Sandshrew is the Best Pokemon in a format where you try to lose. Here's Why.

The Loser's Game
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[@randomnessrules4971]

"Should I make this weird metagame?" "Sure, knock yourself out."

[@Laezar1]

nice

[@firemanking3271]

This comment is so good I could faint

[@cranapple3367]

Familyguyhaha.mp4

[@enigwa3286]

LOL it's hilarious to see this. I'm Adrian Marin, the creator of 'Suicide Cup' (later called The Loser's Game). I'm proud to have created such a cursed metagame 😂

[@isaachiltyhilty6804]

​@@enigwa3286 not trying to be that guy but how are we supposed to believe you?

[@Almond19912]

Even in the intentionally losing category, Calyrex-S is too OP

[@AndrewDevourer]

god i hate that stupid horse

[@leaDR356]

Just goes to show how strong the Horse council members are

[@misalignedmisanthropist]

​@@leaDR356Calyrex-S is a fraud, he can't even learn High Horsepower

[@sidhaarthnair8368]

​@@leaDR356he doesn't learn High horsepower so should he be considered in horse council?

[@RoninofCrimsonMaple]

I still stand by that Grim Neigh is close enough to maintain its status as a horse.​@@sidhaarthnair8368

[@essentures]

So I was not bad at Pokémon, I was just playing the wrong format

[@ioioi_prx4639]

I'd be a millionaire if I got 100$ after losing

[@nellewoodruff6337]

@@essentures Cue that one gen 5 preschooler quote about changing perspective

[@tonydai782]

@@ioioi_prx4639 But then everyone else would just start losing more than you, so you’d still end up broke.

[@sunny3545]

You'd still lose (by winning)

[@CM_684]

@@nellewoodruff6337 change your perspective and the reality changes.

[@JaxOf7]

"I fainted, making me the victor." "I must apologize for Sandshrew-Alola. He is an idiot. We purposely trained him wrong, as a joke."

[@TheInfiniteAmo]

Quote that film, if you're so great!

[@miniyodadude6604]

​@@TheInfiniteAmoKung pow enter the fist

[@Gonshotbarz]

Well you have to consider this freezaifaggot considers random battles as competitive just off the fact it has high traffic.. when it's just a bunch of randoms and scrubs not much better than him queuing constantly rolling the dice and hoping the odds are stacked enough against their opponent to make them feel as if they've done something skillful or accomplishment worthy. Way too insecure and full of themselves to teambuild and go thru trial and error gotta just pretend being given under leveled pokemon with weird useless sets is peak competitive play...

[@nileprimewastaken]

"not only is he a moron, he's the product of the greatest minds of a generation working together explicitly to create the stupidest moron to ever exist"

[@MezzoForte4]

Betty approves. 👍

[@werh227]

Playing Loser's Game to feel like I'm winning by not using loser strategies and oneshotting everything

[@isaacsimpson8098]

It would be pretty fun to see a bottom ladder full of people just doing this lol, playing losers game but both trying to win

[@woomyboy98]

@@isaacsimpson8098 technically they would be the true losers by losing at winning by winning which is losing

[@isaacsimpson8098]

@@woomyboy98 yes

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

This Broke: Playing Loser's Game to lose, thus winning Woke: Playing Loser's game to win, thus losing Bespoke: Ignoring the conditions of Losers game, and playing it to boost your ego or pull off combos that are too inconsistent to use otherwise, but really cool to pull off Ascended: Funbro in Loser's Game

[@jrodd13]

​@@aprinnyonbreak1290 Funbro in losers game is just flat out evil 😂

[@plhbuschannel]

Fun Fact: In gen 7, Skill Swap Magic Guard is actually banned because people start running offensive alakazam to kill 5 pokemon and then skill swap magic guard and the opponent literally cannot die with heal pulse support

[@olivergro7105]

Well shouldn't they have banned recycle leppa berry instead? :I

[@irakyl]

The fact that you straight up win if you stop just 1 of your opponent's pokemon from dying is what makes this so interesting, for the tourney I was trying to see if I could make it an actual legit playstyle like steel beam and court change but it's too inconsistent. Realizing that you can intentionally faint their problematic pokemon so the final one is exploitable was a eureka moment, but it still wasn't enough.

[@FurryCombatWombat]

Fun fact: as the guy in the video that did this strat, it does *not* stop the hp cut from Curse :/

[@ViciadoSocialempires]

LMAO

[@The_Red_Scare]

What if the opponent had something like Mold Breaker which ignored abilities? Would Mold Breaker on the Alakazam prevent Magic Guard from forcing the opponent to live? And yes, I know they could just switch pokemon, but I'm asking if receiving an ability that ignores other abilities would override the strat if you couldn't switch pokemon for whatever reason.

[@VerbalLearning]

When you try to escape Calyrex Shadowrider by playing The Loser's Game. Calyrex Shadowrider: Nah i'd lose.

[@muishaggyblanco2349]

Finally… black sludge bisharp is its optimal set

[@AMereFool]

The CTC foresight be shiesty.

[@chavonjames8941]

Sticky Barb *Our battle WILL BE LEGENDARY!*

[@500werewolf]

Praise the almighty Calyrex-S! Even when it loses, it still wins.

[@PatrickArcato]

I really can't like that pokemon, first it doesn't even look like one, second it's designed by 12 year old stoner, way too strong

[@SeaOfPixels]

@@PatrickArcato What seems to be happening is that Gamefreak makes sure to make the latest generation's main important Pokemon blatantly overpowered, so that they stand out in the generation. Sometimes they'll nerf them the next generation so that they don't overshadow the new important Pokemon (Zacian). Seems like they're trying to avoid another Reshiram/Zekrom situation?

[@500werewolf]

@PatrickArcato Agreed, and the fact that the overpowered DLC 'mons from Sword & Shield didn't get nerfed is extremely concerning for where their priorities lie. (Clearly, it's money over game balance.)

[@RiderOfPeppers]

​@@SeaOfPixelswhat happened with reshiramand zekrom?

[@SeaOfPixels]

@@RiderOfPeppers Neither were very good in their debut generation, and are even worse now.

[@aldrichunfaithful3589]

a few ppl here were talking about endless battles, and it gave me a funny idea for a format which would basically be a race to trigger an endless battle. whoever gets their opponent stuck first wins

[@GGreenHeart]

This would be such a blast!! Shame it would be literally impossible to build a computer to recognize a win 😅 But human refs in a tournament could work!

[@aldrichunfaithful3589]

@@GGreenHeart i don't think it's too hard tbh. every endless trapper has to have recycle, heal pulse and a leppa berry, so once you get it going a computer could probably recognise that. the only cringe part would be people denying the loss with timer stall which already happens lol. also now that i'm thinking about it all the trappers would have to click a very telegraphed move that you'd switch out of to trap you, so the game would likely be about killing 5 mons to trap the last which would be pretty boring

[@FlygonkingVGC]

Everyone would just run alolan exxeguttor with leppa berry and sunny day

[@aedd3307]

​@@aldrichunfaithful3589trying to solve the halting problem

[@Aaa-vp6ug]

@@aldrichunfaithful3589make it so there’s a turn timer akin to speed chess, if you take too long, you lose by default.

[@brunoemf90]

I was waiting to hear Freezai do an 180 on his catchphrase “People play to win” when talking about tiers

[@meadnex331]

Hey freeze sauce, ai here. People play to win...but what if they didn't?

[@candlecord]

​​@@meadnex331 *synth sound followed by drum beat*

[@fabian6087]

The stealth rock strategy should be called 'Self-Rock'.

[@zdelrod829]

Heal Pulse is insane in this format. Also, I didn't know Perish Song could be Baton Passed.

[@firewall5189]

pokerogue taught me the hard way 😔

[@sometijng]

​@@firewall5189 my reaction when that mf pulls out a spiritomb against my gator (its totover):

[@zaleww5824]

All changes except status passes to pokemon

[@vyor8837]

I'm surprised no one used Trick with Leftovers to disrupt things

[@sup3760]

the format where tera ice is strong is the one where you want to lose, thats pretty funny

[@PotatoPrem]

tera ice is strong in normal format too bozo. Bolt-beam regieleki, jolteon, etc

[@jebalitabb8228]

@@PotatoPremno one uses those pokemon tho lmfao

[@twilightsilver6230]

​@jebalitabb8228 a lot of pokemon run Tera Ice offensively in OU, the main examples being Kyurem and Weavile. UU pokemon can run them as well, for example Sandy Shocks, Mamoswine, and famously the Tera Ice Tera Blast Hydrapple Stall that was common on the OU ladder a few months ago.

[@Gonshotbarz]

Well you have to consider this freezaifaggot considers random battles as competitive just off the fact it has high traffic.. when it's just a bunch of randoms and scrubs not much better than him queuing constantly rolling the dice and hoping the odds are stacked enough against their opponent to make them feel as if they've done something skillful or accomplishment worthy. Way too insecure and full of themselves to teambuild and go thru trial and error gotta just pretend being given under leveled pokemon with weird useless sets is peak competitive play...

[@SmugLookingBarrel]

I remember trying to make a team around intentionally forcing the Endless Battle Clause game loss, where I would use Block, Fling a Leppa Berry and then Recycle it. Was disappointed when that didn't win me the game.

[@Emilia-_.]

what is endless battle clause?

[@electrolapse7098]

@@Emilia-_.Endless battle clause is a clause that bans people from using specific moves that can create an endless battle, like using leppa Berry, fling and recycle. The idea of that is that nobody will run out of pp because the leppa berry will activate. It’s kind of hard to explain in one comment, but Freezai has a good video on it

[@Skullhawk13]

@@electrolapse7098why don’t they just ban leppa berry straight up?

[@rainbowthedragoncat6768]

​@@Skullhawk13 bc you might want to use it for non endless battle purposes

[@Skullhawk13]

@@rainbowthedragoncat6768 any examples?

[@razorshell3049]

"Loser's Game" nah nah nah the OG Name is the "Suicide Cup".

[@VixstraLarge]

Ah yes, the chalice laced with cyanide

[@zdelrod829]

​@@VixstraLargeBoeing Whistleblower Bash.

[@lorekeeper685]

​@@zdelrod829 Like the guy from enumclaw?

[@zdelrod829]

@@lorekeeper685 not that one. The one that was supposed to testify.

[@lorekeeper685]

@@zdelrod829 you mean the recent two

[@FriendlyNeighborhoodLamia]

It’s fascinating that a niche metagame like losing on purpose can have such depth

[@michabaron4129]

I like the deep dive into an obscure metagame and it was fun trying to come up with my own ideas about the format before learning the truth (i figured out SR court swap yay) but it would he nice to hear a smidge more about the final tournament match than "one guy lost other didnt" lol

[@austinish]

I imagine he didn't elaborate because the format seems a bit boring outside of the concept. The meta strategy says it all: you spam steel beam. The actual strategic bits were explained, but the rest was "player one clicked steel beam, player two clicked switch" for the majority of the battle. Doesn't seem like there's all that much to explain.

[@Gonshotbarz]

Well you have to consider this freezaifaggot considers random battles as competitive just off the fact it has high traffic.. when it's just a bunch of randoms and scrubs not much better than him queuing constantly rolling the dice and hoping the odds are stacked enough against their opponent to make them feel as if they've done something skillful or accomplishment worthy. Way too insecure and full of themselves to teambuild and go thru trial and error gotta just pretend being given under leveled pokemon with weird useless sets is peak competitive play...

[@gengarisnotinsmash...]

Obligatory "Finally, a format I'm good at!" comment.

[@cryochick9044]

Im surprised torment isn't used. They wanna steel beam spam? They can't use it twice in a row

[@underrated1524]

Too slow

[@warmwater9509]

hear me out on a new tournament format: loser's game, expect that every other battle in the tournament, including the finals, is won by winning, ie making the opponent lose all 6 pokemon. It would be interesting to see teambuilding that's both good at fainting and killing

[@nickg5341]

bro is cooking with gas

[@biospark4758]

I wonder if Pain Split would have a niche here. Run disruption tactics while your opponent is lowering their own HP and then equalize both your health bars

[@Gonshotbarz]

Well you have to consider this freezaifaggot considers random battles as competitive just off the fact it has high traffic.. when it's just a bunch of randoms and scrubs not much better than him queuing constantly rolling the dice and hoping the odds are stacked enough against their opponent to make them feel as if they've done something skillful or accomplishment worthy. Way too insecure and full of themselves to teambuild and go thru trial and error gotta just pretend being given under leveled pokemon with weird useless sets is peak competitive play...

[@FlygonkingVGC]

A great way to block steel beam is grassy terrain because they need to do one more steel beam so u can use one more alolan vulpix thanks wood hammer toxic orb grookey

[@zachpro5475]

Funny uploaded after the meta game was unlisted for latter

[@JavierGomez-px8xh]

Black sludge bisharp is about to cook↕️↔️

[@inferno7892]

It was truly ahead of its time

[@tomorchard6660]

Agency intelligence knew

[@raywt]

aww alolan sandshrew is one of my favorite pokemon.. i'm so proud seeing it be the best, even if it's just the best at being the worst

[@noxiousroxie]

I didn’t expect the perish song + Baton LOL

[@gregorymirabella1423]

I thought Sandshrew only became steel type after it evolved, I guess I had it mixed up with Vulpix.

[@Iris_Descent]

10:39 Oh, this is actually implemented wrong here. Steel Beam doesn't do any damage to the user if the move fails due to there being no target.

[@davidknopp1208]

OGs remember when it was called Suicide Cup

[@kemosonicfan123lbp]

This is like that one chess variant except there's enough layers to it that it's not solved

[@Generichoneydew]

"comment on the video too, thats an order" ON IT BOSS

[@nowelltheowl5619]

Even when the objective is to lose, Stealth Rocks finds a way to be a core strategy.

[@TheRageBaiter]

It sucks that this is a challengeable OM and not an other metagame with a ladder

[@DIOderent]

i just found out about it this year, but it used to have a ladder. not sure when they got rid of the ladder for it though

[@axr1798]

At first I thought that the whole format was going to be about gholdengo and damp pokemon like golduck, but there's a surprising amount of depth, this could actually be an official ruleset.

[@Edujs23]

My mental cook was using Cinderace, a stealth rock mon, and 4 pokémon 4x weak to rock The stealth rock mon uses it, Cinder court change it, and then you just switch your mons arround The rock mon would need a way to ko itself tho

[@sarraceniafell]

found the one who didnt finish the video before commenting

[@ohandthefracking]

@@sarraceniafell LMFAO GAG THEM FOR ME

[@leandro-eo7bd]

watch the vid until the end

[@nellewoodruff6337]

My mental cook is rocky helmet, trick, contact multihit turbo. Also could pain split be good?

[@tardigrade8019]

​@@nellewoodruff6337I also feel like truck leftovers could do something

[@almightymudkip3856]

Can’t wait to try Jumpkick recoil strats

[@therealx2907]

This format is just a full on comedy show on my little friend Sandshrew-A

[@jpmac1119]

Playing in this was such a blast! Hope for more weird gimmick events like this in the future

[@NagKai_G]

It was fun playing this tournament and format. I didn't even think about black sludge strats, so i lost on the second game, but i used a stealth rocks comp (although it was very poorly made as i created the team minutes before the tournament) with shadow tag gothita to lock a mon that couldn't easily die by itself after i set up stealth rocks and heal pulse + taunt till gothita dies. Very poorly explained but at least i won 2/3 games (1 win in tournament and another in post tournament game)

[@Gonshotbarz]

Well you have to consider this freezaifaggot considers random battles as competitive just off the fact it has high traffic.. when it's just a bunch of randoms and scrubs not much better than him queuing constantly rolling the dice and hoping the odds are stacked enough against their opponent to make them feel as if they've done something skillful or accomplishment worthy. Way too insecure and full of themselves to teambuild and go thru trial and error gotta just pretend being given under leveled pokemon with weird useless sets is peak competitive play...

[@agisuru]

I'd like to point out that Knock Off's item removal is still relevant in this meta, and Tera Ghost, in addition to the curse thing, has the more niche interaction of making you weak to Knock Off, potentially getting you KOd faster.

[@thecornmaker849]

You love to see electrode winning

[@nickhelmer]

Hi Jump Kick seems like the anti Calyrex tech. Also I imagine Trick + Leftovers would be interesting countermeta

[@majorhoolahan]

I never thought I'd hear about a metagame so fundamentally hilarious.

[@Gonshotbarz]

Well you have to consider this freezaifaggot considers random battles as competitive just off the fact it has high traffic.. when it's just a bunch of randoms and scrubs not much better than him queuing constantly rolling the dice and hoping the odds are stacked enough against their opponent to make them feel as if they've done something skillful or accomplishment worthy. Way too insecure and full of themselves to teambuild and go thru trial and error gotta just pretend being given under leveled pokemon with weird useless sets is peak competitive play...

[@diduoup7407]

Pretty proud of myself for thinking about the stealth rock court change beford you mentioned it

[@Undergroundrising-c4j]

Black sludge sheninja is peak Paul mentality.

[@blueice7906]

This is the single most funny pokemon video and I’m in suprised I never heard

[@Ufo3208_]

Dude I had so much fun in this tournament, but sadly lost to the guy who ended up winning the whole thing by me throwing a little bit 😅

[@Yas-gu1pj]

İ feel like this video should have been a freezai live video

[@luislaracuente]

This is fun and creative!

[@slushbucket707]

finally a metagame where my goat Klefki is good

[@PatJamma]

I would have lost horribly because my first thought was Dry Skin in the sun

[@aquageist]

I imagine if self destructs were allowed, you'd have people using some Damp pokemon to counter it.

[@E4439Qv5]

Quagsire meta is back...

[@Siinory]

FINALLY!! A category for me! 8D

[@Gonshotbarz]

Nah this is freezais for sure. You and anyone else are way beyond winners over this scrub lord

[@emilygordbort7300]

I was instructed by Freezai's discord to watch and comment

[@FishGamingReal]

Cant wait for the day Freezai popularizes Balanced Hackmons and I can say I was there "before it was cool"

[@meguy7735]

This is awesome

[@timskrobot4025]

I'm surprised I didn't hear about the move False Swipe or the Sticky Barb item. If you're forced to attack, false swipe would be a good option and Sticky Barb would be good if there are restrictions on items like Black Sludge.

[@baumina1706]

if youre forced to attack, snore always fails (except for a few nice scenarios)

[@lilfrogman0395]

I'm surprised pain split isn't used bc if you use it on a low hp mon you heal them while you drop. Especially if at full hp idk might be a sleeper pick

[@Zorin1]

Still interesting to see the sweaty strats in a meme format

[@dinoooooom]

On the topic of weird strats, would wonder skin be optimal in that format? Being able to mess with heal pulse/taunt acc could be intresting to watch. Venomoth isnt great, but it gets sleep powder, baton pass and disable, so maybe?

[@Flygoniaks]

For those who just want the answer to the title: Alolan Sandshrew is so good in this format because it has the lowest Special Attack of any Pokémon that can learn Steel Beam. Since Steel Beam does recoil damage equal to half the user's max HP, it's a staple in this format, and Sandshrew can ensure that you don't kill your opponents faster than yourself.

[@DiegoG2004]

How am i not shocked that even losing is hyper optimized to basically one strategy

[@LRXC1]

Great video!

[@zEr-ne5ri]

When first hearing in this intro I thought I was having a stroke.

[@et34t34fdf]

This is hilarious.

[@TTLunar]

Yo waddup here for support

[@justme14357]

Sounds fun

[@byrontheusurper6505]

You can baton pass perish song!? That's CRAZY!

[@elvenatheart982]

Bro this is super funny😂

[@leaDR356]

My awful plays will make me win (lose) in this game too 💀

[@gravityvertigo13579]

Finally... The time of Sandshrew is at hand...

[@user-yu8vu9xu5n]

great video

[@sagacious03]

Another neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading! Although, this meta sounds a little centralized, no?

[@Arcanine1995]

'free' and 'doesn't cost anything' mean the same thing

[@Blanktester685]

incorrect

[@ShinyCyndaquil3]

@@Blanktester685please elaborate

[@jqvy]

L take

[@imapaincake2305]

You have free space on your phone You have "doesn't cost anything" space in your phone. It wouldn't cost you anything to do more chores!! It would be free to you to do more chores!!

[@ShinyCyndaquil3]

@@imapaincake2305 I understand what you mean but in this context wouldn’t it just be a case of one word having multiple meanings.

[@EnergyBurst2]

Actually, the first thing I thought about before even explosion spam was Ghost type Curse spam since that move halves the user's HP, but then again I've never checked how many ghost type lines get the move aside from the Gengar line so there might not be enough to make that completely viable. Edit: after checking I can confirm there are more than 6 ghost type lines that get Curse

[@VooshSpokesman]

Love from a Pchal and Vaush fan!

[@kentern7518]

Finally, a category i can excel in

[@PrivateUser1667]

I have never heard Steel Beam so much in my Life

[@GeorgMaUlWurf]

the perish song baton pass lmao

[@FunniClapboard]

Electrode with self-destruct 💀

[@DoggyP00]

baton passing perish song is so funny

[@analoghabits9217]

another ruleset could be your opponent uses the team you bring

[@Giga-lemesh]

Very interesting

[@benjamincooper358]

Doesn’t work for Steel Beam but considering the amount of Chloroblast around, is Sap Sipper viable?

[@Timeflow_X]

I've actually been hoping someone would cover the loser's game so much because I don't have a good handle on the meta just from the forums

[@ktvx.94]

Even when you're trying to lose, fairies are still top tier

[@MetroNomicon777]

This is such a silly, yet interesting format.

[@byrontheusurper6505]

What an awesome format

[@Brandon_Hardie]

FINALLY A W FOR MY BOY ALOLAN SANDSHREW

[@ashtonoak4370]

i guess because id never do it, but never knew baton pass could pass perish song till now, and i now also see how i blew one of my pokerouge runs as i didnt know HOW perish song killed me after i baton passed out

[@ashross5860]

Kinda want to see a primary flying/grassy terrain combo being used to losing game equivalent of sand/hail chip

[@ashtonoak4370]

id use a mons magic bounce to give my own side hazards

[@BasketChase98]

I used to use Steel Beam klefki as a screens setter with prankster back in gen 8 OU. I’d set up screens and then use the recoil to knock myself out for the free switch in.

[@the_machinery7800]

Your Pokémon should already be tanky enough with screens and you won’t be able to set them back up later. Steel beam klefki is a gimmick. A pretty bad one to.

[@sloowbroo]

Me when Freezai tells me to comment on his video (its an order)

[@vanesslifeygo]

it is just as difficult to intentional lose at rock paper scissors as it is to win. pokemon is rock paper scissors gone out of control. here we are again.

[@esrohm6460]

i wonder if you could make a stall team in this so that you can stall out your opponents ways to die and when they start to struggle is that recoil slower than whatever other method you use. or if we want to be funky try to get a last pokemon scenario and then get on that pokemon normalize while having a ghost team/terra ghost.

[@untossablesalad4423]

Could you make a playlist with videos of yours that are like this? :)

[@tylerbrown9631]

I imagine switcharoo/trick with leftovers or some berry would be good.

[@jonathanclement8770]

Going into this format and then playing to defeat all 6 as fast as possible

[@3liasBlue]

2:37 “fanum tax evader”

[@Zoroarkarceus123]

Mime Jr. would probably be a nice niche pick if it was available, because it can get Soundproof and Skill Swap and do what Clefable does but for Perish Song users. Plus, it's weak to Steel Beam, so hey