How GOOD was Flygon ACTUALLY? - History of Flygon in Competitive Pokemon (Gens 3-7)

what's up guys Flygon the Mystics Pokemon a 6-foot 7 tall antlion not exactly a dragonfly despite the name fans were first introduced to this unique dragon type in the 3rd generation as the evolution of trapinch and vibrator now some suspect that it had his name switched with Salomon's seeing as the other dragons pre evolutions were bagged on a shell gun both sharing Lagaan suffix with fly gun not to mention that Baggins dream has always been to fly as well anyway some species of dragonflies are referred to as sand dragons which is where fly gun and its pre evolutions distinctive typing draws from ever since its appearance in Jirachi wishmaker where it battled a fake Groudon flag on is how little place in fans hearts we all enjoy our favorite Pokemon being useful in competitive play and that leads us to the question how good was fly gun actually and in this video we'll be covering these competitive formats flag on is not one of the biggest names in advanced overused it doesn't possess the superb defense prowess of Skarmory the wrecking ball strength of hair crossed or the all-around superiority of Tyranitar there is a plethora of excellent Pokemon that can handle it one way or another it stats are decent but wholly on spectacular it smooth fool doesn't extend very far it tends to invite in one of the most brutal pokemon in the tier gang gar and it's got a nasty quadruple ice weakness and it's here our ice beams ice punches and hidden power ices are lurking around every corner thus you could be forgiven if you thought Flygon was a thoroughly mediocre choice in the meta game even some slightly less experienced players tend to think that because of its less than flashy results however it is quite the contrary well flaga may not be a high-profile defining meta game superstar along the likes of Celebi and suicune it is quietly but significantly one of the best most important pokemon in the meta game failure to account for it properly can lead to devastation both offensively and defensively for even the best battler now that we've gone over its negatives let's see why exactly why fly gun is so effective in the tier by examining its numerous positives the first thing that stands out is its dragon and ground typing it is resistant to poison fire rock and emu to electric it also has the ability levitate so it is immune to ground as well this isn't exactly a shabby array of things to be effective again its types actually complement each other well and thanks to its part dragon typing it is a ground type that is not weak to water your grass now this all sounds well and good but how does this apply to real battle scenario because for example it doesn't do much good to know that Magneton resists 13 of the 17 types what just dies to a real common move like earthquake so let's consider the important factors of the advanced metagame there are two important factors of the events meta game called sandstorm and spikes which shape the landscape of overuse and to understand Flygon first you got to understand them ta'rhonda to reign supreme at it's nearly on the presents and stream is a major factor in shaping nearly every aspect of the meta game leftovers being nullified on important pokemons such as Zapdos and suicune and non leftovers holders such as some heracross and settlements have major ramifications on how players are capable of dealing with them to the extent that a leftovers heracross becomes much more difficult for certain teams to Avenue ver as they usually rely on it being slowly worn down the spikes laid down by mainly Skarmory as well as fortress and cloister are another massively crucial element of the meta game since they're easy to lay down likes and they're permanent unless spun and they hit a significant amount of Pokemon there are very few Pokemon that are both immune to sand stream and spikes and quite a number of Pokemon that are affected by both top tier ones too like Celebi a suicune and Snorlax just some such as Celebi they're added weakness to duck sure on top of the residual makes it even more difficult to function thus the two are very often combined for powerful residual damage combinations that are set up and abused by some of the strongest Pokemon around the limited number of Pokemon and overuse that are immune to both of these things are Skarmory claydol Aerodactyl and of course Flygon now simply being the immunes of both of them does not make a good pokémon or else gligar would be an effective choice in overuse so let's examine flygon's other qualities earlier we mentioned this resistances and nearly never uses as poison resistance because of sludge bombs 30% poison rate and the fact that it struggles against wheezing although it can potentially scare out Venus or at certain health ranges its fire resistance is quite effective against occasional Moltres Charizard err camera and can effectively pivot into fire blasts from mixed Tyranitar and hidden power fires from Celebi next up the electric immunity while some electric types like most Jolteon and defensive areas of Zapdos carry hidden power ice immunity the Thunderbolt can let flag on switch and then draw the HP ice to a teammate that doesn't want to eat a powerful stab attack but can deal with them one-on-one such as Tyranitar Jirachi indeed flygon's ability to pivot switch in on so much it even just for a turn is one of fly guns greatest qualities and since it's not getting worn down by residual it lets it stay healthy for quite a while and thus be a dangerous presence going into the late game where most other Pokemon are weakened also Swampert is an enormous presence in advance and thus hidden power grass is a common choice as well so Flygon is notable for its ability to wall both hidden powers on electrics in conjunction with Swampert a common combination from the days of net battle next it's rock resistance is incredibly valuable because of the power of Aerodactyl and Tyranitar often used in conjunction of course a rock resistance doesn't help much without the sturdiness against earthquake or in this case a complete immunity to earthquake thanks to levitate its levitate ability gifting at ground immunity means it is impervious to Dugtrio Zarina trap the ever-present spikes as mentioned before and various earthquakes including those from fierce choice banders like Tyranitar solomon's meta girls Aerodactyl and other Flygon this combined with its rock resistance gives it a unique resistance to the powerful attacking combination of quakes light which is the combination of rockslide and earthquake notable for its widespread and synergistic type coverage and oh you only claydol and the very rare Breloom share this distinction if you're still doubting flygon's capabilities and influence this resistance to quick slide frustrates standard dragon dance and mix Tyranitar so much that is sometimes runs ice beam solely for Flygon there are side benefits of course such as hitting settlements and weakened Zapdos without risking a rockslide missed but it barely scratches another significant counter claydol thus it speaks to how important flag gun actually is it can't be emphasized enough how valuable flygon's immunity the ground is its ability to stick around in the face of powerful permanent residual damage mirrors aerodeck those that's having a check that can similarly play the war of attrition is extremely valuable of course flygon's defensive stats aren't tremendous uninvested variants definitely don't want to walk into a straight double edge or hidden power flying from Aerodactyl however its type advantage against rock and ground helps one player round it in conjunction with its other checks like jirachi Swampert Skarmory and meta girls who can tank Aerodactyl other moves easily a defensive set for Flygon also popped up in recent years with the vestment it's actually quite effective at tanking Aerodactyl and the cost of offensive capabilities which we'll get to it later it uses a set of earthquake protect ala Swampert to maximize its leftovers recovery Rock of residual damage and scout dangers moves such as explosions or those of choice banders then usually the combination of toxic and rockslide with auxiliary options being Fire Blast and hit on power ghosts rockslide is generally the best because they hit specially defensive Zapdos although if that's handled hidden power ghosts is decent for refresh play-doh and doing a bit more to celebi both of these moves main use is actually the dent Gengar swishing who often use Flygon as entry and is a pokemon you do not want coming in for free if you can help it fire blast isn't good at beating down healthy Skarmory but it can finish it off at low health and keeps fortress out of your face to maintain spikes this set is notable for being able to choke out several offensive teams without too much effort a common term in advance is TSS which means toxic sandstorm spikes all three permanent residual damage factors and Flygon helps abuse that to the fullest and now that we've gone over fly guns defensive capabilities let's examine it offensively now its offenses are not OU's answer to requests by any means but base 100 attack is solid and it has access to one of the most tried-and-true strategy since red blue and yellow stab earthquake a set of earthquake rockslide hidden power bug and fire blast is notable for dealing at least decent damage to everything and overuse with the right move with the exception of porygon - because you know trace it can also use toxic over one of the last two moves so really water substitute can be used in the last slot - east prediction and dodge toxic often from the likes of Zapdos hoping to take a hit in exchange for permanently crippling Flygon in a part of ghost is an option but as with the defensive set pursued Tyranitar is one of its best friends for dealing with Gengar it could run a simple max attack max feet set with a naive nature or it can drop speed for the sake of some ball what's actually going with + attack - really dish out some impressive numbers it has this luxury thanks to its extremely solid 100 base speed running a + speed nature can allow to outrun standard bulky dragon dance Tyranitar after a dance doing this also outruns the vast majority of Salomon's which can be good for dropping rocks lights and bulky Gengar variants as well as going toe-to-toe with the other base 1 hundreds in the tiers Zapdos Jirachi and Celebi which can be crucial as those Pokemon have offensive variants you'll often want every bit of insurance possible against now it was mentioned earlier how teams that neglect to account for flag on are often in for a rough time and even those that do can struggle because two of his checks Skarmory and Gengar are prone to trapping while traditional physical walls like bulky waters do not appreciate the full brunt of an invested stab earthquake nowhere is this truer than when Choice band Flygon makes an appearance who can invalidate even bulky Gengar as a check since rockslide and sand - at Kos and HP ghost is a viable option as it isn't absolutely essential to hit Celebi as hard as possible Pokemon is not resistant or immune to earthquake it's going to take an absolute ton of damage and that's without the help of spikes even the bulkiest suicune often the end-all-be-all when it comes to raw physical bulk it's cleanly three-hit KO dance and buy a jolly variant Swampert takes one hit and is suddenly in trouble for any assault afterwards Milo chicken Vaporeon get absolutely hammered bulky Tyranitar Metagross and Jirachi variants that hope to take a hit in a pinch have no chance Pokemon that can withstand earthquake in some capacity or another sister Salomon Zapdos clay doll and Celebi are torn apart by its standard coverage and rockslide or hidden power bug some players have even used HP flying to surprise heracross if their team is weak to it it also retains the super effective hit on Celebi and threatens to to hit ko bokja Gengar and sin of course protect using teams can give those choice banded variants a hard time but it's manageable to play around and flag on remains capable of seriously threatening every team when it comes to hitting the entire meta game heart and porygon to who utterly despises toxin it is a great Aerodactyl s example of using the sand and spikes it's immune to to wear down as checks while staying alive itself its weaknesses the big threats are notable and it requires support as well as a player who is really on top of things but there are a few things more fearsome than a fortress stall team going up against a smart player wielding a choice ban flag on it is clear that Flygon is one of the most significant pieces of the advanced meta game and will conclude the generation by mentioning that fly gun is a member of some of the most famous effective advanced teams of all time it had be used by Loki on his Mike Jones team in which he won the official smokin tournament 3-wood he explained that in the early 386 after firered and leafgreen were released and thus all known Pokemon were available unlike in the Ruby and Sapphire 200 metagame Flygon wasn't too popular but people slowly realized its effectiveness in handling electric-types alongside Swampert and weakening water types with its powerful stab earthquake helping set up monsters such as Dragon Nest Tyranitar for a sweep alongside spikes Loki's team used all of these elements even using a second water in Milotic to guard against the wear down the water assault the most notable example of flagons effectiveness though is on to time smoking tour winner veteran and loves famous team superman used for years by several other notable advanced players such as goofball and GA T the team packed for Pokemon immune to spikes ball abusing them and sand streams so that it could stick around for long games and clean up at the end three of its Pokemon were completely immune to sandstorm spikes in addition Flygon and five of its pokemon were immune to sandstorm it packs Skarmory to lay the spikes and air exacto whose speed let it clean up at the end of battles this meant that even if the other player laid down three layers of spikes the Tyranitar and Swampert the only two pokemon affected by them on the team would still not be dying immediately Tyranitar would deal massive damage and Swampert pact recovery and either protector rest so the team could easily withstand the long game the soul sand affected Pokemon Zapdos was of course immune to spikes and carried rest and was thus a key part of the team flygon's place on this legendary squad is a testament to how kia really was in the advanced generation Gen 4 brought a lot of things Flygon liked stealth rock and wrinkle meter for a higher overall damage being dealt Magnezone for improved Skarmory killing and especially u-turn which it became unique for as it was one of the few effective Pokemon to learn and definitely the only dragon type with its new stealth rock resistance and toxin spice immunity it found itself once more sticking around as the Pokemon around it were worn down and became one of the best leaders of choice scarf would you turn retaining momentum and it's stab attacks viciously effective for finishing battles when backed by his newfound speed of course there were things Flygon didn't particularly care for the new laws like a paladin and gliscor as well as Cresselia and early diamond and pearl did not care much for his flimsy attacks Skarmory gained roost and sheds shell as well this is also when Garchomp was around and it really ruled the roost as not only a far stronger dragon ground type but one of the most powerful pokémon around complete with it's ridiculous sand veil to compensate for lack of levitate once chomp was banned and platinum came around Flygon began being used consistently with this choice car set always ready to revenge a dangerous threat thanks to his stabs being strong enough to deal with their frailer offensive Pokemon since I was a new popular Infernape now it wasn't exactly blowing everything in his path away his lore became the king and the other dragons like salamence with its newly gained outrage and the unbanned latias were always around plus Swords Dance Lucario's incredibly powerful extreme speed didn't particularly care for flagons high speed and while outrage was effective in taking out certain threats others would use it as setup opportunity however while wasn't a world beater Flygon quietly always exists it as an effective revenge killer it could never do anything else it was extremely outclassed as a purely offensive Pokemon but in this role it almost always did its job it was an important part of many effective teams often in the semi stall style they weren't pure offensive as they prefer to have a backbone and enjoyed laying down hazards but they weren't bulky enough to be full stall and thus needed a fail-safe Pokemon - revenge till the many dangerous threats in the DPP metagame Flygon held many of these teams together with a quiet game in game out efficiency and these days it'll often Flygon or jirachi they were both quite effective but using scar Flygon allowed one to use a different Jirachi set also while dragons were competition in terms of dishing out incredible levels of damage they were also food for a late-game outrage sweets is our in flag on mate for a great combination and skills and Dragons always do well together thanks to their type synergy but these two were especially excellent because they helped check the fierce dragons that ruled their tier and maintain momentum with you ^ latias as salamis was such that some felt the meta game revolved around both the dragons and their Czechs who were the steel types in the cases of Magnezone in here and they pull double duty in a sense because they also helped handle steels the high octane meta game led to some 3 dragon 3 steel teams being used and Flygon was almost always the third dragon this is where the drag mags strategy originated in theory Magnezone eliminates the only type that resists dragon and then the Dragons go crazy eventually latias was banned and flygon's days of tying with +1 Salamis were soon over as Salamis was also banned as well of course dragon arose as a result the flagon was the one who truly began to shine in this post Dragons meta game it's choice scarf set was effective as ever and became one of the frontrunners as a flagship pokemon in the meta game kookaburra heatran was popping up everywhere and adamant variants a flag on no longer afraid of jolly Salamis could dispatch it despite the resistance berry denying its stealth rock or an explosion it still outran all the Rotom forms which was the next fastest car fur even with Adam in nature some people even vied for the importance of a late-game speed tied with either another fly gun or a scarf jirachi as well as outrunning the newly popular dragon dance Tyranitar after two dragon dances and timid and polian after an agility hard these on other things bygone failed to outspeed with an atom in nature like scarf Rosa rein and Lucario were fairly nice while the power boosted gained for being adamant was often tangible because it can now revenge kill a dented offensive sweet at higher health and also threatens to to hit KO Gliscor after stealth rock since those things often use speed investment to get the most out of their stall breaking concepts glice car was still the go-to check to scar flag on on most teams since it generally tanked it well Andrew stood off the damage and was the best counter to source Dan Sicario that's led to a new flag on variant popping up the mixed set with Draco meteor with no salamence around to our class at the choice car says utter effectiveness necessitating Gliscor to switch and thus making it a terrific lure which the cargo could then abuse resistance the residual damage instant recovery and ruse and a menacing presence even after the set was revealed Flygon showed itself to be more than a one-trick pony that would often terrorize popular stall team many unsuspecting fortress were threatened out or even caught off guard with powerful life war Fire Blast Flygon continued to shine it was a hugely important part of the new offensive teams of the metagame and consistently did its job as last move could be anything really like thunder plight specifically for Gyarados tonnage for a wider range of flying types such as Zapdos and toby cos toxic for a surprise on a bulky wall such as hip out on or Gliscor or even Dragon Claw for a spammable attack to revenge the likes of King jarred Gengar without locking yourself into our rage however it had one more trick left and not the gimmicky star variant just like Gen 3 a choice band set while in the post dragon's meta game dragon I'd have popped out and shown how vicious banded outrage could be Flygon exchanged some of that raw strength for increased ability to switch in and out further abuse by stronger you turn key speed which outran dangerous pokémon like suicune and a destructive secondary stab attack choice ban Flygon remains a threat because it is extremely tough to wear down and if it's not ready to punch a hole in the other team it can just you turn out to keep offensive momentum of course I always have liked kamikaze option of blasting everything in its path without rage wild like the mixed set it now struggles with being revenge killed on offensive threats by the likes of starving Gengar and Infernape it still has entry against enough Pokemon to where it will be effective it now has three distinct sets able to turn its defensive capabilities into offensive destruction of different kinds and the scar fur is always capable of cleaning up any team at the end of the game all in all despite a slow beginning Flygon quietly became a key part of the meta game and ended up as one of the most important players in it and as we all know black and white redefined the term power creep with its permanent weather and monstrous new threats defensively not only did Ferrothorn come into play flag on old nemesis Gliscor returned with status immunity and increased recovery and even the previous uber mew dropped down to give everyone grief with its taut Willa was set on the offensive side a plethora of new insanely strong dragons arrived not to mention the vicious tie Rakhi on Volcarona and Ryu niquist with sky-high stats among all their other crazy attributes flagon was really only thought about when discussing the old generation forced and why's that keep up with the new metagame and dropped into under use there however Flygon thrived along its fellow former overuse like Swampert suicune Zapdos bronzong rosary shaming Kingdra revile and Snorlax were all familiar faces whose bag of tricks were just right for the power of under use similar tactics from previous generation strife flagyl was immune to the ever-present spikes while abusing them itself in which they teamed up with Swampert pretty well two wolves app dozen raikou and the scar set was a great revenge killer although jolly was preferred for new threats such as quiver Dan's venomoth and choice scar crocodile interment and on the other hand animal is preferred to the choice van variant which was a monstrous wall crusher especially with the lack of Skarmory and generally bulky steel types with the exception of bronze own who did not care for abandoned fire plunge Swampert Slowbro Milotic suicune and Blastoise would crumple in the face of those powerful outrageous of course flagyl is never overwhelming the meddigan was generally equipped to play around it decently in addition to Pokemon like poor Gong - that gave a trouble but it played a big part in the so-called black and white underused feels like diamond and pearl overused meta games and was always a top tier in that meta an effective contender for any team tonight a mega evolution thanks to an unfortunate case of artist block flygon's all around formerly average at best stats became more and more mediocre or worse in relation to its competitors without any boost to speak of except the new league changed default which was being used by far better pokémon like latias the strong new fairy types such as cliff Abel and the zoom world didn't do it any favors either and with florges training and underused Flygon fell too rarely use where it finally found a home for the sixth generation in the tier often defined by the incredibly powerful defensive Cora registeel and Aloma mola on balance with Venus or often being hit hard Flygon tends to follow them up in the fourth slot thanks to its access to defog a good speed for the tier it is significant to the point where a good offensive Pokemon can be evaluated by its ability to handle Reggie mola as it's often called as well as Flygon in the back this contributes to why it is a definitive part of the tier and flag on finally gained some power learning dragon dance in this generation and gaining access to the nuke like power of Z moves although no one ever had any illusion it would hold up and overuse which was far beyond flag hunts capabilities for a long time now even without the new Celestia and the four fairy-type top ooze under use remained at similar levels of power but in rarely used its new dragon dance set did pretty well despite being quite similar to zygarde 10% Flygon can afford to run an atom nature and thus can nail chaos on things such as Milotic it can also run iron tail for a big smack on Gardevoir who traces levitate and is thus immune to earthquake while destroying florges and whimsicott it's choice car set has returned once again and it was set back in generation Ford that flag on was synonymous with choi scarf and three generations later it still seems to hold true Flygon never really had the opportunity to shine in VGC and it simply doesn't have the tools or stats to keep up with such a mega and fairly infested metagame the only time is seen use is by gary quinn who reached top 16 in the anaheim 2017 regional and 21st in the u.s. international he made use of its new access to dragon dance alongside ground dmz with v's to outspeed arcanine and after a dragon dance adamant scarf Garchomp and modest scarf not illegal Flygon actually wolde common non scarf Garchomp variants and could pose a real sweeping threat so props to Gary for finding a way to use it effectively however overall Flygon just isn't going to be effective way more often than not and that's it so how good was Flygon actually it was never the kind of Pokemon that would be the face of a tear through utter dominance it's flawed saw to that and thus they always took a backseat however it did always end up being an important defining Pokemon in whatever game it existed in and while I wasn't crushing people left and right in every game it quietly put inconsistent game the game performances no matter the generation thanks for watching everyone and as always if you liked the building you want to see more be sure to subscribe to fall swype gaming for more weekly Pokemon content and of course as I always say comment on what pokemon you want to see next also thank you so much star patrons for continued support of our videos and thank you to everyone else watching as well [Music] and follow my crew new social media platform yada yada yada and that's all I got see you next time everyone [Music] you

Channel: False Swipe Gaming

Views: 1,001,686

Keywords: Pokemon, Pokemon Go, Flygon, Trapinch, Vibrava, Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Gen 3, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Gen 4, Black, White, Gen 5, Pokemon X, Pokemon Y, Gen 6, Ultra Sun, Ultra Moon, Gen 7, Sun, Moon, Competitive Pokemon, VGC, Smogon, False Swipe Gaming

Id: KMAy35rvOO4

Length: 21min 59sec (1319 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 12 2018