Why Speed...Might Be Everything - The Deoxys Theorem

foreign Pardo steering we explored how brute power is far from the only thing a Pokemon needs to be a successful offensive threat with the Bastion theorem we explored how enormous defensive stats don't necessarily make for good walls with the Quagsire theorem we explored the inverse how a Pokemon doesn't even necessarily need to have any High stats at all in order to be great in this video however we're exploring speed which a good portion of you thought would follow this negative Trend well actually speed may very well be the exception to this idea a Pokemon with great speed and not much else can still often find a small Niche even if such Pokemon are generally bad they're going to have something they're able to do and if they can do it fast they can have use found for them this as well as the fact that many great Pokemon tend to be great in large part thanks to their speed set is Testament to the importance of moving first and that's why speed might be everything otherwise known as the Deoxys theorem [Music] but before we do that I need to talk to the guys in the room so 93 of you because this video is sponsored by manscapes.com you ever slack on your hygiene below the belt because the Shavers out there just aren't cutting it pun intended sorry not sorry well it's time to switch to manscape's Flagship trimmer the lawnmower 4.0 this is like the easiest trimmer I've ever used it's quick precise and it's even waterproof so you can groom your lower region in the shower and say goodbye to the bathroom mess on the floor the lawn mower uses a Cutting Edge ceramic blade designed to reduce grooming accidents and a 4000k LED spotlight when you need to be more precise it even has the travel lock feature so it doesn't accidentally go off in your suitcase just hit the button three times to lock it and hit the button three times again when you need to use it you can get the lawnmower 4.0 and the weed whacker 2.0 to trim your nose and ear hair in the performance package 4.0 hygiene bundle which also includes the crop preserver ball deodorant and the Kraut reviver ball toner spray manscape even threw in a pair of free anti-chafing boxers and a shed travel bag and if you want to support the channel and get a trusted trimmer by more than 8 million men worldwide you can use my promo code false swipe or click the link in the description below and get 20 off plus free international shipping on your next manscaped purchase so unlike the top five structure of our theorems in this video we'll be taking more of a free-form approach and exploring a wider mix of Pokemon there are those that despite generally being quite poor or at least outclassed to some degree use their speed to squeeze out a niche unexpectedly and then there are those that wow excellent overall are largely as good to the extent that they are because of their speed many of the best of the best also tend to be among the fastest and often in their dominance through speed create niches for other Pokemon based on outspeeding them we'll start with raiku in generation 2 OU universally regarded as one of the tier's Premier special walls however it's not just its HP special defense and typing that make it as rock solid and consistent as it is in this role it's its speed as well raiku is one of the fastest Pokemon in GSC and when it appears it tends to be the fastest in any given game but you might Wonder Isn't GSC defined by bulk alongside the healing of rest Often accentuated by sleep talk what does speed have to do with this well being able to rest before the opponent hits you is potentially game breaking if Riku is at five percent and facing a Zapdos it's still home free because it's fast enough to heal before it gets a hit again but if Blissey is at five percent and facing Zapdos it's out of luck since it won't be able to get its healing move off despite being far bulkier this is absolutely game breaking and gives ryku a ton more flexibility for example it can switch in against threats even if it's in two hit KO range of their attacks since it'll be able to heal before it gets hit by that second move ryku's great speed also plays into its capabilities as an offensive threat of course but that huge special attack and electric step which helps it function on offense and defense alike wouldn't be nearly as valuable or as applicable as it is in so many situations if it weren't for its speed speed is what lets its user pivot around threats and play around them in unconventional ways as this complicating of gameplay being a big part of what makes Pokemon interesting and Rife with possibility as opposed to straightforward Pokemon meets its counter lines speed allows raiku to suddenly help finish off a belly drum Snorlax that's been pass and Agility as raiku is so fast that it outruns even plus two speed lacks speed is so important in creating and enabling defensive potential in Pokemon they even one of raiku's most prominent partner Skarmory uses it constantly as well scar m is of course not known for its speed but rather its insane bulk and even then its speed is a huge part of what makes it so effective defensively being faster than Machamp Marowak and exeggutor is utterly pivotal in being able to Stave them up Skarmory being faster even forces the one exeggutor that can threaten it the HP fire variant to remain healthy if it wants to actually do its job yeah you can hit it with that first HP fire but if you're not healthy enough to withstand his faster dropex in return then you're not getting the job done scars speed is so important in its matchup against Machamp and Marowak that's supporting the latter two often involves just paralyzing scarf not weakening it necessarily but just taking away its speed so that they can bludgeon it with boosted attacks before can respond to expand on the unusual example of the raiku vs agility pass drum lacks tactic this kind of unconventional methodology of checking big threats becomes a common tactic at high level play across all manner of generations and tiers players often use faster Pokemon to switch into threats that they don't truly answer safely in their entirety so long as they avoid the one move that will beat them as they switch in they'll be able to use their speed to grab momentum back for example in generation 4 one would be hard-pressed to call Gengar a counter to Infernape however the only move Infernape might use that actually chaos Gengar is its fire stab so if you can draw another move from Infernape such as the very spammable close combat Gengar can enter there's a degree of risk involved sure but this is a tactic used against Pokemon that are difficult to truly counter this is why speed is so powerful because it creates opportunities for players to play around threats that don't pack much in the way of traditional hard counters few teams pack genuinely save answers to something as strong as another example from generation 4. mixed Dragonite it's more of a matter of pivoting a faster resistant Pokemon into one of its moves and chasing it out speaking of generation 4 it was home to one of the best examples of the aforementioned concept of a Pokemon managing to squeeze out a niche of pure speed and not much else when Baton Pass teams were running rampant be they full chains or Glide score pass they were constantly in search of an optimal lead one that would prevent setup from the opponent and enable ideal conditions for the passing speed is of course a huge aspect of the DPP lead metagame especially in its relation to the setup stopping taunt azelf is usually the premier pure lead in dppou with its huge speed Stealth Rock taunt and explosion Aerodactyl is usually worse than ASL since it lacks explosion as well as other crucial tools like U-turn thunderwave and dual screens but what it does have is a faster time which gives it the jump on Azo its speed is so high in fact that it can even outrun the spore from scarf brelum which is used in part because it shuts down Azo these elements pertain to the standard gpp meta game of course not just Baton Pass but these leads as high speed and taunt made them go-to options for Baton Pass teams especially Aza for its screen support this of course led to the niche of pure speed that of electrode make no mistake electrode is not a good Pokemon as it's incredibly weak and frail even in YuYu it's not good in its own right it only exists as a rain dance supporter it's of course excellent in that role thanks to its Peerless speed setup stopping taunt and Tempo setting explosion OU was a different Beast though until came the time of the great BP Wars which largely involved faster early game taunts some Baton Pass players even use a dual screen's taunt Alakazam leave to get the jump on Aza electrode of course had the fastest taunt outside of Ubers and didn't just find the niche on Baton Pass it became the style staple lead this was so key it overshadowed everything else that electrode lack which you'd usually want from such a lead it didn't have Stealth Rock and it only had light screen not even reflect however the power of that taunt as well as light clay extended light screen supporting passers like Gliscor which were bulkier on the physical side and even the like of Thunder Wave to completely shut down most opponents as well as the temple setting explosion meant that Elektra was regularly putting in work because it was going first pretty much always electrodes infuriating efficiency was a huge part of what eventually led to Baton Pass getting completely axed from gen 4. it was too easy to enable the strategy when you were leading off with the fastest Pokemon a route this is the same reason why deox's speed was such a powerful defining force in Ubers for so long as well as being the best Deoxys formed by a significant margin despite not bringing much in the way of bulk or stream simply being the literal fastest Pokemon in the game makes for incredible consistency until you run into mirror matches of course but that's just both players recognizing the power of moving first speed stats were often maxed out because they were the ones that that you know you can rely on consistently there are no damage roles or uncertainties about opposing EV spreads if your Lucario has Max Speed you know it will out speed even the fastest non-scarf heat ran talk about speed kills on the subject of speed killing as well as Baton Pass the two go quite well together as exemplify most purely by none other than speed boost ninjas who is already insanely fast to begin with and gets faster just for surviving a turret which is of course easily enabled by protect and or substitute now this doesn't get scary in most people's minds unless ninjas is also able to grab a Swords Dance boost along the way before it passes to a teammate indeed when most players imagine Baton Pass related destructions they imagine an unbreakable chain with nearly every stat maxed out by the time the recipient comes in for the cleanup or at the very least speed and offenses boosted from more fast-paced Styles think gliscore passing storage stance and Agility to Metagross and Gen 4 OU or smash passing in Gen 5 or geomancy passing in Gen 6 and 7. however as has been demonstrated many times even passing speed alone wreaks insane destruction again the power of moving first can't be over emphasized threats like oraz owe you manafi and Mega Heracross are naturally balanced out by the reasonable speed stats and lack of abilities to make themselves even faster man if he can at most equip us a lackberry however when past speed boost by the likes of scolip these Pokemon were able to slash through entire teams at the drop of a hat this makes sense though even as part of enabling the Baton passer themselves baton passers are infinitely easier to stop when they're not moving fast this is also why many other threats that have been banned or nearly banned throughout this generation have not just been powerful but fast whether immediately or through a boost from gen 4's Dragon Dance Salamence to Gen 5 sandrush estrogel to multiple generations of speed boost Blaziken and rock polish Landers incarnate and Beast boost naganado to the borderline nature of quiver dance Volcarona and shift gear magira even the insanely broken Gen 5 OU Genesect was only universally considered busted once it adopted its own rock polish set of course there are many Pokemon that are generally much better than electrode and speed boosting baton passers which also have excellent speed stats but said speed stats cannot be overrated in their contribution to make those Pokemon as good as they they are overall for example generation 5 Latios is one of the most terrifying users of Jacob meter for many reasons incredible special attack alongside a slew of valuable resistances and solid bug which allows it to switch in however the main reason Latios is such a terror is because of how fast it is for how strong it is its speed is what enables it to the full extent of its meta game warping effect it'd be good pretty much no matter what sure but if it didn't outspeed Garchomp and Keldeo not even close many of its opportunities come from the fact that it out speeds so many threats if it couldn't pivot into Garchomp's earthquake or if it had to withstand two hits from non-scarf Keldeo before being able to respond forget it it just be one of many other strong but manageable threats to further appreciate the extent of this concept consider the inverse example Karem black Peerless Empower but with an incredibly exploitable speed set that makes dealing with it far easier in order to outspeed Latios you need tornadoes Starmie Alakazam or a choice garfer the options are far far more limited one doesn't have to be as fast as ladios see this effect in play either Garchomp's famously trolley base 102 speed stat makes it particularly excellent because with it it gets the jump on the slew of Base 100 like Volcarona that are running around as well as similar base 101 Landers incarnate and thunder asterion in turn miyan Xiao had a solid niche in generation 5 largely because of its base 105 speed giving it the jump on guard shot and of course by extension the Pokemon below Trump nian Chao had much more going for it than just the speed of course like stab high jump kick U-turn regenerator a fantastic special attack set for which it could hit Empower ice its way through glycer and Landers Therian but had it not been for its ability to outrun several of the scariest threats in the tier these traits would have gone wasted since it'd be far more limited in its ability to put them to use on the subject of strong wall breakers they have been a dime a dozen for a long time now but a development seen in more recent Generations say ever since team preview came into effect has been such wall breakers becoming faster and faster the trade-off used to be that the strongest wall breakers were not quite slow but they were hardly deox's speed either take examples like curing black tapulele and high Dragon which possess searing power and coverage but don't even hit the base 100 speed Mark however even simply hitting that base 100 Mark makes a world of difference Mega Metuchen is a particularly Salient example of a monster strut whose obscene power is accentuated by a speed stat higher than that usually given to a Pokemon Soul strong there are many other examples like Mega Charizard Y Keldeo tarakian Katana Greninja cinderase it's not just OU that's been affected by this either even Ubers the metagame which by definition deals with broken threats has been overwhelmed by this multiple times at this point for all its other incredible traits Mega Rayquaza's base 115 speed was what really pushed it over the edge as outspeeding the lady twins who are already considered quite fast just made it utterly ridiculous both forms of zashin were especially egregious in this regard an OU Dragon pole is so fast that is often doesn't even need to run as plus speed nature in order to outpay face relevant targets so it can get a nice power boost from a plus attack or special attack nature the difference of course is that even with the boosting nature dragon pod isn't game shatteringly powerful the zashians have the same exact trait speed so far ahead of the rest of the tier they could run Adam and Natures instead of Jolly except they also came with obscene attack stats that were boosted further for just switching in and they were massively bulky on top of it if they weren't as ludicrously fast as they were it might have been a different game but game freak's insistence on Overkill there was what pushed them over the edge now you might be wondering where is priority in all this well priority and speed are very much related but there's so many priority moves that we'd rather give them a video of their own in conclusion though the importance of moving first cannot be emphasized enough yes there are plenty of Pokemon and strategies that often couldn't care less about moving second and sometimes even prefer it cgsc Snorlax and gen 8 teleport Slowking as strong examples but even then moving first opens up so so many opportunities it created a new for electrode and dppou of all things and makes it so that deox's speed has consistently been the best of all of its forms despite not being particularly strong or bulky stats aren't everything but if there's one stat that comes close it's speed thank you 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 the speed stat were there any examples that we missed 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 currently social media platforms and that's all I got see you next time everyone

Channel: False Swipe Gaming

Views: 509,900

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, The Rampardos Theorem, The Quagsire Theorem, The Bastiodon Theorem

Id: x57nZec9dFY

Length: 16min 27sec (987 seconds)

Published: Sat May 13 2023