You said this regarding specs swampert: "It's not going to be its main set." I think that single line encapsulates what you're missing throughout the entire video. Specs doesn't need to be the "main set" for *anything* for it to be a noteworthy threat in the metagame. Simply having it as an *option* will change the decisions players make in both team building and the match. Having specs pert as an option means certain mons that would normally check it can get blown up by a hydro pump or ice beam; at worst, it's a good surprise option, and at best, it becomes popular enough that *all* swamperts now benefit from its existence, due to the uncertainty it presents when swampert first switches in. With this train of thought, we can see that mons like salamence and ttar are some of the biggest winners here. When salamence first comes in, you're already thinking that it could be either DD, CB, or mixed. Add specs to that list and all of a sudden a wrong guess can be punished that much harder. Similarly, specs ttar can punch a hole in anything meant to check physical ttar; swampert is taking minimum 44% from specs +nature crunch, a high chance of 2HKO after spikes damage. You could even run focus punch, so once your opponent figures out you have specs ttar, you're doing 75%+ of blissey's health on a proper prediction. I could see crunch/pursuit/focus punch/thunderbolt being a popular set, basically a specs version of old school boah. Crunch hits neutral at worst against most threats that matter and 2HKOs them, while specs thunderbolt 2HKOs bulky waters like suicune or milotic that you can't 2HKO with crunch. You *could* fit fire blast on there to OHKO metagross, but you're already doing over half its health with crunch, so it doesn't really want to switch into you in the first place. Dragonite could do the same focus punch shenanigans as ttar, but with dragon claw and fire blast instead of a pursuit set. Of course, you have your moltres, your zapdos, your jirachi. They all come with tradeoffs to their normal sets, but they're still putting out big hits with no setup time. You laughed at jirachi's fire punch, but it's still 2HKOing metagross even with timid jirachi. In fact, with one layer of spikes down, lum berry or choice band metagross can no longer switch into specs psychic after taking a single fire punch, even with minimum damage rolls for each. Specs jirachi's main weakness would be ttar, who it only 2HKOs with HP Grass, and psychic risks giving a free switch to. Alakazam does basically the same things as jirachi, but as a glass cannon that can learn trick. And let's not forget boom. Regice throwing out specs STAB ice beams all day is already great, but when you also pack a pocket explosion to blow up in a blissey's face, you've got yourself a valid threat that can wallbreak on the way out. It requires prediction to use well, sure, but so do all high risk-high reward plays. The thing is, none of these have to become the "main" set of the pokemon in question; they just have to be strong enough to be worth running, and the meta will shape around them. Special threats being walled by blissey makes it impossible for specs to run over the metagame. Conversely, this means if you remove blissey, the remaining halfhearted special bulk on the enemy team will fall very easily to high-powered specs attacks. This would lead to both blissey and dugtrio having even more prevalence in the metagame than they do today.
Trick Alakazam's stocks would definitely go up, but be honest, it would not be as funny as Trick CB Zam with Focus Punch in the back. This set is definitely not consistent or easy to use, but the idea of Alakazan blasting a Banded Focus Punch to destroy Blissey, Ttar and Snorlax is 1000 times funnier than any Specs shenanigans would be
Now I'm really curious for the Choice Scarf video. Speed is so crucial to the way pokemon work, it would flip the meta on its head. Aerodactyl would lose some of its luster by not being the fastest thing ever, Blaziken could carve a niche for its mixed attacking profile and Metagross would be really fucking scary
@@moistsquishyvaporeon And pretty bulky, too, so it would have many opportunities to switch in and scare something, with the possibility to throw out a fast boom when suficiently damaged, which is really scary
I wonder if Scarf Blaziken would actually be that good, given that a major pro about mixed attackers is their ability to switch between attacking sides on the fly to smack whatever just switched in
@@MrLuizilla Yeah, I honestly don't think it'd be that good. Scarf would make it prediction reliant, which is a huge blow to Blaziken because switching between coverage and hitting hard is its selling point. Not only that, but what speed tier does it accomplish with scarf? That's all disregarding other scarfers and dugtrio existing.
I always found the physical / special balancing act to be really interesting, and kinda preferred when the differences were asymmetrical. Like physical has so many inherent drawbacks - physical contact moves, crippled by burn, no phys hidden power after gen 3. But on the other hand, in context of the meta, they had access to dragon dance and swords dance (before nasty plot and quiver dance existed), choice band before specs, priority moves, u-turn before volt switch, and aren't singlehandedly cockblocked by one mon (Blissey).
I still think that choice specs shouldn't have existed until gen 6 (where assault vest was introduced to help dealing with special attacks more effectively). Special attacks just have too many advantages over physical attacks to warrant the same amount of power boost.
@@IschmarVI gen 4 was just terribly hamfisted with obviously OP items that warped the meta, and additions of equally OP moves turned the game polarizing
@@DkKobaADV not nearly to the same extent though. Blissey's special defense is so ridiculous that a special fighting attack doesn't break it without a boost or something like sheer force. Skarm is very scared of a flare blitz or an EQ when roosting though. Skarm is comparably way easier to break down, especially before it got roost.
@@the_blahhh well then you get into the reason skarm was so strong in adv which is that it has no physical weakness. Roost helps it survive physical supereffective hits but before roost there were no physical supereffective hits.
I like these "What if" videos. There are so many interesing scenarios to go through and to discuss whether they would bring variety to the game or make it more unbalanced. Like in Gen 3, what if: - Type Items (Silk Scarf etc) boost their respective type by 1.2 as they do in Gen 5 - Recover had 8 PP, like in Gen 9 - Dragonite or Entei had Extreme Speed - Entei had Sacred Fire - Superpower was a more wide-spread move - Gen 4 mons (Staraptor, Spiritomb, Rhyperior, Electivire, Dusknoir for example) were a thing - Gen 1 mons didn't lose Special Attack or Defense upon transisting to another generation (can also do this for Gen 2 etc, Zapdos for Ubers and Mewtwo for AG I guess) - Dodrio had Jump Kick and 110 Base Speed in Gen 1 onwards
A super plausible change that I don't think I've ever seen discussed is 'What if ADV was played on Colosseum/XD cartridges?' instead of modded Emerald cartridges. The biggest change, I think, would be team preview in ADV, though there could be others.
Short comment: Houndoom go brrrr Long answer: i think BKC is underselling the potential of specs in adv OU. It would make several non ou pokemon good, just like aerodactyk being good due to choice band. Stuff like houndoom trapping with pursuit would shake the metagame too much. And specs can lure blissey for a double switch with starmie, fp on zard or just knock off with zam. Hariyana and dugtrio can take a lot of advantage of specs pressure forcing blissey/ttar, etc. And either remove them/ weaken or get a knock off/free sub with hari, and kingdra can be pretty threatening once blissey is removed, specially with rain support. On the lower tiers now...
I actually think Houndoom gets a ton better. It gains the mid ground of having a stronger pursuit, and having the devastating power of its fire options.
One point I would like to raise would be Choice Specs on special attackers that can use Explosion. Regice especially and even fringe mons like Exeggutor would see increased viability with a Choice Specs set. The pressure to bait in Blissey would be stronger than ever and riskier to play around, which is usually the whole purpose of running these mons Regice getting 2HKO potential on Ttar, Metagross, bulkless Jirachi, spD Gengar is huge. Realistically Regice can only come in 2-3 times. If you smack Metagross with HP Fire the first or second time, your opponent will think twice the next time Regice comes in, substantially increasing the odds you get a successful boom on Blissey. Without the added power of choice specs, there are just so many ways for defense teams to play around Regice that you never even need to risk Blissey. With one good Choice Specs prediction, later in the match suddenly defense now needs to make a prediction, risk Blissey or let Regice keep smashing everything with Choice attacks
Tested this in Tradebacking tours, this should never be allowed 😭 Some Mon like Jira are way too good with this. Tho Specs Special Ttar is hype as hell.
I think something that puts into perspective of how much of a change Gen 4 really was, is that exclusively on the Specs discussion, you'd be looking at shit like Mence hitting 75% harder using DM instead of Dragon Claw, and all the flying dudes now having Air Slash to work with Speaking of that indirectly its why i think the whole "Sceptile is screwed in gen 4" discourse feels real wrong. Going from g3 to g4, Sceptile gets a local Grass Draco Meteor, Pulse, and definitely Focus Blast. The only thing it really want to keep from Physical side is arguably Earthquaake to hit the Focus Blast target more consistently. A good chunk of Physical Attacking Sceptile ideas in romhacks comes with all sorts of the dumbest buff idea ever like Technician Dual Chop for a good reason
have you considered a "what if gen 3 weather abilities were only 5 turns and not permanent?" gut feeling is it'd be "oh deer god zapdos is unkillable" the video
That would actually be amazing. It's already so easy to slap on a team. Only being weak to grass, immune to electric, sand immune, rock resist, and can block explosion? Choice Band Meta would be walled entirely. It'd straight up be a staple on every team.
I have some ideas of what ifs that I think would be great to be covered: 1st: What if Ursaluna existed in GSC (would Snorlax be as dominant with an almost as bulky normal type that is half ground, and thus is immune to Thunder and Thunder Wave?) 2nd: what if Regidrago was in Gen 5? (Dragon moves go boooom) 3rd: what if Pelipper, Torkoal, Gigalith and Vanilluxe had their weather abilities in Gen 5? (How would that affect, if at all, weather wars?) 4th: what if sand worked as it does presently back in Gen 3? (Limited turns with sand stream and rock types getting SpDef boost) 5th: what if Annihilape existed back in Gen 1? (Would the normals still be so dominant, and how would psychics be affected, considering it’ld be a fighting type with super effective 2nd stab). 6th: what if Dragonite was Dragon/Normal instead of Dragon/Flying, especifically Gen 1? (Would the big 3 change?) 7th: what if Hyper Beam and similar recharge moves never lost the effect of not needing recharge turns if they got a kill? (How would this affect normal types going forward, and how the starters would be affected?) Those are my ideas, hope someone found anything interesting
Theorycrafting vid pitch: What would change about the gen 3 OU meta if Dark was a physical type and Ghost was a special type? Bonus round: What would change about the gen 3 OU meta if Dragon was a physical type?
really enjoy these hypothetical videos. it's really interesting to think about what could have been with all these old gens and how different the metagames would have been.
I really like specs houndoom as a wallbreaker. Specs crunch would be so strong along with fire move. And if you get a flash fire boost? That could be scary. Sure longevity would be an issue but its already existant (if slim) niche would widen imo.
I think if specs existed, outside of trappers we wouldn't see specs on many sand weak mons, I think we'd be almost more likely to see specs swampert than we would specs zap, id favour doing 60% to skarm on switch in far more than 30% to bliss and then dying to sand, Really interesting vid, thanks for sharing!
Have you done what if choice band was in gen2? It might be an interesting part of this series. I feel like no one wants to lose lefties but if there's someone who'd benefit of it I'm sure you're who'd be able to find it
Garchomp already is fantastic in dpp ubers although it cannot learn dragon dance. Would the access to dragon dance change garchomp into a meta defining threat? Love every single of your videos :)
Alakazam is a Pokemon that is just the epitome of Border Line for ADV. If dropped into UU, it would utterly destroy the tier because of its blazing speed of 120, great boosting options in Calm Mind, amazing coverage and really annoying utility like Encore, Trick and Knock Off. But it can't quite cut in in OU, not because it's a bad Pokemon, but because it has to deal with a meta where Blissey and Tyranitar are everywhere, two mons is struggles with a lot. If Choice Specs were allowed though, it would easily be one of the best abusers. Because its amazing coverage would just make it very strong.
I don't think Alakazam would be that good, it would still be even lower than what Aerodactyl is actually. Jolteon, Starmie, Zapdos and even Moltres or Charizard are way scarier as Choice Scarf. ADV is a generation where bulk is still insanely important.
I’m a little shocked you don’t enjoy let’s go more, it’s gen 1 with modern moves and types with megas but no item and no EVs which adhere to your philosophy of it being more of a chess game knowing what things are and how they operate. It’s a neat online format on kart. We still get games daily.
I think zard and moltres would become the apex spec attackers. Because blaze would power zard up past moltres. And blaze boosted overheat already does like half to suicune.
I know this was intended to be about OU but I think it’s genuinely hilarious how you spent like 5 seconds of the video to acknowledge specs kyogre at the very end
Can you make a video on how good Alakazam would be if it got BoltBeam (or a general video on how BoltBeam coverage would break a lot of otherwise manageable mons)?
Alakazam does get BoltBeam coverage. It learns ice punch and thunder punch, which prior to gen 4 were considered special. Unless you mean specifically if Alakazam got thunderbolt and ice beam. Then you're just cruel.
@@moistsquishyvaporeon Yeah, Thunderbolt/Ice Beam. I was thinking more about it having BoltBeam for after the physical/special split. I'd say give it Flamethrower to replace it losing special Fire Punch too if it's still not OU with BoltBeam, but even I'm not that evil
I think specs would be really good on magneton, it would 1 shot skarm for only 1 spike layer after trapping, while also making you likely one shot swampert with HP grass and foretress with HP fire both from full health without hazards or maybe just 1 layer, as well as tbolt being even more boosted than magnet can currently make it, making it able to spam its stab more.
Low speed, 44(or46) special stat. Ice moves are exclusively special prior to gen 4, so it won't hit hard. No body press, no need for rapid spin. Ice typing, so its only tanky capable would resisting blizzards and tanking physical hits decently well. Its HP and defense may be okay enough to tank a few physical hits, especially with recover for healing. But most threats in gen 1 OU destroy it. It's not even good against Tauros if it's running fire blast. Even if it tanks a hit, what would it do back? Personally, I think it'd be terrible.
@@moistsquishyvaporeon It has recover, so at the very least it could just sit there all day. That and Fire Blast is more niche, not really worth just to take it down
@@derpolopolis8829 Fire blast is sometimes run for opposing Tauros mirror matches. If fire blast gets a burn, which I believe is a 30% chance in gen 1, it wins the mirror match. Tauros wouldn't just use fire blast for Avalugg. Regardless, if all Avalugg plans to do is recover against Tauros it's probably not good. Unless it's a niche like Porygon, but I'm pretty sure that isn't the case. Considering that due to gen 1 mechanics, Porygon can't get paralyzed by body slam while Avalugg can.
This series really makes me wonder how the lower mega games would develop if the tier shifts didn’t close when it stopped being the current gen. Would Pokémon like gen 4 electavire finally find a tier it would be viable.
i think this video seriously underestimates specs swampert. i mostly agree that with blissey + sand and an overall lack of spammable special moves that it would be noticeably worse than band, but swampert pretty easily overcomes all of that. offensive pert is already viable, and uninvested eq + punch decimate special walls, so specs hydro pump would be terrifying to switch into. the standard off pert with specs would 100% be viable on aggressive structures
i swear u didnt mention specs mie.... i was half asleep but i feel like its nuts besides the fact blissey still walls it.... and then so prediciton reliant but can be so good sometimes eps when the water resist is lax, non sp. def bi, suicune if u have spikes up, etc
Specs Starmie could be good, but I think the idea is Alakazam could be better. Alakazam also has boltbeam coverage (although weaker moves). And Alakazam can trick bliss specs. But I do think Starmie has a better matchup against pursuit tar. Personally, I'd love to use specs mence.
I think Choice Scarf in ADV would be good on physical attackers and not as good on special attackers for the same reasons mentioned here. Scarf Metagross or Tyranitar could be very effective. Scarf Suicune or Zapdos? Not so much. Gengar and Starmie? Already fast, would only use Scarf to outspeed other scarfers, and would be worse if locked into one move.
It'd be a significant change. Taking sand chip into consideration is a huge part of ADV, so nullifying it would be interesting. Not only that, but Kingdra and Ludicolo could be scary with drizzle support. Although, rain teams would struggle against Bliss.
Kingdra would be an amazing dragon due to Swift Swim, Tyranitar wouldn't be the dictator of ADV, since it could actually have its sand chip removed until it switches back in. Which would be never, since Kingdra, Suicune, and Starmie would be ripping into everything with Hydro Pump. Omastar would have more of a role in OU given that it has Swift Swim and Spikes. So if you scare something out with the threat of Surf/Hydro Pump, you could predict the switch-out and put up Spikes. Zapdos would run Thunder, Swampert would be an offensive special attacker instead of a wall, since it gets ripped to shreds by neutral effective water attacks boosted by rain. Rain setters would be meta-warping for ADV. Venusaur and Celebi would be running bulky Leech Seed sets to try and stave off Kingdra, the tier king of ADV, and Suicune, until they get hit by Ice Beam.
@@loudwhispre9406 Yeah, that is all true. You're not even safe if you have Bliss. Just run Dug on your rain team and watch the world burn... or get wet in this case.
@@moistsquishyvaporeon Vaporeon would be an S-rank pokemon, since it has Water Absorb and access to Hydro Pump/Ice Beam and resists Ice coverage from rain abusers. But it invites in Thunder Zapdos, Raikou, and Starmie. I also forgot about Ludicolo, which would be on every team given that its a Swift Swimmer with a good matchup into opposing Hydro Pumps with its quad resistance and neutral Ice matchup.
@@loudwhispre9406 You're forgetting one crucial Pokémon. Golduck. With Cloud Nine negating rain, it out speeds rain sweepers. It resist water and ice, walling hard hitting attacks. It can even risk its hp on Zapdos, considering Thunder would be 70% accuracy with Cloud Nine. Rain sweepers also often don't run many speed EVs in ADV since scarf doesn't exist, so you might get away with some bulk. Golduck is our water fowl phoenix, rising from the dampened rubble.
What about specs sceptile, first i Will Say that i haven't played a lot of adv but hp fire + dragon claw + leaf blade and a filler move doesn't seem terrible, You also outspeed naturally a lot of stuff si You could run modest, does it sound good ir sceptile has too many problems yo be viable with specs?
Specs Sceptile with leaf blade, dragon claw, hp fire, and focus punch honestly doesn't sound that bad. Very prediction reliant but also very rewarding. It has its counters for sure. Gengar, hp ice Jolteon, Aero, Charizard, Moltres, Zapdos, and Weezing mess it up.
Skarmory more so because of it's typing is really good at checking physical threats. But it will eventually fall to very strong physical attacks that are SD boosted or CB boosted, unlike Blissey that can eat up many Special attacks for days.
Yeah I'm just going to say mainly trapping (Magneton OHKO's and Tyranitar guaranteed 2HKO's no matter what) and then secondarily *a few* stuff like Zapdos and Starmie and Moltres, as far as OU *as we know it*. Also Trick'ing a choice item becomes a lot less dangerous, as because of Blissey and other special walls, it's easier to play around an unintended beneficial boost to special power than it is physical. Personally the most interesting thing outside of the trapping development would be being able to run a sort of dragmag Salamence or even Dragonite since now Dragon Claw (and Outrage) will be more powerful. The existence of choice specs would more than likely contribute to the rise in prominence of certain lower tiers.
![NLE Choppa - Or What ft. 41 (Orchestra Mix) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/biOFASEgSOM/mqdefault.jpg)
Ah, nothing better than some Blazing Kicking Content as soon as I get off work
Please censor offensive words like c*ntent
Literally same
You said this regarding specs swampert: "It's not going to be its main set." I think that single line encapsulates what you're missing throughout the entire video. Specs doesn't need to be the "main set" for *anything* for it to be a noteworthy threat in the metagame. Simply having it as an *option* will change the decisions players make in both team building and the match. Having specs pert as an option means certain mons that would normally check it can get blown up by a hydro pump or ice beam; at worst, it's a good surprise option, and at best, it becomes popular enough that *all* swamperts now benefit from its existence, due to the uncertainty it presents when swampert first switches in.
With this train of thought, we can see that mons like salamence and ttar are some of the biggest winners here. When salamence first comes in, you're already thinking that it could be either DD, CB, or mixed. Add specs to that list and all of a sudden a wrong guess can be punished that much harder. Similarly, specs ttar can punch a hole in anything meant to check physical ttar; swampert is taking minimum 44% from specs +nature crunch, a high chance of 2HKO after spikes damage. You could even run focus punch, so once your opponent figures out you have specs ttar, you're doing 75%+ of blissey's health on a proper prediction. I could see crunch/pursuit/focus punch/thunderbolt being a popular set, basically a specs version of old school boah. Crunch hits neutral at worst against most threats that matter and 2HKOs them, while specs thunderbolt 2HKOs bulky waters like suicune or milotic that you can't 2HKO with crunch. You *could* fit fire blast on there to OHKO metagross, but you're already doing over half its health with crunch, so it doesn't really want to switch into you in the first place. Dragonite could do the same focus punch shenanigans as ttar, but with dragon claw and fire blast instead of a pursuit set.
Of course, you have your moltres, your zapdos, your jirachi. They all come with tradeoffs to their normal sets, but they're still putting out big hits with no setup time. You laughed at jirachi's fire punch, but it's still 2HKOing metagross even with timid jirachi. In fact, with one layer of spikes down, lum berry or choice band metagross can no longer switch into specs psychic after taking a single fire punch, even with minimum damage rolls for each. Specs jirachi's main weakness would be ttar, who it only 2HKOs with HP Grass, and psychic risks giving a free switch to. Alakazam does basically the same things as jirachi, but as a glass cannon that can learn trick.
And let's not forget boom. Regice throwing out specs STAB ice beams all day is already great, but when you also pack a pocket explosion to blow up in a blissey's face, you've got yourself a valid threat that can wallbreak on the way out. It requires prediction to use well, sure, but so do all high risk-high reward plays.
The thing is, none of these have to become the "main" set of the pokemon in question; they just have to be strong enough to be worth running, and the meta will shape around them. Special threats being walled by blissey makes it impossible for specs to run over the metagame. Conversely, this means if you remove blissey, the remaining halfhearted special bulk on the enemy team will fall very easily to high-powered specs attacks. This would lead to both blissey and dugtrio having even more prevalence in the metagame than they do today.
Trick Alakazam's stocks would definitely go up, but be honest, it would not be as funny as Trick CB Zam with Focus Punch in the back. This set is definitely not consistent or easy to use, but the idea of Alakazan blasting a Banded Focus Punch to destroy Blissey, Ttar and Snorlax is 1000 times funnier than any Specs shenanigans would be
Now I'm really curious for the Choice Scarf video. Speed is so crucial to the way pokemon work, it would flip the meta on its head. Aerodactyl would lose some of its luster by not being the fastest thing ever, Blaziken could carve a niche for its mixed attacking profile and Metagross would be really fucking scary
If scarf existed in ADV Metagross would be absolutely insane. An instant sweeping threat, and can pull a fast boom on a dime.
@@moistsquishyvaporeon And pretty bulky, too, so it would have many opportunities to switch in and scare something, with the possibility to throw out a fast boom when suficiently damaged, which is really scary
I wonder if Scarf Blaziken would actually be that good, given that a major pro about mixed attackers is their ability to switch between attacking sides on the fly to smack whatever just switched in
@@MrLuizilla Yeah, I honestly don't think it'd be that good. Scarf would make it prediction reliant, which is a huge blow to Blaziken because switching between coverage and hitting hard is its selling point. Not only that, but what speed tier does it accomplish with scarf? That's all disregarding other scarfers and dugtrio existing.
i imagine dug might take a hit since it can’t come in and revenge as easily
I always found the physical / special balancing act to be really interesting, and kinda preferred when the differences were asymmetrical. Like physical has so many inherent drawbacks - physical contact moves, crippled by burn, no phys hidden power after gen 3. But on the other hand, in context of the meta, they had access to dragon dance and swords dance (before nasty plot and quiver dance existed), choice band before specs, priority moves, u-turn before volt switch, and aren't singlehandedly cockblocked by one mon (Blissey).
instead get cockblocked by (Skarmory)
I still think that choice specs shouldn't have existed until gen 6 (where assault vest was introduced to help dealing with special attacks more effectively). Special attacks just have too many advantages over physical attacks to warrant the same amount of power boost.
@@IschmarVI gen 4 was just terribly hamfisted with obviously OP items that warped the meta, and additions of equally OP moves turned the game polarizing
@@DkKobaADV not nearly to the same extent though. Blissey's special defense is so ridiculous that a special fighting attack doesn't break it without a boost or something like sheer force. Skarm is very scared of a flare blitz or an EQ when roosting though. Skarm is comparably way easier to break down, especially before it got roost.
@@the_blahhh well then you get into the reason skarm was so strong in adv which is that it has no physical weakness. Roost helps it survive physical supereffective hits but before roost there were no physical supereffective hits.
I like these "What if" videos. There are so many interesing scenarios to go through and to discuss whether they would bring variety to the game or make it more unbalanced. Like in Gen 3, what if:
- Type Items (Silk Scarf etc) boost their respective type by 1.2 as they do in Gen 5
- Recover had 8 PP, like in Gen 9
- Dragonite or Entei had Extreme Speed
- Entei had Sacred Fire
- Superpower was a more wide-spread move
- Gen 4 mons (Staraptor, Spiritomb, Rhyperior, Electivire, Dusknoir for example) were a thing
- Gen 1 mons didn't lose Special Attack or Defense upon transisting to another generation (can also do this for Gen 2 etc, Zapdos for Ubers and Mewtwo for AG I guess)
- Dodrio had Jump Kick and 110 Base Speed in Gen 1 onwards
A super plausible change that I don't think I've ever seen discussed is 'What if ADV was played on Colosseum/XD cartridges?' instead of modded Emerald cartridges. The biggest change, I think, would be team preview in ADV, though there could be others.
you also see the opponents' exact hp stat in colo/XD which is enormous
Short comment: Houndoom go brrrr
Long answer: i think BKC is underselling the potential of specs in adv OU. It would make several non ou pokemon good, just like aerodactyk being good due to choice band. Stuff like houndoom trapping with pursuit would shake the metagame too much. And specs can lure blissey for a double switch with starmie, fp on zard or just knock off with zam.
Hariyana and dugtrio can take a lot of advantage of specs pressure forcing blissey/ttar, etc. And either remove them/ weaken or get a knock off/free sub with hari, and kingdra can be pretty threatening once blissey is removed, specially with rain support.
On the lower tiers now...
would love to see a video talking about if Stealth Rock was in Gen 3! Love the content bro, keep it up!
ADV with rocks would ruin the meta imo
I actually think Houndoom gets a ton better. It gains the mid ground of having a stronger pursuit, and having the devastating power of its fire options.
One point I would like to raise would be Choice Specs on special attackers that can use Explosion. Regice especially and even fringe mons like Exeggutor would see increased viability with a Choice Specs set. The pressure to bait in Blissey would be stronger than ever and riskier to play around, which is usually the whole purpose of running these mons
Regice getting 2HKO potential on Ttar, Metagross, bulkless Jirachi, spD Gengar is huge. Realistically Regice can only come in 2-3 times. If you smack Metagross with HP Fire the first or second time, your opponent will think twice the next time Regice comes in, substantially increasing the odds you get a successful boom on Blissey.
Without the added power of choice specs, there are just so many ways for defense teams to play around Regice that you never even need to risk Blissey. With one good Choice Specs prediction, later in the match suddenly defense now needs to make a prediction, risk Blissey or let Regice keep smashing everything with Choice attacks
Tested this in Tradebacking tours, this should never be allowed 😭 Some Mon like Jira are way too good with this. Tho Specs Special Ttar is hype as hell.
omg rachi with stab tbolt and no recovery 🤯
pas lu + ratio
pas lu + ratio
How long until the truly unhinged BKC rant of "What if Scald were in gens 2-4?
Let's buff gen 1 burn so we can add rby too.
Welcome to Smogon University Grad School, I am professor Chicken. Your What if Specs were in Gen 3 OU papers are due Monday
Keep the content coming man! About to take a drive so this is perfect to put on in background
I think something that puts into perspective of how much of a change Gen 4 really was, is that exclusively on the Specs discussion, you'd be looking at shit like Mence hitting 75% harder using DM instead of Dragon Claw, and all the flying dudes now having Air Slash to work with
Speaking of that indirectly its why i think the whole "Sceptile is screwed in gen 4" discourse feels real wrong. Going from g3 to g4, Sceptile gets a local Grass Draco Meteor, Pulse, and definitely Focus Blast. The only thing it really want to keep from Physical side is arguably Earthquaake to hit the Focus Blast target more consistently. A good chunk of Physical Attacking Sceptile ideas in romhacks comes with all sorts of the dumbest buff idea ever like Technician Dual Chop for a good reason
Sharpness Sceptile tho 👀
have you considered a "what if gen 3 weather abilities were only 5 turns and not permanent?"
gut feeling is it'd be "oh deer god zapdos is unkillable" the video
What if Swampert had Damp in Gen 3? It is his hidden ability in Gen 5 onwards.
That would actually be amazing. It's already so easy to slap on a team. Only being weak to grass, immune to electric, sand immune, rock resist, and can block explosion? Choice Band Meta would be walled entirely. It'd straight up be a staple on every team.
Damp was given to swampert a generation too late.
Fuck it, go evil, give it Sap Sipper
So basically swampert becomes water/ground/ghost
@@jmcbango Without Ghost's added weaknesses/Fighting immunity I guess.
I have some ideas of what ifs that I think would be great to be covered:
1st: What if Ursaluna existed in GSC (would Snorlax be as dominant with an almost as bulky normal type that is half ground, and thus is immune to Thunder and Thunder Wave?)
2nd: what if Regidrago was in Gen 5? (Dragon moves go boooom)
3rd: what if Pelipper, Torkoal, Gigalith and Vanilluxe had their weather abilities in Gen 5? (How would that affect, if at all, weather wars?)
4th: what if sand worked as it does presently back in Gen 3? (Limited turns with sand stream and rock types getting SpDef boost)
5th: what if Annihilape existed back in Gen 1? (Would the normals still be so dominant, and how would psychics be affected, considering it’ld be a fighting type with super effective 2nd stab).
6th: what if Dragonite was Dragon/Normal instead of Dragon/Flying, especifically Gen 1? (Would the big 3 change?)
7th: what if Hyper Beam and similar recharge moves never lost the effect of not needing recharge turns if they got a kill? (How would this affect normal types going forward, and how the starters would be affected?)
Those are my ideas, hope someone found anything interesting
Theorycrafting vid pitch: What would change about the gen 3 OU meta if Dark was a physical type and Ghost was a special type?
Bonus round: What would change about the gen 3 OU meta if Dragon was a physical type?
The changes to swapping Ghost and Dark around can basically be summed up like this :
Gengar : *confused stonks*
Physical dragon claw? U mad bro
Mence would risk getting thrown into uber tier
Flygon becomes scary as fuck too once your magneton takes out skarm
I think the most useful application would be on magneton. It would make trapping and limiting spikes so much easier
You are right
really enjoy these hypothetical videos. it's really interesting to think about what could have been with all these old gens and how different the metagames would have been.
Choice specs moltres would go nuts
I really like specs houndoom as a wallbreaker. Specs crunch would be so strong along with fire move. And if you get a flash fire boost? That could be scary. Sure longevity would be an issue but its already existant (if slim) niche would widen imo.
Lol watched to the end and bkc didnt skip houndoom
cant wait for the scarf video! i hope you mention blaziken in it at some point, it's a solid mixed attacker hindered by its speed
You don't know how often I think of this exact question, thank you for posting (also I have always had the same question for scarf)
I think if specs existed, outside of trappers we wouldn't see specs on many sand weak mons, I think we'd be almost more likely to see specs swampert than we would specs zap, id favour doing 60% to skarm on switch in far more than 30% to bliss and then dying to sand, Really interesting vid, thanks for sharing!
i’d start running specs metagross so i never have to deal with the accuracy of meteor mash again
You're gettin' better @ making these.
Have you done what if choice band was in gen2? It might be an interesting part of this series. I feel like no one wants to lose lefties but if there's someone who'd benefit of it I'm sure you're who'd be able to find it
machamp bro, aerodactyl, tauros, heracross, dodrio, maybe dragonite and a couple other flying types
What if choice specs were; in Gen 3?
Gen 3; Choice Specs?
Garchomp already is fantastic in dpp ubers although it cannot learn dragon dance. Would the access to dragon dance change garchomp into a meta defining threat?
Love every single of your videos :)
Not a BKC video if he doesn't find a way to say this makes Snorlax worse
I heard that Snorlax stole BKC's girlfriend, that's why he keeps talking shit about Lax now
Blissey aside, scarf overheat from moltres sounds like difficult to deal with, even resists get chipped by quite a bit.
Nice video! One idea I had that you could make a nice video out of is What if Melmetal was in gen 3 or 4? That would be nice. Keep the content up!!!
Alakazam is a Pokemon that is just the epitome of Border Line for ADV.
If dropped into UU, it would utterly destroy the tier because of its blazing speed of 120, great boosting options in Calm Mind, amazing coverage and really annoying utility like Encore, Trick and Knock Off. But it can't quite cut in in OU, not because it's a bad Pokemon, but because it has to deal with a meta where Blissey and Tyranitar are everywhere, two mons is struggles with a lot.
If Choice Specs were allowed though, it would easily be one of the best abusers. Because its amazing coverage would just make it very strong.
I don't think Alakazam would be that good, it would still be even lower than what Aerodactyl is actually.
Jolteon, Starmie, Zapdos and even Moltres or Charizard are way scarier as Choice Scarf.
ADV is a generation where bulk is still insanely important.
Choice specs mence isn't affected by spikes at least
Ubers would become interesting, sun and rain team's could be come much more threatening
coming back to this, a salamence lead with the possibility of being specs on top of mixed and band would be so annoying
I’m a little shocked you don’t enjoy let’s go more, it’s gen 1 with modern moves and types with megas but no item and no EVs which adhere to your philosophy of it being more of a chess game knowing what things are and how they operate. It’s a neat online format on kart. We still get games daily.
I think zard and moltres would become the apex spec attackers. Because blaze would power zard up past moltres. And blaze boosted overheat already does like half to suicune.
the idea of a specs crunch makes me giggle
I know this was intended to be about OU but I think it’s genuinely hilarious how you spent like 5 seconds of the video to acknowledge specs kyogre at the very end
I feel like the Specs would make a lot of special and mixed attackers better.
Can you make a video on how good Alakazam would be if it got BoltBeam (or a general video on how BoltBeam coverage would break a lot of otherwise manageable mons)?
Alakazam does get BoltBeam coverage. It learns ice punch and thunder punch, which prior to gen 4 were considered special. Unless you mean specifically if Alakazam got thunderbolt and ice beam. Then you're just cruel.
@@moistsquishyvaporeon Yeah, Thunderbolt/Ice Beam. I was thinking more about it having BoltBeam for after the physical/special split.
I'd say give it Flamethrower to replace it losing special Fire Punch too if it's still not OU with BoltBeam, but even I'm not that evil
I think specs would be really good on magneton, it would 1 shot skarm for only 1 spike layer after trapping, while also making you likely one shot swampert with HP grass and foretress with HP fire both from full health without hazards or maybe just 1 layer, as well as tbolt being even more boosted than magnet can currently make it, making it able to spam its stab more.
Specs Blissey 😳
Specsogre in adv ubers would be fun
What if Avalugg was in Gen 1
Besides being a decent check to Tauros, everything else just melts it
Low speed, 44(or46) special stat. Ice moves are exclusively special prior to gen 4, so it won't hit hard. No body press, no need for rapid spin. Ice typing, so its only tanky capable would resisting blizzards and tanking physical hits decently well. Its HP and defense may be okay enough to tank a few physical hits, especially with recover for healing. But most threats in gen 1 OU destroy it. It's not even good against Tauros if it's running fire blast. Even if it tanks a hit, what would it do back? Personally, I think it'd be terrible.
@@derpolopolis8829 Tauros can sometimes run fire blast. So no, it'd still be toast. Besides, what would it do in return?
@@moistsquishyvaporeon It has recover, so at the very least it could just sit there all day. That and Fire Blast is more niche, not really worth just to take it down
@@derpolopolis8829 Fire blast is sometimes run for opposing Tauros mirror matches. If fire blast gets a burn, which I believe is a 30% chance in gen 1, it wins the mirror match. Tauros wouldn't just use fire blast for Avalugg. Regardless, if all Avalugg plans to do is recover against Tauros it's probably not good. Unless it's a niche like Porygon, but I'm pretty sure that isn't the case. Considering that due to gen 1 mechanics, Porygon can't get paralyzed by body slam while Avalugg can.
This series really makes me wonder how the lower mega games would develop if the tier shifts didn’t close when it stopped being the current gen. Would Pokémon like gen 4 electavire finally find a tier it would be viable.
Specs moltres with dugtrio support seems like it would be really good
All I can think about this with this question is "Dear god, Spec Kyogre, but gen 3"
enough time has passed. specs flygon.
i think this video seriously underestimates specs swampert. i mostly agree that with blissey + sand and an overall lack of spammable special moves that it would be noticeably worse than band, but swampert pretty easily overcomes all of that. offensive pert is already viable, and uninvested eq + punch decimate special walls, so specs hydro pump would be terrifying to switch into. the standard off pert with specs would 100% be viable on aggressive structures
What if my dad came back?
I'm sure he'd be proud to see you watch BKC :)
i swear u didnt mention specs mie.... i was half asleep but i feel like its nuts besides the fact blissey still walls it.... and then so prediciton reliant but can be so good sometimes eps when the water resist is lax, non sp. def bi, suicune if u have spikes up, etc
Specs Starmie could be good, but I think the idea is Alakazam could be better. Alakazam also has boltbeam coverage (although weaker moves). And Alakazam can trick bliss specs. But I do think Starmie has a better matchup against pursuit tar. Personally, I'd love to use specs mence.
Genuinely menacing thumbnail
Question for a video: What if there was hidden power in RBY?
Existing in T-tar World? That's your first mistake!
Yeah I don’t think that Specs would be great, but at the same time I would hate facing Specs Starmie without a Blissey.
Can you make a video analyzing the competitive potential of every hisuian pokemon? since they haven't been released yet
I think Choice Scarf in ADV would be good on physical attackers and not as good on special attackers for the same reasons mentioned here. Scarf Metagross or Tyranitar could be very effective. Scarf Suicune or Zapdos? Not so much. Gengar and Starmie? Already fast, would only use Scarf to outspeed other scarfers, and would be worse if locked into one move.
if you take out Ttar swift swim ludicolo with a rain setter could be dangerous too
Which mons use Choice Specs in DPP? What conditions exist in DPP that prompt them to run specs that do not exist in ADV?
stronger bp moves (draco meteor), sand immunity (heatran), wider distribution of trick for bulky walls
I'D endlessly spam specrachi, even though I shouldn't
I would love Specs Flygon Dragon Claws since it’s immune to Spikes + Sand. Albeit it would be very mediocre
specs metagross would go crazy
i wonder how different gen 3 ou would be if pelipper or politoed had drizzle
It'd be a significant change. Taking sand chip into consideration is a huge part of ADV, so nullifying it would be interesting. Not only that, but Kingdra and Ludicolo could be scary with drizzle support. Although, rain teams would struggle against Bliss.
Kingdra would be an amazing dragon due to Swift Swim, Tyranitar wouldn't be the dictator of ADV, since it could actually have its sand chip removed until it switches back in. Which would be never, since Kingdra, Suicune, and Starmie would be ripping into everything with Hydro Pump. Omastar would have more of a role in OU given that it has Swift Swim and Spikes. So if you scare something out with the threat of Surf/Hydro Pump, you could predict the switch-out and put up Spikes. Zapdos would run Thunder, Swampert would be an offensive special attacker instead of a wall, since it gets ripped to shreds by neutral effective water attacks boosted by rain.
Rain setters would be meta-warping for ADV. Venusaur and Celebi would be running bulky Leech Seed sets to try and stave off Kingdra, the tier king of ADV, and Suicune, until they get hit by Ice Beam.
@@loudwhispre9406 Yeah, that is all true. You're not even safe if you have Bliss. Just run Dug on your rain team and watch the world burn... or get wet in this case.
@@moistsquishyvaporeon Vaporeon would be an S-rank pokemon, since it has Water Absorb and access to Hydro Pump/Ice Beam and resists Ice coverage from rain abusers. But it invites in Thunder Zapdos, Raikou, and Starmie. I also forgot about Ludicolo, which would be on every team given that its a Swift Swimmer with a good matchup into opposing Hydro Pumps with its quad resistance and neutral Ice matchup.
@@loudwhispre9406 You're forgetting one crucial Pokémon. Golduck. With Cloud Nine negating rain, it out speeds rain sweepers. It resist water and ice, walling hard hitting attacks. It can even risk its hp on Zapdos, considering Thunder would be 70% accuracy with Cloud Nine. Rain sweepers also often don't run many speed EVs in ADV since scarf doesn't exist, so you might get away with some bulk. Golduck is our water fowl phoenix, rising from the dampened rubble.
It would be funny I think BKC.
Specs Camerupt Eruption, lol
What about specs sceptile, first i Will Say that i haven't played a lot of adv but hp fire + dragon claw + leaf blade and a filler move doesn't seem terrible, You also outspeed naturally a lot of stuff si You could run modest, does it sound good ir sceptile has too many problems yo be viable with specs?
Specs Sceptile with leaf blade, dragon claw, hp fire, and focus punch honestly doesn't sound that bad. Very prediction reliant but also very rewarding. It has its counters for sure. Gengar, hp ice Jolteon, Aero, Charizard, Moltres, Zapdos, and Weezing mess it up.
Drink every time he says famous
Specs Houndoom all day.
Oop, you said it at the end.
Specs Jolteon would be nice
As a cleaner
BKC fans really eating good these days
Wouldn’t Claydol get something out of specs?
Once again asking for “What if Close Combat was in ADV”
Keep in mind Kevin, it would be another opportunity to dunk on Snorlax’s viability 🫶👀
what if eternamax eternatus was in gen 1 uu when?
Specs in gen 3 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
what if mew was in gen 3 OU?
stay tuned
@@BKCplaysPokemon thank you! the fsg vid just said the setup sets were too strong. hoping for a lot of celebi comparisons!
tldr sand is broken and blissey is annoying and protect is really common in ADV
why won’t the discord link work?
weird, try this discord.gg/skPaQ2m7cc
@@BKCplaysPokemon that also does not work
👍
isn’t skarmory the equivalent of blissey?
no because it's not nearly as bulky nor does it have instant recovery
Skarmory more so because of it's typing is really good at checking physical threats. But it will eventually fall to very strong physical attacks that are SD boosted or CB boosted, unlike Blissey that can eat up many Special attacks for days.
Everything the other replies said + spikes
@@BKCplaysPokemon oh i was unaware it didn’t get roost in gen 3. cool fact!
What if gen3 never truly never happen? 🤨
can we talk about how no item clause is cringe
Specs Zam with trick would absolutely ruin a lot of switch ins!
trick was mentioned, it'd be useful for sure so long as you watch for pursuit tar
@@BKCplaysPokemon my bad musta missed it!
I always wonder “what if choice specs were in gen 3?”
Yeah I'm just going to say mainly trapping (Magneton OHKO's and Tyranitar guaranteed 2HKO's no matter what) and then secondarily *a few* stuff like Zapdos and Starmie and Moltres, as far as OU *as we know it*. Also Trick'ing a choice item becomes a lot less dangerous, as because of Blissey and other special walls, it's easier to play around an unintended beneficial boost to special power than it is physical.
Personally the most interesting thing outside of the trapping development would be being able to run a sort of dragmag Salamence or even Dragonite since now Dragon Claw (and Outrage) will be more powerful.
The existence of choice specs would more than likely contribute to the rise in prominence of certain lower tiers.