Why Damage Isn't Everything - The Rampardos Theorem

when you're at the stage of your first wild encounters in the earliest routes of red and blue or you're a battle-hearted veteran of many years and metagames who sees landorus therian in your dreams there is one thing explicitly clear about a pokemon battle it's all about damage pokemon does damage with move as the old net battle crowd used to say to win the game do more damage to your opponent than they do to you you don't say so how does one do damage when we play in game we intuitively learn that we want strong pokemon with strong moves charizard using flamethrower is better than charmander using ember and sure there are other things to consider like the type chart namely as well as things like status conditions weather and so on to say nothing of all the ways damage can be dealt indirectly which could be its own video however when you get down to it it is always in some way all about the direct damage pokemon can dish out each metagame begins by examining what the most effective offensive threats are and everything else is a response to that for example stahl was powerful in diamond and pro but to build stall one must be aware of the metagame's foremost threats that offensive teams will be running while offensive teams running those offensive threats are dictating their responses and so on in diamond and pearl's case it was all about guard shop as well as other monsters like infernape that's because when the games came out the playerbase immediately searched for the strongest most threatening pokemon around the ones with the fewest responses however as this video will demonstrate the strongest pokemon are not always the most threatening if that was the case we'd be playing a pointlessly simple game it'd just be a matter of selecting pokemon with the highest attacking stats with no regard for other stats typing ability moveful or a million other factors and being done with it here's a quick example take the pokemon with the highest attacking stat in the game mega mewtwo wise base special attack of 194 which translates to a literal stat of a jaw-dropping 535 with a modest nature and max special attack now let's put this mega mewtwo y in psychic terrain so its stab psychic moves will hit even harder let's also break the rules and give it choice specs and let's break the rules some more and make its ability adaptability let's put it up against a psychic weak opponent one with not much bulk like infernape for good measure we'll give infernape a minus special defense nature and finally we'll give infern a -6 special defense at this point of hilarious overkill surely it doesn't even matter what the base power of mewtwo's chosen psychic move is right even a base power of one would send infernape not just to the moon but to another galaxy yeah not quite this one base power psychic move coming off of the highest special attack in the game that's boosted to even more astronomical levels by choice specs adaptability and psychic terrain hitting a psychic weak opponent with pitiful bulk and -6 special defense would do a whopping 20 to 24 it would take five hits from mega mewtwo y to ko and fernape if this were the case what about a base power of two would that do it nope 60 to 70 percent and frenet could live the hit even with stealth rock and spikes up and most likely live sandstorm afterwards what about a base power of three even that wouldn't do it it deals 79 to 94 a role that doesn't even favor it to get the ko with stealth record it's not until a base power of four that mega mewtwo y can get the ko and even that still isn't guaranteed it will only get the job done 15 out of 16 times that's right even this comically overblown threat needs the attacks to have actual base power and clearly we have found the solution to bring mewtwo into ou nerf the strength of its attacks you're welcome jokes aside this is obviously a ridiculously extreme example but it gets our point across power or at least one facet of it isn't everything we can make a similar yet opposite example of some move with a million base power doing no damage if used by shuckle papini or caterpie but you may protest this is silly what about huge base stats in conjunction with huge base power attacks we're glad you theoretically asked this because that brings us to a very special pokemon with which we will illustrate this point in practical terms as we present to you the rampardos theorem rampardos doesn't need any made up examples to achieve stupefying levels of power it packs an absurd base 165 attack stat which by comparison makes the likes of groudon and rayquaza look like you you pokemon it's certainly not left wanting for powerful attacks either its strongest stab is head smash which possesses a mind-boggling 150 base power again much stronger than any stab groudon or rayquaza can drum up it is as automatic and instantly delete the opposing pokemon button as it sounds even something as naturally bulky as mew is killed more often than not from full health and that's before considering how rampardos can boost itself choice banned for instantaneous absurdity or storage stands for truly incomprehensible levels of savagery especially since it can be paired with another boosting option in lifeform so with this truly obscene level of power why is rampardos not only not good but one of the worst pokemon in the game simple everything else about it is bad it is a great way to see all the nuances and pokemon that we with our experience often take for granted when pardos is terribly slow and pathetically frail this is a death sentence for pretty much any pokemon and it doesn't matter how monstrously overwrought your attacking stats are if you can't out speed anything and you can't take a hit you're going to get shellacked at every corner especially since reimpardo says mono rock typing means it's riddled with weaknesses to some of the most common attack types in the game water fighting and ground even its steel weakness is relevant what about choice scarf or rock polishes fix up that speed you might ask well rampardos is still slow even with them number one and number two it's so bad defensively that it struggles to switch in or get a free turn against much of anything rampardos has never ever left wanting for power but is always left wanting for everything anything else as such it is the poster pokemon for the concept of power not being everything [Music] of course this isn't just a video about rampardos it is the rampardos theorem meaning it can theoretically be applied to other pokemon so next up we will examine a duel of pokemon that are monstrously threatening however they were held back by their abilities slack king and reggie gigas if these two pokemon had a competitively useless ability like illuminate they would be top tier however in what seems to be a case of game freak engaging in the case of active shot and freud that's particularly sadistic even by their cruel standards they're instead relegated to the bottom of the barrel situated at the bottom of a pile of barrels without their ability slack king and reggie giggs would use their monstrous attack as speed stats in conjunction with move poles that leave them wanting for nothing to shred through many other pokemon they're so dangerous that their usually meager normal typing would be overlooked slacking however is turned into the biggest sitting duck in the game after it attacks thanks to its appalling crippling truant it means a free turret for absolutely everything it's also completely ruined by one of the most common moves in the game protect and ruby sapphire 200 a metagame where slacking was actually decent in if you were weak to its moves you just slapped protect on some pokemon and went from being destroyed by it to having no problem with it whatsoever even welcoming its useless exploitable presence slacking doesn't do so hot against substitute either it's threatening for a turn maybe and after that your opponent is glad to see it reggie gigas meanwhile can't even threaten anything to begin with but at least it can potentially wait out slow start right well not only is five turns a long time to even get going five turns you're realistically never going to get against a halfway competent opponent by the way let's just assume but when you switch out what you will then slow start will activate again when you switch back in later there is a reason why our videos on slack king and reggie giggs are asking the question how bad they were actually because they were really really bad in the realm of self-ruining abilities we must give a special mention to archaea whose defeatist ability ranks up there among the worst of the game however archaeos is more able to work around it and has had a solid lower tier career as a result that said on day one of generation five it was one of the most fearsome looking threats until the translation came in and its ability was explained as such it's like slackking and reggie gigas in the what could have been category of would-be threat [Music] next up we have examples which demonstrate that not all of pokemon that fall under the ramparts theorem are this extreme either not all of them are pathetically useless the rampardo's theorem isn't just about pokemon that seem terrifying but are actually awful it's more about showing that even pokemon's strongest powerhouses need to consider the game's nuances in order to be successful this is illustrated with a pair of monstrous special attackers porygon z and circuitry now these pokemon have quite decent competitive histories however it's nothing compared to what was expected of them based on the initial hype surrounding their staggering power not only are these two incredibly naturally strong with enormous special attack stats and powerful stats but they also possess a litany of ways to boost themselves further beyond just choice specs porygonzi has two outstanding abilities that make it stronger download and adaptability and even has access to nasty plot with life orb nothing was going to feel comfortable taking hits from it not even blissey meanwhile circuitry's special attack makes porygon z look measly it has an even better boosting move in the form of tail glow it has a stab move that actually hit pokemon super effectively and its ability beast boost makes it even more powerful after it grabs a ko so you don't even feel comfortable sacrificing something against it well on paper anyway while these two are never unable to rip through opposing teams they are also unable to withstand opposing hits they aren't slow but their defensive typing isn't good and while they're not exactly true glass cannons they're certainly not bulky either this is a common case of pokemon balance the pokemon that hit the hardest are often unable to withstand opposing hits when this balance is disrupted the results can be catastrophic see zashian crowns this is also why even defensive teams often employ a faster pokemon against super strong threats like these the sturdiest walls in the game aren't going to be able to stand up against them so it's best to reinforce one's defenses not by doubling down on walling but by being able to out offense them wally porygon z and circuitry no thanks out of fencing them no problem and we continue rising through the tier ranks this time showcasing how the rampardos theorem can be applied even to ou pokemon just like how pz and zerkerchie were decent yet not overwhelming as they were first to be expected these next pokemon 2 failed to live up to the day 1 hype of being overwhelmed by their stats this is a duel of dragon types beautifully emblematic of generation 5 as a whole haxorus and kiran black hiron black didn't exist when generation 5 came out all eyes were on haxorus then players had struggled to contain salamance in the generation prior sending it to ubers not two months before black and white were released and reportedly had nightmares at the prospect of this new dragon type not just packing dragon dance as well but even source dance it even had an ability mode breaker that let it destroy bronzong a would-be resist to the dragon ground combination bold breaker ignored levitate and let hacksaw smack it with earthquake its speech that was quite decent too and it could even take a hit surprisingly well of course hackers was never banned or even close to it it was a solid part of ou the reason it wasn't banned despite its over-the-top attacking potential was you guessed it not being that fast in the lightning quick gen 5 metagame and not exactly being difficult to ko for these faster stronger adversaries either then in black and white 2 kiran black was unbanned to much controversy and replaced hackers as ou's resident banded outraged spamming dragon its attack stat was the second highest in the game at the time and its outrage thus performed absurd feats like potentially to it killing ferrothorn with stealth rut kirin black also packed fusionbolt which ensured that unlike haxorus it couldn't be wobbled by skarmory kirin black is a particularly excessive example of the red partisan because it was initially perceived as so strong it started in ubers then it was unbanned in ou and nobody could consider it broken in the fast-paced metagame which effortlessly exploited its many weaknesses kirim's partial ice typing while nice for making it neutral to opposing ice moves was also quite the hinderance as it most notably made it weak to stealth rock and fighting moves which meant its naturally high bulk wasn't that useful in practice still a great pokemon but certainly not the literal uber it had been before in a similar vein we must give a mention to darmanitan enormous power not just from its huge base attack and staff fleur blitz that hit many comic pokemon super effectively but also from its sheer force ability and from the permanent sunlight support it got from nine tails drought however while feared at first germanite's flaws incredible frailty and a stealth rock weakness meant that in practice it wasn't quite as fearsome as it seemed on paper though there was of course little more enjoyable than one hit killing something with a resisted flair blitz finally we go to the uber tier to show that the repardos theorem is applicable regardless of the metagame this is abundantly clear in the case of restaurant restaurant is the uber's version of rampardos so much so that we almost call this video the rest of rampardos theorem restaurant has all the power it could ever ask for two incredible stab moves whose typings complement each other perfectly from a huge base special attack stat its fire stab is of course boosted further by grout on sun too additionally its turbo blazability means that you can't use heat ran to resist the stab combination either as its flash fire gets ignored and blue flare blows it apart did kyogre want to switch in and replace the sun with rain reshiram's stab draco meter had something to say about that there was just about nothing restaurant can't destroy this much has always been clear and it was thus one of the most hyped new additions to the uber tear upon its appearance in generation 5. this however didn't last very long as it became clear you wouldn't want to use reshiram if you were serious about winning so why is it that restaurant has been one of the worst ubers for so long well being outclassed by kieran white certainly had something to do with it but resharam was a shining example of the rampardos theorem before kieran white even existed its flaws cast a shadow over its virtues that was so long it may as well have been an eclipse restaurant wasn't fast enough to make up for how badly it was destroyed by stealth rock and most attacks in the metagame even its solid natural bug couldn't help with his weaknesses to dragon and earthquake and not even at least being resistant to water like most other dragons its counterpart zekron for example got a lot further in large part thanks to its rocks neutrality and water resistances which let it make the most of that nice natural bulk restaurant's longevity issues were compounded by things like protect scouting's choice spec sets or hurting yourself to be able to switch moves with life orb as a result even something it completely destroyed like ferrothorn could irritate it no matter how you tried to run it restaurant would never be as successful as its nigh on match offense potential would suggest and as such it's the highest example of the rampardos theorem go in conclusion good strategy will beat your power pretty much every time as something so strong that it nullifies the need for strategy it goes through ubers because it makes the game pointless there's no strategy if you can just click the strongest buttons without repercussion that's why the strongest pokemon in the game such as those we've mentioned in the video are balanced by severe weaknesses weaknesses so severe and all-consuming that they sometimes relegate them to joke's status and if there are any other pokemon you believe fall under the ramparts theorem please let us know in the comments together we will make science out of competitive pokemon thanks for watching everyone i hope you enjoyed this different video we're trying more ideas as we said in our previous different video the most nerfed moved in pokemon history so go check that out if you haven't already so if you have any more suggestions feel free we're down to try a lot of things and thank you so much to our pages for continued support of our videos and thank you to everyone else watching as well and follow my crew on these social media platforms and that's all i got see you next time everyone [Music] you

Channel: False Swipe Gaming

Views: 1,207,772

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, Rampardos, Slaking, Regigigas

Id: yU5CNRXZo2g

Length: 15min 51sec (951 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 15 2022