It's absolutely crazy to me how they created a pokemon with one of, if not THE most uniquely contradictory typing of all time, featuring an incredibly robust and unique defensive profile and an offensive profile only specialized dragon types could hope to stave off, AND gave it an amped version of Scald (a move which was maybe the most meta defining water type attack) and I just.. never saw anyone use it.
Well Normal/Ghost exists as a very contradictory type and Hisuian Zoroark exists. But still, Volcanion is a very good Pokémon with the Fire/Water typing
By that metric, having a squad of pidgeys pushing air or a squad of squirtles shooting water at a turbine would work the same for production of electricity.
Indeed. In fact, it's well-believed that the locked power plant door in Kalos is where Volcanion was supposed to be encountered, but it and the other Kalos legendaries were scrapped due to a lack of development time.
You could also accomplish that by snagging the nearest fish Pokemon, having them use Hydro Pump, and then having your local Fire Type use Flamethrower. Volcanion does it all in one, but Volcanion is also way bigger than Simisear and Simipour combined, and probably consumes 3 - 4x the amount of food. Plus, it's a lot harder to put down a Volcanion slave rebellion when it gets tired of being the town's energy source. Those defensive stats mean you have to have some serious firepower to put down the uprising.
Fire is a ridiculously underrated defensive typing hampered by Rocks and Earthquake. Heatran is a no-brainer 5-quad-resistant mon but is infamous for being quad weak to Ground and Volcanion here has 3 quad resistances too.
Fire has some nice uses especially when paired with other types but Stealth Rocks are extremely common and Ground is frequently distributed / used coverage so it's a little rough
It’s the second largest resisted type, resisting six. I do agree that it’s underrated and I heard a few say it’s terrible defensively which I disagree with for those reasons.
@@IgnitedQuils Remove Stealth Rock entirely and people probably would stop calling fire a bad defensive typing. Fire doesn't work all that well as a defensive typing with Stealth Rock all over the place unless the pokemon is very defensive/built to last.
Looking back on it, gen six released a lot of really unique defensive mons. Volcanion, Chesnaught, Dragalge, Diancie, Mega Venusaur, Delphox; all of these mons have really unique(and really cool imo) defensive profiles!
@@e-duh3529 Volcanion has a lot of great defensive traits + stronger scald, Delphox has had many defensively-based niches over the years with wish + protect(mostly to check its offensive counterparts), and Grass + Thick Fat makes my brain very happy
@@ubermaster1Exactly. They should have reduced scald’s distribution and limited it to some of the weaker water mons to help them find some use rather than just made it a useless move.
@@gillfreddie4100 the problem with that is that happened to most Legendaries and mythicals. The anime always highlights those mons and ends up giving more back story and lore
Fire/Water is honestly one of the most unique types I’ve seen, weak to only Rock/Ground/Electric which it can counter thanks to part Water and access to Earth Power, pretty good amount of resistances and adapt to both Sun and Rain teams, and now the only Pokémon with access to Scald. Guess that’s what happens when Toxapex abuses the move.
@@gabrielclamens3151 Volcanion is confirmed to appear in Gen 9’s Pokemon Home compatibility… whenever that comes out after they unannounced it’s announcement 2 days ago.
SR weakness means it has to either hold HDB, giving up speed or power, or have very limited switch-in opportunities. Also its low speed tier that puts it below Tusk can be a huge drawback, specially with so many OU threats around hitting it for neutral or SE damage (Gho, Pult, Moon...) x4 resistances to Fire and Ice are interesting tho
@@J242D id say terra ground would be great considering relieleki will be back as well, being a counter to walking wake in a way too. Water absorb stops it from getting hit by water moves anyway and ice and grass moves arent as common
As someone who has casually followed competitive, this and a few other videos have me really thinking about Hidden Power. Never understood it playing the single player games, but it keeps showing up as coverage until it just got removed from the game. Would love a hidden power vid
Golden rule in pokemon, at least in singles - coverage is everything! Many HP users in the past have had very poor coverage, and relied on HP to have a serviceable attacking profile. There is also the fact that HP can be carried to counter a very specific problem pokemon, of course. I think HP ice is the usual pick for that, since ice is such a good attacking type.
Hidden power basically lets pokemon attack something that it has no way to otherwise do damage to. If both of your STAB moves are resisted by a pokemon, you can get a hidden power that's super effective against it, basically letting you threaten it when you otherwise couldn't. For example, electric types often used hidden power ice because that allowed them to deal massive damage to ground and dragon types that would otherwise shrug them off. A lot of grass type pokemon used hidden power fire to hit steel types, especially when their secondary typing was something like poison or bug. Hidden power grass is a pretty popular one just because of the sheer amount of pokemon that otherwise can't do anything to defensive walls like Gastrodon, Swampert, or Quagsire (the ground/water type is seriously so annoying to deal with otherwise). Basically, hidden power is good for allowing you to hit a pokemon super effectively that you otherwise couldn't deal meaningful damage to, or a way to hit specific threats with x4 damage that you otherwise match up poorly against. Pokemon with a ton of coverage already don't need it, because its a pretty weak move outside of these circumstances, but its basically a lifesaver for pokemon without good coverage or with massive holes in its offensive ability.
Hidden Power is terrible for a few reasons. It provides coverage to Mons who wouldn't have it without it which bypasses the idea of movepools, only helps special attackers in gens 4-7, and in gens 2-3 it copes for the horrendously specially biased moves in the game (physical movepools are atrocious) Special attackers already have it good enough considering there's no special Intimidate, Rocky Helmet/Rough Skin, burn, and contact abilities. They can boohoo all day about Chansey and Blissey but they still get Focus Blast and sometimes Trick to at least chunk her or to cripple her. Most physical attackers are lucky if they get Fire Punch to not hurt Skarmory It also invalidates the Ice type almost entirely because why bother with a weak type that desperately needs a buff when you can instead just carry HP Ice on your Mons? Ice Beam as coverage on Water Mons is fine thematically and I don't think it hurts Ice types nearly as much as HP Ice does. Zapdos shouldn't be the #1 Dragon answer because it can click HP Ice and bypass part of the game's design
A very underrated set for Volcanion back in the day was choice band. I used it to great success because everybody automatically assumed it would be specs or scarf and then I slammed their Chansey/Celesteela with a flare blitz. Seeing all those “WTF”s and “???”s after was fantastic.
Specs still beats Celesteela though, that isn’t exclusive to band. All it does it beat Chansey, and other than that it’s just worse. Maybe use it in a draft league or something if you know the opponent has Chansey, but any other situation and it’s bad.
@@AshenDust_ that was two specific examples, you can replace them with any special walls and it’s the same thing. Besides that, Celesteela can switch in against two of the most common coverage moves, Earth Power and Sludge Wave, for completely free, and doesn’t take anywhere close to half damage from Steam Eruption if it’s got max sp. def. EVs, which almost all do, and can then protect for leftovers + leech seed enough to stall. It’s even worse if it has substitute. Flare Blitz is a stone-cold OHKO and Liquidation is always a 2HKO with rocks.
Volcanion is low-key one of my favorite mythicals. It's design is cool and it's the only pokemon to have the fire/water type combo. It's interesting how Volcanion is the only one of the Kalos mythicals to not have a form change and still be viable. Diancie has its mega form and Hoopa has its unbound form.
scald was a OP move. chilling water was a bad replacement though. Maybe burn along with its damage nerf should have gotten a status nerf much like paralysis to remain in competitive.
Volcanion is so underrated honestly, a Fire Water Type is hard to come by, I think they are still the only Fire Water Type even with Gen 9's release. Plus they even had their own movie with Magearna
There was a beta starter with fire/starter. That said and include one extra fact. GF said before the realese of Gen9 they will be using more fanmade ideas poltegheist as in example was one of them (ages old thread from some fossilold forum presented this pokemon) And its not a hiddenfact that some old ideas just return. Pokemon 1 to 3 was always limited in source and money do whatever we get in future there is a chance those mons are either fan ideas or old idea that got never got to see daylight
@@Raidraptor_-_Ultimate_Falcon bro poor due he's probably writing on a computer. they don't have autocorrect (if they are on a phone they most definitely don't have it on) and their grammar isn't even bad
I always forget that this thing exists, it just makes me want a Fire/Water deepsea worm honestly. Typings don’t feel “used” to me until a non-Mythical gets it.
I'm really sad its stuck being a mythical, it'd be really cool to see what it could do in vgc, although with the current powercreep gis role would probably be on the smaller side
If a stat is over 100, its pretty good, if a stat is over 120, its insanely good and if a stat is under 50, its really bad, unless its speed or either attack or special attack
I'm surprised bulky AV wasn't used more/showcased (at least before boots), seems like a pretty threatening all around tank with max hp + sp atk. This thing also dominated the TCG when it was released, and it was during a pretty cool era where dual types actually existed sporadically so it got to showcase its signature typing and hit more things for weakness (although it honestly didn't even need to with its ability).
From the Director that brought you “La La Landorus”, and “Fury Ferrothorn”; and the Producers that brought you “How GREAT was Excadrill and Skysrmory” Falseswipe gaming brings you a two hour movie premiere of “Heatran Inferno / How GREAT was Heatran ACTUALLY?!” *I wait*
I find if so funny that my best use for volcanion was that one tier where you could swap one stat for another on a pokemon and i swapped volcanions attack and speed, it’s actually hilarious how scary volcanion is when it’s blitzing enemies with 110 base speed when it’s traditionally such a slow attacker (also got use out of regieleki with sp atk and speed swapped, way slower but it absolutely nuked anything not immune to electric it was terrifying)
Fun fact: the tcg set that introduced Volcanion, XY Steam Siege, had it's first day of legal play on the same day as day 1 of world's. This is the first time this happened, and it became a standard in the tcg going forward. Volcanion was a main stay in the tcg diring this meta, too
With scald now Volcanions exclusive, it will be interesting to see how well it does when it returns (obviously it will use steam eruption, but it will be more of a unique niche now)
@@SonBlackHeart22 having a move w/ wide distribution, fantastic offensive typing, and a 30 percent chance to shut down any physical attacker was dumb af anyway. i will never mourn its loss. and you can say that about any move practically... its like saying poor water pulse, or poor shock wave.
@@SonBlackHeart22 I can´t really see steam eruption as scald though, scald provided chip-damage and burn as a way to slow down or potentially neutralizing physical threats that you can´t kill directly. Steam eruption´s burn is not really that noticeable as a "physical shield" due to it´s higher BP and guaranteed stab, meaning anything that doesn´t resist it won´t have many chances to attack anyway
Always a welcome addition, especially considering a look into its Gen 6 mythical ilk that may come soon, & could make a nice mascot for a hot spring place
To the editor: At 9:15, during the Gen 7 segment, you have the OU and UU set cards swapped during the entire segment. This also applies to the start of the Gen 8 segment.
now this'll be interesting! Will the lukewarm pokemon live up to it's name, be hotter than we expected or freeze when given a shot at the competitive scene? Can't wait to find out...
Well, let's just say that it didn't just spit hot fire...but it also extinguished into a fine mist when it graced the competive scenes of Kalos all the way to Galar...and soon it will do so once more come it's inclusion to Paldea.
Volcanion is the kind of Pokemon that has a nice design, has a incredibly cool typing and a powerful signature move, got it's own movie to boot, and is a sleeper threat in OU. Yet somehow people forget it exists. Something about him does not make people remember him.
@@ultimapower6950How would we nerf speed though, how would you lessen the effect of moving first? Lowering all damage dealing moves and increasing all HP and defenses? Moving first matters less if you'll survive 5-10 hits anyway.
Water/Fire is cool by virtue of having two of the starter types, like with Water/Grass. I'm not sure if we have a Fire/Grass type Pokemon as of Gen 9, but it would be cool if there was one.
I used to not like Volcanion’s design, but as I got older it just clicked for me. This mon seems to have a running theme of slowly boiling beneath people’s view, before exploding and making a big splash once people actually recognize what they’re looking at. On an unrelated note, it’d be cool to see a video like this for Diancie, who is one of my favorite Pokémon!
I used to play with Quick Claw Volcanion and that thing was a menace. It would constantly move first and annihilate anything in it's way. I love that thing.❤
@@baldrian22 people have rarely used both scald and steam eruption on the same set. The main reason being concerns about running out of pp because of corvid’s pressure vs stall you still want a water stab. It’s not exactly a common thing to run but it is a consideration especially considering the 4th moveslot on volcanion doesn’t necessarily have many other things you’d rather run especially on vest sets.
*Simipour has entered the chat* 🥹. But seriously no good mons learn it now, cause those are the only 2 mons by level up unless they add it as egg moves for some mons for mirror herb passing
Volcanion was allowed in VGC for a little in Gen 8 when they legalized mythicals. I didn't pay much attention during that ruleset, so i am curious how much play it saw then with all the other mythicals and restricted legendaries allowed at that time.
Volcanion's definitely in that category of Pokemon where its usability is COMPLETELY meta-dependant. It's good enough to hang in OU, when it's needed, but not quite good enough to make it there on its own accord.
I think giving scald exclusively to just this mon was such a weird decision, when it already has a more powerful version. I think some dragons like kingdra, dragalge, and walking wake should still have access to it.
It'll come to Gen 9 when Home connectivity happens, and it'll be really good in OU. It will have the only water moves that can burn (still Steam Eruption and it's now the only mon with Scald though no-one will use that because of the former), and that quad-steel resistance will make it feast on Gholdengo. And Heavy Duty Boots still exist, and it will do to Kingambit what it did to Bisharp before. Other common mons it will do well against include Iron Valiant, Corv again, Iron Moth, and Volcerona, easily switching into their attacks and one of its stab will hurt them all a lot.
Bro Series 13 in swsh was so fun cause they finally allowed us to use mythicals. I used Volcanion on a sun and rain team, so damn fun only time i can ever use it lol
Volcanion is one of those mons that grew on me from an interesting type gimmick to an all round star. Another thing that helped it's rise in gen 8 to ou was the banning of kyurem imo, suddenly there was a niche for bulky offensive special attacker with coverage, and volcanion fitted the hole left by kyurem on balance/bulky offence perfectly.
Volcanion is such a cool and unique Pokémon. I can’t wait to see how the only recipient of Scald will fair in Gen 9 when Pokémon Home releases in “Early 2023”
I think there is an editing error. The UU Moveset and Items for Gen 7 appear when your talking about it’s OU presences, and vice-versa. Aside from that amazing video as always. Edit: got further into the vid and the same thing happened again for Gen 8.
Ah yes, the Mythical whose existence I forget about the most frequently, alongside Zarude Fingers crossed the Fire/Water combo will be used again on a regular Pokemon, because it's damn irritating when the only instance of a certain dual-type combo is on a Mythical, and I'd even be so bold to say that, at least for my personal book, they do not count when that's the case Meaning as far as I'm concerned, Fire/Water still hasn't happened yet
Exactly. The issue I have with these new mythicals is that they really don't have anything that seriously stands them out from your other average pokemon. When you think of mythical pokemon you think of extraordinary yet obscure beings with unique powers and abilities that many doubt their existence, as if they're... y'know MYTHS. Like a creature that's pretty much an adam and eve, able to learn every technique in the book. A being that's able to time travel or grant you wishes. A being that's said to grant eternal victorious or a rumored 4th member of a long established and well known group of heroes. A fucking Boogeyman or literal GOD. Y'know, unique attributes to mythologize about. Now you have someone like Zeraora, whom does NONE of this whatsoever, there's nothing to mythologize about nor has anything that sets it apart from any other electric type. Not to say that they're always a stinker, like Hoopa as a pokemon with unique extraordinary powers and abilities, he does that mythologize role pretty well imo. But overall it's so fucking lame nowadays.
Picture this: Volcanion, Scovillain, and Lombre in a Triple Battle. ALL of them know BOTH versions of the elemental fusion moves that they can learn, as well as the Hidden Power of the only type that isn't them. Their 4th move is a team-wide buff.
Question why did no one use assault vest from the looks of it the most used moveset of gen 6 didn't use any status moves so it could of been really bulky on both sides
This was a cool pokemon with a lot of unique characteristics and drawbacks, really well designed competitively. I’m impressed Pokémon created an offensive water stab Pokémon that didn’t just blow through the meta. Now walking wake on the other hand…what if volcanion lost all its ground and electric weaknesses and was the fastest thing alive?
Tera Fairy Skeledirge can be a decent check to Walking Wake, but yeah I can agree that WW is just a little too overtuned. Hopefully some more stats come out against it
I would swap it's HP and Attack and swap its Sp.Def and speed, mostly fixing its speed problem, and cementing it as a physically bulky special attacker that's kinda weak to special attacks. Not sure if that would permanently make it OU but would solve a lot of its weaknesses while making sure it still has one.
Had a thought for a video: Bottom 10 Legendary Pokemon. A lot of casual players are against using legendaries in any capacity, certainly when two players fight each other, but not all legendaries are created equal. It would be interesting to see a thoughtful list of the ten (ish?) legendary Pokemon with the worst showings in competitive history. Regice, Articuno, Type:Null, Takin' the Bus Calyrex--
Seems like a great check for steel types, if nothing else. Bait the steel, switch in Volc with a scarf, then your opponent's situation is lose-lose. The fact that it's two most obvious checks are Electric and Ground are kind of perfect - just pair it with a Gliscor!
would love to see Kommo-o sometime (maybe if it comes back in the dlc or in the next gen). It's z move is absolutely broken and i wonder how much worse it got from the removal of those.
I always liked running Assault Vest or Expert Belt especially in doubles. It always caught people offguard who thought it would either die or have it not be an OHKO.
Ah i’m surprised there wasn’t any info when Volcanion was allowed near the end of the sw/sg rank series. Would be interesting to see how it handled the vgc rule set
What if they give him swift swim? The ability to switch in on those normally nuclear hydro pumps and etc is pretty awesome. But, that last video about the importance of speed could see him become a BEAST in VGC with swift swim/rain pokemon like politoed
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Rock Relicanth Head Smash vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Volcanion: 712-840 (236.5 - 279%) -- guaranteed OHKO Time for a real legendary FSG! Volcanion can't even hold a candelabra to Relicanth
I think that Volcanion and Magearna should’ve swapped debut generations (Volcanion should’ve been in Alola and Magearna should’ve been in Kalos) because they would’ve fit the environments more
It's absolutely crazy to me how they created a pokemon with one of, if not THE most uniquely contradictory typing of all time, featuring an incredibly robust and unique defensive profile and an offensive profile only specialized dragon types could hope to stave off, AND gave it an amped version of Scald (a move which was maybe the most meta defining water type attack) and I just.. never saw anyone use it.
Well Normal/Ghost exists as a very contradictory type and Hisuian Zoroark exists. But still, Volcanion is a very good Pokémon with the Fire/Water typing
It is one of the best Wallbreaker in Gen 8 OU after the ban of kyurem
@@IgnitedQuils yeah but that's THIS Gen Volcanion was several ago
Well, it's a fricking mythical, and not everyone has those
@@danielmaynard239 doesn't matter in competitive
THIS mon should've been the one to get a Water move that gets boosted in harsh sunlight, seriously
True
Would be cool if they gave it to him in the next update.
Maybe he’ll get hydro steam someday
One of the best pokemon to have for like. A town, or a city.
It'd be basically free power, or at least REALLY good hot springs for tourists.
By that metric, having a squad of pidgeys pushing air or a squad of squirtles shooting water at a turbine would work the same for production of electricity.
Indeed. In fact, it's well-believed that the locked power plant door in Kalos is where Volcanion was supposed to be encountered, but it and the other Kalos legendaries were scrapped due to a lack of development time.
You could also accomplish that by snagging the nearest fish Pokemon, having them use Hydro Pump, and then having your local Fire Type use Flamethrower. Volcanion does it all in one, but Volcanion is also way bigger than Simisear and Simipour combined, and probably consumes 3 - 4x the amount of food. Plus, it's a lot harder to put down a Volcanion slave rebellion when it gets tired of being the town's energy source. Those defensive stats mean you have to have some serious firepower to put down the uprising.
It’s also worth mentioning that hail in Gen 8 was another major reason as to why Volcanion rose to OU, as it was an excellent partner for Arctozolt.
the fact that it was ever not ou in gen 8 is also just an incredible mystery of its own
Fire is a ridiculously underrated defensive typing hampered by Rocks and Earthquake. Heatran is a no-brainer 5-quad-resistant mon but is infamous for being quad weak to Ground and Volcanion here has 3 quad resistances too.
Fire has some nice uses especially when paired with other types but Stealth Rocks are extremely common and Ground is frequently distributed / used coverage so it's a little rough
Fire type would be such a strong type if stealth rocks weren't a thing and Grounds and Waters weren't so strong.
It’s the second largest resisted type, resisting six. I do agree that it’s underrated and I heard a few say it’s terrible defensively which I disagree with for those reasons.
@@IgnitedQuils Remove Stealth Rock entirely and people probably would stop calling fire a bad defensive typing.
Fire doesn't work all that well as a defensive typing with Stealth Rock all over the place unless the pokemon is very defensive/built to last.
@@IgnitedQuils It's not terrible but it's not good. It gives you a weakness to 2 of the best types in the game and stealth rocks.
Looking back on it, gen six released a lot of really unique defensive mons. Volcanion, Chesnaught, Dragalge, Diancie, Mega Venusaur, Delphox; all of these mons have really unique(and really cool imo) defensive profiles!
Mega venusaur not venusaur.
Venu was mostly used as a bulky attacker, Delphox is a sweeper and Volcanion is most definitely not defensive
Avalugg too, but it failed because ice type and 44spdef
@@e-duh3529 Volcanion has a lot of great defensive traits + stronger scald, Delphox has had many defensively-based niches over the years with wish + protect(mostly to check its offensive counterparts), and Grass + Thick Fat makes my brain very happy
@@lucapon3287 The coffee table couldn’t hold its own in competitive 😔
As The Aura Guardian said once:
"Volcanion is pretty cool... maybe for the typing."
And not so cool since is the only mon that can use Scald now...
@@SonBlackHeart22 which will forever make no sense cause it already has “Scald, but stronger”
Game Freak forever making weird decisions
I don't remember that video...can I have its title, please?
@@ubermaster1Exactly. They should have reduced scald’s distribution and limited it to some of the weaker water mons to help them find some use rather than just made it a useless move.
@@ubermaster1 5% extra accuracy on scald
I really want a zygarde video now. One of my personal favorite legendaries that deserved its own featured game but never got one.
I hope Kalos remake is the Pokemon Z we have been waiting for.
I hope they take time on it and hopefully it gets put into gen 9 by the time the video comes out
I think zygarde already got its special featured treatment by taking a major role in the anime
@@gillfreddie4100 the problem with that is that happened to most Legendaries and mythicals.
The anime always highlights those mons and ends up giving more back story and lore
Zygarde will have an interesting history considering its Gen 7-8 history and one of the best attacking moves in history.
Fire/Water is honestly one of the most unique types I’ve seen, weak to only Rock/Ground/Electric which it can counter thanks to part Water and access to Earth Power, pretty good amount of resistances and adapt to both Sun and Rain teams, and now the only Pokémon with access to Scald.
Guess that’s what happens when Toxapex abuses the move.
I hope Volcanion shows up in gen 9, that way he can dea with Walking wade !
@@gabrielclamens3151 Volcanion is confirmed to appear in Gen 9’s Pokemon Home compatibility… whenever that comes out after they unannounced it’s announcement 2 days ago.
@@gabrielclamens3151tera fairy volcanion to wall it would go crazy
SR weakness means it has to either hold HDB, giving up speed or power, or have very limited switch-in opportunities. Also its low speed tier that puts it below Tusk can be a huge drawback, specially with so many OU threats around hitting it for neutral or SE damage (Gho, Pult, Moon...) x4 resistances to Fire and Ice are interesting tho
@@J242D id say terra ground would be great considering relieleki will be back as well, being a counter to walking wake in a way too. Water absorb stops it from getting hit by water moves anyway and ice and grass moves arent as common
As someone who has casually followed competitive, this and a few other videos have me really thinking about Hidden Power. Never understood it playing the single player games, but it keeps showing up as coverage until it just got removed from the game. Would love a hidden power vid
Golden rule in pokemon, at least in singles - coverage is everything! Many HP users in the past have had very poor coverage, and relied on HP to have a serviceable attacking profile.
There is also the fact that HP can be carried to counter a very specific problem pokemon, of course. I think HP ice is the usual pick for that, since ice is such a good attacking type.
Hidden power basically lets pokemon attack something that it has no way to otherwise do damage to. If both of your STAB moves are resisted by a pokemon, you can get a hidden power that's super effective against it, basically letting you threaten it when you otherwise couldn't.
For example, electric types often used hidden power ice because that allowed them to deal massive damage to ground and dragon types that would otherwise shrug them off. A lot of grass type pokemon used hidden power fire to hit steel types, especially when their secondary typing was something like poison or bug. Hidden power grass is a pretty popular one just because of the sheer amount of pokemon that otherwise can't do anything to defensive walls like Gastrodon, Swampert, or Quagsire (the ground/water type is seriously so annoying to deal with otherwise).
Basically, hidden power is good for allowing you to hit a pokemon super effectively that you otherwise couldn't deal meaningful damage to, or a way to hit specific threats with x4 damage that you otherwise match up poorly against. Pokemon with a ton of coverage already don't need it, because its a pretty weak move outside of these circumstances, but its basically a lifesaver for pokemon without good coverage or with massive holes in its offensive ability.
Hidden Power is terrible for a few reasons. It provides coverage to Mons who wouldn't have it without it which bypasses the idea of movepools, only helps special attackers in gens 4-7, and in gens 2-3 it copes for the horrendously specially biased moves in the game (physical movepools are atrocious)
Special attackers already have it good enough considering there's no special Intimidate, Rocky Helmet/Rough Skin, burn, and contact abilities. They can boohoo all day about Chansey and Blissey but they still get Focus Blast and sometimes Trick to at least chunk her or to cripple her. Most physical attackers are lucky if they get Fire Punch to not hurt Skarmory
It also invalidates the Ice type almost entirely because why bother with a weak type that desperately needs a buff when you can instead just carry HP Ice on your Mons? Ice Beam as coverage on Water Mons is fine thematically and I don't think it hurts Ice types nearly as much as HP Ice does. Zapdos shouldn't be the #1 Dragon answer because it can click HP Ice and bypass part of the game's design
BKC has a video on it + he writes the scripts for this channel
@@skyshoesmith6098 unless you’re Spectrier
We need a Water/Fire pokemon that isn't a legendary, I want to use that combo so badly.
Yeah , in the gold and silver beta demo there was this non legendary fire water type seal that shot meteors , if only😢
@@luawidiI love the sprite, balancing a lil meteorite on its nose
@@luawidi oh hey there’s a cool showdown mod that adds that Mon, along with attempting to bring back other cut beta mons
@@luawidia meteorite seal mythic or legendary would be amazing having a seal swimming around the cracks of the seabed near the lava
Like Primarina?
A very underrated set for Volcanion back in the day was choice band. I used it to great success because everybody automatically assumed it would be specs or scarf and then I slammed their Chansey/Celesteela with a flare blitz. Seeing all those “WTF”s and “???”s after was fantastic.
Specs still beats Celesteela though, that isn’t exclusive to band. All it does it beat Chansey, and other than that it’s just worse. Maybe use it in a draft league or something if you know the opponent has Chansey, but any other situation and it’s bad.
@@AshenDust_ it's the surprise factor that matters
@@obiwancannoli1920 but what advantage is the surprise if it plays exactly the same, just worse and can beat Chansey?
@@AshenDust_ that was two specific examples, you can replace them with any special walls and it’s the same thing. Besides that, Celesteela can switch in against two of the most common coverage moves, Earth Power and Sludge Wave, for completely free, and doesn’t take anywhere close to half damage from Steam Eruption if it’s got max sp. def. EVs, which almost all do, and can then protect for leftovers + leech seed enough to stall. It’s even worse if it has substitute. Flare Blitz is a stone-cold OHKO and Liquidation is always a 2HKO with rocks.
@@AshenDust_ it's good against special walls (Clodsire, Chansey,...). Unprepared defensive teams can get completely swept by cb volcanion
One of the most interesting mythicals, I like it's Design and typing
As a masculine guy, I am 100% confident in saying that Diancie is my favorite mythical.
Unfortunately, its shiny is horrendous.
@@Moakmeister I saw it, it's Thanos
His typing is what makes people care about him for the most part ngl
@@rios5944 I like Mew, Celebi, Jirachi and Shaymin
The Ban of Kyurem (Regular Kyurem) also was a huge factor on Volcanion becoming OU viable in Gen 8.
Volcanion is low-key one of my favorite mythicals. It's design is cool and it's the only pokemon to have the fire/water type combo. It's interesting how Volcanion is the only one of the Kalos mythicals to not have a form change and still be viable. Diancie has its mega form and Hoopa has its unbound form.
The only remaining recipient of scald. You will be missed, amazing move
That move was way too good
That move was so unhealthy for the metagames it was in, glad it’s gone
I'm glad that move got limited smh, Actually allows Phys attackers to switch in on bulky waters
@@Squirtle_Squad_Supremacy Idk they could of nerfed is damage and burned chance instead of limiting it to one pokemon now. 😮💨
scald was a OP move. chilling water was a bad replacement though. Maybe burn along with its damage nerf should have gotten a status nerf much like paralysis to remain in competitive.
Volcanion is so underrated honestly, a Fire Water Type is hard to come by, I think they are still the only Fire Water Type even with Gen 9's release. Plus they even had their own movie with Magearna
There was a beta starter with fire/starter.
That said and include one extra fact. GF said before the realese of Gen9 they will be using more fanmade ideas poltegheist as in example was one of them
(ages old thread from some fossilold forum presented this pokemon)
And its not a hiddenfact that some old ideas just return. Pokemon 1 to 3 was always limited in source and money do whatever we get in future there is a chance those mons are either fan ideas or old idea that got never got to see daylight
@@ItsJustKaya Kaya, I beg you to PLEASE make this not look like my grandpa typed this out.
@@Raidraptor_-_Ultimate_Falcon bro poor due he's probably writing on a computer. they don't have autocorrect (if they are on a phone they most definitely don't have it on) and their grammar isn't even bad
@@beibkk0 The issue is the awful spacing.
@@beibkk0 It’s the spacing that is the issue.
I always forget that this thing exists, it just makes me want a Fire/Water deepsea worm honestly.
Typings don’t feel “used” to me until a non-Mythical gets it.
Like Annihilape for example
I couldn't agree more with that last statement
If you could, I think a video covering the tapus would be pretty cool. You could see the difference in how competitively viable each one was
I remember cloning Volcanion a ton in 2014, as well as Diancie.
Good memories
Do you have some clones left for trade?
@@enoyna1001 Nope, not anymore. I have a single Volcanion on my UltraSun
I'm really sad its stuck being a mythical, it'd be really cool to see what it could do in vgc, although with the current powercreep gis role would probably be on the smaller side
Not even in the VGC mythical format at the end of Gen 8.
Thanks to the recent videos, I've been trained to realize when a Pokemon is good by looking at its speed and typing.
If a stat is over 100, its pretty good, if a stat is over 120, its insanely good and if a stat is under 50, its really bad, unless its speed or either attack or special attack
I'm surprised bulky AV wasn't used more/showcased (at least before boots), seems like a pretty threatening all around tank with max hp + sp atk.
This thing also dominated the TCG when it was released, and it was during a pretty cool era where dual types actually existed sporadically so it got to showcase its signature typing and hit more things for weakness (although it honestly didn't even need to with its ability).
Who knew a water/fire type could make such a Steamy Impression on OU 🥵
From the Director that brought you “La La Landorus”, and “Fury Ferrothorn”; and the Producers that brought you “How GREAT was Excadrill and Skysrmory” Falseswipe gaming brings you a two hour movie premiere of “Heatran Inferno / How GREAT was Heatran ACTUALLY?!”
*I wait*
Spelling
I find if so funny that my best use for volcanion was that one tier where you could swap one stat for another on a pokemon and i swapped volcanions attack and speed, it’s actually hilarious how scary volcanion is when it’s blitzing enemies with 110 base speed when it’s traditionally such a slow attacker (also got use out of regieleki with sp atk and speed swapped, way slower but it absolutely nuked anything not immune to electric it was terrifying)
Fun fact: the tcg set that introduced Volcanion, XY Steam Siege, had it's first day of legal play on the same day as day 1 of world's. This is the first time this happened, and it became a standard in the tcg going forward.
Volcanion was a main stay in the tcg diring this meta, too
I fell in love with Volcanion’s design since day 1
Same, Volcanion could use more steam in it's design but I love it overall
With scald now Volcanions exclusive, it will be interesting to see how well it does when it returns (obviously it will use steam eruption, but it will be more of a unique niche now)
Yeah but poor scald now is stuck on one mon that rarely if ever is gonna use the move in competitive.
@@SonBlackHeart22 having a move w/ wide distribution, fantastic offensive typing, and a 30 percent chance to shut down any physical attacker was dumb af anyway.
i will never mourn its loss.
and you can say that about any move practically... its like saying poor water pulse, or poor shock wave.
@@starsimvidz pursuit was the biggest move loss still anyways
@@SonBlackHeart22 I can´t really see steam eruption as scald though, scald provided chip-damage and burn as a way to slow down or potentially neutralizing physical threats that you can´t kill directly. Steam eruption´s burn is not really that noticeable as a "physical shield" due to it´s higher BP and guaranteed stab, meaning anything that doesn´t resist it won´t have many chances to attack anyway
Simipour: am i nonexustent to you😭😂
Always a welcome addition, especially considering a look into its Gen 6 mythical ilk that may come soon, & could make a nice mascot for a hot spring place
One of my top 10 pokemon designs. They had no reason to make it so cool but they did it anyway. At least he does better than most pokemon
To the editor: At 9:15, during the Gen 7 segment, you have the OU and UU set cards swapped during the entire segment. This also applies to the start of the Gen 8 segment.
now this'll be interesting! Will the lukewarm pokemon live up to it's name, be hotter than we expected or freeze when given a shot at the competitive scene? Can't wait to find out...
Well, let's just say that it didn't just spit hot fire...but it also extinguished into a fine mist when it graced the competive scenes of Kalos all the way to Galar...and soon it will do so once more come it's inclusion to Paldea.
Volcanion is the kind of Pokemon that has a nice design, has a incredibly cool typing and a powerful signature move, got it's own movie to boot, and is a sleeper threat in OU.
Yet somehow people forget it exists. Something about him does not make people remember him.
It’s a mythical, you get it as a promotional thing and then it rots in the box. If you can even make it to the event
Volcanion always seemed to grow on people over time
I think the removal of Scald really helped show off it’s uniqueness
Imagine if it's attack and speed stats were swapped
Now that would be ban worthy.
Yeah, just like the last video, it goes to show you how important speed is.
Tbh, I'd even take a swap in special defense and attack. Or that and HP.
I have a better idea we should nerf the speed stat In general so that’s it’s less important
@@ultimapower6950How would we nerf speed though, how would you lessen the effect of moving first? Lowering all damage dealing moves and increasing all HP and defenses? Moving first matters less if you'll survive 5-10 hits anyway.
Such a unique Pokémon in terms of typing. Surprised to see it do well despite its rarity in competitive play.
Water/Fire is cool by virtue of having two of the starter types, like with Water/Grass. I'm not sure if we have a Fire/Grass type Pokemon as of Gen 9, but it would be cool if there was one.
We have a Grass/Fire in Scovillain
@@bluesandman7566true
It's super cool to see a Pokemon have a niche and usage that isn't just "Hahahah huge attack stat go brrrrr"
Gen 7 is so nuts, I'm amazed a Pokemon with that stat profile and signature move was UU
Shows how important speed is
IT'S MIDNIGHT IN THE PHILIPPINES BUT IT WILL BE WORTH IT TO WATCH THIS BEFORE SLEEPING
I used to not like Volcanion’s design, but as I got older it just clicked for me. This mon seems to have a running theme of slowly boiling beneath people’s view, before exploding and making a big splash once people actually recognize what they’re looking at.
On an unrelated note, it’d be cool to see a video like this for Diancie, who is one of my favorite Pokémon!
8:36 Volcarona -> Volcanion
probably mislead while reading the script by the Volcarona that also happens to be on screen
I used to play with Quick Claw Volcanion and that thing was a menace. It would constantly move first and annihilate anything in it's way. I love that thing.❤
Shame it's not available in gen 9 yet, since it's the last Pokemon with Scald (I think)
It is the only one now that can use Scald
yea its the only mon with acces to the move now. but it wont use scald even if it return to gen 9 because steam eruption is a stronger move.
@@baldrian22 people have rarely used both scald and steam eruption on the same set. The main reason being concerns about running out of pp because of corvid’s pressure vs stall you still want a water stab. It’s not exactly a common thing to run but it is a consideration especially considering the 4th moveslot on volcanion doesn’t necessarily have many other things you’d rather run especially on vest sets.
*Simipour has entered the chat* 🥹. But seriously no good mons learn it now, cause those are the only 2 mons by level up unless they add it as egg moves for some mons for mirror herb passing
It's in the files so can be transferred in after Home launches WHENEVER THAT IS.
being honest, the only thing that makes you care and remember about volcanion is its unique typing, not lore, shiny, or other things, just its typing
Volcanion was allowed in VGC for a little in Gen 8 when they legalized mythicals. I didn't pay much attention during that ruleset, so i am curious how much play it saw then with all the other mythicals and restricted legendaries allowed at that time.
It was a Magearna spamfest
15:22 can we talk about this Golisopod pronounciation
It’s probably best to forget it exist
after hearing it...I don't want to talk about
I didn't think it was gonna be that bad 😭
Volcanion's definitely in that category of Pokemon where its usability is COMPLETELY meta-dependant. It's good enough to hang in OU, when it's needed, but not quite good enough to make it there on its own accord.
I think giving scald exclusively to just this mon was such a weird decision, when it already has a more powerful version. I think some dragons like kingdra, dragalge, and walking wake should still have access to it.
It'll come to Gen 9 when Home connectivity happens, and it'll be really good in OU. It will have the only water moves that can burn (still Steam Eruption and it's now the only mon with Scald though no-one will use that because of the former), and that quad-steel resistance will make it feast on Gholdengo. And Heavy Duty Boots still exist, and it will do to Kingambit what it did to Bisharp before. Other common mons it will do well against include Iron Valiant, Corv again, Iron Moth, and Volcerona, easily switching into their attacks and one of its stab will hurt them all a lot.
I'm surprised they don't just make Volcanion and Heatran readily available rival version exclusives.
Bro Series 13 in swsh was so fun cause they finally allowed us to use mythicals. I used Volcanion on a sun and rain team, so damn fun only time i can ever use it lol
Volcanion is one of those mons that grew on me from an interesting type gimmick to an all round star.
Another thing that helped it's rise in gen 8 to ou was the banning of kyurem imo, suddenly there was a niche for bulky offensive special attacker with coverage, and volcanion fitted the hole left by kyurem on balance/bulky offence perfectly.
Volcanion is such a cool and unique Pokémon.
I can’t wait to see how the only recipient of Scald will fair in Gen 9 when Pokémon Home releases in “Early 2023”
I think there is an editing error. The UU Moveset and Items for Gen 7 appear when your talking about it’s OU presences, and vice-versa. Aside from that amazing video as always.
Edit: got further into the vid and the same thing happened again for Gen 8.
How did Volcanion get a video before the GOAT Heatran
Because Heatran needs a whole movie like Lando.
@@riteliliaren9734It will be longer than the entirety of the MCU.
Ah yes, the Mythical whose existence I forget about the most frequently, alongside Zarude
Fingers crossed the Fire/Water combo will be used again on a regular Pokemon, because it's damn irritating when the only instance of a certain dual-type combo is on a Mythical, and I'd even be so bold to say that, at least for my personal book, they do not count when that's the case
Meaning as far as I'm concerned, Fire/Water still hasn't happened yet
Zarude doesn’t even feel like a legendary or mythical imo
Yeah there were a few examples of unique type combos from Legendaries/Mythicals that stop being that, such as Marshadow.
Exactly.
The issue I have with these new mythicals is that they really don't have anything that seriously stands them out from your other average pokemon. When you think of mythical pokemon you think of extraordinary yet obscure beings with unique powers and abilities that many doubt their existence, as if they're... y'know MYTHS.
Like a creature that's pretty much an adam and eve, able to learn every technique in the book. A being that's able to time travel or grant you wishes. A being that's said to grant eternal victorious or a rumored 4th member of a long established and well known group of heroes. A fucking Boogeyman or literal GOD. Y'know, unique attributes to mythologize about.
Now you have someone like Zeraora, whom does NONE of this whatsoever, there's nothing to mythologize about nor has anything that sets it apart from any other electric type. Not to say that they're always a stinker, like Hoopa as a pokemon with unique extraordinary powers and abilities, he does that mythologize role pretty well imo. But overall it's so fucking lame nowadays.
I always knew a video about Volcanion would be steamy. 😎
I would love to see a trio of starters becoming Grass/Water Fire/Grass and Water/Fire
Good example of the deoxys-speed theorem. Imagine 120 base speed on this monster
Picture this: Volcanion, Scovillain, and Lombre in a Triple Battle. ALL of them know BOTH versions of the elemental fusion moves that they can learn, as well as the Hidden Power of the only type that isn't them. Their 4th move is a team-wide buff.
Question why did no one use assault vest from the looks of it the most used moveset of gen 6 didn't use any status moves so it could of been really bulky on both sides
Not "no one", but apparently it wasn't popular enough. I'd say its biggest weakness is Earthquake.
@@enoyna1001 I mean no duh
This was a cool pokemon with a lot of unique characteristics and drawbacks, really well designed competitively. I’m impressed Pokémon created an offensive water stab Pokémon that didn’t just blow through the meta.
Now walking wake on the other hand…what if volcanion lost all its ground and electric weaknesses and was the fastest thing alive?
Tera Fairy Skeledirge can be a decent check to Walking Wake, but yeah I can agree that WW is just a little too overtuned. Hopefully some more stats come out against it
I would swap it's HP and Attack and swap its Sp.Def and speed, mostly fixing its speed problem, and cementing it as a physically bulky special attacker that's kinda weak to special attacks. Not sure if that would permanently make it OU but would solve a lot of its weaknesses while making sure it still has one.
I don't know why but this Pokémon is awesome both design and type wise. 💯
Had a thought for a video: Bottom 10 Legendary Pokemon. A lot of casual players are against using legendaries in any capacity, certainly when two players fight each other, but not all legendaries are created equal. It would be interesting to see a thoughtful list of the ten (ish?) legendary Pokemon with the worst showings in competitive history. Regice, Articuno, Type:Null, Takin' the Bus Calyrex--
Seems like a great check for steel types, if nothing else. Bait the steel, switch in Volc with a scarf, then your opponent's situation is lose-lose. The fact that it's two most obvious checks are Electric and Ground are kind of perfect - just pair it with a Gliscor!
Just play showdown and find out.
would love to see Kommo-o sometime (maybe if it comes back in the dlc or in the next gen). It's z move is absolutely broken and i wonder how much worse it got from the removal of those.
It's absolutely crazy how Volcanion was featured this week, and the volcano in my homeland erupted today xD
Bro I love Volcanion dude, definitely my favorite mythical no question.
volcarona’s and volcanion name are so similar i heard slip up at 8:30 that even the editor missed
I actually completely forgot that volcanion already had a stronger version of scald. They really did just remove that move from the game lol
It would be cool to see a video about how team preview changed competitive
How good were low base power moves actually? The scald theorem
I always liked running Assault Vest or Expert Belt especially in doubles. It always caught people offguard who thought it would either die or have it not be an OHKO.
Ah i’m surprised there wasn’t any info when Volcanion was allowed near the end of the sw/sg rank series. Would be interesting to see how it handled the vgc rule set
Love these videos. So insightful and knowledgeable. On another note. What is that music that plays at about 8:47
15:23 what is a Gosileopod?
Dragalge, magcargo, drifblim or rotom and all of his forms! 💪💪💪
Besides giving it walking wakes move,I think it should also learn smokescreen and in terms of other gen 9 moves+pla moves, maybe raging flame.
What if they give him swift swim? The ability to switch in on those normally nuclear hydro pumps and etc is pretty awesome. But, that last video about the importance of speed could see him become a BEAST in VGC with swift swim/rain pokemon like politoed
The amount of hours I have heard that background music must be astounding
I adored this Pokemon, but I never really saw as much hype as it deserved.
Great video for really underrated Pokémon, also I have to ask when will the mascot of the channel Eigslash get the 45 minutes video it deserves?
Loved using this guy for fun on a Rain Dance team I had in Showdown 😊
Couldn't they put those 110 attack in another Stat? Looking at you HP and SpD🙈
i love this pokemon so so much, its been my favourite since i first saw it, the typing is so cool, i love the design and the shiny
Could you make a video on extremely low tiers like ZU, DNU and 7U?
Okay, this was one if the last mons I was expecting this week.
really hope they do an event for him again.
Hey, when legendaries come back it would enjoy walking wake signature move, it would make it function on sun teams pretty well.
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Rock Relicanth Head Smash vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Volcanion: 712-840 (236.5 - 279%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Time for a real legendary FSG! Volcanion can't even hold a candelabra to Relicanth
Based
I think that Volcanion and Magearna should’ve swapped debut generations (Volcanion should’ve been in Alola and Magearna should’ve been in Kalos) because they would’ve fit the environments more
That was one smooth sponsored transition
This mon with max hp and AV is a rain team killer, especially if it can tera to water or ground
I would give it calm mind for various reasons least of which being that it can hit hard enough to grab KOs after a plus one even uninvested.
If this thing swapped Attack and Speed, it would be absolutely horrifying.
Yay Sunday uploads again
Can't believe Gamefreak thought that Volcanion needed TWO signature water type moves with a burn chance, rip Scald distribution