How Latias became the #1 Pokémon in DPP OU

[@akarinova]

Every waking thought I’ve had for the past few weeks is how Latias became the #1 Pokémon in DPP OU

[@ThePeasantRock16]

More like waifu laifu

[@EvilApple567]

It's kinda crazy when you look at its competition for #1 that this happened now as opposed to the 2018-2020 era where Latias and Dug were both unbanned

[@darknessyouroldfriend3258]

Incredible update schedule. Right as I should be going to bed.

[@boop53]

i hear a lot about the era of DPP OU where Scizor was supposedly #1 on the usage rankings. Could you talk about that maybe? I think its been briefly touched on in your salamence video but it would be cool to see if the meta has reacted to scizor’s prominence and if the pokemon has “actually fallen off”, or if the meta just requires different things now

[@johnbanks1069]

Yup, that was pretty much a lot of the Platinum/HGSS era

[@eulefranz944]

Wait what? Havent played dpp in a minute.. scizor is bad now? Hoooow

[@johnbanks1069]

@@eulefranz944 it's not *bad* but it does have limited uses, due to it being unable to revenge kill much all that well (especially compared to Dnite) and acting as free opportunities to set up for much more threatening switch-ins like Jirachi, Gyarados, Lucario, and Heatran. Blissey has also fallen out of favour for Clefable, which has Knock Off to severely weaken Scizor's efficacy as a revenge killer, pivot, and tank.

[@tylerd1297]

​@@eulefranz944like other dude said its not bad but youll prob be shocked if you see its place in the viability ranking

[@OGRScintilla]

I couldn’t help notice Latias and Jirachi are such common teammates. Is it just because both are great mons or is there some special synergy there?

[@BKCplaysPokemon]

both! they cover such a large portion of the metagame together, and also resist each others' weaknesses wonderfully

[@funkymachine]

Only mildly related, but I adore mixed latias. It's same attack as mixgon (you invest in Atk on latias) but it has more spatk, have dragon stab after Draco is dropped, and it has sucker punch after the 2 stabs and eq. Love it. Obviously some teams need stab eq and no pursuit weakness, but it's a really interesting and fun option that no one expects.

[@olivergro7105]

eq really sounds great for heatran switch ins midgame once its revealed. :)

[@ValentineElCarbona]

Hour passed midnight and wasn't able to fall asleep. But would you look at this, the lord truly does provide.

[@pikminologueraisin2139]

good defensive type stab dragon in pre gen6 110bs in speed in a tier where (excepted for starmie) weavile, which is not used that much and azelf/aero which are used as suicide lead most of the time are the only mons who has higher speed than 110 good bs in every other stat good movepool

[@danka1167]

Its actually kinda crazy that despite both dragon and psychic being bad defensively (and offensively), they actually synergise pretty well

[@Dragostorm21]

@@danka1167 pre gen 6 dragon isn't exacly bad offensively. And dragon has 4 resists,wtf do you mean "bad defensively". Psychic i agree.

[@danka1167]

@@Dragostorm21 its weak to fairy, best type in the game, ice, most common coverage in the game, and dragon, which pre gen 6 was actually used (nowadays exclusively dragapult runs a dragon move).

[@danka1167]

@@gnomefrompinkerton i’m talking nowadays, psychic without lele is bad, dragon is just straight up bad. It’s terrible is pretty much every aspect aside from that dragon types in general are good. Its resistances are decent fine, its weaknesses are awful. It’s abysmal offensively

[@Dragostorm21]

@@danka1167 besides the fact that this is pre Gen 6 and thus fairy isn't a thing (post Gen 6 dragon offensively is eh kinda like normal imo), dragon is only weak to 2 (fairy makes it far worse of a defensive typing but then again, fairy is perhaps the new dragon type and probably deserves some small nerf) types (1 of which is itself) and while the weakness to ice sucks ground is also weak to ice yet it is still a good defensive type. I am not claiming that it is a amazing defensive type, but it does the job of giving switches. Psychic offensively isn't the best past Gen 1 and defensively it also isn't that great (fighting resist is nice but dark weakness is a major issue ever since pursuit and now knock off). And besides, what exactly is their synergy anyway? Both are walled by steels pre Gen 6 and defensively they don't have much in common. Tldr: pre Gen 4 dragon is imo pretty good defensively if pretty much all of them weren't 4x weak to ice, and I don't get the whole "work well together" thing. Defensively they don't have obvious synergy and offensively they get walled by steel types pre Gen 6.

[@whomgod420]

I'm starting to hear Kevin's BUT! in my sleep

[@screwtokaiba]

this video feels surreal since i swear theres going to be a bkc video ages ago that said Latias wasnt that good or some shit lol

[@tbolt__]

I do love lead bulky Specs Latias. Great for nuking non sash leads and for being a decent check to physical sweepers like Lucario, Gyarados, and Breloom.

[@lukasschmitz9030]

Video idea: What if items such as the griseous orb or Arceus' plates functioned the same as the Gracidea, e.g. were key items that one applied to the corresponding Pokémons to change their form? How would e.g. DPP Ubers and other formats change if stuff like Giratina-O had a free item slot?

[@FiboSai]

Arceus would have gotten banned much quicker if it had a free item slot. It might even be banned in other generations of Ubers with that change.

[@midnightemerald]

let me direct you to the horrors of arceus water, steel, fairy with lefties or boots

[@Gameproducer6]

That’s a great idea all the same. Sounds broken but I’d love to hear about it!

[@olivergro7105]

@@midnightemerald dont forget arceus flying with boots :`)

[@Legogreens]

Giri-0 with access to choice items and lefties would probably be too much for DPP OU. It's already insane with orb

[@Dave_Chrome]

I remember when I was playing DPP OU years ago when Latias came back I thought it was annoying. But nowadays I know there are so many ways to deal with it. Pursuit/U-Turn shred the thing, Toxic is super consistent against it and if it's running Refresh that means something on your team should be able to wall it lol. Not to mention it can't stand up to repeated Shadow Balls either That said it's obviously an amazing Pokemon and there's nothing else in the tier that can pull off what it can

[@GIR177]

It's not about the fact that it's overpowering to deal with or anything, it's the fact that it's a soft check for half of the meta in one team slot that makes it so stupid. It should've never gotten unbanned in my personal opinion, but more people like it around than not.

[@DungNguyen-hi9nx]

At this rate even if you do a podcast channel in which you would just talking shit, absolutely nonsense whatsoever, I will gladly take it anyway. No complaints.

[@lammericium-241]

the good old days of soul dew latias being absolutely broken

[@zachwesson7848]

Nice video BKC! Hope your day kicks ass

[@TheLonelyNihilego]

I don’t think Latias is number 1 in DPP OU but it’s definitely the most splashable every team style gets better with it

[@smileswithriles]

I love it when you post these shorter, bite sized videos!! Yum yum

[@griffin8762]

Another fantastic video, mr kicking chicking

[@Profsinnoh]

Great video

[@yourdagan]

How often do people cite Latias's presence as a negative point for the metagame / something they dislike about it?

[@Legogreens]

I find jirachi way more limiting in the builder than latina

[@sdzxpa]

​@@Legogreens latina fr

[@ellachino4799]

those darn latinas amirite@@sdzxpa

[@TheMurderBird]

​@@LegogreensThis is a very apt analysis, if anything latinas enhance the team building process.

[@electricVGC]

i feel like the differences between latias jirachi tyranitar and the rest of the pokemon in DPP OU is crazy, i really still feel like unbanning lati went the wrong way for the tier. all three of them i feel like could go.

[@aqualucasYT]

DPPT really has changed

[@Meansoduck]

the pokemon formerly in ubers is #1 in ou! shocker.

[@Relisoc4]

I mean if you cut out all the nuance then yeah it’s obvious why. As you said it’s literally an Uber. But when it was originally unbanned it wasn’t #1 so there’s a lot of details being left out

[@nickbitle2983]

Hey bkc I have a video request I'd love an in depth analysis on medicham in adv ou. I love that poke and its my 2nd favorite for sure behind scyther lol. I just Need to know wat you think oh wise and powerful pokemon wizard. I've always thought of you as the Gandalf of pokemon lol. Old and experienced and strong. Anyways much love to you bkc ❤

[@Pacca64]

What was up with that one guy running unown in the team? Thought that was funny lol

[@BKCplaysPokemon]

that was just a way to signify an unrevealed pokemon!

[@Pacca64]

@@BKCplaysPokemon Ah, that makes way more sense x3

[@catandfishfc]

If Latios was banned in gen 5 OU, could Latias simply take its place on all teams, just in a less obtrusive manner?

[@Ninefoxes]

I don't think so. 130 vs 110 special attack is a significant difference. I think scarf would be relatively the same, but specs would cease to exist. It's bulkier, so a better keldeo check, but the drop in power makes it a lot easier to pursuit too. It's worse at revenging the various other dragons - scarf kyu-b, DD nite, etc and just doesn't have that nuke potential. I'm sure a lot of teams could make the swap and survive, but it would be a significant change.

[@algar6616]

someone help me out, this scarf latias keeps tbolting my gyarados after two dances

[@clayblondin4356]

I play a ton of DPP and never struggle against latias. It just gets annihilated by tyranitar too easily. Jirachi is way more annoying to me. Or even Breloom

[@lesqueegee]

I been saying latias is the #1 Mon in DPP OU

[@shadowtitanx3962]

Welp. This is just like Gen 5, where Latios is #1

[@PokeBrodie]

i’m the number 1 pokémon in dpp ou

[@rigoFGC1]

Lamao what did they expect reintroducing her?

[@ThePeasantRock16]

Latias is the Waifu Laifu

[@internetguy7319]

Waifu??

[@user-oy7sh9uy2b]

HUH?

[@pikminologueraisin2139]

Latias when she kiss the mc in the fifth movie 🥵🥵

[@ThePeasantRock16]

@@pikminologueraisin2139 I still don't believe i caught a Latias with a Love ball

[@IrrelevantPride]

Ban Iron Head

[@pappy2690]

Firth

[@internetguy7319]

balancing by pursuit is always a massive L and jirachi is already often called to be banned itself lmao pursuit should be banned in old tiers tiers because it is still just trapping, and trapping is terrible for the game

[@yourdagan]

Trapping is great.

[@pumas222]

if you follow through that rabbit hole then skarmory would inevitably be banned in adv. then the metagame is unrecognizable to someone coming back after 10 years.

[@pikminologueraisin2139]

only ban trapping in gen4 in gen2 it's fine and in gen3 dug keep the tier in a good state and magneton is like the only true skarm cockblocker and in gen5 you've got blue latias sooooo

[@Mimikium778]

i do think having pursuit be a reason a pokemon isn't too overpowered is a bad thing for a metagame, but pursuit is one of the least toxic forms of trapping and shouldn't have been removed, flat out. arena trap and shadow tag is absolute trapping, switching is not possible barring moves like u-turn and baton pass and its done instantly. if they get in on a good opportunity, you've lost momentum or a pokemon completely barring scarf switch moves. meanwhile pursuit has actual counterplay because you are not trapped just by that pokemon switching in, and if they use pursuit and you don't switch, you can punish them incredibly hard in return. i personally think a weavile spamming pursuit is a lot less of a big deal than dugtrio getting to spam a full power earthquake 100% of the time, and being able to trap things it isnt even inherently super effective against. pursuit ends up just being chip damage rather than a guaranteed kill most of the time if you hit a neutral or resistant pokemon. dont get me wrong, i do think trapping at all can feel kinda oppressive, and it can be infuriating to play against as it allows free KOs on pokemon that arent even inherently out of the fight, just low health. at the same time however, its the trapping with the most counterplay available due to its relatively low power and lower amount of situations where its an absolute.

[@emmetstanevich2121]

The main difference between pursuit and a true trapping effect is that pursuit doesn't entirely disable switching. Sure, pursuit can punish a predicted switch, or you could just hit the opponent with a weak dark-type move if they do literally anything other than exactly switching out. There's also the fact that not all pokemon are severely threatened by pursuit. Sure, nothing *likes* taking the damage, but a pokemon that either resists dark or is otherwise bulky enough can still choose to accept the damage and switch out anyways, which is an option that other trapping effects don't give you.