Why Movepools are Close to Everything - The Flareon Theorem

foreign gaming laboratory is here to posit another theorem for the theoretical sciences and the competitive Pokemon sphere one that was also suggested by you the viewer we've gone over how stats aren't everything except for Speed which kind of can be everything however the only way speed can be of use no matter what is if the Pokemon in question has the move full to take advantage of it nobody cares if you're plus six speed choice scarf Magikarp is going first when it's just using Splash for example but if it was using some move that currently doesn't exist which let's say set stealth rocket spikes at the same time then it would be a big deal that brings us to the subject of today's video move pulls and how while they aren't everything they sure come close it's not just in relation to speed either think of all the super strong or super bulky Pokemon which fail to do anything of note because they don't have decent moves to use once they hit the field an amazing move pull can easily compensate for a Pokemon lacking in other areas conversely a Pokemon with great attributes while lacking a move pull is often left out to dry this is what we're covering today and what we will now refer to as the Flareon theorem with movepool updates over the generations this can sometimes be generational so we'll pick from a different host of examples [Music] foreign is famously one of the best Pokemon of all time and has been for quite some time however as long as it held this Elite status it has not always been so excellent in fact it was thoroughly middling for multiple generations and was in fact a perfect example of the Flareon theorem Scizor was catapulted to Greatness in generation 4 where it received just about everything that we associate with how good it is Diamond Pro gave a U-turn the technician ability reliable recovery in Roost and physical Pursuit then Platinum came along and rocketed it into super stardom with the addition of bullet punch making it by far the number one most popular Pokemon in the metagame until after both Latias and Salamence had been banned which was so far into the generation it wasn't long before black and white came around Platinum giving scissor superpower was highly significant as well and Heart Gold and soul silver even gave Sizzler's superb bug stab which didn't force it to switch out in the form of technician boosted bug bite Scizor never stopped continuing its excellence in Gen 5 and Beyond but then you stop and ask yourself Sizzler has been around since generation two and if it got all these great Tools in Gen 4 what was it like before the answer not good well it wasn't terrible it still had good stats steel typing and some intriguing moves but it certainly wasn't commonly used which was because in practice it offered very little and what it did offer was a incredibly specific and B not very useful let alone reliable for all of Jen's two and three and even in Gen 4 before Platinum gave it bullet punch sizzar wallowed in relative obscurity of course players experiment with it but such tests always resulted in abandonment upon realizing there was a good reason Sizzler didn't see use it just didn't have a good enough move pole stores dance and high attack yeah sure but it didn't have the stabs to pull it off it was mostly reliant on the poultry likes of hidden power bug its coverage wasn't very strong either in Gen 2 it was unable to hit steals at all and gen 3's brick brick wasn't exactly the wall shattering Behemoth scissors needed to be it needed more Instant Power because it was slow and not bulky enough to make up for it especially since its only healing option came in the form of gen 3's morning sun which being affected by weather made it horrible in the permanent sand infested metagame of Advance Sizzler always seemed promising in gen 3 it could potentially use a select Berry reversal set unaffected by that same sand unlike other users of the move like Heracross and going down to one HP would also provided a swarm boost for HP bug but far too many things had to go right for Sizzler to pull off the Sweep with any semblance of reliability whatsoever maybe once in a while to catch someone off guard maybe if you could somehow remove all of the flying types and Gengar that completely destroyed it Sizzler's only real niches before bulletpunch were a different kind of BP that being Baton Pass where it could hand off Source dance agility or iron defense to Pokemon that were more capable of using the Boost because scissor itself certainly wasn't much of a threat even with them and that really just speaks to the power of Baton Pass before Sizzler was the scissor we all know today it was one of the most frustrating cases of wasted potential thanks so a great attack stat and intriguing typing held back by a complete lack of threatening moves thereby making it a perfect example of the Flareon theorem foreign the category of bland Pokemon may seem a bit vague but the basic idea behind this placement is that there are far too many Pokemon that could qualify for the Flareon theorem and tend to share the same fundamental reason for what makes their move hole lacking so we've decided to group them together we've considered several Bland Pokemon in the Bastion theorem so we won't rehash them too much but here's the gist the reason Pokemon like bastardon and dust Noir I.E slow bulky walls are completely terrible as opposed to other slow bulky walls like toxic packs and alola mola which have been Elite forever is their lack of movepool of course there are other differences like their typing and abilities but Bastion in the war's problem isn't necessarily getting on the field it's making something happen when they do get on the field they don't have the insanely spammable universally crippling knockoff nor do they fortify their own switching ability with reliable recovery or support their team through heel Bell or wish or anything of the sort their move poles are not necessarily bad but far too generic and unremarkable for what these Pokemon bring to the table otherwise the issue does not I just apply to slow bulky balls either many offensive Pokemon are similarly plagued just look at Reggie Lecky poised the deal utterly obscene amounts of electric damage but reduced to a more or less wasted team slot because it is unable to damage ground types Reggie lecky's mupo itself isn't bad as rapid Spin and dual screens off that ridiculous speed set has a ton of promise but it's not a threatening Pokemon and the support it brings isn't anywhere near as Central enough to make it a good one either Reggie Leckie is an example of not just an offensive Pokemon which is left severely wanting for moves to actually make it threatening if it existed in a generation with just hidden power and no other additions to his movepool it'd likely be one of the most terrifying Pokemon around but it's also an example of a Pokemon of a certain type held back by its inability to damage its resist it's far from the only electric the supplies to see the sad story of luxray but many other types are well known for this issue arguably the most significant is water there are so many water types out there as so many of them so excellent that there is never a shortage of competition thus one can't Coast on just being a water type if you're a generic water type without any significant distinguishing traits on top of that a Pokemon like luminian or pre-drizzled Politoed enveloper you will be amongst the most forgettable pokemon there are grasses are similar their inherent traits may be good but the likes of miracus carnivine and Meganium are never going to be seen over their competition of course even more successful Pokemon can also be examples of the Flareon theorem take Cresselia a superb wall which is nevertheless constantly fighting its own palad move pull it is nearly impossible to directly threaten the opponent with it unless their team collapses to moves like Thunder Wave and toxic in general and crest's recovery options are nightmarishly unreliable either stuck with the 8pp weather affected Moonlight or rest which makes it even more passive than it already is chriselli intens to get a pass because its defensive profile is just that good but make no mistake in terms of loophole it is as Bland As It Gets [Music] laughs after so many examples of Pokemon held back by their lack of loophole let's briefly shift course to illuminate the power of a good move pool this is best illustrated by Pokemon which are not so impressive in and of themselves but their move pull really elevates them like yes Mewtwo and Dialga and such having amazing move Falls but they also have absurd stats so it's not quite the same the most obvious example is smeargolf perfectly illustrating the power of the move pull better than arguably anything else its go-to strategies ever since Gen 2 have been those that are the most fundamentally powerful in the game letting smirgo pull them off in spite of its awful stats so sleep and either entry hazards are Baton Pass the latter which spirigle has been a significant contributor in getting banned clefable always seems to pop up in videos like this but it very much applies clefable is of course a Confluence of many different attributes and absurdly good ability a stat spread which winds up being just good enough and the amazing typing that is monoferry and Gen 6 and later but its move pool is very much much a part of what makes it so good since those previous trades all let it get on the field once it's on the field it's using its amazing move pool to make things happen and it has no shortage of things to make it happen as it is positively overflowing with Incredible options the Fable support capabilities are the most immediately apparent Stealth Rock knockoff Encore Thunder Wave and two amazing healing abilities in soft boiled and wish but it's also so good to deal with so many different Pokemon because it has all the coverage in the world and also one of the best boosting options in combine in more extreme examples consider Mew and deox's speed and defense Muse based 100 stats across the board are impressive especially in the first four generations but the reason it finds itself Uber in those Generations is not because of his stats it's because its move pull is almost smeargle-esque and on a Pokemon that's actually good in its own right that's terrifying if smirgo boosted its stats the threat came from it passing to something else you could do that as well but it could also just mess you up with the Boost by itself or it could become an impenetrable wall or pretty much much anything it sets its eye on the specified Deoxys form have great stats for sure but those stats are in service of their move pulse which pretty much means Stealth Rock and spikes and time yes they can do other things but the reason they have been repeatedly banned from OU is because they were too efficient simply at getting hazards and denying setup from the opposition even Pokemon that simply attempt to be pale Deoxys imitations like offensive lead Skarmory have a niche base entirely on the strength of those moves moves so good they're worth sacrificing an entire Pokemon at the beginning of the match for finally funnily enough Cresselia also deserves a mention here it doesn't usually use this move when acting as a wall thanks to its counter-intuitive self-sacrificial nature though it's not to say it hasn't been used to decent effect but Crest has access to lunar dance has provided it with an incredible unique Niche on hyper offense teams lunar that's differs from healing wish and that it also restores the Powerpoints of a Pokemon's moves and this is absolutely enormous in supporting threats like Leaf store Superior and especially substitute protects suicune which tend to run out of of pp before they can fully finish the team off Cresselia brings them back for another round of Terror against a weakened team which is as game breaking as you get when it's often difficult enough for opposing teams to withstand such threats once and of course if the situations call for it Crest can also revive other threats like Volcarona as well cress's Niche really does revolve around lunar dance which can be seen in the awkward stages when Crest first comes in but isn't ready to sacrifice itself yet it can struggle to make things happen despite attempts to do so through tactics like trick Thunder Wave and screens its Niche really is just to sacrifice itself for a teammate and what a moon lunar dance is letting one essentially play with two suicus or volcaronas or whatever threat it is and in doing so creating an entire niche of it on a Pokemon that otherwise struggles to accomplish much slakov was introduced in Generation 3 and discs out to Pokemon known for their laziness at first it was just the signature move of the slacking line but in generation 4 its distribution rightfully increased to including other such lovers of taking it a little too easy like the Slowpoke family other recipients included the paladan and Infernape line not immediately obvious choices but pokes you could see using the move for sure no new users of slack off were added until Generation 8 where Mr rhyme of all Pokemon received the move another Choice which might seem unusual at first but some good Arguments for it could definitely be made no problem then in generation 9 the skeleturge line and belly bolt received the move similar deal where is this going well there's no issue with any of these Pokemon getting slack off in and of themselves but when these Pokemon receive slack off yet Snorlax still doesn't have it after all this time then something is rotten in denda Mill Town Snorlax is Far and Away the most famously lazy Pokemon of all time it desires quite literally nothing more than to sleep and eat not even caring if it blocks the road of passing trainers this is a level of slackerlum that makes the main characters from clerks look like highly motivated go-getters by comparison the admission of slack off from snorlax's movepool is not just a design problem it is one that completely raps lacks's competitive viability if lacks had this one addition to its move pool and let us take this time to remind you that this is a Pokemon that learns psychic for some reason amongst the many other bizarre options populating its movepool if lacks had this one move which was seemingly designed with it in mind it would be completely different it's had longevity issues since sand and Spike's dominated days of gen 3. when you are the slowest Pokemon around and have nearly no resistances in addition to staggering vulnerability to passive damage you need to have a reliable method of healing yourself not rest even when you are as bulky as lacks is here's just one example with slack off gen 3 Starlights becomes a superb Zapdos answer as opposed to being the easiest way to trigger yourself into thinking you're not weak to Zapdos right before it bowls you over slakov doesn't fundamentally solve every issue Snorlax has but it does make it a much much better Pokemon in every conceivable way Simply Having it in its move pool is better it doesn't even have to actually include it in its move set the opponent having to take into consideration the fact that Snorlax can heal shapes both team building and in battle decisions as comically deep as snorlax's movepool is most of these options don't actually do much of anything for it yeah while gen 8 gives Snorlax hydro pump now that's not totally useless it's just missing the one move it really really needs foreign and finally the Pokemon this theorem is named for okay Flareon isn't an amazing Pokemon to begin with it's flaws of lackluster speed poor physical bulk and weaknesses to Common moves are incredibly easy to exploit without thinking twice about it however flareon's also got some cool stuff going for it its defensive profile actually isn't bad wish is always a great move and base 110 special defense can do solid things especially defensive fire types that had solid niches across many a metagate what really stands out about Flareon though is that gigantic based 130 attack stat that's the same as the monstrous guard shop this goes with fire staff one of the scariest offensive types in the game this fire typing also means Flareon is a physical attacker completely unafraid of being burned in fact it's amazing flash fire ability means it welcomes being hit by a willowist or lava bloom or whatever other fire move as in addition to the excellent utility of being completely immune to fire being hit by those moves actually Powers up flareon's own fire moves even more sure flareon's not that fast but most walls are going to be slower so it can be an excellent lower tier wall breaker not much is going to want to switch into that flare Blitz oh right Flareon despite being a physically oriented fire type that literally has fire inside of it and has flare in its name is unable to learn a move which involves it cloaking itself in Fire and charging at the opponent that makes total sense okay Flareon actually did finally learn flare Blitz in Gen 6 but at that point power creep was too strong for it to really make any use of it had it had the moves in gen's four and five like it should have all along its competitive career would have been very different like an Nu style Arcanine or Entei except much much stronger with firefang as its best physical fire stab though banded Flareon was pretty much the least scary thing in the world what makes this particularly cruel is that in Platinum each of the original Eeveelutions got a cool new move Vaporeon got muddy water Jolteon got discharged and Flareon got lava plume yes they're thematically linked via their 30 secondary effect but was that really worth depriving Flareon of a move it's all desperately needed and should have already had in Diamond and Pearl and if it was could it really not have been amended in heart gold and so silver apparently not instead Flareon was mocked with another move that like flare Blitz was outstanding just not what Flareon needed this time around it was heel Bell wish lava plume Hill Bell defensive Flareon is an interesting Pokemon for sure but it shouldn't have come that the expense of it doing what it was meant to dishing out flare Bliss is exactly as strong as garchomps's outrage funnily enough the exact same thing applied to Entei before the event towards the tail end of heart gold and soul silver it too was a fire type with a high attack stat that lacked any usable physical firestep and wasn't very good at all as a result of course it then did go on to get Flair Blitz and carve out an excellent Niche for itself it even got sacred fire in the same generation Flareon finally got flare Blitz just to rub further burning salt in the already searing wound Justice for Flareon and that's it obviously you can have a great move pull and still not succeed as Snorlax is not exactly lacking an option yet it still lacks what it really needs it goes to show just how important loopholes are it might seem obvious but you can hit the field as much as you want without the moves to make something happen once you do you're out of luck thanks for watching everyone and as always if you liked the video and you want to see more be sure to subscribe to false swipe gaming from our weekly Pokemon content and in the comments I want to know what do you think about the Flareon theorem what other Pokemon would you have put on this list whatever it is let me know in the comments also thank you so much to our patrons for continuing supporting 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: 819,623

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, Flareon, Pokemon Scarlet, Pokemon Violet

Id: 4P544dsckaE

Length: 18min 16sec (1096 seconds)

Published: Sat May 27 2023