GameFreak getting cold feet over Shadow Tag Chandelure is still pretty funny to me, especially since they would create something even more broken in Mega Gengar literally 1 generation later.
Chandelure would’ve been more broken than Mega Gengar. The ability to hold an item means Chandelure is functionally faster, stronger, or has Leftovers recovery depending on what you wanted to trap and eliminate.
@@ashikjaman1940 They can not balance online, but at the same time, they can recognize when something is obviously broken. Whether it actually happens is a different story
@@usuallyangry To be fair it was probably balanced more around VGC, it didn't seem to be completely broken in the restricted formats with things like Primal Groundon or Xerneas around. Singles on the other hand is the wild west and Smogon is one of the only groups who has made an effort to control it.
Throwing out an honorable mention to Swampert here: Damp isn't that useful because Self-Destruct and Explosion saw less use due to their nerfs, although it has a tiny niche in stopping suicide leads from using said moves for free switches. Defiant didn't help Empoleon either in Gens V-VIII because it's a special attacker; Game Freak must have realized their mistake in Gen IX and changed it to Competitive from that point onward.
@@abraham-kun4144 they DID indeed give mega-swampert swift swim, but it should have already been a thing for base swampert although imagine sap sipper swampert, zero weakness mudfish
Empoleon didn't initially get Competitive in Gen 5 cause the ability itself didn't exist until Gen 6. Not fully sure why it took until Gen 9 for it to finally get changed (prob has something to do with transferring), but better late than never I guess.
@@frankchen4229 Really all they need to do is swap its attack and special defense. 110 attack/85 speed with Iron Fist and a surprisingly good offensive movepool would probably have some sort of niche in ZU.
@@LordPhilipJFryZU is ran by h-decidueye. It probably would have been able to be a nice pivot for it. If it gets roost it’d be THE counter to h decidueye. Though knock off sets would hurt A LOT.
I still stand by that they should have given Inteleon a hidden ability that was a combination of sniper and super luck so it both raised his crit chance on all moves as well as increased the damage from crits. Would have been so much better and could have been a ton of fun to mess around with.
Guess next is pokemon who'd be viable without abilities (slaking arceops etc) and or ones who became staples after a type change when fairy steel and dark came
Rain Dish Blastoise Frisk Wigglytuff (even before open team sheets) Leaf Guard Meganium (for obvious reasons) Plus Ampharos Unnerve Tyranitar Damp Swampert Keen Eye Drapion (what were they thinking?) Vital Spirit Electivire and Magmortar (imagine if they got Sheer Force instead) Magician Delphox (not even signature abilities are safe) Long Reach Decidueye (look above) Sniper Inteleon Technician Grapploct
@goGothitaLOL Best comment on this whole comment section LOL (You didn't ask but i will answer anyway) Blastoise => Give regular Blastoise Mega Launcher and Buff water Pulse to 80 base power. (120 Power, 100% accuracy stab go brrrrrrrr) Wigglytuff => Give it Wonder Skin (This pokémon is so terrible that i have no idea how to make it even superficialy viable) Meganium => Give it Triage (I know ~ Totaly original ideia ~) Ampharos => Why it doesn't have Lightning Rod ? Seriously look at its design. (And give Sp. Atk Moxie. Why this ability doesn't exist ?) Tyranitar => Give it Solid Rock (The Armor Pokémon doesn't have an armor related Ability. What was GF thinking ?) Swampert => Give it Rain Dish Drapion => Give it Meciless (Several other poison types would benefict from this ability way more than toxapeks) Electivire => Give it Iron Fist (Pretend that this Ability multiplies by 1.5 insted of 1.2) Magmortar => Give it Mega Launcher (~ Other totaly original ideia ~) Delphox => This one i have no idea. Magician is an absolutely useless ability. But 'Magician' is such an abstract concept, that you can think an viraiaty of effects and it would thematically fit. Even something stupid like protean effect (weed cat has it) or Sp. Atk Intimidate. Or just give the Mystic Fox 'Trace' 🤷 Decidueye => 🤔 Buff Long Reach so it also has the effect of Shield Dust/Covert Cloak effect. (Coldn't think anything better 🤓👆) Inteleon => Sniper is actually a great ability for Inteleon. It just lacks Focus Energy to work with this.
For metagross, missed the part where light metal is not just useless now, but an active hindrance bc it gets heavy slam, which is based on the proportional weights, not plain weight value. Like if Metagross is usually 5.2 times heavier than a mon, light metal will take the move from 120 BP to 60
My favorite is still Anticipation Ferrothorn. > Loses its bread and butter Iron Barbs. > Didn't even have it in Gen 5. Only since Gen 6. > Ferroseed didn't even get a (different) Hidden Ability. This feels Mindy levels of trolling. You get a Ferroseed, don't know it has its HA Flag, and then learn it's garbage.
Wailord getting pressure in the same gen where politoed got drizzle is the equivalent of an older sibling getting socks for Christmas while their younger sibling gets a PS5
In Gen 8, during the Isle of Armor online tournament, which only allowed the use of Pokemon in the IOA's dex, I used a Colbur Berry Orbeetle led Sticky Web squad who's star player was a Guts Luxray. Starmie, Sandslash, and Lycanroc-Dusk were also amazing, but Luxray absolutely stole the show since Dynamax was honestly a perfect mechanic for it. I can't remember where I placed exactly, but I remember placing in the top 100, was very proud of my innovation with such a bad Pokemon. This goes to show folks, a Pokemon may not have amazing traits that are very applicable, but every Pokemon does something unique, and Luxrays cobbled together back of tricks happened to be JUST right for what my team needed to attain victory.
Another highlight moment was how our Kantonian Sandslash was geared to 1v1 Gyarados. Sand Rush and Rock Slide turned Max Rockfall could be used to outrun and 2HKO a Dynamaxed Gyarados after Max Airstream, and we had the physical bulk to easily tank a Max Geyser if it should after maxxing.
Metagross with Levitate instead of Light Metal would be interesting. In Gen 5 Levitate would've left it with just one weakness, but now that Steel doesn't resist Dark and Ghost anymore, it should give Metagross some extra utility without breaking it. Also, I do remember Zapdos getting Lightningrod as its HA. Not that Static is bad, but Zapdos would've run through OU with Lightningrod.
Imagine Lightning Rod Zapdos in VGC. Remember near the end of 2013 when everyone was going out of their way to stop Thundurus that some Lightning Rod users made their way to Top 8 of Worlds (Se Jun Park’s Marowak or Benjamin Gould’s Eviolite Rhydon)?
ironically, inner focus is what makes Entei viable in certain VGC formats. regulation F saw a decent amount of AV Entei due to his good matchup into Flutter Mane. He's a physical attacker that doesn't need to run covert cloak or clear amulet to be immune to fake out + intimidate, has good priority, and a valuable attacking type without any drawback in Sacred Fire. I'd argue Inner Focus did a lot more for Entei than Flash Fire ever would. He wasn't the greatest Pokemon, but he had a respectable usage rate and won a Regional.
and in singles, inner focus is still a good choice for it's intimidate blocking, so like you said this is mainly a secret blessing for Entei compared to suicune and raikou
@@yungmuney5903 Terrakion and Keldeo should get it to. Heck give them new sharpness boosted moves Also Virizion needs growth and chlorophyll to help as well
No, maghnet pull would NOT be fitting for Luxray thematically lmao What Luxray needs is an actual speed buff and good stab move, maybe even Strong Jaw, or a mega evolution
I've just wanted the speed and sp atk to be swapped for years. It wouldn't have been broken in gen 4, it's a nothing buff at this point but whyyy did they do Luxray so dirty
I feel there was a mix up somewhere and they gave Metagross Light Metal instead of Levitate. Levitate would've been good for it I think, immune to a common weakness, immune to Spikes, still immune to TSpikes and SWeb, and immune to Arena Trap.
The Dark Typing and Strong Jaw makes it so much better and still fits the design. Alternatively give it Quick Feet instead of Guts and slap the Normal Typing on it for STAB Facades and doubled speed.
There was a time when Substitute Gliscor and Ninjask were extremely common. During that time, Infiltrator Chandelure and Noivern, and Snarl Raikou were very helpful. Hidden Power Ice was also appreciated.
There are so many almost useful abilities they should merge. Damp and Water Veil being the first example I could think of. They buffed so many things like Scrappy, etc. to be immune to Intimidate, they can really clean up some of the other nonsense too.
in my opinion in order to fix the legendary dogs we should give them these hidden abilities: raikou:give it sheer force. it will be great in OU. suicune:give it unaware. it will go straight back to OU. entei:give it "fire soul" an ability that I made up, it makes all the special moves use the user's physical attack stat and they are boosted by choice band.
I know Zapdos eventually got Static, which is a good hidden ability, but in gen 5, it had Lightningrod, but it never released. I remember playtesting it back in DW OU in 2011, and it did okay against rain teams.
i know light wieght being buffed to give it an instance speed boost upon switch in would make it alot stronger but its make the ability make more sense on metagross
one day i hope they change his hidden ability, i mean did change Empoleons from defiant to competitive, so I really wish they'd change his from Damp to Regenerator (it's an axolotl and they can regrow limbs, it's perfectly fitting)
@@bulborb8756 unless they change their philosophy i don't see them changing abilities, the only reason they're even changing movesets meaningfully is because they seem to have gotten tired of maintaining the Pre-Switch bank systems
I love seeing an ability description that ends with, "...and the like." If there was any indication Game Freak was consistent with anything else, sure, but... Rain Dance isn't a Dance Move, etc.
Inner Focus was probably given to the beast Trio for VGC. The immunity abilities they had were fine for doubles, but considering Inner Focus is so good in Doubles that Dragonite uses it over Multiscale, GameFreak maybe thought it was a buff for Doubles at least. And considering Inner Focus now blocks intimidate, it definitely was for Entei.
To be fair, Entei did benefit greatly from Inner Focus, as now being Fake Out and Intimidate immune boosted its viability in VGC. It could also be argued that Raikou benefited slightly as two years ago, it almost top 16’d Worlds.
Perhaps the next theorem video could be why move sets (like mix attacking, fast physical, bulky special, etc) are close to everything or the Dragonite theorem
Telepathy, I hate that ability so much- They gave that ability to so many pokemon as a hidden ability too, I think only the Beheeyem line and oranguru have it as a standard ability everyone else from Gardevoir to Palkia, Dialga and Giratina altered form have it as a hidden ability And it's such a let down since it's useless in singles and while it can be used on doubles, it's not an ability that's worth building around like friend guard, I don't think a single Pokémon with that ability would run it over any other of their abilities, other than some gimmicky instruct Oranguru set with spread moves, which it was clearly designed around And, just to rub salt in the wounds, Gamefreak gives Gallade sharpness which is a huge step up, but leave Gardevoir with Telepathy
another that would fall here is Anticipation, a complete nothing ability that is forever bad and never worth running, seriously why would any sane person run this on ferrothorn over the vastly superior iron barbs
@@bulborb8756 Anticipation is similar to Forewarn, Run Away or Ball Fetch as a kid friendly ability that let's them know that the opponent's secret coverage move. You aren't supposed to run it in serious settings. I do not get why it's on Ferrothorn though as no one is getting that with its hidden ability without learning the game.
I just want the Pokemon with hindering abilities to either have them altered to not be a hinderance, or they get access to beneficial abilities instead. Giving them something as simple as: Gluttony, Limber, Immunity, or Insomnia would do them wonders (and make them competitively more viable). Giving Slaking Own Tempo or Oblivious would make for interesting match ups.
Slaking could really have Defeatist as his HA - it would essentially cut it's HP in half before it becomes abusable but atleast it would get rid of it's awful gimmick
honestly strong jaw could have been a decent alternative for Luxray - effectively giving it stab on crunch its best coverage, having a reliable physical stab in thunder fang and having the other elemental fangs as mroe viable coverage
In the long run Entei came out of the loss of it's old Hidden Ability pretty well when Inner Focus was buffed to block Intimidate in gen 8. Making it a pretty good choice for Entei, plus thanks to the Ability Patch you can get that shiny event Entei with Flare Blitz and Extreme Speed (prior to gen 9) to have Inner Focus. However I'm still bitter about Chandelure losing Shadow Tag, would it be busted, absolutely but frankly I don't care. You could say that I wanted the world to burn while being unable to escape.
Ledian getting iron fist feels like a cruel joke. We have this base 35 attack bug/flying special defense tank and game freak decided to give it an ability that slightly boosts its nonstab attacking moves.
Magnet Pull fits thematically? Despite that the ability has only been given to Pokemon that are actual magnets or compasses, & Luxray is a lion based around light & x-ray vision? What? Being Electric-type does NOT automatically equal Magnet Pull being thematic, IMHO. Anyway, okay analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
Gotta disagree with you False Wipe, Guts Luxray is an Arceus Blessing in Gen 9 Random Battles, Since it gets Trailblaze and can Tera Normal for an extra strong Facade- it's a very good mon in that meta.
Lightning Rod Zapdos would like to know your location, Game Freak. It would definitely be an improvement in both BW OU and UU I would imagine, even if not by much in OU.
Milotic would've been a perfect fit. Its regular abilities are Marvel Scale a Competetive. Both great abilities imo and its hidden ability is Cute Charm?
Pokémon who deserve Hidden Abilities Flygon Sheer Force or Sand Stream Golidopod Tough Claws or Shell Armor Hydreigon Berserk (just ban immediately) Vikavolt Battery And the one that will cause the most damage to the players Archeops with Emergency Exit
Give Slaking Defeatist as HA while you are at it - still a detriment but atleast it is allowed to be alive at the cost of 50% HP before it goes limp again.
Idk if this would be too far, but Luxray with Speed Boost would be cool. Speed Boost would fix one of its main issues, and even once it's boosted its best physical Electric moves are Wild Charge and Supercell Slam
There are several cases of Pokemon getting bad or useless hidden abilities, but Swampert getting Damp and Sceptile getting Unburden are among the top. These definitely need to be mentioned and covered, if there is going to be another video like this.
Protean/Libero sure helped Greninja/Cinderace… but it sure as hell didn’t help their reputation. And don’t even get me started on the URL Shinies, their ability is probably why they’re the most commonly Genned Shiny. I feel bad for them. Second paragraph unrelated.
Considering its actively capable of flight, I feel like Metagross would have done well by simply giving it levitate as the hidden ability. Its not an overbearing ability, plus it does not give it an offensive boost. a defensive one but still. Oh also, I do consider Damp on swampert to be one of the biggest let downs when it comes to hidden abilities on starters. Especially compared to both Sceptile and Blaziken getting pretty good to REALLY good hidden abilities. Would be so simple to just give it swift swim
I would give Metagross Download or Analytic to go with its super computer design, or simply give it Levitate to mirror how it can levitate in the anime. I would also change Infernape’s Hidden Ability from Iron Fist to an ability that can benefit a mix attacker. The best options I could find (besides Speed Boost) was Opportunist or Costar so that it can switch in on a set-up sweeper in singles, or it can be used with a set-up sweeper in doubles.
Adaptability while maybe too much would make sense thematically for how ... adaptable Infernape can be. But sheer Force could also boost everything it usually does besides Close Combat maybe (Which isn't boosted by Iron First either)
Scizor was also plagued by Light Metal. And not that it needed a new ability, Techinician is just that good, but... Light Metal is just a bad joke. For Scizor is even more cruel, since it will be taking even more damage from Heat Crash (Not that Scizor would survive anyway, but you got the point).
Outright adding a 50% Speed buff to Light Metal, and a 50% Defense buff to Heavy Metal might be acceptable considering only slow mons have access to it, maybe.
Is Defiant Primape’s HA, if so, then it aged beautifully for Annihilape, one I’d like to mention is Daschbun with Aroma Veil, which basically is useless even in double battles
yes, Defiant is primeapes hidden ability and you are certainly right that it has aged well as with Annihilape it turns that monkey into one you do not wanna make angry, you won't like him when he's too angry to die
I feel like Electivire and Luxray should both get Galvanize as Hidden Abilities. Also I think Levitate would fit really well on Chandelure since it gets rid of the Ground weakness.
You guys forgot the other type of Pokémon with Hidden Abilities… the ones that have No hidden ability! Or the ones that only have one main ability and one HA
Not really a hidden ability per se, but rather the LACK of a hidden ability for Gengar. It was bad enough when they replaced the fantastic and thematic levitate with CURSED BODY of all things (on a mon that gets one-shot by any physical move worth caring about) but then it just didn't get a hidden ability at all? Like, OK, there are other mons with no hidden ability, but those are usually ones who's single ability are pretty much key to their identity, like ultra beasts having beast boost, Paradox mons, Stance change on Aegislash...... But Gengar doesn't have anything like that as a limitation, so it just randomly not getting a hidden ability is just downright odd
The funniest thing is that even though Raikou and co. didn't officially have their hidden abilities released, the games can actually use them against you in the Battle Maison.
Honorable mentions alongside the beasts The original eeveelutions have absolutely 0 use for their hidden abilities. Flareon has the exact same issue as Luxray except worse since unless tera it cant hold a flame orb and a toxic orb really drains hp. Jolteon is already crazy fast and becoming faster isnt a bad thing but the thing is already super frail and having to force it to hold a flame or toxic orb and get slowly chipped and that it steals the item slot on a Pokemon thats already faster than nearly everything and what it needs is an actually good speed boosting ability quick feet sucks or a boost to its power was a interesting choice. Water Absorb is a great ability hydration while not bad is situational and on a mon like Vaporeon is often just dead weight. Why bother healing off scald burns when you can just not be scalded at all?
The Funny thing about Jolteon is that you can make it reasonably bulky without speed investments if you use Quick Feet and add Calm Mind to its pool - it lasts only so long due to the orb draining it but it can still surprise people ... sometimes.
To be fair, only entei benefits from inner focus due extreme speed and intimidate immunity. Raiku and Suicune don’t exactly mind flinches and couldn’t care less about intimidate, but Entei does
So many Pokemon need a ability update and not to mention an update to useless abilities. - I think light metal should slightly increase your speed, while heavy metal will drop your speed. Heavy metal will definitely be useful for trick room build + powering up weight based moves, while light metal will reduce weight damaging moves while making you faster.
Rain Dish Blastoise Frisk Wigglytuff (even before open team sheets) Leaf Guard Meganium (for obvious reasons) Plus Ampharos Unnerve Tyranitar Damp Swampert Keen Eye Drapion (what were they thinking?) Vital Spirit Electivire and Magmortar (imagine if they got Sheer Force instead) Magician Delphox (not even signature abilities are safe) Long Reach Decidueye (look above) Sniper Inteleon Technician Grapploct
Another option for Luxray that would be decent, imo, is that you could give it something like Strong Jaw since it learns all the Fang moves and would really expand its coverage
Honestly, Inner Focus is actually not bad on Entei today. An Assault Vest Tera Normal VGC Entei can hurt opponents(not as much as Dragonite, but still.) Inner Focus Suicune has its moments too. But Raikou, it suffered the most. Rip. I don’t do much single battles.
Im just gonna mention another mon that Guts did not help as a hidden ability: flareon fire in general is just the worst type to pair guts with as it forces you to run a toxic orb, so with flareon this just makes it's already abysmal issues with its speed and longevity even worse
The real loss was Lightning Rod Zapdos… if Zapdos had been given Hurricane in Gen 5 (like Moltres and Articuno did…), and gotten its hidden ability, it probably would have outclassed Thundurus in permanent Rain, and definitely wouldn’t have dropped its streak of OU standing for the first time here.
Honorable mention to Torterra which got Shell Armor (lol) as a hidden ability, which is useless cause only blocks critical hits, in Gen 9, it had the chance to change to better one like Thick Fat, but Game Freak wasted it.
Imagine Slow Start cuts your Atk, SAtk and Spd by 50% on the first turn, sets everything to neutral on the 2nd, and adds 50% on the third and then stops there. This would still fit thematically but would be not just a flat middlefinger...
Yeah, Entei getting flash fire would have done nothing until gen 8. Would you rather have flash fire or extreme speed and flare blitz? Pretty sure very few people would want to go with fire fang and have no priority just for a fire immunity.
This might be a Stretch, but seeing how Metagross can move around or behave in the Anime, Metagross could have gotten Levitate for it's Hidden Ability. That makes Metagross as a Mega Option even more of a diverse option, cause you have this already Strong Pokémon, with a Ground Immunity, or you can Mega it, reverse that Immunity into a Weakness, and gain Tough Claws on top of the Mega Stat boost to just Shred through opponents... Or, looking at how Metagross looks in game, and as you hinted at too, Give Metagross Tough Claws, and Mega Metagross could gain Levitate, and the Attack boost Metagross you get for going Mega would equal what Base Metagross with Tough Claws would be in terms of Power. So Mega Metagross is just a stricter stronger option! (So basically Mega Metagross with Levitate and an Attack that Equals Metagross' Attack + Tough Claws.)
