ou, i hadn't thought of kingler a single time in the last ten years, but then i tried it out, and...well, it wasn't that good, especially since i'm not the most skilled player, but i had a lot of fun. 130 base attack, swords dance, and gen 1 hyper beam have some genuine potential, especially with the guaranteed crit crabhammer to muscle past the likes of rhydon, gengar, and reflect snorlax (note: in gen 1, crits ignore the user's buffs and all water attacks are special, so that's why crabhammer isn't kingler's main attacking option). for another example, given my tastes, i probably wouldn't have been that fond of ferrothorn or landorus-therian if it wasn't for how good they are competitively.
Funny thing about Moltres is that, not only did it have a legitimate niche in gens 1-3 OU, but much later in gen 9, Moltres is actually one of the top picks in the SV OU metagame because a defensive flame body set is frustratingly hard for Zamazenta and Great Tusk to deal with if they lack rock-type coverage, as they hate getting burned, and flame body can also seriously punish U-Turn users like Rillaboom as well as Dragonite, Kingambit, and Ogerpon-W, the latter of which it can deal with if it runs tera grass, which can also help it against electrics like Raging Bolt. Not to mention it can learn Roar to phase setup sweepers.
Kinda wish luxray could learn aleast hone claws
There are so many moves and abilities that would make luxury amazing. Sadly, Nintendo doesn't want it to be.
Trailblaze was a start! Nice move on Luxray in competitive
@@vla1ne you mean gamefreak/pokemom company
Just give physical electric types zing zap its right there
@@bathilra5364 yeah but aleast supercell slam works as a good physical electric move for her from now
Shoutouts to Moltres being a decent OU mon in Gen 9 thanks to Flame Body and its Fire/Flying typing
Decent is massively underselling it. It’s a major staple and a pretty influential Pokémon in the tier.
I'm glad the "the other 5 need to be good" section brought up Pachi -- this is basically the application of the Pachirisu theorem without using quite such a noted example of "why bad/off-meta mons can be made to work"
Reminds me of when I was building a mono Bug team back in gen 7. It wasn't working because I didn't have a reliable counter to both forms of Mega Charizard, but then I found out Crustle filled that very niche and prevented them from sweeping. Then I kept using Crustle and found it actually worked shockingly well to the point where I would start slapping it on any standard team I made. It was barely fast enough to shell smash sweep late game, could stop other sweepers in their tracks in an emergency where my priority attackers wouldn't work thanks to Sturdy, and could even pull of Custap Berry stuff thanks to the same ability to great effect. Weak Armor patched up its poor speed even further but I used Sturdy more for utility. It got even better in gen 8 when Heavy-Duty boots were introduced since it wasn't reliant on a hold item for most of my sets to work, allowing it to always come in with Sturdy intact.
I've seen it compared unfavorably to Carracosta, but I prefer it since it lacks that horrible Water/Rock typing and has better speed in the many scenarios where Aqua Jet wouldn't cut it, plus Bug STAB dropping Tyranitar is very handy. I'm very sad it wasn't brought back in gen 9 and I haven't been able to make another successful mono-bug team without it. I know it's not going to break OU anytime soon but I still really enjoy using it and consider it extremely underrated. But it's not all bad being Untiered. That just means I can slap it on any team in any tier, especially since it doesn't need exceptional teammates to pull its weight. Plus no one ever expects it.
I actually did try this back in gen 8 OU with jellicent. I mainly did it because funny pringles squid. And then I found out that it was actually pretty good.
Turns out when Urshifu rapid is punching thing into oblivion like akuma from street fighter. Having an auxiliary check to it is great……..even though toxapex was by all accounts and purposes better
Anything with an immunity can never be fully irrelevant.
3 resistances if youre water absorb@@maxspecs
its… its a jellyfish
@@worm7064well now I feel like an idiot
Pringles squid? It’s a Jellyfish…
Edit. I see someone beat me to it
understood, i will use regigigas (my favourite mon) in ubers and get laughed at by 1200 elo players
Goddamn Slow Start...
if regigas have better recovery move than rest, imagine stall regigas. spreading thunder wave and toxic everywhere while being bulky
@harebrainedhijinx Try Body slam, fire punch, protext substitute, tera fire, so they cant willo wisp
@harebrainedhijinx its cool that gigas is a good choice there but also i have enough self respect to not play a meta where there's no evasion clause
@@elYIiLyI play alot of doubles and tbh,I've never seen a single person use double team or anything like that.
In high school I was known for taking crappy normal types and ruining lives. My best works were Raticate, Purugly, and Lickilicky
Honestly, I'm not even remotely surprised at this list. All three of these 'mons absolutely have the means to do some nasty damage if given the opportunity, and there's no one that really _wants_ to be eating boosted STAB Returns, Facades, and Explosions!
Personal favourite is Mudsdale in Gen 8.
Ground max for special defence and Stamina for physical defense, plus body press could make it a nuisance to get rid of.
Remember when the title of this video used to be "How to Make Bad Pokemon Work in a Top Tier Environment?"
It was also "why all pokemons can work" at one point
Video starts at 3:10
Well I used Primeape in my Gen 6 OU team consisting Primeape, Empoleon, Mega Aerodactyl, Darmanitan, Diggersby and Cofagrigus and reached the ladder starting from 1000 on Showdown. Choice Scarf Primeape with defiant and ice punch used to get so many surprise KOs on Landorus-Ts that were everywhere. And its u-turns and close combats came in handy too. Sometimes it would get 3-4 KOs ending the match.😊
Moltres also got pretty good apperently in gen 9 xD
Entei is probably my favorite unconventional pokemon to use, it's really interesting cuz u would think it's really easy to wall but it feels like it is very consistently able to force progress thanks to sacred fire being very hard to switch into, Entei also has great bulk and it can stick around for a while to make use of it thanks to boots, and of course u can't forget the amazing utility of extreme speed. From being the worst it feels like today it's keeping up the best compared to it's counterparts, I strongly recommend u try it if you're reading this comment
another 5 years of competitive pokemon discourse 🔥
I really enjoy using honchkrow just because he's cool and I found that it can be a pretty brutal moxie sweeper
I like seeing Pinkacross in these types of videos, you can really tell he knows his stuff!
Time to prove that with my ideal team
(I will never play competitive)
I’m fortunate that my favourite Pokémon is Gardevoir, and her plethora of coverage moves, access to Choice Scarf for 120 base speed and decent 125 special attack makes her a reliable revenge killer. Especially when paired with Ground and Dark allies to cover her Poison and Ghost weaknesses. She loves Excadrill and Hisuian Zoroark, who can safely switch into her checks and threaten them in turn. Choice Scarf is also optional, since she can also use either Choice Specs for wallbreaking potential, Focus Sash to set up a Calm Mind safely, or Assault Vest to make her unkillable to any unboosted special attacker. She is so damn versatile.
Most reasonable Gardevoir fan on the internet 😅
Steel types wooooo woooooOOOOooo
@@MaxiemumKarnage Gardevoir knows Aura Sphere, Focus Blast and Mystical Fire. Unless the Steel-type has the speed to outspeed her or the special defence/HP to survive the first attack, Gardevoir doesn’t need to switch.
I know, right? I had a Gardevoir in Omega Ruby and he did so much work on the team. Just such a reliable and neat Pokemon.
@@megasean3000 Sturdy WOOOO WOOOOOO WOOOOOO
In the 2014 I messed around with mega heracross + support talonflame.
Tons of fun got me some premier events and that was all I wanted from the teams that included that duo
This sounds such a dope duo 🙌
I’m gonna assume your Talonflame had Quick Guard.
@@skeetermania3202 Tailwind, Quick Guard, Will o Wisp and Brave Bird was the set
As someone who was already messing with off meta teams and somewhat thinking of looking into pokemon competitive stuff, this is hella inspiring
Video idea: Weird and unusual battle mechanics for each of the generations.
Gen 5 is just “infinite weather”. That’s the weird/ unusual mechanic
You could also use the example of someone winning a VGC tournament 1st place with Farfetch’d.
I think that one was more of a bench warmer. A better example is that one tournament somebody won with an almost mono-Water team which also had a Seaking.
i wish luxray was so much better than it is, it's my favorite Pokémon of all time, favorite shiny of all time, but it just doesn't work in battle. It needs an alternate form or a mega evolution to help make it a useful Pokémon in battle
Or simply better stats
It needs a custom metagame to allow it to thrive
This video is the epitome of Blunder having a featured mon in a vid and sacking it every damn game but still having a title like “ARBOLIVA TAKES THE AGENCY TO THE TOP (1850+)”
SV OU kilowattrel in rain. Hurricane, thunder, volt switch, weather ball, tera water, boots, volt absorb. Works great with pelipper, the best rain setter in OU. Imagine if Zapdos was a sweeper instead of being bulky. It pummels ground types with weather ball, but it’s not very flexible, it really wants your tera to help deal with electric/flying resists, not bulky at all. But it switches into electric moves aiming at your water types on a rain team perfectly and hits back fast and hard assuming it can be hit by electric or flying. You could probably get some success with pelipper, kilowattrel, barraskewda/floatzel, and some slow bulky pivots like slowbro.
One of my favorite things about how the tier system works, is that it is usage based, so some low tier mons have some great potential
I would love to see Mightyena working, since it's my favorite pokémon. I grew so attached to it when I first played Emerald, and to be honest it is a good mon if you play the game with the physical/special split patch applied.
Now I got to try to make Gardevoir work in the higher tiers as it is one of my favorite psychic Pokémon back in gen 3
Gardevoirite is the way 💯
same
If Gardevoir/Gallade have 105 Speed, they would rank much higher than they are actually.
Making a 85 power, 100% accurate Physical Electric move would be a start.
My chlorophyll tera fire sunflora boutta make goldengo quiver in his boots
In VGC I currently like using Umbreon because there's too much psyspam. The over-reliance on that strategy has lead to a few humorous situation where opponents were left unable to win thanks to Umbreon being able to tank long enough to get them down to just Indeedee lol, plus I use it more as an enabler who's annoying for one of the 2 most used strategies (Other being Arch rain, which I have counters for on other mon)
NEED a way to make Banette work, it's one of my all-time favourites
The Truly Skilled Theorum
I been seeing weirdly success with abamasnow in the current scarlet and violet as my aurora veil setter. It works surprisingly well, and especially so as the weather disrupter I purposely made it to be. I'm genuinely happy I can bring it to the ladder and have fun with it, especially pairing with glimmora so each can help resist the other's weakness
This is such an excellent video for teaching people newer to competitive or even people who want to do challenge runs on how to teambuild
I was actually one of the first people to try out defensive Houndstone in PU because I wanted to make Zangoose work so badly again in PU. It was before the Indigo Disk DLC came out, and I was looking for a spinblocker for my Hazard Stacking Zangoose team that had a good matchup against Morpeko, the most common spinner in PU, doing that was quite the challenge due to Morpeko's dark typing and after days of testing I found out Houndstone not only could take on Morpeko but also that almost NOTHING in the tier could do much against it, he was even good against setup sweepers because of Roar and Will-o-Wisp.
The Houndstone name was Grave Mistake and he pretty much glued the strategy together, after some optimizations it ended up being a surprisingly strong team and best of all, it made Zangoose actually work again in PU.
Great video. I really like to play with the underdogs.
[Karen smiles in the distance]
great Pinkacross guest feature!
"Truly skilled trainers should try to win with the Pokemon they love best. And by being way overleveled." ~ Karen if you didn't walk away before she finished talking.
I love how you just said that you just need to accept the flaws of the Pokemon and not always try to cover them....
For Ledian, one of my personal favorites, I like running it in gen 3 OU. Run it alongside a whole team that just absolutely do not want to touch grass. Swampert, Quagsire, etc.
Since in gen 3 grass type attacks can only be special attacks, and since hidden power grass is a very common coverage option for how popular Swampert is, Ledian's x4 resist to grass and its massive special defense makes it a great defensive pivot. Couple it with screens, and it's very comfy.
I commented this on the Poliwrath video years ago, but here's the perfect video to redo it:
Poliwrath has a genuine use in gen 7 OU, for its defensive use against lots of OU's top threats: Heatran, Ash Greninja, Mega Scizor, Blacephalon, Keldeo, Volcarona, Mega Gyarados, and potentially Mega Zard X and Mega Swampert. With a set or Protect, Scald, Circle Throw, Rock Slide, and a specially defensive spread, it can have genuine use against all of these. It's not Toxapex, but it can hit some of these Pokemon for genuine damage and/or phasing. Give it soem healing support and it'll put in some work.
I still using defensive poliwrath at nat dex, somehow works
Nice to see Pinkacross appear here. You can't beat that mans competence in OU singles.
Perfect timing for this video! I just made a Belly Drum Slowking team earlier this week
Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
I always used Typhlosion in doubles on sun teams. I almost never see anyone use it but now in the current vgc season people are finally using it. Makes me so happy to see it.
TL;DR run 5 actually good Pokémon and then whatever else you want for spice.
The hidden Specs Tyranitar is the most dangerous.
I am totally here for the 'anti-restricted' metagame where you're forced to run one unorthodox 'mon instead of one 'Box-Art Legendary'
@eIchristo Literally nothing is stopping you from bringing funny low tier mons and just staying lower elo on the Smogon ladder. Nothing.
I liked using golduck in anything goes against Uber noobs. That primal groudon gets 1 shot
I've never tried competitive Pokémon but would like to use Krookodile
Krook is good in RU
"anything can work"
So am I supposed to bring sunkern to ubers?
This video is such an allegory for life. You’ll never know if something is good unless you try it out for yourself. If there’s something you love, why not try and make it stand. It may not be the best, but you found out by experimenting and you learned something new. Even if it’s as simple as finding out your favorite pokemon sucks competitively 😂
0:01 STILL waiting for “How Good Was Amoonguss Actually…”
I'll cope Feraligatr into OU. Just you wait.
Dunsparce is probably the most fun I've had trying to make a lower tier mon work in a slightly higher tier. Gen 8 RU had a ton of really great support mons for spreading paralysis and backup flinching like Durant and Cinccinno. The release of Scale Shot made Dunsparce's pitiful speed slightly more usable. Sure, Cinccinno is definitely doing most of the work, but Dunsparce being able to fit 2 separate roles thanks to Glare is pretty cool
Screw those ancient monsters! My team full of robots will crush them!
Go go gadget Flutter Mane spirit bomb!
@@Aaa-vp6ug You are not going to ruin my fantasies with you dumb prehistoric monster
What are you ? Dr Robotnik ?
Anyone who tries to say "Flutter Mane" as an excuse won't crush my dreams
@@danielmaynard239 but a speeding fairy nuke will
Gen 3 is particularly interesting for this sort of thing. Its OU is very well known and shockingly flexible in the sets and styles you can run, so youll occasionally find low tier pokemon filling very specific roles in an OU team.
Videos like this is why I got Goodra H on most of my teams
This reminds me of the fun I had with Flame Orb, Quick Feet, Calm Mind Jolteon. Yeah, they’re better monsters, but I been playing since Blue/Red and Jolteon is a fav.
With Quick Feet, you dont need to be timid and can run a modest set and still outspeed a lot of pokemon. And after one CM, you’re doing some heavy damage. Just get you some heal support and MAYBE a t wave user or webber.
Jolteon is a good Eeveelution but the deletion of hidden power pretty much killed it.
I do appreciate thumbnails of Landorus-Therian getting bodied by lower tiered Pokémon.
Well done on another video, False Swipe Gaming!
As someone that makes Sandslash teams every generation this video hits right at home. I also have a Luxray on a team (my fav electric type).
"I... AM A FLAMING MOLTRES!" -James, an absolute legend
This is what I try to do. I give other mons a chance.
I'm more of a doubles player, but I love to find weird niche reasons to use a pokemon in a way that either no other pokemon could be used, or that for the team that gets built around it it becomes the best option.
Noctowl, for example, has a pretty interesting niche! It is one of the few pokemon with access to tinted lens, and is only one of two pokemon in gen 9 that can give Tinted Lens to an ally. The other one being Venomoth.
Partner it with something that can otherwise hit like a truck, and as a bonus doesn't have an ability that helps it hit like a truck, and that's potentially a lot of mileage out of this one niche.
The Haydunn Theorem
Nice giving Pinkacross a shoutout
In doubles format, I used a rental team with Skuntank/Tropius as the lead. That was really fun
that seismic toss animation is wild
I haven't played competitive in a few years but I really loved doing this a while ago.
I would pick 3 mons I liked and then I would build the rest of the team around them based mostly on the stats and coverage. This way I got to use a lot of mons I might've never tried otherwise and some of them even became favorites of mine.
I'll never forget how mons with Scarf and Moxie on not so optimal teams won me so many matches, lol.
6:47 how to make a good / bad pokemon work?
11:23 the key of general good support to help its weakest link
The goat Pinkacross is here let’s go 🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
My favorite team I’ve ever made was a Gen 7 doubles OU team that used Hydreigon and Bisharp. It required me to play very well to win, but it was insanely fun
Reminds me of a TH-camr from a long while back who would make videos of bad or unexpected Pokémon sweeping, so you would see a video of Magikarp sweeping an entire Uber legendary team for example. However, if you watched even just a few of these, you would quickly realize that every one of these setups relied on a Baton Pass team working under just the right circumstances.
I think I know who that is.
Wow. So much thought was made for the luxray. This is why I enjoy watching competitive battles
Shiftry is my favourite Pokémon ever and despite issues with it in battle, it’s always done me well with 3 distinct examples:
Omega ruby- nasty plot chlorophyll special sweeper with dark pulse solarbeam extrasensory and nasty plot holding a focus sash and pairing with a drought ninetales in the team for long powerful special grass and dark attacks and did well for me despite all the fairies around. It also did great using primal groudon’s sun against it.
Shield- dynamax shiftry with solar blade heat wave knock off and rock slide. With this set I used a life orb and would dynamax shiftry on unsuspecting grass or steel or bug types to get a deadly max flare on them and then use the sun for sunny day speed boosted attacks and when I was back to normal rock slide offered amazing coverage for fire types while knock off and solar blade were huge damage.
Terra fire shiftry- using terra fire alongside knock off leaf blade terra blast and tailwind with its new wind rider ability my scarlet shiftry manages to surprise unassuming players off with deadly coverage and big tailwind support even if it doesn’t get a kill thanks to focus sash and its immunity to prankster (murkrow have been surprised by it a lot early on). Terra fire becomes a physical attack too really rounding off the set nicely and making it hit harder than the dynamax set which had to split its special attack and attack to help make max flare stronger.
My other big example is from shield-
Dubwool cotton guard fluffy body press rest and payback. Payback was just there to hit ghost types but you could run anything there while a chesto berry with rest kept status away a turn healed up and helped make the cotton guard boost stronger. Cotton guard body press with fluffy is a three step deadly physical wall strategy only dubwool can do. If it was in scarlet and Violet I would be using this constantly to shut down say, urshifu or zamazenta who can barely touch it even with super effective attacks
I've only ever used favorite pokemon... So learning anything at all to make them viable is very appreciated.
Perhaps the next theorem video could be why move sets (like mix attacking, fast physical, bulky special, etc) are close to everything or the Dragonite theorem
Imagine hypothetically gamefreak gave Luxray a Mega that's Electric/Ice and buffed it's speed and offense, with maube a minor defensive buff for the snow defense boost
All as a reference to that Luxray that made everyone cry in the anime
I made a gen 8 OU team with Drampa.
TR Drampa.
Since there is a lot of ghost spam, he is quite useful. Drampa came in as an answer to Spectrier, but stayed after his ban because he turned out to be more useful than he seems.
Even today it remains a useful team.
All i do is play with mons i like. I may never get high on the ladder, i can throw together a more meta team if i want, but its also fun to put together things and try to make them work. Then there's just playing with friends and its fun having records against eachother and having a "no team changes til you beat it" kinda thing going on. Thats the beauty of the game and comp in general, yeah you have to come to twrms with loving the game itself over only playing your favorites if you want real success, but you dont have to. Or only playing singles or doubles, its all good.
My fav pokemon is Slowbro and I love seeing him grow in popularity AT LEAST once every 2 years with something either broken, or completely stupid. Remember block/heal pulse/slack off/recycle slowbro?
I used SD Cacturne in gen 7 UU to deal with suicune and fell in love with it eversince
Lets see you guys make Gumshoo's work!
I used one of pinkacross team to get top 25 on ladder. The dude is goated
This is why I like watching Haydunn’s videos, his teams are always anti meta
I remember sweeping some people in the lower tiers (UU iirc) with Moxie Mightyena back in the ORAS days. It didn’t always work, but it was fun when it did.
"Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites... Doesn't mean you can't use some good stuff too, you have 6 team slots, don't you?"
-Good advice