GameFreak getting cold feet over Shadow Tag Chandelure is still pretty funny to me, especially since they would create something even more broken in Mega Gengar literally 1 generation later.
Chandelure would’ve been more broken than Mega Gengar. The ability to hold an item means Chandelure is functionally faster, stronger, or has Leftovers recovery depending on what you wanted to trap and eliminate.
@@ashikjaman1940 They can not balance online, but at the same time, they can recognize when something is obviously broken. Whether it actually happens is a different story
@@punkysnarks To be fair it was probably balanced more around VGC, it didn't seem to be completely broken in the restricted formats with things like Primal Groundon or Xerneas around. Singles on the other hand is the wild west and Smogon is one of the only groups who has made an effort to control it.
For metagross, missed the part where light metal is not just useless now, but an active hindrance bc it gets heavy slam, which is based on the proportional weights, not plain weight value. Like if Metagross is usually 5.2 times heavier than a mon, light metal will take the move from 120 BP to 60
@@frankchen4229 Really all they need to do is swap its attack and special defense. 110 attack/85 speed with Iron Fist and a surprisingly good offensive movepool would probably have some sort of niche in ZU.
@@LordPhilipJFryZU is ran by h-decidueye. It probably would have been able to be a nice pivot for it. If it gets roost it’d be THE counter to h decidueye. Though knock off sets would hurt A LOT.
Only feasible way I've found of making Ledian do anything is as a specially bulky trapper. Struggle bug, infestation, toxic, and roost. Works like once a blue moon, but it's amusing when it does work.
Wailord getting pressure in the same gen where politoed got drizzle is the equivalent of an older sibling getting socks for Christmas while their younger sibling gets a PS5
I still stand by that they should have given Inteleon a hidden ability that was a combination of sniper and super luck so it both raised his crit chance on all moves as well as increased the damage from crits. Would have been so much better and could have been a ton of fun to mess around with.
Throwing out an honorable mention to Swampert here: Damp isn't that useful because Self-Destruct and Explosion saw less use due to their nerfs, although it has a tiny niche in stopping suicide leads from using said moves for free switches. Defiant didn't help Empoleon either in Gens V-VIII because it's a special attacker; Game Freak must have realized their mistake in Gen IX and changed it to Competitive from that point onward.
@@abraham-kun4144 they DID indeed give mega-swampert swift swim, but it should have already been a thing for base swampert although imagine sap sipper swampert, zero weakness mudfish
Empoleon didn't initially get Competitive in Gen 5 cause the ability itself didn't exist until Gen 6. Not fully sure why it took until Gen 9 for it to finally get changed (prob has something to do with transferring), but better late than never I guess.
Rain Dish Blastoise Frisk Wigglytuff (even before open team sheets) Leaf Guard Meganium (for obvious reasons) Plus Ampharos Unnerve Tyranitar Damp Swampert Keen Eye Drapion (what were they thinking?) Vital Spirit Electivire and Magmortar (imagine if they got Sheer Force instead) Magician Delphox (not even signature abilities are safe) Long Reach Decidueye (look above) Sniper Inteleon Technician Grapploct
@goGothitaLOL Best comment on this whole comment section LOL (You didn't ask but i will answer anyway) Blastoise => Give regular Blastoise Mega Launcher and Buff water Pulse to 80 base power. (120 Power, 100% accuracy stab go brrrrrrrr) Wigglytuff => Give it Wonder Skin (This pokémon is so terrible that i have no idea how to make it even superficialy viable) Meganium => Give it Triage (I know ~ Totaly original ideia ~) Ampharos => Why it doesn't have Lightning Rod ? Seriously look at its design. (And give Sp. Atk Moxie. Why this ability doesn't exist ?) Tyranitar => Give it Solid Rock (The Armor Pokémon doesn't have an armor related Ability. What was GF thinking ?) Swampert => Give it Rain Dish Drapion => Give it Meciless (Several other poison types would benefict from this ability way more than toxapeks) Electivire => Give it Iron Fist (Pretend that this Ability multiplies by 1.5 insted of 1.2) Magmortar => Give it Mega Launcher (~ Other totaly original ideia ~) Delphox => This one i have no idea. Magician is an absolutely useless ability. But 'Magician' is such an abstract concept, that you can think an viraiaty of effects and it would thematically fit. Even something stupid like protean effect (weed cat has it) or Sp. Atk Intimidate. Or just give the Mystic Fox 'Trace' 🤷 Decidueye => 🤔 Buff Long Reach so it also has the effect of Shield Dust/Covert Cloak effect. (Coldn't think anything better 🤓👆) Inteleon => Sniper is actually a great ability for Inteleon. It just lacks Focus Energy to work with this.
@@Deixaeutemandarareal2582 Blastoise 100% - also slap the Steel Type on it while you are at it. It's long overdue. Wigglytuff: Pure Power? Fixed Azumarill 🦐 Meganium would love some THICC Fat, wouldn't it? Ampharos clearly needs Illuminate - the lore dictates. Tyranitar would actually be funny with a Special Attack boosting HA just for the sake of variety - it has a neat special pool it barely uses Swampert: sure why not Drapion not having Poison Touch as a SCORPION is wild. Or Tough Claws even. Thunder Punch was Electabuzzes thing in Gen 1 and the anime, I can't believe it never got Iron Fist... Magmortar with Mega Launcher? Look at those cannons... add some moves if nescesary (armor cannon lol) Going with the witch theme of Delphox - what was that weird ability of G-Slowking again? - Also Power of Alchemy perhaps Decidueye would be neat if Long Reach also boosted crit a little - those long range critical leaf blades and shadow claws and tripple arrows hm... Intelion needs a simple thing: Snipe shot should always crit. It has nothing to do with critical striking whilst having SNIPE in it's name.
Metagross with Levitate instead of Light Metal would be interesting. In Gen 5 Levitate would've left it with just one weakness, but now that Steel doesn't resist Dark and Ghost anymore, it should give Metagross some extra utility without breaking it. Also, I do remember Zapdos getting Lightningrod as its HA. Not that Static is bad, but Zapdos would've run through OU with Lightningrod.
Imagine Lightning Rod Zapdos in VGC. Remember near the end of 2013 when everyone was going out of their way to stop Thundurus that some Lightning Rod users made their way to Top 8 of Worlds (Se Jun Park’s Marowak or Benjamin Gould’s Eviolite Rhydon)?
@@davada123 We actually do have some insight into the design process. The betas of GSC we have feature a very different type chart for steel and Dark, of note is that at the time steel and psychic were neutral against each other and dark only resisted Psychic. These betas are from before the first major tournments they held so it's likely that steel's resistance to psychic was pretty much purely a blancing choice based on the results of that tournament.
My favorite is still Anticipation Ferrothorn. > Loses its bread and butter Iron Barbs. > Didn't even have it in Gen 5. Only since Gen 6. > Ferroseed didn't even get a (different) Hidden Ability. This feels Mindy levels of trolling. You get a Ferroseed, don't know it has its HA Flag, and then learn it's garbage.
The Dark Typing and Strong Jaw makes it so much better and still fits the design. Alternatively give it Quick Feet instead of Guts and slap the Normal Typing on it for STAB Facades and doubled speed.
Great idea for a regional variant, but Game Freak doesn’t give a Pokemon a secondary type unless it’s a new type like Dark and Steel in Gen 2 or Fairy in Gen 6.
Considering its actively capable of flight, I feel like Metagross would have done well by simply giving it levitate as the hidden ability. Its not an overbearing ability, plus it does not give it an offensive boost. a defensive one but still. Oh also, I do consider Damp on swampert to be one of the biggest let downs when it comes to hidden abilities on starters. Especially compared to both Sceptile and Blaziken getting pretty good to REALLY good hidden abilities. Would be so simple to just give it swift swim
Milotic would've been a perfect fit. Its regular abilities are Marvel Scale a Competetive. Both great abilities imo and its hidden ability is Cute Charm?
@@imugi-16 Not so, actually. Competitive was given to it as a normal secondary ability in Gen 6, and Cute Charm is its hidden ability. You can check serebii for confirmation.
@@Sintra4 There's more than a few examples, particularly of new Abilities, but also for the new weather setters in SM. Milotic isn't even the only Pokemon to gain Competitive in Gen 6: Wigglytuff and Gothitelle did too. In addition to that, I can also name Gallade getting Sharpness in Gen 9.
Guess next is pokemon who'd be viable without abilities (slaking arceops etc) and or ones who became staples after a type change when fairy steel and dark came
Not nearly as big as it’s made out to be. It’s borderline unviable in modern gen5 OU because of its awful frailty while gen6 it only ever managed a small niche because of that same frailty. So it was falling off well before it ever lost levitate, and it would’ve been out of OU by gen7 even with levitate.
@@longtomax2981 There’s a lot more nuance to it than that. Simply having that ground immunity doesn’t automatically do anything. It’s context dependent. For example, It’s currently RU and not even top tier. It’s a great Mon, around A- rank, but frailty is a major limiting factor. What’s levitate doing? You can switch into Hippowdown better okay. Other grounds like Krook and Flygon don’t care about a ground immunity because they just click stab #2. And that’s it for relevant grounds in RU. UU already is far out of current Gengar’s reach. It’s not anywhere near strong enough and it can’t really check or switch into grounds there either because Exca just Iron Heads it and Rhyperior Stone Edges. Not to mention the prominence of Hoopa-U, Lokix and Greninja give Gengar serious issues as well as the resurgence of Tinkaton which stuffed Gengar historically in past iterations of this gen’s UU. It’s also outclassed frankly. As a special attacker it’s not that special.
@@matthewlasalvia7026 Flutter Mane… too much speed and power on top of having Dual STAB that is only resisted by Pyroar and Grafaiai, two Pokémon that are pretty bad anyways.
I'm not sure if it would be good but Heavy Slam would be full power up to 220kg and most Pokémon over 275kg it already doesn't want to deal with that being weaker than Meteor Mash isn't that much of a detriment.
Magnet Pull fits thematically? Despite that the ability has only been given to Pokemon that are actual magnets or compasses, & Luxray is a lion based around light & x-ray vision? What? Being Electric-type does NOT automatically equal Magnet Pull being thematic, IMHO. Anyway, okay analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
Yeah, I see it happen pretty often where people who want buffs don't really think the RPG flavor aspect of the RPG through. Unfortunately for Luxray I think the best thematic alternatives would be like... Illuminate or Keen Eye. So still bad :']
@@TheWrathAbove Quick Feet might help too, status would still boost Facade and buffing Luxray's Speed would do much more for it than buffing attack. Plus I still think it fits because...well look at the design, just looks fast in general, pretty sure everyone was surprised learning how slow it actually was
@@unnamed7485 Honestly yeah that's super fair, plus it'd be nice for a pokemon that actually want to use Quick Feet to get it. It's a powerful ability but gets overlooked based on it's terrible distribution.
@@yungmuney5903 Terrakion and Keldeo should get it to. Heck give them new sharpness boosted moves Also Virizion needs growth and chlorophyll to help as well
There are so many almost useful abilities they should merge. Damp and Water Veil being the first example I could think of. They buffed so many things like Scrappy, etc. to be immune to Intimidate, they can really clean up some of the other nonsense too.
In the long run Entei came out of the loss of it's old Hidden Ability pretty well when Inner Focus was buffed to block Intimidate in gen 8. Making it a pretty good choice for Entei, plus thanks to the Ability Patch you can get that shiny event Entei with Flare Blitz and Extreme Speed (prior to gen 9) to have Inner Focus. However I'm still bitter about Chandelure losing Shadow Tag, would it be busted, absolutely but frankly I don't care. You could say that I wanted the world to burn while being unable to escape.
ironically, inner focus is what makes Entei viable in certain VGC formats. regulation F saw a decent amount of AV Entei due to his good matchup into Flutter Mane. He's a physical attacker that doesn't need to run covert cloak or clear amulet to be immune to fake out + intimidate, has good priority, and a valuable attacking type without any drawback in Sacred Fire. I'd argue Inner Focus did a lot more for Entei than Flash Fire ever would. He wasn't the greatest Pokemon, but he had a respectable usage rate and won a Regional.
and in singles, inner focus is still a good choice for it's intimidate blocking, so like you said this is mainly a secret blessing for Entei compared to suicune and raikou
@@bulborb8756I’d say it’s good on the other two beasts anyway. Flinch-immunity in doubles will always be an amazing trait. Volt Absorb is not great compared to Lightning Rod which can redirect Electric moves. Same with Water Absorb vs Storm Drain. Suicune gets to be a Tailwind setter immune to flinches, and Raikou can be an annoying stat-debuffer with Snarl, Electroweb, etc that’s also flinch-immune.
@@aruakise9803 yeah but if he got flash fire, even post 8, he probably wouldn't see use since Inner Focus is why teams use him over other offensive threats
There was a time when Substitute Gliscor and Ninjask were extremely common. During that time, Infiltrator Chandelure and Noivern, and Snarl Raikou were very helpful. Hidden Power Ice was also appreciated.
To be fair, Entei did benefit greatly from Inner Focus, as now being Fake Out and Intimidate immune boosted its viability in VGC. It could also be argued that Raikou benefited slightly as two years ago, it almost top 16’d Worlds.
No, magnet pull would NOT be fitting for Luxray thematically lmao What Luxray needs is an actual speed buff and good stab move, maybe even Strong Jaw, or a mega evolution
I've just wanted the speed and sp atk to be swapped for years. It wouldn't have been broken in gen 4, it's a nothing buff at this point but whyyy did they do Luxray so dirty
Inner Focus was probably given to the beast Trio for VGC. The immunity abilities they had were fine for doubles, but considering Inner Focus is so good in Doubles that Dragonite uses it over Multiscale, GameFreak maybe thought it was a buff for Doubles at least. And considering Inner Focus now blocks intimidate, it definitely was for Entei.
Yeah I was thinking Inner Focus is a straight upgrade for Entei over Flash Fire. Volt Absorb and Water Absorb actually healing you make them real good, but Flash Fire was always pretty average, Inner Focus blocking Intimidate now makes it an upgrade honestly.
@@alexis4649desu I hope you can appreciate the irony of your own pretentious response, perhaps it's projection? Anyways, like it or not(I certainly don't) English is THE global language and it has been for at least some decades now, sorry you had to find out like this.
Ledian getting iron fist feels like a cruel joke. We have this base 35 attack bug/flying special defense tank and game freak decided to give it an ability that slightly boosts its nonstab attacking moves.
In Gen 8, during the Isle of Armor online tournament, which only allowed the use of Pokemon in the IOA's dex, I used a Colbur Berry Orbeetle led Sticky Web squad who's star player was a Guts Luxray. Starmie, Sandslash, and Lycanroc-Dusk were also amazing, but Luxray absolutely stole the show since Dynamax was honestly a perfect mechanic for it. I can't remember where I placed exactly, but I remember placing in the top 100, was very proud of my innovation with such a bad Pokemon. This goes to show folks, a Pokemon may not have amazing traits that are very applicable, but every Pokemon does something unique, and Luxrays cobbled together back of tricks happened to be JUST right for what my team needed to attain victory.
Another highlight moment was how our Kantonian Sandslash was geared to 1v1 Gyarados. Sand Rush and Rock Slide turned Max Rockfall could be used to outrun and 2HKO a Dynamaxed Gyarados after Max Airstream, and we had the physical bulk to easily tank a Max Geyser if it should after maxxing.
@@gamingwsmiles It was! Don't have a good capture card lol. I remember when hatching Shinies to use, I got 2 Shiny Rockruffs, one of which I gave to my cousin since we were using the same teams. Kantonian Sandslash was his MVP on the team tho EQ, Rock Slide, Rapid Spin, SD (We have Excadrill at home).
I feel like Electivire and Luxray should both get Galvanize as Hidden Abilities. Also I think Levitate would fit really well on Chandelure since it gets rid of the Ground weakness.
Funnily enough at least in VGC Entei actually was thankful it got Inner Focus instead of flash fire, as now its inmune tl fake out and intimidate, making him one of the safest physical attackers alongside Urshifu
honestly strong jaw could have been a decent alternative for Luxray - effectively giving it stab on crunch its best coverage, having a reliable physical stab in thunder fang and having the other elemental fangs as mroe viable coverage
I know Zapdos eventually got Static, which is a good hidden ability, but in gen 5, it had Lightningrod, but it never released. I remember playtesting it back in DW OU in 2011, and it did okay against rain teams.
I just want the Pokemon with hindering abilities to either have them altered to not be a hinderance, or they get access to beneficial abilities instead. Giving them something as simple as: Gluttony, Limber, Immunity, or Insomnia would do them wonders (and make them competitively more viable). Giving Slaking Own Tempo or Oblivious would make for interesting match ups.
Slaking could really have Defeatist as his HA - it would essentially cut it's HP in half before it becomes abusable but atleast it would get rid of it's awful gimmick
Scizor was also plagued by Light Metal. And not that it needed a new ability, Techinician is just that good, but... Light Metal is just a bad joke. For Scizor is even more cruel, since it will be taking even more damage from Heat Crash (Not that Scizor would survive anyway, but you got the point).
Outright adding a 50% Speed buff to Light Metal, and a 50% Defense buff to Heavy Metal might be acceptable considering only slow mons have access to it, maybe.
I feel there was a mix up somewhere and they gave Metagross Light Metal instead of Levitate. Levitate would've been good for it I think, immune to a common weakness, immune to Spikes, still immune to TSpikes and SWeb, and immune to Arena Trap.
@@michaelgum97 I'd rather have an immunity to a common offensive move type Metagross is weak to than take slightly less elevated damage from all its weaknesses. Filter makes you take 3/4 of 2 (or 4) times damage so you're still eating 1.5 (or 3) times the damage. It's not really that great of an ability. With that option I'd still take Clear Body every time.
Pokémon who deserve Hidden Abilities Flygon Sheer Force or Sand Stream Golidopod Tough Claws or Shell Armor Hydreigon Berserk (just ban immediately) Vikavolt Battery And the one that will cause the most damage to the players Archeops with Emergency Exit
Give Slaking Defeatist as HA while you are at it - still a detriment but atleast it is allowed to be alive at the cost of 50% HP before it goes limp again.
Compound Eyes on Dustox was a sad one. It's a good ability, but the only move you might want on Dustox that benefits from it is Toxic. Everything else is either inconsistent (Swagger) or outclassed (Poison Powder). For whatever reason, they never gave it Sleep Powder or Stun Spore. That said, Dustox made out like a bandit compared to its counterpart Beautifly, which got Rivalry, possibly the worst "offense boosting" ability in the series.
@@skeetermania3202 Really? I didn't know that. I guess the only reason to run Compound Eyes is for Swagger, then. I'm actually not as confident that Dustox got a better hidden ability than Beautifly at this point.
Idk if this would be too far, but Luxray with Speed Boost would be cool. Speed Boost would fix one of its main issues, and even once it's boosted its best physical Electric moves are Wild Charge and Supercell Slam
So many Pokemon need a ability update and not to mention an update to useless abilities. - I think light metal should slightly increase your speed, while heavy metal will drop your speed. Heavy metal will definitely be useful for trick room build + powering up weight based moves, while light metal will reduce weight damaging moves while making you faster.
Perhaps the next theorem video could be why move sets (like mix attacking, fast physical, bulky special, etc) are close to everything or the Dragonite theorem
Damp Swampert deserves a mention in this conversation, particularly when you compare it to the Hidden Abilities the other two Hoenn starters received. Not only did Damp become even more situational than it already was with the nerfs to Self-Destruct and Explosion, but the list of Hidden Abilities that would have been better for it is surprisingly long. It’s almost like the developers knew Swampert was the best of the three in Gens 3 and 4 and wanted to try and rebalance the trio a bit.
Gotta disagree with you False Wipe, Guts Luxray is an Arceus Blessing in Gen 9 Random Battles, Since it gets Trailblaze and can Tera Normal for an extra strong Facade- it's a very good mon in that meta.
Telepathy, I hate that ability so much- They gave that ability to so many pokemon as a hidden ability too, I think only the Beheeyem line and oranguru have it as a standard ability everyone else from Gardevoir to Palkia, Dialga and Giratina altered form have it as a hidden ability And it's such a let down since it's useless in singles and while it can be used on doubles, it's not an ability that's worth building around like friend guard, I don't think a single Pokémon with that ability would run it over any other of their abilities, other than some gimmicky instruct Oranguru set with spread moves, which it was clearly designed around And, just to rub salt in the wounds, Gamefreak gives Gallade sharpness which is a huge step up, but leave Gardevoir with Telepathy
another that would fall here is Anticipation, a complete nothing ability that is forever bad and never worth running, seriously why would any sane person run this on ferrothorn over the vastly superior iron barbs
@@bulborb8756 Anticipation is similar to Forewarn, Run Away or Ball Fetch as a kid friendly ability that let's them know that the opponent's secret coverage move. You aren't supposed to run it in serious settings. I do not get why it's on Ferrothorn though as no one is getting that with its hidden ability without learning the game.
To be fair, only entei benefits from inner focus due extreme speed and intimidate immunity. Raiku and Suicune don’t exactly mind flinches and couldn’t care less about intimidate, but Entei does
one day i hope they change his hidden ability, i mean did change Empoleons from defiant to competitive, so I really wish they'd change his from Damp to Regenerator (it's an axolotl and they can regrow limbs, it's perfectly fitting)
@@bulborb8756 unless they change their philosophy i don't see them changing abilities, the only reason they're even changing movesets meaningfully is because they seem to have gotten tired of maintaining the Pre-Switch bank systems
@@bulborb8756 basically anything would have been better than damp in addition to regenerator I think he would also be a great user of natural cure fits with the whole regeneration theme and swampert has historically really not liked status (I remember that in gen 3 one of swamperts most popular moves was refresh for this reason), it would also give him some nice semi reliable recovery in natural cure rest and it would be one of those cool abilities that is useful even before you mega evolve, hydration could also be similarly useful/fitting though probably a little worse for regular pert.
Giving Rampardos Sheer Force over Rock Head was cruel. It has a "signature" move with a ton of recoil and no secondary effect, so naturally it got the HA that trades secondary effects for extra damage instead of the HA that removes recoil damage.
I love seeing an ability description that ends with, "...and the like." If there was any indication Game Freak was consistent with anything else, sure, but... Rain Dance isn't a Dance Move, etc.
@@theunderscore6859 oh I understand why. Throat Chop is Hell Thrust in Japanese. Way cooler, but the localization added the effect into the name better. Rain Dance they could just rename Rainy Day and then it pairs better with Sunny Day.
@@phineas81707 They really should just do a whole new localization pass on a lot of the older moves. Some were odd choices, and some were because of the character limits of the original GB and GBA etc.
Arguably Entei's Inner Focus ability did end up helping it a lot when the ability was buffed to ignore intimidate. In VGC Entei became a reasonable option for portions of 2024, because it was a physical attacker with priority that couldn't be intimidated, and it ended up being more common than many other legendaries and paradox pokemon, and ignoring intimidate was huge because Incineroar was in the format.
i know light wieght being buffed to give it an instance speed boost upon switch in would make it alot stronger but its make the ability make more sense on metagross
Another option for Luxray that would be decent, imo, is that you could give it something like Strong Jaw since it learns all the Fang moves and would really expand its coverage
Lightning Rod Zapdos would like to know your location, Game Freak. It would definitely be an improvement in both BW OU and UU I would imagine, even if not by much in OU.
12:24 Man really said Pure Power Luxray would be in the lower tiers. That's an effective 240 base attack stat, or one and a half Rampardos, and also faster. I know the power creep is bad, but is it really THAT bad?
Luxray has base 70 speed, which isn't great, is not that bulky and is weak to ground, a very common attacking type, luxray wouldn't be touching the higher tiers.
Surprised at no mention of lightningrod zapdos. While the step down from lrod to static is less than the step down to something like inner focus or infiltrator, giving zapdos a second immunity that also boosted its SpAtk would have been really impactful
Because Static DID help Zapdos. Immensely, and it’s not a step down from Lightning Rod. It’s a step UP. It’s already famously resilient thanks to its typing and is one of the most well regarded at punishing physical attackers, which has made it reliable for generations now.
You guys forgot the other type of Pokémon with Hidden Abilities… the ones that have No hidden ability! Or the ones that only have one main ability and one HA
How ability Hidden Abilities that changed a Pokémon's identity entirely? For example, Alakazam was way more offensive before Magic Guard, where it became much more support-oriented
Not really a hidden ability per se, but rather the LACK of a hidden ability for Gengar. It was bad enough when they replaced the fantastic and thematic levitate with CURSED BODY of all things (on a mon that gets one-shot by any physical move worth caring about) but then it just didn't get a hidden ability at all? Like, OK, there are other mons with no hidden ability, but those are usually ones who's single ability are pretty much key to their identity, like ultra beasts having beast boost, Paradox mons, Stance change on Aegislash...... But Gengar doesn't have anything like that as a limitation, so it just randomly not getting a hidden ability is just downright odd
It's kinda funny because inner focus is part of the reason why suicune is playable in VGC these days and it's done wonders for Entei who is a high value fire pick.
Wobb getting Telepathy is one of the greatest 180s of all time. Is the deference between something banned to Ubers and having a niche and something being unviable in untiered
Inner Focus has been a massive boon for Entei in VGC while Flash Fire, obviously a good Ability in its own right, wouldn't give it the versatility it currently has.
In the deoxys movie we saw metagross levitating above the ground as it traveled. It would have been a cool movie tie-in to give it levitate as its hidden ability. Would that make it an incredibly strong and borderline broken pokemon? Yes. But that’s what the BL is for.
I maintain that Articuno not getting Snow Warning is the second biggest slap in the face. The first is Gamefreak's insistence on making defensive ice types
Imagine Slow Start cuts your Atk, SAtk and Spd by 50% on the first turn, sets everything to neutral on the 2nd, and adds 50% on the third and then stops there. This would still fit thematically but would be not just a flat middlefinger...
I remember being absolutely baffled by Truant Durant when I first saw it. So I did a bit of googling and found an old forum thread of people talking about it. First post I saw was a few paragraphs pointing out how Durant got Entrainment, which would allow you to pass Truant to other pokemon for some interesting strategic plays. It was followed immediately by someone saying "Truant for the True Ant, Durant". I'm not sure which reason is better.
For some reason, Game Freak made Durant's Hidden Ability Truant, the ability that makes you unable to attack every other turn. The only way I can see this ability being useful is if Durant used Entrainment to give its opponent Truant as well.
HAs in Gen V were often less about what Abilites would buff Pokemon as they were about what, lore-wise, that Pokemon would want. What does the worker ant Pokemon get? A vacation. Since they dropped the Dream World lore, they also dropped that element.
Nothing is funnier than giving Azumarill Sap Sipper as his hidden ability, like GAMEFREAK, DUDE. TEL ME WHY I SHOULDNT RUN THE MANDATORY HUGE POWER? It’s not even that Sap Sipper is a bad ability, it’s just that why would you run any other ability over HUGE POWER?
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wow people did NOT like that ad read lmaoo
It took 28 seconds for Wolfe Glick and Incineroar to appear together in a video about unhelpful hidden abilities in Pokémon
Was just going to comment that. But somehow I knew it would already be here 😅
I love how this joke carried over from his comment section to others
There is no escape
What did I miss?
I CANT ESCAPE THESE COMMENTS LMAO
Nothing will be more iconic than Delibird getting Insomnia as its Hidden Ability when it already had Vital Spirit 🙏
They really didn't want to give him much of a chance, but I guess at least both will help Delibird to deliver gifts 😂
Should give it Early Bird too, just because.
They really want you to get the joke that santa doesn't sleep
truly one of the mosts hidden abilities of all time
Honestly it could have Refrigerate and I wouldn't bat an eye
GameFreak getting cold feet over Shadow Tag Chandelure is still pretty funny to me, especially since they would create something even more broken in Mega Gengar literally 1 generation later.
The concept of GF caring about busted mons is inherently hilarious to me
@@ashikjaman1940They don't get to complain after they created Mega Rayquaza.
Chandelure would’ve been more broken than Mega Gengar. The ability to hold an item means Chandelure is functionally faster, stronger, or has Leftovers recovery depending on what you wanted to trap and eliminate.
@@ashikjaman1940 They can not balance online, but at the same time, they can recognize when something is obviously broken. Whether it actually happens is a different story
@@punkysnarks To be fair it was probably balanced more around VGC, it didn't seem to be completely broken in the restricted formats with things like Primal Groundon or Xerneas around.
Singles on the other hand is the wild west and Smogon is one of the only groups who has made an effort to control it.
For metagross, missed the part where light metal is not just useless now, but an active hindrance bc it gets heavy slam, which is based on the proportional weights, not plain weight value. Like if Metagross is usually 5.2 times heavier than a mon, light metal will take the move from 120 BP to 60
It's a pity Light Metal couldn't have some other effect, like it reduces damage from ground and fighting moves or something
Light metal should also multiply speed by 1.2x and Heavy metal should prevent force switches like roar and whirlwind.
It also makes Heat Crash stronger, so you’re actively making a move you’re weak to stronger.
@@yungmuney5903 YES
@@yungmuney5903 Light Metal: Just cause a free Autotomize upon switching in.
Speed Boost: Finally, a worthy opponent!
Ledian trying to make 35 ATK Iron First work...
every enhancement rom hack like radical red or inclement emerald first multiplies the base atk stat of this poor ladybug lol
@@frankchen4229 Really all they need to do is swap its attack and special defense. 110 attack/85 speed with Iron Fist and a surprisingly good offensive movepool would probably have some sort of niche in ZU.
@@LordPhilipJFryZU is ran by h-decidueye. It probably would have been able to be a nice pivot for it. If it gets roost it’d be THE counter to h decidueye.
Though knock off sets would hurt A LOT.
"Please forgive Ledian, he's an idiot. We trained him wrong. As a joke"
Only feasible way I've found of making Ledian do anything is as a specially bulky trapper. Struggle bug, infestation, toxic, and roost. Works like once a blue moon, but it's amusing when it does work.
Wailord getting pressure in the same gen where politoed got drizzle is the equivalent of an older sibling getting socks for Christmas while their younger sibling gets a PS5
Might aswell have given wailord aftermath at that point 😂
@@daigustoemeral3710tbh aftermath wailord is pretty messed up considering whale carcass can explodes
@@bethor7Game freak yall hear them. Make it happen!!!
Wailord should have gotten cloud nine
Technically, Wailord is the younger sibling
Rillaboom: Amazing passive healing and buffs Grassy Glide
Cinderace: Versatile and Strong with STAB on everything
Inteleon: oops
It really is oops when they removed focus energy from it in scarlet and violet 😭
@@Direktor-en1ik Peak Game Freak
@@Direktor-en1ik "We must hinder the one that is struggling further"
They seem to at least have learned after that, imagine if they had given Quaquaval Dancer instead of Moxie.
I still stand by that they should have given Inteleon a hidden ability that was a combination of sniper and super luck so it both raised his crit chance on all moves as well as increased the damage from crits. Would have been so much better and could have been a ton of fun to mess around with.
Umbreon getting Inner Focus while Espeon gets Magic Bounce will always floor me. lol
Especially if you think about Umbreons Dex entires... Poison Point would have made actual sense here ngl
@@m0fn668 Hey, yeah! I also could see an argument for Liquid Ooze, though I'll grant that that probably isn't as useful. lol
Eww imagen poison heal Umbreon, disgusting
@@AutumnOwlex Not a bad take 🤔
@@AutumnOwlexI mean... Umbreon has always been pretty bad. That'd at least give it something
Kinda crazy how Gamefreak didn't release Shadow Tag Chandalure for being too broken but then immediately released Mega Gengar
I smell a gen 1 orgy at Gamefreak
At least M Gengar required a sacrifice of a kind (held item and your mega), even if that sacrifice was EXTREMELY worth it
Gen1Dev strikes again
It’s almost like they don’t know what they’re doing.
They’re hypocrites lmfao
I’m surprised Delibird wasnt mentioned. Sure its a forever bad Pokemon, but giving it Insomnia when it ALREADY had Vital Spirit is downright criminal
It should get Toxic Depris instead. FUN GIFTS FOR THE NAUGHTY WHO DARE TO ATTACK IT.
Or even just an ability to spread regular spikes when it gets hit. “Oh no, not little Timmy’s lego set!”
Game Freak doesn’t know how to balance their game.
santa has to stay awake, he's got a busy job.
Throwing out an honorable mention to Swampert here: Damp isn't that useful because Self-Destruct and Explosion saw less use due to their nerfs, although it has a tiny niche in stopping suicide leads from using said moves for free switches. Defiant didn't help Empoleon either in Gens V-VIII because it's a special attacker; Game Freak must have realized their mistake in Gen IX and changed it to Competitive from that point onward.
Swampert should have Swift Swim or Rain Dish which are useful for him, because Damp doesn't make sense.
@@abraham-kun4144 they DID indeed give mega-swampert swift swim, but it should have already been a thing for base swampert
although imagine sap sipper swampert, zero weakness mudfish
Empoleon didn't initially get Competitive in Gen 5 cause the ability itself didn't exist until Gen 6.
Not fully sure why it took until Gen 9 for it to finally get changed (prob has something to do with transferring), but better late than never I guess.
Honestly I think damp should be made not to allow burns and take less damage from fire type moves.
@@a.v.y8331 Sap Sipper could make sense because of how swamps usually are too
7:59 Saying “walking in the wake” while showing Suicune on screen had me chuckling for a bit lol
Then "Raikou raging against the bolt of Volt Switches" and "Entei gouging each other with fire".
10/10 script
@@Acepridi56 Ian Flynn writing Pokemon:
I'd definitely would be up for "MORE Hidden Abilities That DIDN'T Help These Pokemon" video in the future.
Rain Dish Blastoise
Frisk Wigglytuff (even before open team sheets)
Leaf Guard Meganium (for obvious reasons)
Plus Ampharos
Unnerve Tyranitar
Damp Swampert
Keen Eye Drapion (what were they thinking?)
Vital Spirit Electivire and Magmortar (imagine if they got Sheer Force instead)
Magician Delphox (not even signature abilities are safe)
Long Reach Decidueye (look above)
Sniper Inteleon
Technician Grapploct
@@goGothitaLOL Cute Charm Milotic
@goGothitaLOL
Best comment on this whole comment section
LOL
(You didn't ask but i will answer anyway)
Blastoise => Give regular Blastoise Mega Launcher and Buff water Pulse to 80 base power. (120 Power, 100% accuracy stab go brrrrrrrr)
Wigglytuff => Give it Wonder Skin (This pokémon is so terrible that i have no idea how to make it even superficialy viable)
Meganium => Give it Triage (I know ~ Totaly original ideia ~)
Ampharos => Why it doesn't have Lightning Rod ? Seriously look at its design.
(And give Sp. Atk Moxie. Why this ability doesn't exist ?)
Tyranitar => Give it Solid Rock (The Armor Pokémon doesn't have an armor related Ability. What was GF thinking ?)
Swampert => Give it Rain Dish
Drapion => Give it Meciless (Several other poison types would benefict from this ability way more than toxapeks)
Electivire => Give it Iron Fist (Pretend that this Ability multiplies by 1.5 insted of 1.2)
Magmortar => Give it Mega Launcher (~ Other totaly original ideia ~)
Delphox => This one i have no idea. Magician is an absolutely useless ability. But 'Magician' is such an abstract concept, that you can think an viraiaty of effects and it would thematically fit. Even something stupid like protean effect (weed cat has it) or Sp. Atk Intimidate. Or just give the Mystic Fox 'Trace' 🤷
Decidueye => 🤔
Buff Long Reach so it also has the effect of Shield Dust/Covert Cloak effect. (Coldn't think anything better 🤓👆)
Inteleon => Sniper is actually a great ability for Inteleon. It just lacks Focus Energy to work with this.
@@Deixaeutemandarareal2582 Blastoise 100% - also slap the Steel Type on it while you are at it. It's long overdue.
Wigglytuff: Pure Power? Fixed Azumarill 🦐
Meganium would love some THICC Fat, wouldn't it?
Ampharos clearly needs Illuminate - the lore dictates.
Tyranitar would actually be funny with a Special Attack boosting HA just for the sake of variety - it has a neat special pool it barely uses
Swampert: sure why not
Drapion not having Poison Touch as a SCORPION is wild. Or Tough Claws even.
Thunder Punch was Electabuzzes thing in Gen 1 and the anime, I can't believe it never got Iron Fist...
Magmortar with Mega Launcher? Look at those cannons... add some moves if nescesary (armor cannon lol)
Going with the witch theme of Delphox - what was that weird ability of G-Slowking again? - Also Power of Alchemy perhaps
Decidueye would be neat if Long Reach also boosted crit a little - those long range critical leaf blades and shadow claws and tripple arrows hm...
Intelion needs a simple thing: Snipe shot should always crit. It has nothing to do with critical striking whilst having SNIPE in it's name.
@@goGothitaLOL don't forget shell armor torterra
Metagross with Levitate instead of Light Metal would be interesting. In Gen 5 Levitate would've left it with just one weakness, but now that Steel doesn't resist Dark and Ghost anymore, it should give Metagross some extra utility without breaking it.
Also, I do remember Zapdos getting Lightningrod as its HA. Not that Static is bad, but Zapdos would've run through OU with Lightningrod.
I don't understand why steel resists psychic when spoons were always being bent as a representation of psychic prowess by alakazam.
Imagine Lightning Rod Zapdos in VGC.
Remember near the end of 2013 when everyone was going out of their way to stop Thundurus that some Lightning Rod users made their way to Top 8 of Worlds (Se Jun Park’s Marowak or Benjamin Gould’s Eviolite Rhydon)?
Irl, it's probably because psychic type was too strong already.
As for the reasoning, idk, psychics aren't immune to bullets.
To answer that we need to talk about gen 1 competitive pokemon-
@@davada123 We actually do have some insight into the design process. The betas of GSC we have feature a very different type chart for steel and Dark, of note is that at the time steel and psychic were neutral against each other and dark only resisted Psychic. These betas are from before the first major tournments they held so it's likely that steel's resistance to psychic was pretty much purely a blancing choice based on the results of that tournament.
Salamence getting Moxie while Metagross gets Light Metal is some Toy Story 1 Buzz Lightyear and Woody stuff.
Metagross should get Levitate IMO. There are probably some other abilities that would make sense and work well on Metagross.
@@HopelessRetirement i'm infuriated that meta doesn't have levitate.
My favorite is still Anticipation Ferrothorn.
> Loses its bread and butter Iron Barbs.
> Didn't even have it in Gen 5. Only since Gen 6.
> Ferroseed didn't even get a (different) Hidden Ability.
This feels Mindy levels of trolling. You get a Ferroseed, don't know it has its HA Flag, and then learn it's garbage.
Its kinda useful in draft leages where you can prepare for specific mons. Lots of niche fire coverage out there. But yeah on the ladder its useless
How to fix Luxray: slap a dark typing, give it Darkest Lariat, make him bipedal only when he does the attack and call him Electric Incineroar
The Dark Typing and Strong Jaw makes it so much better and still fits the design. Alternatively give it Quick Feet instead of Guts and slap the Normal Typing on it for STAB Facades and doubled speed.
If they bulk it up, make it bipedal and give it fake out, u-turn, and helping hand, it won’t ever ditch Intimidate again.
Great idea for a regional variant, but Game Freak doesn’t give a Pokemon a secondary type unless it’s a new type like Dark and Steel in Gen 2 or Fairy in Gen 6.
Honestly, it just needs an extra 10-20 points in Speed.
@@matthewlasalvia7026 they should
Considering its actively capable of flight, I feel like Metagross would have done well by simply giving it levitate as the hidden ability. Its not an overbearing ability, plus it does not give it an offensive boost. a defensive one but still.
Oh also, I do consider Damp on swampert to be one of the biggest let downs when it comes to hidden abilities on starters. Especially compared to both Sceptile and Blaziken getting pretty good to REALLY good hidden abilities.
Would be so simple to just give it swift swim
And Magnezone would agree that this ability would be logical on something that ... ye know... levitates.
@@m0fn668 truee, i'd swap it in for analytic for it
Meganium could’ve really used Regenerator, Sheer Force, Chlorophyll, or Natural Cure, and those boneheads gave her Leaf Guard
even Thick Fat would be great... its rather THICC anyways
@@m0fn668never call meg Thicc 🤢
@@m0fn668whoa. Pause
And, as if to rub salt in the wound, Feraliigatr got Sheer Force, and Typhlosion got the not-as-good-but-still-helpful Flash Fire.
How about we buff Leaf Guard to protect Meganium with non-volatile status and stat drops
Pyroar getting Moxie on a base 68 ATK mon is plain evil
More like incompetent. Game Freak needs to start hiring people who understand game balance.
Atleast the male should have been a physical attacker with female getting a special attack variation of Moxie.
Milotic would've been a perfect fit. Its regular abilities are Marvel Scale a Competetive. Both great abilities imo and its hidden ability is Cute Charm?
I'm pretty sure that competitive is the hidden ability and cute charm is one of the regular ability though
@@imugi-16 Not so, actually. Competitive was given to it as a normal secondary ability in Gen 6, and Cute Charm is its hidden ability. You can check serebii for confirmation.
@@Sintra4 Oh wow, it is. It's weird that they gave milotic a hidden ability before its secondary ability.
@@imugi-16 Definitely unusual. I can't think of another example off the top of my head.
@@Sintra4 There's more than a few examples, particularly of new Abilities, but also for the new weather setters in SM.
Milotic isn't even the only Pokemon to gain Competitive in Gen 6: Wigglytuff and Gothitelle did too. In addition to that, I can also name Gallade getting Sharpness in Gen 9.
Guess next is pokemon who'd be viable without abilities (slaking arceops etc) and or ones who became staples after a type change when fairy steel and dark came
Gengar may not have a hidden ability, but having its ability changed from levitate to cursed body in Gen 7 was a blow to it.
Not nearly as big as it’s made out to be. It’s borderline unviable in modern gen5 OU because of its awful frailty while gen6 it only ever managed a small niche because of that same frailty. So it was falling off well before it ever lost levitate, and it would’ve been out of OU by gen7 even with levitate.
@@HowlingOneifyGetting an immunity to ground type without drawback is amazing id make it atleast BL in gen 9
@@longtomax2981 There’s a lot more nuance to it than that. Simply having that ground immunity doesn’t automatically do anything. It’s context dependent. For example, It’s currently RU and not even top tier. It’s a great Mon, around A- rank, but frailty is a major limiting factor. What’s levitate doing? You can switch into Hippowdown better okay. Other grounds like Krook and Flygon don’t care about a ground immunity because they just click stab #2. And that’s it for relevant grounds in RU.
UU already is far out of current Gengar’s reach. It’s not anywhere near strong enough and it can’t really check or switch into grounds there either because Exca just Iron Heads it and Rhyperior Stone Edges. Not to mention the prominence of Hoopa-U, Lokix and Greninja give Gengar serious issues as well as the resurgence of Tinkaton which stuffed Gengar historically in past iterations of this gen’s UU.
It’s also outclassed frankly. As a special attacker it’s not that special.
It should be clear by now that the people who make these games do not understand game balance.
@@matthewlasalvia7026 Flutter Mane… too much speed and power on top of having Dual STAB that is only resisted by Pyroar and Grafaiai, two Pokémon that are pretty bad anyways.
For Metagross, Light Metal is actively detrimental since it also weakens Heavy Slam against many targets.
What if it had Heavy Metal though? 🤔
I'm not sure if it would be good but Heavy Slam would be full power up to 220kg and most Pokémon over 275kg it already doesn't want to deal with that being weaker than Meteor Mash isn't that much of a detriment.
it doesn't learn heavy slam
@@eimardgomes1128 Nowadays it does.
Magnet Pull fits thematically? Despite that the ability has only been given to Pokemon that are actual magnets or compasses, & Luxray is a lion based around light & x-ray vision? What?
Being Electric-type does NOT automatically equal Magnet Pull being thematic, IMHO.
Anyway, okay analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
Yeah, I see it happen pretty often where people who want buffs don't really think the RPG flavor aspect of the RPG through. Unfortunately for Luxray I think the best thematic alternatives would be like... Illuminate or Keen Eye. So still bad :']
@@NeogeddonI think the strongest ability you could give it that's somewhat thematic is probably Moxie.
False Swipe Gaming is kind of bonkers sometimes.
@@TheWrathAbove Quick Feet might help too, status would still boost Facade and buffing Luxray's Speed would do much more for it than buffing attack. Plus I still think it fits because...well look at the design, just looks fast in general, pretty sure everyone was surprised learning how slow it actually was
@@unnamed7485 Honestly yeah that's super fair, plus it'd be nice for a pokemon that actually want to use Quick Feet to get it. It's a powerful ability but gets overlooked based on it's terrible distribution.
That's why its hidden. So you don't get it
He just doesn't get it 🙄
A bad hidden ability is just as much of a middle finger to the competitive players as Ultra Necrozma is to the nuzlockers
Yo I know you from Honako’s vids!
That's a hidden ability you got there! Keep it hidden.
The swords of justice need sharpness and weather speed boosting.
Cobalion on the other hand probably would be great with Stamina.
Virizion is the only one that really needs sharpness. 135 power Leaf blade and Sacred Sword goes hard.
@@yungmuney5903 Terrakion and Keldeo should get it to. Heck give them new sharpness boosted moves
Also Virizion needs growth and chlorophyll to help as well
@@mandalorianhunter1 Terrakion could get Stone Axe.
@@reddragonair3147 I think he deserves mighty cleave or a different version of it
There are so many almost useful abilities they should merge. Damp and Water Veil being the first example I could think of. They buffed so many things like Scrappy, etc. to be immune to Intimidate, they can really clean up some of the other nonsense too.
In the long run Entei came out of the loss of it's old Hidden Ability pretty well when Inner Focus was buffed to block Intimidate in gen 8. Making it a pretty good choice for Entei, plus thanks to the Ability Patch you can get that shiny event Entei with Flare Blitz and Extreme Speed (prior to gen 9) to have Inner Focus.
However I'm still bitter about Chandelure losing Shadow Tag, would it be busted, absolutely but frankly I don't care. You could say that I wanted the world to burn while being unable to escape.
ironically, inner focus is what makes Entei viable in certain VGC formats. regulation F saw a decent amount of AV Entei due to his good matchup into Flutter Mane. He's a physical attacker that doesn't need to run covert cloak or clear amulet to be immune to fake out + intimidate, has good priority, and a valuable attacking type without any drawback in Sacred Fire. I'd argue Inner Focus did a lot more for Entei than Flash Fire ever would. He wasn't the greatest Pokemon, but he had a respectable usage rate and won a Regional.
and in singles, inner focus is still a good choice for it's intimidate blocking, so like you said this is mainly a secret blessing for Entei compared to suicune and raikou
I mean that's only after they buffed it and that was in gen 8. Before it was just no flinching which is nice but eh.
@@bulborb8756I’d say it’s good on the other two beasts anyway. Flinch-immunity in doubles will always be an amazing trait. Volt Absorb is not great compared to Lightning Rod which can redirect Electric moves. Same with Water Absorb vs Storm Drain. Suicune gets to be a Tailwind setter immune to flinches, and Raikou can be an annoying stat-debuffer with Snarl, Electroweb, etc that’s also flinch-immune.
@@aruakise9803 yeah but if he got flash fire, even post 8, he probably wouldn't see use since Inner Focus is why teams use him over other offensive threats
@@aruakise9803 Maybe so but now that it has been buffed, it’s easily a straight upgrade over Flash Fire.
There was a time when Substitute Gliscor and Ninjask were extremely common. During that time, Infiltrator Chandelure and Noivern, and Snarl Raikou were very helpful. Hidden Power Ice was also appreciated.
To be fair, Entei did benefit greatly from Inner Focus, as now being Fake Out and Intimidate immune boosted its viability in VGC.
It could also be argued that Raikou benefited slightly as two years ago, it almost top 16’d Worlds.
Yeah Inner Focus feels like an upgrade to Flash Fire for Entei straight up.
No, magnet pull would NOT be fitting for Luxray thematically lmao
What Luxray needs is an actual speed buff and good stab move, maybe even Strong Jaw, or a mega evolution
Would speed boost make sense?
how bout galvanize? stab double edge / facade / body slam / quick attack + swords dance or agility
I've just wanted the speed and sp atk to be swapped for years. It wouldn't have been broken in gen 4, it's a nothing buff at this point but whyyy did they do Luxray so dirty
All it needs is more HP and Bulk Up. Simplest Way to make it better, a Scrafty-esque sweeper
Sheer Force
Inner Focus was probably given to the beast Trio for VGC. The immunity abilities they had were fine for doubles, but considering Inner Focus is so good in Doubles that Dragonite uses it over Multiscale, GameFreak maybe thought it was a buff for Doubles at least.
And considering Inner Focus now blocks intimidate, it definitely was for Entei.
Yeah I was thinking Inner Focus is a straight upgrade for Entei over Flash Fire. Volt Absorb and Water Absorb actually healing you make them real good, but Flash Fire was always pretty average, Inner Focus blocking Intimidate now makes it an upgrade honestly.
Durant getting truant is probably the funniest dad joke in all Pokemon.
yea i'm sure the Jp people at Game Freak had the English pun in mind when they came up with that ^^ English speakers and their ego, name a better duo
Who knows… the Japanese do looooove themselves som Dad jokes (Oyaji Gyagu)
It’s funny because you can use Entrainment to give it to your opponents
Because it’s a true ant.
@@alexis4649desu I hope you can appreciate the irony of your own pretentious response, perhaps it's projection? Anyways, like it or not(I certainly don't) English is THE global language and it has been for at least some decades now, sorry you had to find out like this.
Ledian getting iron fist feels like a cruel joke. We have this base 35 attack bug/flying special defense tank and game freak decided to give it an ability that slightly boosts its nonstab attacking moves.
Ledian deserves an Atk boost and Pure Power on top. Then we could still laugh at it but it would flail a bit more seriously while crying
Kingambit getting Pressure next to Defiant and Supreme Overlord is pretty funny
In Gen 8, during the Isle of Armor online tournament, which only allowed the use of Pokemon in the IOA's dex, I used a Colbur Berry Orbeetle led Sticky Web squad who's star player was a Guts Luxray. Starmie, Sandslash, and Lycanroc-Dusk were also amazing, but Luxray absolutely stole the show since Dynamax was honestly a perfect mechanic for it. I can't remember where I placed exactly, but I remember placing in the top 100, was very proud of my innovation with such a bad Pokemon.
This goes to show folks, a Pokemon may not have amazing traits that are very applicable, but every Pokemon does something unique, and Luxrays cobbled together back of tricks happened to be JUST right for what my team needed to attain victory.
Another highlight moment was how our Kantonian Sandslash was geared to 1v1 Gyarados. Sand Rush and Rock Slide turned Max Rockfall could be used to outrun and 2HKO a Dynamaxed Gyarados after Max Airstream, and we had the physical bulk to easily tank a Max Geyser if it should after maxxing.
Aw, dang, I wished you had some of those matches uploaded cause that sounds like an awesome team!
@@gamingwsmiles It was! Don't have a good capture card lol. I remember when hatching Shinies to use, I got 2 Shiny Rockruffs, one of which I gave to my cousin since we were using the same teams. Kantonian Sandslash was his MVP on the team tho EQ, Rock Slide, Rapid Spin, SD (We have Excadrill at home).
I feel like Electivire and Luxray should both get Galvanize as Hidden Abilities.
Also I think Levitate would fit really well on Chandelure since it gets rid of the Ground weakness.
As a Lamp, Chandelure DESERVES Illuminate - it needs it.
@@m0fn668illuminate does nothing
Funnily enough at least in VGC Entei actually was thankful it got Inner Focus instead of flash fire, as now its inmune tl fake out and intimidate, making him one of the safest physical attackers alongside Urshifu
Clearly the best Hidden Ability is Run Away Venonat. Totally broken and over-powered.
Run Away Venonat is actually broken because it would allow you to run away from all your problems with zero repercussions. Absolutely monstrous.
They should honestly buff run away so that the pokemon can ignore trapping effects and switch freely in battle
honestly strong jaw could have been a decent alternative for Luxray - effectively giving it stab on crunch its best coverage, having a reliable physical stab in thunder fang and having the other elemental fangs as mroe viable coverage
I just wish luxray wasn't slower than shiiii
I know Zapdos eventually got Static, which is a good hidden ability, but in gen 5, it had Lightningrod, but it never released. I remember playtesting it back in DW OU in 2011, and it did okay against rain teams.
I just want the Pokemon with hindering abilities to either have them altered to not be a hinderance, or they get access to beneficial abilities instead. Giving them something as simple as: Gluttony, Limber, Immunity, or Insomnia would do them wonders (and make them competitively more viable). Giving Slaking Own Tempo or Oblivious would make for interesting match ups.
Slaking could really have Defeatist as his HA - it would essentially cut it's HP in half before it becomes abusable but atleast it would get rid of it's awful gimmick
@@m0fn668 Perhaps. But since there's other Pokemon that are powerful why not let the slaKING have his day?
Scizor was also plagued by Light Metal. And not that it needed a new ability, Techinician is just that good, but... Light Metal is just a bad joke.
For Scizor is even more cruel, since it will be taking even more damage from Heat Crash (Not that Scizor would survive anyway, but you got the point).
Outright adding a 50% Speed buff to Light Metal, and a 50% Defense buff to Heavy Metal might be acceptable considering only slow mons have access to it, maybe.
It would be cool if you could go over different types like steel or grass, and how they did in the competitive scene.
I feel there was a mix up somewhere and they gave Metagross Light Metal instead of Levitate. Levitate would've been good for it I think, immune to a common weakness, immune to Spikes, still immune to TSpikes and SWeb, and immune to Arena Trap.
Or maybe give it Filter.
For those wondering:
Filter: This Pokemon receives 3/4 damage from supereffective attacks.
@@michaelgum97
I'd rather have an immunity to a common offensive move type Metagross is weak to than take slightly less elevated damage from all its weaknesses.
Filter makes you take 3/4 of 2 (or 4) times damage so you're still eating 1.5 (or 3) times the damage. It's not really that great of an ability. With that option I'd still take Clear Body every time.
Pokémon who deserve Hidden Abilities
Flygon Sheer Force or Sand Stream
Golidopod Tough Claws or Shell Armor
Hydreigon Berserk (just ban immediately)
Vikavolt Battery
And the one that will cause the most damage to the players
Archeops with Emergency Exit
Give Slaking Defeatist as HA while you are at it - still a detriment but atleast it is allowed to be alive at the cost of 50% HP before it goes limp again.
@@m0fn668 you think I’m just giving out hidden abilities here!?
Flygon with sand stream even fit its description better, in pokedex, they said Flyogon creates sandstorm with its wing
Give Archeops adaptability
Compound Eyes on Dustox was a sad one. It's a good ability, but the only move you might want on Dustox that benefits from it is Toxic. Everything else is either inconsistent (Swagger) or outclassed (Poison Powder). For whatever reason, they never gave it Sleep Powder or Stun Spore. That said, Dustox made out like a bandit compared to its counterpart Beautifly, which got Rivalry, possibly the worst "offense boosting" ability in the series.
@@Sintra4 Toxic doesn’t benefit at all since it always hits if used by a Poison type.
@@skeetermania3202 Really? I didn't know that. I guess the only reason to run Compound Eyes is for Swagger, then. I'm actually not as confident that Dustox got a better hidden ability than Beautifly at this point.
Idk if this would be too far, but Luxray with Speed Boost would be cool. Speed Boost would fix one of its main issues, and even once it's boosted its best physical Electric moves are Wild Charge and Supercell Slam
Quick Feet plus adding the Normal Type to it may do the trick too. STAB Facade plus double speed - But that didn't even fix Ursaring or Granbull...
@@m0fn668 well Ursaring have the evolution now at least
Luxray doesnt have big stabs nor swords dance, it wouldn't be anywhere near as strong as blaziken is.
So many Pokemon need a ability update and not to mention an update to useless abilities.
- I think light metal should slightly increase your speed, while heavy metal will drop your speed. Heavy metal will definitely be useful for trick room build + powering up weight based moves, while light metal will reduce weight damaging moves while making you faster.
Perhaps the next theorem video could be why move sets (like mix attacking, fast physical, bulky special, etc) are close to everything or the Dragonite theorem
9:39 If they had given metagross heavy metal instead it could at least use heavy slam and heat crash
Damp Swampert deserves a mention in this conversation, particularly when you compare it to the Hidden Abilities the other two Hoenn starters received. Not only did Damp become even more situational than it already was with the nerfs to Self-Destruct and Explosion, but the list of Hidden Abilities that would have been better for it is surprisingly long. It’s almost like the developers knew Swampert was the best of the three in Gens 3 and 4 and wanted to try and rebalance the trio a bit.
Gotta disagree with you False Wipe, Guts Luxray is an Arceus Blessing in Gen 9 Random Battles, Since it gets Trailblaze and can Tera Normal for an extra strong Facade- it's a very good mon in that meta.
Outright adding the Normal Type to it would even be a buff for the poor thing ngl
Luxray isn't good ANYWHERE lmao, and I say this as a Luxray Enjoyer. It seems good on paper, but does and always will fall flat in practice
My brother in christ, in Random Battles even volbeat can be strong af
Not reallyyy I’ve made Chatot work in Ranbats
Telepathy, I hate that ability so much-
They gave that ability to so many pokemon as a hidden ability too, I think only the Beheeyem line and oranguru have it as a standard ability everyone else from Gardevoir to Palkia, Dialga and Giratina altered form have it as a hidden ability
And it's such a let down since it's useless in singles and while it can be used on doubles, it's not an ability that's worth building around like friend guard, I don't think a single Pokémon with that ability would run it over any other of their abilities, other than some gimmicky instruct Oranguru set with spread moves, which it was clearly designed around
And, just to rub salt in the wounds, Gamefreak gives Gallade sharpness which is a huge step up, but leave Gardevoir with Telepathy
another that would fall here is Anticipation, a complete nothing ability that is forever bad and never worth running, seriously why would any sane person run this on ferrothorn over the vastly superior iron barbs
TBF, Gardevoir has won Worlds once, and that was without its Mega.
@@bulborb8756 Anticipation is similar to Forewarn, Run Away or Ball Fetch as a kid friendly ability that let's them know that the opponent's secret coverage move. You aren't supposed to run it in serious settings. I do not get why it's on Ferrothorn though as no one is getting that with its hidden ability without learning the game.
And then you add in that Dialga’s, Palkia’s, and Giratina’s only other ability is Pressure
And only the last one utilized it
@@goGothitaLOLDidn’t stop Wolfe from winning a regional with Telepathy Dialga and Banded Lando-T in 2016.
Competitive Boltund is one of the unfunniest pranks Gamefreak did in Gen 8.
same goes for Technician grapploct, why give it that ability when it has almost no moves with 60 or less power
@@bulborb8756 So circle throw gets 90 bp I guess, not a good reason though
@@bulborb8756 radical red gave it the love it deserved. Mach punch, aqua jet, power up punch and flip turn went hard on my technician grapploct
Chandelure's hidden ability being bad feels even worse when you consider that it was supposed to get shadow tag
I really wished Drapion got Intimidate as a Hidden Ability.
That would had definitely helped it.
Poison touch as well at least I think so
To be fair, only entei benefits from inner focus due extreme speed and intimidate immunity. Raiku and Suicune don’t exactly mind flinches and couldn’t care less about intimidate, but Entei does
Immediately as i saw this title, my boi swampert came into mind.
one day i hope they change his hidden ability, i mean did change Empoleons from defiant to competitive, so I really wish they'd change his from Damp to Regenerator (it's an axolotl and they can regrow limbs, it's perfectly fitting)
@@bulborb8756 unless they change their philosophy i don't see them changing abilities, the only reason they're even changing movesets meaningfully is because they seem to have gotten tired of maintaining the Pre-Switch bank systems
@@bulborb8756 basically anything would have been better than damp in addition to regenerator I think he would also be a great user of natural cure fits with the whole regeneration theme and swampert has historically really not liked status (I remember that in gen 3 one of swamperts most popular moves was refresh for this reason), it would also give him some nice semi reliable recovery in natural cure rest and it would be one of those cool abilities that is useful even before you mega evolve, hydration could also be similarly useful/fitting though probably a little worse for regular pert.
Shoutout to Spinda for trying to make his Contrarian Superpower set work out of its 50-everywhere stats.
The references to the paradox mons in the suicune entei raikou section was just chef’s kiss
Giving Rampardos Sheer Force over Rock Head was cruel. It has a "signature" move with a ton of recoil and no secondary effect, so naturally it got the HA that trades secondary effects for extra damage instead of the HA that removes recoil damage.
You actually seemed really pissed about Luxray's HA lmao
worth noting at least in vgc, the beasts especially entei do prefer inner focus over what they would have originally had.
Fake Out do be like that.
I love seeing an ability description that ends with, "...and the like."
If there was any indication Game Freak was consistent with anything else, sure, but...
Rain Dance isn't a Dance Move, etc.
That's bc rain dance is rain prayer in Japan
@@theunderscore6859 oh I understand why. Throat Chop is Hell Thrust in Japanese. Way cooler, but the localization added the effect into the name better. Rain Dance they could just rename Rainy Day and then it pairs better with Sunny Day.
@@Kasaaz Sunny Day also needs renaming- it was Clear Skies in JP, which is why it buffs Moonlight.
@@phineas81707 They really should just do a whole new localization pass on a lot of the older moves. Some were odd choices, and some were because of the character limits of the original GB and GBA etc.
@@KasaazI know they did change some move names previously. Faint Attack turned to Feint Attack for instance
Inner Focus is absolutely an upgrade to flash fire for Entei in vgc after gen 8's buff
That David lynch line was 1000% BKC 😂 nice
Arguably Entei's Inner Focus ability did end up helping it a lot when the ability was buffed to ignore intimidate. In VGC Entei became a reasonable option for portions of 2024, because it was a physical attacker with priority that couldn't be intimidated, and it ended up being more common than many other legendaries and paradox pokemon, and ignoring intimidate was huge because Incineroar was in the format.
i know light wieght being buffed to give it an instance speed boost upon switch in would make it alot stronger but its make the ability make more sense on metagross
Another option for Luxray that would be decent, imo, is that you could give it something like Strong Jaw since it learns all the Fang moves and would really expand its coverage
8:00 how bro felt writing this part of the script: ✍️ ✍️ ✍️ 🔥 🔥 🔥
BKC moment if I ever saw one
Lightning Rod Zapdos would like to know your location, Game Freak.
It would definitely be an improvement in both BW OU and UU I would imagine, even if not by much in OU.
12:24 Man really said Pure Power Luxray would be in the lower tiers. That's an effective 240 base attack stat, or one and a half Rampardos, and also faster. I know the power creep is bad, but is it really THAT bad?
Yes
Luxray has base 70 speed, which isn't great, is not that bulky and is weak to ground, a very common attacking type, luxray wouldn't be touching the higher tiers.
Pure Power also just doesnt make sense flavorly
Surprised at no mention of lightningrod zapdos. While the step down from lrod to static is less than the step down to something like inner focus or infiltrator, giving zapdos a second immunity that also boosted its SpAtk would have been really impactful
Because Static DID help Zapdos. Immensely, and it’s not a step down from Lightning Rod. It’s a step UP. It’s already famously resilient thanks to its typing and is one of the most well regarded at punishing physical attackers, which has made it reliable for generations now.
Inner focus definitely helped Entei a lot
the crazy thing about chandelure not getting shadow tag is that it would probably be "balanced" in this gen, despite being broken in gen 5.
No it wouldn’t. It would never ever be balanced with shadow tag.
You guys forgot the other type of Pokémon with Hidden Abilities… the ones that have No hidden ability! Or the ones that only have one main ability and one HA
Thematic (if debatable, yet funny) Hidden Abilities I demand: Perish Body Gengar, Defeatist Slaking, Vital Spirit Komala, Huge Power Wigglytuff, Illuminate Chandelure (Much better fit than Infiltrator, isn't it?), Comatose Musharna
How ability Hidden Abilities that changed a Pokémon's identity entirely? For example, Alakazam was way more offensive before Magic Guard, where it became much more support-oriented
?? Magic Guard just made Alakazam even more offensive. Not support. What?
Not really a hidden ability per se, but rather the LACK of a hidden ability for Gengar. It was bad enough when they replaced the fantastic and thematic levitate with CURSED BODY of all things (on a mon that gets one-shot by any physical move worth caring about) but then it just didn't get a hidden ability at all? Like, OK, there are other mons with no hidden ability, but those are usually ones who's single ability are pretty much key to their identity, like ultra beasts having beast boost, Paradox mons, Stance change on Aegislash...... But Gengar doesn't have anything like that as a limitation, so it just randomly not getting a hidden ability is just downright odd
Perish Body as HA to rub it in it still has to take a hit to MAYBE use it xD
@@m0fn668 don't give them any ideas lol
It's kinda funny because inner focus is part of the reason why suicune is playable in VGC these days and it's done wonders for Entei who is a high value fire pick.
Arcanine remake will be a full blown epic rivaling the godfather of FGS Ferrothorn.
Wobb getting Telepathy is one of the greatest 180s of all time. Is the deference between something banned to Ubers and having a niche and something being unviable in untiered
7:32 the pp didnt WHAT?
😂
🤣😂🤣
It sounds like Suicune needs to get his prostate checked.
Inner Focus has been a massive boon for Entei in VGC while Flash Fire, obviously a good Ability in its own right, wouldn't give it the versatility it currently has.
It took 27 seconds for Incineroar to appear in a non WolfeyVGC video.
Thumbnail is diabolical, I love it
God, gen 5 hidden abilities was a slog to grind for
In the deoxys movie we saw metagross levitating above the ground as it traveled. It would have been a cool movie tie-in to give it levitate as its hidden ability. Would that make it an incredibly strong and borderline broken pokemon? Yes. But that’s what the BL is for.
I maintain that Articuno not getting Snow Warning is the second biggest slap in the face. The first is Gamefreak's insistence on making defensive ice types
Varoom getting slow start made me scream
Imagine Slow Start cuts your Atk, SAtk and Spd by 50% on the first turn, sets everything to neutral on the 2nd, and adds 50% on the third and then stops there. This would still fit thematically but would be not just a flat middlefinger...
@@m0fn668 wasnt slow start regigigas's thing where you're halved for 5 turns? When did that change? And does the counddown still reset on switch?
@@AshBlossomWorshiper Still is and still as awful as ever.
For what it's worth, Entei as a Physical attacker enjoys having an Intimidate-blocking Inner Focus in Doubles now.
What is that thumbnail 💀
It's pretty accurate
Always has been
I only think about Wambu seeing Chandelure. Thing’s got SP.ATK at legend levels and is a wacky piece of home decor.
To be fair, when entei received inner focus it became very good in VGC, while flash fire wouldn't have done anything for it
I love how Wolfes toxic relationship with insin has just permeated all pokemon culture xD
I remember being absolutely baffled by Truant Durant when I first saw it. So I did a bit of googling and found an old forum thread of people talking about it. First post I saw was a few paragraphs pointing out how Durant got Entrainment, which would allow you to pass Truant to other pokemon for some interesting strategic plays. It was followed immediately by someone saying "Truant for the True Ant, Durant". I'm not sure which reason is better.
For some reason, Game Freak made Durant's Hidden Ability Truant, the ability that makes you unable to attack every other turn. The only way I can see this ability being useful is if Durant used Entrainment to give its opponent Truant as well.
HAs in Gen V were often less about what Abilites would buff Pokemon as they were about what, lore-wise, that Pokemon would want. What does the worker ant Pokemon get? A vacation.
Since they dropped the Dream World lore, they also dropped that element.
Guys… it’s a true ant.
Nothing is funnier than giving Azumarill Sap Sipper as his hidden ability, like GAMEFREAK, DUDE. TEL ME WHY I SHOULDNT RUN THE MANDATORY HUGE POWER? It’s not even that Sap Sipper is a bad ability, it’s just that why would you run any other ability over HUGE POWER?