Not to mention Glimmora's signature move which is basically a poison type rapid spin that poisons the target instead of raising speed. The thing is can be an insane wall when built right
@Vee Vendetta Maushold wasn’t meant to be a complete sweeper in the case I mentioned. It was meant to be used as a counter to Gholdengo’s Ghost-type blocking Rapid Spin. And even then, Wide Lens Population Bomb can do massive damage against Pokémon who don’t resist it.
@Dust Yeah but Maushold gets OHKO'd by almost everything lol. It's fast until say Kingambit Sucker Punches ya with a 60% Boost on that 70 based Power Attack w/ Supreme Overlord.
Also, and there’s no way for Mikey to have know this at the time, but Meowscarada counters Gholdengo, Hydregon, Haze Murkrow, Garchomp, Annihilape, and Dondozo with it’s incredible Physical attack stat, Knock off, and access to STAB Play Rough and U-Turn via Protean.
1 major thing missed when discussing Annihilape is it’s signature move Rage Fist. 50 power but it gets boosted by another 50 power each time it’s hit. Combine that with its pretty high bulk and decent speed and you can build an entire set around Rage Fist.
@BladeTNT I’m mixed about the ban, on one hand I get it, on the other there has been some counter play cropping up so I feel it would’ve been better for a suspect test
The offensive Ruin legends are pretty successful in doubles, because in hyper offence teams which cannot take hits anyway, you are making it easier to finish off enemy Pokémon. Chi-Yu with Flutter Mane deals insane damage as both of them are strong special attackers who benefit from the lowered sp.def.
I don't know much about competitive, but when talking about the Ruins pokémon, I immediately thought about the Paradox ability, since you could utilize it to boost their second highest stat. It might not be the smartest thing, but I'm sure you could set up some unique teams and strats to take advantage of your opponent's confusion and the shift in strengths.
@Pikachuro_Reacts HP: 86 Attack: 92 Defense: 88 Sp. Atk: 68 Sp. Def: 75 Speed: 73 that is not good also i can only see superpower for contrary abusing moves and thats not even stab (maybe im missing something) i could imagine being a decent support mon(in doubles) or a bulky physical attacker but not a sweeper
@Pikachuro_Reacts i know they are not "bad" pokemon but i cant remember the last time i saw any of the contrary pokemon in singles or doubles (except shuckle but contrary on shuckle would be stupid because it makes shell smash useless and sturdy is just better anyway)
Long live Annihilape. That guy carried me through the Elite Four, The Two Champions and The Final Boss Battle in the Great Crater single-handedly. Annilape w/Poison Tera Type is God. Shoutouts to the 3 starters with their Hidden Abilities too.
Some things to note about Koraidon vs Miraidon is that electric terrain gives 1.3x boost since gen 8 and Miraidon going to have more trouble keeping it's terrain up in doubles because of returning terrain setters with supportive roles like Indeedee.
@Gator-Tater fairy steel is one of the best typings ever. Zacian gets a +1 boost as soon as he comes in and his stats are insane. Zacian got banned in ubers and it was at the end of the generation with shadow caltrex and all that when he was banned sooo lol. miraidon has no moves that are super effective against zacian even with electric drift it wouldn’t ko. koraidon is better against zacian if he could get a fire move off.
@Adam Morin Miraidon is a better Ubers mon than Zacian was, I’m pretty sure. It absolutely crushes opponents thanks to Electro drift plus terrain plus 135 sp atk plus item bonus, it just has too many multipliers
Fun fact about annihilape: it’s signature move, rage fist, increases its base power by 50 every time it gets hit, with 350 base power being the highest it goes. With bulk up, drain punch, rage fist, rest, and a chesto berry, it is an absolute menace in competitive singles Edit: out of all of the Pokémon still in generation 9 OU, Gholdengo is the 3rd most used Pokémon in competitive singles, so I’d say it’s pretty good Edit again: the comments pointed out some inaccuracies so I updated this original comment to reflect the actual facts
@Joshua Hildebrandt you can just run defiant and it’d be able to sleep. One of the best Pokemon in competitive history, Landorus Therian, has worse defensive stats (except for defense but Annihilape has higher hp) than Annihilape and is 92 speed (Annihilape is 90 speed) but it can make things work
I have taken years, YEARS, of watching your videos on occasion, and just today, I have decided to subscribe to you. No idea why I didn't before, I genuinely enjoy your content.
Even without the added effects of max moves, weather and terrain will still be prevalent as always in competitive battles. Not as easy to setup but will still make an impact
I think in a format with box legendaries i still see zacian being used over the new legendaries. Zacian is just a powerhouse with its typing, move pool, and the sword that gives him a +2 as soon as he enters. I don’t think koraidon would be used either as groudon does the job of setting up sun better. This won’t happen into 2 years from now though.
Cyber bike dragon also had access to Charge beam, a electric move that boosts its Sp. Atk and Parabolic Charge, a move that heals it from half the damage inflicts.
For the paradox pokemon, the weather/terrain actually activates first, so if you use a miraidon and then an iron bundle, the speed/sp. atk boost from the terrain would happen first- then when it ends the booster energy is used.
I absolutely LOVE the gimmick of palafin having to switch out first before taking hero form. It's literally the classic superman hiding in a phonebooth to change
The legendary ones with tablet of ruin can be used in doubles to help a fast sweeper like garchomp sweep easier with a move like rock slide and since chien pao is fast it can help finish certain things
Meowscarada gets play rough so I think its niche would be to come in, change to fairy, then maybe keep some odd terra type to offset Fairy weakness. Then speedily hit you a lot
Plus U turn is is powerful on general It was given a fantastic move set all round especially for a play through since floragsto gets a proper Stab option unlike the other 2
@Hunter Mengel the game is much faster than it was in gen 8 so pokemons that dont have high base speed like quaquaval cant really make use of aqua step or even set up ,even after one aqua step, scarfed pokemons outspeed it and kill it one example being Meowscarada that doesnt even need the scarf to outspeed and kill Quaquaval.
I also guess for another thing is that Meowscarada & Quaquaval will join the ranks of the group/faction of Starter Pokemon that despite the gender ratio, their design plus theme-origin heavily implies them to being Female Pokemon; just like they did with Delphox and Primarina
I'm very sure that miraidon will be more powerfull in competitive play (i love competitive), for all the points you stated, and also for the fact that special attackers and special bulk are generally a lot more valued than physical, because of intimidate, contact effects, burn (if only frostbite was still a thing this wouldn't have been a point oc argument), spa has a big advantage in general
True, but sun is overall better than Electric Terrain, so while Miraidon on its own is probably better than Koraidon, the latter will probably support a team better than Miraidon can
Pawmot has a move that can revive fallen team members and restore half their health. I look forward to seeing how this will be used in the competitive scene
@Pokéfan Alex That is a lie, rage fist had been datamined and Tested, and was found that Switching Out, or Even Fainting, will not reset the move's power, which maxes out at 350 BP
I wanted a reviving move since some time and thought of something like Lunar Dance but reviving a teammate's half hp. Having 1 pp is a much cooler and more balanced solution.
The 'all Pokemon get a stat drop' abilities do have synergy with one specific then: Contrary Pokemon. Since sending one out with a Contrary Pokemon turns the flaw into an advantage.
fun fact Glimora is actually really good as a lead in singles at least. as you mentioned the toxic debris ability guarantees 1 or 2 layers of spikes( if you have a focus sash) against a physical lead. it also gets toxic spikes, stealth rock, and spikes making it a even stronger lead that can hit pretty hard of it's solid 130 spatk stat. It lastly gets self destruct which is really good for lead mons because rapid spin and defog fail if the other Pokémon is already dead I think however maushold's clean up still works because it might be considered a boosting move like dragon dance I genuine don't know for this one
I feel that ting-lu could be great if paired with a pokemon with defiant, since it would be a free +2 attack, and wo-chien could ve paired with pokemons with the competitive ability,just like ting-lu and pokemon with defiant,but it lowers it attack and raises the special attack of the pokemon with competitive
The reason I think koraidon may be more powerful than miraidon competitive wise bc koraidon sets up a way more useful weather with the sun, unlike just with electric terrain
The thing I love about Ceruledge & Armorouge is how they're built for old berry boost strats. Endure lets you ensure you get low and proc either a Liechi or Petaya berry, while Weak Armour gives them the speed they need to sweep.
Annihilape is one of my new favorite Pokémon. Fighting type has always been one of if not my favorite type. I never really cared about Primeape, and seeing it get an evolution, and that evolution being really good, I love it so much.
Palafin is pretty broken Like I use it in a singles team with Speed EV's and Attack EV's and Choice scarf (so the speed is even more boosted) so it overspeeds basically everything...and when it comes back again it's Attack is strong too...and it has good coverage with close combat or ice punch
15:17 I know that base HP is only effected by EV and IV, but yikes, I never relized its multiplier compared to other nature boosted base stats was that big.
I will say wo-chien is actually great for bulk and support because it can get all sorts of supportive utility, leech seed, grassy terrain, giga drain, sucker punch etc, and while the attack drop isn’t great, that can be circumvented with things like psy shock to hit physical. I would say it probably has more viability than some of its brethren in doubles at least simply for the variety of beneficial attributes it can provide allies .
If they simply made Koraidon Fire-based instead of Fighting I think it could greatly benefit its ability. I know the two will share typings with Reshiram and Zekrom, so maybe that's why they wanted to avoid it. Perhaps a new Fighting-type weather of sorts instead of harsh sunlight could work too.
Na Koraidon would be too good with Dragon/Fire typing. Weather is almost always better than terrain and so much more mons profit from Sun than Electric Terrain. Also Terrain boost electric moves by 30% and not 50%, therefore Mikey's calculation is off. And Sun gives Koraidon basically a third Stab with fire moves, while also boosting it's own Atk stat by 33%.
The way i see it, meowscarada cannot be used like how protean was once used. But rather as a powerup for a choice band set. Uturn, knock off, flower trick on a banded meowscarda with everything being stab is kinda awesome if you know how to use it. And it can help check some legit threats like Ting Lu or maybe even Garganacl And goldhengo is straight up one of the best pokemon in the entire game right now. Hits like a tank, and shuts down defog. Its awesome, and cute and i love it
Annihilape Type: Fighting/Ghost Rage Monkey Pokemon Pokedex Entries Red: When it's rage hits it's critical point as an Primepape, it transcends to the Ghost Type. This pure, rage fueled inner power breaks it's wrist cuffs upon evolution. Blue: Although it will listen to it's trainer who raised it as an Mankey, one glare will scare Gyarados immediately. When attacking, it imbues it's power to it's right fist, which shattered the opponent to their very essence.
Some things to note, Iron bundle doesn't need more coverage since hydro pump and freeze dry already hit most pokemon for neutral or super effective damage, being the reason why it was banned in gen 9 ou, also Great Tush seems to be way better than Iron Threats.
I really didn't know the official format was doubles maybe if they add some of the ice types that were good like Alolan Ninetales and Sandslash I could join especially since the new snow gives a defensive boost so we'll be much tankier than ever before!
You didn’t mention it for Annihilape but Rage Fist is a really scary move If you get hit once it goes to a base 100 move with no draw backs, then getting hit twice base 150 It’s so menacing Furthermore, Annihilape gets Bulk Up so it can further boost its attack stat, also it can take physically attacks better while still getting the same boost for rage fist It’s an insane move
Personally, I think your ranking of Skeledirge would change if you used one. I don't think it would jump too far up the list, but it's been kicking ass on my playthrough team.
I love that with Dondozo and Tatsugiri you make Dondozo stronger by kinda pulling a Yu-Gi-Oh via Polymerization. Like it just gives me that kinda vibe.
I'm well aware that I'm not a competitive player, but I take issue with Skeledirge ranking lower because of its Speed stat. Mine essentially tanked half the game, to the point that he even took care of problems that not even Frostclaw the Baxcalibur was able to handle. He even tanked a hit from the Gym Leader's Veluza and one-shot that fish with Shadow Ball. I've built up a lot of love for this croc almost immediately, and my boy is my biggest ace. And this was without me dedicatedly training his stats! I barely even used vitamins or feathers on him. I will agree, though, that Torch Song boosting is huge. I've taken a lot of pleasure in utilizing that particular snowball. lolz.
Mikey is also discounting the fact that Unaware is an incredible ability, especially for a mon with a stat spread like Skeledirge. It can set up with Torch Song, heal with Slack Off, and not get blown away by other set up sweepers. Doesn’t really need speed because of all that
Thank you for not describing Armarouge and Ceruledge’s OPnesses 💀 edit: Flying tera type Iron Volcarona could be interesting. It doesn’t really need the flying Tera Blast for much since Grass, Bug, and Fighting aren’t a threat to it and its own STAB moves already take care of 2/3 of them, plus flying gives it some new weaknesses, but I don’t feel like it can take many hits so turning its 4x weakness into an immunity instead of a resistance seems like the better play. Especially because Ground is so common and strong in competitive. It could probably work as long as it’s used strategically with the rest of your team to keep it from taking too many hits!
What I learnt this generation is that most of these Mons really benefit from Trick Room as many have really nice defensive or offensive stats with horrible to average speed
My team consisted of Pikachu, Annihilape, Kilowattrel, Meowscarada, Armarouge and Palafin and taking on the Titans first gave me such a huge boost that by the time I got to the Gym Leaders and Team Star bits, it was mere child's play to finish the game
Interestingly enough, Koraidon has been shown to be more popular in ranked play (in formats it’s allowed in of course) because of all the coverage it has. It can take out more mons than a one trick pony like Miraidon can even though Miraidon does hit harder
It's also more popular, because Sun is better than terrain. It's easier to set up, harder to remove, more mons have access to it and it's effects are arguably stronger. And the 50% boost to fire moves more or less gives all your nons-tab Fire moves stab. I mean compare harsh sunlight with Electric Terrain: 50% boost to fire moves vs. 30% boost to elecvtric moves 50% decrease to water moves vs. Pokemon can't put to sleep 100 bp Weather Ball (relatively wide distribution) vs 100 bp Terrain Pulse (only Smoliv line can learn it.) Solar Beam and Solar Blade hit T1 vs. Rising Voltage, Nature Power and Secret Power don't exist anymore Guarantees Harvest vs. nothing Has 8 abilities that profit from it vs. 3 abilities that profit from it. Moonlight, Synthesis and Morning Sun heal more vs. nothing Thunder and Hurricane are less accurate vs. nothing It's easy to see, why Koraidon is more popular.
Solved the Koraidon issue with having it's Tera type be fire, which covers all of its weakspots with resistances and tosses in the tera stab boost with it's two regular on top of the intense sun boost. The new gimmick honestly makes most if not all potential type combos unstoppable with the right strat
I feel like the machop line should be here also cause they gave it back fissure after all these generations of not having it since gen 1 but now it has no guard making it impossible to miss unless flying type I think machoke is best out of the line with an eviolite and max def stats cause choiced machamp still gets out sped easily and you can learn bullet punch for sash users and smack down for flying stallers
Don't think too harshly about Chi-Yu, though Let me just say that the moment it is allowed in VGC, you will see it be paired a LOT with Flutter Mane. Since Beads of Ruin assist in nuking opponents with Dazzling Gleam and Heat Wave from both mons on your side
HEY! That "Stupid dolphin" was based on how dolphins can attack sharks to either defend their own pods, or even other creatures. In this case, that'd be HUMANS. And after hoping and waiting for years, we FINALLY got a dolphin Pokemon, and a VERY good one as well, both design AND ability wise! Besides, I did volunteer work at the aquarium, where they USED to have dolphins in the 90's, before they were moved to another aquarium. But I still consider Dolphins as the coolest and most inspiring marine mammals in the ocean world! Also, it's hero form and the "38" number are based on SuperMan's first appearance in the Action Comics in 1938, thank you very much!
Armourge is already becoming strong in VGC. It has access to trick room and has flash fire. Also, it is the only Pokémon with access to expanding force. Mikey's ranking is already not aging well.
I use weak armor armarouge and if u paid it with endure and weakness policy u have a 2x spa and 2x spe sweeper and paired with a Pokémon that has psychic terrain u won’t die to prio moves. A weird build around but I’ve won like 18 games in a row using it
And ceruledge is a beast in singles. Access to swords dance weak armor and broken moves. It's absolutely good. Not broken like palafin but as good as chien Pao imo
I thought the megamans were kinda underwhelming. Also its probably too early to judge the new pokemon in competitive. I will say though, the sabertooth weasel ruin legend is almost certainly powerful.
two things, flip turn palfadin turn 1, into shed tail (with regenerator) Cyclazar back into Palfadin, Plus, choice specs electric tera miridon make it insane
Chen po lowering everyone's defense could be useful on a sweeper team, yeah it lowers your pokemons defense, but if they are speedy sweepers they likely weren't gonna survive hits anyway
so the Tatsu/Don combo last i heard was very recently banned from VGC competitive because of how powerful its combination is. however the ban is only in the OU category
Heya Mikey! Love your content, but I do have a quick question: Now that Gen 9 is out, is there going to be another MBF/MML season anytime soon? The Metronome movepool's changed and expanded quite a bit since the last one, which would make the battles really interesting. Just an idea, since it's my absolute favorite of all the series you do.
If you’re doing Tera Raids but are struggling to win then get a hyper trained iron hands holding booster energy with belly drum and drain punch. The only problem is if the den is ghost type (due to drain punch)
So I chuckled a little when you compared Palafin to Slaking because one of the things people love about it is that Palafin is basically a better VERSION of Slaking. Both have monstrous stats but have a trade off. Slaking has very few ways around it (Galarin Weezing, Skill Swap and Gastro Acid are pretty much the only methods). All Palafin has to do is switch out, which, while there are trapping moves, can be stopped by simply giving it a Shed Tail.
You forgot to mention miraidon with the terastalize type of electric holding an air balloon gaining double stab as a 2x multiplier on top of the electric terrain and it’s ability giving it a boost leaving it with no weaknesses and giving electro drift a base power of 390, again, not counting super effective damage.
I think I have an idea of how to use palafin quite well. So if you start with palafin, then use flip turn in to cyclisar, then use shed tail back into palafin, you’d get one turn of guaranteed protection for palafin, and if lucky you can get one extra turn of substitute
Most people remove Flip turn for Taunt and Bulk up for Palafin and Usually 1 turn Swap is not as big of a deal as you think considering how Bulky Palafin in Hero form is and Jet Punch along with drain punch after a Bulk up is Nuts
@An Entire Lime It probably isnt. What got it banned was its taunt bulk up sets having basically no counters or even checks besides maybe Iron Bundle with freeze dry as Flutter Mane with thunderbolt was already banned. Not many faster mons can hit it hard. Even dragapult only has 100 base special attack.
Love Palafin .... But from what I've heard and seen Switching is not much of a problem also Apparently Palafin is So Powerful with the Bulk up Taunt combo with Jet Punch and Drain Punch It sweeps . It's been banned in OU ? I think I saw it's banned Somewhere
Already wanna use kiraidon in doubles with a solar power charizard, even though I prefer miraidon as a solo pokemon and design wise, solar power charizard in sunlight with moves like heatwave and solar beam is disgusting
It is worth noting that Palafin has also been banned by smogon. So it's safe to say the hindrance to activation was not enough to stop it from cleaning house
So I recently had a thought. I don’t know if Mikey ever did a ghost type trainer play through but if not I would really like to see a “Ghost/Mystery boy” Mikey
I have an idea Go over a list of all the abilities that got nerfed Here are some: Libero and Protean only work once Intrepid Sword and Dauntless Shield only work the first time Battle Bond no longer transforms
i feel like meowscradas usefulness keeps getting over looked while yes protean getting nerfed sucks there is one move that fixes this "U turn" i have been doing online battles with protean U turn meowscrada and honestly in my opinion its the best of all the starters for competitive battling but thats just how i feel about it i could be wrong to some people reading this comment but again its only my personal experience and opinion 😎
Skeledirge honestly seems like it could be really good in Doubles. It’s bulk stat wise is quite good, plus it gets Unaware and Slack off to stick around. Plus add on Torch Song to make its presence on the field scarier and Terastilization to aid in Offense and Defense.
I love everything about this video except underestimating skeledirge, and raycon. I've tried raycon products once, and it was the worst experience I've ever had with any Bluetooth headphones. The sound is good, not great, but god the pairing process is exaughsting if you're trying to pair it with a secondary device. Just save and get better headphones or a speaker.
I want a new ability called friendly fire The ability only works in double battles The ability lowers the other Pokémon’s hp 10 percent in exchange both the Pokémon on your team will get a 50 percent defense sp defense Attack and sp atack boost
Personally I kind of want to run my Chien-Pow with an air balloon, and swap it in when my other mon uses earthquake in order to make earthquake hit harder.
I believe Koraidon will still be super busted in restricted VGC formats, but moreso because of how broken harsh sunlight is. You get a crazy strong legendary alongside a photosynthesis or solar power user and absolutely destroy everything, and that's whithout considering that it can buff Flutter Mane. Basically, take Groudon's main use and give it even better stats, making it hit less hard than its counterpart but have broken synergy with its team mates.
I'm guessing Zero to hero can't work if you start with another pokemon then swap it for Palafin. If that's the case, you either have to waste two turns swapping Pokemon or have both Palafin and another Pokemon that has team swapping moves. Also, doesn't Koraidon and Miradon feel like a rehash of Kyogre and Groudon? Kyogre summons rain and is a water type. Groudon summons sunlight but is a ground type.
it's not speaking for competitive, but i will say my Meowscarada and Ceruledge basically carried me through my run lmao! yea if i wasnt careful, they fall pretty easily, but they usually sweep my opponents easily
In vgc the ruin trio are not useless. the drawback is not that big :you are dropping both oponents stats and only one of yours . a pairing like flutter mane + chi yu is insanely powerful.
