Anti-Meta Strategies in Gen 3 OU.

Pokemon Gen 3 Competitive Singles is a cyclical format where counterplay to the current popular strategies always seems to arise. But some players take this a step further, with teams that aim to hard counter very specific sets of Pokemon. This can be risky, but it can also be one of the best ways to punish the Metagame and win games.
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Scream Tail is the Jigglypuff of our wildest dreams. It has been buffed with some higher statistics and the incredible ability, Protosynthesis. Gen 9 Competitive Pokemon wouldn't be the same without this powerful pink blob. He kinda looks like someone I met in one of my game design and development courses.
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Gholdengo is a Pokemon made of pure gold. He must have done some online business management courses to accumulate all that wealth. Or perhaps he might want to learn how to make money playing video games on KZbin. In any case, he's a powerful metagame force, with absolutely no interest in online game development schools.
#competitivepokemon #pokemonshowdown #scarletandviolet #gen9

[@jimothycool]

I'm hosting a $2000+ Gen 3 OU Tournament! Donate to the prize pool here to appear on the Endscreen - streamlabs.com/jimothycool/ti

[@hayyan958]

flying types when spikes:😎 flying types when stealth rock:😰

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

Flygon when spikes: 😎 Flygon when stealth rock: 😎

[@primosdesegundograu1204]

@@shytendeakatamanoir9740with how much Flygon js expected to switch around the 6.25% from SR still makes a huge difference.

[@eisendrag]

Magic guard:🫥

[@grrman]

"Bulky Dugtrio" That is not a combination of words I'd ever thought I hear in a Pokemon video

[@bertoldopleari7779]

There is a set that lives Blissey’s icebeam + a layer of spikes and 2HKOs back

[@grrman]

@@bertoldopleari7779 Oh, I figured that much out by now. Still a bizarre combination of words lol

[@vladfi1]

Starting with "every competitive game has a meta" as the opponent sends in a Metagross was a nice touch. Love how you put these small things in every video :)

[@darianclark3980]

Wow, I didn't even know Beat Up was Typeless in Gen 3. You learn something new in Pokemon everyday.

[@chilitofu3512]

dont y’all hate it when you lose to a non meta stat and you only took out one of their pokemon

[@SaintoftheHonest]

It's worse when that mon is the suicide lead

[@danielsmith5032]

@@SaintoftheHonestyikes 😂

[@danielsmith5032]

Especially the anti-meta strat teams that come with wacky stuff

[@Lucifer_Summons]

I'm always like "At least I got one" lmao

[@babycarl9585]

I'm actually happy to go against things I've never seen before

[@ImportAustralia]

I commented this on an earlier video but I wanted to echo the sentiment, you're really starting to win me over in Gen 3 OU. You just don't see these kind of developments in any other game, not to say it's never happened in any recent time, but for the most part every other metagame I can think of has been kinda solved and stagnated. And look at all the crazy new tech that's popping up decades later for Gen 3 and it's just not even comparable to any progress we've seen anywhere else.

[@chess_fella]

Gen 3 OU is a very cyclical metagame

[@itsyaboi1245]

🎶 I like to ride my bicycle 🎶 i like to ride my bike 🎶

[@linksauce_1]

I remember playing a game where me and my opponent were just down our last two each. We were constantly switching out

[@patrickburton1401]

@@linksauce_1that’s when you take a chance on a 50/50 and not switch out

[@linksauce_1]

@@patrickburton1401 Yep. It’s exhilarating when you get it right

[@wherewiiwentwrong]

And Let us not forget the legendary "You goin Magneton? Hidden Power Ground, Bit*h" Anti-Anti-meta Skarmory meant to shut down Magneton that was immortalized by Viper. Jimothy Cool would know since that song is his end credits song.

[@bruh_moment]

I remember hearing about superman from a BKC video and thinking how fun it seemed since it was one of my first introductions to gen 3 and what TSS was. That teamstyle and the fact that nicknames are pretty important due to beat up are probably some of my favorite aspects of this meta game edit:it’s been brought to my attention that on showdown at least for convenience the reason nick names were important has since been patched

[@CjqNslXUcM]

why are nicknames important?

[@rajkanishu]

@@CjqNslXUcM when you use Beat Up the game shows the name of your Pokémon that "attack" in the move's text boxes, so if you don't want to reveal what Pokémon you are using you have to give them random nicknames, but iirc it doesn't work like that in Showdown or it has been changed at some point (I might be wrong on this)

[@copyrightstrike4666]

@@rajkanishuif you're specifically playing gen 3 format on showdown there won't be team previews

[@bruh_moment]

@@CjqNslXUcM to add on to what’s already been mentioned, even if you don’t have a beat up user nicknaming pokemon doesn’t allow the opponent to know that you don’t have one

[@honjon666]

​@@rajkanishuthis is correct, the playerbase on smogon have ruled in a clause to not reveal pokemon names through beat up in gen 3, even though that is not how it is implemented in the game. It's just for convenience's sake.

[@ImortalZeus13]

Listen. I hated my skarm getting trapped so bad that I built a max speed HP Ground set just to reverse Uno card the fucking enemy Mag

[@honjon666]

See: Yolo Skarm See Also: You'll Goin Magneton? Hidden Powa Ground Bich - Viper

[@tecul1]

KO'd in one hit! It scattered spikes!

[@RobertNobert97]

Your videos have given me such an appreciation for gen 3 OU. I had only really payed any attention to the current game’s meta, but honestly gen 3 feels a lot more nuanced, and there’s nearly 20 years of meta development.

[@linksauce_1]

It’s really quite fun, but can be incredibly infuriating when you make one wrong move.

[@jaycobobob]

Next time I'm trying to explain to someone why i love competitive Pokemon, I'm just gonna show them this video. The endless cycle of counterplay and counter counterplay will never stop being fun. Great vid!

[@blah9500]

Itd be interesting to hear about more of the creep scenarios, like blissey and dugtrio adapting to each other

[@tecul1]

the way pert/bliss/pert creep each other is very good

[@blah9500]

@@tecul1 more video ideas for jimothy

[@oatmongen4263]

Iirc the blissy ran max special attack already to remove dugtrio, so it can’t go higher to account for the specially defensive dugtrio.

[@yourdagan]

Good idea. You should see smogon stat's moveset list showing different Skarmory speed creeps. There's also things like the now default Milotic and Suicune sets speed-creeping max speed Marowak even though that's hardly a thing. And lastly to mention trying to speed creep 244 speed users who themselves were built to outspeed max speed tyranitar.

[@joetalentoh]

I picked a random video to drop this comment on because I had to put it somewhere, but yeah I had to let you know I started playing Gen3 OU a few days ago after watching all of your content and I have to say I absolutely love it so far. I started playing competitive in Gen 6 and have played each recent Gen as it released, and I hate to say it but with each new Gen and each new gimmick I have become more and more jaded when I look at competitive pokemon. I look at a pokemon this Gen change its type in order to completely bypass its supposed checks and I don't think 'wow thats a cool new feature', I think 'this doesn't feel like pokemon anymore'. But after playing ADV for a few days I have such a refreshed outlook on competitive pokemon. The limited item pool and lack of any gimmick features make the matches much easier to digest as someone knew to the format, but I can already tell from my tiny sample size that both gameplay and teambuilding can be deep. So yeah, just wanted to say thanks for introducing me to this format, it never would've been on my radar otherwise. cheers.

[@DanielsYoutubeAccount]

Offensive skarmory with hidden power ground is very funny, especially against opponents that name their magneton "Yo Wassup Skarm"

[@sharkronical]

You can say that the money got different.

[@yeeuoi7333]

MagDol + Milotic is my favourite gen 3 OU team I've used

[@boomguy2]

This is one of my favorite videos from you on Gen 3 - I vastly prefer using non-standard strategies in competitive games as a whole so this was a huge treat 👀 I was actually already thinking about possible anti-meta teams a week or so ago as a person who’d never played in this format and thought “well if Spikes are so common, I think a team of mostly flying and levitate Pokémon would be pretty feasible since there isn’t Stealth Rock”. I’m both a little proud and sad that this Superman strategy only exists - it’s a shame that this won’t exactly be an unheard-of strategy, but it’s good to know that it’s both very viable and a team you can be really creative with!

[@thefinalskarm1754]

me when I switch into skarmory and get magnet pulled again One day I will learn, one day.

[@thefinalskarm1754]

i played some games after I did not learn.

[@Vekstar]

There's always the cringe yolo start. At least it take care of magnet pull

[@gothified]

jumbo cool has been growing very fast lately. proud of him.

[@mewtastic2409]

Beautifully done. Explained very thoroughly and well but did not feel overly long and had plenty to talk about. I love these Gen 3 meta dissections.

[@Domnom22]

I started playing gen 3 OU because of your tournament. Unfortunately gen 3 OU's low ladder is a bit goofy so I haven't had a lot of experience against traditional teams but I've had a ton of fun playing. Some of my favorite pokemon to use have been Snorlax, Exeggutor, blissey, and Aerodactyl. It's such a fun metagame and I have to thank you for introducing me to it.

[@SirToastyToes]

Meta? Gross

[@eshasunrise]

Bulky Dug sounds like a pokemon from one of your important announcements. Causing trouble by Beating Up local Blisseys.

[@usernametaken017]

1 in 10 chance to just get frozen and do nothing though. Like and subscribe to boost those odds and stop this rampage

[@tecul1]

now that's cool

[@chilitofu3512]

real

[@anasbinmaalik3739]

as some would say its jimothycool

[@Living_End]

Great video. I love content like this. These team archetypes are part of why I love gen 3.

[@curlyray33]

Dude GREAT video! Loving all the content the last few months but this one has me tabbing straight into showdown team building/theory-crafting!

[@BiffTheBanana]

I've been looking forward to this, now I can exploit this in the upcoming epic tournament, Advanced Revival

[@honjon666]

My money's on Biff The Banana to peel the ripe competition and Dole™ out fruitful plays, plantaining a victory in Advanced Revival

[@Ruckus790]

I had the most fun running superman. Its very satisfying watching your opponent waste 3 turns setting up spikes while you repostion or attempt to set up

[@Kushina-43]

Off- and Anti-meta strats are always so interesting

[@anuncomfortablenewt4006]

I love the antimeta and counter strategies!

[@2000Vincius]

Dragon Dance Smeargle with taunt FTW

[@shevankaseneviratne1724]

LETS GOOO! Jimothy is back to revive me from my ladder spiral:)

[@eded94]

i stumbled across your channel a couple weeks ago without knowing anything about gen 3 and ive alrdy rewatched all your videos 5+ times (even the long ass tier list ones 😂). More gen 3 please!

[@olympusgolemoflight7198]

Between this video and the Articuno video, any chance for a video dedicated to Superman teams, as Articiuno checks if not counters Swampert.

[@patrickburton1401]

Choice band rock slide says hello

[@Lennynz]

Great video, that Viper lore in your description gave me whiplash lol

[@sombrego2260]

Before this video my favourite time was when you said Quaquaval. And now it's bulky Dugtrio. Don't ask why, but thanks!

[@MarMaxGaming]

After watching one video, I’ve now clicked on two more in the following day.. I didn’t get beyond Gen 2 back then and it’s nice to dive right into this higher level pokemon discussion. The most advanced I ever got was beating both Rounds of Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2

[@screweyedfoe]

Make Poliwrath both abilities good no explosion or Water Absorb vs Suicine and can Power Punch

[@chinchou012]

Really great video 👌

[@UwURainUwU]

Thank you, that was a really interesting video. x

[@billieeyelash7015]

That was a really exhaustive way of explaining the meta. You should have just said skarmbliss.

[@Hagot428]

What happened to "woah, it's magneton" in the outro music? :(

[@jetwind1004]

I'm loving the content man! found you recently and being a gen 3 nerd myself i am in love with ur content. Do you think you could do a Gardevoir vid? i dont see much coverage on it and since it is UUBL id like to see what niches and uses it has, if any! If not thats cool too, ill keep consuming the vids!

[@yourdagan]

Gardevoir would be a challenge. It sees sporadic experimentation but so far has never had a breakout, yet due to its movepool has quite a lot of potential that's not entirely easy to ignore even in the face of its obvious shortcomings in this Tyranitar-dominated meta.

[@Tvboy777]

My favorite anti-meta Pokémon from gen 3 was Tyraniboah. Tyranitar with maxed HP stat, substitute, focus punch, and either ice beam, thunderbolt, or flamethrower. 101 hp substitutes countered Seismic Toss, and then you had beam attacks to counter skarmory and Salamence.

[@Eddie_Enfer]

Jimothy, can you talk about Cacturne's case in gen 3 OU? I think it's an interesting topic

[@yourdagan]

It sounds like it could be an interesting case but it is not. It was a great mon in sand teams, but Smogon does not like evasion because it frustrates them, so they banned Sand Veil, which is Cacturne's only ability, thus banning it by default.

[@DampWetstew]

I love this kind of niche in different games. I suck at straight meta matches, so I try to find roundabout gimmicky sets that work against the established meta. But I'm also the type of pervert that plays healer and support in team based games so *shrugs*

[@athenacapablanca3118]

You should consider putting example teams in the descriptions of your vids I think. I’m always excited by the ideas but can’t team build for me life 😭

[@patrickburton1401]

Learning how makes playing on showdown really really fun. You can get ~creative~

[@Swndl3]

Surprised you didn’t mention the high speed high spa skarm who’s sole goal is to hp fire mag. So many weird things like that exist, always keeps you on your toes!

[@ArecnaD2]

Isn't the HP ground set more commonly used than HP fire? Although I could see fire as another way to deal with Forretress

[@BoomBoom-ym5oy]

love how you pronounce milo tic

[@MarMaxGaming]

DK64 music in the background, nice song

[@hagetsuuu]

now this is gaming

[@tecul1]

gen3sef

[@BFCSkyler]

I wonder what Gen 3 would look like without Skarm and Blissey

[@Alderoth]

This channel is so op

[@guillemtb1671]

Sceptile is in the same viability bracket as Blaziken. Could you do him next, please? 👉👈

[@dareales103]

The Aquatic Ambiance was goated .

[@norkbork]

if you make one more gen 3 video i’ll be happy

[@swissmagic]

we love gen 3 :)

[@alejandrop.s.3942]

Ignoring spikes is pretty obvious, it's one of the first things I did once I got fed up with fighting and losing against stall teams after long, boring battles (for my personal taste, I don't have anything against the playstyle per se nor against the players that use it). I'm trying to go a point beyond that and build a team that works immume to both sandstorm and spikes.

[@tecul1]

solrock gaming?

[@patrickburton1401]

You’ll end up with major holes in some matchups. Starmie and other water types will make your time playing less fun.

[@darkssynchrochannel02]

Usually we want to try to circumvent that just by adapting to a certain Play style: whatever by choice you chose offensive like you said (imagine having a = "torrent boosted surfs"× and then some +manual rain)" as well-" like oh God just by you being here.. /is making this difficult /harder than a mf " 😢

[@darkssynchrochannel02]

Rinse and repeat 🗯️🍕

[@xMistaBeastxGames]

Milotic best pokemon. Needs a feature!

[@yourdagan]

It would be a short feature. Milotic is currently used almost exclusively as a stallmon, rarely on balance as well. Surf, Toxic, Refresh, Rest, is the currently most popular and default set. It also sees usage with Ice Beam and Hypnosis. It could also run Rest and Mirror Coat. It's not a popular mon at the moment due to offense generally being favored, making it less desirable than Suicune usually; and on the other hand, mons that bring other defensive utilities like Starmie with Rapid Spin and Swampert with its ability to generally better and more consistently check physical threats.

[@xMistaBeastxGames]

Milotic best @@yourdagan

[@PokeMaster22222]

MagDol? Nah, I prefer "Clayton" - because I love the Professor Layton series.

[@bigtoblerone8446]

Magnezone is under utilized in SV; it's really, REALLY much better at trapping and taking out steel types now since it can teratize into Fire, Fighting, or Ground and use tera blast while still preventing the steel type from switch after you change type People keep complaining over Kinggambit now... But no one is employing magnet pull tera fighting magnezone... The worst that can happen is you force the Kinggambit to teratize to escape, but then they can only escape the turn after you move, and now you know your opponent cant teratize anything else If you hate the mechanic of teratizlization, then just use a magnezone to trap Kingambit. Youre back to classic pkmn ni gimmicks cuz everytime you into a team with gambit on it, you know youll tera mag and they will tera gambit once they trapped, or, they just let it die Win win for you

[@TheCangu97]

tera gambit is kind of the poindlt of why gambit is strong tho isn't it if they tera to take the hit and kill/set up then they kinda did what they want to do in the first place

[@maninthetrenchcoat5603]

​@TheCangu97 Well Kingambit usually runs Tera Fairy. Simply anticipate that and Flash Cannon instead. If you're wrong, then go for Fighting Tera Blast.

[@breloommaster12]

This niche of "forcing the Gambit to reveal its Tera without killing one of your mons (at the expense of your Zone's Fighting Tera)" is a legitimately interesting one, but sadly I believe Zone's applications for this isn't really worth the teamslot when it loses to like 80% of OU atm, especially when it doesn't even reliably KO the Gambit since it could escape on turn 2. You need to immediately predict what Gambit's Tera is on turn 1 (ex: Tbolt on Flying Tera, Flash Cannon on Fairy Tera) to get value out of that interaction, because if you do not KO Gambit right there, the opponent can still preserve their Supreme Overlord Gambit to continue pressuring the late game while you're stuck with a Fighting Tera Zone that likely does little/nothing to further your wincon than if you had Tera'd something else.

[@honjon666]

It's not even a good idea on paper. Any mon that requires tera to do what you want will be less consistent game to game. If Gambit teras predicting you, gambit can still win the 1v1 with low kick while it resist fighting tera blast as fairy or flying. Low kick is 3hko to tera fight mag, while tera blast fight is a 5hko after leftys to tera fairy/flying gambit. These calcs don't even consider supreme overlord boosts. Zone is awesome, dont get me wrong, but tusk is king, ting lu exists, faster offense hostile to mags typing. You dont have any moves to threaten ghold as a secondary target either, and ghold can hit you with a focus blast.

[@breloommaster12]

A potential downside is what happens when the Kingambit decides to not even Tera. Sure, you manage to Tera Fighting to OHKO its ass while taking minimal damage from Sucker Punch, but now you've just burnt your Tera for that one turn in the entire game while the opponent still has theirs to form another wincon around. In other words, relying on your Tera Fighting Zone to try and kill a Gambit in the midgame may not only not even be worth it, it could prove outright detrimental.

[@DJPrimeAmvs]

In gen 7 uu after losing to rest/calm mind suicune i though....fuck it im bring cacturne. Then the next battle i had i ended up sweeping with cacturne

[@HawkBreland]

1:30 You'll Goin Magneton? Hidden Powa Ground Bich.

[@mattishidayeo]

Quick Question - How would future Pokemon fare in Gen 3? For example, Araquanid. If it were released in Gen 3 with its current Base Stat distribution, its Water Type STAB would be off its weaker Base Special Attack of 50 (we can consider a scenario where Araquanid's Base Attack is flipped with its Base Special Attack) It would get all the moves it gets upon its release in Gen 7, but only if those moves were introduced in Gen 3 or earlier Leech Life is 20 BP instead of 80, but it gets Physical Signal Beam at 75 BP Surf, Crunch, Ice Beam, Giga Drain, Mirror Coat, Spider Web are some interesting moves

[@tysondennis1016]

I love anti-meta picks.

[@kvltofsobek90]

Anti-meta meme strats are the best part of competitive. I once got annihilated by a Suicune with Sunny Day and HP Fire. It was hilarious

[@Omar_ZX]

I knew using magneton was a good choice

[@TheNutshaq]

Would a kind of SuperMagDoll team work out? Claydoll has levitate so it can help support the non-flying portion of the team

[@nicololeone8739]

Hi Jimothy, would you consider having coaching sessions for those who might be interested in gen 3 OU?

[@honjon666]

Return of Team Doctor! Back by popular demand!

[@danadrian2752]

I thought he kind of does that on streams with viewer replays

[@koolaids7538]

Formidable Gen 3 UU rain teams, with ou viability...

[@___Robin___]

Why isn't skarmory running sturdy? As far as I can tell it's available in gen 3. If someone knows the answer would like to know :)*.

[@jimothycool]

Sturdy in Gen 3 only blocks OHKO moves like Sheer Cold etc. Those moves are banned in competitive singles anyway

[@richcantgame]

I thought Beat Up was a 5th or 6th gen move. Never seen it in action before then

[@nerdshift8284]

Not that I have found success with it. But have you ever tried to stack as many type immunities as possible on a team and make that work? Gengar, Flashfire Houndoom, Skarmory, Water Absorb Quagsire, Trace Porygon 2 (can trace additional immunities). Would be interesting to see a better player than myself to attempt this

[@patrickburton1401]

Starmie shits on this team all alone

[@nerdshift8284]

@@patrickburton1401 this team was merely a suggestion. I was trying to give an example for the concept. Also that team is missing a sixth member.

[@yourdagan]

Never crossed my mind. These mons are generally too weak even when you're trying to use them specifically for their best traits; trying to make a team out of them for their immunities primarily, I think, would be a recipe for consistent failure.

[@nerdshift8284]

@@yourdagan Hence, why I said, that it would be interesting to me, to see a better player attempt this. Not neccesarily with these exact mons. These were just the most immunities crunched into the least amount of mons I could come up with. Also 2 out of my proposed 5 are Gengar and Skarm. These definitely aren't weak. But of course this will most likely be a gimmick at best.

[@KingReviIo]

I love your videos!!!

[@greatdaein6699]

Wait am I crazy or did that zapdos just use hp grass and swampert still countered it?

[@jumpy23]

In gens 2 and 3, Hidden Power is always counted as a physical move for the purpose of Counter, because it's technically Normal type.

[@greatdaein6699]

@@jumpy23 i never knew it worked like that, I thought it worked like the tpye it was for the properties of counter/mirror coat

[@itsyaboi1245]

I wanna TSS on PSS if you know what I mean

[@adolfojuangarcia1906]

What do those top patrons even do for a living?

[@wowwt]

Butterfree is the best anti-meta mon.

[@PoryGoon]

Have you considered posting some sample teams for smogon for some of these videos?

[@yourdagan]

He does usually post at least one team per video. Perhaps you have something more specific in mind.

[@mariusvfl1848]

Please make the outro long again :*)

[@Ppprre]

How do people get avatars like that at 3:19?

[@jimothycool]

Usually for winning tournaments on Smogon

[@kek13223]

Is it a boxing match or a chess boxing match though?

[@TheRogueThunder]

What is the status of the duel between the cups?

[@PokeBrodie]

if you play me in revival cup im using tss

[@mkgaming9117]

how can i play this game

[@jimothycool]

it's called Pokemon Showdown, you can play in your browser on Phone or PC!

[@mkgaming9117]

@@jimothycool thanks

[@t2send]

How did you manage to make this video without mentioning the very consistent and popular hidden powa ground skarm?

[@yourdagan]

That's been mentioned in other videos. Also, Hidden Power Ground Skarmory isn't very popular (these days). It's a relatively niche pick.

[@emileemile7451]

25th

[@pavango3812]

You have the audacity to use the yolo-scarm song in your putto and not talk about it in an anti-meta video

[@jimothycool]

Yolo Skarm is a meme, not really used in tournies

[@honjon666]

Does he know?

[@atesinsan]

You love Gen 3 WAY TOO MUCH

[@420iSelfMedicate]

this channel conflicts me, i like jim but hate gen 3 so much.

[@DJchris96able]

Sand stream should be banned, I said it

[@fokspoks]

You're so gen 3 fapper

[@excalibur2772]

idk why ur obsessed with gen 3. I find the lack of special physical so gross and boring lol

[@patrickburton1401]

Same but at the same time it’s really fun to play a bare bones metagame without all the silly surprises