How Pokemon Ruined the Psychic Type

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Psychic Pokemon used to be the strongest in the game, but somehow over the years the type has fallen from one of the best to one of the worst. This is the story of how Pokemon ruined the psychic type.
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[@WolfeyVGC]

Go to buyraycon.com/wolfey for 15% off your order, plus free shipping! Brought to you by Raycon.

[@Jaydenlkm]

Cool

[@djmadmatt4772]

You should make the same vid about dragon

[@ballisticalrift]

@@djmadmatt4772But dragon’s still a great type, which you can see by looking at OU and Ubers. Neutral coverage is still great

[@noofalshekar]

Out of topic but, bro go to Bahrain there is 2 toysrus is (I don’t know how to spell toysruruses basically there are two of them)

[@clowncorp]

DO NOT BUY RAYCONS! They are probably the lowest quality earbuds I've ever used. They are very bass boosted and the materials are very low quality. They are just rebranded aliexpress products. I respect the grind with the sponsorship but the quality is just way too bad.

[@jeanlou3]

Psychic type paid for Mewtwo’s sins.

[@mr.fancypotato]

How mewtow wasn't only broken psychic type the type as whole was just unbalanced

[@fishfella8955]

Psychic type really got the Darkrai treatment and got nerfed because of some overpowered mon😭

[@Acre00]

More like for Alakazam's sins.

[@mimeco2]

literally every psychic type in gen 1 was busted

[@zdelrod829]

Somewhat deserved. Mewtwo's still vast movepool and pretty good stats, and especially with how fast and hard-hitting psychics were in gen 1, the type definitely needed some time in the backyard. Now, modern Psychic types are weaker *because* we are looking at it from a generational perspective. If you look at it from a movepool perspective, it makes much more sense. Psychic is the second most common move type, taking up 8.46% of all moves, only behind the Normal type.

[@oldoutlet6946]

"Even though back in gen one when there weren't as many fighting or *poison* types-" Gen 1's 33 poison types: "Say that again. I dare you."

[@wolfzend5964]

Which is funny because nothing resisted or did Super Effective moves to psychic types back then except Bug. All 10 of them, 4 of which were Magikarp tier, 2 being behind pay walls called the casino and safari zone. Meaning Paras Parasect, Beedrill and Butterfree, were the best choice type wise to stand up against Pokémon like an Alakazam or Hypno.

[@Icemadhatter]

@@wolfzend5964 none of the bug types in gen 1 learned a strong bug type move: Parasect and Venomoth only learned 20 base power leech life while Beedrill was the only one with """"decent""""" moves being twin needle and luck based pin missle. Beedrill was also part poison and outspeed by the majority of psychic types. the real good counters to psychic (if we don't take Mewtwo in consideration) were the normal types such as Tauros and Snorlax which had enough special to resist a psychic move and can use a strong pshysical stab move to take advantage to the only flaw psychic types kinda had: low physical defense. To counter Normal type people used Gengar or a Rock/Ground mon, to counter the latter they used water and Ice. Basically almost every team consisted in: 1 or more psychic types, a normal type a rock/ ground type or gengar a water/ice type an electric type. Another fun fact was that fire type back then was completely useless since steel didn't exist, bug was useless too, Ice was most of the time part water and grass not only was kinda niche but it was better countered by ice or even flying (aka zapdos)

[@davidcohen7744]

Scyther and pinsir didn't even learn any bug moves haha

[@user-eg4qf8ew6n]

Well, many poison types, yes. but no poison attackes.

[@lilianmesmo]

there werent many strong ones tho

[@Nameless_mixes]

I’m actually a bit surprised that Knock Off wasn’t mentioned. I feel like that also had a major role in Fairy’s rise to success since Fairy-types resist the move while Psychic-types are weak to it. Gen 6 really was not a kind one to Psychics.

[@99sonder]

That and U-Turn in Gen 4. Super safe move that just so happen to hit psychic super effectively and then switch in a Pokemon that most likely checks the Psychic

[@mrhalfsaid1389]

Its because wolfey probably didn't actually think about what actually makes psychic less viable than in gen one to three

[@ArbitraryOutcome]

I think Pursuit was also pretty rampant until its removal in Gen 8.

[@goldtyphlosion7537]

I’d say knock off wasnt really mentioned because you can still gut some fairy mob by taking their item away

[@Dr.J42]

He’s a vgc player

[@254zero]

Don't let Wolfey trick you. He's definitely running an expanding force team

[@jeremycordero3029]

Lmfao

[@saltlakeatrocity9771]

Imagine thinking wolfey might trick -room- someone.

[@jaezonjohnson4493]

That part

[@MK_ULTRA420]

@@saltlakeatrocity9771 I perish -song- the thought of it.

[@Hexacosichoron12]

Honestly they should change Psychic to be super effective against steel. Alakazam wields metal spoons afterall

[@Ro9ge]

Another minor point to add - in Gen 1, there was a LOT of poison types. It was actually the most common type for that generation. So at the time, Psychic hit super effective damage against the most common type.

[@furiouscorgi6614]

To give credit, the good Poisons were, uhhh... Gengar

[@Ro9ge]

@@furiouscorgi6614 Maybe from a purely competitive standpoint, but pokemon like Venusaur, Tentacruel, Nidoking, etc, are still pretty good.

[@jasonmoscynski8170]

​@furiouscorgi6614 The Gengar line were also the only ghost types in gen 1. The fact that they were all also poison type means that the intended counter to psychic types at the time was itself weak to psychic type damage.

[@VinniePaul91]

I thought forever that grass was weak to psychic. ALL THREE full evo grass lines are grass/poison which I'm still salty about.

[@Glory2Snowstar]

And then immediately the Gen after that they added a Type that was IMMUNE to Poison Seriously what did Steel do to get away with resisting over half the meta Life as a Poison Enjoyer was PAIN in a pre-Fairy era y'all

[@rasbar3830]

Everywhere they show people/pokemon with psychic powers bending spoons, cars, etc. But apparently STEEL RESISTS PSYCHIC

[@wolfzend5964]

Makes more sense than Psychic destroying Poison.

[@aidankocherhans9861]

If they flipped that interaction that would instantly make psychics relevant, and steel could probably use the nerf anyway

[@aclstudios]

Steel resists Psychic because of "tin-foil hats" that are meant to prevent one's mind from being read etc.

[@spymaster1]

@@aclstudiosmakes less sense than bending spoons. Sorry. Steel needs the nerf and psychic needs the buff, it would be good

[@spymaster1]

@@wolfzend5964psychic being SE against poison is likely because of the idea of mind over matter, or that by thinking happy thoughts or something you feel better or heal from sickness faster. I dunno

[@DaikoruArtwin]

As I see it, Gamefreak has always wanted Dragon type to be the strongest "type", a type that is hard to raise, but rewards your effort with pure destruction. Meanwhile, Psychic type was meant to be more of a rare, mysterious, second strongest type, which you have difficult finding Pokemon of. Both of these followed the same pattern: The one major battle with a Type master of that type would happen only slightly after reaching an area full of the types countering them (Pokemon Tower for Psychic, Seafoam Islands for Dragon). Furthermore, Dragon was the type of the champion, and has since always been the type of either the final Gym Leader or one of the Elite Four, while Psychic has always been in a close follow-up, but never quite the Champion. However, Psychic turned out to be stronger due to ghost not actually successfully countering them, and their ability to hit everything without worry for type matchup. Meanwhile, Dragon only had one representative in Dragonite, and they had no STAB to spam, given the only Dragon move dealt fixed damage. In generation 2, they saw these issues and nerfed Psychic with the new types, and buffed Dragon with actual offensive moves, notably Outrage. It still wasn't enough though, given they still only had Dragonite and Kingdra as representative. Then starting in gen 3, they really tried to restore Dragon as the strongest type, with the addition of a new Dragon Pseudo-legendary and actual Dragon legendaries. And they have kept doing this for every generation since then. They went a little overboard in gen 5 though as they had mostly become what Psychic was in gen 1: monsters that can just destroy everything with their STAB alone, including the type that's actually supposed to counter them, Ice. So they felt they needed a real counter, and therefore they added Fairy. But unlike Psychic, Fairy was never intended to be a second strongest type. Gamefreak continues to release strong, mysterious Psychic legendaries, but due to how every other type has kept evolving, Psychic types can no longer keep up with the metagame. Meanwhile, Fairy was a little too overtuned, and despite barely having any Legendary, it has been making weaker Pokemon very powerful.

[@mightza3781]

To be fair, Dragon typing in Gen 1 was basically used as a placeholder as an ability for Dragonite. No STAB, but resisted all STAB moves of your starters regardless of who you picked similar to a typical late game RPG boss.

[@epicness877]

Very well stated, summative, and observant by extrapolating on instances of the design

[@YamatoFukkatsu]

If you ask me, making Fairy be immune to Dragon was a bit overkill. I mean, I never minded the introduction of Fairy (especially since it helped to make Poison more viable), but I always found it odd that they introduced it as this hard counter to Dragon, but never bothered doing anything to buff the original Dragon counter: Ice. In a similar vein, I can't help wondering if Dark being immune to Psychic was really the best thing in the long run. Gen1 Psychic was definitely overpowered, don't get me wrong. But if they just made both the new types resist it, on top of making Ghost and Bug more viable (and fixing that Ghost immunity glitch), shouldn't that have been more than enough?

[@AceAviations2]

​@@YamatoFukkatsu​Don't get me wrong, Gen1 Psychic was broken. But honestly Normal was probably more overpowered in Gen1: 1. You had titans like Tauros and Snorlax (two of Gen1's Big Three) who hit incredibly hard 2. Normal types couldn't be Paralyzed by Body Slam in particular (Gen1 weirdness, other sources could, just not Body Slam) 3. Hyper Beam SKIPPED THE RECHARGE TURN if it knocked out the target, do I need to explain why that's powerful? 4. There were only 7 fully evolved Pokemon that either resisted or were immune to them (the fossils, Gengar, Onyx, Golem and Rhydon) 5. Normal types had CRAZY wide movepools, those Normal resists would likely eat either a 90% accurate Blizzard (was a thing in Gen1) or an Earthquake instead. 6. While Normal types couldn't hit anything for super-effective damage, Psychic types couldn't really either because why would you use something weak to Psychic that isn't a Gengar. So they were basically in the same boat aside from the fact that Normal types didn't have issues with matchups against other Normal types. The Steel type was also to nerf the Normal type as well, so Normal and Psychic were the two best types. Normal just gets overshadowed by Psychic because of Mewtwo and Alakazam, who wasn't a member of the Big Three (that last member was Chancey, a Normal type). The next three: Alakazam, Starmaie and Exeegutor were Psychic types.

[@ShadowKaiserin]

@@YamatoFukkatsu Steel resisted Dragon and got bowled over anyway. Immunity stops a sweep cold, which was the goal.

[@joopvanhedel1372]

The fact that Kieran uses an Incineroar is hilarious. This is self-awareness at the highest level. Game Freak knows which Pokemon they choose

[@asierx7047]

Kieran got beat so hard he dropped his faves for the most competitively viable pokémon he could find

[@badslime6453]

@@asierx7047 he doesn't use knock off or parting shot so it could be worse

[@artesque]

I’ve been subscribed for years… the jokes don’t get better, you just appreciate them more.

[@xavibun]

5:05 One small correction. Jynx actually had her special attack increased during the special split, being 95 special in gen 1, and 115 special attack and 95 special defense in gen 2.

[@matigamer329]

Also about Sun and Moon being the most recent games to make changes to specific type interactions. Or is it something I'm not understanding?

[@abhishekverma8303]

​@@frankcaggiano8282wasn't steel not resisting ghost and dark from gen 6 as well?

[@Enneige]

That's what was part of the special split. The original special became either SpAtk or SpDef and a new value was given to the one not using the original Gen 1 special. I.e. Gen 1 Tentacruel's special stat became its SpDef, when Cloyster's became its SpAtk (85). It's interesting to see how many Kanto mons eventually ended up with abysmal SpDef- take Cloyster with a whopping 45 SpDef (; _ ;)

[@BaxsStudios]

​@@abhishekverma8303yes thats correct

[@user-rr6wo9hm8s]

Her ??

[@Patterrz]

I have gen 1 brain, to me, a single kadabra (unevolved because no link cable) can beat any pokemon

[@Yopiwastaken]

no link cable is so real LMAO

[@RTU130]

Yea

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

To be fair, the counters to Kadabra in gen 1 are the normal types that no AI trainers have, Alakazam, Mewtwo, and Mew.

[@yoshimallow_5121]

@@dontmisunderstand6041 If only the AI were enlightened in the ways of the Big Three (Tauros, Snorlax, and Chansey)

[@ShinotheQueeno]

facts

[@Dankey490]

I think an important addition would've been that some of the most easily spammable moves of all time all hit Psychic for super effective damage: U-Turn, Knock Off, Shadow Ball, Pursuit

[@goGothitaLOL]

U-Turn and Knock Off especially, both of which are everywhere

[@lordnatu]

Shadow ball and Pursuit are weird additions here. Although I guess in singles Pursuit was a major factor in limiting Psychic Types.

[@Dankey490]

@@lordnatu Shadow Ball is famously known as the easiest regular attack to spam in the game: Decent damage, hits almost everything neutraly and has no drawback

[@misters6749]

I got you guys. U-Turn, the Dark Type and consistent fragility of Psy-Mons! Edit: my first 1k comment, thank you all!!

[@daunderrated3106]

U turn and knock off is very spammable

[@Relisoc]

@@daunderrated3106also ghost and dark being some of the most spammable offensive types after the steel nerf

[@misters6749]

@@daunderrated3106 spamable AND common!

[@RainmakerXBooty]

Bite/crunch being accessible on all Pokémon damn near

[@misters6749]

@@RainmakerXBooty and of course infamous Shadow Ball …. Oh any how many Psychic ‘mons have bulletproof as an ability?

[@The_Trident_Master]

1:12 I’m a Christian, and I simply CAN NOT see why some people think the game is evil or demonic or teaches witchcraft. Ah yes, I used thunderbolt with my electric rat and I suddenly feel like worshiping Satan. The game was creating because the creator liked collecting bugs and wanted to make a game similar to that. The idea that it’s evil is so stupid

[@yurisei6732]

You should look into the Satanic Panic. The concern wasn't really that any of the content of Pokemon was satanic, pokemon was just one of many things that got swept up in the moral hysterics of a time in which conservative Christian control over culture was collapsing. We're seeing the same thing again today with the popularisation of conspiracy theories amongst conservatives - the internet started a second wave of cultural diversification, and the conservatives are scared again and calling it a satanic plot to brainwash kids.

[@FailingDuke64]

Evolution theory, and protestant christians weren’t having it represented in children’s media.

[@JGirDesu]

The "Devil" aspect was really about the obsession kids had with Pokemon in its early days. The thought being that the Devil was capturing the attention of children because why else would we be so obsessed? Logically, it MUST have been the Devil lmao also the fact that animals were given magical powers I was in Christian elementary school the years Gen 1 & 2 came out, and EVERY kid was playing with them nonstop including the trading card game. It really was like a frenzy. I know for me that I definitely played Pokemon instead of doing my Bible homework, which I obviously got in trouble for lol My most painful memory during that time was showing up to school the day Pokemon was banned, and i had JUST worn my NEW Pokemon shoes that had like Pikachu and Mewtwo on them. Upon showing up, I was forced to place neutral stickers to cover the Pokemon. It was really devastating to ~8yr old me as I was excited to show all of my friends my new shoes to then be shamed by the staff and forced to cover my shoes up. It was a sad day. Even though Pokemon was banned, we all still talked about it anyways and played the games after school instead of during recess and lunch. Literally, none of the school parents cared. It was the staff being controlling because of things they had seen in the news about it being demonic.

[@Hugo-yz1vb]

I always hated people like this, making all religious people look like hyper-supersticious idiots. Wich is truw to an extent, but still.

[@twlightnightfall1315]

Yeah, I was about ta say. I'd have ta hear his arguments on it further (though I'm likely not ta agree), but as a Christian myself I can't see how this is anything along the lines of teaching witchcraft or Devil worship. I mean, if he's speaking on the fact that kids may put this before God, I could slightly understand his side but that's still not necessarily Devil worship in my eyes. It's just... a weird statement ta make in my opinion. However, I also only just started with gen 7 in High School so perhaps that has something ta be with my perspective. Still wild though.

[@Mysterious-Stranger]

Petition to give psychic type a resistance to fairy type attacks

[@jomariendino7734]

*immunity

[@sweetheartmashupsbabe]

Whats the logistical reasoning fot that tho

[@Mysterious-Stranger]

@@sweetheartmashupsbabe Take whatever logic you apply to justify why Fairy resists Fighting and invert it and I think you usually get a good justification of them being weak to psychic. Do they resist fighting because faeries are small and hard to hit? Well psychic powers are perfect for attacking such creatures because they are harder or impossible to dodge. Do they resist fighting because they have some kind of magical defence against physical attacks, or strong muscular things? Psychic must be the beet type to _bypass_ that kind of defence.

[@whynot9421]

Changing cresselia’s type to fairy in gen 6 would have gone crazy.

[@njivwathomassilavwe2056]

13:32 He will never escape this clip

[@DookieBlaster]

alpha catching strays in a wolfie vid im dead

[@michaelr5597]

I find it so comical that this is the defining clip for every Pokétuber

[@jayanths1221]

Can someone please explain the context behind that clip?

[@amateurdechats]

@@jayanths1221iirc he was doing a nuzlocke, got confident when battling and ended up fainting his pokemon because of it, meaning he couldnt use it anymore

[@selena3467]

​​@@jayanths1221They thought bringing Onix into the Elite Four was a good idea in a Nuzlocke despite having a lot of other better Pokemon in the PC. They thought switching in Onix into an obvious upcoming ice type attack was a good idea. They banked on Onix not getting frozen They thought Sturdy in FR/LG worked like it does Gen5+ Of all Pokemon they taught Onix the only Earthquake TM in the game They thought Onix would oneshot Jynx with Earthquake They banked on Onixs Quick Claw to activate. Now look up Onix base stats and convince me that there was a single way they could have sabotaged themselves more. CaptainKidd (Braiden) was the one suggesting Alpharad to switch into Onix in the first place so he is forever known as the Onix Quick Claw guy.

[@mgustafson2010]

My biggest problem using especially pure psychic types is so many pokemon get coverage moves that are super effective against psychic.

[@afifmajid8754]

if we are talking early game like 80% of the roster gets bite, thats not even a move its a basic tool of life

[@wolfzend5964]

Remember when Bug type was the only type to resist and be super effective against psychic. Pepperidge farm remembers...

[@user-vc1mz4ij2p]

@@wolfzend5964bug has never resisted psychic what’re you on about

[@goGothitaLOL]

Especially U-Turn and the buffed Knock Off With some Shadow Balls in-between

[@Yuri-dk6kd]

true, pyschic latelly is only viable if you have OP stats or if you secondary type cover your flaws in some way

[@lukaslivengood5687]

Gardevoir erasure in the gen 3 section is crazy - it's UUBL in ADV but has been a strong psychic type for the majority of its lifespan

[@k-dawg7867]

That one kid on the playground who battled you with 6 Mewtwos 💀💀💀

[@daverowe1081]

Psychic Types in Gen 1: *exist* Dark Types and Steel Types in Gen 2: "and I took that personally..."

[@PengWinYoutube]

Bro really making this video while psyspam is viable

[@namantherockstar]

Wolfey inspires me.. My parents said if i get 70K followers They'd buy me a professional camera for recording..begging u guys , literally Begging..

[@therealricepresident9056]

Tera psycic Hatterene 🤗

[@GoinGreninja]

The only reason psyspam is viable is because they created an overpowered move for them to abuse, which they wouldn't need if the type didn't suck in the modern days.

[@madjester9844]

And it's not broken _because_ it's tied to psychic types

[@anastasiskal2608]

He's talking about vgc i guess not smogon

[@MishKoz]

5:05 small detail but Jynx's base stats were actually _buffed_ in the transition from Gen 1 to Gen 2. It previously had a 95 special stat in Gen 1, but In Gen 2 it was given an extra 20 points in special attack, while its special defense remained at 95. Compare that to Alakazam and Exeggutor, who had their Gen 1 special stats converted into their special attack stat, but they each _lost_ 50 points of special defense.

[@kemosonicfan123lbp]

>there weren't that many poison types in gen 1 💀

[@gundgaming-brawlstars7082]

I think the main reason why psychic type has gotten worse is how op dark types have become, incin alone makes it hard to use psychic types. Yveltal in past gens,kingambit, dark Urshifu and the 3 treasure of ruin 😅 along with many others makes it difficult to justify using one on non psy spam teams.

[@goGothitaLOL]

And there’s the move Knock Off……and by extension U-Turn (bug moves but still super common and threats Psychic)

[@serge2cool]

I think you're forgetting the Paldean ruin mons too, another 4 to the list that shit on Psychics.

[@Endershock1678]

"3 Treasures of Ruin", the disrespect.

[@BisharpnearOhio]

So many good dark types throughout the games: Mega Absol, Tyranitar, Bisharp and Kingambit, Weavile, Darkrai, Galarian Moltres, Mega Sableye, Mandibuzz, Hydreigon, Roaring Moon, Greninja; Incineroar, Meowscarada, Hisuian Samurott, Grimmsnarl, Yveltal, Lokix, Zarude, Chien-Pao, Chi-Yu, Ting Lu, Wo Chien, Alolan Muk, Mega Gyarados, Crawdaunt, Krookodile, Hoopa Unbound, Urshifu Single Strike dear god that’s a lot

[@arzfan29]

Psychic/fairy types

[@BestgirlJordanfish]

All I want is for psychic to become neutral against steel, and psychic terrain to be spicier and honestly that feels like enough to me. Maybe also immunity to some kind of mental effect like confusion or taunt, like how grass got spore and powder immunity. The signature held item of the psychic type is a twisted spoon. Literally bending metal, so removing that steel resistance makes sense to me (though a move that is super effective makes sense too). And then for psychic terrain, more moves and abilities around it could be nice (like setting temporary screens while terrain is active, moves hitting twice but with 30% power, trapping foes, gaining new immunities, etc, I think there’s a lot of design space).

[@Arcananine77]

I think that giving Psychic a resistance to Fairy would be great.

[@consolas2514]

I feel like thats a lot of concept power creep, like buffing the entire psychic type just means the best of the best become too broken and still overshadow the worst, and if they do anything for psychic terrain, they need to do it for the others, and grassy terrain is annoying as is, with the Tapus, psychic was already the best terrain imo, just makes your scarfs protected. Unfortunately the answer is jusg make better psychic types or rail in every other type better

[@Ari-te4yp]

A psychic move that would be super effective against steel would be amazing.

[@BestgirlJordanfish]

@@Arcananine77 Yeah I’d be down for that. One of my fave ttrpgs (animon) does something like that for their psychic type equivalent beating their fairy equivalent. I imagine some tanky psychic mons getting NUTTY though.

[@orirune3079]

Steel resisting psychic makes no sense. Just like how steel isn't weak to water or electric, but is weak to fire and fighting? I guess the game devs never actually checked what happens when you throw steel into a fire (nothing) or try to punch it (breaks your hand)

[@andy02q]

I actually took part at the official Pokémon tournament back in 1999. First round was in a small town which I won. Second round was huge and was in Frankfurt (Germany) and I didn't get past that. I remember that they said that Pokémon boosted with Missingno glitch would lead to disqualification and the way they checked for that is that they loaded each cartridge into Pokémon stadium and if you had any item more than 99 times (which is the max without glitches) then you'd be out. Many players got dq's like that and most of the remaining still had used Missingno glitch, but were careful enough not to have such an obvious smoking gun. I think the tournament was supposed to be global, but I can't remember whether the winner at Frankfurt got to play another round somewhere else.

[@TaLeng2023]

Probably not gonna do much but so flavor-based type quirks I can think of: 1. Immune to effects that Mental Herb cures except Infatuation (Hey, they can fall in love too). 2. Not confused by Flatter and Swagger (they still get the stat boost). 3. 2/3 chance to avoid priority moves. 4. When attacked with contact moves under Psychic Terrain (even when not grounded), attacker receives recoil.

[@toujounozomi3126]

"immune to secondary effects before they move" might be a neat one and fitting with psychic terrain/analytic. As a side note this also makes them flinch immune. ... Of course this has implications regarding trick room.

[@druski888]

66% chance to avoid priority is nuts lol

[@TaLeng2023]

@@druski888 a built-in personal Psychic Terrain that only works 2/3 of the time.

[@DuizhangLu]

I think the move pursuit bore mentioning here, because it basically put psychics in a catch 22 when a pursuit user switched in

[@aghadlarhen9397]

Funnily enough, ghosts became super unchecked the moment pursuit vanished as well, but only because they actually had great defensive matchups.

[@rooislangwtf]

I hate Pursuit thanks to nuzlocke ptsd, but them removing it definitely did more harm than good

[@Goregreet]

Silly looking pink blob : exists Angry old man : "the devil!"

[@gengatube9471]

Wolfey is a large influence for what got me into competitive Pokémon and into making my own videos. Please keep making amazing videos like this

[@0condolences]

i love that he uses different mons & does great with them it gives me hope for the meta

[@rayneingdown]

It’s so nice to hear a competitive player say fairy was haphazardly designed. I’ve hated it since it came out because it really is just a new busted bullshit type to take Dragon’s place. Steel type is defensive and has fewer attackers (less so now than when it was introduced), and poison type has been *notoriously bad.* Outside of Venusaur, poison types don’t see much play. It essentially means fairy has one real weakness in steel, and the damage isn’t going to be superb from a defensive mon. If we had a steel type Body Press, things could be different, but terastallization is pulling a lotttttof weight this Gen keeping fairies in check. Poor psychic being their paltry mirror…

[@dvillines26]

frankly Poison as a type needs buffs. it needs to be super effective against two more types, I think. but Game Freak is averse to tweaking the type chart now.

[@azeria1]

My mother asked if I washed the dish’s I simply replied psychic type she knew they were washed

[@selena3467]

What did I say Brayden?! WHAT DID I SAY?!

[@AshKetchum-ru6tk]

Whenever Cresselia is mentioned, i get terrible flashbacks of PMD explorers of time.(a version of explorers of sky) She was such a reviver seed waster😭

[@cheyanne2001]

I went thru like 30 seeds in one run cos of her. She infuriated me

[@AshKetchum-ru6tk]

@@cheyanne2001 I mean, I don't even remember her being useful in battle at all. It's been a while since I play the game, the first and best Pokémon game I've ever played🥲

[@syan2240]

13:23 lmao, poor alpharad and kidd cant catch a break

[@marcorodriguez8792]

Mewtwo did nothing wrong. It was supposed to be the strongest as well as the psychic type, and then Game Freak ruined it

[@Isa-ru8vk]

Celebi: clearly a celery Wolfe: "best I can do is onion"

[@cade1866]

Can’t stress how much I love these type history/overview videos! really enjoyed the ice type one and this one was phenomenal as well. Keep it up wolfe

[@DragoMangos]

Honestly, IMO, make it so Psychic resists a type that Fairy doesn't and I think it'd be in a GREAT spot. Maybe resist Ground. Thematically, it could make sense since there are so many "psychic" things in TV shows and stuff can fly. But don't give them immunity of course. Ground is still very strong and is Earthquake is accessible on almost everything, so giving Psychic the ability to switch in to a strong ground type move might be pretty good. Adding to this, psychic types commonly get Energy Ball, which could help a lot.

[@ObjectorOfThings]

Psychic types when the most popular pivot and priority moves is super effective against them.

[@zach6395]

Crunch to me is the biggest issue at the moment. So many pokemon have access to it. Most of those pokemon are physical attackers, so it does even more damage to frail glass cannons. During my playthrough of Violet, my Skeledirge was getting hit hard all the time it felt like. Now i know the fire croc is a ghost type, but it plays much like a psychic type in high special and lower defenses. I think the way you counter that is to have an ability, say pschic barrier, that cuts 25% off of physical moves. Psychics aren't bad per say, they just need some more survivability.

[@goGothitaLOL]

And that’s just for playthroughs For competitive, U-Turn and Knock Off are more important and hell even more common

[@razrv3lc]

Jesus that is so real about Skeledirge. It CONSTANTLY was being hit by super effective attacks throughout the story. When I played through Scarlet with Meowscarada after using Skeledirge for Violet, the experience was so much easier and simpler having a Dark instead of Ghost starter lmao

[@dse763]

@@razrv3lc Want to know a funny thing ? Fuecoco is considered the best speedruning starter and it's not even close.

[@katunu6030]

Adding the quick claw clip was criminal 13:25

[@VinniePaul91]

11:05 Over a fifth of the pokémon in Gen1 are poison type.

[@Cynfuki]

"Why use psychic type when fairy exist" So true wolfy

[@wolfzend5964]

As someone who uses a Gardevoir, why not use both?

[@_yuvi_0w0]

4:32 "A major nail in weezing " I fucking love wolfey

[@trip1295]

One of the things i enjoy the absolute most about Wolfe's videos is all of the music choices that run in the background. It feels so nice and inclusive outside of just pokemon. My personal favorite is hearing all of the Rain Code and Danganronpa music that has been sprinkled in there :)

[@Codiferrous]

I was so excited to see this clip of Shadypenguinn and Drewby’s blind battles series at 6:35. Thanks for reminding me, Wolfe!

[@pomegranatesyndicate8139]

19:09 Lmao the Wigglytuff throwback. The devil is real

[@Whataburgerwithcheese2366]

True

[@myhandleiswhat]

Correction: Ghost was not super effective in Gen 1 on Psychic, it was in fact, immune to Ghost. Granted, there was only Lick, as Night Shade and Seismic Toss didn't check type effectiveness when dealing damage, and Confuse Ray didn't inflict damage directly. But yeah, if you use Lick on a Psychic type in Gen 1, it'll fail.

[@anon2447]

Wolfie: Fighting is a type that is never at the top of the Foodchain Fairy type: : I Owe Half of my existance to them, don't you dare speak like that of my fathers.

[@Rarest26]

Unironically fighting was around as good, if not better than dragon back then, so idk why he undervalues the former so much.

[@KWillo]

​@@Rarest26 yep.I think he doesn't consider fighting as broken.

[@zephyrlegion6047]

Wolfe showing his own clip of using close combat into a cresselia at 15:04 is genuinely the bravest thing iv ever seen

[@shift267]

13:24 its been TWO YEARS how HOW is this clip still going🤣

[@Arcananine77]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Psychic needs to be made resistant to, and super effective against, Fairy. It just makes sense to me intuitively and in terms of improving the game's balance.

[@YoJoRockThaBeat]

That would be absolutely awesome.

[@a_person5668]

How does it make intuitive sense? I don’t get it

[@Kowery105]

Bugs make more sense to be stronght against Fairy

[@TaLeng2023]

​@@Kowery105I'm an advocate for Bug and Grass having mutual resistance with Fairy. Might actually give them something to do since they often learn Poison moves.

[@Arcananine77]

@@a_person5668 Psychic is about extreme mental focus and fortitude, which would - in theory - make it resistant to Fairy, which is more about whimsy and mischief.

[@FatherSwole]

My favorite thing about this video is all the featured content creators. Well done!

[@toxic_waste999]

There's two thing that never miss. Wolfey's hatred for Incineroar and your rival's focus blast.

[@Sorbeyb]

They really made it so over powered accidentally then now it's sometimes benched

[@danschuh93]

Im so conflicted! I want MORE WolfeyCringe jokes but I don’t want to unsubscribe!

[@mrhalfsaid1389]

No, it makes me want to unsub

[@Baltaczar]

Make another account

[@FennaDG]

Great video! I’ve always loved psychic types, mainly for their unique designs, and this video did a great job of analyzing their weaknesses. Still gonna be be favorite type, though :)

[@OtherL]

Wolfey you have become one of my favorite Pokémon Profs. Turn champion. Between you and Austin John I truly appreciate yall content. I wish Austin were more battle savvy cause I'd love to see that match up

[@jimmy13morrison]

Paychic, dark and ghost are so weird it's 3types that are basically playing on their own

[@TaLeng2023]

What's funny is that Dark and Ghost are the same type, offensively.

[@andrewsasala6841]

Ave Attorney’s Steel Samurai music starting at 6:05 such a fun reference!

[@micahjohnson7987]

Loved that a song from the Pokemon Conquest soundtrack made an appearance as background music in your vid. Made me so happy. ;-; 10:13

[@insomniacnerd5592]

A Psychic move that’s specifically super-effective on Steel (spoon bending being the example of Psychic ability) would be cool.

[@jamesfeng24]

just reverse the type interaction steel could use a nerf and psychic could use the buff.

[@raider_reaper_4194]

Can't wait until they make a Wolfe pokemon & we get a video "How I took my favorite Pokemon into a tournament"

[@clockadile]

They should add a freeze-dry style move to phsychic types called spoon bend that's super effective against steel.

[@JudahHarrison-zm6vu]

I, a Scarlet player, have also been very visibly confused when seeing a Misdreavus with non-extended tendrils, due to my Flutter Mane PTSD. And also because it's a Violet exclusive, last time I checked.

[@allenearl1514]

I feel like the fact that Fighting-Types were extremely common and powerful in Gen 5 was overlooked here. In a way, it was a potential indirect buff to Psychic-Types, since they were the single most reliable way to deal with Fighting-Types. There was also the addition of Magic Bounce and Magic Guard to a few Psychic-Types, which boosted their viability. The Fairy Type, I think, was more of a band-aid fix in how it was implemented. It's a type that was meant to help with the Dragons and Fighting-Types wrecking the game, and it also gives people a reason to actually use Poison-Type and Steel-Type STAB, two types that weren't really used offensively outside of a few specific cases like Bullet Punch Scizor. It also made Fire-Types more useful defensively, since they now had another type to resist. Even after all of that, I'd still say I'm not exactly mad about what they did to Psychic-Types. They still have their uses, to be sure, and in a game series that has increasingly avoided proper balancing, I'd say Psychic-Types have been in a decent place for a while now.

[@gaidencastro9706]

They wouldn't have needed to introduce the dark type if ghost types actually hit psychic types and if bugs had a decent damaging move.

[@travistassone1347]

I honestly believe if Shadow Ball and x scissor existed in gen 1 we would have never gotten dark types

[@SunniestAutumn]

Cresselia: Strongest banana-themed pokemon Metapod, Tropius & Lopunny: "Am I a joke to you?"

[@KingKayro87]

He said the _strongest_ banana-themed Pokémon, not the only banana-themed Pokémon

[@wolfzend5964]

​@KingKayro87 I think that's the joke. But how is Lopunny a Bannana themed Pokemon?

[@KingKayro87]

@@wolfzend5964 Because it makes your banana become themed, that's why.

[@grunkleg.3110]

​@@wolfzend5964It's closer to an eggplant-themed Pokemon

[@julienjean6711]

I love that picture of Mewtwo in the thumbnail. Badass.

[@sworbet7708]

Love these essays! Thanks Wolfe!

[@robertparkhurst4034]

I think what Psychic has become is a neat compromise. A strong type that, while reasonably weakened by the strengthening of it’s weaknesses, got it’s own strengths. Psychic Terrain being a good asset for Psychic Mons who don’t want priority making their mix of Speed and Power made irrelevant by strong Priority, and the heavy lean on Bulkier Psychic Mons being the ones having Trickroom, the opposite form of Speed-Control to allow slower Psychic Mons to blast through Mons who otherwise Glass-cannon through

[@i8dacookies890]

1:19 People who make Smash Melee content should start using that clip!

[@TheNewblade1]

"Nail in the weezing..." Cofagrigus: "Bro what?!?"

[@snowlepiexists2091]

For generation 2, there were only 3 really good psychic types (Exeggutor who had explosion, and status, Starmie who was a water type with recover and hazard removal, and Jynx who had sleep, great stab, and could take advantage of the sleep being everywhere). The amount of viable psychic types are very limited, because Snorlax in Gen 2 was the best special wall who can actually hurt opposing mons back with strong psychic attacks. Hence why psychic types had to serve some other role to justify a team slot.

[@jasperwoodard2845]

I know Wolfey focuses on doubles, but i was a little surprised there was no mention of Knock off and U-turn

[@mrhalfsaid1389]

No, that's more confusing to me, they are more than used in vgc ESPECIALLY KNOCK OFF. Incineroar is a huge user of this and one of the entire jokes of the video is WOw, IncInErOAr bRoKeN. It's not broken, it just has too many tools in doubles, look at singles, it struggles to stay in ru of all places, what this video should really be about is how piss poor the balancing of the game is, because gamefreak priorities cool broken thing, then vgc balance, then singles. I don't think I need to explain how this makes it poorly balanced.

[@R0Tl]

​​@@frankcaggiano8282 Your analogy is flawed though. This isn't like a basketball player talking about hockey. What you're describing would be like if Wolfey was making a video about why psychic is not good in singles (which he's still more qualified to take about than the basketball player talking about hockey as there's a lot that carries over from VGC to singles). But this video is not about how psychic became bad in VGC. Those are the examples Wolfey uses, but the premise is about psychic just becoming bad overall (the title is literally "How game freak ruined the psychic type" instead of "how game freak ruined the psychic type in VGC"). So it should also factor in regular playthroughs and Singles. Otherwise, he should explicitly say in the title and in the video that it is about psychic's fall in VGC only.

[@BushMuffin0]

All these psychic types and wolfe still has the biggest brain 🧠

[@paintballphoenix1161]

10/10 content, every video I’ve seen of yours is quality. Worth the watch.

[@pokecon14]

Impressive video to compile this whole arc together! Though I will say, you left out a couple of important psychic Pokemon that would counter your thesis - Metagross was called out as a steel type in a point of adding Pokemon of types that counter psychic...yet is also Psychic type itself Similarly, Gardevoir wasn't mentioned until the fairy type portion...also completely ignored in the Gen 3 additions

[@dylancampson5213]

“Gen five had no new psychic legendaries for the first time” Meloetta: 😢

[@XDEnd00]

Also Victini. He's probably not counting mythicals

[@ryancorry2133]

16:34 LMAO THE LEBRON HIGHLIGHTS HAD ME ROLLING

[@Cacotin05]

Bro shoulda put klay highlights if he wanted a washed player that can randomly drop 30💀

[@R0Tl]

Yea, I was confused by this part. Describing him as a player that is "at least still in the game" and completely washed. But LeBron is still playing at an all star level and just made the 2024 all star (literally now holds the record for most all stars in history). Definitely nowhere near his peak, but far from the "washed but at least still in the game" image Wolfey paints. That would be more like Dirk, Kobe, or Wade, etc. during their last seasons. LeBron is definitely not there yet.

[@Nilso2]

There were a ton of poison types in Gen1, because most grass and bug types were poison, too, which made psycic super effective against dozens of pokemon.

[@anthonyfernandez7553]

holy crap man the clip of the shadypenguinn blind battles was such a nostalgia blast, what a great series

[@youraveragebigshot430]

they unpower creeped psychic fr

[@TheJwaterworks]

Lets give Psychic a fairy resist!

[@spymaster1]

I’d love to see psychics resist fairy and dragon. Being weak to dark, ghost, and bug makes sense thematically as they’re common fears/phobias, but having them resist fairy and dragon would also make sense, as a smart person typically wouldn’t believe in fairy tales full of dragons and stuff :> I also would like psychic to be supereffective against steel rather than steel resist it, because of bent spoons and other psychic imagery, don’t make psychic SE against the aforementioned fairy and dragon but do make them SE against steel and I’d be able to go to sleep happy

[@browncow5210]

I'd like that, but wouldn't that effectively make poisons unemployed?

[@alajndress]

How so? If anything, Psychic should be immune to all Poison. The premise is knowledge counters and prevents any poison, toxin, infections etc. I believe Psychic should be to Poison what Dark is to Psychic.​@@browncow5210

[@RipaMaxima]

Literally screamed at 14:43 with the introduction of Cresselia. Such a fantastic Pokémon that’s on majority of my teams to this day and was slept on by casuals but worshipped by competitors!

[@johntheherbalistg8756]

I'm actually glad to see psychics taken down a notch or two. Fkn Sabrina still haunts my nightmares

[@hermannator1]

I was not expecting alpharads onix clip here of all places

[@irespectyouropinionhowever8652]

I like how the other cover mon is a pre-evaluation for one of the funniest Uber sweepers

[@kitsunesden8085]

Wolfie: When I was a kid "everybody knew" **proceeds to show a bunch of his clones**

[@IconicTristan]

Indeede +Armarouge/Hatterene expanding force: *Hey*

[@Edujs23]

Making steel not resist it, or be outright weak to it (Spoon bending and such) would be enough imo Maybe it could be a move like freeze dry

[@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502]

Agreed. Steel resisting psychic never made much sense from a lore perspective, and was mainly done as a way to nerf psychic from how broken they were in gen 1. Nowadays, psychic has more than enough other things going against it that steel resisting it is just overkill.

[@druidt8949]

And then watch as Fairy-types run rampant, as they now have 2 types that check both of their weaknesses, with one being primarily physical and the other being primarily special

[@alfredsupersauce]

@@druidt8949fairy should be weak to bug.

[@Edujs23]

​@@alfredsupersauceBug and Grass should resist fairy, since fairies are guardians of nature and those types are the Nature types, grass is grass, and bugs are the critters

[@TaLeng2023]

​@@Edujs23I just mentioned this elsewhere. A Fairy resist would have given Bug and Grass something to do.

[@jaildocampos4442]

A Brazilian KZbinr also known as LJDarkrai had already said the same thing that is being said in this video, but as his reach is smaller he did not reach many people!

[@Shin_FTW]

I remember even me, an average joe shmoe, noticing how they kept making changes to nerf Phychic when discussing it on boards. The Special stat being split into SpAtk and SpDef on top of Amnesia choosing to raise SpDef, the addition of Dark (Psychic-immune) and Steel (Psychc resist), on top of fixing Psychic being immune to Ghost types. More Ghost and Bug offensive moves. Etc.. They sabotaged my baby.

[@tabam]

Lugia was planned to be a movie Pokemon, not like the contrary of Ho-oh :v

[@TheBeggies95]

I speak french and i can tell you are not a native english speaker because of the word “contrary” LMAO hey respect brother

[@tabam]

@@TheBeggies95 and? What if I'm not a native speaker?

[@theflowingfraud9534]

The shady penguin clip is gold😂

[@lilianmesmo]

wolfey managed to use the Onyx clip again, what a legend

[@akai6257]

Love the video it would be cool to see similar videos for the other types 😊