How GOOD was Hydreigon ACTUALLY? - History of Hydreigon in Competitive Pokemon (Gens 5-7)

[Music] next up we have our second gen 5 Pokemon hi dragon this fearsome dragon draws inspiration from three appropriately spine-chilling sources being the mythological Hydra Godzilla's King Ghidorah and the german-language this theme of terror continues with gets us in the generation 5 game and anyone who's faced him knows that his High Dragon lived up to its name as the brutal pokemon especially if one is familiar with the blood-curdling theory behind its minimum and happiness and gets this is missing I anyways today we find out if hi dragon left a similarly sinister trail in the competitive scene so how good was hi dragon actually hail Hydra but before we start this video is sponsored by amino amino is a great place to find communities for basically any interests whether it be anime video games music comic books and pokemons of course they have Pokemon and what's extra cool about amino is they just launched their new story feature a feature that allows content creators like yours truly to publish shorter but still great quality content that would otherwise be overshadowed by my other longer videos on YouTube and I just published a new story called 7 Pokemon that were good competitively when they debuted so if you want to see extra quick content and also support me click the link in the description or search for amino apps find my global profile by searching fall swipe gaming make sure to follow me and click the bell to know when I'm posting more content and check out the stories on my global profile and in this video we'll be going over these competitive formats it took a while for hi dragons to be noticed in its debut generation the plethora of powerful dragons running around made it difficult for it to stand out Garchomp Latios and Dragon Knight among others made for fierce competition however in black and white to San balanced teams rose to prominence for their reliability at getting neutral matchups across the board which was valuable in a meta game as potentially volatile as black and white it was discovered that hi Dragon excelled in ripping these teams apart like nothing else with a simple set of Draco meteor fire blasts and super power or focus blast with ruse to offset sand and life orb it crushed every pokemon on these teams easily pink bulky Pokemon like heat ran fair Lawrence Carberry and Gliscor Salomon for Dragonite weren't nearly as effective at pulling the set off since they had much much lower special tax stats and were weak to stealth rock which viciously cut into their longevity its expansive loophole also gave it other options most notably dark pulse for Jellison mu and reunit lists the severity of its threat level was magnified by the fact that Tyrannosaurus pursuit was useless against it so it could safely switch out and not get super powered by scarf or a healthy Chappell berry this was fine since Tyranitar struggled to safely pivot in hi dragon was also immune to spikes so it stuck around however hi dragon did have its issues its speed was Mitylene compared to the other offensive pokemon in the meta game that also hit it super effectively with Dragon and fighting moves namely Garchomp Latios khaldiya and Taraki on while its ice weakness meant and wouldn't go too far against trained offense however even sand and rain offense ran Ferrothorn so high dragon could potentially grab a KO having accomplished something before becoming death fodder overall though it can't be understated how popular and powerful sand balance was in the black and white meta game meaning high dragon was a reliable pick that consistently stomped through teams leaving ruin in its wake now in Gen 5 VGC high dragon was a massive threat in VGC 2011 which was the era of VGC that was Unova decks only it had solid bulk and it was a natural doubles pokemon with its earthquake immunity thanks to levitate which also let it partner with non Haxorus earthquake users and also had resisted heatwave it naturally matched a well against several common pokémon like Chandelure and Jellison the latter of which it partnered up well thanks to jealous its ability to mess with trick room teams that would otherwise turn hi dragons good speed on it while high dragon could keep Jellison healthy by using surf now hi dragon had to watch out for Pokemon that could out speed it and one-hit ko it most notably Volcarona Taraki on and various fighting types which prompted some high dragon to carry Champa berry to take fighting type attacks but despite this drawback high dragon still does a lot of damage hi dragons high offenses alongside gems like the dragon gem and life orb made it an absolute kill machine nuking almost everything in sight gen 5 EG c and 2011 especially wasn't too well documented but of the few notable placements we found Brian Huff Wan worlds in the junior division with a high dragon on his team while shota Yamamoto and an osa car got fourth and third respectively in the world seniors division and high dragon actually want worlds in the masters division as a crucial part of Ray Rizal's team its attributes were on full display in the final battle taking a hidden power ice and blanking an earthquake while picking up a ko in the opening turns then the new additions of Garchomp and latias in 2012 meant there were more Pokemon that could both outrun and one-hit ko high dragon however all three heads did do something they barely dared to dream up it absolutely dominated the seemingly unkillable Cresselia kress was also actually a terrific partner for high dragon as it helped against these two dragons as well as Taraki on and could trick room or Thunder Wave to assist with hi dragons lower speed against faster teams hi dragons fire blasts were also far more menacing than garchomps and they greatly outstripped laddie else's hidden power fire this allows it to absolutely crush bronzong which will also give the other two dragons trouble 2012 still isn't the pinnacle of archival but there were a few notable places for high dragon Tony Sheung aka Chinese dude used it to win nationals in Toronto while Toller Webb used it to win worlds in the seniors division as for the world's masters division high dragon appeared twice in top eight with sage and park coming in and 5th and Ray Rizal once again using it to win it all hi dragon was rolling right along as a premier 5th gen VGC Pokemon the 2013 meta game was largely the same safe for a few event loops and high dragon continued to be excellent in the same vein as before 2013 was better documented and as such we found a lot of placements for hi dragons since it's so powerful to save on time we are limiting the placements to top eights only the following placements are all from the senior division umberto LP reached top eight at the Italian nationals Luca P was runner-up at the German nationals Gabrielle s reached top 4 and mark M reached top eight at the UK nationals finally Marcus Lee reached fifth and Ben Hickey got 2nd with high dragon at Worlds the following placements are for the masters division at the Italian nationals Mateo g1 while Eloy H reach 2nd and Michael are reached top 8th at the German nationals Alberto g1 Jamal Amrish second Michael R reach the semifinals and Mateo G reached top 8th at the UK nationals Ben k1 and finally matheus hell mote reached top 8 at worlds with that's a whole lot of winning and high placements and high dragon concluded fifth-gen VGC as a top pokemon in all three seasons hi dragon went from having no opposing pokemon able to switch into it to several safe switches with the introduction of fairy types who resists the dark were immune to dragon and who's stabbed was quadruple effective on high dragon to boot the power level of oh you also increased significantly with the introduction of Megas thus high dragon immediately dropped to you you fairies omegas were still present there but the surroundings and overall power level led to high dragon becoming not just a tier staple but an absolute bulldozer of an offensive threat it's dark pulse was no longer resisted by steel it quickly became the best choice scar fur in the tier 4 it's solid bulk and resists allowing it to switch in and threaten to crush something like mega Aerodactyl with Jakob meteor or keep momentum with you turn on the switch it's mixed set made a return once it was realized that hi dragons incredible coverage included anti-fairy options its iron tail hammered the incredibly common florges luring it and hitting it for a ton of damage was incredibly helpful for fighting types even though Draco meteor had its power lured to 130 base power from 140 it still hammered everything that wasn't a fairy or Blissey the latter which was destroyed by super power hi dragon explored other options as well taht made in an excellent stall breaker shutting down healing attempts from a low mamola which sometimes used wish protect and regenerator to stall the life for variants out while choice pecs was more prediction reliant but less prone to being worn down and packed absolutely brutal power high dragon was crucial for offense and balanced teams of function it was one of the most defining Gen 6 uu Pokemon and considered by many top players to be the best pokemon in the tier as a whole then after Hoopa unbound was banned from oh you for the insane power of its balance braking specs dark pulse that now cleaved through Heatran and Ferrothorn some players attempted to recreate this with high dragon and the results were actually quite good despite high drag is lower special attack it has several distinct advantages the most notable being its pursuit resistance Hoople was trapped quite often even though it wasn't actually weak to the move because of its incredibly low defense hi dragons immunity to spikes meant it was harder to passively work - and it didn't mind the earthquake community with how common Gliscor and scarf Landorus therian work speaking of Lando land Elle's u-turn being only super effective instead of quadruple effective like it was against hoopla made a big difference the same goes for assault vest tornadoes tea a common swishing now you may be thinking what about clefable wasn't that the biggest obstacle at least hoopla had stamped psychic four it turns out hi dragon specs flash cannon smacked clefable really really hard it didn't need to one-hit kill it if it hit clefable on the switch since it then wouldn't be able to switch into dark pulse later flash cannon also came with the benefits of hitting Tyranitar hard and shattering mega diancie but even if it was only for clefable it'd be worth it since the fable was the only thing standing between it and dark pulses and drink'll meteors crushing the common spikes balanced teams eventually an expert belt set popped up and is still comfortably - at kala clefable on the switch while using dark pulse fire blasts and surfs coverage to slam everything else both sets were brutally difficult to counter overall it took a while and then some but once people saw what hi dragon was capable of it became part of the oh you meta game then in Gen 6 VGC in 2014 power creep came for hi dragon Megas made the meta game faster and stronger while fairies were fantastic natural stops with azumarill in particular threatening to set up however once the meta settled a little it was found that high dragon was still excellent the steel nerf was crucial as it made dark pulse one of the strongest attacks around against Asia / another benefit of high dragon was its sucker-punch resistance and fire blast which made it excellent against mega Mawile outside of trick room it could run a broad range of items and run them all viably the old standby of life war was as tough to switch into as ever well choice scarf became prominent as it made up for its middle east beat by letting it drop a draco on faster Pokemon like mega Charizard y and mega kangaskhan the lack of gems also meant ha bond very became a viable choice to let it go one-on-one with other dragons like Garchomp and Salomon's even choice specs was a fine choice with the brute strength allowing it to surpass critical ko threshold although it didn't seem like a meta game stomper at first glance it was such a solid reliable pokemon that could run numerous sets and do them all well that it found itself on a ton of teams so many teams in fact that his usage ended up being so high that we had to limit it solely to winning placements until worlds it had a slow start but began to dominate the use of stats in the second half of the season anyway those placements are Alistar aka blade at Perth regionals and Alex ago slaw taking first place at the US Nationals with won at Worlds hi dragon appeared three times in the top eight coming in third fourth and fifth with Colin hare Marcus Liu and Rios que cosa gay respectively then in 2015 the Pokedex expanded and the fearsome mega salamence notably joined the fray but hi dragons still fired on all cylinders functioning the same ways that always had Cresselia was back to get crushed by dark pulse potentially even being one-hit ko by choice effects variants as well as aegislash its placements have been limited to winds until world's once again these placements were miguel low pay my rent at the mexico city regionals and nicolas k in the juniors division of the australian nationals at worlds in the masters division wales walters derf reached eight with it continuing high dragon streak of five world masters appearances in a row now I know the placements we mentioned here may not seem like a lot but if you're doubting hi dragon you're welcome to Ward through the swats of second and below placements it had throughout the season that are scattered across the internet but luckily we have a Google Doc in the description below that has all the ones we found if you're interested unfortunately hi dragons world streak was snapped the following year where hi dragon pretty much entirely fell out of the metagame at least compared to its previous years as a result of the restricted Pokemon coming down primal Groudon and Kyogre were above its pay grade and fairy-type for one thing buzzer Gnaeus was entirely another now there's no shame in being unable to tangle with those though and hi dragon had a fantastic streak up to this point it's only notable appearances were an unknown Brendan reaching third at the South African nationals and Ranger buddy reaching eighth at the Stockholm regionals but overall in Gen 6 VGC high dragon was certainly a powerful threat that you had to account for up until 2016 majora and the top was making the meta game even more Fairy focused meant hi dragons started generation 7 in uu but there it was excellent once more the concentrated nuke that Z moves were really gave it a boost drago Neum z was especially excellent because it jacked up the power of the already strong drink here into a dizzyingly powerful devastating Drake with no special attack drawback meeting hi dragon was free to reign a fully powered wrinkle on the opponent afterwards and of course it was still a tremendous choice karffard in ultra sun and moon' it gained the fog and was able to support his team even more it was a great last move on the scarf variate to give its team more options but it mostly found use on the z set allowing it to be useful even when it was walled such as when facing Togekiss high dragon was a great switch into the popular stealth rock krookodile allowing it to de fog without much trouble if it chose to run fighting him Z it could blow away the popular mega aggron and bulky Empoleon then permanently removing their hazards as well as catching Cavalia and trying to come in for free under fog to get the hazards back up or possibly looking for a justified boost op dark pulse however this isn't to say hi dragon relied entirely on Z moves the function if you wanted to use a Z move on a different Pokemon hi dragon could simply switch items and free up that option for you whilst still being an excellent Pokemon it could get up to its old tricks with life warp choice specs or even dread plate so it could spam dark pulse without restriction or drawback overall it was one of the best most diverse Pokemon in you you capable of fulfilling a variety of speaking roles and consistently performing in battle speaking of something it did once more it was realized that hi Dragon was quite decent and oh you its typing allowed it to stand in the way of two incredibly dangerous ohyeah threats in Heatran and ash greninja and not only that but it could the fog away Heatran stealth rock as it ran away in fear of earth power while ash greninja was specs so if it attacked hi dragon just roosted it off and if its fight then hi dragon to fogged it immediately it wasn't a hard counter but it was a terrific interim measure against two of oles biggest threats that kept out the pressure itself it's solid speeds here alongside a powerful blackhole Eclipse also let it out run and slam threats like tapu Lele and cure in black while also being threatening to the center great Landorus therian earth power made sure majora and topo Coco weren't coming in unscathed either so overall high dragon was a fine Pokemon with the ability to fit in on many teams it gained popularity and established itself as a legitimately viable oh you Pokemon then in Gen 7 VGC hi dragon has a niche in VGC 2018 since the Skaar set is always decent enough Tabu being on every team it's just too tough to make it worth using most of the time it wasn't a bad Pokemon per se and that you wouldn't yourself too badly by bringing one it was still hi dragon after all well you could definitely do significantly better the popularity of car Tana main on scarf sets to difficult to safely use in case anyone had any ideas about team support with tailwind turns out that scarf was the item of choice on roughly 98% of the hi dragon that appeared that season which admittedly was not a lot the few that did appear were used by Jakob Swilly who reached seven at the Dallas regionals freesias who reached second in the Korean winter league gharam who reached top four in the korean spring league cheol-min uh who reached 30th at the korean nationals kirill shish of who reached six at the Russian nationals Bridger snow who reached third at Anaheim regionals and Estefan val de bonito who reached second at the Santiago special event the latter two were surprising as those events used the 2019 Sun series rules and featured the restricted Pokemon just like in 2016 hi dragon couldn't handle those incredibly strong pokemon and only saw use there in the moon series where Z mousse became available it was used once by kyung-min jeon to reach top 16 of season 2 of the korean league that however was the end of the road for hi dragon and it hasn't been seen since unfortunately a rough ending for a historically excellent pokemon and that's it so how good was hi dragon actually well it's never been a no u superstar but it's had a solid role and each iteration of the cheer it's been around for once people realize what separates it from the other dragons even when it was hit harder than anything else by the fairy-type and of course it's been one of the best uu pokemon for the past two generations it was a dominant VGC pokemon for the first five years of its existence including back-to-back worlds wins in its first two years then the restricted pokemon happened in 2016 then the top with happy meta games of Gen 7 happened and that was that however it had a pretty phenomenal run overall striking fear and battlers with more than just its appearance especially since I has a habit of being forgotten but remember the unseen high dragon is the deadliest hail Hydra 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 in the comments I want to know what do you think about competitive high dragon do you think it needs a buff to become full oh you staple or do you think it's already too powerful whatever it is let me know in the comments also of course thank you so much to our patrons for continued support of our videos and thank you to all of you watching as well and follow my crew on these social media platforms and that's all I got see you next time everyone [Applause]

Channel: False Swipe Gaming

Views: 758,250

Rating: 4.9378057 out of 5

Keywords: pokemon, Hydreigon, Deino, Zweilous, Pokemon Black, Pokemon White, Pokemon Black 2, Pokemon White 2, Ghetsis, Pokemon X, Pokemon Y, Ultra Sun, Ultra Moon, Competitive Pokemon, Smogon, VGC, VGC 2014, VGC 2015, VGC 2018, False Swipe Gaming

Id: LC9xihtn8Ys

Length: 18min 17sec (1097 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 28 2019