Why Items Are Close to Everything - The Giratina Theorem

when we play through any Pokemon game starting with generation 2 helpful NPCs May inform us of how Pokemon can utilize held items themselves in battle in Gen 2 our starter even comes equipped with a berry that restores its Health once it dips below 50% to demonstrate this however most of us don't really heed this our conception of items tends to be more manual the stuff that takes a turn to use revives hyper potions full restores and such in the competitive World though such items are not allowed and only held items are present hell items are an essential part of serious play with knowledge and use of them pivotal to success their power is such that they shape a huge portion of the game both directly in terms of their effects such as leftovers' healing or Choice band's power or indirectly in terms of making the opponent try to figure out what item a Pokemon is holding after all dealing with a dragon dance or comine sweeper is very different depending on if they're holding a lumber leftovers a resist Barry or life orb of course there are many other elements to the game of Pokémon but the effect of of items can be so drastic that they can at times feel like they are quite close to everything and we're going to delve into the specifics today as we examine the intricacies and nuances of why items are close to everything otherwise known as the gutina theum we're going to start off big with the Pokémon for whom items are actually everything those that have their forms Changed by the item they hold I.E they literally do not exist without their held item this first appeared in generation 4 with the release of platinum which saw gutina when equipped with the Gus orb transformed from the pure defensive wall it had been before into its far more offensively threatening levitate bearing origin form which proceeded to Define and change much of the metag game around it later in the generation aras's release took this concept to the extreme it's default normal form could hold any item but if equipped with one of the tight boosting plates flame plate Splash plate and so on it could change its type also becoming an entirely different Pokémon dealing with arus fighting and arus ghost was very very different archus was also amazing at shifting between types because it always retained the same incredible stat spread whereas gutina origin had its offenses and defenses swapped with its altered form not that anyone would complain gutina o wasn't bulky enough of course but it was a trade-off in a similar vein to archus several Generations later Sali would place similarly shifting between types depending on the type of memory it held however the memory drives did not offer any boost only changing Sali type as opposed to the grus orb and archus plates the grus orb gave gutina a 20% boost to both its dragon and ghost stabs while the plates of course gave a 20% boost to the stab of whichever type archus would become the exception to this was the occasions in Generation 7 where Arcus would change type by holding a z Crystal instead of a plate meaning it wouldn't have boosted stab but this was a worthwhile trade-off since it was well an Arcus that could use a z move interestingly the design of Sali signature move the type shifting Pur sali's type multiattack may have been changed to reflect this Perpetual built-in boost of archus as in Generation 7 multiattack was only 90 base power but in generation 8 it was buffed to 120 multiattack is of course patterned after the original signature type shifting move archus is Judgment which came in at 100 BAS power but seeing as the move changed typing if archus held a plate that meant it was effectively 120 with the built-in plate boost in a similar vein to archus and its Z crystals gen 7 also was home to ultra necros which was a particularly extreme case as it didn't start the battle out in this form if necrozma duskman or Don Wings almost always dusk m in the competitive scene held the special Z Crystal Ultra necum Z it could transform into Ultra necrozma mid battle which is utterly insane especially considering how radically different Ultra necros was from duskman at least it didn't receive passive boost to its attacks nah it just had the most over-the-top Z move ever in both name and power light that burns the sky finally in terms of form changing without any boost we have literally every Mega Pokemon besides Rayquaza but that's a different story every mega Pokémon and their respective mega stone they don't start the game out in their form but instead transform on a turn chosen by the user usually you just want to Mega Evolve as soon as possible to reap the full benefits of the Mega Evolution as they are almost always 100% upgrades over the original but there are some rare cases where you want to hold off on mega evolving for example Mega Charizard X is weak to earthquake but if you need opportunities to Dragon Dance maybe you hold off on the mega in order to utilize base Charizard's earthquake immunity in a similar yet different vein both primals Groudon and Kyogre need to merely hold the red or blue orb respectively to to transform into these World crushing monstrosities as soon as they enter the battle it's probably a good thing they as well as the megas don't have any more boost built into their items as they're already unbelievably overpowered particularly noticeable about the primals as well as each of the other forms listed is that while the items they must hold are a perfectly reasonable price for such excellent Pokemon being unable to hold other items does at times restrict them most notably one of the few things keeping the primals in check is their inability to passively heal with leftovers if you need an example of a primal or Mega technically but effectively the same thing if you need an example of such a Pokemon going utterly Bonkers because it's also allowed to hold an item on top of everything else well mega Rayquaza had that and got banned from Ubers and created the anything goes tier literally a week [Music] afterwards now it's hard to match the impact of items that literally transform Pokémon but leftovers certainly ly comes close it's existed as long as held items themselves first appearing in generation 2 and is in many ways a quintessential competitive item what Pokemon wouldn't like to passively receive a little bit of Health back each turn it's the kind of incredibly useful effect that perfectly epitomizes the essence of held items in a game all about trying to take as little damage as possible being able to offset even a small part of it without having to take a turn to heal manually is incredible in fact leftovers recovery is so good that certain walls without recovery moves rely on it as their only source of healing accentuating it with protect it's been a staple on heat R ever since it was introduced of course while leftover seems like an item purely for defensive Pokemon the passive recovery can also be vital for offensive Pokemon as well the method for playing around certain hard-hitting offensive threats usually is to wear them down to let them succumb to the timer of passive damage but when that is limited then counterplay becomes far more difficult see for example gen 3 Heracross where it doesn't even heal with lefties thanks to the omnipresent Sandstorm however simply not losing Health to sand each turn makes it far more difficult to deal with since you can no longer deal with it by clicking protect and waiting for it to go down there are some leftover Styles Alternatives of course black sludge will heal poison types just as leftovers would but hurt non-poison types holding it for equal damage what's the point well if you switch your poison type into a Pokemon using trick you are able to punish the opponent for using a move that would also punish you for example in generation 4 when rhm was tricks a choice scarf onto a Blissey or clefable it is delighted not just for having ruined them but also for receiving leftovers in the process however if a tricks and a black sludge bearing Roserade comes in suddenly rhm is losing Health the other alternative is also poison Centric coming in the form of Pokemon who hold a toxic orb to inflict themselves with poison to activate their poison heal ability gaining effectively double leftovers recovery while also not fearing status Gore and Brum have famously used this ability to incredible effects Gore or's reputation as near Immortal is well centered over multiple Generations while Brum stands out as a vicious attacker that manages to heal in Sandstorm despite not being immune to it an incredibly rare trait while also being a physical attacker that doesn't fear burn we mentioned RM wash and its choice scarf and that leads us into the three Choice items among the most defining options in the game which also perfectly encompass the risk reward nature of competitive play in order to receive an immediate plus one boost to attack special attack or speed depending on which of choice band specs or scarf you choose respectively you will be locked into the first move you choose each time you switch in you can lead off with a superpowered Specs Draco meter from Latos or close combat from U but you won't be able to select a different move until you switch out and come back in but then again with the power and opportunity that these items offer you often won't need to that's the push and pull the pro and con Dynamic of choice items with immediate added power or speed you don't require that all important setup turn and if you would like a refresher on how important each of every turn is feel free to consult our video on it the salamance theorem at least if you're facing something like Source Dan teron you have one turn to potentially try and maneuver around it before it has that plus two boost but when it's a banded variant you have to be able to take its boosted hits immediately in the introduction we mentioned not knowing the opponent's item being incredibly difficult and choice items are superb example does the opposing tapele have the immediate Power of Choice specs or does it outspeed my Pokemon because it has choice scarf or is it even choice at all and am I giving it a free com Mind by switching this is not to say Choice items don't have cons of course being locked into a move no matter how powerful is going to be exploitable in one way or another now opposing Pokemon are going to get free turns no matter what but later in the game when everything's damaged it can become more of a risk to lock into Dark Pulse with ashr Ninja and give the opposing m GAA a shift gear then again Choice items can also help against boosting threats Choice scarers are usually a goto response to the likes of dragon dancers that boost their speed for example that's not the only way Choice items can be exploited either over relying on them means that the opponent can scout Your Move with protect and switch to a Reus accordingly rather than having to play a more dangerous prediction game incidentally this is one reason U was so dangerous its unseen fist ability breaks protect so forget scouting it you're always in that dangerous prediction game against it there are also many other boosting items out there and have been ever since Gen 2 magnet boosted electric type moves charcoal boosted fire type moves and so on in generation 2 and three these items were rare though with some legitimate use such as magnet Magneton maxing out its odds to kale especially defense of Skarmory in gen 3 or charcoal molus potentially to it King Snorlax after a sunny day with some chip damage in Gen 2 however they were rare overall owing to the fact that they only gave a 10% boost in generation 4 they were buffed to boost by 20% the same as the place that had been introduced and saw more use with offensive magnet zapals a particularly Fierce example Generation 4 also introduced expert belt which boosted super effective hits by 20% at first this was wielded by the seemingly king of super effective coverage electivire but as it fell to the way side for ineffectiveness the item instead became seen on vicious mixed attackers like Gerra and Tyranitar which were among the best lures in the game assuming girach was locked into Iron Head would get many of swamper grass knotted or assuming Tyranitar was locked into Pursuit would get many of scior fire blasted Gen 4 really was intent on providing seemingly every type of boost imaginable as it also introduced wise glasses and muscle band which provided a boost to all special or physical attacks respectively though this is balanced by the Boost only being 10% thus though many special attackers can and sometimes do find use for it it's usually an exception Gen 4 was also the origin for flame and toxic orb which are boosting if they're activating guts or toxic boost in the ladder's case lending Pokemon like Heracross conceler and Ursa Luna a brutal level of threat assisted by a hyper powerful facade the biggest non-choice Gen 4 boosting item though was life orb yes the 10% recoil can be pretty nasty but the 30% power boost is impressive especially because the Pokemon using the item want that level of strength while being able to do what these other affirm Mission items allow them to as well switch between moves sure the 50% Boost from Choice items is massive but it doesn't mean much if you're going to be thuing into reist or Worse immunities when you've got a Scarry switching into a bandit or scarf fly guns earthquake that's deadly when you've got a Scarry switching into a mixed life orb Flygon earthquake it still has to run in Terror less it get roasted by the subsequent fire blast life orb enables the immediacy of mixed attackers who want to hit as hard as possible on both sides of the spectrum especially helping comp compensate for an inability to invest in both attacking stats as much as one would like see Infernape as an example and while life orbs recoil can often be turned against its user with good switching taking advantage of the opponent's self-imposed timer limiting how much damage can be rought before going down the extra power can be overwhelming at times too life orb also makes certain setup sweepers downright ridiculous tacking on a life orb boost in addition to vona's quiver dance or teron Swords Dance can be utterly obscene life orb is at its best when its recoil is ignored which is rare but the results are stunning magicard Reuniclus and sometimes even clefable are able to reap the full benefits of its power without caring for The Recoil as our sheer force Pokemon using sheer force boosted attacks the inability to get worn down for spamming its ludicrously strong earth power as well as Focus blast sidekick sludge wave and rock slide was a major factor in landeras incarnate Brokenness [Music] often though making an optimal elite offensive threat isn't just about ringing in as much power as you can out of a Pokemon it's about defending yourself against common counterplay and that's why the status healing Lumber is such a fixture such a definitive part of so many of the scariest sweepers around if you can stop a setup sweeper by going for the burn or paralysis or poison or even sleep as it boosts then you're going to find it fairly easy to deal with but when there's so much status flying around and the setup sweeper can take advant of this for a free boost they get so many more opportunities and become so much scarier as a result this is famously exemplified by Dragon Dance Dragonite whose Lumber serves a dual purpose it can either grab it a setup turn against something using status like Brum Heatran or RM or it can use it to snap out of confusion after unleashing outrage allowing it to continue its onslaught of Terror even if such a Pokemon isn't able to sweep or even if Lum is used on non- sweeping attackers like mix Gerra or lead Machamp Simply Having the option of shrugging off status allows such Pokemon flexibility in battle gaining defensive purpose and disrupting opponent's momentum or even just being able to force their way through a one-on-one more effectively like when faced with the otherwise difficult task of taking on paralysis spreading Gerra or Brom sport it removes a lot of counterplay and makes the attacker a lot more dangerous you won't want to waste the turn Willow wisping a Machamp or Tyranitar with rhm if they have a lum Berry speaking of berries if offensive Pokemon of all sorts especially setup sweepers aren't using Lum they're very likely going to use resist berries having the damage from a specific type of super effective attack this is one of the most devastating examples of nullifying counterplay sure that Gyarados got itself a dragon dance but you've got a thunderbolt star me and the Gyarados is holding a wakon berry it lives the Thunderbolt and proceeds to steamroll you got an Ice Beam for Garo Garchomp's got a yach berry for your ice beam it's not just useful to make offensive Pokemon tougher to answer either it's excellent as a defensive tool for bolstering offensive Pokémon ability to take hits in a pinch getting more defensive utility out of them without sacrificing their offensive capabilities sometimes even increasing it by doing so in fact or needing to use an allout wall on a team that can't fit it you think your agility in Poon is going to sweep because there's a bunch of offensive pokes and no blissy on the other team guess again because the opposing Tyranitar has a pastro berry and withstands hydropump with ease then again it's super power might also bounce off a choa berry variant of impon so this kind of thing can go both ways resist whether used offensively or defensively are potentially among the greatest weapons one can find especially because they aren't revealed until they're used C PIAA Berry toxapex withstanding second from Mega Alakazam and mega lados in order to land a crucial toxic on them and because certain Pokemon can viably run several different type of Reus berries such as Gen 4 Heatran viably being able to run all of Pasto chapel and the earthquake weakening shabber which results in you often not knowing which way to try to take it out if you're not lucky enough to even have that luxury speaking of counter plate and common tactics we now come to a controversial item the hazard ignoring heavy duty boots at first theorized to be a Haven for Pokemon who' otherwise be heavily hindered by the similarly controversial Stealth Rock and boy did it ever wind up doing that most famously resulting in Cinder getting banned from gen 8 twice boots wound up being fixtures on more than just Rock's weak Pokémon when unencumbered by constant pressure from hazards even Rock's neutral Pokemon like tapa Coco were elevated to enormous levels of longevity allowing them to batter away at the opponent over and over and speaking of longevity there was n a more complained about combination than that of boots and regenerator which resulted in Pokemon like slow King becoming seemingly unkillable since they switched in with such riskless ease the controversy arose from how difficult it was to punish such terrifying Pokémon from switching again especially the likes of vona boots' effect was so so powerful and widespread they effectively displaced leftovers as a deao item on defensive Pokémon being able to withstand Hazard pressure players argued contributed more to longevity and being able to take big hits than passive recovery which would mostly just be trying and failing to minimize the damage taken from hazards boots were a perfect choice for any kind of Pokemon offensive or defensive because you knew they'd always be useful not just for rocks mind you but for spikes as well here's how insane boot's effect on the game was so many teams were running boots on so many Pokémon that it suddenly became reasonable to not run Stealth Rock on your team at all this is utterly ludicrous considering how essential the move was from gen's 4 through [Music] 7 finally we have an old two insane boosting items which did not last Z crystals and gems Z crystals Wen inherently offensive boosters as they could be used on a decent variety of non-attacking moves as Z heal Bel healed it users HP in addition to his usual effect Z celebrate boosted all stats by one and there was even a tournament battle where rockium Z landeron used Z Stealth Rock to boost this defense and win the game but by and large Z moves were used to take offensive moves and turn them into outrageous explosions of power in addition to their enormous strength zoves also removed any chance to miss and even dealt 25% of their would be damage output if mistimed and hitting into a protect the examples were endless from Inferno overdrive heat ran to break neck Blitz Cartana to allout pummeling Tabu to twinkle tackle MCA to hydro Vortex manife to devastating Drake garchon brutally powerful zus ruled over gen 7 U both through sheer strength and through not knowing which Pokemon would even have the Z Crystal or even which Z Crystal it would use teams regularly stacked multiple viable Z users and even if you narrowed it down to say heat ran you still didn't know if it'd be firium or grassium or steelium Each of which which could really ruin your switch in if you got it wrong Z moves didn't last past gen 7 and was similar in this vein to gems which barring normal gem were removed from the game after Gen 5 gems were particularly brutal because they were just about identical in effect to zus but while zus were limited to one per team there was no limit to how many gems you could stack plus to really rub salt in the wound using protect on a gem boosted attack would not waste the gem hyper offense teams were generally unwalled when stacking the likes of bug Jem Von Dragon Gem Dragonite fighting or grass gem brop or ice gem Cloister the latter two were particularly brutal because gems powered up every hit or their multi-hit moves like bullet seed and icicle spear respectively funnily enough gems were not fully appreciated in their time sure you had major threats like flying gem acrobatics Gore and grass gem HP grass heat rat but gems themselves weren't dominating The Meta however after the power of zus was fully revealed players looked at gems with a new eye and began spamming the Daylights out of them them upending the metag game into complete chaos as teams couldn't handle the barrage of overwhelming power being thrown at them resulting in jams doing what Z moves couldn't and getting banned before we go we have to mention a couple miscellaneous items which have had enormous impacts on the game as well when Focus S was released in generation 4 everyone freaked out at the prospect of a Pokemon being able to live any hit at full health in fact it's what prompted Stealth Rock to start being used as much as it was and funnily enough Focus sash became the standard option on lead Pokemon to ensure they set up Stealth Rock beyond that sash was the go-to item on Alakazam in Gen 5 whose Magic Guard ability ensured that it never lose the sash to field conditions setup before it even had a chance to switch in like hazards or weather Rocky helmet arrived in generation 5 and became a crucial item in helping players combat physically offensive onslaughts as it allowed them to deal out damage while playing defensively it was an excellent punish for the otherwise spammable U-turn as well as helping give push back against the many outrages and close combat littering the tier Beyond dealing with offensive moves like these it also helped punish use of Rapid Spin and thus became a crucial part of the hazard War Rocky helmet was especially effective on Pokemon with contact move punishing abilities most famously Garchomp's rough skin and Ferrothorn iron barbs in a similar vein gen 6's assault vest has also been crucial for helping withstand enormously powerful special attacks the cost of only being able to use attacking moves is quite reasonable especially since in a resist baresque way it encourages the use of more defensive Pokemon that can take hits as opposed to going the allout wall approach tornad theum became gen 6's most defining assault VZ user thanks to regenerator providing a passive recovery while Tang grth used the item to similar excellent effect in gen 7 as well while being even better on the recovery front thanks to the bits of healing it got from its stab Giga drain air balloon providing a temporary earthquake and spikes immunity is specific but incredible for Pokemon like Heatran and teron making dealing with them early on much tougher since the ground types that normally do well don't get the job done and as Pokemon like Star me and Volcarona in generation 5 have demonstrated you don't have to be ground weak to get the most out of balloon either simply being able to switch into an earthquake is enormous for gaining opportunities shed shell arrived in generation 4 to help against trapping and brought scarbery more respite against its dreaded rival magnone sure it didn't care for the loss of leftovers but the upside was potentially enormous shed shell also saw use on various Pokemon attempting to escape Doug shro before Arena traps Bann across multiple generations and even tox Apex sometimes use the item in gen 7 to help it pivot around heat Ran's otherwise deadly magma storm cadberry is a rare item but the ability to move first the turn after you hit 25% or lower HP is potentially enormous and not just on lead Pokemon either several offensive threats such as Gen 4 Machamp and Gen 6 manife became so much scarier when they can grab another KO after being hit down to low Health as they still often are rather than just being Revenge killed by anything faster finally weakness policy is an unusual item but boy doesn't punish hitting something super effectively with a plus two attack and special attack it provides upon doing so the likes of multikill Dragonite and stored power MCA are Testament to this and that's it of course there are many many other useful competitive items out there plus we could have dedicated the entire video to just one of the items we went over here there's just too many to talk about so we want to know what are some underrated competitive items and applications for them what about underrated applications for the items we've gone over in this video one thing's for sure though and that's that items are critical it's why knockoff is such a hugely important move after all but that's also a topic for another video in conclusion mastering the use of items is critical to mastering competitive Pokemon itself after all without certain orbs plates or memories you won't even unlock certain Pokemon thanks for watching everyone and as always if you like the video and you want to see more be sure to subscribe to FAL swipe gaming for more weekly Pokémon content and thank you so much to our patrons 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]

Channel: False Swipe Gaming

Views: 480,383

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, Pokemon Scarlet, Pokemon Violet, Pokemon Legends Arceus

Id: 06zta6Ac7ng

Length: 25min 39sec (1539 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 21 2023