How GOOD was Salamence ACTUALLY? - History of Salamence in Competitive Pokemon (Gens 3-6)

man you guys are really layering on the big episodes huh I guess it makes sense to cover generation Greece to sloodle legendaries in succession that's right this week it's aliments one of pokemons greatest stories told through evolution how inspiring is it that Bagon literally jumped off clips repeatedly until by sheer force of will and learn to fly I used to think that Salamis was sort of weird-looking what with its entirely flat wings and all but maybe settlements is supposed to look that way because it's Baggins dream of what a dragon looks like it's said that Solomon apparently goes on a rampage if it's angry and you'd think that after achieving its life's goal it will finally be happy oh well some people will never be satisfied but that anger plays the salamis restraint fuelling its destructive power in battle so let's get to it how good was salamence actually and in this video we'll be covering these competitive formats those stats man Salamis is just an attacking machine we know that was last week Salamis is an attacking monster 135 attack is incredible and a hundred and ten special attacks certainly isn't bad either while hundreds peach puts settlements right into one of the most coveted speed tiers in the game 80 defense is pretty average but keep in mind a Salamis has intimidate one of the best abilities in the game and one that means it's physical longevity can be much greater than what the stats may save dragon and flying-type may have that four times weakness to ice well resistances to fire grass water bug fighting and an immunity to ground all factor into Salomon's being significantly harder to take down than you might think well let's not pretend that salamence is some tank or anything no this is definitely an attacker we're looking at when I think of dragon dance I think of Salomon's well actually I think of Altaria because of a no-no but yeah one boost let's alamut's out speed the entire unbeaten rst metagame except for ninjas and that monsters detects that meant that Salamis was perfectly capable of cleaning up entire teams Salim is his biggest weakness though was that while it had a huge move pole it lacked strong stab move being forced to resort to HP flying earthquake and rockslide for damage many Salomon's also ran fire blaster rockslide due to the tendency of opposing Skarmory and fortress to switch in of course if you wanted to make up for silences handicap power you could always go choice ban which put dense and opponent's defenses from the start and allowed for broader coverage even Brick Break if you wanted to hit Snorlax or Tyranitar the raw power of the set lets aliments rampage through many of its standard counters more on that later of course I made a point of saying Salomon's wasn't a tank but thanks to intimidate and the deep fervent desired that got it to its final stays in the first place it actually could play defense incredibly well that's a fancy way of saying Salamence got wish of all things and since mence was going to be playing the physical side of the defense's anyway it's ice tight weakness isn't something you would try to walk with intimidate wish of protect Salamis could stay alive incredibly long while fishing for burns with flamethrower or just throwing around toxic common walls would switch in and be horribly surprised by a bad poison sent their way let's talk about those walls now Salomon says lack of a strong stab made it especially vulnerable to getting screwed by strong bulky water types especially since they frequently carried ice beam Salamis his worst enemy Milotic Swampert and suicune were the biggest offenders all easily withstanding earthquakes and hitting back for big damage or simply crippling it with toxic play it on wheezing made good use of the ground immunity for sea Salamis to use one of its weaker moves like hit Empire flying and regice could potentially work if not shattered by brickbreaker rockslide but Salamis did have ways around these wallets in addition to the wish set mixed mince was not an uncommon sight the main use here was baiting in the omnipresent and on the offer by far Salamis is most common switching and then making use of Salomon's a special attack to hit it with a hidden power grass with mixed menses naturally amazing stats it could still be a big player besides its purpose as a lure it easily beats Blissey Skarmory fortress Snorlax and Tyranitar with Brick Break or Fire Blast so Salamis was an unpredictable beast who if you gave it breathing room was set up in your face and win but could always ruin your day with fire blasts or hidden power thus the most reliable winds were sometimes other offensive pokémon like Zapdos or Aerodactyl this came down to figuring out as Salamis was missing rockslide fire blasts or brick break either those flying types Skarmory or its fellow pseudo legendary Tyranitar could work especially if Salamis was locked into a move but it was the definition of a terrifying sweeper and was easily one of Gentry's defining overuse Pokemon right up there with Metagross as diamond and pearl started Salamence way first can we address that a change completely redundant IndieGoGo ok Salamis was honestly completely outclassed as a physical attacker garchomp did everything it did better while it was still in overuse and even dragon I had outraged South rocks sure didn't help either as such original diamond and pearl renditions of the fearsome dragon chose to focus on the scorching everything with fire aspect using Salomon's incredible special attacking move pool specs elements was the most common set featuring Draco meteor hydro pump fire blast ores flamethrower and dragon pulse a strong special attacker in its own right this set also lent to Salim as his classic mix meant set which was one of the strongest stall breakers in the game thanks to its ability to hit hard on both sides brick brick was usually all that was needed to handle those Pokemon who could handle fire blaster Draco meteor and ruthless elements equaled those pokemons recovery defensive Salomon's was still an option but meant in general was significantly weaker than it had been in Gen 3 or at least less popular then platinum came and Salamis was bestowed with its greatest wish other than flying I guess outrage oh yeah and Garchomp got Ben who let's be clear was also an incredible Salamis remover in its own right due to the two points of speed it had over it without rage Salomon suddenly became a huge menace arguably one of the biggest in the game along with its fellow dragon type latias his dragon dance set was back in full force revitalized by the addition of a powerful stab move and life orb to make it bigger than it ever had before remember when sweet curd could handle +1 mints yeah not anymore but Salamis could literally mix and match whatever moves and stat spreads have wanted seriously choose four out of Draco meteor outraged fire blast Brick Break earthquake roost and dragon dance slap an appropriate item and stat spread on and Salamis would make it work choice ban choice scarf mixed dragon that's physically bulky special bulky anything could work really the additional attacking power of outrage combined with Draco meteor both the which were devastatingly powerful without any investment meant Salamis was always a threat on both sides of the attacking spectrum mixed mince was even more terrifying with both Draco meteor and outrage which also meant it could run the more reliable earthquake over Brick Break since outrage was just so stupidly powerful that it didn't need the super effective hits on and if you really needed it you could even throw on stone as your aqua tail and when you ask people who played gen for competitively about the meta they'll guaranteed respond with a few eras the beginning was the reign of Garchomp and the end was all Heatran but the middle that was Sizzlers era I know I know we're talking about Salomon's but that's precisely why sizzler was so prevalent Salamence and latias were such hugely / centralizing Pokemon that every Pokemon needed to carry his sizzle widely considered to be one of the only solutions to both Pokemon because of its typing and ability to hit them hard with bullet punch beating even the choice sets choice scarf Jirachi was similar able to KO with ice punch after stealth rocks but it could lose to dragon dance bronzong would win unless there were two Fire Blast meta girl sent heat ran beaten mixed mints but dragon dance would end them get the idea salamence could beat everything it always had hard counters like hip out on the Swampert for dragon dance or very poor and for mixed mints but it was so unpredictable that you were guaranteed most times to lose a pokemon in attempting to beat it compounding this problem is that such a simple changes carrying dragon dance or not could completely change the counters and it was incredibly hard to tell giving any set could run life or a magical meter or whatever it wanted good luck relying on damaged cows to tell the set one is killing you with any move I shower users like donphan Mamoswine and weavile could always scare away Salomon's but switching him was another problem altogether and of course latias could beat mint with its own meteors so it's to come as no surprise that eventually Salamence was banned it enjoyed a brief three months where latias was banned and it ran almost completely unchecked but soon after mentors relegated to ubers where it actually was just the poor man's Rayquaza but before that boy wasn't a Titan generation 5 sauce elements dropped back to overuse something I'm sure it was happy about since no one wants to be just playing second fiddle to rayquaza back in overuse elements expanded its repertory even more with the second incredible ability you thought luring attack was good how about raising attack after every single ko that's right salamence got moxie which it didn't really need honestly but all right whatever Game Freak well maybe a dead a little bit with almost every dragon type in existence back in overuse plus the new threat of hydreigon Salamence faced stiff competition hydreigon and latias were the premier Draco meteor users while Garchomp handled offense quite well it was Moxie that really sets elements apart now bringing his choice car set to the four Salamis was an incredible revenge killer that also doubled as a sweeper powering through the endgame with outrage and increasing attack booths Dragon Claw lets Salomon's be somewhat relevant in every game if needed an earthquake fire blasts an aqua tail rounded out the set let's not forget that rain was everywhere with black and white two Salamis was able to run Moxie dragon dance and outrage all on one set which was frankly disgusting this set could run intimidate or Moxie and timid a made for easy switch ins and a more guaranteed set up but the power of Moxie jeez that was hard to pass up like choice scarfed this set was pretty simple set up and then kill stuff but with more variable power at this time and of course the classic mix meant makes a return Draco meteor and outrage was just too powerful combination to pass up eating physical walls like hip out on a slow bro for breakfast a full special attacking set was still possible because of Salamis is bulk and the sheer surprise factor you are never gonna see a physical hydreigon or Letty O's buts elements could go either way as always Salamis had no real true counters South rocks were maybe the most reliable thing along with porygon too but even that would lose some mixed moxie sets you get it salamence has no true counter hit powered on Slowbro donphan quakes aren't Cresselia we're all just selling the pokemon that will lose to one set and beat the other special mention has to go to landers t who is amazing in general and also beat physical sets with its own intimidate and to scar me and bronzong who can now be effective counters to almost all sets in the rain checks Ville there are plenty of those man this one was perhaps the best and scissors are returned with a vengeance to beat choice sets Taraki on latias Keldeo and Garchomp all beated as well as the choice attackers but Salomon's continued on its unending rampage through ovaries well salamis wasn't allowed in VGC 2011 it had a few appearances in VGC 12 and 13 but it wasn't close to its singles power enemy Intimidators meant strong physical attackers were frequently neutered and while Salomon's packed its own intimidate the VGC 22 a meta game revolved around the Dragons that did something better than Salomon's Larry Olsen hi dragon what's more outrageous horribly unreliable meaning salamis would have to go back to gen 3 levels of physical power that said salomon still made some pretty big appearances at Worlds 2012 4th place our Joel Bukowski an 8th place are jumping ama motocross ran it so not too shabby Joe Salomon served the dual role of Draco meteor spammer and Intimidator Joe chose this specifically to partner with excadrill who needed defense from fighting in ground types to pull off his sweep but it's salamence could sweep as well with his hard-hitting fire blast jump ace elements on the other hand was made specifically to counter labios with a scarf attached to outspeed them and hit hard both teams did well only falling to eventual winner who else ray Rizal in bracket what salamis was still a niche pick used for both intimidate and dragon typing but not being the best at it either come BGC 2013 landers theory and had taken over the Intimidator spot on pretty much every team and Salomon fell out of favor the incredible power of so many mega Pokemon puts elements out of favor for much of XY as did the advent of fairy types who ate up its outrage like nothing and said calm down son why are you so angry but Omega Ruby and alpha sapphire gave salamence a mega evolution of its own and oh boy is it a doozy mega salamence was actually immediately quick banned from over as overuse that's how disgustingly strong it was while Salamis has enjoyed a large move flow for a long time and never had a strong flying types tab enter aerial light suddenly double-edge isn't effectively based 234 attack coming off of a 145 attack and if you didn't want the recoil you could always go with return which was only a bit weaker sure fairy types could stop outrage but how above those flying-type moves that in itself is scary but let's not forget that mega salamence also had 130 defense 120 speed access to dragon dance and intimidated before evolution to set up easier counters were liable to get mutilated it was really a no brainer to throw this thing into ubers where it's a niche pick due to a weakness to stomp rocks in a meta where most Pokemon don't have time to remove hazards when Salomon's is used it almost exclusively runs dragon dance which combined with roost makes for one hell of a bulky sweeper that bulk was part of the reason it got banned in the first place and it used it in uber stew to tank ho-oh most frequently uber Salim has frequently ran double-edge alongside earthquake and sometimes facade and because banded ho-oh is so common Salomon's can eat a burn and suddenly spam facade for a no recoil huge Power Move even roosting off the damage but mega salamence is hard to use in ubers aside from that stealth rocks weakness it faces multiple problems in the form of lugia Arceus rock Dialga zekrom and many other pokemon that can take its punches and fire back and there were always the ice moves too but yeah this thing is gross and in doubles well actually before we talk about mega salamence and doubles we need to take a trip back to before or res and discuss regular settlements pgc 2014 is actually the best year for settlements ever due in large part to the limitation to the Kalos decks which still included many Pokemon settlements does well against but tossed out Landers team Salamis became by far the best intimidate user in the game and I said that became all the more valuable with mega Kangaskhan tearing up the game Salamis was featured on a large amount of successful teams throughout the season including Marcus status winning team at Germany Nationals ray Rizal's winning team in Massachusetts Michael Lanza knows team from Georgia and Ben irons and Kansas all three of the top teams that Massachusetts had immense by the time Worlds rolled around mint was still good but the meta had shifted notably kangaskhan had fallen out of favor and mega Mawile was the hot new thing along with Garchomp and Tyranitar mega Mawile in fact hard countered settlements due to hyper cutter it wouldn't suffer from intimidate even if free to transform and wreak havoc however the one high places elements user at Worlds was Jody Asura le who took his double dragon team shoutouts to jump a Yamamoto all the way to grants where Salamis was promptly foiled by a certain legendary electric rodent and while Salamis had his mega evolution as soon as VG see 2015 lander risk was back as well mega salamence was okay for most of VGC 2015 if still outclass as a pure Intimidator alberto lara even won both SoCal and Utah regionals with it and it was in three top eight teams at US Nationals mega salamence proved the terrifying double attacker where Salamis was finally able to utilize his physical attack as well as its special attack error light hyper voice and double edge let's aliments choose whether it wanted discussing spread damage or discussing single target damage and it could still fall back on Draco meteor if necessary but when worlds came along again chalk had come to town and Landorus was the Intimidator of choice on every top aid team salamis was still around in fact knife player Gennaro Vallejo finish just outside top cut using one but the metagame had been solved in large part and it didn't include mints luckily for Solomon's change was in the air in a meta game of primals Solomon's could actually keep its own fairly well again in fair part due to intimidate but also because it could outrun mega rayquaza thus being an amazing check for one of the most fearsome pokemon in the game so it was VGC 2016 where Salomon's returned to prominence and made its way back into top 8 2016 revolved largely around what combinations of primals you were using fifth and six places aaron trailer and justin Karras were able to run without mega Rayquaza because mega salamence served as a counter freeing up their team for other pokemons such as amoonguss Amir Goins earnings but it was wolf Glick and Marcus status ride shoe and hitmontop team that made the biggest splash that worlds and that's it so how good was salamence actually surprising to no one it was amazing Salamence has been overused and even uber since its release and even when it did dropped her under use it still has a mega evolution that stays in overs to this day it's one of the only Pokemon to make a mixed set work at a very top level and its unpredictability bolstered by incredible stats ability typing and move pull have guaranteed it will always be used it's hard to think of a pokemon more versatile and imagine not too long ago it was just a bag on wishing it could fly thanks for watching everyone and as always if you liked the video and you want to see more be sure to subscribe to false wipe 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 to the patrons for continued support of our videos and thank you to everyone watching as well [Music] and follow my career on these social media platforms yada yada yada and that's all I got see you next time everyone [Music] [Music] you

Channel: False Swipe Gaming

Views: 1,253,501

Keywords: Pokemon, Pokemon Go, Salamence, Mega Salamence, Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Black, White, Pokemon X, Pokemon Y, Pokemon Sun, Pokemon Moon, Pokemon Ultra Moon, Pokemon Ultra Sun, Competitive Pokemon, VGC, Smogon, False Swipe Gaming

Id: 68f94z9kJWs

Length: 17min 28sec (1048 seconds)

Published: Sun May 13 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/6poon_slayer9]

Lol no surprise that has always been a beast

[u/Kingnewgameplus]

Can't wait for the 30 minute video on lando-t

[u/arathergenericgay]

a fucking monster in every generation, wall breaker, physical sweeper, defensive set up, intimidate for forcing switches, a fantastic mega

[u/lil-Kidney]

Croissant boi fucks everyone in the ass.

[u/TheMuon]

Mega Salamence: the Superman of Pokémon.

[u/TheMajesticMrL]

I love this Pokemon. It's probably my most used Mega in anything. I commonly bring my Salamence to Tree when I feel like battling there.

[u/fullmetal_jack]

I'm so glad he addressed the color-changing thing. Salamence's indigo and orange color scheme looks way cooler to me too.

[u/PKMNtrainerKing]

You'll never see a physical Hydreigon

That's where you're wrong, kiddo

[u/[deleted]]

Best Dragon type besides Garchomp.

Change my mind.