How GREAT was Ferrothorn ACTUALLY? - History of Ferrothorn in Competitive Pokemon

foreign [Music] yeah uh no I'm not pronouncing it like that for an hour straight for this video we're going with how most fans pronounce it which is ferrothorne not for raw Thorn well all right here we go presenting another false white gaming film Thera Thorns Tango a seven hour Hungarian epic directed by Bella Tyranitar today we're finally going over ferrothorne first introduced in Pokemon Black and White ferrothorne is unofficially the reason most pokemon players are familiar with what a durian plant is and is undoubtedly a massive help to anyone who has ever had to remember what the word Ferris means it's thorny pods would also definitely give a new meaning to pod racing if it were ever to appear in a Star Wars prequel today we're going to examine how ferrothorne performed in the competitive scene where its metal spikes as piercing as they appear or does its flattened look really tell the story we find out today because we finally asked how great was pharah Thorne actually oh man buckle up because we got what is basically a feature-length film ahead of us and I know I'm fiending for more films after exhausting the catalog on my us Netflix if only I could just obtain more content oh wait I can because this biopic is sponsored by surfsharkvpn surfshark is an app and browser extension that allows you to place your computer or phone virtually in any country as if you're actually there starstrike has 3200 plus servers in 65 countries and by using surf shark to connect to servers in other countries you can get access to content that is normally region luck for example something I used it for was to re-watch every single Spider-Man live action film yes even those two to maximize my future Spider-Man no way home experience unfortunately when I searched it on Netflix and Disney Plus in the us both Toby and Andrew's films were nowhere to be found thanks to surfsharkvpn I'm able to Simply connect to a server in Canada to watch Canadian Netflix which for some reason has every single Spider-Man live action films of course being a VPN surf shark encrypts your data and keeps it safe when connected to it no matter where you are this comes especially handy when connecting to public Wi-Fi surf shark is also the only VPN service to let you use one account on unlimited devices which is quite nice since I now have it on my phone my tablet my laptop and both of my editing computers so if you want a sick VPN and also support the channel to help us produce more content you can use my promo code false swipe and get surfsharkvpn at 83 off and three extra months for free and in this video we'll be going over these competitive formats ferrothorne was instantly one of the best new Pokemon introduced by generation 5 ever since day one and never missed the steps it's unprecedented typing was incredible packing a plethora of crucial rarely seen together resistances being able to answer both water and dragon moves was nearly non-existent before but here ferrothorne was it also packed an incredible electric resistance and just as importantly a neutrality to ice making it the most perfect water type counter ever designed dominating the likes of Starmie and Gyarados in ways no Pokemon had before additionally it boasted the achievement of almost single-handedly knocking suicune previously a three-time OU Titan down to UU for the first time Farah Throne being a defensive steal that was neutral to earthquake was incredible as well and being a defensive grass neutral to Flying and Bug had lots of use too the two typings just complemented each other perfectly ferathar wasn't going to be easy to wear down passively either thanks to its engine incredible immunity to Sandstorm toxic and leech seed as well as its Stealth Rock resistance that same Rock resistance allowed it to shrug off powerful Stone edges and it was afforded an amazing resistance to dark as well letting it take both Choice band Tyranitar stab moves with ease these resists were complemented perfectly by its Incredible Book and support movepool Ferrothorn easily switched into several of the scariest moves in the game from Draco meteors to rain boosted Hydro pumps and proceeded to do whatever its team needed which usually involve irritating the Daylights out of the opponent it could get a Stealth Rock it could easily stack multiple layers of spikes it could weaken the opponents while keeping itself healthy with leech seed potentially accentuated by protect it could even spread paralysis with Thunder Wave ferrothorne was no weak passive wall either with a great base attack stat and two high-powered steps with useful coverage and power Whip and gyro ball ferrothorne could hit back and hit back hard additionally thanks to its amazing ability iron barbs it could even play offense while on defense it was able to punish like U-turn and Rapid spin beautifully sometimes even choosing to take it one step further by holding a rocky helmet though it usually enjoyed the longevity of leftovers recovery Pharaoh throwing was a big reason why spice teams didn't need to run a ghost site for Rapid City protection nearly as much as in the previous generation sure it hurt that the Roto appliances were no longer Ghost type but it almost didn't matter as farothor completely dominated the previous best spinner around Starmie and with iron barbs chipped it for even attempting to spin at all with the power of ferrothorne both as a Spiker and an all-walling Behemoth Spike's teams became incredibly powerful and meta game defining whether on offense balance stall rain sand or weatherless the only sound that just about never used ferrothorne was sun which was understandable given that grass types they used were their offensive chlorophyll sweepers such as Venusaur and salzbuck no matter where further wound up it was amazing its passive damage was accentuated more on Sand but its fire weakness was significantly diluted on rain to the point where leech seed and leftovers were often out heal the flimsy hidden power fires aimed at it faratorn made for incredible defensive combinations with other bulky Pokemon the ferrothorne Jellison core otherwise known as ferriscent was an instant classic for the pair's ability to completely devour each other's weaknesses while jealous said provided extra insurance against rapid Spin and the two were both excellent against the Reign teams that were everywhere Pharaoh Thorn and heat Ram were similarly excellent and heat ran to get a roxo ferathon could focus on spiking and leasing everything in sight and those were mainly for sand teams the combination of ferrothorne and Rain dish Tentacruel under Reign gave everyone who faced them a nightmare as they were both unkillable and dished out of surely suffocating passive damage ferrothorne didn't just make great defensive pairings either its spikes were great at making offensive teammates like Latios even more threatening while ferathon was the perfect defensive fallback for those offensive pokes to switch to when forced out by a Revenge killer sure ferrothorne wasn't Immortal it had its weak points that could be exploited mostly being vulnerable to Magnezone but there was a reason it was always at the very top of usage that it didn't matter how predictable ferrothorne was what it brought to the table was so ridiculously good that it was always going to be a consistent performer game in and game out and that was just black and white one two ferrothorne managed to become even better when Black and White 2 arrived sure the addition of Kelly Omen ferrothorne wasn't as lights out against Reign anymore but it worked the other way too kelodeon was also another offensive Pokemon Who Loved pharah Thorne's Spike support and breaking down several of his checks the main reason ferrothorne got better in Black and White 2 though was because it could now legally use all three of Stealth Rock spikes and leech seed on the same set whereas it had been limited to two of the three in black and white one while sand team still preferred the Spike's leech C protect set this change allowed it to compress an absolute ton of utility into one slot on offensive Reign teams which became even more threatening than ever as the metaging continued to develop years after generation 5 was in the past users of rain teams came to a stunning realization leech seed ferathorn was genuinely impossible to switch into safely for them and K owing it was a stylishingly difficult as well many games involve Politoed and tenor Crow praying for a burn as they scalded it repeatedly hoping they wouldn't be killed by power whip first and no matter the result one player was going to be seriously unhappy the RNG didn't go their way the only Pokemon that could switch into lychee that actually fit on these Reign teams was either poison heal brellu which was difficult to fit and was often redundant with pharah Thorne or well their own ferrothorne which was far far more common what happens in a feral on Pharaoh battle maximum hazards are set then they play a game of chicken to see who's going to switch out first neither of them is going to want anything else on their team to switch into Leach seed with maximum hazards up but they also don't want to run out of leech seed PP but they also can't spam attacks at each other because of iron barbs so they just Spam hazards and try to figure out when to best switch out it's incredibly awkward this problem was eventually solved by using a move that was previously immensely overlooked Naka the move was still weak in generation 5 but its usage in Generation 6 had caused Gen 5 players to recap consider it as they began to see the power of the item removing effect yes folks that is what rain offense became the only way such teams could counter lychee ferrothorne was by switching to their own ferrothorne and using knockoff they would still get into a maxed out Hazard war and subsequent game of chicken but at least the opposing ferrothorne would be severely hindered for the rest of the game as its survivability was noticeably decreased without leftovers as a result ferrothorne's new standard set on these teams was the same just with knockoff over leech see knockoff was of course a great move even when the opponent didn't have ferrothorne and as such sand teams with ferrothorne began using the move as well even if their great longevity meant they didn't need to the opposing Pharaoh Thorn at all costs it was still valuable for its permanent effect against something like heat ran San ferrothorne stopped using leech C2 there were just too many games where it didn't do enough instead it started experimenting with worry scene whose effect of changing the opponent's ability to insomnia had several useful applications it ruined obnoxious poison hill brelund thinking that it had a free switch in it was similarly useful for Gliscor and reunicus and it even followed ferrothorne to escape from Magnuson allowing it to set up hazards without worrying about being trapped at least once ferrothorne could really do whatever it wanted it could even go offensive no not Choice band that set was surprisingly Adept but saw a little serious tournament use though it's shockingly powerful jarobald destroyed many unsuspecting resistant targets such as Lucario ferrothorne was still a tremendous defensive and support Pokemon even with no bulk investment Beyond maximum HP and it seemed that everyone dealt with it by burning it rain teams did sold through scald while many sand teams employed the particularly popular strategy of Willow Whispering it with rodemwash allowing extra drill to keep hazards off against ferrothorne more reliably now ferrothorne was so good that it usually excelled even when taking burns on a regular basis however some players had experimented with pairing Pharaoh Thor with another grass type poison heal Breloom or a Mungus designed to absorb burns from water types significantly increasing ferrothorne's longevity and reliability it was a successful strategy on Spike's balance but not one well suited for more aggressive offensive team so on teams such as rain offense territory began using an atom in nature with heavy attack investment and equipped itself with a lumbery now I would Devour the burn from Rotom and power whip it into Oblivion while being similarly threatening against polytoned antenna cruel that dared stay in on it and a boosted power whip really slammed even bulky extra drill it wasn't going to have perfect Longevity if it was burned anyway so the loss of leftovers wasn't too much of a problem since this ferrothorne was meant for use on highly aggressive teams and even without leftovers or bulk Beyond Max HP it could still easily perform its usual duties of getting hazards switching into Pokemon like Latios and of course knocking off other ferrothorne all while counteracting one of the few popular methods that had traditionally been used to deal with it all in all ferrothorne was perhaps the single most significant new Pokemon introduced by generation 5. sure there were plenty of other excellent candidates several of which were banned to Ubers but none of them had the nearly endlessly vast utility of ferrothorne even drizzle Politoed had trouble matching ferrothorne's sheer level of influence sure it was rain but ferrothorne fit Beyond rain ferrothorne defined generation 5 oh you like nothing else and completely changed the game ferrothorne certainly didn't stop at OU though on day one it also established itself as one of the best Pokemon in Ubers with its resist Laden typing huge bulk and access to spikes it was almost as if it had been designed for the tier it was an incredible answer to none other than Kyogre and loved partnering with it as well it could easily come in on Thunders aimed at ogre to stack spikes or harass the opponent with leech seat and appreciated ogre's Reign reducing its fire weakness additionally Ferrothorn wasn't only a reliable absorber of the metagame's many Dragon moves it was one of a mere two Pokemon in the tier to resist both of zekrom's Mighty stats and it was far bulkier than xcadrill fairathor wasn't only good on rain either sure the Pharaoh cruel combination wreaked havoc on Ubers as well but also like an OU Pharaoh Thorne's incredible utility made it an incredible addition to just about any of the Spike's balance teams that dominated the tier be they Reign sun or sand it was astonishingly possibly even more consistent than an OU would be foils such as magnazone and reuniclist were non-existent in Ubers while ladios ran solo instead of choice items and thus did not pack trick ferrothorne performed on a game-to-game basis with unmatched reliability in addition to countering monsters such as Kyogre and Zekrom ferrothorne even staved off many variants of none other than Arceus including the extreme killer and that just about says it all and ferrothorne could simply do no wrong in generation 5. ferrothorne is quite the Curious beat in doubles while its Swiss Army arsenal of Entry hazards and residual damage make it a formidable singles presence it's common knowledge that VGC is a faster paced metagame where ferrothorne's value as a pivot isn't as necessary although VGC squads consist of six Pokemon you still have to consider how the Pokemon will function when it eventually hits the field in a four mod formation and Pharaoh Thorne simply takes up a lot of real estate for a Pokemon whose claim to fame is doing nothing however the same restricted team size is what gives farathorne its own Niche with only four Pokemon to contend with Fair Thorn is more likely than usual to serve as a strict roadblock to the opponent's team in this way ferrothorne can paradoxly become even more potent than in singles as a strict win con achievable through just minor maneuvering with only four Pokemon on the opponent's side if you knock out the Pharaoh Thorn answers and have got the spike ball in the back the game is as good as one it let at least seat up and win the game really fair Thorn is basically ninja that's just how polarizing the matchup can be if you brought this thing against an ill-prepared team get ready to see them quake in their boots theratharine itself has had pretty much one set throughout the years with some notable exceptions we'll get to later leech seed protect gyro ball and power whip in the early days you mostly saw it with leftovers for additional longevity and its EVS were spread for maximum survivability all the better to sell out the game with its offensive presence was also not to be scoffed at although it was of course at its best with trick room support from mods such as Cresselia and the like because Pharaoh Thorn itself didn't change much its users was highly dependent on the metagame surrounding it as a Pokemon whose number one priority was simply to not be knocked out ferrothorne's viability was often inverse to the presence of its only two weaknesses fighting and fire types if the opponent was likely to have something that could deal heavy damage to ferrothorne putting it on your team was basically committing to very heavy dead weight so in a fighting heavy meta game like 2011 ferrothorne was an awful Choice while in 2012 it was slightly more prevalent in general there are a few common meta trends that Define ferrothorne throughout its entire lifespan as in singles it functions very well in rain and sand for obvious reasons but it's also one of the the best rain counters out there due to his natural resistances and ability to obliterate water types even with minimal investment let's not forget that it's got a surprisingly High attack stat to back up those power whips in a similar vein ferrothorne is arguably the best road and watch counter in existence and has been since it first emerged a great title to have since rotonwash itself is often ubiquitous finally verathorn is a good tank against Dragon moves though it had to be wary of stray fire blast from the likes of high dragon all of this combined made 2012 a more hospitable environment although ferrothorne certainly still wasn't taking the World by storm it was a man you absolutely had to be prepared for but the general sentiment was that Pharaoh Thorn was something of a gatekeeper for nukes if you had it marked off quote unquote Ferra Thor encounter on your team building checklist you simply hadn't put in the work considering how easy it was to slap a hidden power fire or some other coverage on any given Pokemon that said one trainer gave ferrothorne results to be proud of Luke Swenson who did well with Ferrothorn at fall regions and eventually took it all the way to top 8 of the U.S Nationals Luke's farrothorne was box standard but he built his regionals team purely around eliminating ferrothorne threats trademarked that one and saw good results however it was by actually reducing ferrothorne to a more role player that Luke found his National success acknowledging that pharah Thorne's mere presence on a team Sheet was enough to give the opponent second thoughts that said we should still acknowledge some of his feral Tech again let's copyright that namely a Sableye would prankster burn and trick lagging tail to let ferrothorne move first as well as intimidated support from Gyarados however Ben was really the only player to make farathon work in 2012 and while it wasn't an uncommon sight to see pop up the rest were often co-signed to a Tulsi exit as soon as they appear 2013 made way for a select few more ferrothorne players Miguel Martin de la Torre gave it an 8th Place finish at the Milan Nationals and two ferrothorns popped up in top 16 of Australian Nationals courtesy of Marcus Raj and the eventual Champion Ben Kilby Ben's rain-based ferrothorne team may have taken home the Australian top honors but the same Squad finished just 44th at Worlds stymied by a spread of heat Rands and volcaronos that made firethorne's life very very hard at this point we should also mention that Pharaoh Thorn faced stiff competition from a Mungus as a fellow grass type ferrothorne finished Gen 5 mostly a doubles afterthought something to keep your eye out for but nowhere near the universal usage it saw in singles therathorne wasn't too popular in the early stages of xyo many players viewed it as not much more than a spikes machine and with generation 6's the fog buff spikes as a whole just about disappeared from the metagame and as such sold in ferrothorne however it didn't take too long before players remembered that ferrothorne had one of the most astonishing defensive profiles in the game and quickly put it to use at first it didn't even bother using hazards it simply used leech seat protect and its stab moves and was incredibly effective at Walling enormous portions of the metagame even countering most variants of the terrifying future Ubers Asia slash and Greninja Greninja didn't start running hidden power fire until ferrothorne came around and even then not all variants did plus those that did run a hidden power fire would have their overall coverage severely given how specific the move was thus even when Pharaoh Thorn itself couldn't answer Greninja it still managed to make Greninja worse additionally ferathor was generally far less threatened by hidden power fire from other Pokemon like Latios and Magnuson thanks to the move's base powered Nerf sure pharathon didn't love that it's still typing no longer resisted dark and ghosts but it also gained an immensely useful resist to the new fairy type allowing ferrothorne to switch in against the many moonblasts and play roughs flying around it could also switch in with ease against the increasingly popular poison and steel moves aimed at these same fairy types then oras came around and the player base realized that spikes were so excellent by virtue of pharaoh Thorne having approximately a million opportunities to switch in per game and the fact that the defoggers really weren't that reliable put simply if one relied on the fog to deal with spikes ferrothorne would ruin them sticking around forever with leach seed and removing leftovers of knockoff Spike stacking teams came to dominate the metagame and ferrothorne usage exploded now it wasn't always the Spiker since Skarmory was also great but ferrothorne was deaf hopefully the easier Pokemon to slot on a team thanks to its amazing defensive profile what's forcibly shaped the metagame it forced Mega Metagross to run Hammer arm or pair with magnazone if it didn't want to be hopelessly walled while famed balance breaker tailglow manify was forced to compromise its coverage with hidden power fire if it wanted to actually break the balance teams Pharaoh Thorn anchored so reliably ferathar wasn't only an amazing defensive Pokemon it also paired well with other amazing defensive Pokemon such as clefable Gliscor and megalatias forming excellent bulky cores that covered each other's weaknesses with the plum while wearing the opposition down through residual damage which of course included ferrothorne's spikes and leeches accentuated further by its knockoffs Pharaoh Thorne was a beacon of flexibility consistency and reliability Plus for all its offensive Powers a fit on offensive teams beautifully as well after all the tools it provided were highly aggressive ones that fast-paced threats love being paired with and to provide such tools while having such a valuable defensive profile was just wonderful rocks and spikes knock off leash seat Thunder Wave actually hard-hitting stats that threatened heavy damage even chaos against common offensive Pokemon even those with solid natural bulk to them like caldeo to play defense against some of the scariest Pokemon around without being passive and to aggressively support without losing defensive value Pharaoh Thorne could really do it all even its weaknesses could be taken advantage of using magazone to remove ferrothorne oops Mega Alakazam just traced magnapole and set up six combines alternatively feral Thorne would knock off magnazone's scarf and then a teammate like Mega Metagross would go berserk seeing as how many teams relied on magnazone to remove Pharaoh Thorn since ferrothorne effortlessly walled so much this was potentially game breaking and it's just one anti-ferrothorne poke that ferrothorne could easily take its Advantage this was the mark of a truly Elite Pokemon it was almost without drawback as long as it was used conscientiously therathorne's Range was nearly Limitless it just depended on what its team and its user wanted it to do remove the abilities glycolor clefable and even magnazone relied on worry seed had that covered needing to act actually hit clefable without the easily stalled gyro ball sure just tack on Iron Head instead some players really got extreme with their experimentation even the likes of explosion toxic and rest saw the briefest of uses the best part was no matter how wacky you got ferrothorne was still going to perform in pretty much every game it was gonna get hazards and it was gonna shrug off Draco meter and it was gonna be annoying in about six other ways too as such barrathorne was one of the most defining superb Pokemon in Generation 6 oh you it could and did do it all and it did it over and over and over again even when you knew it was coming in fact it sometimes counted on you knowing it was coming and that was something it could count on pretty much every time Pharaoh Thorne wasn't as outright dominant in Gen 6 Ubers it had Direct competition as a defensive spiking Steel type with klefki who had the invaluable trait of being the best check to the most monstrous Pokemon in the game Xerneas however faradthorne was still thoroughly excellent as it could do one crucial thing klefki couldn't dream of answer Kai Kyogre this was key in early XY when Spec's Kyogre was everywhere and became even more key in oraz when Primal Kyogre joined The Fray Additionally the lady twins regained the soldier they'd been missing in XY and became both top defoggers and offensive threats Pharaoh Thorne of course ruined them on both fronts what else did Pharaoh Thorne take on oh just Arceus no big deal Not only was it solid at managing the e-killer and combine variants ferrothorne also took advantage of the weak passive to fog Arceus forms like nothing else if you were relying on the fog Arceus to keep your side of the field free from spikes barathon was gonna make you pay for it as if all that wasn't enough ferrothorne also stifled several other threats such as Mega Kangaskhan helped pivot around monstrously powerful moves like Deoxys attacks psycho boost and Mega Mewtwo y's side strike and was annoying to pretty much everything just by spamming leech seed given the tears lack of immunities and could act as an excellent lure to threats like Ho-Oh and Primal Groudon with toxic so at the end of the day yes therathorne wasn't as outright dominant as it had been in generation 5 Ubers but it was still absolute Elite imagine that being this good and Ubers of all tears was actually a step down for ferrothorne what a monster Generation 6 brought with it a major realignment of power first to fairy types and secondly to the newly amped Mega Evolution as luck would have it both were just the thing ferrothorne needed to find a place in the VGC metagame its proficiency at checking fairies should be self-evident but its place in the mega meta may take a bit more explanation throughout 2014 there were three Mega Pokemon that absolutely dominated the game Kangaskhan Mawile and Charizard Y in that order ferrothorne coincidentally has a match-up spread against those megas that follows exactly that order incredible against Kangaskhan okay against mod while and a total liability against zard ferrothorne greatly appreciated the physical heavy metal game which gave it a chance to get involved past being a late game wincon in the back Mega Kangaskhan had to think twice about attacking it to a potential ferrothorne slot which when considering a rocky helmet and iron Barb's combo was likely to tear up King's mitts just from The Recoil damage while similarly didn't appreciate ferrothorne's physical prowess however Mawile posed other problems for ferrothorne as a potential competitor for a Steel type slot on the team and with Charizard Y and Talonflame running around there were certainly plenty of fiery threats to Pharaoh thread's continued presence on the field Ferry types decreased fighting types usage and increase fire type presence fire had a good matchup against fairies and against the steel types that beat them such as maw wild Aegislash and of course ferratory while ferrothorne loved to see a rodent wash the same could it be said for Rotom heat who was its worst nightmare in team preview other than Charizard and heat ran of course however it's sheer usefulness against 2014's top dog made ferrothorne a very useful Pokemon to have on a team if other parts of your team can handle Charizard and manetric or whatever other Mega Pokemon there might be ferrothorne was a potentially indispensable aid for Kangaskhan and still quite capable of being a win Con on its own the first player to show ferrothorne's potential was none other than three-time champ Ray Rizzo who piloted his ferrothorne to a win at the very first regionals of the format in Virginia in typical Rey fashion he Innovative and Eevee spread that would shake up the metagame for months to come although in this case it wasn't putting defensive EVS on a defensive Pokemon it was putting offensive EVS on a defensive Pokemon Ray's significant attack investment and lumbery alongside ferrothorne's Brave Nature Made in an even more incredible rodent washcounter as it can now tank a willowist and pick up a one-hit KO in return this was important as Roden watch was even more prevalent because well because it was pretty good at what Pharaoh Thorne did too namely checking physical attackers that's why Rey had one on his team after all Rotom and Pharaoh had excellent Synergy typing wise and in their ability to totally stall while opposing physical threats and it was rare to see ferrothorne without one Rey's Eevee spread and lumbery were quick to catch on although you'd still see Rocky Helmet or a defensive build sometimes as well Ray's victory in Virginia pretended quite a few significant ferrothorne placements down the road Winter Regional saw a collective five Pharaoh Thorns among the top eight of four different tournaments credit to Scott glaza Casey Trevor and Paul hornack in Missouri Salem and Long Beach respectively and to Rey and Steve Scruggs in Orlando where Rey took Fifth and Stephen notched a silver medal finish farther hovered at about a 10 usage for most of the season and while it wasn't meta defining it was certainly a frequent sight in top H even in other regions another five ferrothorne players made top eight at the Battle Road Gloria qualifiers in Japan across three tournaments spring regionals showcased more of the same with another five pharaohs in top eight Jason already winja took seventh in Seattle while Trista ryuzaki Midian finished eighth in Madison and special notice has to be paid to Athens Georgia where Ed Glover Daniel Bird and Andre Alta were able to come together to give ferrothorne three Replacements in one top eight so certainly an improvement from about three top eights in total the year prior as worlds approached parathorne uses slightly drop but it was still putting up some good results then kiriko placed 8th at the Italy Nationals using a ferrothorne heavily inspired by race farrothorne also saw a significant play in the oceanic region although by this point you should know that we don't have full names for results for some results in this region nevertheless less you can see from the results that ferrothorne was quite prevalent down under including at Australian Nationals where you can tell that ashbekar gave it fifth place and Michael warzicki took home a silver medal however there wasn't a single Pharaoh Thorn to be seen at the U.S Nationals top eight a sign of things to combat world you see by Worlds players had caught on to the fact that Kangaskhan was dominating The Meta and everyone and their mother came prepared with its counters while age slash and yeah ferathor so what we actually saw was a decent amount of ferrothorne play but with not incredible results because with fewer kangaskhans farrothorne did worse and the truly perceptive players were already one step of the adaptation bringing excessive coverage for the mod was than you would be coming which happened to also handle ferrothorne pretty well the highest place in ferrothorne player at Worlds was Ben kiriko who had shifted his parathorn to be in his words quote less of an offensive Pokemon necessarily and more of a win condition that attacks things end quote then Place 15 and while five other players brought ferrothorne they all placed outside of the top 16. however Fair reports less than Stellar performance at world didn't prevent players from bringing it to the last events of the format and because 2014 took so long to end players got to try on one more set of fall regionals with the same meta game where true to form further found itself as a minor member of multiple topics credit to anosher car's third place in Philadelphia Javier Madrid's fourth in Phoenix and Colton Library 7th in San Jose finally Guan Yang Zi also known as level 51 gave farrothorne a nice send-off to 2014 by winning the Singapore Asia Cup qualifier with the same ferrothorne spread Ben carico had brought to World albate with leftovers instead of Rocky helmet unfortunately for ferrothorne 2015 turned up the heat reintroducing heat ran Volcarona chandelor and Entei as well as establishing new threats such as Mega camera nevertheless some players continue to use ferrothorne and it remained the somewhat common sight in Regional Top 8. Sporting exactly the same set as before take a look at winter regionals and you'll see the same patterns as previously about one Pharaoh thorn in each top eight whether it was Amar bags Mega camera team or Russians to cars Mega Kangaskhan special mention however to Alberto Lara who showed that pharah Thorne could function in unexpected conditions by winning California regionals with a hyper offensive team that made use of mega Salamence and sylveon's dual spread moves to clear a path for ferathor therathor continued to pop up in other Regional top eights as well whether it was Eden bachelor in the UK Gabriel voon and Joshua pethik and Perth or Joaquin Paige in Mexico City however it was clear that it wasn't as Premier a threat it had been the year prior don't tell that to Alberto though he continued to show how potent ferrothorne could be with an offensive lineup as he was able to win his second Regional the format in Utah with a similar hyper offensive build to his California team Alberto wasn't the only player to give ferrothorne a first place finish Joaquin capozano also managed to put together a gold medal run at Mexico City's second regionals after he had used the same team to play second and few months prior phara Thorne also made a couple of national appearances Brandon Webb gave it a sixth place finish in Australia and Jamie Miller took seventh in the UK but more telling was the amount of fair Thorns that place outside of top eight people were still occasionally using it but struggled to find the same success they had that Trend held true going into Worlds where despite four finishes in the top 32 there wasn't a single Pharaoh thorn in the top 16. cementing 2015 as one of ferrothorne's more fallow years results-wise the weather Wars that dominated 2016 made for quite a polarizing environment for ferrothorne on the one hand you had Kyogre the greatest partner that ferrothorne could ever hope for a bull worked against potential fire types and a terrifying mod in its own right and then of course there was Groudon while Groudon was a big threat to ferrothorne the sun honestly wasn't as bad as you might think chances are if ferrothorne was getting hit by a fire move it was already dead to rights anyways that said ferrothorne still did not appreciate staring down a Groudon it also has to be said that Pharaoh Thorne was an excellent answer to Xerneas who was of course one of the most dominant Pokemon of the format and it didn't do too shabby against Rayquaza either making it a powerful answer to Ray ogre teams in its own right as well as a powerful asset to them as you might expect most Fair 13s were deployed on Kyogre team and it was able to put up a good scattering of results across all regions with the two highest placings being Joshua's callister's second place at Adelaide regionals and urate nunez's second in Italian Nationals but still no gold medal to call its own shout outs to the Icona class who are actually able to make ferrothorne without Kyogre including Brandon Miller's 7th place at Adelaide regionals Joseph dos 4th and Sydney Daniel Bobby lays third in Perth and Stefan smigock's eighth place at U.S Nationals at Worlds Pharaoh Thorns only recorded finish was Matthew suchodolski's 16th Place but it found a nice epilogue to its Gen 6 performance after world when Mattheus was able to give the same team a first place finish at the Dortmund Regional meaning Pharaoh Thorne at least got to take one gold medal home in every year of generation six so not bad for a man that used to be known as a new Buster Pharaoh Thor more or less reprized his Gen 6 role in gen 7. it went through some major changes but the overall role wound up essentially the same first the negative changes ferrothorne was now threatened as a defensive Pokemon than it ever had been before by the addition of Z moves whose Z crystals also allowed their holders immunity to ferrothorne's knockoff its Thunder Wave was less threatening as well with the Nerf to the speed drop and accuracy however annoying though these Nerfs were they were almost unnoticeable in comparison to those changes that allowed Pharaoh Thorne to absolutely thrive in OU once again right off the bat several new additions which were instantly among the most popular Pokemon in OU were dealt with in some capacity by ferrothorne it loved the infestation of five new fairy types in magearna and before tapus not only did it resist their fairy stab it resisted their secondary steps too and it hit all of them back hard with the exception of magirona who still didn't take kindly to lychee Sheriff erathorn had to contend with the occasional fighting type coverage but simply being able to fend off the stabs was already huge in helping its team deal with these Pokemon and of course if there was ever a Pokemon that could take a stray super effective hit even one from such powerful threats it was ferrothorne ferrothorne also helped deal with the immensely frightening battle Bond Greninja resisting Hydro pumps and fending up even neutral dark pulses with ease sticking around all game standing as an immovable wall in the face of its attempt to evolve into Ash Greninja speaking of sticking around all game ferrothorne was a big fan of the tapu's existence for another reason it was a major beneficiary of both grassy and Misty terrain the former gave it even more passive damage which was amazing in and of itself and Straits in ferrothorne's power whip while the latter meant ferrothorne didn't have to fear skald Burns that brings us to another excellent Boon gen 7 gave ferrothorne the burn Nerf now Burn only dealt 6.25 as opposed to its previous 12.5 meaning that it wouldn't even out damage leftovers it was effectively Sandstorm this meant that Pharaoh Thorn no longer had to fear being put on a timer if it switched into toxic packs and ate a burn it would truck on almost completely unperturbed speaking of toxic effects the Pharaoh PEX combination quickly became the stuff of nightmares as the two paired for an absolutely nightmarish mishmash of defensive Walling has spam passive damage and self-healing speaking of leech seed there was yet another amazing new Pokemon ferrothorne paired up with beautifully celestila together the two span leech seat to high heaven all over entire opposing teams of course as always though ferrothor was primarily thought of as a defensive Pokemon and did fit perfectly on defensive Spike stacking teams alongside clefable and Gliscor and Mega Latias as it always did it also fit beautifully on offense teams as well it had all sorts of applications from its great useful traits of Hazard pressure and defensive utility to more specific scenarios like knocking off scarf magazine to let fast super power mega Scizor go berserk but nowhere was this more apparent than on Reign teams which experience a Resurgence in gen 7 thanks to peloper gaining drizzle the change in mega mechanics allowing Mega Swamper to instantly gain Swift swim as soon as a mega evolved and the addition of Ash Greninja which was truly monstrous under reign in fact therathorne was immensely useful in keeping Reign teams in check however it was also an indispensable part of their composition they perfectly exemplified whatever throwing brought to offense the easy hazards the necessary backbone against threats like choice scarf tapu Lele packing hazards not only did the usual job of making further's teammates like the ever you turning and Vault switching tapu Coco more threatening in battle but it also did so by letting them run more threatening sets there are Thorn taking on Hazard Duty meant Mega Swampert didn't need to run Stealth Rock and more commonly and importantly it meant Ash Greninja didn't need to run spikes allowing it to fit Ice Beam into its move set and making it even more terrifying when it could no longer be checked by the likes of tank growth and top of Lulu once again ferrothorne could and did do it all this extended to luring its answers too this was most commonly seen on Reign teams where it sometimes slotted in thunderwave to ruin tornado styrion switchings but the most outrageous example came in how farrothorne dealt with Cortana Cortana was well regarded precisely for how well Z Crystal and choice bench that switched into ferathor it walled most ferrothorne variants threatened ferrothorne with damage and could defog away pharah Thorne's Hazard sure ferrothorne could run thunderwave which also hit tornado Sirion and fire types and so on but sometimes this wouldn't work against Cortana such as under Misty terrain or if ferrothorne had been taunted plus thunderwave didn't change the fact that Cortana would be in and be immensely threatening against ferrothorne sometimes a more direct approach was necessary as such on quite a few occasions parathorne did in fact run hidden power fire and it worked and there was a katana on the opposing team it was probably coming in on ferrothorne and if and when it did it was going to get rocked so all in all chalk up the third incredibly successful OU generation for ferrothorne here was a Pokemon who simply could not fail even when running a 60 base power special attack off of one of the weakest special attack stats in the game Generation 7 also saw Ferrothorn achieve immense success in Ubers once again it's resists bulk and movepool were perfectly suited for the tier it started off strong in Sun and Moon and it was great in both offensive and defensive matchups alike in the former it would save off Primal Kyogre newcomer lunala and more while in the latter it would endlessly harass slow bulky teams then Ultra sun and moon came along bringing many monstrous new threats more Shadow not gonna Dell and the crosma dust Mane which could also become Ultra necrozma which is and remains utterly insane so yeah here you're facing meta girls but it also might secretly be and turn into Salamence perhaps game freak's most lunatic decision today anyway these changes were brutal so brutal in fact that they knocked the Deoxys forms out of viability Deoxys whose attack form was one of the most dangerous Uber Pokemon since its Inception in Generation 3 and whose speed form had completely shaped the tears since against Stealth Rock in generation 4. so if Deoxys could no longer hack it did this mean ferrothorne was toast too nope here lies The Secret of ferrothorne no matter how absurdly brutally overpowered a new Pokemon is Pharaoh Thorn almost always keeps it in check it's not as flashy as a Pokemon that out speeds and one-hand kales everything but it is a lot more reliable those resist with that book prove themselves as more durable than any glass Cannon so sure there were these new threats but what Pokemon could withstand the utterly obscene Source dance dust Mane and Ultra necrozma ferrothorne of course it wasn't a hard counter by any means but to Simply Be able to take hits and respond was invaluable in a metagame as hostile and unforgiving as Ubers this was on top of all of its other duties by the way which also included answering the monstrously dangerous immensely popular Arceus ground farrothorne was once again utterly killer in Generation 7 Ubers and yes it was its weakest generation in the tier yet and it still had an incredibly important place in it holding it together against some of the most vicious Pokemon in the entire game who else but ferrothorne ferrothorne wasn't available for VGC 2017 but it made a return in 2018 to cast fear into the hearts of anyone not prepared with a fire move unfortunately for ferrothorne that wasn't a lot of players thanks to the return of the usual thorn in its side Charizard Y heat ran volcarota and Rotom heat luckily for ferrothorne it had an expanded list of good matchups namely the tapus more fairy means more Pharaoh Thorn that is as always the game plan with ferrothorne was mostly to eliminate its threats and then turn it into a win condition it was just a matter of figuring out whether that win condition was worth the team slot 2018 also marked the Advent of choice span ferratory a sneaky set that could annihilate unsuspecting opponents with its surprisingly high power this set replace protect with knockoff and typically chose bulldoze or iron head as their last move though it was mostly filler there made its presence known in special events with top eight placements thanks to Machias caricio Federico and kiso and Juan Pablo narc its first real test came at the Sydney Internationals which was a good barometer for ferrothorne's overall viability a pair of 15th and 25th Place finishes showed that people were still considering ferrothorne as a wincon defensive pivot and check to Reign but it certainly wasn't a preeminent threat nevertheless it continued to show up in top eights around kudos to Diego Paredes Diego Ortiz and Estefan valdo Benito in Latin America while Eric Rios and Stefan SoMo took top 8 at the Malmo regionals and girari Rod theater City took a top eight placement on his own in Costa Mesa the middle of the Season introduced one of ferrothorne's greatest memories disease incineroar well more accurately intimidate incinerary incineroi had been around for a while but as you might know by now intimidate catapulted and Cinderella to the top of usage and just its increased presence was bad news for ferathor it wasn't the worst of the fire type matchups as with iron barbs and floor Blitz recoil and senatoror was signing away a good chunk of its HP bar to take off ferrothorne but it still wasn't a kind sight for ferrothorne nevertheless ferrothorne still managed to keep a grip on some form of relevancy putting up top 8 finishes in Uruguay Hong Kong and the Korean spring League special mention has to go to the Taiwan special event where Wu Chen Lin jieru lujian Ting and tongshi took four of the top eight spots with the exact same team this group of players paired ferrothorne with Mega Aerodactyl and Landers 3. great Partners to remove any pesky fire types Wu Chen and Liu Jing Ting actually went on to take this team to Regionals where Chen took third in Taiwan and Liu Jiang Ting placed fourth in Hong Kong rounding out the list of regional placers where Miguel Marta De la Torre Ivan and ostroza and Eric Rios who took home first place at the extremely stacked dreamhack Valencia however farrothorne didn't make a single appearance at world where the prevalence of its Center Roar and Charizard simply made picking it an innovisable decision to say the least it at least got a consolation prize via a familiar face though Ben carico who actually took second at the Nashville open the gigantic tournament held concurrently with worlds for everyone who didn't make the top cut meaning it was still one of the most stacked tournaments of the year and to make things better Ben did it with banded ferrothorne opting for seed bomb as his last move for extra reliability if you remember Pharaoh thorn in the 2016 meta chances are you've got a pretty good idea of how things played out in 2019. farrothorne like Kyogre ferrothorne no Leica Groudon therathorne good against Xerneas and Rayquaza as always faraththorne often found its way onto Kyogre teams starting with Andrew burley's second place of Philadelphia from there the trend only continued with Melvin kez first place at the katong special event as well as Mara tin Teo and Brian Soul's top eight placements in Malaysia however this go round ferrothorne was actually to put together some International results at least in the sun series when Xerneas was even more prominent Melvin Ked took his Pharaoh into a Seventh Place finish at the Sao Paulo regionals with a zerndon team closely followed by Kyle romanini's Kyogre valtall Perry Alejandra Jimenez used his own zerndon team to get Fair throw in a fifth place finish at the Anaheim regionals Melbourne Internationals and the switch to Moon series saw a temporary dip in Ferrothorn placements but it kept on trucking along after that with good placements such as physics okon's 8th and can and even won a few regionals courtesy of Megan Rattle and Alexander Williams in Berlin Kimo nishimura gave farrothorne another top 8 International appearance with his unusual assault vest set which used an attacking spread of power whip gyroball knockoff and bulldoze other successful ferrothorne users are pictured here as you can see it continued to thrive alongside Kyogre notching up a slew of top eight placements around the world however its absence from the top 16 of Columbus Internationals portended a dearth at Worlds where the lone Ferrothorn placement came at a mediocre 59th Place although in a repeat of the Year prior it took second place at the open tournament happening after worlds courtesy of Adrian Hurley a few players continue to use further Thorn throughout the tail end of the season giving a very similar Arc to years past a sometimes good Pokemon who could rack up impressive placements but never successful at the biggest events of the year and here's a brief digestion of why that may be as we've mentioned ferrothorne really works best as sort of a quote-unquote Checkmate button to your opponent at a Pokemon tournament one win in Swiss can be massive meaning Pharaoh Thorne's ability to get even a couple wins can make it worth bringing however the more players at a tournament the more wins you need and the more players likely to make ferrothorne dead weight in short against a larger field the wins ferrothorne can pull become less impactful and are less likely to happen it's just math oh no the player base cried generation 8's edition of heavy duty boots will make entry hazards obsolete ferrothorne left and used knockoff a knockoff which by the way no longer had immunities seeing as mega stones and Z crystals had also been needed out of the metagame and so had hidden power power for that matter no longer could Pokemon slap on hidden power fire and pathetic attempts to not be permanently ruined by Pharaoh the mighty Pharaoh Peck's Walling combination was back and more obnoxious than ever that said the presence of boots did slow Pharaoh down as it can no longer exert such immense pressure over entire teams whenever it got a free turn however not every Pokemon ran boots and many of those that did namely the incredibly popular mandibuzz were Pharaoh thornbait if a team over relied on using mandibuzz or corvanite to clear hazards Pharaoh Thorne could and did punish them severely it also preyed on the prominence of the Vault switch blocking Groudon types hit powdon rhyperior and seismito speaking of seismo ferrothorne was similar to it and that it was one of the few Pokemon that could at all withstand the mighty Draco vicious vicious rants for this reason it ran a physically defensive spread which also let it take on the popular extra drill much more effectively as well investing in defense had another Boon too ferrothorne had received the amazing body press and can now use its huge defense stat as an offensive weapon in what was perhaps the most perfect encapsulation of the ferrothorne ethos since iron Barb's effect had first been discovered then the Isle of armor came around and the newly introduced your Shifu came to utterly dominate the tear it was nearly impossible to switch into and it's absolutely absurd ability unseen fists meant ferrothorne couldn't even use protect to scout the choice bander's intention the dominance of yoshifu as well as the utterly ridiculous Libro cinderes meant farrothorne wasn't going to be walling the entire meta game anytime soon that said ferrothorne remained a valuable Pokemon its role in the hazard game remained key as did its ability to help pivot around other immensely dangerous threats lyzera Aura specs magerna and Kirin in fact ferathon was a great yoshifu partner it could easily punish the mandibuzz that tried to absorb Wicked blow with the eventual bands of cinderes and magerna ferrothorne's position in the metagame was straighten and then came the crown Tundra bringing with it a ton of familiar faces such as heat ran Landorus Tyrion Zapdos the tapus and more Mel metal magearna and cinderace were unbanned faramosa was released into OU you and a monstrous new threat in Specter was introduced all of this in addition to the Cardinals that your Shifu was unleashing and continued to unleash so how did Pharaoh Thorne perform in the midst of all this chaos well you should know the answer to that by now it didn't miss a beat it was an outstanding answer to Coco and Feeney it was a great check to many variants of Mel metal magearna and even Specter eventually all of your Shifu spectrum magerna and cinderes were banned and ferrothorne's Walling and support potential just kept going up and up it loved the prevalence of the standard specially defensive the fog Lander styrion once again taking advantage of a common Hazard remover to litter the field with hazards with physical defense investment it already used to handle the likes of Mel metal and Landers T farrothorne also answered plenty of other Rising threats most notably the metagame defining Weavile as well as many setup variants of Garchomp and Dragonite usually in conjunction with a partner landlord tea of its own it was still a naturally effective check to special attackers like the topless too eventually Kieran was banned and that made farrothorne even better it continues to rain and gen 8 oh you to this day sitting on all sorts of teams and Performing as consistently as ever it particularly enjoys using Rocky helmet as a Peerless Punisher of weevile's triple Axel so once again pharah Thorne has been an OU Superstar for the first time ferrothorne's foray into Ubers fell a bit flat its typing was no longer as ideally suited to the tier given dexet's removal of Pokemon like Kyogre that it had previously been tasked with handling and sword and Shield's edition of several new Ubers it didn't take too kindly at all to say nothing of heavy duty boots neutralizing much of the pressure it had so effortlessly exerted prior Pharaoh Thorne wasn't going to be doing anything against zacy and crowned zambazensor crowned eternitus galerians or manitan plus gothatel was around to trap it without the fear of the now removed Pursuit and even Pokemon ferrothorne checked on paper like Gyarados were capable of overwhelming it through Dynamics territory wasn't bad as it could handle the excellent rodent washed nicely and it was decent against Reign but his Niche was more specific than ever especially with the eventual release of other skill types who are more valuable for their ability to actually check zostian Crown especially necrozma dustman another factor that seriously hurt ferrothorne was the increased prominence of sun teams filled with fire types whether it was Choice specs solar powered Charizard who had the option to giganomax or the Fearsome quiver dance Volcarona and his capacity to be one of the tier's most fearsome dynamaxers ferrothorne wasn't finding a ton of Walling opportunities even the SunSetter torkal was difficult for it to deal with as it could rapid spin away ferrothorne spikes ferrothorne wasn't a good defensive dynamaxer either choices like Quagsire were preferred for such a role as its moves could change the weather and thus better slow down the opposition as such though ferrothorne still remained the niche it was a rare sight in serious play and it only got worse when the Isle of armor came around as some teams now packed another top threat it couldn't wall in the monstrously dangerous Venusaur plus hyper offense teams Rife with brutal dynamaxers became popular as well and ferrothorne couldn't handle them either it just didn't have the same general reach as other popular walls mainly toxipex and Carbonite they could actually help keep zastian crowned in check to an extent whereas ferrothorne just got destroyed furthermore pecks and corbinite were much more useful against the rain Sun and Sand teams that dominated the tier toxipex was useful for stifling rain and sun and could Haze obnoxious Dynamax boosters making it good against hyper offense as well while corvine had the excellent trait of reliably taking on stand teams namely the incredibly dangerous Dynamax extra drill then the crown Tundra came around and finally farathborn returned to its Elite Uber status the change wasn't instant but some semblance of it was immediately noticeable though zassian Crown continued to Rampage through the tier and using ferrothorne as a grass type over one of the few semi-answers 10 growth could prove to be challenging in that regard it also came with the immense benefits of handling the monstrously dangerous Kyogre the crosma dustman and Zekrom the latter of which had become one of the most dangerous threats around with Dragon Dance then both zosian crown and zacion were banned from Ubers and ferrothorne exploded in both popularity and viability it rolls through the ranks and be became considered the best non-over Pokemon in the metagame it came in completely free against the popular support dust main set of Iron Head thunderwave Stealth Rock and either Morning Sun or Moonlight allowing it to span obscenely annoying moves like spikes and leech seed to its Hearts content they were easy to use because they were effective against pretty much everything pharah Thorne similarly abused the popular defensive Xerneas sets Pharaoh Thorne primarily used an iron defense body press set to become completely unbreakable on the physical side letting it sit on the tier's many physical boosters and potentially even posing a threat to sweep in return alternatively it could run curse and knock up which was slightly less reliable defensively but only slightly and came with the massive benefit of letting ferrothorne use knockoff which it was incredibly effective at doing removing ho-oh's heavy duty boots or ridding the likes of Groudon and Zygarde complete of their leftovers was absolutely amazing plus knockoff let farithorn hit the brutally dangerous calorics Shadow veritern could also go specially defensive using bullet seed and knockoff to reliably deal with Kyogre while also standing up to scarves Xerneas with East as a result of ferrothorne's Newfound viability Spike's balance became one of the most popular powerful playstyles in the metagame especially with how easily some of the best setup sweepers in the tier could abuse the spikes with phasing moves such as sub-dragon bench dragon tail Zygarde complete or com mine Roar Kyogre eventually an eternity is set referred to as demon in turn came into popularity it ran cosmic power meteor beam Dragon pulse and recover and as the name suggests it was an absolute monster and continues to be viable and see usage today but it's no longer quite as demonic why because once it has revealed to be that set ferrothorne would get in its way it wasn't a hard counter or anything as plus 6 Dragon pulse would be too much but the idea was that it took a long time for alternatives to boost that high and ferrothorne could get in a leech seat and force recover or several way before that happened thus even without hard countering it ferrothorne pretty much completely neutered one of the scariest Pokemon around with the help of a teammate of course but that teammate needed ferrothorne to help it first eventually the metagame started to adapt to ferrothorne necrozma dust mate started running knockoff over Thunder Wave War neutering ferrothorne through the loss of lefties while Kyogre began running Choice backs to potentially rip through ferrothorne additionally hyper offense has made a comeback as has geomancy Xerneas as opposed to the scarf and support sets that pharaohorn easily exploited however in spite of all this and more such as the rise of Ho-Oh therathor continues to thrive and it is still absolutely Elite it Remains the best non-over Pokemon in Ubers and is the face of Spike stacking offense teams enabling their aggressive Pokemon while using its iron defense set to provide them with defensive security against threats like zekron it took a while to get going but once again ferrothorne has become one of the very best Pokemon in Ubers making it four for four just like an OU the initially limited metagame of sword and shield provided a perfect setting for ferrothorne to wall out entire teams as the selection of viable fire types was essentially limited to Arcanine rhodium heat and Charizard what's more fair Thorn fared remarkably well against threats such as Sylveon rhyperior xcadro women's and toga kiss even Dragon pot had a hard time with ferrothorne since most VGC Dragon pulse are actually physically based Fair Thorne also no longer had to worry about random hidden power fire which while an uncommon threat could still easily be tacked on to handle it in Prior Generations don't get me wrong there were still many ways to deal with it as con Keller was a huge threat as were Arcanine and torkel but it was definitely harder to remove ferrothorne than before and it could sharp its defenses to a level that was not unbeatable with the aid of Dynamax boost the Advent of Dynamax meant that Pharaoh Thorne was actually capable of boosting itself to a night unbeatable position with defense Boost from Max Steel Spike or it could just benefit from those of his teammates therathorne's power was immediately evident at the Bolton regionals where Alex Soto and Guillermo Castillo Diaz used it to take home second and first place honors respectively while utilizing the standard set of power whip gyro ball leech seed and protect however come Dallas regionals Jake skirchak demonstrated the potential power of one of ferrothorne's new tools and body press bringing in the salt vest Fairborn to eighth place at the tournament while assault had been used before it's used here exemplified the new potential of ferrothorne as an outright offensive threat in its own right however farad's time in the sun was short-lived actually because it didn't like the sun while Charizard's rise in popularity made Fair Thorne's life hard enough the introduction of Venusaur and the nightmare of chlorophyll boosted sleep powder skyrocketed Sun teams to the top of the meta effectively invalidating faradthorne as it struggled with both additional grass type competition and tons of fire types now it still had some usage shout outs to a rational Modi for giving it a sixth place finish in the Victory Road Spring challenge but its usage quickly dwindled however the constantly shifting meta of sword and shield actually allowed room for Pharaoh Thorn to make its way back in parathorn actually greatly appreciated the release of grassy terrain real boob not just because it liked grassy terrain actually it was more because it absolutely destroyed rillaboom who was absolutely everywhere in series 4 and 5. fairford also did well versus the very common primarina and while it might sound strange to say it also handled your Shifu quite well at least the rapid strikes version sure close combat could tear through a fair Thorne but a surging strikes into ferrothorne meant taking a hefty chunk of damage for yoshifu and ferrothorne had a new trick up its sleeve to handle fighting moves well an old trick made new again although fairthorne had always had access to iron defense before it had never had a reason to use it when it could make way for gyrobot or power whip however body press meant iron defense became a defensive and offensive boosting move letting pharathon boost up and 1v1 would be counters single strike yoshifu could still critical its way through defensive boost but rapidstrike would be doing peanuts really taking more damage from iron bars more often than not really it was just a great anti-meta mod in series 5 and so it popped up everywhere in the format's most Premier Events so far the players cut Kyo romanini went against the grain by using yet another assault vest Pharaoh Thorne to win the Latin American Qualifiers Kyle spoke highly of fairborne's ability to win games on its own by boosting especially when paired with Porygon 2. since Max move boosts apply to both Pokemon ferrothorne could potentially boost both annoying tanks to unkillable levels Kyle switched to curse acaberry to handle incineroar in finals but there were actually four other ferrothorne users in the Players Cup finals and all of them used the same set leftovers with body press iron defense leech seed and protect a moveset that could easily become too tanky to handle as special attacking threats were removed and deal huge damage while fortifying its defenses thanks to body press Alistair sandover took 13th while Gabriel agati and Kyle took ninth Christopher Khan finished Sixth and jinstok Lee proved ferrothorne's power with a second place finish although his finals matchup against Santino tarkinos colossal certainly wasn't the greatest place to bring a ferrothorne series 7 saw ferrothorne drop slightly in usage while rillaboom was still all the rage heat ran was back what's more a mungus's redirection skills and Status became even more valuable against the many legendary Pokemon whose single Target damage was hard to ignore such as Cortana Reggie Lecky and Specter amugus also had a better matchup against tapufini who ferrothorne could only defeat with power whip an investment that denied it the ability to set up its iron defense leech C body press set since you always need to protect as well a few players brought ferrothorne to top eight in The Players cup two qualifiers but none of them made the cut for the final tournament and in the Players Cup itself there was Neri of ferrothorne to be found a quick look through teams at this time can reveal a big problem and one that ferrothorne always has to deal with these days incineroar is everywhere and that dang cat just won't give it a Moment's Peace ferrothorne has actually done okay for itself in 2021 as constantly shifting metagames occasionally constrict things enough that it can make its way back in several players used it to good success in the single restrictive meta of series 8 including three top eight finishes at the women's Tournament 2 courtesy of Yoko taguma Megan Hyman and Scarlett Andrews one Trend that started was the use of ferrothorne with Palkia who could handle opposing fire types very easily and clear path for an end game ferrothorne sweep however series 8 was difficult for ferrothorne in general if he thought sun was a problem before imagine it with Groudon now instead of of torkel to be clear pharah Thorn fared worse here than in Prior restricted metas because Kyogre couldn't just fizzle fire moves completely just dampen them and so it still had to fear its usual counters even if slightly less ferrothorne wasn't an uncommon sight at the Victory Road circuit qualifiers where Tehran birdie and Manuel Berea were among the players to use it for high placements however it had a total of seven top 16 placements across five qualifiers and every single player used the exact same iron defense move set with Marcus stature and Barris Aquos being the only players to even change the item they went with a guav berry two players used it in the Victory Road circuit winner Grand finals like Damiano La Barbara who plays 16th and Mateo Augustine who took six Maddie Morgan and hippo light Bernard both gave Pharaoh a top eight placement at the EU qualifiers to Players Cup three but it once again missed out on the actual tournament however that Trend would finally be broken in the very very strange series 9 which had the exact same rule set as 2020 series 7. one one player in particular gave farrothorne another Player's Cup berth Enrique Grimaldo who won the North American qualifier and then took fifth at the Players Cup four finals with his team which paired ferrothorne with another classic stalmon celestila Juan Borg Guerrero and Yoko taguma also put up good finishes with ferrothorne before we switched over to series 10 which brought back restricted mods but with no Dynamax series 11 saw wuhing young put up a top four at Taipei regionals with ferrothorne but it was otherwise absent however series 12 has provided an opportunity for ferrothorne to carve out a little niche in The Meta once again interestingly enough a GS cup meta with two restricted mods has suited it very well in large part due to the fact that zacion and Kyogre especially in the swordfish duel are so strong therathorne handles Kyogre extremely well and as for zastian well that's a complicated matchup ferrothorne's very existence forces many Jason to run sacred sword instead of close combat as otherwise an iron defense boosting ferrothorne can just take over the game with sacred swords boosting ignoring properties series 12 is nowhere near safe for ferrothorne but it's still a good matchup against many other restricted mods such as solgaleo ice rider calorics and Palkia you can see from its results that it's not a frequent Contender and often just misses out on top Cuts but results like Henry Rich's first place at the Brisbane regionals and Paul Ruiz is second in an online tournament with over 500 players Cruz farrothorne still has its usage and keep an eye out for it throughout series 12. restricted metagames have a tendency to adjust in small incremental ways over the year some teams may be strong now but that's also a reaction to swordfish as The Meta swings it's possible ferrothorne could leverage its good Kyogre mashup for even better results to be honest it's sort of admirable how little ferrothorne has changed throughout the years sure it can do body press things now but for about eight years it ran pretty much the same set every time it showed up and still gave anxiety attacks to people in team preview if you don't get ferrothorne the respect it deserves it will Outlast you stalwarts till the end last mind standing it's a lonely job but it's what Pharaoh Thorne does best and that's finally it so how great was ferrothorne actually well that's easy it's easily one of the greatest OU Pokemon of all time time and time again it has stood up to and stifled the strongest threats in the game and it's been not just good but absolutely Elites in both Ubers and VGC as well as it thrives no matter what meta game it's in and to not make this outro too long after an hour-long video we will keep it simple ferrothort is simply one of the greatest Pokemon of all time thank you so much for watching everyone and I greatly appreciate it if you stuck it all the way through a lot of work went into this video but we're finally done again thanks for watching everyone and as always if you liked the video and you want to see more be sure to subscribe to fall swipe gaming for more weekly Pokemon content and in the comments I want to know what do you think about competitive pharah Thorne how would you Nerf it this thing's too good whatever it is let me know in the comments and thank you so much to our patrons for continued support of our videos and thank you to everyone else watching as well [Music] [Music] and follow my crew on these social media platforms and that's all I got see you in the next flick everyone [Music]

Channel: False Swipe Gaming

Views: 604,860

Keywords: Pokemon, Pokemon Go, Pokemon Red, Pokemon Blue, Pokemon Yellow, Pokemon Gold, Pokemon Silver, Pokemon Crystal, Pokemon Ruby, Pokemon Sapphire, Pokemon Emerald, Pokemon Diamond, Pokemon Pearl, Pokemon Platinum, Pokemon Black, Pokemon White, Pokemon X, Pokemon Y, Pokemon Ultra Sun, Pokemon Ultra Moon, Pokemon Sword, Pokemon Shield, Competitive Pokemon, Smogon, VGC, False Swipe Gaming, Ferrothorn

Id: 3HZO1ZW6XX4

Length: 62min 48sec (3768 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 24 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/jeredendonnar]

Amazing what makes a good mon: practically same moveset and ability for 4 gens and a monster each time.

[u/Marzipan-Wooden]

Can't wait for the heatran tv series

[u/Diark]

Who cares about Netflix when you can watch the Ferrothorn movie for free.

Ferrothorn and chill for life

[u/GoristheAnimal90126]

probably the best grass type ever. and all it needed was a little bit of iron in its diet

[u/Nordic_Krune]

Will somebody pick up that phone?

Cause I F**KING CALLED IT!

[u/Deathbringer2134]

Son of a bitch finally did it

[u/Hatefull_creeper2]

I thought it would be Lando

[u/A5HELPMEPLS]

I KNEW IT

[u/SkeeterYosh]

Damn, beat me.