Pro Answers Competitive Pokémon Questions From Reddit

My second channel:
/ @freezailive3842

[@Swordsman99k]

VGC isn't even a "tiering" system. There's a current format and that's it. Pokemon that are terrible in VGC are just terrible. There is no lower tier.

[@selearth3123]

this is also why people who swear by vgc-only are idiots for screaming "but look!! pachirisu won once! so much more creative than stall-smogon!! >:(" they just dont understand tiering (or the game at all, really)

[@andreaseverin1346]

To me it's part of why Smogon > VGC. Like sure some things are banned, but it gives more options overall from both the balancing and the usage-based tiers

[@hellothere2570]

​@selearth3123 tbf, vgc really does have more options than smogon. As a format it's more complex since you have way more options. That being said neither smogon or VGC really lack anything in the creativity aspect, so it's pretty pointless to compare them and say which one is "better"

[@daphenomenalz4100]

@@hellothere2570 + VGC is good for saving money and time for gamefreak and prevent games from taking hours in inperson tournaments

[@andreaseverin1346]

@@hellothere2570 what do you mean with more options? Obviously in game there's more options, but Smogon makes up for it with much more options in the teambuilder (mostly due to some overcentralizers from VGC, say Flutter Mane, getting Smogon banned)

[@samvincke8427]

3:36 Gfisk used to be good in GO competitive & GBL. Now it's more a 2nd hand meta mon

[@skeeeeeeter]

I used to play a lot of GO, and g-stunfisk was meta-defining for so long. Natural that things change but that feels crazy that it’s lost its place. I should check out updated GBL Pokémon rankings…

[@samvincke8427]

@@skeeeeeeter pretty sure it's still ranked rather highly , however current GBL and Competitive meta are very hostile for GFisk so it sees no play except for lower elo's

[@gshgsh]

​@@skeeeeeeter both Rock Slide and Earthquake were nerfed and water types have been continuously buffed, so Gfisk is at an all time low place in the meta. It's still very good on paper and it's very possible it makes a comeback eventually though.

[@anonymousmoniker7068]

Yeah, it was on top of the meta for a while, but they gave Gligar a ton of buffs, and Gligar both outcompetes Gfisk in its niche and destroys it if they match up directly, so there's little reason to run Gfisk anymore.

[@skeeeeeeter]

@@gshgsh that’ll do it! Didn’t realize both moves were nerfed. Appreciate the insight

[@yingkaishao2939]

singles and doubles are inherently different, but setting that aside, smogon and vgc have different balancing. GameFreak takes care of VGC balancing/regulations by handpicking rules, while smogon moves pokemon to different tiers

[@Will-zi6fn]

Game freak doesn’t really balance for vgc tho, they only do it in extreme cases and between generations

[@Prash_0]

I don't know if they know anything about balancing but they sure do know about sleep/spore balancing.​@@Will-zi6fn

[@jamesfeng24]

@@Will-zi6fnfair but generational gimmicks I’d say is the most major thing - megas were kinda too broken, mega kang was nerfed and eventually replaced with z moves, which players still don’t love due to unpredictability, then dynamax happened which was generally pretty popular and now terrastalisation, which is adored pretty much universally by vgc players as a fun and interesting mechanic that raises the skill cap. While singles players loved megas cuz “cool pokemon!!”, z-moves were a cool mechanic to help break stall, dynamax was despised as unbalanced and Tera still causes massive controversy about whether it is balanced or not and should be banned.

[@Will-zi6fn]

@@jamesfeng24 the reason tera isn’t seen as an issue in vgc is due to open teamsheets which display tera types reducing the unpredictability. That’s not something inherent to vgc, it’s only relevant to tournaments and serious competitive, which is why tera is just as much an issue on ladder in vgc as in smogon, but top players don’t complain about it because it’s irrelevant to them. Also people don’t complain about it as much in vgc because there’s no way for it to be beaned whereas in smogon it will actually be put to a vote so players actually get to choose.

[@Will-zi6fn]

@@jamesfeng24 also megas were a MASSIVE issue in vgc and the format could have benefited a lot from bans. That meta was extremely centralised and not healthy whatsoever.

[@iss2075]

About tiering, before VGC there was Nintendo Cup. In Nintendo Cup 99 the Pokemon used by the top players in the previous tournaments were banned. This is quite similar to what Smogon does with UU, etc, and whilst I wasn't around at the time (I joined Smogon in Gen III), I highly suspect it was probably Nintendo Cup 99 that inspired the players at the time to make a UU tier. Back in those days most NetBattle players were Pokemon Stadium players, so I think it's highly probably they were aware of Nintendo Cup 99 and wanted to do something similar for 6v6. It would be fun if they did a VGC ruleset like that occasionally but maybe it wouldn't be very balanced.

[@Foxgace0]

Im pretty sure they did this back in sword and shield once, where the top 10 most used pokemon were banned for a format

[@GKplus8]

@@Foxgace0 It was SWSH series 6

[@worldiefeard8396]

They actually did that in SwSh as someone said. They banned the top 10 pokemon by usage for a month. Specifically: Venusaur, Gyarados, Porygon2, Tyranitar, Torkoal, Hippowdon, Magnezone, Togekiss, Excadrill, Whimsicott, Incineroar, Mimikyu, Rillaboom, Cinderace, Indeedee, Dragapult Spoilers: that was a disaster. They just got replaced by 10 different pokemon and the meta stayed exactly the same as far as what playstyles were good.

[@blockgqmer]

They did it and it was terrible. Some Pokémon got banned from new toy syndrome and so it was even more consolidated than normal.

[@quiverdancervolca]

Is stunfisk good? No, the average elo for the sub is 1200

[@Gold_Gamer_100]

Reminder that some users don't even play pokemon, but just browse for memes. This has lead to a lot of discussion posts getting turned into a game of "who can quote more memes?" As you can imagine, a lot of misinformation is spread constantly just because some meme that got 2k upvotes had it, so it must be true

[@MoritaPerc]

Sometimes in Pokemon Go Competitive it's kinda good (in Galatian form), pokemon as a franchise it's too big and a lot of pokemon have very specific niches

[@anujsingh333]

​@@Gold_Gamer_100 Indeed, but on the other hand...some of the Sunday memes are among the funniest things I've seen online, so I can't not frequent the sub

[@canhebeatgokutho420]

​@@Gold_Gamer_100 That's why they no longer do Stunday

[@Yossarianstregret-gp2cd]

How do you even get hardstuck under 1200. Just use a good sample team that will get you to 1300-1400 elo easily.

[@josidfin]

Thought this was a really cool explanation on the balancing differences between Smogon and VGC; nice job with the video

[@oscen335]

给我 blood lord vlad sprite, NOW!!!

[@theegreenone]

finchinator pfp spotted

[@Snt1_]

​@@theegreenoneIts not just a finch pfp, its finch himself

[@ShatteredQvartz]

VGC and Smogon can't be compared because, even if it's both Pokémon, they are fundamentally different formats and have little in common

[@breakout8904]

This sums it up perfectly two entirely different games.

[@mysticpumpkin8520]

A shame casuals just dont think the same😅

[@pikminman13]

@@breakout8904 while i agree its also fun to call vgc a fake format in a similar manner as its fun for americans and british people to make fun of each other

[@Vassilinia]

VGC is still better though. 😎

[@deparinge]

tbf there is Smogon Doubles

[@blankster6425]

The sub is called stunfisk therefore stunfisk must be meta !!

[@christianlaringe1150]

"How do we tell him?"

[@marcoasturias8520]

And Smogon has a Koffing, because its GOD, no, BETTER

[@arthilas_]

@@marcoasturias8520 Smogon is literally koffing's German name.

[@oatmongen4263]

I misinterpreted the question the first time to mean “is the Sunfisk community good at Pokemon?”

[@McSpanty]

This was fun! Maybe you could do commentary on one exciting VGC match and one exciting Smogon match which highlights the best aspects of each format

[@HackerAtesh]

EV spreads are also more intricate in VGC due to turn order being a bigger factor. In singles you just need to outspeed one opponent, in VGC you may want to outspeed certain Pokémon but go slower than your partner. Trick Room is also a much more common strategy, which further lends to speed optimizations

[@cinnasauria]

"A broken Pokemon only occupies 1/4 of the game state instead of half" is a really good way to put doubles into perspective. Big reason why so many "banned to Ubers" Pokemon aren't even considered worth using in VGC. I do like the question + answer type videos, you have good insight into these things.

[@shieldon530]

I liked this, I think you have a great way of explaining things in simple and straightforward terms that makes some things more accessible to people who may not be super familiar with certain things.

[@lovelylunarlady]

So regarding stunfisk in pokemon go, it fell off recently but for a while Galarian Stunfisk was a top threat in great league and good in ultra league. Great League has a cap at pokemon with 1500cp and Ultra with a cap of 2500cp. G-fisk is pretty bulky in both formats, and it's moveset of Mud Shot+Rock Slide+Earthquake is really good. Mud shot generates energy quickly which allows it to get to it's charge moves quickly. It was a top 3 mon in Great League till Earthquake got nerfed somewhat recently. It's still good but it's generally outclassed by Gligar which is also a counter for it. Ultra is more of the same, though it's always been less common in that league.

[@ron10dk]

To add on to this, in PoGo Pokemon can only have 3 moves (1 fast, 2 charged) so coverage is much more limited which makes ground/steel a good defensive typing and Gunfisk gets both ground and rock charged attacks which are very good for broad coverage. Add on it's a bulky mon in a system that inherently favors bulk and it was in a good spot. What put it over the top was getting a quick charging fast move with Earthquake and Rock Slide which were both good moves. It was incredibly poor foresight by Niantic to give it those and ultimately it necessitated both moves get nerfed, largely because of Gunfisk. IMO it was so unhealthy for the meta.

[@firewall5189]

gfisk is probably a contender for the title of gbl goat alongside the likes of medicham and azu tbh. that thing was omnipresent in its heyday

[@Jhoto]

I really appreciate every new thing you’ve been doing. I know about maybe 5-6 months ago, I could just tell, that you were falling out of love with making vids for Pokémon. Just from the way you sounded to the words you used. That’s normal. Your response was incredible. You’re doubling down, and creating more refreshing content than ever before. We look at you as the know all end all Pokémon wizard. Of course you have incredible proven players but something about your videos just captivated us. I think if you could conglomerate everything into your FREEZAI brand, you’ll be a shoe in for biggest poke tuber.

[@oceanviolets1306]

I think the scattershot answering of misc questions is great! I don't play much comp Pokemon, but I enjoy hearing about it and learning about the meta.

[@razorsharp5643]

About Stunfisk being good in Pokemon GO, here goes. In Pokemon GO, the battle system is about using Fast attacks that charge up energy to unleash Charged Attacks, which do from medium to a lot of damage when they connect. Each pokemon gets one Fast and up to two Charged Attacks. However, each player gets two shields to block any incoming Charged Attack - without knowing what it is. However, if the Pokemon has two charged attacks of different energy cost, this can possibly lead into baiting games. Specific quick attacks are instead balanced around doing a lot of damage and charging much less energy. The formats, outside limited metas, are Great League, Ultra League and Master League, and the entry into each format is decided by the game's CP system standing for Combat Power. The formats are at 1500, 2500 CP and no limit for Master. This value, in a vacuum, is generated by looking at the Pokemon's stats and a Gen 1 IV system. Attack is weighted very heavily, while Speed doesn't exist AT ALL and instead is used just as a slight CP modifier tied to attack. If two Pokemon select their Charge Attack on the same tick, the "speed" tie is actually determined by Attack stat. So why is Stunfisk good? First, the moves. It's moves are superb; it generates energy quickly and has two great charged attacks, allowing for both baiting potential and also hitting relatively hard with widely unresisted coverage. Second, the stats. Because its stats aren't really in attack or speed, the CP value it gets to allows it to get a lot more value out of its stats, because the bulk stats contribute to the number less. Bulky Pokemon tend to all be like this: their overall stat product is better than glass cannon types. Third is the typing; the typing is generally one of the better ones out there, albeit it's not the best at the moment due to Water and Fighting types dominating the metagames. Pokemon GO also has no recovery and no abilities, again lending itself to the relatively "boring" Stunfisk who doesn't have those tools in the main games.

[@DarkenedAuras7653]

I do enjoy this kind of thing. Hearing about this stuff from someone who really, really, really knows his stuff is great! Keep them up!

[@rainbowgg___]

I feel in ADV I'm always calculating ton of sets. Especially gengar, swampert or niche picks

[@blueskyalchemist623]

In ADV, without special physical split, a lot of mons decide to take the mix approach like Mence or even Gengar with Explosion. That’s why you see more carefully crafted EVs in gen 3, while gen 4 onward is usually just 252/252/4 spreads most of the time.

[@CountGremlin]

Smogon? Nahh VGC ? Naaahh Battling against your friends and using obscure, niche mechanics to win? Hell yeah 😂

[@oscen335]

Fuck it we shell smash turn 1

[@fogwzu1939]

​@@oscen335 Choice Banded Tera Normal Explosion go brrr

[@baumina1706]

destroying your friends with cherrim sun or flower trick + anger point or stuff like that >>

[@lucacastoldi1152]

@@fogwzu1939 Choice banded tera electric galvanize alolan golem>>

[@paulmann8570]

Acid Rain it is.

[@1_KingDom]

Love seeing vgc get a shout-out from someone deep in the smogon meta! (Yes im aware freezai has done vgc tournaments but hes known for smogon more). I love good neutral takes that understand the vast differences between the 2 instead of writing one format off as boring because its not the one you play!🎉

[@nathanbrown1293]

This was cool I didnt expect this clicking the video keep this up !!

[@tirizo7195]

Would love to see more of these types of reddit videos. It's a new perspective on Pokemon and it's very interesting to hear your thoughts on things.

[@jaschabull2365]

"You're not allowed a dictionary at Scrabble." Well, we've been playing it quite differently from normal in my family.

[@RevvySD]

Another thing on the VGC EV spreads is the fact that these people are playing for money and fame. VGC is more popular than singles- it’s what’s live streamed on the Pokémon channels and it’s the event thousands of people pay to attend. And for that, people will spend hours crafting the perfect EV spread to take full advantage of their Pokémon’s usefulness. Flutter Mane doesn’t NEED max special attack on its specs set to pickup the knockouts it needs; Incineroar doesn’t need max Sp.Def or Defense to take the hits you need it too; Urshifu doesn’t need max attack. While it’s easier to just slap a 252/252 spread onto a mon, groups of 5-6 people all playing for a cash prize will hop on the damage calculator to craft a spread that doesn’t waste a single stat point. Smogon tournaments, on the other hand, doesn’t have this level of fame and the cash prizes aren’t consistently high. So, spending hours in the builder to craft the perfect spread isn’t justifiable and so the most common spreads are 252/252, or a spread that reaches a specific speed tier before dumping the rest of your stats. Not saying that SPL players are lazy, bad, or unskilled- simply saying that it’s less justifiable to craft the perfect EV spread especially taking into account the points freezai brought up.

[@jscurf26]

Stunfisk has a bit of a niche in gen 7 to check koko and is a popular draft mon in that format as a counter pick for torn-t, koko, etc

[@chi3fross]

Another thing to consider on the EV spread topic is how having 2 opponents changes what hinds of roles are pokemon can have. For example, a special wall like Blissey would benefit from the most HP and SpDef possible to better deal with opposing special sweepers. In a 1v1 scenario this works because you can guarantee through your good play that the Blissey never has to deal with a physical attacker. In VGC there’s no reason why your opponent couldn’t just bring in a physical attacker next to their special attacker and knock out Blissey while still threatening the other members of your team with the special attacker Blissey was supposed to handle. VGC being 2v2 commonly necessitates running a spread that misses out on some of the potential potential strengths of a mon in favor of making it less exploitable in the places it struggles, and it’s the balancing act of maintaining as much strength as possible while not immediately folding to unexpected matchups that creates these more complex spreads.

[@M4x_P0w3r]

As a matter of fact, Blissey's almost always runs physical investment on singles too, since their defense is so low to begin with. For instance, a Bold Blissey with 252 EVs on Def more than doubles its defense (61 to 130), whereas a Calm Blissey with 252 EVs on Sp Def only gives it a 20% increase to that stat (336 to 405). Not to mention how it's generally not a good idea to run 252 HP on the account that the difference it makes is like, less than a 10% increase to it's overall bulk.

[@incandescence5547]

I get so annoyed when people say "Smogon" to refer specifically to Smogon singles, so I'm glad you briefly mentioned the existence of Smogon doubles. More people should try it, imo. I think doubles has less need for tiers, since it's easier to make more Pokemon work in doubles, even "bad" ones, due to there being more things a Pokemon can do and more ways to support it. That being said, tiers are still nice and there isn't really anything *bad* about them, so I'm in favor. I don't see a reason to not allow a calculator and other knowledge sources when playing -- checking memorization is not checking your skill, and it doesn't favor the better player. This is similar to the problem with testing in academia. All external knowledge should be available to both players

[@EvilToe]

personally i like VGC's double battles a lot more than singles. It opens up far more interesting strategies that are simply not possible in a single battle format, and it gives a home to a lot of supportive and defensive pokemon that simply cannot function 1v1. Also, I would add that not only are there fewer broken pokemon, but there are simultaneously fewer truly "bad" pokemon as well, since you have the advantage of always having a teammate covering for them. This is a format where both Clefairy AND Landorus-T are both viable. But man. They REALLY need some kind of official battle simulator or something like Showdown.

[@redgyrados2000]

The fact that the debate is "VGC vs. Smogon" makes me realize that few people care about the in-game 3v3 single battles format, which is kinda sad because that format has some fun nunaces that you don't get in Smogon

[@tbone6032]

6:30 ill also add that at lv 50 cus of how natures round you can find stat “bumps” where the next 8 EVs give 2 stats instead of one for the stat with the nature buff. This doesn’t happen at lv 100, so in VGC people will often EV exactly to get to these “bonus” stats

[@afvpegknight]

Bss exists as well. That counts as competive too. Especially when you are battling an incredibly skilled Japanese player. You gotta bring your A game then.

[@dadeb9102]

Can confirm stunfisk and even more so galarian stunfisk are excellent in pokemon go. Without going into too much detail, pokemon that have a proportionally large amount of their base stats put into bulk tend to be good in go (i.e. bastiodon, registeel, cresselia)

[@meta4knight]

Stunfisk went crazy in go! Bulky which is inherently advantageous because of the level system, good typing, and a great move pool that allows it to fire off charge attacks with good coverage like muddy water and rockslide

[@indigodegelder]

If looking up a stat of some pokemon was considered cheating that would be wild, Can't expect a casual player to know every stat and move of every pokemon.

[@plentyofpaper]

"There's nothing inherently moral about allowing a calculator, but it became culturally normalized because of circumstance." I'd argue that allowing a calculator and other similar tools is actually healthy for the game. Various quality of life tools such as this allow players an easier time dealing with skills such as math and memorization that are part of the game, but not the core skill of interest. Displaying enemy HP bars as percentages means you don't need to get good at estimating the length of HP bars. The battle log means you have vast information of everything that's occurred in the battle without needing to take a notepad. The damage calculator means you don't need to bring out pencil and paper and memorize tons of stats and formulas if there's a really critical decision you need to make. By allowing tools to help players equalize the less interesting aspect of skill in the game, such as memorization and number crunching, the game becomes more of a test of Pokemon fundamentals. Risk analysis, bluffing, team building skills, etc.

[@marcorodriguez8792]

The way you describe Smogon vs VGC is like Yugioh vs other card games. One bans things if it gets too powerful. While the others have a rotating format (though other card games do have a banlist it's not as big as Yugioh's banlist). And i guess you can say VGC does ban Pokemon which are the mythical pokemon since they are event locked and would give people an advantage if they were allowed. Great video btw

[@HectorMartinez-zr3ve]

Stunfisk is very good in Pokémon go but not broken. It has a very good role in the pogo meta

[@BigHatSupremacist]

There's another reason for the more simplified EV spreads in smogon. In the current gen 9 OU metagame, there are 42 OU ranked mons with more than 5% usage that you can expect to run into frequently. Most teams also include 1 or more mons from lower tiers. This means that complex spreads to gain an edge in specific scenarios is a lot of work for very little reward, and it may even be a detriment in one of the many scenarios you didn't account for, particularly when combined with the reason freezai gave. Compare that to gen 3 OU, which only has 27 OU ranked mons and is mostly dominated by 5. In that metagame, somewhat complicated EV spreads are that gain an advantage against them (or them against mons likely to switch into them) as that is far more reliable for the work put in. There are still a few cases where complex EV spreads are useful in gen 9. Booster energy boosts the highest stat of a paradox mon, which are everywhere in the metagame, and you sometimes need to fiddle with it a bit to get the boost you want. The other reason to tweak EVs is speed since you chip damage doesn't affect it (shocker), and if you beat certain speed benchmarks, additional EVs in it are wasted until you break the next one. It's particularly useful if you're using UU or lower ranked mons in OU as you don't have to worry about mirror matchups. I personally enjoyed using leafeon in sun teams with chlorophyll which is EV'd to just barely speed booster energy Iron valiant which is the fastest unboosted mon in the tier. Has that ~10 hp addtional HP I got by spending my EVs there instead of speed ever mattered? Honestly, I don't know if it has, probably not, but little optimizations like that are a large part of the fun in my opinion.

[@Eijiken]

More poketubers need to do these videos, its so fascinating hearing the different viewpoints on the competitive game

[@raidcrhonos]

The part about cheating was very interesting to me

[@Largebean22]

Galarian Stunfisk is Pokémon you see a lot in Pokémon Go. If you’re winning a lot of games with a fairy type Pokémon you’ll eventually run into a team that uses either Galarain Stunfisk or Steelix. Stunfisk seems to be more common to me

[@KiwyGal]

The switch-in to a completely flat stunfisk at 4:03 absolutely ended me

[@nerobiblios4086]

I prefer VGC because it allows for some rare instances where bad Pokemon can contribute and become champions. Hell, look at Pachirisu, that thing won't EVER actually win any singles battles unless something carries it, but in VGC it's won a World Championship and was meaningfully helping in almost every match.

[@jaggedventure]

If you watch the opponents counter go down, they’re probably unsure of what move to make. But if it doesn’t, they’ve already chosen a move and using this information, you can predict what the opponent will do. Logical moves are made quicker and strategic moves are made with more time spent.

[@kyleweldon5088]

Stunfisk Galar and Unova are nice picks in Pokémon Go battle league, Galar Stunfisk used to be top meta until the nerfed earthquake in Go

[@Kala_RS]

loving all these freezai uploads plz dont stop

[@joshuabrittain5919]

I liked the format of the video. No Reddit AMA or longform FAQ video necessary. This was good.

[@ZethoQ]

Both Stunfisk in Pokémon go is S tier is great league (1500 cp and less) and ultra league (2500 cp and less) for there amazing typing, move pool, and better then average starts. Bring good in both gl and ul is borderline never heard of, it’s basically just Fisk and swampert

[@ChristopherHallWayne]

Great format. Short, sharp and informative.

[@isaactheflaming12345]

This was really good, hope to see more!

[@GGreenHeart]

I'd love to hear a video about "What if VGC had a UU Tier?", if you thought that would be interesting to make. I actually think these sorts of lower-tier battles would be really popular on-cartridge amongst groups of friends, as long as you could find some way to explain it to a 9-yr-old.

[@ranveerbhatti]

the one thing that i like about smogon is that almost every pokemon has a place to shine for example no one will use a Mismagius or Gengar over Flutter mane but in smogon you can use Gengar in RU Where it can shine

[@Invisifly2]

You actually can use a dictionary in Scrabble, you simply cannot use it to help you spell your word, or to help you think of words to use. So if my opponent puts down "liasion" I would say it's misspelled. Then we'd check the dictionary and confirm that it's supposed to be spelled "liaison". The agreed upon dictionary used is considered the final arbiter with regards to if something is actually a word, and if it's spelled correctly.

[@slappydave4241]

I don't get why VGC has always been doubles as the official format but you almost never do that in game. I wouldn't mind if they implemented double battles as the normal playstyle in game a la Coliseum/XD. Honestly think it would be an improvement for casual and wannabe competitive players as it would allow more screen time for the casual players favorite mons and it would make the switch to competitive play less jarring. I'm gonna keep playing Smogon singles though because I absolutely don't have time to grind out teams.

[@Lmjacks]

to elaborate a bit on the point about simpler EV spreads in singles-that’s not necessarily always the case, especially in older gens. the gen 3 metagame in particular has enough depth and specific interactions that have been established throughout the years to where lots of complex EV spreads are used and viable on pokemon like tyranitar, swampert, and gengar. in newer gens, power creep and not having years for the metagame to stabilize make that less common

[@nicolaistuhlmuller8718]

Tbh Ubers or gen3 also has the same thing with ev spreads often being really complex. It's also a sign of more limited metagames, where you can reasonably expect to fight a certain threat almost every battle so it's much more useful to prepare for that specific encounter rather than going for generalist approaches.

[@GravityIsFalling]

It’s also a case of “the meta has been figured out”

[@its2three4]

Yeah wih the way pokemon go combat power calcs go pokemon with more defnesive stats end up being better in pvp than those with more offensive stats. As a result galarin stunfism has become pretty good.

[@Justjoey17]

Pidgy-ut… I pronounce it pidgy-ought

[@GeorgeDCowley]

Not Pidgy-ott?

[@juk3bug]

love this type of video, very informative and entertaining!!

[@Ridelith]

This was an enjoyable watch, but to be honest I'd consume anything you make because every single video is just that good

[@Chuusuisetsujojutsu]

As long as the !weak command exists there’s no way a typechart could be considered cheating, which would also apply to any other information showdown gives you itself.

[@Darostelijaa]

exactly, and smogon also automatically gives you the max speed stat of every pokemon.

[@mr.fluffypantz4150]

Great vid! Which it was twice as long, though you might run out of questions as good as these pretty fast. One submission: how would you change Megas for the new game next year to make them less broken than gens 6 and 7

[@Snugglable]

I enjoyed this. Would love to see more. Thanks for the insight.

[@stevenxiong5471]

Yes please! I just love the knowledge insight you give

[@LucasMartins-lm1ey]

I reallt enjoyed the format, please give us more!

[@Jacob-qr8pl]

I like this format just how you did it. Answer a few questions in a video. Nothing too complex or long. Just a nice little info kiosk 😅

[@NocturnalPyro]

5:23 the only time I’ve ever done a variation of this, was a Scarf Lando-T I made it just able to outspeed, the fastest none scarfed mons in the tier, and added some physival bulk to it.

[@zenqmeister]

Freezai saving the sub while stinkpost is on a hiatus

[@paulmann8570]

*Specific scenarios* is why I fully appreciated SubDance Gyarados and the otherwise bizarre EV spread it used once upon a time. That thing had carried me many generations of Singles.

[@harrisonk2635]

So in pokemon go bulk is what and moves is what makes a pokemon good. It's not turn based so you constantly deal chip damage to your opponent via "fast moves" they also simultaneously help charge your "charge moves". In that meta surviving one extra hit allows you to throw out an extra move and deal more damage overall. That's why bulky pokemon, Creselia, Registeel, Annahilape, Lickitung and Stunfisk are good.

[@supernicedude2972]

In regards to the "what is cheating?" part, what about psyching your opponent out? Like telling your opponent what move youre about to use, so they assume you're bluffing and use a less optimal move/switch?

[@destroyer4929]

Me personally with VGC I feel like it could do with some mons entering the restricted list *cough* *cough* urshifu but overall it's a pretty good official format

[@brettdeccy9897]

Pidgey it baby, love all your stuff freezai

[@tsuou9939]

This is great! Twitter has gone downhill though, and the pokemon community is HUGE on stunfisk… so I’d definitely prefer a Reddit AMA

[@flamaerao]

question: at 6:54 how does one view the calculator on the right-hand side?

[@Doug_Edwards99]

I would love to see more Q&A style videos.

[@thefirespecialist9007]

The best way to see the difference between Official VGC and Unofficial Smogon are with the Move Last Respects and Ability Supreme Overlord. Yeah, in Smogon's Format, Last Respect would become a Max of 300 Base Power, which then becomes the highest Base Power move in the game, without Drawback per use. Compared to Explosion, Self-destruct, V Create, Gigaton Hammer, Chloroblast, Steel Beam, Hyper Beam, Overheat, Draco Meteor, Leaf Storm, that ALL have instant Drawbacks. The only Drawback of Max power Last Respects is you have you have 5 Fainted Pokémon. The Ability Supreme Overlord gives you an Additional 10% Power Boost for every Fainted Pokémon, with a Max of a 50% Boost, without Drawbacks, where the equal Boost of Choice Band/Specs has a Major Drawback. But in VGC: Last Respects hits 200 Base Power Max, and there is a drawback... A format Drawback. You using that 200 Power Last Respects means you have 1 Pokémon in a Double Battle. So more reliably you would want it to Max at 150 Power, which is equal to most recharge moves, and the trade off is... No Recharge Turn, but you must lose 2 Pokémon... but you can Still compete in 2v2 fairly... and Supreme Overlord in VGC Max's out at a 30% Boost, which is equal to Life Orb, but without the HP cost, however again, to gain the 30% Boost, you have to be down to 1 Pokémon in a Double's Style match up. If you have 2 Pokémon left for the Double Battle format, than it exactly Equals The effects of Type boosting Items, with a 20% Boost at no Drawback. So yeah, they balance moves and Abilities for VGC, the OFFICIAL Format, and I have to say, they do a damn good job with the Balancing Act that is, Competitive Pokémon!

[@Sabert0]

Bro I play vgc. They do not do a good job of balancing things lmfao. Remember last gen Zacian?

[@thefirespecialist9007]

@@Sabert0 Listen, I'm not a VGC player, I Play 6 on 6 Smogon Single's, last month is the 1st Time I decided to get on the In Game VGC Ranked Ladder, ever, and somehow, I went 7-0, the Day I tried it out. So I'm not saying I'm an expert by any means, but on Paper, it looks balanced. I don't have 2, 5, 10, 15 years of VGC experience... that's You, and Wolfe, and Aaron Cybertron, and the SeJun Park, in which Park's Pachirisu Victory was my 1st year watching VGC. All I'm saying, is on Paper, the differences and comparisons make sense! I absolutely could be wrong to some degree.

[@GeorgeDCowley]

To be fair, 200BP Last Respects could win the 1v1 at the very end.

[@Sabert0]

@@thefirespecialist9007 I mean the way I would think of it is this: Smogon bans and tiering is based on what high level players decide. In VGC it’s the clueless programmers who probably don’t play vgc often balancing the game. Doubles does allow for more room with conventionally broken mons, but that does not mean the formats aren’t as broken or more broken than smogon formats. For instance, last years double restricted format was dominated by a powerful Rynia sun core (Zacian/Groudon) until 3-4 regionals later where people finally learned how to build against it. Another good example would be the CHALK core from a while ago, but I was not playing vgc at a reasonable level at that time. There are very many overtuned pokemon constantly let into vgc, most recently I would say flutter mane and ogerpon-w (a follow me mon that has good offenses, speed, bulk, and ability??????) have been “too good” for the formats they are in. Thankfully though, this gen has introduced relatively less broken mons than most generations in vgc terms, Miridon may be broken on paper but it does have good counters in a doubles restricted metagame.

[@Sabert0]

@@GeorgeDCowley it could but being able to 1v1 a mon ≠ sweeping through a team like it could in singles before being banned

[@cgrw1]

Cheating on Showdown typically refers to ladder boosting (flooding the ladder with alts you play simultaneously to then be able to up the elo of your main account by forfeiting to it - not super common but it does happen), or exploiting a glitch in how PS has implemented a mechanic. Cheating in Smogon/Showdown tournaments usually means getting live help ingame from friends, OR tournament espionage (getting a leak of an upcoming opponent's team from someone who they consulted in the teambuilding process - which isn't considered cheating in VGC). Beyond that, most rules/clauses are auto-enforced by the PS system so can't really be done.

[@realitant]

Apparently it's good in pokemon go is the understatement of the century. Galarian stunfisk is a menace

[@Siinory]

I enjoyed this little Q&A session, if there's a new one, I do have a question for it

[@ibrahimjama5505]

It's refreshing to be part of a community where differences are celebrated rather than shunned. It fosters a culture of inclusivity.😎

[@MrMonkey2475]

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww dyna Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww gen 8 Ewwwwww gen 9

[@zs3473]

Galarian Stunfisk is the Lebron of Pokémon Go great league

[@SpecsCloud]

Me and two of my friends created a Stunfisk set to run in OU at the time Zeraora was dominate as a hilarious hard counter

[@natcole5981]

Been w ya since day 1 keep it up buddy

[@nobodysbusinezz]

cool video idea. I prefer smogon's 6v6 singles meta so I appreciate your ability to talk about both that and vgc. I like to learn about both.

[@Setyourhandle10]

yes stunfisk has been dominating in pokemon go

[@xxzmaster04xx29]

4:22 as someone who's been playing ADV OU for the last week, this was a bit weird to hear ngl. Guess that's what having a limited pool of Pokémon and a settled meta with niche options blossoming does. I'm not saying that's bad or simpler, I'm having a blast with this format

[@jonsnowisalive]

Galar stunfisk was a brilliant mon in Pokemon Go!!!! Pokemon go meta has some of the non meta from vgc as core meta 😂 GFisk, Bastiodon, Altaria, lickitung, lickilicki

[@aplezorah]

Great video idea, I'm down for more

[@SJrad]

I’ll mention that for newcomers, having someone coach you in a non-tournament battle who can only see your screen is fine. But if that person knows what move the opponent is gonna make then yeah it’s cheating

[@nickschindler193]

Great insights!!!! Thank you

[@ExHappyFace]

VGC is just AG all the time. The format chooses the upper limit, and players need to understand that limit and build counters to it. Back in Gen6 Megas were big and stuff like Mega Mawwile, the Mega Zards were big deals so teams had to build around them. Then Mega Ray and Primals entered the game so other counters showed up to those pokemon . I think Wolfie's Bronzong bring was very effective allowing to resist all three of them with support. Pokemon litterly changed Mega Kangs moveset in ORAS since power up punch mega Kang was too broken with two attack increase. In Smogon they would have banned it when it's usage was insane or had little counterplay.

[@Purlypurlington]

Rare position of being good at both* bro

[@lompass379]

Zekrom kick, I rest my case

[@Zurenza]

I think my only real complaint with the Tiering system of Pokemon is that pokemon don't fall a tier because they're bad, usually. They fall a tier because they aren't used as much as something else, and despite the fact that Pokemon has 1000 things to chose from, people only want to use what they've seen work, rather than experiment with what HAS worked and just isn't being used. There's hundreds of examples of great pokemon that are now in UU, that's good for them mostly because now they don't have to compete with what OU has become, Uber's 2.0 where if your BST isn't 600 you might as well retire. Now, tbf, this does have a bit of benefit a lot of teams in OU use UU pokemon, because like previously mentioned pokemon that were previously OU, fall here and it's not like they got worse just something else got introduced that's better. But, that doesn't stop the really awful feeling of playing against an OU team of nothing but Legendaries, Mythicals and Psuedo's and just knowing that the only way you win, is if the enemy is bad.

[@afvpegknight]

Tiers are not official. The official games have no tiers. Only unofficial communities use "tiers"

[@oscen335]

They just leave it up to people discovering the broken mon in a lower tier, it assfucking the entire tier and getting it banned, or it doesnt make any noise and just sit there. Theres not much justification to use a UU mon to deal with a OU mon if theres a OU mon that fulfills it niche and more, unless that lower tier mon is capable of fixing a specific problem on a team no OU mon can(take a look at the bellibolt rain team and the probopass team that got pretty high on OU)

[@rpg_haven]

To me Smogon has always been the "official" competitive format. 6v6 singles is what the games (and anime) are structured around. It's what people think of when they think "Pokemon". VGC is some weird spinoff.

[@IRLBRYAN]

My darkrai is waiting patiently to be used.

[@bartzbuddy]

Both Stunfisk formes kick butt in Pokemon Go's Great League. It's low Combat Power and bulk make it a nuisance to deal with unless you have a powerful ground type to counter it.

[@daxdleader719]

I used darkrai in a gen 7 ubers draft league and i loved it. Pretty sure i never used dark void though and i think i had a few opponents try to bring sleep talk vs me. My favorite set i ran was sd sucker drain punch vs a blissey team

[@Chiknoodle]

Ayyy I'm in this