Competitive Pokemon Ahead of Their Time.

[@jimothycool]

Water Types in Competitive Pokemon: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p2LYZ3uNlK5km5Y

[@hongkongatron]

Water Types in Competitive Pokemon

[@jimothycool]

@@hongkongatron Yeah.

[@ethanherzing652]

Coincidentally, all of these Pokemon start with the letter C

[@thepurplemudkip9998]

cufant for OU in 2027

[@bartek4321]

all hail Creloom

[@deancarrozzi]

Clever Congratulations

[@Beeboppering]

You know what they say, C's get degrees

[@GoldStorm07]

Clefairy being the prototype mascot for the Pokémon games makes its evolution's competitive comeback very cathartic for the Moon Stone Movement.

[@deazee2288]

Even observing its stats as a Pokémon points to that, being a normal type with a vast move pool and almost balanced star numbers, like a customizable avatar type of character

[@MoarCheeseBirb]

Clefairy itself is a powerhouse in many points in VGC meta history

[@owenblount7334]

Just don’t forget the poli boys shame wrath is kind ass though been fucking people up with specs politoed they never see it coming they’re like “it’s just a politoed, OH MY GOODNESS!” as it just one shots shit, with tera water you can even ohko some deoxys-D sets it’s really funny

[@ItsJustKaya]

Clefairy was OU from my experience. Seeen it to many times. It wasnt necessarly as hard hitting but it was consistent since its fairy typing.

[@silverrey7379]

Fun fact, in gen 4 Magic Guard also makes the user immune to being fully paralyzed, which means Clefable is the single best twave switch-in in gen 4

[@CptManboobs]

This is actually next level tech and I am glad to have been made aware. Is teaching Clefable Facade and intentionally eating T-waves too 5head of a strat? You can use Trick Room to make yourself faster too.

[@bad8136]

I mean clef can't do much to rachi expect try to pp stall iron head and rachi can try to flinch it down so I wouldn't call clef the best t wave switch in but yeah magic guard protects against it

[@CyanKnight96]

Hello Jim, and those who are not Jim. I am an Aggron Advocate, here to represent Aggron in regards to conflicts of the Horse Council. Aggron is willing to lend his aid to the Mudcargo Alliance, with respects to Magcargo as a comrade in the ways of having two x4 weaknesses. If Mudsdale is willing to protect Aggron from devastating Ground-type attacks, Aggron will aid the alliance. Thank you.

[@Gio-pb5rm]

Tiers should not be static. Zard being OU in gen 3 is so cool

[@esralper00]

Alomomola has been pretty good in SV OU after being outclassed by something else every other generation. Addition of flip turn, guaranteed wish passing, and being one of the few pokemon to still have scald and regenerator, literally made it outclass toxapex, THE penultimate water wall.

[@mr.sniffly5297]

How is Toxapex the second last water wall?

[@esralper00]

@@mr.sniffly5297 Penultimate means coolest in 7th century globian national dictionary. Suprised you are uninformed.

[@mr.sniffly5297]

@@esralper00 you’re about 1400 years late my man

[@esralper00]

@@mr.sniffly5297 my ancestors are very strict about keeping up traditions

[@nothankyou4859]

Gen 4 Nidoqueen is another one of my favorite examples of this. Incredible defensive utility

[@scatmanjohn2681]

Jim when will we get “why dream eater spam was ahead of its time”?

[@jimothycool]

That strategy was Dead on Arrival , Scatman John.

[@telstraRobs5]

@@jimothycoolwhat about butterfree with 97% accurate sleep powder and dream eater in ADV?

[@jake9107]

@@jimothycooli was there when you clicked dream eater and it did 23% what a time

[@lorekeeper685]

​@@jimothycool dead space reference from Pkmn XenoVerse 2 ono

[@holylarcenist9596]

Would love to see a sequel to this vid in a few years when Magcargo inevitably gets banned from ADV OU!

[@Super_Top_Secret_Area]

Immune to Sandstorm. Immune to burn. Immune to freeze. This is insane.

[@mortalnebula2363]

We need to get kingler with his large pincer that contains 10,000 horsepower

[@GoldStorm07]

Kingler was banished from the Horse Council in 2009 for massive embezzlement of horsepower for its own gain.

[@Super_Top_Secret_Area]

At this point, tiers just don't matter at all in Gen 4. Smogon should seriously consider retesting everything again, that whole generation just smells like unfinished business.

[@votedthatoneguy]

Something you didn't mention in the Clef segment Magic Guard is that it also is a good answer to the ParaSpam since in Gen4 specifically Magic Guard stops it from getting fullpara'd it's so insane

[@haeun6053]

I swear to god, I’ve played competitive on and off for more than a decade and this is the first I’ve heard of this factoid. Absolutely amazing

[@tyler4965]

@@haeun6053 its not true lol

[@r.j.tammaro8383]

I think it’s just the speed drop it blocks not the full para

[@haeun6053]

@@tyler4965 damn bro that's what i get from blindly trusting random comments on the internet lmfaoooo appreciated

[@sebastienvantiggele5182]

@@haeun6053 Well, OP is right and you can look it up on Bulbapedia. So funnily enough, your second reply concerns blindly trusting the other reply instead of the original comment :P. Also, a pokemon with magic guard still has the speed drop unlike the other reply suggests.

[@tinfoilslacks3750]

6:30 another big thing here is that *ladders* favour offense, since you just want a positive winrate and to play as many games as possible. *Tournaments* favour defense because you want to win 100% of your games.

[@ShinyHydrapplTheSyrpent]

I swear if a future paradox mon isn't on this list....

[@jimothycool]

Iron Thorns will not stand the test of time.

[@Skeloperch]

@@jimothycool I'm from the future. Iron Thorns is the 9th best Pokemon in S/V OU as of 2027.

[@spand9043]

​@@SkeloperchThe great tusk ban of 2026 did it many favours.

[@one1nsanity]

​@@Skeloperchi also am from the future, you had to be there to witness the 1056th ban of the SV metagame but indeed Tera poison drednaw was too centralizing

[@Xahnel]

Electric Terrain/Seeds Valiant will be on this list. One move placing terrain, granting a defense boost, and either a speed or attack boost is slept on and WILL break into the meta. Granting a normally fragile pokemon a free defense boost on top of setting terrain and boosting its offensive capability will make it viable.

[@realfishu]

Fun fact, it took 10 years for Mega Banette to actually become OU viable, and even ranked in OU itself in the NatDex format, as people really didnt bother using it, but once it recieved poltergeist in generation 9, it gave Mega Banette a great physical ghost-type attack that it can use in tanget with pressure from Destiny Bond and a low speed stat + Prankster to capatalize the most of the move compared to any other pokemon

[@szkonk]

Sometimes players don't realize how good a Pokemon truly is until many years of metagame development have taken place.

[@Patrick_co]

Older generations of pokemon have been around for many years and continue to evolve and shift even to this day.

[@EmiliaHoarfrost]

The Pokémon and strategies that were popular when those generations were current, often end up completely different years down the line.

[@adam9279]

And sometimes, Pokemon that were initially overlooked and rarely seen in competitive play become popular, or even top tier, choices.

[@h4lfin54]

let’s take a look at some examples of competing pokémon ahead of their time, only rising to prominence years after their generation was current

[@lllllllllllllllllllllllllIllI]

But first, dont forget to subscribe to the channel to help us rally more support for the MudCargo alliance who are currently at a disadvantage in the Horse Council Civil War.

[@DaniDoyle]

I'm glad you put Charizard on the thumbnail I don't think game freak gives him enough love

[@roxienatura]

I hope this is sarcasm but I sincerely can’t tell.

[@DaniDoyle]

@@roxienatura i can't believe youre a Charizard hater 🙃 game freak needs to give him more love, he didn't even get a super special form in scarlet and violet, I hope game freak corrects this mistake by giving him and only him a new mega evolution in Legends za

[@jaketerpening3284]

Cofagrigus also has the cool guy strat of running eject button along with pursuit slaking to get rid of truant.

[@lock_checker4342]

I'm confused what does the eject button add?

[@jaketerpening3284]

@@lock_checker4342 You get hit and immediately swap out so that they don't have the opportunity to switch their pokemon before you can get Slaking in. Otherwise team preview ruins it since they will know what you are going for and not leave their mummy Pokemon in.

[@lock_checker4342]

@jaketerpening3284 let me see if I understand this (big brain strat) correctly: you predict a hit, switch Cofagrigus into it, and then try to get your Slaking to obtain mummy off of the enemy Pokémon. Isn't there counterplay to switch out your mummified mon? Also TIL you can choose the eject button switch-in; before your comment I assumed it was random just like roar/whirlwind. Cool beans!

[@jaketerpening3284]

@@lock_checker4342 That's why you use pursuit on Slaking. So you can get mummy even as they switch out.

[@lock_checker4342]

@@jaketerpening3284 ohh now I see!!! Thank you buddy

[@superblueknight]

Can't wait for the update video after squawkabilly gets banned to ubers next gen

[@Feroror]

I always knew Linoone was a classic French Pokemon

[@puppet_master]

I like how Cofagrigas uses hard pokemon knowledge to get the most out of it's ability

[@justcallmeleonardo]

Charizard in gen3 is a very fun pokemon to use. It can be a bit hard to use sometimes tho due to its frailty

[@CoralReaper707]

Clefable is definitely the Pokémon that immediately comes to mind when I think of Mons that became relevant years later

[@josephbulkin9222]

How? I think Clefable's a better Normal Type than Snorlax.

[@blazie42069]

Clefable becoming good in gen 4 and even gen 5 OU recently years later is insanely cool, you love to see it

[@beaky8138]

It's good in gen 5 now? What?

[@azeria1]

I was ahead of everyone else in clicking on this video

[@wentoneisendon6502]

You must have performed an agility

[@liampowers8570]

Bro is in Ubers speed tiers

[@Arktic06]

unrelated but i’m curious as to why Reuniclus fell off as hard as it did. It went from being a menace in gen 5 OU to falling to the RU Banlist, whereas other magic guard users don’t seem to have lost their value in the same way

[@CaptainJLinebeck]

Basically mono-psychic is a really bad defensive typing. Doesn't help that Gens 6 and 7 UU are dominated by Hydregion and Krookodile, two Pokemon it really doesn't enjoy having to go up against. Krookodile especially as it can pursuit trap it.

[@carsonic_]

It really is crazy how much the Gen 3 OU has changed in recent years. I've only gotten into it this past year but I enjoy seeing the history of how people used to play. Keep up the good videos!

[@mtgxerxes]

Clefable was definitely a known commodity in 4th gen. It was in my top-3 most hated things to face and it was everywhere. Charizard shares nearly identical defenses (though much less HP) and yet Clefable was just an unkillable monster; I swear to God it just somehow had bonus stats in there somewhere. Especially once Infernapes stopped being sweepers and started being suicide leads for SR, there was a big lack of fighting mons to scare it off. Then all the dragons got banned, game got more defensive, it was a nightmare. It just had free reign to do anything you wanted with an insane movepool.

[@yvendous]

Plays competitive pokemon: no Invested in the drama of the horse council: yes

[@MegaCrazyhand]

As a reminder in Gen 6 Mega Sableye had two abilities on the turn it mega evolved. Because turn order was decided before you mega evolved you still got priority on status moves from Prankster. So on the turn you give up Prankster for Magic Bounce, you still have priority Wisp, Taunt, or Recover while also bouncing back whatever move you want to. This is why I hated the ORAS meta after having played the hell out of the XY meta when it was still around, because damn was Mega Sableye so dang hard to play around.

[@naveedahmedny]

I bet Gen 3’s meta is so developed that players will deliberately let their Blissey get hit by Charizard’s Beat Up early so they can infer from the damage calcs the base stats of its teammates, thus helping predictions a lot

[@justinfabela4899]

Cofagrigus is literally my favorite pokemon of all time. So glad to see hes enjoying a spotlight on a Jimothy Cool video

[@noahbarnes5761]

I think Blastoise has the potential to be OU in ADV. It has the ability to behave very similar to swampert with refresh and torrent hydro pump. While it lacks a rock resist, it makes up for it by usually outrunning tar and even metagross, and of course rapid spin is vital to many teams. I ran it on a UUBL squad that made it to 1500 on the ladder

[@keebs5780]

yooo i had no idea about cofagrigus, thats awesome. i'm glad my boy is getting a place in a meta after all this time

[@madotsuki.6534]

revaluation of clefable via people getting used to a modern buffed version of them also happened to knock off. I remember back at the time knock off was never really considered as much more than an okay move on a handful of pokemon that might as well use it. Nowadays even in its old 20 dmg version knock off is considered a move that usually becomes the lynchpin of whatever pokemon has access to it, reliably removing items i think got retroactively valued a lot more after knock off's insane megabuff, although 20 dmg knock off also benefits from slower games where tyranitar's sandstorm chip becomes a key timer.

[@y8knsnsnzmzz]

Incredible video Jimothy

[@C0n0li0]

So glad to hear that Jimothy learned the correct pronunciation of “Cofagrigus” in time for Pride month

[@Quasartist]

Absolutely stoked to see Charizard finally earn his spot in OU. I'd been advocating for Charizard in gen 3 for years because it really is just a solid all around Pokemon, in a generation before Stealth Rocks rained on everyone's parade. Not to come off as a hipster or anything like that, but genuinely I was shocked when you showed gen 4 Clefable in UU. Even back in the day after reading what Magic Guard did I remember thinking that it would be a monster. I'm very surprised it took all the way until gen 6 for Clefable to get it's time in the sun (moon?) in gen 4, just seeing as the ability was already very good on Alakazam in gen 5 but since Zam is a glass cannon, Clefable was always struck me as the best user of it with its more well-suited defensive tools. Ignoring Stealth Rocks outright in gen 4 is already a huge advantage, but ignoring everything else is just icing on the cake. This is the first I'm hearing of Cofagrigus though and I absolutely love the way it's unfolding. So happy that Mega Sableye is out of the way so that other cool niche Pokemon get their turn to shine. This does make me wonder though, how much could a metagame shift if only 1 or 2 Pokemon were banned? Imagine an entire gen 3 season where Tyranitar is forbidden. Would be interesting to see how things unfold without the definitive gen 3 pillar in the mix, to say the least. Good video, Jim. Informative and interesting from start to finish.

[@ClampEEGEE]

It's funny how this can happen as later metagames develop. Card games are a great example as well. Going back to older formats can often mean that cards and strategies that weren't used but did exist are now played when originally they weren't. Solemn Judgment in YGO is a great example. In early YGO, it was very seldom played, but in retro formats where it's allowed, it's now pretty much always run at max copies.

[@GLamb3895]

I would say Espeon exemplifies this in my mind. There was an espeon strat discovered in gen 3, that was completely viable in gen 2, but nobody thought to try it

[@Xahnel]

So, I've been testing Iron Valiant, and I think it's slept on because people want to put the burden of electric terrain setting on a partner. But Valiant can LEARN electric terrain, and is baseline very fast. A jolly nature is very beneficial to getting terrain out fast, and boosting either your damage or speed. With electric seeds, you place Valiant in front of a physical attacker, drop terrain, get Quark Drive online, and then boost defense so you can shrug off the incoming hit and hit back way harder. And with such a deep attacking movepool, Valiant can hit basically _anything_ super effective. In doubles, you can even use wide guard or follow me to cover the setup for sweep.

[@danielguerra2516]

One of my fav strat was using cofagrigus with eject buttom so I can gave the opposing pokemon mummy and then getting slaking on the field, that way you can get rid off truant

[@BiffTheBanana]

The Pokémon Weezing could be a good example of this? If only someone had a video on it

[@benjulesrun9057]

okay but how good was weezing actually? there's simply no way to know

[@sushi-mayo]

​@@benjulesrun9057How GOOD was Weezing ACTUALLY? That I do not know.

[@Scurrying_Snail]

In due time Cacturne will be realized once more in ADV OU

[@formerlypie8781]

Hope not

[@beaky8138]

Thank god this thing was banned.

[@OrbitalPulsar]

Finally,my cofagrigus/slaking core is getting some love. Cofag also trolled zacian in gen 8 by easily tanking its most common moves, landing will 'o'wisp and then survive on red to land a pain split and hex. It would only ever get 2-shot if zacian had crunch. BTW I only ever had around 100 evs in def, the rest were on hp and spdef

[@TectonicImprov]

Ok is there a reason why the gen 4 tiers are frozen? Whenever people talk about Pokemon like electivire or infernape they're always like "yeah they suck and shouldn't be OU... But unfortunately nothing can be done about it ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯" but like, just tier off usage or something???

[@Neverleterlun]

Amazing video as always Mr Cool. Please, as you are one to stand up for Pokemon injustice. Make a video for the most forgotten evolution Raichu. Justice must be done for this good mouse, it deserves better.

[@Jake-kr8sc]

Glad to see Le Noon bring his speedy to the horse anti-meta council

[@nessearthbound3107]

Based Pideous with the Blur and Can song title nicknames

[@jschmidty2332]

Jimothy your channel makes me wonder if there are any mons in gen 3 that DON'T have some sort of niche in OU

[@invincibilityframes4672]

Beedrill.

[@Dad_Shoes]

​@@invincibilityframes4672 I recently used one in a playthrough of Japanese FireRed. Not only do I not know Japanese, Beedrill was terrible. Alongside a terrible team of Seaking, Arbok, Chansey, and Onix, it was an absolute nightmare.

[@thebossbaby5763]

Mr. Cool, You recently had fellow KZbinr BKC, short for Blaze Kevin Chicken, on your hit podcast “The Fridge with Jimothy Cool.” Mr. Chicken is a well known Hariyama Truther. Do you share his love of the mountain man Pokémon? Is Hariyama a horse? And what sort of dastardly tricks is Iron Mugulis up to while the Horse Council is in the spotlight?

[@bigtoblerone8446]

I love ghost types and love building mono ghost teams so i always knew the coffin was a great defensive wall with its sky high defensive stat + mummy and will o wisp which crippled physical attackers + toxic spikes is better for a mono ghost team that runs mega gengar over mega bane or sable; give mega gengar tbolt for flyers and have a way for the rest of your team to handle any steel or poison types (gengar could also run psychic ans focus blast) and Venoshock will destroy anything grounded that switches in as it gets poisoned and shadow tag wont let them avoid the venoshock 130 base power after a opposing pokemon is poisoned off a 170 base special attack even resisting pkmn get annihilated toxic spikes venoshock sweep is hard and very situational to set up but its fun as heck!

[@francescganau7679]

Gen 5 alakazam... with its focus sash, you see it much more often today than back in 2011-12 when BW was the newest thing. Similar story with Nidoqueen in gen 4, pretty solid overall and not something you usually saw back in the day

[@screwtokaiba]

The conversation on 8:20 have been talked about before and its likely false btw The BKC video talking about it(around 45 mins mark) and its like Clef rise in gen 4 happened before g6 drops so its just a coincidence that Clef become meta in gen 4 eventually post its rise in modern Pokemon metas Personally i suspected its actually influenced by Reuniclus, since Reun being considered broken was something that can be seen even way earlier on BW1 suspect periods

[@Steph_N]

Whenever you feel like you're getting old and stuck at a dead end in life, just remember didn't reach gen 3 OU status until after 18 years. It's never too late to start anew, folks.

[@armorbearer9702]

Ok, so the meta leans to offensive teams due to easier builds. This is why some great defensive Pokemon get overlooked like Clefable and Cofagrigus at first. Thus defensive Pokémon in lower tiers have a higher chance to be sleeper OU threats.

[@FloorFourteen]

Can someone tell me how the Rotom-Wash was immune to Seismic Toss at 6:40?

[@williamgriffin3539]

All rotoms are ghost in gen 4

[@matskubatsku]

Dear Jimothy, Have we yet discussed one of the more controversial candidates for the HC, Glastrier? I know this might be a weird suggestion, it being an ice sculpture, distantly resembling a horse, but it might be the pick to tip the scales... what about its ancient paradox form, Ice Capulis?

[@deanofett]

"rose to OU in October 2022, not to long ago" That was almost 2 years ago lol

[@amale441]

I can't believe you forgot to mention the rising OU star Squirtle

[@aa7x3]

You forgot the best combo, red card cofagrigus combined with pursuit slaking to lose truant

[@josenaldojunior243]

don’t you mean eject button rather than red card?

[@creeperman1295]

I already know this is a Magcargo Moment, folks.

[@BLUEBOYISLEDGE]

never knew that about cofag, that's sick

[@Ankhaunt]

Coffagrigous rising to OU is awesome. I'm waiting for the time people realise gigalith is as awesome as well.

[@thebozz1139]

Im surprised to see cofagigus here when he was released he was on alot of my teams

[@Qaos]

Hey, Jimothy, what's your take on unfreezing gens 4-8 and turning them into viability-based tiering?

[@oomar4597]

Charfruad finally evolved to chargoat im in tears

[@JetPuff96]

Maybe I should go back to Gen 6 OU, I was using Cof for years. Perfect Lopunny counter.

[@AkamexAris1023]

The Mudcargo Alliance needs our support

[@ctv186]

Hold up, is Foghorn Leghorn the one gatekeeping entry into the horse council?

[@AngryAyrab]

We love a good underdog story.

[@matthewlong7547]

It's crazy that Charizard is in ZU in SV now

[@misalignedmisanthropist]

I think Iron Mugulis is still overlooked

[@vivderbinkie56]

mark my words linoones gonna betray the horse council because old money is giving it physical ground stab

[@axel8912]

Don't know the title but a reverse of this video would be cool, "pokemons that were overrated" like gen 4 Electavire

[@pantslesswrock]

For breakfast today I am having a shredded beef burrito and water

[@M4TTH35]

I always thought Cofagrius was underrated, used it as a defensive core with a whirlwind Snorlax and hazards in general 5 UU/OU

[@rileyshanahan8062]

If charizard is holding kings rock would each attack have a chance to flinch similar to fury swipes? Or does it only work for charizard attack

[@footyrazino]

Clefable was out standing in her field

[@driftingbreath]

mfw French Linoone is now part of the channel lore

[@voidcommando7574]

lol that ZardLoom team looked like one of my ingame teams back then only metagross was switch with zam since you couldn't get metagross before champion

[@tecul1]

that's champion leon's quite popular ace pokemon, charizard

[@Mepphy99]

Charizard to OU is always a cool to ses

[@TheRogueThunder]

A video on banned defensive Pokemon would be interesting

[@danj9548]

I am gravely worried that Old Money is is using his untold millions to further the propaganda of the Horsea faction.

[@darko-man8549]

I’ve always liked cofagrigous

[@kala__362]

I love Charizard!!!😍

[@Practicing-excellence]

So rotom did use you have ghost typing beyond its basic form 🤔

[@reddy4play]

This is gonna be Blastoise for gen 9

[@emblemadefuego20]

Rillaboom is broken in 8 OU. Blissey is broken in ADV OU now, with the lasts bans.

[@pdiddlers3268]

Defog was not introduced in Gen 6

[@SomethingLog]

Years ago I started playing vgc over singles and man do I mot miss leftovers spam😂

[@oskarbremer5406]

Tbf who would've thought that Alomomola would be the goat of Gen 9?

[@morganbush7775]

Does Mummy last the entire battle or just until the switch? I forgor

[@jimothycool]

It's temporary, resets on switchout

[@wentoneisendon6502]

Why are gen 4 rankings frozen in time?

[@hansoskar1911]

pretty obvious why metagames get more defensive over time. if there are presistently good threats that you cant really answer the mons get banned.

[@greeeb.]

rip Cofagrigus pronunciation

[@cassetterescue2692]

why do g3 and g4 OU use different rankings than usage? seems archaic

[@jimothycool]

Old Gen ladders aren't active enough to keep usage based tiering going. All old Gens freeze their tiers once a new Gen comes out Except Gen 3 and prior, which existed before usage based tiering and are tiered manually

[@tysondennis1016]

Gen 4 needs to have its tiering unfrozen.