How GOOD was Empoleon ACTUALLY? - History of Empoleon in Competitive Pokemon (Gens 4-7)

what's up everyone after the mega fan-favorite Infernape finally came to light another cinahl's starter is up to bat and this time we have Empoli on its first stage Piplup was popular and adorable especially alongside dawn in the anime although it did all in its power to not evolve just like most of the main characters pokemon and thus its final evolution that is our topic today was wielded by berry instead but as far as the competitive scene goes don't take an us leaf out of Berry's book because spoiler alert hyperbeam Empoleon is not good however we'd like to know if Empoleon was good itself and as such we pose the question how good was Empoleon actually and in this video we'll be going over these competitive formats Infernape may have ruled the tier in their debut generation but it's fellow starter wasn't too shabby either as a matter of fact it was pretty excellent as the only water Steele in the entire game it was blessed with several unique advantages over its fellow water types but of course it had disadvantages to most waters aren't weak to ground or fighting nor are they neutral to fire so it was not going to perform the same way as more traditional waters would instead it would use its unique advantages no other water possesses all three of a stealth rock resistance and the sandstorm and a toxic spikes immunity and until Ferrothorn came along in the next generation it was the only Pokemon besides two didja to resist kingdra stats and pollie onset is largely defined by the one that fixes its meddling speed and turns it into a threat capable of blowing by and blowing away a huge amount of pokemons agility the traditional set is a substitute variant with retire berry originating in the days of latias and Solomon's when sizzurp was the number one Pokemon in usage picking off everything with its powerful technician boosted choice ban bullet punch and Poli unused its quadruple steel resistance to avoid the most common form of revenge killing not even coming close to having a substitute broken while drowning everything in his path would torrent and a pattaya boosted water stat now it did have to choose between ice beam and grass which was a tough call since latias and suicune were both common presences but luckily even if it didn't have the right one many Pokemon would simply drop through the sheer power of hydro pump for example even if running grass not once fully set up and polio would just simply drop Salomon's and since it was also easy for it to set up on latias it wasn't too hard for it to destroy many teams now it did have the issue of modest versus timid as timid would allow it to outrun choice scarf Rotom appliances but the power drought was significant timid also still wouldn't get past choice scarf Lygon and Jirachi so some intelligent players outmaneuvered this by setting and pulley on up on an outrage locked fly gun which would let it get to Agility's it was especially effective at doing this because despite its effectiveness and paulien is still difficult to predict and an unrevealed variant strikes terror in the heart of the opponent late-game especially since it has so many places to set up choice scarf Rotom appliances check it well they also might have to lock into Shadow Ball or hydro pump and suddenly they have to run from it however defensively the set still struggled against bliss and Vaporeon which is why it fits so well on toxic spikes on fence teams alternatively pokémon like magma storm heat rent or explosion Gengar also helped to lure those to another set that became popular after Empoleon had established itself in the Platinum meta game was the lead variant with the popularity of a zelf Aerodactyl Metagross and Swampert leads and polio was able to destroy them all finishing the former 2 off at 1 hp with Aquajet slaughtering Swampert with Grass Knot and against meta girls it would survive an earthquake while setting up stealth rock and remaining out of bullet plunge range thanks to his terrific quad resistance and unleashing a torrent boosted hydro pump that Metagross stood no chance at surviving which Appleberry it would also face no trouble against fake-out Infernape leads and what survives super power from mixed Dragonite leads that became popular upon the release of HeartGold and SoulSilver it unfortunately couldn't fit love berry so it didn't do too well against rosa raid although it definitely wasn't too bad as it could try to wake up instead of stealth rock as rosa raid set of talks is place since it wasn't immediately threatened by it and the proliferation of later leads such as Machamp and Zapdos was difficult for Empoleon to deal with however any experienced DPP player can tell you about how terrifying it is to face the standard lead set it also eventually start chewing stealth rock for an all-out attacking set approach while holding focus s and since lead inferno was becoming weaker and weaker with bulky star V becoming incredibly commonplace this let Empoleon kills apples and Dragonite and get a huge leg up on opposing offensive teams without its own team having to go without stealth rock for the rest of the game eventually some players eschewed substitute on agility sets so in Poland to reap the benefits of having both ice beam and Grass Knot and since there was no point in running for tire berry if it couldn't be easily activated via substitute sugarberry became the item of choice giving him poli on another weapon to blow past the ever common choice scarf like on this also gave it defensive utility and holding off earthquakes from common dragon dancers which was incredibly useful given its resistance to their steps some players even appreciated it polio as defensive utility which you could bury so much they utilize offensive defensive sets with it that could set up stealth rock and take a key hit or two which could be the difference between a win and a loss before roaring the aggressor out while still not doing too badly on the offensive side and with how terrifying Kings Rose various sets proved to be as well as the known terror of the dragon dancers that was a useful role overall Empoleon was a huge part of DPP / used consistently utilized by top players over the years to bowl over the competition now for Gen 4 VG C that's right we actually did find one notable placing for Empoleon in VG c 2009 the player omega donut used a highly unorthodox iron defense set with rest and chest O'Berry that had defensive utility and could in a pinch try and stall opponents out as a last-ditch strategy he rode his team with this unusual beast to a runner-up placement at the nashville regionals now emporium wasn't exactly Cresselia tier at VGC but had the format existed longer perhaps more use would have been found for it but unfortunately much like a lot of VG c 2009 not a lot of it was recorded so we can't really say much as to what Empoleon state and the overall meta game was but luckily Omega Dona has left a little bit of info behind on what his Empoleon was supposed to do which it was apparently meant to take on both Metagross and Snorlax who were really popular at the time via tanking it with an insane amount of defense so yeah props to Omega Dona for using it now odd - the weather generation Ferrothorn came into being in the fitt gender and unfortunately for Empoleon it is the most perfect Empoleon counter one could have asked for it with how amazing and ubiquitous Ferrothorn was as well as its partner in crime Jellison other checks like watertight Rotom wash and the fact that Pattaya Barry was unreleased and polios usage predictably dropped team preview revealing it was also a major hit however it did make a few minor appearances in black and white - after Pattaya berry was released and people realized it was even more nuclear with permanent range support its power was jacked up even higher thanks to Celebi the specially defensive set of Celebi was a staple in the metagame and over time people realized it could kind of run whatever said it wanted so this caused players to experiment with baton passing nasty plots and alongside agility thunderous Tyrion and choice scarf Keldeo and Poli on was possibly the scariest beneficiary of this as it would drown just about everything in the tier after a boost it could choose between sub Pattaya to reach dizzying levels of power or the three attacks set to cut through the popular Jellison and gastro Don now it wasn't unstoppable face of faster choice Carver's like Garchomp and Cal do as well as Braille looms mach punch or pokémon like Skarmory and word here and that made pulling a pass off in the first place difficult but enough teams were helpless against the strategy that the impact was felt on by the meta even if it didn't last now as far as tears goes and Poe Leon is underused and in undies its usage was rare if niche didn't offer enough to let it truly compete with the plethora of other tremendous waters in the tier its agility sets were fine and in fact source dance was surprisingly vicious when wielded by a few brave players but it was a rare sight it wasn't bad it just didn't stand out and thus it was quite uncommon at the highest level of tournament play even in under use now for Gen 5 VGC and Poe Leon did have a small niche using it's auspicious typing to stand in the way of strong water and Dragon types which allowed it to do things like spread burns and slow foes down with icy wind it could even target its so-called best counter Ferrothorn as well as hard counter e sizzler with hidden power fire earthquake beam spread damage means is much easier to survive and it's bulky enough to survive even fighting gem close combats from hitmontop with chapel berry also in VGC 2013 it got the ability to fiant which theoretically could help it give Intimidators a bad time this underrated threat was seen on Dewey Haws team that he used to reach top 4 of the San Jose regionals and runner of the Utah regionals however these placements were the only placements we could find of this time so we could probably surmise that overall it just wasn't a common Pokemon but do we definitely got a ton of useful mileage out of it at the very least now on to Gen 6 at this point in Polian was entirely relegated to underneath its bread-and-butter set was especially defensive stealth rocker although it could also make good use of the newly buff to fog sometimes on the same set that could hold off dangerous special threats such as kyurem high dragon whimsicott and suicune it even had easy entry on the fantastic new fairy types such as sylveon and florges and it also paired well with them appreciating their fighting resistance these fairies were also important because they carried heal bail and in mid paced games and poliana often found itself getting into scald wars with ten accruals suicune and opposing Empoleon these birds could be game-changing and thus having the option to get rid of them would be similarly important and could provide an incredibly useful edge which support also made up for Empoleon his lack of a recovery move and it could easily switch in on steel employees in attacks aimed at the fairies and poe Leon's utility offensive sets were rarer since they were less easy to put on a team and use but they were quite effective nonetheless the surprise factor gave its already powerful attacks even more oomph behind them and really stuck it's a common Pokemon like hi dragon that thought they were safe against a weak defensive variant and of course its many resistances allowed it to pull off of the fog as well this gave a utility even if there was a hard wall on the other team such as Blissey or an opposing Empoleon it even ranch kookaburra to shrug off hits from the bountiful ground types in the tier like Mamoswine crook eval and mega Swampert agility sets were pretty difficult to pull off with the amount of good defensive checks Empoleon had so it generally stuck to those to the defensive set especially was a truly integral part of underuse carving out a significant niche in the tier whose presidents had to be accounted for by any player who wanted their team to be successful and as for Gen 6 VGC not being in the Kalos pokedex in 2014 and not having any discernible use in the over year of 2016 and polian only had one year to try and pull something off which was 2015 and we only found one notable placement in this year of VGC which was a top eight appearance at the Massachusetts regionals in the senior division used by Jake Rosen now given this extraordinarily sparse usage is difficult to surmise what it was meant to do but it's probably reasonable to assume it was similar to it generation 5 appearances which was a bulky strong attacker with some nice resistances however it wasn't exactly anywhere near the ballpark of having a significant niche in the meta well it congrats to Jake for gaining top a with Empoleon now finally sun and moon finding itself an underused once again in the 7 generation and poli on useless resistances and bulk once more to carve out the same solid specially defensive niche just like the one in the generation prior although this time around it was a lot more likely to use knockoff protect and roar the former to having to do with Z moves as knockoff could give away a potential Z crystal while a well-timed protect could soften the impact of an otherwise devastating Z move however since it requires scold and also wants toxic stealth rock and the fog it's easy to see how it could be frustrating to not be able to fit all of those terrific tools it was a great Pokemon once again however and was one of the reasons that latias who was now also underused ran gigavolt havoc staving off another terrifying new threat in pre marina was also incredibly useful since its specs set murdered just about everything else in the tier the generation 7 burn nerf was both good and bad and while i'm poliana enjoyed not losing health infant a ton another skull it was also less able to threaten pokemon such as tender cruel and wrote him cut with its tab which is why it enjoyed auxilary residual damage options such as knockoff and toxic if it could fit them overall a reprises defensive role quite well taking on some of the scarier new faces under use had to offer and that's it so how good was in poli on actually it was one of the most terrifying pokemon and overuse in his debut generation but ever since then it's been more of a uu pokemon having really picked up steam with to the fog buff and looking to remain a staple for this role as for VGC it was pretty nice overall Empoleon stats were excellent and its water typing is amazing especially in unique combination with steel and the combination of the water and steel type gives imposing on attributes like nearly no other and even though Empoleon wasn't the most top-tier choice out there after his debut generation it was still pretty great Pokemon thanks for watching everyone and as always if you liked the video and you want to see more be sure to subscribe to fall swag gaming for more weekly Pokemon content and since we switch to the new voting system to vote for the next Pokemon please comment on the most recent posts of the community tab of this channel on the post I will be published at the same time of this video release so I guess for the comments let me know what you think about competitive Empoleon how would you make it better etc etc thank you so much to our patrons for continued support of our videos and thank you to everyone else watching as well and follow my crew on these social media platforms and that's all I got see you next time everyone [Music]

Channel: False Swipe Gaming

Views: 647,151

Keywords: Pokemon, Pokemon Go, Empoleon, Piplup, Prinplup, Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Black, White, Pokemon X, Pokemon Y, Ultra Sun, Ultra Moon, Competitive Pokemon, Smogon, VGC, False Swipe Gaming

Id: ZCOI2_JfwGA

Length: 13min 52sec (832 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 17 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/SenoraPapaya]

Yay Empoleon

[u/Mail540]

Best Starter

[u/PapiHex]

My favorite starter! Do one on Jynx next.