The WEIRDEST Things Pro Pokemon Players Do To Win...

[@MoxieBoosted]

Thanks to MANSCAPED for sponsoring today's video! Get 20% OFF + Free International Shipping with promo code "MOXIE" at manscaped.com/TCS Visit manscaped.com/tcs to learn more about how to check yourself, or make a donation to @tcsociety today to save lives (and balls!)

[@xenconic]

Moxie booster balls

[@FlygonkingVGC]

Our voltorbs won’t be hurt

[@GemmyDeery]

Doesnt desolate land primordial sea double fire water respectively instead ofthe 50%?

[@MoxieBoosted]

@@GemmyDeery no

[@Mybrainhurts69420]

​@@MoxieBoostedI'm when is Gen 3

[@ElectricWindGirlFriend]

Haven’t even watched the video yet but none of these can be weirder than VGC Twitter

[@Some-Kidd]

Holy shit electricwindgirlfriend!!!

[@ceb1242]

No way the best username guy

[@zephaniahofgod1673]

this gave me a biner

[@derpjorge]

No way, it’s that one person from Twitter!

[@goldensupmanz]

For real

[@deltaray3012]

The whole Primal Kyogre and Groudon speed issue is probably why for S/V, they made the legendaries affect different field states. Koraidon affects weather while Moraidon affects terrain

[@Xul-Xata]

And for some reason they made Miraidon able to fit in a sun team perfectly fine by giving it Solarbeam and Overheat.

[@DanielYuStar_Pachirisu_Feet]

@@Xul-Xata if double restricted comes around, there could be groudon or koraidon combos with miraidon

[@pranayajjarapu2319]

I don’t think that the Kyogre/Groudon thing was unintended by GF, lore wise the whole point of those 2 beasts are that they’re constantly at war with each other with one trying to overtake and assimilate the other with their own weather condition.

[@kachebelka3416]

@@pranayajjarapu2319they weren’t trying to say it was unintended. Just that GF didn’t want to do the same thing as last time where it’s just two legendaries fighting to get their weather up.

[@MikeRosadoGaming]

Interesting. 🤔

[@maestrotritone5975]

It's all fun and games until the level 44 Primal Groudon shows up

[@Strawb_milk5]

I forgot vgc started at level 50 and was so confused why people would go from 100 to 44 on a pokemon

[@mrtrollnator123]

😃💀

[@alejandro_rodriguez_99]

@@Strawb_milk5 i think that the joke is also that Groudon minimal level is 45

[@brieoconnor9824]

If primals come back alongside megas, this will genuinely be possible thanks to Pokémon go

[@MikeRosadoGaming]

🤣🤣🤣

[@saintwumples4403]

One of my favorites is making sure your Pokémon hate you and using frustration instead of return in case of the chance that ditto uses transform on your mon. Since it’s likely the ditto will be friendly and do less damage with frustration

[@asierx7047]

The Ghetsis strat

[@hasanmuttaqin464]

Foool, my dito is depressed, prepare for 102bp move

[@PlayrR3D156]

Ah! So that's why people ran Frustration over Return.

[@PlayrR3D156]

​@@hasanmuttaqin464Me too, Ditto. Me too.

[@castform7]

Even when they are caught, Groudon and Kyogre find a way to beef with each other.

[@MishKoz]

"It's amazing how they're on some comparatively equal footing with each other and how they're not overbearingly strong, just extremely reliable & versatile. • Mono-types that're solidly A-tier in both defensive matchups and offensive matchups/ • Well-rounded stat distributions that allow them exceptional flexibility without making them too weak or strong in any of their potential roles. • Future-proofed abilities that are nearly guaranteed to remain relevant in the face of power-creep No other pair of box legendaries is as both thematically&mechanically well-designed & counter-balanced against each other as K&G are. It's like 99% of the effort time they spent balancing gen 3's newcomers was spent in making sure that K&G were the most perfectly-well-balanced-yet-consistently-top-tier box legends the franchise would ever see..." -quote from u/GuggleBurgle

[@danpohl8161]

there may be other legendary rivalries but these two are the most iconic and most destined to eternally clash with eachother

[@aQrator]

Fun fact: The Life Orb trick is even more extreme in the lvl 5 format Little Cup, where having 19HP means you take just 1 HP of recoil from it. It's caused some Pokémon in that tier to run reduced HP IVs just to get to 19HP

[@cryochick9044]

Amazing news for the one lifeorb user abra *mostly a joke, but many LC mons would rather go eviolite*

[@chrismaystar3014]

I'm too easy to please. Seeing an Araquanid briefly scream before being Sky Drop'd gets me on the floor.

[@twustermydude]

this little spider went up the water spout down came the bird and took the spider out i forgot the rest of the nursery rhyme's lines and the grown-up not-dewpider was never seen again

[@Fabboi_unl]

That cut scream sound made me laugh so hard.. exactly my humor

[@rafaelcosta8291]

So were araquanid

[@Genxim]

Back in gen4, one of the weird optimisation was on the def/sdef split of Shedinja. Because Porygon-z was played with Download, you wanted your Shedinja to have a -def nature with close to no IVs to guarantee the download to give a useless attack boost instead of a special attack one.

[@devinnall2284]

I run 0 Defense IV's on my Lycanrock so that it's more likely to survive on Sash at 1hp to make sure I always have max power Reversals

[@0liviaSama]

I thought I'd know all of these but that haxorus one surprised me so much, never thought I'd see rivalry become viable

[@PKshockwave]

Same. Beautifly is one of my favorite pokes, and was thrilled at her getting Rivalry until i read it decreases her power if the opposite gender. Thought the ability was traaaaaash

[@footur3179]

I never knew about the Rivalry Haxorus strats. That's actually insane that ability was used. I've always seen it as a bottom of the barrel ability

[@homerman76]

It's like when people can find a moment where attract is viable, though with a bit more consistency in how it worked

[@jenikabartlett9396]

It is... until it's not.

[@deffuork3947]

Terapagos is also only male (if legally obtainet in the game) and he is seeing some usage right now!

[@nehozakuz]

the editor must be super into splatoon, theres even side order music in there LMAO

[@murkiri]

yeahhhh

[@galaxykitsune]

I couldn’t pay attention when Short Order came on 😭😭 just started bopping

[@jjtheenton]

Level 49 Groudon is the second-biggest big brain play behind Pachirisu.

[@scottcrysel]

The Markus Stadher life orb calc on his Great Tusk still blows my mind. I love the math part of teambuilding but that is so next level it makes my head spin lol

[@curlyfriescs7211]

confusion damage being tied to only the ATK stat was always confusing to me because I used to think it just dealt damage according to type of the move being used, swagger even had and SPATK counterpart, that being flatter, though only +1

[@MotorcycleCheetah]

We really should have a Special Varriant if they’re not gonna make both attack stats fit under the umbrella. But honestly, it’d be cool if you got Confused while using a Status Move; instead of just hurting yourself; the Status did the opposite of what it was supposed to do. Like you swords dance; but then hurt yourself mid dance thus lowering your attack instead. I feel like that’d be a cool detail and could make confusion even more useful against stall mons.

[@Ayeshire]

@@MotorcycleCheetahconfusion meta where you can’t even play the game wooooo

[@MotorcycleCheetah]

@@Ayeshire You jeer now, but I know you’d laugh your ass off if you saw someone KO themselves with recover.

[@asierx7047]

​@@MotorcycleCheetah Imagine getting confused while using memento and giving the enemy a free Decorate

[@MotorcycleCheetah]

@@asierx7047 What a nice Memento to leave behind! Hahah! XD

[@mcsmileycorp]

I remember for some tournament I ran a metagross with a very specific speed IV to outspeed incineroar in both tailwind and trick room. I still lost horribly because I thought running av metagross was a good idea.

[@woomyboy98]

Im genuinely so confused on how you can outspeed and underspeed incinaroar

[@tomwantshelp]

Tailwind doubles your speed. So if you’re slower, but more than half as fast, you are faster in both Trick Room and Tailwind.

[@blazechaos212]

​@@woomyboy98 Metagross Speed: 64 Incineroar Speed: 90 Metagross in Tailwind: 128

[@zacmayes2802]

I think ​@@woomyboy98 thought Metagross would move first even when Incineroar was under trick room and tailwind. The original comment sort of worded it weird, hence they were confused how Metagross could be slow enough to move first in trick room, but be fast enough to outspeed tailwind-boosted Incineroar.

[@7raziel7]

Lvl 1 Groudon to win weather wars 100% guaranteed 🗿

[@GeorgeDCowley]

You actually can't go that far, since Groudon's not breedable.

[@flamaerao]

​@@GeorgeDCowleykid named pokemon go:

[@AllegedlyHuman]

​@@flamaerao the lowest we have had Groudon available there is still level 15 lol

[@Aaa-vp6ug]

Level 1 Kyogre with Lagging tail:

[@bg8561]

The amount of people that didn't get the joke.

[@Anedelgardstan]

8:09 FEAR actually stands for F*cking Evil Annoying Rodent

[@ohhellwhereami2574]

A stands for Almighty

[@josenobi3022]

bruh that’s just a funny name given after to match the original acronym

[@cford6679]

Always knew it as F*cking Evil Attack Ratatta

[@testerwulf3357]

@@cford6679 I've always heard it as Focus Sash. Endeavor. (Quick) Attack. Rattata lol

[@Gandhi0]

"Can't wait to see the new video from Moxie." "Did you know a lot of men get ball cancer?" Whiplash.

[@drbiohazmat]

I'm sorry but that bit with the Primals fighting over the TV had me dying lmao. I had to replay it a few times

[@sxewhil]

The Nick Donnelly face on Groudon in the thumbnail is insane

[@happysmilesworldandgames8755]

3:18 i knew this helped to avoid confusion damage, but never thought about foul play

[@deathpigeon2]

In Singles, level dropping is sometimes down to be able to Teleport after your opponent, also.

[@calsalitra4689]

A weird strategy I watched a video about a while ago, is level 85 Chansey. I don't think this was competitively useful, since Chansey is kind of a big deal and losing 15 levels hurts a lot. But it's still interesting. So, Gen 1 is really weird. Freeze might as well be an OHKO, paralysis can stack its own speed debuff, body slam can't paralyze normal types but paralyze electric types, etc. The relevant jank here happens with healing. Apparently, if a Pokemon loses exactly 255 HP, healing stops working. All healing moves will fail if used, so they're now stuck with 255 less health until they get hit again. This lets you switch in another pokemon to kill them, when otherwise they would just heal the damage. Level 85 Chansey will deal exactly 255 damage after 3 seismic tosses, which lets Chansey pull this off consistently. Again, I don't think this was every competitively useful, but it's a neat trick. Considering that F.E.A.R was included though, I would guess that level 85 Chansey makes the cut.

[@ness294]

You forgot a tiny one: running detect instead of protect to avoid imprison's lock

[@ninomitchell2039]

8:03 this video just made me appreciate how Groudon, Kyogre, and Raquaza's lore/rivalry is reinforced with their abilities and the speed stats of the 2 in this video.

[@incandescence5547]

Choice Band Dragapult with exactly 6 Sucker Punch PP got 2nd at worlds last year

[@quentebarchiveeoutrascoisa8036]

49 level groundon feels like level 85 chanseh but instead of gen 1 jank it's an actual strategy. Also play competitive rby it't messy but it's awesome

[@dinomike1305]

One of the best thumbnails yet

[@atrixmj]

Thanks:D

[@heliumpai7627]

​@@atrixmjGAMER IN CHAT FOLKS??

[@adrianschannel7182]

Shedinja runs 0 Defense and Special Defense IVs and a Lonely Nature to minimize the bulk of Ditto that transform into it. It has 1 HP so its own Def and SpDef are irrelevant. In Sword/Shield, support Dragapult with Surf to activate Weakness Policy G-Max Coalossal usually have 0 Special Attack IVs to minimize damage done to Coalossal. Even funnier is that Santino Tarquinio's Players Cup winning team had a Dragapult with 2 SpA IVs though since it didn't affect the damage roll on his Coalossal specifically while doing slightly more damage to the opponent.

[@morgan7909]

It's not vgc, but one of my favorites is the classic level 85 chancey. In gen 1 there is a glitch where a pokemon will be unable to heal if they're missing exactly 255 hp, so some players used a level 85 chancey to deal exactly that amount of damage with 3 seismic tosses, blocking the opponent from being able to recover.

[@R.P.Genocraft]

7:59 best edit in the video lol

[@TemporalTower-tn2ld]

I know it’s been covered before; but “dive cats” was by far my favorite technique to use in gen five back in the day. (I never played competitively but against friends; they were really mad)

[@Afox4567-lp3ps]

This is a weird one but in gen 8 if you’re only pysical attacking move was an ohko move you can run max attack for dynamax

[@joe_the_zombie]

Level 99 and 98 slowking trick room is a thing in singles back in the day iirc

[@glacierwolf2155]

It was also a thing in Generation 8 purely due to the mass amount of momentum one can gain with slow Teleport.

[@trevorpacelli8056]

Here's a wild strategy I've seen before: Using Will-O-Wisp on your own special-attacking sweeper so that it can't be put to sleep by Amoonguss.

[@flamestorm1468]

Never let them know your next move - Uses Lv 48 Kyogre.

[@galliussbattlefield3621]

Well, that Rivalry Haxorus tech led to another tech: the one of using an all female team (except for Terrakion and Thundurus) to reduce male Haxorus's damage output

[@Venandi_]

Hm I kinda expected to hear about Parasect of all Pokémon seeing use in gen 4 just to counter Kyogre’s water spout. But anyway, I knew about all of these except the Araquanid one, some wild stuff

[@twinleadersx8179]

You should hear about the Pokemom what were deliberately given 0 IV defensive stats, so they’re purposefully one-shot (sometimes by their teammates) to make room for their combo teammates.

[@hskikibot2846]

ngl when i saw the rivalry one, for a sec there i thought he would be talking about attract

[@FlareFluff]

A neutral nature and using a mint will make the pokemon still never get confused due eating the incorrect berry. (you can trick the incorrect berry into an opposing pokemon)

[@FlygonkingVGC]

9:09 also shedinja is another reason to run low pp

[@jesuisunstroopwafel]

About Ultra Beasts, I want to talk about the tragedy of Xurkitree. Xurkitree's Sp. Atk is so absurd that minimizing this stat and maximizing another would still result in Beast Boost still raising its Sp. Atk.

[@cinnasauria]

Level 99 Slowking for a slower Teleport/Chilly Reception in singles is always fun (and of course leads to the occasional level 98 variant too, I even saw a level 96 on gen 8 ladder once lmao)

[@MagiCarson08]

Sigma Groudon is hilarious 😂. Excellent thumbnail!!

[@DerpySuX]

In BSS there is an optimization with Chien-Pao similar to the 0Atk optimization on special attackers. I don’t remember the exact number but Tera blast using variants of Chien-Pao will lower their SpA IV in order to maintain Tera Blast’s physical designation even if charmed by an opposing Flutter Mane

[@holdenhockman8340]

Players in gen 5 competitions would have their pokemon hold MAIL in order to not get tricked a choice item. Little fun for y'all.

[@DoctorSpacebar]

Running Slow Start on Varoom makes it the slowest non-Teleport pivot in Little Cup. This is a pretty big advantage when its Parting Shot will leave the opponent as setup fodder for bulkier setup mons.

[@Blender-hl4wt]

Video idea: horrible Pokémon with broken abilities like clawf with anger shell.

[@renital_4279]

This one applies mostly to singles, but i remember there being some weird optimization of using Slurpuff at level 98 or lower, with 0 defence ivs and a defence lowering nature so that it was squishy enough to drop to exactly 1hp on some calcs to proc focus sash and thus proc its unburden ability to double its speed

[@kingambitreal]

Sticky Web Suicide leads in Ubers, though i remember it being 97 rather than 98. It would proc unburden and then use endeavor

[@renital_4279]

@@kingambitreal yeah you may be right about it being 97 I just remembered it was lower than 99 that was needed to get the low enough defence stat so it was really niche

[@maktackle1908]

On a similar line to the PP up point, shoutout to Michaelderbeste using a banded Dragapult with only 6 pp on Sucker Punch in Worlds. His explanation: "The surprise I mentioned in my interview before the Finals against Shohei Kimura was the PP of Sucker Punch. I played exactly 6 PP on my Dragapult throughout the entire tournament and I had a specific reason for that. When a Pokémon wants to stall out Sucker Punch because they are in range of it otherwise, it might spam Protect. The opponent can count the uses of Sucker Punch and then attack in the 9th turn. If a Protect fails in the 7th turn though, I would be able to get off two Choice Band Struggles to KO the opposing Pokémon. You can beat a 1 HP Chien-Pao with this technique as well."

[@Flash33c]

In gen 4 VGC (2009) the 2nd place player ran a Shedinja with Sunny Day, presumably to counter the other weather types like hail and sand. This is the same Shedinja that won 1v3 in game 2 of the finals (the finals of which were played on Battle Revolution).

[@1000_y0shy]

I actually do a weird thing like this, on my Rillaboom I play 28 IV Speed to reach 104 Speed to counter Calyrex-Shadow + Indeedee on lead (31 IV Speed Indeedee reach 105 Speed with no EV Speed so I always remove the Psychic Terrain on lead, and with Grassy Glide I don't really care about my Speed)

[@Shattered_Starstorm]

The perfectly cut scream at the part where Tapu Koko uses Sky Drop on Araquanid 🤣

[@bandurcer]

Edward Cheung ran a Serious (neutral) nature on his Primal Groudon in Worlds 2016. He wanted to use strong Eruption, check Xerneas after Geomancy with PBlades and also wanted to outspeed Mega Kang after Icy Wind while being bulky.

[@johnnyjoestar4473]

Great video as usual! I'd love to see a video going over the most impactful moves or abilities from each gen, I think that could be an interesting topic

[@AccountDeletionPending]

There are also people who have run attract for the genies on ladder since they're male.

[@tysondennis1016]

Groudon and Kyogre are some of the only Pokémon that paradoxically become stronger by being underlevelled.

[@BarnabyJackson-wi7it]

Personally, I use a sneasler unburdened sash set with minimum hp, defense and special defense to trigger sash more often

[@julian0496]

And you thought we wouldn’t recognize the splatoon 3 dlc theme there!

[@joe_the_zombie]

Life orb 1/16th? Confused with leftovers I guess?

[@MoxieBoosted]

Yeah 1/10 my b

[@cosplaydeninjagaiden591]

I appreciate the splatoon 3 music in the video

[@0mega_shirayuki]

I swear to Arceus these thumbnails are so good

[@Sakura_Yuri131]

Kyogre is looking at Groudon and wondering what he did to his drink

[@Damien2004]

LOL they are like siblings

[@masonguyman3074]

Prop to you Moxie for your ad delivery and self-promotion! The ad was quick and painless with a personal touch, and the self-plugs are always really effective because you tell the audience the next step and politely ask for their participation. Got me to actually subscribe a few videos ago, and this time it got me to come to the comments to see others' answers to the question at the end. Good job, good hustle.

[@sonicducktheinoccent]

The channel artist is so based

[@y.kennard3381]

"A special attacker shouldn't run anything else than 0 IV in Atk" Well yes, but actually no. What about Struggle ? I might have lost a game due to my Specs FM being Disabled, and not dealing enough damages to a very low life Raging bolt. Of course it's very very unlikely to happen, but... Depending on the meta, losing a game because of Foul play / Confusion damages might be even more unlikely.

[@StickyTrap]

Level 49 Reuniclus underspeeds Amoongus in trick room and is immune to spore because of overcoat making it the best trick room user against it

[@ElenaPog]

This is a much more specific example, but I will never forget the SV player who ran 6 pp on sucker punch with choice band so they would catch their opponent off guard when they tried to stall it out. I don’t know if it ever worked but an amazing tech nonetheless

[@Mendo-dz2wq]

I don't know if it's a bug or something or maybe my ignorance, but I get a message when I put the EVs to my landorus in pokemon showdown that says "Use a different nature to save 28 EVs". Suggesting me this: EVs: 136 SpA / 88 SpD / 252 Spe Rash Nature Why the unfavorable nature in SpDef and not the 252 evs in special attack?

[@GoodBoyGaming-fj6zp]

HALF YOU VIEWERS ARE SUBBED???? Wow, that's something even a youtuber like dream could only dream of!

[@ThunderKnightSilver2]

TIL sky drop has a weight limit

[@capybro4422]

That water spider L A R G E. Why is he able to look Groudon in the eye

[@LP-zn8sc]

I'm still so disappointed at the lack of a reverse bottle cap in the dlc for s/v.

[@Drewtr]

10:20 francesco pardini mentioned

[@Stardust_Spy]

I heard there’s a cool tech where VGC players can smash the controller/console of the opponent and immediately win the game. I think you missed this.

[@zachsuedmeyer2526]

Him: genders Me: oh the attract pokemon to screw over genies? Him:.... no wtf? Rivalry

[@aspiringwayfarer]

same

[@Sizzyl]

the totem mon tech is actaully super neat

[@soap6264]

i remember i ran iron ball torkoal during early gen 9 vgc because torkoal was quite popular for sun and i wanted to become THE fastest in trick room

[@darthfastball1150]

my favorite oddball pick was float stone on gastrodon. a normally useless item that had a niche because thundurus only had grass knot

[@mysticpumpkin8520]

Araquanid was so dummy thicc it carried her to victory😂

[@Mm305star]

Its weird to see moxie boosted talking about testicular cancer

[@fatyoshi696]

Old gen singles has some even more cursed optimizations like level 85 chansey to trigger the recover failure glitch with seismic toss in gen 1 ou, tackle+reflect porygon to pp stall swords dance mew in gen 1 ubers, or spdef beat up dugtrio to trap kill max spatk modest blissey in gen 3 ou

[@J_Rad48]

Most recently wolfey ran very specific speed evs on his Farigiraf and Incinarour for a combo move i forgot what its for exactly but it was 2024s charlotte regional

[@rizachan8892]

8:15 Scrappy tailow that can hit Ghost types 🗿

[@adrianschannel7182]

Also GameFreak knows non maximum (usually 0) IVs are optimal sometimes. In the Indigo Disk the Elite Four have 0 IVs when necessary in Attack and Speed, but you can't adjust IVs yourself in game. You can only maximize the IV with Hyper Training, but we need to be able to pick any IV. Goes to show how incompetent the developers are in making a quality PvP game. I'd honestly be more than fine with IVs being removed for competitive play, such as calculating all stats with max IVs. Contrary to what some purists believe, it would not measurably affect competitive play. With minimum Speed, Torkoal is slower than Amoonguss, and if both of them have max Speed IVs and a Speed reducing Nature, that is still the case. You lose the potential to do some cheeky plays such as having your Incineroar always be a few points slower than other Incineroar, but those strategies are quite uncommon and are inaccessible to the average player who cannot easily obtain arbitrary IVs such as 24 or 26 in game.

[@theshadowking3198]

Idk why I got sad to find out sky drop got deleted

[@cheeseinthetrap3751]

when that player KO'd his own mon with kartana to get a beast boost and win the match. coolest play I've seen in vgc

[@Abdul54cp]

level 96 slowbro in gen 8

[@spice2nice664]

Wow this is the first time I’ve seen moxie boosted. And talking about balls!

[@theshadowking3198]

I suck at competitive Pokémon but I love the tech in vgc so cool

[@RedStriker212]

You missed Lv.49 Amoonguss and Lv.1 Foonguss from VGC '12-'13. Y'all, keep in mind that this was before the Spore/Powder nerf, and during a time when Sleep would reset on switch; Amoonguss could straight up run away with the game back in this time. There's also Ray Rizzo's 2012 WCS Metagross with a 13 Speed IV so that way it could time its moves correctly with its partner, Cresselia, which had Trick Room and side Swagger for the then-popular Swagger + Lum strat. Edit: It might've been a 10 IV w/ neutral Speed Natured Metagross, my b. That would put it at 80 raw Speed, with 0 IV -Spe Cress at 81.

[@Mathtron5000]

I can't believe you didn't mention Level 85 Chansey in Gen 1 OU /specifically/ designed to hit 3 Seismic Tosses to trigger a glitch where you can't heal if the difference between your max HP and your remaining HP is a multiple of 255 (because Gen 1)

[@bigj5401]

I used to love clicking sky drop w mega aerodactyl and then clicking trick room w cresellia lol this would make the opponent lose their turn co completely

[@SuperbGorilla]

Imagine a 217.5kg spider IRL

[@slimjunkin4635]

Have you done a video on mind games that people would try? Some that comes to mind is when a player came out with a Mega Zard X plush, even tho he was using Zard Y.

[@Luna-wf5ok]

These thumbnails are absolutely incredible haha

[@glitch9643]

Ngl I didnt know about the weight limit of Sky Drop... we learn something new everyday