The Biggest Lie You Believe About Pokemon

i've been playing pokemon competitively for a long  time i actually started playing vgc and going to   tournaments all the way back in 2011 which makes  me a fossil compared to the majority of people who   play vgc nowadays during my time playing pokemon  i spent many years afraid to look at the youtube   comment section of my matches due to a central  idea that was so prevalent you are as guaranteed   to run into it as game freak is guaranteed to  ignore my prayers for a battle frontier in a new   pokemon game i'm talking about the comment that  follows the following formula these players are   so lame everyone uses the same pokeman they  should be creative and use their favorites   uh it's so common that i've even seen this comment  on videos where every single pokemon is unique i   think it's almost subconscious at this point for  people to complain about the lack of variety when   watching pokemon this isn't unique to vgc either  these same criticisms get thrown in single battles   despite the most popular format having tears  as a side note this is part of the reason why   saginaw's kachorisu is so iconic it isn't like it  was the only creative pokemon ever you could maybe   even argue that mega gyarados was actually a more  unorthodox pick on that team but for casual and   competitive viewers alike it really stood out and  scratched the itch for a lot of people catapulting   pachirisu into infamy is probably the most famous  vgc pokemon ever here's the thing the narrative   that everyone uses the same pokemon and nobody  is ever creative is frankly a load of balogna   for a number of reasons let's talk about why and  rest comes out from cresselia healing and here   we go will it be able to hit through confusion  is the question no it hits it under a third of   his hp origin pokemon one of the major things that  separates pokemon from other games is the level of   customization that goes into each member of your  team in an official tournament you are given six   pokemon each with four different moves one unique  item one of up to three abilities some leeway   with their base stats using the ivy mechanic and  508 evs to invest to influence their final stats   once you begin a tournament you can't change  anything about any of your pokemon so you need to   be pretty thoughtful during your preparation what  this actually translates to in the context of this   video is just because you and i are both using  landorus those landers aren't necessarily the same   pokemon years ago i asked some friends to help  me make a video called corsola cup the rules were   simple the vowels would be one against one and  best of one each player was only allowed to use   corsola and i think we banned hidden power grass  now pause the video what do you think happened the answer is our own little metagame began to  develop the widow opens and the very first match   is over in one turn choice banned hustle corsola  earthquake juanikayo's the opponent's corsola   match over does that mean that that corsail is  the very best one well in the second match the   battle opens with an air balloon core slow being  sent out preventing that earthquake strategy we   just mentioned air balloon rock polish earth power  corsola defeats the opponent's choice band corsola   the third match begins with both  players using protect followed by   bide from one side and toxic  double team from the other the fourth match is a complete shutdown  with max speed attract confused ray   substitute and scald leftovers porcelain  the fifth match featured recover weakness   policy corsola beating a defensive earth power  endeavour salac berry corsola i could go on but   i think you get the point even though players  were only allowed to use corsola we witnessed   the metagame develop extremely rapidly early on  players favored the choice band set due to the   raw damage output it offered but as we played more  of the format we discovered different counterplay   shifting the format to a more defensive position  if we had continued to play the format we would   have seen sets rise and fall in popularity  depending on what other people were using and   maybe even some new innovative corsa sets as  a reaction to any given point in the metagame   the point of the story is to emphasize that just  because both my opponent and i had corsola on our   teams it didn't actually tell us anything about  what was really happening in that tournament   if you look on the surface you could  say something along the lines of   wow these players are so uncreative everybody  just uses corsola they should play with their   favorites instead and if you thought that without  looking any further you would completely miss the   deeper interactions predictions and mind  games that were happening in the format maybe you think my corsola example is silly  and not a real representation but the truth of   the matter is that in competitive pokemon we see  format to play out in almost exactly the same way   as what happened in the corsola cup except it's  a lot more complicated because there are more   pokemon than corsola unfortunately there's this  perpetual ebb and flow in pokemon something strong   is discovered then people start using it because  it's strong and then people start countering it   because it's popular and then the counter becomes  popular and the original idea diminishes until   the metagame shifts and the counter is less  popular and then a resurgence is possible   this is the reason why in my video on stages  pachurisu i mentioned how sometimes knowing how to   use a pokemon isn't always as important as knowing  when to use a pokemon in any pokemon battle there   are a whole lot of factors that determine which  player has the advantage at any given time   things that may seem inconsequential such as  deciding to invest 4 or 12 evs into speed on   your incineroar could have massive ramifications  in a close match to illustrate this i'd like to   show you all a closer look at the pokemon world's  2015 finals 2015 and 2016 are the years they get   the worst treatment due to the metagame being  seen as centralized this is fair in the case   of 2016 but 2015 gets a bad rep unfairly let's  look at why what you see now is the 2015 world's   final placements and teams as you can see teams  one through seven have a lot of similarities   landorus t was on every team six out of eight  teams had kangaskhan six out of eight teams   had a mungus lots of heatran lots of crescelia at  first glance i can see why to someone not familiar   with the game it looks very uniform the reason  i say 2015 gets a bad rep unjustly is because   people tend to look at this one tournament and  extrapolate that the whole format was like this   which is entirely untrue 2015 was a very diverse  format with lots of different pokemon being viable   i myself won three regionals using all my teams  at least once mega banette mega when yasuo mega   gen jar mega kangaskhan and mega gardevoir all  in the 2015 format the world championships that   year happened to be a tournament where  japan was ahead of the rest of the world   and their performances showed that but even if  you look a little outside the top 8 you'll see   much more unorthodox pokemon being used also after  the world championships this core known as chalk   chrysalia hitra and mungus landers t kangaskhan  and normally thunderous to the sixth pokemon   definitely became more popular but it  wasn't unbeatable that cycle i told you   about earlier applied and people discovered  counters and counterplay now i don't bring   this up just to defend the 2015 format i want  to talk specifically about the world's finals   and the teams the players used first let's take a  cursory look at only the pokemon the players used   we can say they have four of the same pokemon  mega kangaskhan lander's theory and form presselia   and thunderous additionally the final two pokemon  are similar types aegislaus and vulcarona provide   firing steel typing as well as a decent check to  opposing mega kangaskhan as do he trained to move   this on shoma's side well are we ready to throw  our hands up and go write a stupid youtube comment   i would recommend looking a little deeper first  let's take a look at the pokemon that both players   are using they're both using mega kangaskhan right  well how different could they be the answer is   very different in this match shoma's kangaskhan  is using low kick and fake out whereas hiroyuke   is using protect and power a punch both players  have return and sucker punch let's pause for a   second how influential would you expect this  one difference to be let's assume they have   identical teams otherwise and the only difference  is in their fighting type move and support move   as it turns out this tiny move difference  has enormous repercussions throughout   the battle and might be one of the  biggest factors in shomo's victory   shoman leaves kangaskhan twice immediately putting  hirayuki on the back foot in games two and three   in game three shoma leads with kangaskhan  heatran into hideyuki's aegislash kangaskhan   and because shoma has access to fake out he is  able to make the 100 optimal play of fake out   into kangaskhan and substitute leaving hideuki  literally zero counterplay to losing ground   additionally the immediate offense shoma  gains from low kick comes up big in this match   hideyuki isn't able to use kangaskhan to  immediately threaten heatran because power punch   has so much less immediate offensive pressure  than low kick shoma however consistently uses low   kick to put damage on hideyuki's own kangaskhan  something hiyuki isn't able to do in return you're   probably realizing now the gravity that one move  can have in a high stakes match especially when   the teams are similar now remember that we have  only talked about one of the pokemon with two   different moves that unless i'm much mistaken  happens to be trained nearly identically with   max hp and max attack there are so many of these  micro interactions affecting the pace and timing   and positioning of this match and ultimately  deciding which player becomes world champion   i don't want you to think i'm nitpicking here so  we're going to look a little broader at this match   both players have landers therian however  there are significant differences shoma is   using landorus therian with the jolly nature and  the assault vest whereas hideyuke is using adamant   focused sachalandra's therian this has an enormous  impact on how the match plays out shoma always has   the faster landorus and the additional bulk from  the assault vest help keeps his landers alive   hideyuki's landorus's focus ash does not activate  a single time throughout the course of the set   effectively hideyuki's landerus is not carrying  an item in the set where ashoma gets a lot of   value out of his assault vest shoma also was  able to use knockoff throughout the set as a   more consistent move against aegis and landorus  without worrying about hitting his partner with   earthquake or missing a rock slide both players  also run thunderous but shoma is able to bring   his defensive support thunders to this match  whereas hideyuki chooses to leave his offensive   lifeform thunderous behind though both players  have thunderous the difference in moves evs and   items results in one player feeling like  it is an essential member in their victory   whereas their opponent doesn't feel like they  can even bring it shoma brings his thunderous to   all three games and hideyuki doesn't bring his a  single time i could probably spend an hour talking   about just the sets and how they influenced the  match so we'll stop here but i think i've made   my point clear even though both players had four  of the same pokemon and their final pokemon were   technically similar the individual decisions  the players made had such enormous magnitude   that it literally determined which of them would  become world champion if you only looked on the   surface as so many people have you'd completely  miss that there's so much more going on in this   match than just kangaskhan landorus thunderscope  this brings us to our final talking point   i really do get why people don't like seeing the  same pokemon over and over again i just wish that   people could look beyond the species of a pokemon  to what's really going on underneath the hood   so now i will share with you probably my favorite  example of how one player literally changed   pokemon for years to come i'm talking about  who many consider to be the greatest pokemon   player of all time ray rizzo rey won the world  championships in 2010 2011 and 2012 and is the   only player to have won more than once for this  story we're going to be looking at race 2011 team   2011 was the year pokemon black and white came  out and the vgc rules were that you could only   use pokemon that were in unova's base pokedex  some pokemon experts might remember that in   black and white there were only new pokemon  introduced in gen 5 in that regional decks   which made for a very interesting metagame  one of the most popular pokemon was thunderous   and taking a look at its stats shows us why  thunders has very good base special attack   and speed and in many ways 2011 was all about  offense it was a pokemon very clearly designed   to be a special sweeper good special attack and  speed pretty mediocre defenses and attack stat   for the entire year nearly every thunderous was  fast frail and hard hitting so what did rey do   he completely flipped the pokemon on its head rey  trained as thunderous to be extremely defensive   he invested heavily into hp and defense and used  the bold nature boosting his defense even more he   also ran the charty barry to help thunder survive  one of the most common offensive types in rock   for moves ray decided to take advantage  of thunderous prankster ability running   the move's thunder wave taunt thunderbolt and  hidden power ice this thundurus is probably the   single most influential pokemon within vgc ever it  forever changed the way the pokemon was played rey   convincingly won the world championships in 2011  and people were shocked by the efficacy of his   thundurus as a support pokemon because of rey's  victory this style of thundurus became extremely   popular in every format it was allowed in for  years 2012 2013 2015 and to a lesser extent 2016   were all defined by in many ways how you  could handle bulky support of thunderous   bulky thunders became so popular that  the offensive variant all but disappeared   thundurus is one of my least favorite pokemon  of all time due to how annoying the set was to   go up against this thundurus was so influential  that it single-handedly forced multiple nerfs   thunderweave had its accuracy reduced from  100 to 90. the speed drop was reduced from 25   to 50 percent prankster was nerfed to no longer  work on dark types thunder wave was nerfed by   making electro types immune to paralysis swagger's  accuracy was nerfed and confusion was nerfed from   50 to 33 also terrains were made viable in  2017 with two of the terrain shutting down   mr thunderous support options completely obviously  we can't say with certainty what actually caused   these nerfs but i think it's extremely  likely that thundurus was a driving factor   as was aaron zhang confused and paralyzed but  it hits itself in its own confusion yes it is   that's cristela and rotom are both unable to  move and you can see the look on aaron's face   no it hits itself it is confusion thunders would  eventually make a resurgence in late 2020 early   2021 but in a completely new role thanks to  the ability capsule all pokemon have access   to their hidden abilities this in conjunction with  dynamaxx and the prevalence of stat drops led to a   physical defiant thunderous set that used the  life orb or assault vest rising in popularity   and getting good results when you only look at  the species of pokemon that is used you miss so   much of the rich detail going on beneath the  surface there is so much more to this complex   ever-changing game that meets the eye and i hope  it's clear that the stories i've shared with you   here are merely a few examples of the thousands  and thousands of specific decisions players have   made that have resulted in victory or defeat so  the next time you think about writing a comment   about how nobody is creative and everybody is just  using the same pokemon maybe look a little deeper instead beauty of pokemon battles have been destroyed  by the stupid stalls wait they allow legendaries   and championships i don't really watch this type  of stuff so remember when legendaries and megas   weren't used as much yeah good times congrats to  wolfe just wish there was more variety independent   of vgc just like the winner from tcg using  audino from out of nowhere i don't want to   see another smear go kyogre or groudon for a  long time boring as these matches are so boring though world championships but yay hit him on top let the most op   pokemon mega rayquaza be allowed if you  don't have him you're at a disadvantage   okay why do these nerves take so long to choose  their move it's like an actual episode of yu-gi-oh   they forgot about love for pokemon and use them  as tools for battle i'm sure they were once like   me going through the elite four with the worst  team this is not what pokemon battles used to   be i mean using legendaries you don't deserve to  call yourself a trainer i always compare pokemon   tournaments like this to the one in 2014. aka  pachurisu is jesus using legendary's noobs

Channel: WolfeyVGC

Views: 236,631

Rating: 4.9392385 out of 5

Keywords: Wolfey, Pokemon, VGC, Wolfe Glick, Competitive Pokemon, Pokemon VGC, Pokemon Sword and Shield, twitch, twitch streams, pokemon nuzlocke, nuzlocke, pro gamer, gaming, gamer, hardcore nuzlocke, smallant, ludwig, pokemon challenge, pokemon challenges, alpharad, lie, pokemon lie, verlisify, verlisify liar, biggest lie, pokemon lie competitive, best pokemon game, pewdiepie, minecraft, dream, mrbeast, mrbeast gaming, mrbeast gaming minecraft, competitive pokemon, competitive minecraft

Id: f0kTXhGIy1c

Length: 16min 2sec (962 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 04 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Vuldeen]

Did he ever do the last couple VGC reviews?

[u/AltF4Ded]

Glad to see VGC 2015 getting some love. One of my favorite formats to have played.

[u/Gamillie]

people say that competitive players should use their favourite Pokémon. I'm sorry my top five is Ferrothorn Whimsicott The Pex Serperior Gallade(my child they stole you're defining traits

[u/abriel_g]

Lando bad bottom text

[u/ashley_bl]

haha yeah... using different sets... i totally dont use smogon recommended sets every time...

[u/hakuraimaru]

omg hearing about the corsola cup was the coolest part of my week. i wonder how they picked corsola as the 'mon? :0

[u/Aluminum_Tarkus]

I get where he's coming from in the wideo, and another thing he doesn't really mention, but I think is worth discussing is how competitive viability tends to correlate with set and role variability, which can further increase the feeling of species fatigue. Take Lando T, a mon that thrives solely because of its role compression and set diversity. A mon like Lando can be hard to predict due to the amount of options available to it, which makes it that much more enticing on top of how well it fills different roles on teams. The most viable pokemon tend to have the highest amount of viable options.

[u/Anti-Anti-Vaxxer]

putting pokemon in both of my 10 favorite and least favorite pokemon in one thumbnail makes me feel weird

[u/LapisBunny_YT]

Love wolfey wideos