As Nails put it, Pokémon are allowed to break one rule maximum, and Urshifu breaks two rules- ignoring protect and ignoring stat drops. Sneasler is good, but it’s manageable, it has a 4x weakness and is a lot frailer generally, and it has to respect intimidate. I was theory crafting gliscor as a Sneasler check because it resists both stabs, is immune to status, had good natural physical bulk and stab dual wingbeat to break sash. Someone then actually brought a similar set to the last EU regionals and day 2ed with it lol
@@banditrests .. they might also prevent you from ever getting poisoned if they hit you first (higher chance than poisoning with unburden) so I wouldn't say that as a bonus exactly
@@june9914What an awful pokemon🤧 Urshifu doesn't ask for your consent, He will violate your rights to want your protection and go through you, regardless of your desire.
For me it’s definitely Urshifu being worse. Sneasler has strong counteplay against it - Lum berry, electric types, covert cloak, PROTECT, intimidate etc. Urshifu bypasses protect (the easiest way to stop damage) and bypasses stat drops (the second easier way to stop damage), and even bypasses damage halving berries, since you’d have to be water weak, get hit by surging strike and NOT Tera beforehand.
@@asierx7047 raging bolt, rillaboom, flutter mane, amoonguss, the incredibly high number of fighting-resistant rocky helmet users etc. woger was a good answer, but not even close to the only one
One thing I believe the video forgot to mention, there aren’t a lot of great fighting types in this format while many of the best Pokémon are weak to fighting like Arch, Gambit, Incin, P2, Ursa, Ttar, etc. Fighting is such a great typing right now Flamigo was popular at one stage.
@@ofmoosenmen Costar was NOT why flamigo was used to p2 ursa teams. It was a intim immune fighting type that could hit ghost types specifically dengo, with fighting stab (due to scrappy) and it could sit next to ursa and let it spam eq while scaring away rilla w/grassy terrain. On top of that other had wide guard for psyspam teams. Basically costar sees no use except on cheesy af muk smeargle teams
Which is worse? Easily Urshifu for one simple fact, Sneasler will not stay relevant. As stated, Sneasler had all these same tools and options back in Regulation D but it just couldn't keep up with the power level that was going around. If Sneasler gets too unhealthy for the VGC format then all they have to do is up the power level enough for the next regulation and it will become either manageable or maybe even irrelevant. Sneasler is a temporary problem within the current generation, Urshifu however is a looming threat that will eventually be let back into the game and once Urshifu is no longer banned it *is* the powercreep, and the only way to keep it out of a format is to either ban it (which as they've typically shown that overtime the rules tend to expand to let more powerful pokemon in) or wait until the next generation. No matter how bad or unhealthy Sneasler is, it cannot maintain it's hold over VGC long-term and those who think Sneasler is worse will be free from worrying about it, the same cannot be certain of Urshifu.
just like joseph ugarte said it would be relevant even if the format change double fighting type in a team is not a problem at all so both urshifu and sneasler could be play on 1 team
I’m going to still go with Urshifu being worse for the game. Protect is so essential in helping to keep the pace of the game from being too overwhelming for players. It’s such a key, defensive move to prevent the game from becoming all-out offense. Invalidating Protect is way too dangerous. Even measures to bypass Protect in the past (mainly Feint) are restricted in being weak attacks. Urshifu can just go straight through a Protect with a full powered Close Combat. And Sneasler may have coverage, but at least Ghost types are immune/resistant to both of its STABs. No single type resists both of Urshifu’s. Countering it becomes far more niche because of that.
I really liked Sneasler when I first saw it, even more when I started using it on Showdown, and I was absolutely through the roof when I found out Regulation H would give it a chance to be great. Still amazed at how well it is doing. Sorry I wished for this.
Sometimes a little competition for number 1 is a healthy thing and leads to more variety. Comps, counter comps and counter-counter comps are sure to make their rounds which could make things really interesting
Dire Claw is learned by Sneasler Sneasler? I love Sneasler! Sneasler makes me crazy So crazy they put me in a room A rubber room safe from Dire Claw Dire Claw is learned by Sneasler
Urshifu 100 percent, ignoring protect is just such a fundamental disregard for how the game is supposed to function. Sneasler is just super rng which sucks ass but isn’t disregarding the fundamentals of VGC
And most importantly, which several people have brought up at this point in the comments, Sneasler has a fair bit more depth to its counterplay than Urshifu, who just says "you WILL get hit by surging strikes, you do NOT have a say in this". At least with Sneasler, it's: "IF dire claw hits, this MIGHT suck for you, if you weren't ready." And that feels much more in the spirit of competition than Urshifu saying "lol what's a protect?"
I love Sneasler from a design standpoint, and even as a Mon (stats and typing) it's awesome. But Dire Claw is legitimately the dumbest thing they've added to the game for a little while... But most importantly why does it ALWAYS proc the sleep?!
Fun fact: Dire Claw has the highest Sleep secondary effect chance of any move (as of Grassy Terrain Secret Power being axed in Gen 8) The second highest - and also lowest - is Meloetta's Relic Song at just 10%
Pretty much every single mon banned by smogon that isn't a legendary has proven itself to be quite great in VGC as well. Annhileape, Archaludon, Ursa blood moon, Palafin etc have all proven themselves great at some point in VGC. Most are still pretty viable now as well
@@Eroil while this is often true, there are plenty of pokemon that overperform in singles compared to doubles. Espathra and shed tail cyclizar to name a few
Urshifu is STILL worse than Sneasler for the game, people just get too angry about RNG but Urshifu breaks at a high level a fundamental pillar to VGC format which is protecting
The funniest part is that Sneasler has almost the same stat spread as Weavile, meaning its basically her but with an ability that pushes the cheapness to beyond (plus also having a good dual typing).
I’m not a competitive player, but I feel like being able to hit through protect is far worse than being able to cripple the opposing Pokémon with either sleep or paralysis approx 33% of the time. Plus, if you poison the target instead, you now can no longer hit them with the worse status. When I used Sneasler in my LA, I always had to be wary of the random psychic move; even Pokémon with mid attacking could destroy Sneasler with a strong psychic move. I’m not saying competitive play is just like a playthrough; I’m just mentioning that does have weaknesses baked into its design.
I’m not everyone. I actually love Sneasler. It’s actually my first shiny Pokémon when I first got PLA! I got bashed for liking it because they didn’t like the design! Now either those people are getting karma or I am getting bashed even more for just liking Sneasler. Plus, I want to try a Bulky Supportive Tailwind/Safeguard/Multiscale Dragonite for the Global Challenge in case I run into one to counter it, but I don’t know who to partner it up with.
I hate sneasler, it’s too lanky, weavile is superior and looks great You’re letting your feelings about a shunt cloud your judgement, search your heart, you know it to be true
When I first saw this video, I was surprised people didn’t like sneasler. The moment he brought up dire claw I remembered how much I hate that move, so I see why everyone doesn’t like sneasler
Dire Claw is my only issue with Sneasler. I really like everything else it brings to the format. I like the rise of coaching sets, and fake out poison touch is neat. I also like that as good as it is; it's pretty easy to counter
Urshifu ignores most forms of slowing it down due to Unseen Fist allowing it to go through Protect and either of its signature moves automatically critting to ignore impeding stat changes. It’s also just bulky enough to require dedicated attention to blow up before it blows holes in your team, which it can anticipate with Detect. Sneasler is just a fantastic Pokémon with a single busted move.
I think eventually the meta would handle sneasler - we were seeing tactics like psyspam, indeedee (and by extension psychic terrain) is there, and there were a couple of Alolan Ninetales with misty terrain to block status.
I wonder is Sneasler would be better for the game if they banned Dire Claw instead of Sneasler themself. Also surprised that there was no fling + Big Nugget + unburden set mention.
There’s not a lot of dark weak Pokémon in the format that you’re not better off hitting with Tera dark throat chop, except maybe Gholdengo if it doesn’t Tera steel
@@VulturineValkyrieThis video is about vgc. We dont outright ban anything in vgc. We just have rotating formats that change who is allowed on a limited basis
Eviolite boosts both defenses by 50%; that makes it an amazing Follow Me sponge, letting its partner attack unhindered; Follow Me + Vital Spirit shuts down Spore Amoonguss; Overheat is good one-time burst damage; and Will o' Wisp decommissions most physical attackers I'm sure there's more to it. But these are some of the reasons why Magmar and Electabuzz are great picks for VGC right now!
Any pokemon with follow me that isn't paper thin can find some usage in VGC. The catch is that it's very niche. If your team needs a follow me user, there are a lot of candidates other then Magmar. You'd pick which ever one best suits the current metagame. So that leaves Magmar (and other pokemon like it) in a weird state of quasi viability where the likelyhood of him being relevent is entirely dependent on the specific powerhouse pokemon of the day and how well each follow me user matches into them. This is unironically the exact same situation that saw Pachirisu become a world champ. We like to romanticise the idea that Sejun Park was using one of his favourite pokemon, but in reality he choose Pachirisu because it had follow me, helped protect his team from electric attacks that he was overly weak to and happened to match well into the current commonly used pokemon in the meta. If a different follow me mon fit those core criteria better, he would have used them instead.
There is a special place in hell for the person who thought making a move that has a 1/6th chance to sleep and a 1/6th chance to paralyze WHILE also having the BP of regular moves was a good idea. Even if the move is nerfed in Gen 10, Paralysis no longer stunning but having old speed reduction, Sleep becoming Snooze, and/or the move becoming 50-60 BP, they are still going to hell.
It’s pretty simple, it exhausted all the resources in its niche, and due two its 4x weakness struggled two expand in a different one, so it went extinct
Since i saw Sneasler for the first time in Legends Arceus i LOVED it. It's my favourite pokemon. I don't play vgc or anything i just think it's great my little sassy little gyarumon girlbossing it out there
I always wondered what Weavile would be like if it had even a remotely useful Ability... Sneasler pretty much answers that question, and the answer is 'good', it would be good.
As somebody that was using Sneasler prior to the new regulation set, I've been thoroughly enjoying the shenanigans with it. Terrain seeds + Unburden is a fun time.
Always loved Sneasel and its evolutions. Liked Sneasel's design more though, so I'm glad they went that way with Sneasler. I played Crystal way back and didn't know that Weavile wasn't a thing in gen 2 so I trained the thing to level 70 trying to get it to evolve. Had it holding the razor fang and everything to no avail.
One thing I wanna add is that despite having Tera Dark Throat Chop, it really hates dealing with ghost types and simultaneously dealing with screens. Sneasler wants to outspeed everything and status things that can live, however if you make it so your entire team is just bulky with screens its forced into a dire claw game of aiming for sleep/para to hopefully fish for turns you won’t be able to act. In my experience, if you can spread burns and set up screens Sneasler is relatively manageable. As for screen setters your best option is honestly Sableye. A9 loses hard to Sneasler, Gholdengo, and even some Garchomp sets that they started doing specs A9 instead of Veil. Grimmsnarl is the bulkiest screens setter but it is weak to steel and poison which again is really bad in this format. Sableye has a really good defensive type for both of Sneasler’s stabs and it being part dark makes it immune to prankster taunt. Plus with some investment you can live Make it Rain through screens and with stuff like Wisp/Quash/T-Wave you have options to reduce its damage further or offer speed control. However you’re using Sableye who’s not bad honestly but it’s a significant drop in bulk for your team compared to other options. I think it’s a much better situation compared to Urshifu where your team can win or lose to urshifu in team builder, Sneasler still has to play around ghost types and be smart with tera to really be a threat.
On the topic of electric seed sneasler, do keep in mind that electric terrain has anti synergy with Dire Claw because electric terrain blocks sleep which is probably the best status dire claw can get Sneasler would need to be played with grassy terrain or psychic terrain. Psychic terrain team largely preferred having wide guard in reg g so gallade took the fighting type slot and will likely be getting it back until double restricted format. Your best option outside of terrain seeds are maybe sash, which doesn't always activate, and white herb, which makes you a prey to flutter mane's inevitable return. So grassy seed is left as your last option, but a big part of why sneasler is so annoying is due to it's variety in item choices and sets, which will be severely reduced next regulation The fall of Sneasler is not only inevitable, it's expected
Sneasler feels like the definition of Gamblecore with it's signature move. "Let's go gambling!" Dire Claw "Aww dangit." Dire Claw causes paralysis "I can't stop winning"
It's possible for Sneasler to feel worse to play against, while Urshifu is still more broken. Sneasler was legal in Reg G, there is exactly zero argument for it being as broken as urshifu when urshifu had 40% use stats and sneasler had 0.4%. They are not in the same league, and it isn't close.
Eh, the game will balance itself out, people will figure it out and counter it. The change was too dramatic to slide gently into a new meta without issues. Remember when everybody thought Little Mac in Smash was overpowered because everybody was refusing to adjust while fighting him? There were legitimate calls to have Little Mac banned in the first couple months of his debut. This meta allows for more diversity in picking things but there's always going to be a "top 10". I'm willing to bet in 6 months (assuming we stick with this meta) most of this anger will die down or be gone completely. Urshifu is worse. It's worse and anybody saying it isn't is insane. My big reason is statistics right now. Urshifu has been a menace for a long time while Sneasler is new. I ultimately think that, while sneasler can do a lot it doesn't do all of that "a lot" better than specialists with the exception of attacking. It's a high speed attacker that's what it's supposed to do. Defensively and as a "support" it's above average but again, I really believe this is all hilariously premature. It's just too early to start making these comparisons. For every new threat that stays there like the wrestlecat there's a dozen that show up, screw the metagame up for a couple months then vanish because someone went, "what if we use X?"
My hotpick is Sneasler with liechi Berry + endure Stuff ohkos resists with close combat and if you're greedy you can run SD + stabs + endure to destroy anything
I think Urshifu is still worse. Sneasler can completely upset a gane for no reason, but Urshifu broke so many rules and ignored so many staples of VGC. It'd be one thing if it were a rule change that affected the way the game was played, but just one mon being the clear pinnacle because it doesn't have to play the game everyone else is playing is FAR worse.
One good thing coming from this is that Incineroar dropped below Amoonguss for a rare moment. But you would think this would make Gholdengo more common, due to full immunity to Sneasler's most problematic moves.
When I played doubles slighky fir fun my anchors was sneazler with its signititure move with hitsuian Typhlosion with Terry ferry. Poison touch + cross poison plus infernal parade from typhosion went hard
I think the choice to ban legends and paradox mons was a good one. It allows new strategies to be made and it helps a teeny bit w power creep (though not by much, paradox mons are so busted that it was basically pointless not to have one).
How is this even a debate, Sneasler at best will be an OK pick in the future and is really only great thanks to the ruleset, yeah dire claw is a stupid move but you can actually protect on it. Urshiafu will most likely soon be seen (if not already) as the best vgc pokemon
I use a sneasler with persim berry then i use a prankster mon to swagger it It gets a +2 boost, when it gets confused it eats the berry, unburden activates and acrobatics is doubled and gives more power with tera flying, it becomes a nuclear missile
I used Sneasler to knock out countless Flutter Manes. Been a staple of every regulation I’ve gotten to masterball. Mirror Herb unburden sneasler paired with swagger Grimmsnarl for at least 2 regulations and Electric Seed Sneasler with Miraidon during reg H.
The thing about Dire Claw is that it would still be decent to click in most situations with no secondary effect beyond poisoning. It's just reliable poison STAB. I think it does less than poison jab, but not so much that it's just a gimmick move like Fissure. The rng aspect just feels like insult to injury. Like I was for banning Sneasler from whatever tier it landed in just because of how stupid Dire Claw was, but it's a case where even if Smogon banned the move and not the mon, it would still be banworthy.
So people are arguing if an offensive version of effect spore, on a glass cannon pokemon, that gets walled by one of the stronger mons in the game, is better or worse than something that fundamentally discards the basic rules of the game with the same bst as Volcarona and Ogerpon and great typings???
The thing I think about Sneasler is that, except for Dire Claw, the rest of its kit is actually _good_ for the game, it's a great design. Urshifu, on the other hand, has _two_ broken aspects (the ability and the signature move in both cases) _and_ its stat spread and typing have fewer glaring weaknesses to target. So overall I would say Urshifu is worse, and if I could delete either Pokemon it would certainly be Urshifu. Having said that, I am absolutely praying for Dire Claw to be nerfed or removed next generation if not sooner.
Urshifu is far worse. I can protect sneasler's and knock it out with a psychic. I mean sure at a tippy top play ppl can predict this but works just fine for me.
@@PinkaholicOfficial the irony is that Smogon banned Sneasler not for its Dire Claw RNG; they banned it for the sheer consistency of its SD Tera Flying Unburden set that was basically Hawlucha on steroids while still having STAB Gunk Shot to destroy things like Zapdos and Unaware Clefable
I don't really keep track anymore I've became extremely jaded because I want the series to not majorly power creep as it advances but that's the only outcome that will happen. I also really don't like when they make groups of pokemon that are much more insanely more powerful to make the meta game smaller. They will never tone things down because if they tone down the most current release then previous generations will outshine them and that hurts their sales numbers so they'd never do that. Personally I prefer games with a roster of things where there is a lot of variety but you'll never see that in Pokemon because you get mons so outrageously powerful that they get the designated role on the teams. Things will continue to get faster and have more power and bst numbers will continue to go up. I mean look at what miraidon can do because it gets an insane amount of abitlies and traits that syngerize with each other before a pokemon like that would have never been designed but now they're in an arms race with themselves. They had to make something more impressive than Zacian Crowned was back in Sword and Shield. It's also pretty annoying that they put so much effort into trying to tune down status by making it less domineering through directly nerfing it or indirectly through items and then they pull a 180 to make super busted status moves. They make things that they know are in zero way balanced. "A move that has 50% to poison is not good, lets also give it the chance to inflict sleep and paralysis too because those are good statuses while also keeping at a 50% rate. What could go wrong?" - Gamefreak probably
I dunno if you can really quantify which one is worse for the game because they're in two different formats, but in a format where both are allowed, but only one really sees use, that kind of pushes me to think that one's the more problematic one.
I know it's not as insanely splashable and good as it used to be, but the fact that my mind immediately went to Landorus-T when reading the title is both hilarious and terrifying. 😂
i think sneasler is probably worse, it has a lot more counterplay than urshifu but a 50% chance to inflict a debilitating status as a secondary effect is imo even more ridiculous than ignoring protect or stat drops since even with perfect play and all the right tools to win you can still lose to luck. urshifu is broken but it has very little variance, if you have two solid checks on the field then it's not gonna do anything crazy, but unless you really go out of your way to status proof (which is usually a waste of resources that f*cks up other matchups) sneasler can always find a way to win if it gets lucky enough. you also have to remember that it hits like a truck, so anything that counters dire claw hax also needs to comfortably eat your excellent stab combo and whatever coverage move you're running, and unless you're running ariados or venemoth that's not happening
Another classic case of something rarely used that becomes good because of the meta surrounding it being hated. Urshifu on the other hand forces the meta to play around it.
I feel like Urshifu is good for the game once it gets nerfed. Either damage through protect is reduced, or even a worse nerf, make surging strikes and wicked blow non-contact moves (doesn’t fit thematically but hey it’s a nerf)
Smogon players: "Hey, I've seen this one! I've seen this one! It's a classic!"
What do you mean classic? It’s brand new!
"First time?"
Did sneasler ever dominate a smogon meta? I haven't followed it in a while.
@@classarank7youtubeherokeyb63yes it was banned from OU with one SD plus unburden auto winning the game
@@classarank7youtubeherokeyb63 it dominated ou and was banned to ubers
Dire Claw be like:
"Let's go gambling!"
"The opposing ______ fell asleep!"
*"I CAN'T STOP WINNING!"*
"The opposing Dondozo was paralyzed! It's unable to move!"
*"I CAN'T STOP WINNING!"*
"The opposing Ursaluna was poisoned!"
"Aw dangit!"
When you go gambling, usually the house always wins though.
@@mjdxp5688 Sneasler is the house, Dire Claw is the slot machine and the people using it are the gamblers
“a full fledged mean girl bully pop star, a cheerleader, with a side pony tail”
And a fresh fuckin mani 💅
she fucking laughed at me, I didn’t know Pokemon could do that!
This adult woman. This entrepreneur
Where is the Pokémon? Is it behind the model?
The absolute slay queen tbh
As Nails put it, Pokémon are allowed to break one rule maximum, and Urshifu breaks two rules- ignoring protect and ignoring stat drops. Sneasler is good, but it’s manageable, it has a 4x weakness and is a lot frailer generally, and it has to respect intimidate. I was theory crafting gliscor as a Sneasler check because it resists both stabs, is immune to status, had good natural physical bulk and stab dual wingbeat to break sash. Someone then actually brought a similar set to the last EU regionals and day 2ed with it lol
I was gonna ask how, then I remembered toxic orb exists.
@@Aaa-vp6ugexactly right. Also they might just accidentally activate poison heal for you if they hit you before toxic orb gets online lol
@@banditrests .. they might also prevent you from ever getting poisoned if they hit you first (higher chance than poisoning with unburden) so I wouldn't say that as a bonus exactly
Well tbf Gholdengo is literally immune to both of it's STABs but Sneasler seems to get around it's quad weakness with tera dark throat chop
It has a 4x Weakness to psychic, problem: No one uses psychic as a coverage move
Incineroar: Flirting
Sneasler: Harassment
Urshifu: Assault
@@june9914calyrex: war crimes
Sneasler saw the tera leak slander and didn't want to be left out? Lmao
@@june9914What an awful pokemon🤧 Urshifu doesn't ask for your consent, He will violate your rights to want your protection and go through you, regardless of your desire.
For me it’s definitely Urshifu being worse. Sneasler has strong counteplay against it - Lum berry, electric types, covert cloak, PROTECT, intimidate etc.
Urshifu bypasses protect (the easiest way to stop damage) and bypasses stat drops (the second easier way to stop damage), and even bypasses damage halving berries, since you’d have to be water weak, get hit by surging strike and NOT Tera beforehand.
Yeah Urshifu is borderline unfair. Also let's not forget nerfed Urshifu won two worlds in a row. Imagine if gen 8 Urshifu was in the current meta.
@@kiwi40238 urshifu got buffed in gen 9, dmax was a nerf for it
The only thing keeping Urshifu in check was Wellspring Mask Ogerpon having access to Follow Me + Water Absorb.
The only reason I assume Urshifu isn't a restricted legendary is because it being broken is probably great for the Sword and Shield DLC sales.
@@asierx7047 raging bolt, rillaboom, flutter mane, amoonguss, the incredibly high number of fighting-resistant rocky helmet users etc. woger was a good answer, but not even close to the only one
One thing I believe the video forgot to mention, there aren’t a lot of great fighting types in this format while many of the best Pokémon are weak to fighting like Arch, Gambit, Incin, P2, Ursa, Ttar, etc. Fighting is such a great typing right now Flamigo was popular at one stage.
TBF, that has a bit to do with costar. But yea, fighting types are a bit scarce right now but is absolutely amazing offensively.
@@ofmoosenmen not really, it sometimes dropped costar for scrappy on teams
@@ofmoosenmen not really, more to do with scrappy than costar
@@ofmoosenmen scrappy is lovely into tera steel gholdengo, which is arguably the best mon in the format
@@ofmoosenmen Costar was NOT why flamigo was used to p2 ursa teams.
It was a intim immune fighting type that could hit ghost types specifically dengo, with fighting stab (due to scrappy) and it could sit next to ursa and let it spam eq while scaring away rilla w/grassy terrain.
On top of that other had wide guard for psyspam teams.
Basically costar sees no use except on cheesy af muk smeargle teams
Which is worse? Easily Urshifu for one simple fact, Sneasler will not stay relevant. As stated, Sneasler had all these same tools and options back in Regulation D but it just couldn't keep up with the power level that was going around. If Sneasler gets too unhealthy for the VGC format then all they have to do is up the power level enough for the next regulation and it will become either manageable or maybe even irrelevant. Sneasler is a temporary problem within the current generation, Urshifu however is a looming threat that will eventually be let back into the game and once Urshifu is no longer banned it *is* the powercreep, and the only way to keep it out of a format is to either ban it (which as they've typically shown that overtime the rules tend to expand to let more powerful pokemon in) or wait until the next generation. No matter how bad or unhealthy Sneasler is, it cannot maintain it's hold over VGC long-term and those who think Sneasler is worse will be free from worrying about it, the same cannot be certain of Urshifu.
just like joseph ugarte said it would be relevant even if the format change
double fighting type in a team is not a problem at all so both urshifu and sneasler could be play on 1 team
It will be a niche pokemon not meta relevant when this reg ends and urshifu is unleashed.@@LAIDDN24
@@LAIDDN24 It has so much steeper competition then, from zamazenta, urshifu, iron hands, etc.
In walks! In walks! Bipedally walks! A full grown adult woman! Who's this entrepreneur, this cheerleader, this popstar?
I thought I was supposed to be getting a helper Pokémon. But this isn’t helping. In fact… mhmm, yeah. She’s bullying me.
I’m going to still go with Urshifu being worse for the game. Protect is so essential in helping to keep the pace of the game from being too overwhelming for players. It’s such a key, defensive move to prevent the game from becoming all-out offense. Invalidating Protect is way too dangerous. Even measures to bypass Protect in the past (mainly Feint) are restricted in being weak attacks. Urshifu can just go straight through a Protect with a full powered Close Combat.
And Sneasler may have coverage, but at least Ghost types are immune/resistant to both of its STABs. No single type resists both of Urshifu’s. Countering it becomes far more niche because of that.
I really liked Sneasler when I first saw it, even more when I started using it on Showdown, and I was absolutely through the roof when I found out Regulation H would give it a chance to be great.
Still amazed at how well it is doing. Sorry I wished for this.
"Did your favorite mon become viable?"
"Yes."
"What did it cost?"
"Everything."
Why is this ugly looking thing your favorite?
Sometimes a little competition for number 1 is a healthy thing and leads to more variety. Comps, counter comps and counter-counter comps are sure to make their rounds which could make things really interesting
I meet someone
I am sneased to meet them
There isn't enough evidence to make the charges stick
The case goes cold
I meet someon-
I am sneased to meet someone.
I feel unburdened in their presence.
I go for a poison touch.
The situation turns dire.
Dire Claw is learned by Sneasler
Sneasler? I love Sneasler!
Sneasler makes me crazy
So crazy they put me in a room
A rubber room safe from Dire Claw
Dire Claw is learned by Sneasler
Urshifu 100 percent, ignoring protect is just such a fundamental disregard for how the game is supposed to function. Sneasler is just super rng which sucks ass but isn’t disregarding the fundamentals of VGC
And most importantly, which several people have brought up at this point in the comments, Sneasler has a fair bit more depth to its counterplay than Urshifu, who just says "you WILL get hit by surging strikes, you do NOT have a say in this". At least with Sneasler, it's: "IF dire claw hits, this MIGHT suck for you, if you weren't ready." And that feels much more in the spirit of competition than Urshifu saying "lol what's a protect?"
@@nintendork9207And this is why I hate Urshifu so much more.
Dire Claw is a TCG attack like oh flip 3 coins to determine which status condition to apply!
Sneasler is just good, you've listed several counterplay options. Urshifu is the trouble child
I love Sneasler from a design standpoint, and even as a Mon (stats and typing) it's awesome. But Dire Claw is legitimately the dumbest thing they've added to the game for a little while...
But most importantly why does it ALWAYS proc the sleep?!
Fun fact: Dire Claw has the highest Sleep secondary effect chance of any move (as of Grassy Terrain Secret Power being axed in Gen 8)
The second highest - and also lowest - is Meloetta's Relic Song at just 10%
meloetta technically has 20 due to serene grace@@misirtere9836
Did not expect sneasler to have the highest usage rate
Pretty much every single mon banned by smogon that isn't a legendary has proven itself to be quite great in VGC as well. Annhileape, Archaludon, Ursa blood moon, Palafin etc have all proven themselves great at some point in VGC. Most are still pretty viable now as well
@@Eroil while this is often true, there are plenty of pokemon that overperform in singles compared to doubles. Espathra and shed tail cyclizar to name a few
@@JakobMargetts i was gonna comment the exact same things.also dont forget houndstone
@@WillyLongLegs yeah for sure, last respects is so weak in doubles in comparison
@@JakobMargetts True, not all of the non Legendary Ubers are amazing, but most are. Last respects is still commonly used on Basculegion as well
Urshifu is STILL worse than Sneasler for the game, people just get too angry about RNG but Urshifu breaks at a high level a fundamental pillar to VGC format which is protecting
The funniest part is that Sneasler has almost the same stat spread as Weavile, meaning its basically her but with an ability that pushes the cheapness to beyond (plus also having a good dual typing).
Yeah, unburden was fine on a pokemon like Hawlucha whose base stats weren't anything special. But sneasler is a different story
her the poke is unisex you werido
I’m not a competitive player, but I feel like being able to hit through protect is far worse than being able to cripple the opposing Pokémon with either sleep or paralysis approx 33% of the time. Plus, if you poison the target instead, you now can no longer hit them with the worse status.
When I used Sneasler in my LA, I always had to be wary of the random psychic move; even Pokémon with mid attacking could destroy Sneasler with a strong psychic move. I’m not saying competitive play is just like a playthrough; I’m just mentioning that does have weaknesses baked into its design.
I’m not everyone. I actually love Sneasler. It’s actually my first shiny Pokémon when I first got PLA! I got bashed for liking it because they didn’t like the design! Now either those people are getting karma or I am getting bashed even more for just liking Sneasler. Plus, I want to try a Bulky Supportive Tailwind/Safeguard/Multiscale Dragonite for the Global Challenge in case I run into one to counter it, but I don’t know who to partner it up with.
sneaslers goated but dire claw is vile
I hate sneasler, it’s too lanky, weavile is superior and looks great
You’re letting your feelings about a shunt cloud your judgement, search your heart, you know it to be true
Chansey: Oops I used skill swap and gave Sneasler the ability Serene Grace; I hope nothing goes wrong!
LETS GO GAMBLING
AWW DANG IT
AWW DANG IT
AWW DANG IT
AWW DANG IT
Sneasler is literally my favorite hisui pokémon due to its typing and weavile being a loved pokémon in competitive before gen 9 in OU
When I first saw this video, I was surprised people didn’t like sneasler. The moment he brought up dire claw I remembered how much I hate that move, so I see why everyone doesn’t like sneasler
As an edgy Weavile/Sneasle fan boy, I love this dude
0:20 sounds like a absolute win to me lol
Idk why they haven't changed Urshifu's ability to do 50% of damage through protect or something, if they have to insist on that being it's niche.
Who needs status inflicting moves when you have *DIRE CLAW*
*cue evil laughter*
Dire Claw is my only issue with Sneasler. I really like everything else it brings to the format. I like the rise of coaching sets, and fake out poison touch is neat. I also like that as good as it is; it's pretty easy to counter
This is why I love Sneasler
A literal grown human woman is meta now.
Urshifu ignores most forms of slowing it down due to Unseen Fist allowing it to go through Protect and either of its signature moves automatically critting to ignore impeding stat changes. It’s also just bulky enough to require dedicated attention to blow up before it blows holes in your team, which it can anticipate with Detect.
Sneasler is just a fantastic Pokémon with a single busted move.
I think eventually the meta would handle sneasler - we were seeing tactics like psyspam, indeedee (and by extension psychic terrain) is there, and there were a couple of Alolan Ninetales with misty terrain to block status.
I wonder is Sneasler would be better for the game if they banned Dire Claw instead of Sneasler themself.
Also surprised that there was no fling + Big Nugget + unburden set mention.
Banned? Already
There’s not a lot of dark weak Pokémon in the format that you’re not better off hitting with Tera dark throat chop, except maybe Gholdengo if it doesn’t Tera steel
What? This isn’t Smogon. There are no bans here and Fling Big Nugget was a Smogon Singles strategy, a strategy that fails in VGC’s OTS format.
@@VulturineValkyrieThis video is about vgc. We dont outright ban anything in vgc. We just have rotating formats that change who is allowed on a limited basis
@@butteredsalmonella Fair enough. Sometimes I forget that VGC is a separate entity from Smogon.
1:15 I feel so giddy seeing my favorite Pokemon in a competitive match. Is Magmar considered viable in VGC?
best follow me user if electabuzz didn't exist
Eviolite follow me flame body got physical attackers shaking in their boots!
Eviolite boosts both defenses by 50%; that makes it an amazing Follow Me sponge, letting its partner attack unhindered; Follow Me + Vital Spirit shuts down Spore Amoonguss; Overheat is good one-time burst damage; and Will o' Wisp decommissions most physical attackers
I'm sure there's more to it. But these are some of the reasons why Magmar and Electabuzz are great picks for VGC right now!
It's funny that Electivire and Magmortar's existence is what makes their prevos so much better than them.
Any pokemon with follow me that isn't paper thin can find some usage in VGC. The catch is that it's very niche.
If your team needs a follow me user, there are a lot of candidates other then Magmar. You'd pick which ever one best suits the current metagame.
So that leaves Magmar (and other pokemon like it) in a weird state of quasi viability where the likelyhood of him being relevent is entirely dependent on the specific powerhouse pokemon of the day and how well each follow me user matches into them.
This is unironically the exact same situation that saw Pachirisu become a world champ. We like to romanticise the idea that Sejun Park was using one of his favourite pokemon, but in reality he choose Pachirisu because it had follow me, helped protect his team from electric attacks that he was overly weak to and happened to match well into the current commonly used pokemon in the meta. If a different follow me mon fit those core criteria better, he would have used them instead.
There is a special place in hell for the person who thought making a move that has a 1/6th chance to sleep and a 1/6th chance to paralyze WHILE also having the BP of regular moves was a good idea.
Even if the move is nerfed in Gen 10, Paralysis no longer stunning but having old speed reduction, Sleep becoming Snooze, and/or the move becoming 50-60 BP, they are still going to hell.
Its weird that Sneasler is the one that went extinct in modern day, since its so good
It’s pretty simple, it exhausted all the resources in its niche, and due two its 4x weakness struggled two expand in a different one, so it went extinct
@@june9914 that makes sense, if it just avoided the Chimecho on Mt. Coronet I think it should have been good there though
finally, the sneaseled becomes the sneaseler
Why is the audio so quiet on this one?
Its night time
Check your stable volume setting in advanced settings
Since i saw Sneasler for the first time in Legends Arceus i LOVED it. It's my favourite pokemon. I don't play vgc or anything i just think it's great my little sassy little gyarumon girlbossing it out there
This Pokemon lol. In my game, I called her Brit Spears because those claws are Toxic
I always wondered what Weavile would be like if it had even a remotely useful Ability...
Sneasler pretty much answers that question, and the answer is 'good', it would be good.
As somebody that was using Sneasler prior to the new regulation set, I've been thoroughly enjoying the shenanigans with it. Terrain seeds + Unburden is a fun time.
0:16 THATS MY KING GARCHOMP BACK FROM UU TO THE TOP ONCE MORE YOU WITNESS A KING’S REVIVAL AND IT IS GLORIOUS!!!
This is VGC
@@EggscellentTree close enough. Let me have this.
Great work on improving your speech btw. Watched an old vid and came to this one and its night and day.
i hate it because it looks like they stretched sneasel's limbs like it was a NBA player and called it a day
Always loved Sneasel and its evolutions. Liked Sneasel's design more though, so I'm glad they went that way with Sneasler.
I played Crystal way back and didn't know that Weavile wasn't a thing in gen 2 so I trained the thing to level 70 trying to get it to evolve. Had it holding the razor fang and everything to no avail.
sneasler deserves the world and i will not stand for this slander 😤
One thing I wanna add is that despite having Tera Dark Throat Chop, it really hates dealing with ghost types and simultaneously dealing with screens.
Sneasler wants to outspeed everything and status things that can live, however if you make it so your entire team is just bulky with screens its forced into a dire claw game of aiming for sleep/para to hopefully fish for turns you won’t be able to act. In my experience, if you can spread burns and set up screens Sneasler is relatively manageable.
As for screen setters your best option is honestly Sableye. A9 loses hard to Sneasler, Gholdengo, and even some Garchomp sets that they started doing specs A9 instead of Veil. Grimmsnarl is the bulkiest screens setter but it is weak to steel and poison which again is really bad in this format. Sableye has a really good defensive type for both of Sneasler’s stabs and it being part dark makes it immune to prankster taunt. Plus with some investment you can live Make it Rain through screens and with stuff like Wisp/Quash/T-Wave you have options to reduce its damage further or offer speed control.
However you’re using Sableye who’s not bad honestly but it’s a significant drop in bulk for your team compared to other options. I think it’s a much better situation compared to Urshifu where your team can win or lose to urshifu in team builder, Sneasler still has to play around ghost types and be smart with tera to really be a threat.
On the topic of electric seed sneasler, do keep in mind that electric terrain has anti synergy with Dire Claw because electric terrain blocks sleep which is probably the best status dire claw can get
Sneasler would need to be played with grassy terrain or psychic terrain. Psychic terrain team largely preferred having wide guard in reg g so gallade took the fighting type slot and will likely be getting it back until double restricted format. Your best option outside of terrain seeds are maybe sash, which doesn't always activate, and white herb, which makes you a prey to flutter mane's inevitable return. So grassy seed is left as your last option, but a big part of why sneasler is so annoying is due to it's variety in item choices and sets, which will be severely reduced next regulation
The fall of Sneasler is not only inevitable, it's expected
Dude spoke in Smogon when he said "Weezing-Galar" instead of just Galarian Weezing 😂
Sneasler feels like the definition of Gamblecore with it's signature move.
"Let's go gambling!" Dire Claw "Aww dangit." Dire Claw causes paralysis "I can't stop winning"
It's possible for Sneasler to feel worse to play against, while Urshifu is still more broken. Sneasler was legal in Reg G, there is exactly zero argument for it being as broken as urshifu when urshifu had 40% use stats and sneasler had 0.4%. They are not in the same league, and it isn't close.
I've legitamtely been using sneasler as a fun sweeper since I got the game so this is VERY entertaining to watch
Sneasler and Typhlosion-h was my first pick for this regulation, I was very surprised after see how popular they become over time
Eh, the game will balance itself out, people will figure it out and counter it. The change was too dramatic to slide gently into a new meta without issues. Remember when everybody thought Little Mac in Smash was overpowered because everybody was refusing to adjust while fighting him? There were legitimate calls to have Little Mac banned in the first couple months of his debut. This meta allows for more diversity in picking things but there's always going to be a "top 10". I'm willing to bet in 6 months (assuming we stick with this meta) most of this anger will die down or be gone completely.
Urshifu is worse. It's worse and anybody saying it isn't is insane. My big reason is statistics right now. Urshifu has been a menace for a long time while Sneasler is new. I ultimately think that, while sneasler can do a lot it doesn't do all of that "a lot" better than specialists with the exception of attacking. It's a high speed attacker that's what it's supposed to do. Defensively and as a "support" it's above average but again, I really believe this is all hilariously premature. It's just too early to start making these comparisons. For every new threat that stays there like the wrestlecat there's a dozen that show up, screw the metagame up for a couple months then vanish because someone went, "what if we use X?"
I love it. Just got mine from my DLC playthrough.
Before watching: why did gamefreak create an attacking move that can cause SLEEP?!?
To change Meloetta forms
To give the dark starmobile a status move
1:23 I was half expecting him to say Sneasler is built like Suave 😂
I love how all the best Pokémon in the new regulation have really good designs
My hotpick is Sneasler with liechi Berry + endure
Stuff ohkos resists with close combat and if you're greedy you can run SD + stabs + endure to destroy anything
I think Urshifu is still worse. Sneasler can completely upset a gane for no reason, but Urshifu broke so many rules and ignored so many staples of VGC.
It'd be one thing if it were a rule change that affected the way the game was played, but just one mon being the clear pinnacle because it doesn't have to play the game everyone else is playing is FAR worse.
I've only recently started pokemon duels but oh my god is it exciting to watch what rng dire claw gets.
One good thing coming from this is that Incineroar dropped below Amoonguss for a rare moment. But you would think this would make Gholdengo more common, due to full immunity to Sneasler's most problematic moves.
Gliscor: Let me in couch, I'm ready!
When I played doubles slighky fir fun my anchors was sneazler with its signititure move with hitsuian Typhlosion with Terry ferry. Poison touch + cross poison plus infernal parade from typhosion went hard
I think the choice to ban legends and paradox mons was a good one. It allows new strategies to be made and it helps a teeny bit w power creep (though not by much, paradox mons are so busted that it was basically pointless not to have one).
new strategy is not a good word
new pokemon being meta is better
Sneasler has won a Tournement in Regulation C with grassy seed, so i think it was Just underrated.
How is this even a debate, Sneasler at best will be an OK pick in the future and is really only great thanks to the ruleset, yeah dire claw is a stupid move but you can actually protect on it.
Urshiafu will most likely soon be seen (if not already) as the best vgc pokemon
I use a sneasler with persim berry then i use a prankster mon to swagger it
It gets a +2 boost, when it gets confused it eats the berry, unburden activates and acrobatics is doubled and gives more power with tera flying, it becomes a nuclear missile
That sounds insanely funny, but I can see follow me/fake out being the issue here
@@FTW1230 covert cloak and if you target your teammate follow me doesn't work
I used Sneasler to knock out countless Flutter Manes. Been a staple of every regulation I’ve gotten to masterball. Mirror Herb unburden sneasler paired with swagger Grimmsnarl for at least 2 regulations and Electric Seed Sneasler with Miraidon during reg H.
The thing about Dire Claw is that it would still be decent to click in most situations with no secondary effect beyond poisoning. It's just reliable poison STAB. I think it does less than poison jab, but not so much that it's just a gimmick move like Fissure. The rng aspect just feels like insult to injury.
Like I was for banning Sneasler from whatever tier it landed in just because of how stupid Dire Claw was, but it's a case where even if Smogon banned the move and not the mon, it would still be banworthy.
urshifu is obviously worse for the game.
So people are arguing if an offensive version of effect spore, on a glass cannon pokemon, that gets walled by one of the stronger mons in the game, is better or worse than something that fundamentally discards the basic rules of the game with the same bst as Volcarona and Ogerpon and great typings???
Tera ghost Komala is going to go crazy
The thing I think about Sneasler is that, except for Dire Claw, the rest of its kit is actually _good_ for the game, it's a great design.
Urshifu, on the other hand, has _two_ broken aspects (the ability and the signature move in both cases) _and_ its stat spread and typing have fewer glaring weaknesses to target. So overall I would say Urshifu is worse, and if I could delete either Pokemon it would certainly be Urshifu.
Having said that, I am absolutely praying for Dire Claw to be nerfed or removed next generation if not sooner.
Urshifu is far worse. I can protect sneasler's and knock it out with a psychic. I mean sure at a tippy top play ppl can predict this but works just fine for me.
RTGame was really on to something when he put Sneasler on his team for Wolfes Legends Arceus tournament.
Yo man I was just wondering what happened to your FreezaiXtra channel?
As someone who’s favorite Pokémon is Sneasel, I see no problem with his development, and in fact I welcome it.
I always catch people off guard with mirror herb sneasler 😼
Smogon players be eating this up rn
@@PinkaholicOfficial the irony is that Smogon banned Sneasler not for its Dire Claw RNG; they banned it for the sheer consistency of its SD Tera Flying Unburden set that was basically Hawlucha on steroids while still having STAB Gunk Shot to destroy things like Zapdos and Unaware Clefable
I put together an unburden sneasler indeedee team while legendaries were part of the format and I didn’t always win but I always had fun.
I used tera flying acrobatics sneasler and pincurchin early on and it actually was good. Even ohkoed most urshifu.
I don't really keep track anymore I've became extremely jaded because I want the series to not majorly power creep as it advances but that's the only outcome that will happen. I also really don't like when they make groups of pokemon that are much more insanely more powerful to make the meta game smaller. They will never tone things down because if they tone down the most current release then previous generations will outshine them and that hurts their sales numbers so they'd never do that. Personally I prefer games with a roster of things where there is a lot of variety but you'll never see that in Pokemon because you get mons so outrageously powerful that they get the designated role on the teams. Things will continue to get faster and have more power and bst numbers will continue to go up. I mean look at what miraidon can do because it gets an insane amount of abitlies and traits that syngerize with each other before a pokemon like that would have never been designed but now they're in an arms race with themselves. They had to make something more impressive than Zacian Crowned was back in Sword and Shield. It's also pretty annoying that they put so much effort into trying to tune down status by making it less domineering through directly nerfing it or indirectly through items and then they pull a 180 to make super busted status moves. They make things that they know are in zero way balanced. "A move that has 50% to poison is not good, lets also give it the chance to inflict sleep and paralysis too because those are good statuses while also keeping at a 50% rate. What could go wrong?" - Gamefreak probably
I dunno if you can really quantify which one is worse for the game because they're in two different formats, but in a format where both are allowed, but only one really sees use, that kind of pushes me to think that one's the more problematic one.
I know it's not as insanely splashable and good as it used to be, but the fact that my mind immediately went to Landorus-T when reading the title is both hilarious and terrifying. 😂
I love sneasler! One of my favourite Pokémon and by far my favourite hisuian mon.
i think sneasler is probably worse, it has a lot more counterplay than urshifu but a 50% chance to inflict a debilitating status as a secondary effect is imo even more ridiculous than ignoring protect or stat drops since even with perfect play and all the right tools to win you can still lose to luck. urshifu is broken but it has very little variance, if you have two solid checks on the field then it's not gonna do anything crazy, but unless you really go out of your way to status proof (which is usually a waste of resources that f*cks up other matchups) sneasler can always find a way to win if it gets lucky enough. you also have to remember that it hits like a truck, so anything that counters dire claw hax also needs to comfortably eat your excellent stab combo and whatever coverage move you're running, and unless you're running ariados or venemoth that's not happening
something with your mike is setup wrong. great video tho
The adaptation will be corviknight, lille showed that he is the best sneasler counter that can work with different teams
Another classic case of something rarely used that becomes good because of the meta surrounding it being hated.
Urshifu on the other hand forces the meta to play around it.
To quote Reverend "I love twink Urshifu". At least unlike the dumb karate bear, Sneasler has this magic invisible stat: Some actual charisma.
I'm not gonna lie to myself. Sneasler looks like it had been to a Hisuian Typhlosion party.
I feel like Urshifu is good for the game once it gets nerfed. Either damage through protect is reduced, or even a worse nerf, make surging strikes and wicked blow non-contact moves (doesn’t fit thematically but hey it’s a nerf)
The sneasel family line is awesome 👌
Sneaseler just hits all the checklist ya know.