Facile Furret vs Roaring Raticate

[@InciniumVGC]

Last time I was this early Venomoth was Psychic/Flying

[@kalkkar]

Thought it was a dragon/fairy

[@justsomeone3962]

​@@kalkkar Nah it's obviously rock/fire

[@Barkstopper]

Guys, Guys... Look at it, it is obviously Grass Dragon with how it resist grass moves and dies so fast to bug moves.😅

[@SilverSmith459]

Mah gooshness, y'all are so silly. It's so obviously sound/cosmic type!

[@Cumrel]

@justsomeone3926 Rock/Fire? Youre talking about its Hoennian form. Orginal one is Metal/Thunder.

[@shiro1744]

A good example of a blunder would be forgetting to castle before leaving Johto.

[@ktvx.94]

Bad luck scale: "inconvenience, misfortune, catastrophe" Good luck scale: "lucky, clutch, miracle"

[@violettheshadowfan]

I hope furret wins. little known fact, furret is actually the coolest pokemon ever, and recently won a furret only smogon tournament.

[@tsawy6]

Woah nice to see people bring interesting mons to a metagame!

[@SilverSmith459]

This is incredible. Getting to associate with a super star like Furret is unbelievable.

[@henry5274]

Lol, This gave me a good laugh when I needed one, thank you.

[@ethanthomas8131]

I happened to watch that tournament too. It was really good and REALLY close. I actually thought Furret was going to win it for a second.

[@vreeze33]

This is insane, folks.

[@Salnax]

“I’ll have a physical Normal type. And make it use STAB Return.” “Daring today aren’t we?”

[@zedruumd2119]

Other Pokemon have cleared And earned a time to be S tiered But I can walk! (They can walk!) Other Pokemon can grab More one-hit KOs with their STAB But I can walk! (They can walk!) And sure, you might expect that I might be worse But I’ll just walk slowly and boost up as I Curse And I’ll use Return to strike both hard and true And walk right back to you!

[@silver_was_found]

he walcc

[@Snowstorm174]

we walk with furret :) they are friend shaped

[@mewr11]

This may be the best KZbin comment I've ever read.

[@monopolyrubix1875]

I could not care less whether you refer to a misplay as a "mistake", "inaccuracy", or "blunder".

[@xavierHere457]

to me it feels heavily contrived, especially using the term blunder, just feels off.

[@djb1317]

I like it, it gives a difference in the types of error and they are very different

[@TheMoogleKing93]

Rollout: Hello handsome, Fury Cutter: Help human resources

[@banditrests]

Fury cutter is underrated

[@Xeraser2]

​@@banditrestsIt is now but it was underrated for a good reason. 10 base power and a type that's pretty much irrelevant. It also took way too long. Now that's it's 40 BP (and is affected by Sharpness) it can be an okay option in some cases.

[@Xeraser2]

It was a terrible option compared to rollout until its BP got raised to 40. Now it's just situational.

[@TheMoogleKing93]

@@Xeraser2 thing is because almost every trainer in this game starts with a shit pokemon you can easily build up Fury Cutter. It doesn't miss, and can keep going at higher power all fight instead of 5 times. It's actually really good against almost every gym leader amd Elite 4 member.

[@sopadumacacoumadelicia5]

​@@Xeraser2 wait, 40 BP? I thought it was 20

[@CelticGuardian7]

As a huge Furret fan, this made me so happy to see! I always kept the little guy in my parties during generation two playthroughs. It felt so good to use Surf to ruin Rock/Ground types with the fuzzball, haha.

[@SaintoftheHonest]

Im calling it now. The special end of year video is going to be a Backport, putting Regigigas into Crystal, just to see how nuts that'd be

[@MrHaze56]

Regigas vs Arceus?

[@JaharNarishma]

Did you say "Slow Start"? What do you mean "an ability"?

[@chrisstobart5775]

Or slaking, let's be honest

[@Silvitewolf]

Regigigas vs slaking vs access in crystal!

[@marcoasturias8520]

Gigas gets the punches but has slow growth rate... It'd be interesting for sure!

[@Naxhus2]

I'm not certain how I feel about the chess language. You know your demographic and how many are returning vs new, but it adds a layer of complexity that makes the videos less intuitive for a newcomer. It means the people who are going to identify with your content now need to sit in the middle of the competitive chess / old pokemon game enthusiast Venn diagram.

[@myggmastaren3365]

Fun fact: out of Furret, Raticate and Gligar one of these pokemon can't learn mud-slap, guess which one

[@SilverSmith459]

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh................ is it Furret? Or Radicate? There's no way Gamefreak wouldn't give such an obvious move to the premier ground type of Johto. (#Obvious-sarcasm-is-obvious)

[@mickgorro]

* Sad non-learner noises *

[@EnjoyGengar]

He can in gen 9 fight me bro

[@sopadumacacoumadelicia5]

Venomoth?

[@Snowstorm174]

poor gligar lol

[@lyoukeefen7199]

I feel like the chess ordinal scale is a bit unnecessary. Maybe if all of your viewers played chess it would make sense to use it, but because that isn’t the case, I think using it is just making the language less clear to people who aren’t in the know. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think your past videos have had an issue with how you describe things as good. Based on the comment you showed early in the video, it seems “great” is used for plays that are better than “excellent”. Which doesn’t feel right to me, but maybe in a broader context great is widely considered better than excellent. And if that’s not what the comment means by “Outstanding play” and it’s a different metric, then that’s a perfect example of the ambiguity this scale holds, defeating the point of using it.

[@c.m.9369]

Before watching: Raticate just seems like the better mon, when it comes to stats. Better Attack, better special attack (which Furret could use more, given its access to the elemental punchess), better speed... Furret might be a bit bulkier, since it has more HP, but Raticate even has better special defense, so it's not even a straight forward comparison there. Raticate gets early Hyperfang, which is fricken 80 base power, while Furret gets Fury Swipes. So, Raticae will definitively have an easiert time during the early game. Raticate even gets a dark type move at level 30 to hit ghosts... So yeah, I don't see much that speaks for Furret here. My guess is, they will both play similar and fairly straight forward, and Raticate will simply have an easier time. Maybe Furret can benefit from the Elemental Punches and Surf? Fire Punch against Steelix' weaker Special Defense might be better than Raticate having to use ground moves... but this won't make much of a difference. Raticate will win. After watching: Well... certainly has been a while since I got anything THIS wrong. I overestimated Raticate and seriously underestimated Furret. The fact that Furret is THIS good really caught me off-guard. I didn't consider how useful Amnesia is and how important its coverage is. I also thought Raticate would hit harder, so it could just brude force itself through the game. To be fair, it still did pretty excellent, I don't actually think I would have expected Raticate to end up higher in the ranking than it did, but I did expected Furret to do worse. Great runs, great video as usual! Keep up the good work :-)

[@thereaversden6847]

All Raticate needed is an attack boosting move that didnt inpact its speed, and the results would be about even, if not more favorable for Raticate. But that's just not to be.

[@AzureDragon158]

Love seeing Furret do so well! The cutest early route rodent deserves more love!

[@tsawy6]

I feel like the chess scale, by its nature, is a very pre-hoc sorta scale, very decision focused as opposed to results focused. Sometimes you'll see a game where 4 moves in a row are blunders from both sides, ultimately not changing the game state a ton. These moves are still bad, even if your overall outcome was still good. This does kinda fit pokemon, and i like how this accounts for how a decision is impactred by tge things that /could/ have happened

[@tsawy6]

Also Ideal is a potential alternative to the term optimal path. Optimality implies that something is an option, a possibility, but many pokemon simply can't take the ideal path!

[@fangiscool1]

This idea of results focused vs decision focused doesn't really make sense. Actions in a position are evaluated assuming best play afterwards. It wouldnt make sense in any decision making context to do anything related to what you describe as "results" driven

[@tsawy6]

@fangiscool1 mm, results based thinking is intended as a sort of fallacy consider the scenario where equipping the silk scarf improves a damage range OHKO chance from 60% to 100%. If i dont equip it, but still hit the range, its very easy to miss that this was a blunder, but it still was. Results based thinking, which we can often accidentally fall into, is not acxounting for the things that could have gone wrong but didnt. Chess analysis caring about perfect play /is/ decision based thinking, because its evaluating all the implications of a move without considering the result (e.g. the next move where they miss that you hung your queen and get mated). That chess doesnt have inbuilt luck (kinda just opponent luck) just strips away some of the obfuscations of probability and small sample size, hence why its a neat framing

[@TheMoogleKing93]

"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life."

[@iantaakalla8180]

“A saint could walk the perfect path and still be hit with misfortune… this is what it means. Calamity.” -Tooru, JoJolion

[@DwunD016]

I made it to 1:32:39. And no Scott, YOU'RE INCREDIBLE.

[@sushilbhandari4068]

Your videos are full of world building and character development. You're a good producer.

[@thedancingguy828]

The Walking pokemon vs the biting pokemon, this is going to be interesting

[@DJ-se5pl]

I almost fell asleep with the rat. I was getting frustrated watching the inconsistent pocket monster fumble around. But I did correctly guess roar would impact red when you postulated the question so I'm happy. Ty for the consist content when faced with an inconsistent rat

[@zedorian6547]

This was really fun to watch! What I’m REALLY waiting for though……is Hitmonlead vs Hitmonbad vs Hitmontop! Can’t wait for whenever it finally happens *crossing fingers*

[@T____W____7777]

Personally I didn’t like the chess terminology. I feel like creating your own nomenclature that you’re comfortable with and fits Pokémon more specifically would work out better. It would also get you to use the words more comfortably right away. And like you said there is a luck side to Pokémon that chess can’t account for. I think he should think of something on your own to make the distinctions that you think need to be made, and also have it work in the way you feel is best to explain yourself and the situation.

[@Tina_Tries]

It's Furret Friday, folks

[@VampiricFox37]

Lol I got the notification only about an hour or so ago (I'm at 30-ish minutes in) and your comment says it happened approximately a half hour ago.

[@Rubbly]

Dang, was gonna post this only to scroll down and see it hahaha

[@jongebhardt7906]

The IT crowd reference…. You had me the moment I saw the meme.

[@mr.cauliflower3536]

Rating does not care about what the opponent does, so a blunder on which the enemy does not capitalise is still a blunder.

[@vincentwerts4724]

Furret was my starter for my normal type nuzloche in Crystal, and he was one of two pokemon who survived to the end. I literally went through every encounter and had nothing left in the box in the end. Got a soft spot for the little guy.

[@MrHaze56]

Calling finale concept guesses in this chain: Scott is going to do a mega vs video between most of the Normal mon from this year with a non standard victory condition something like most improved. Somewhere around 5-6 hours long. As long long videos have been increasingly in favor of the algorithm. Another theory would be Arceus but that's more basic and I don't think he would be teasing that 3 months out

[@tamlynloell]

Furret straight walks to place 1. One of my fav Pokemon, because it's just sooooo cute

[@888Grim]

Excellent video as always =) The splits are cool, but I think I prefer the alternating style for the first play-through.

[@ajs.7363]

Another Scott classic in a clash of normal types. Loving how the content is always getting more and more in depth, these videos are the best part of my work week. Thought for the Rocket Plot line time buy portion, I'd love to have more random trivia specific to Gen 2, that might be fun to talk about something intricate or interesting from the Gen 2 games.

[@Xeraser2]

Proud of Scott for remembering Quick Attack.

[@heriticsanghieli]

Commenting partially for engagement and partially because you mentioned clarifying communication. I've never been confused by what you meant, but the only other thing I use my English degree for is my job .😝 I think that it's a bit more informative to refer to the optimal-suboptimal binary in the context of the specific pokemon and decisions allowed for it. For example, grabbing elemental punch TMs is optimal for Gengar because having them makes Gengar's time significantly better, but making a detour to grab them is suboptimal for Lugia, as it cannot learn them. Thus, the optimal play (taking some time to buy and teach TMs) gives Gengar a better time than it would have if it ignored them and is a choice the player makes. Gengar's optimal route is the one that is fastest for it. In another context, Onix cannot beat the game without additional training because it runs into mons it cannot beat at minimum battles, so its optimal route is just inherently slower. This does not mean that extra training is suboptimal, as Onix literally has no other choice if it wants a result at all. This is admittedly my two cents, but I am doing my best to base it on the amount of context that it gives the audience, as a play through of a pokemon like Onix would just have every single decision labelled as "suboptimal" by dint of its route being slower of necessity.

[@JustinSabryt]

Another great run Scott!! I’m a psychologist (not therapist though), and in our research, we deal with lots of squishy topics like blunders, so I applaud your quest to operationalize and categorize! However, for luck, that’s less squishy since their are object percentages. I think the simplest way to approach that is just to define what range you think requires a little luck, some luck, a lot of luck, and extreme luck. For instance, maybe banking on a thunder wave miss at 25% is ‘a little luck’ because it has a 25% or greater chance or of occurring. But 4 misses at .003% is extreme. For luck, from a strictly scientific standpoint, I think it matters much less what your cut offs are and instead that you consistently apply them.

[@banditrests]

Fairly certain you can cut some of the prep for Whitney by using fury cutter since you’ll already have it in your bag, you don’t need to get rollout and back track. Also, not shocked that roar came up, that’s actually a strategy in competitive Pokémon called phazing, ie pseudo haze, to force out set up Pokémon, create better matchups, rack up entry hazard damage and hilarious block trick room because it’s one stage of negative priority faster. And hey, this run also supports the theory that sometimes using theoretically sub-optimal hidden power types is actually optimal.

[@perkypenguin1663]

This was a fun matchup! It's cool seeing two Pokemon thought of as being so similar fighting in very different ways. It's especially nice seeing a normally untouched move being key to winning at the end. Now I want a Furret backport in Yellow to see how well a fast Normal type using Amnesia would do.

[@NevG27]

way to make me feel old with that intro Scott. _Windows 98 sounds playing_

[@Clawdragoons]

I think the way I would treat it: Inaccuracy: Doing something that makes a battle slower or more inconsistent, or a bit of routing that could have been better, but doesn't cost a lot of time. Mistake: Doing something which costs, or is likely to cost, a battle, but is quickly resolved Blunder: A mistake that takes a substantial amount of time to overcome. Many battles attempted and lost, or having to having to give up on a current task and go somewhere else to try something else, or which is irrepairable and a worse method must now be used. For instance, an inaccuracy might be like, picking up Swift where it's not necessary, or causing the opponent to have an opportunity to heal that could have been avoided. A mistake would be something like forgetting to restore PP for Dig, causing a reset. Or having a strategy that is too luck-dependent and causes some unnecessary resets when a better strategy is available. A blunder would be something like getting stuck in the league and being forced to black out, or using a bunch of rare candies or unlearning a move, then saving and later realizing it'd be better to have those now, or trying a strategy that just won't work over and over again.

[@LunaAlphaKretin]

As far as explaining how the AI works goes, there's a good deep dive into it at the start of pimanrules' "Scientifically Ranking All The Pokemon Crystal Trainers" video. Not saying that pre-empts you also making a video explaining it or anything, just thought it might be worth knowing about other similar work that's out there.

[@banditrests]

Good callout, he does go over all of them but doesn’t really explain the actual implications of the AI modifications in a play through, especially a solo run

[@TheMoogleKing93]

Furret is unironically fantastic in Pokemon Radical Red, bro carried me through Hardcore mode.

[@isaacwright9837]

I too was losing my god damn mind with that roar strat, i had to run it back like 3 times! Awesome video man

[@justinsims655]

We can invoke the Law of Large Numbers to at least theoretically remove the need for your luck axis, but in practice...I see your point.

[@PraefMace]

Yessss Furret! I do love that noodle, hopefully it will win the race too.

[@GhoullyXX]

Let's be honest, I think most of us were rooting for Furret on this one.

[@UltimateVegetto]

For the luck-axis, I think we could just invent adequate terminology. Say, from extremely unlucky to extremely lucky: Disastrous -> Unlucky -> Unfavorable -> Expected -> Favorable -> Lucky -> Fortunate. Fortunate seems too weak. but I can't think of a superlative for it. Blessed?

[@samrushin2476]

In the UK we might use the term “jammy” to mean someone with luck beyond what anybody thinks you deserve So maybe jammy is the right word

[@Shadowvanify]

I think Serendipitous is good for high positive luck

[@jacobgray3112]

Favorable > Fortunate > Implausible

[@Dictionary_Remix]

The fluffy scarf mon gets the top spot of the tietlist, you love to see it

[@GabeOwzer]

Huh, idk why but I never would’ve thought of Furret vs Raticate. I’m intrigued!

[@dwalin619]

What I really like about versus videos is the direct comparison of the pokemon. Without switching between them this is just 2 videos in a row. The timer is no real compensatory for me.

[@kpi0018]

If Steve sees this he gonna love what you said about Price’s pilowswine fury attack

[@robertstrommer2778]

I play chess religiously and hearing you implement their wording was akin to my two favorite things colliding

[@Ectar2003]

3:57 Is there supposed to be a 1 frame image of what appears to be the thumbnail for a 3-way normal type race in pokemon Crystal?

[@stilgen16]

Of course 😂

[@BA-xq2sk]

Furret is a ferret, which are weasels, such as mink, otters, skunks and polecats. I see a lot of people call ferrets rodents and I don't get why since rodents have those connected buck teeth incisors while ferrets have typical carnivore teeth, no hands, fur covered tail etc.

[@rojachan]

Most people aren't concerned with categories, esp taxonomic ones, and tend towards the 'lumping' strategy. Small(ish), furry, somewhere on the negative side of the generally positively/generally negatively regarded scale. Perhaps the pointed faces make people tend to put them in the same category.

[@AlexanderJamesWhite]

It blows my mind that a pokemon like furret is so good. Coming from a competive background makes me overlook so many pokemon who really thrive in the solo challange format. OU != solo challange S tier

[@ShawnChess]

Hey Scott, chess guy here. I hope this helps. Inaccuracies are like small mistakes or slight misses. You can loses a game of chess by never making a blunder or a mistake but a small series of inaccuracies can cause a loss. Inaccuracies would be a routing error, or chooses a move that will win but another move is more accurate and also wins. A mistake is far more concrete and maybe visible. Not using an either or not healing or not equipping a key item to avoid sleep. Or it can be a really bad pathing error. Think of it as something that could cause a reset or something that eats a noticeable amount of time. A blunder! I would think this as the game or run ender. A blunder is normally really really bad and either impossible to overcome or so bad that it is very very difficult to overcome. The distinction between a mistake and a blunder can be very difficult and sometimes subjective. But the general rule of thumb is mistake (is really bad but recoverable) and blunder (so bad I forever struggle to recover or cannot recover.) For example. You choose a sub optimal move and your opponent survives, he now has time to use sand attack. Would this be a blunder or a mistake? It’s a mistake. You need to stop rollout. You choose to delete Return for Headbutt for the flinch. A blunder or a mistake? A blunder. You have now made the 6th pathing error or unnecessary detours to collect items you don’t need. Would this be an inaccuracy or a mistake? Inaccuracy. (You could argue it’s 6 inaccuracy but 100 accuracies do not = a mistake 3 mistake do not = a blunder) If you found yourself confused but the system do not worry the system is subjective and you can have people argue forever if a certain play is a mistake or a blunder. If you want clarification or insight I am more than happy to help. I’m a chess guy and really have a great understanding of chess and the language that is used. I keep rewriting this and trying to make it… less, shorter, but I failed.. sorry lol

[@BloodfelX]

Since it was brought up in the video, some ideas for a GSC "bad pokemon to solo run" bingo card (would probably work best as a randomised 4x4 or 5x5): (1) has difficulty in Azalea town (Rival or Bugsy) (2) has to use Struggle at some point (3) has a reset against Pryce (or a close call?) (4) has a reset in Kanto before reaching Blue (5) relies on Hidden Power to solve coverage problems (6) depends on non-STAB moves, or its STAB move of choice is Hidden Power (7) has a scenario where they rely on landing a Critical Hit or the opponent Missing to win (8) coverage moves actually end up being worse options that result in lower damage output (9) has a reset against any member of Team Rocket (10) their attack deals a quartile or less of damage (without foe setup, e.g. Snorlax with Amnesia) (11) has to use rare candies before reaching the Elite Four (12) relies on Quick Claw to win a battle (13) has a reset against a generic trainer (non-Gym Leader, Rival, Elite Four, Champion or Rocket) (14) reset against a wild Pokemon, or has to run from a wild Pokemon to avoid being knocked out (15) relies on a chance of a status effect or stat stage modification occurring to get a win (16) relies on Rest before reaching Red (17) level rate problems (e.g. Slow, or Medium Fast in the early game) (18) has to train against wild encounters (19) no setup moves, excluding Curse (20) walled by Lance, Red or Blue (21) "I wish it learned this move" / "Why doesn't it learn this move" ; Gligar syndrome (22) goes out of its way to pick up extra rare candies that are usually skipped (23) "If X happens: Reset" (e.g. status condition, stat stage alteration, etc.) (24) "Really needs more Special Defense, unfortunately the Special boost is bugged" (25) relying on foe self-sabotage (e.g. Sunny Day before a Water type, Rain Dance before a Fire type) (26) the opponent healing is the nail in the coffin for a fight (27) "Think of where this other Pokemon was at this time" (Onix, Tyrogue, etc.) (28) has to use the Game Corner (29) choice of held item is what makes or breaks the battle, exception for Leftovers? (30) "I have never had to use/resort to this move before" (31) going out of the way for a specific item other than a Rare Candy or the Pink Ribbon (Soft Sand?) (32) runs into a problem where it has four moves it wants to keep but needs another move (33) opponent unexpectedly outspeeds (34) the solution is to learn a HM move (Surf/Cut/etc.) (35) had to request or consult others for help (especially if they agree "Yeah this sucks") (36) Seel mentioned (37) visits Sprout Tower (38) succeeds through chip damage (Toxic/Sandstorm/etc.) (39) has to over level to a point that trivialises the next segments of the game (40) "It would really help if it had access to this move it gets in another generation / Egg Move"

[@Lockirby2]

Bruno just doesn't stop critting Furret. XD Love the Roar strat!

[@paulmann8570]

Meme vs Meme, both related to some degree. This is the content we come here for. That and any time Bruno comes in to play Red.

[@sneakyfloats]

for optimizing jasmine for furret you could teach surf over ice punch so now you 2 hit steelix. If steelix uses sunny day, just fire punch. This probably wouldn't cause too many, if any long term problems because you can go straight to blackthorn city to the move deleter. Money for before probably wouldn't be a problem either

[@coreym3149]

Love that Furret is such a great speedrunner since in Nuzlocke rums it is almost always ranked in the C/D range for GSC.

[@johncalabro8710]

Hey Scott just an idea for a fun run I was thinking. A double only run of Emerald (or any other Gen 3 or 4) run with Plusle and Minun. It would change the way the AI would battle in the game and would be interesting. Plus you get to use Plusle and Minun abilities for once. Also you could use Hidden power Ice and Grass for Coverage.

[@rooislangwtf]

9:52 for anyone wondering what changed between videos

[@ampisbadatthis]

in chess terminology, a brilliant move is (most of the time) specifically a sacrifice of an important piece that only works if you play "optimally" from that point onwards, or the opponent gets baited into playing a bad move because of it. I think this would define a lucky play in these playthroughs, it only works well if you get dont miss a 90% accurate move or can flinch with headbutt for example.

[@MrMacdaddymcfly]

The Dennis commitment is inspiring

[@jacobgray3112]

28:05 The chess terminology is specific to categorize the magnitude of the error, not the magnitude of the outcome. For example if you accidently put leave your queen vulnerable to capture, but your opponent fails to capitalize, its still a blunder. I think in this instance it would still qualify as an inaccuracy, it was just punished severely in this instance.

[@parkermacinnis3977]

I would say do Fearow vs Noctowl, but it wouldn't even be close, similar to Ledian vs Ariados.

[@brycearnzen700]

Just learned that on half speed, Scott’s voice sounds almost like he’s very sleepy, or maybe drunk 😂

[@silver_was_found]

or both lol

[@matti1003]

I just clicked and haven't watched the video yet, just wanted to post that Raticate is the best and will clearly win.

[@dylanreniers3775]

Wouldn't it be good to use the charcoal you get after catching the farfetch'd, to boost the fire punch damage and ensure the 2 hit on the steelix?

[@Steve_A93]

Found my shiny Ho-Oh while watching this, wanted to make sure you received appropriate contributor credits ❤

[@SIDEWAYS255]

Just under 20 minutes in and I love the chess vocabulary. I'm thinking of incorporating the scale myself now, only it might involve more colorful language.

[@juanchirino4900]

Excellent versus video. Furret was incredible. Poor Raticate, but A tier isn't bad.

[@wesleynewcomb]

Some people may find the Crystal playthroughs kind of boring since it often becomes some combination of Return, Curse, Rest, and Protect. But for some reason, Crystal is my favorite game to see you play. Yellow and Crystal are definitely my two favorites to watch for these for the exact reason they're my least favorite to play: the jank. It's interesting to see who comes out on top when all the different strange mechanics, movepools, and trainer AI come into play. (I also love Normal types, so seeing them dominate in Crystal is very enjoyable to me.)

[@chaosryans]

I knew furret would run some numbers. It was a surprisingly good mon when you consider how easy it was to get and how early it evolves

[@Zorgdub]

3:54 A better Normal type than Ratticate? I don't think that's possible! That boy is just so fluffy and spunky. It doesn't get better than Ratticate.

[@dafsvad5517]

When I watched the live stream of aipom, I had a hypothesis that the best Pokémon in crystal might be the one that has the following stipulations. 1. Normal type for stab 2. Have Headbutt and Return 3. At least about 70 speed and attack, but whoever has the highest would do the best 4. Elemental punches, or at least ice punch for sure 5. Fast/med slow growth rate. And after looking at everyone from gens 1-2, Furret was the best that checked all those boxes. I thought that assumption was wrong since furret was the best available based on those reasons that I didn’t even comment it, but am glad to see how well it did! Hahaha

[@discgolfwes]

Let's go FURRAT!

[@piratebear3126]

When I saw the notification, I assumed that Hyper Fang and Shadow Ball would hand this to Raticate. I was absolutely not expecting Furret to walk into the S-Rank. At least both of them are cute today, so no real losers for a casual team.

[@TheAnalyticalEngine]

Scott's "try not to be frustrated at not getting a run just so" challenge, impossible difficulty

[@PoliusPlays]

I really like your use of ordinal scale terminology with how analytical your work is. But given your format, that doesn’t apply to being lucky/unlucky. The problem with including luck in anything but an extremely informal analysis is that eventually it evens out and in most cases being lucky or unlucky comes from a source of confirmation bias. Unlike the ordinal scale, where a blunder is a blunder in both the individual sense and the scale of an entire run, you can have a single fight in the early game where you’re improbably lucky and have enough bad luck afterwards to balance it out over the course of the rest of the run without even realizing it. For that reason, I think a binary terminology of lucky/unlucky is most appropriate for commentary. You just need more tens of more runs (at least) to be more specific than that, and that’s an unreasonable expectation given your impressive upload schedule.

[@ae_sko88]

For the “luck" trio, you could go with miraculous, lucky, and tragic

[@charlessegale6493]

Me, seeing that Windows 98 screen: Why do I feel grey hairs growing at the nape of my neck?

[@snomfrompokemon2496]

0:15 me who's in the 18-24 range: 👀

[@UnknownVir]

good username

[@timwin8194]

You would have loved dial up lol

[@pommyadam]

after you pick up the nevermeltice (at 48:32), do you use RockSmash, or do you walk around? and regarding the rockets for Furret (1:06:03) does Return get the one-shot? or is it still too "weak" to put on the set also Raticate2 vs Furret3 is pretty even to beat-Karen, so you're basically optimising for Lance/Red for it

[@banter8044]

Luck scale from worst luck to best luck. Jinxed, Unlucky, Unfortunate, Earned, Convenient, Lucky, Jackpot.

[@cosysnail]

When you asked what move from it's movepool would be the secret sauce for Raticate, my guess was STAB quick attack with +6 from curse. Not sure it has the range to one hit Charizard but if it did it might be even better then roar.

[@aerrae5608]

Other Pokemon have FANGS, they're big and they're powerful but I can stomp! -Furret

[@thomlee583]

Scott's thoughts. The KZbin channel for the more mature Pokemon fans

[@jkcmpbll74]

I love this. I've found out the hard way on showdown don't sleep on Furret lol

[@gms2911]

Yes. I have provided my family and friends with IT support. In fact, I work in IT so I've had to do much more

[@JakeTheHawk]

That intro was fantastic

[@TJF588]

A standing ovation to that PP spam, oh lordt.

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

47:48 youre right about that -- there are niche uses for HP fighting even the weak af one (tyrogue)

[@Apfeljunge666]

I'd argue not using the ether against morty is more like a mistake, not a blunder. My reasoning is that it doesnt add a lot of time to the run. A blunder would be something like not saving before a gym leader and losing, causing you a massive time loss. or if you face Red and have a totally wrong moveset.

[@tsawy6]

Notably we shouldn't consider results when assessing the quality of a move. Not saving against a fight is intrinsically a decision balancing time to save vs the probability of loss. Its a mistake or a blunder based off how wrong that assessment is, not how much time you happened to lose

[@andersonantunesdeleu8591]

Wow Scott! I love Furret! I can't believe how good it is! Amazing job with it! Just one curiosity, did you know that properly trained, Furret is freaking good in the battle tower! I built a great variety of teams to beat battle tower in Crystal. Few know that. But besides what you said about normal types being great in this game, Furret, beside other great normal types, is excellent in Battle tower! I could say even you made an unfair comparison between these two, but I'm just joking. The point is that Raticate isn't as good as Furret even when property trained. Anyway, in fact squirrels are smarter and stronger than rats, after all.

[@aaronquint3124]

@23:23 during your fight against the Steelix that was healed with a Hyper Potion, you could have switched to dig? It wouldn't have been as powerful, but you wouldn't have had to risk a reset because of move order.

[@bestbigbros1102]

Scott I’m curious! With the setup from curse on red, would quick attack be strong enough to one shot his team?

[@PokeMaster22222]

I dunno why, but I've long had a soft spot for Furret. I just find him cute and rather overlooked for a Normal-type. Sure, he's no Diggersby (with added STAB Ground and Huge Power as his Hidden Ability), but he's still got a decently good physical movepool and decent stats for a HeartGold playthrough.

[@deadluke13]

I played Silver with just Rattata. It was actually really fun, and the little guy (Gus Gus) absolutely destroyed the game.

[@khawk9958]

Is there any timing (when setting up) where you can hit the Snorlax to bring it into low health- buying a few turns where it is using rest/snore rather than body slam? I wonder if that would improve the consistency of setting up.

[@ferchitocontri]

FINALLY FURRET RUN!!!!!!! FURRET IS THE BEST furret for the win!!!!!!!!!

[@androidboyd]

When you're doing the calculations to determine the advantage of extra training, are you factoring in the extra EVs you pick up from that extra training? I'm not disagreeing with the ultimate conclusion you draw, that Raticate is inconsistent unless overleveled heavily, but I do wonder if there might be a sweet spot somewhere (if not with Raticate, but with something else in the future).