How Critical Hits Created a New Playstyle 

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I think another factor that helped these strategies to rise in gen 8 is the removal of z moves. The lack of a sudden powerboost definitely helps

Wait, so body press was introduced in gen 8. AND THEY DIDN'T GAVE IT TO ZAMAZENTA, THE POKÉMON WHO'S WHOLE THING IS BEING A DEFENSIVE MONSTER?!

My man getting a Raid sponsorship, he's a real youtuber now

Gen 5 Sigilyph is the real origin for this, as far back as I can remember. It's first major set was Magic Guard, Flame/Toxic Orb, Cosmic Power/Stored Power/Roost/Psycho Shift, though as RU developed you also saw a lot of other sets, like more offensive Tinted Lens sets. But that first set was definitely what first brought Sigilyph to prominence.

Wolfe glick was just taking about Crits recently. It’s funny how much crits actually matter in both casua and competitive play even though it isn’t popular. Great informative video man 👍🏼

The true counter to defensive setup gamefreak probably intended: Timer Stall.

Freezai is getting sponsored,Let's go.I've watching Freezai for a long time and I'm very happy that He is getting sponsored.

Actually fun fact: When landing a crit, the user ignores negative attack stat changes, and it also ignores the opponent's positive defesnse stat changes

7:32 It was indeed super spamed by Team China in UUWCP last year, but the strat was created before that tour. In CPL (Chinese Premier League) that set was already a thing. I can confirm it as someone who actually lost to that set in CPL lmao.

Might also be related to no-one running phasing moves, as all but mew dont seem to have a way to avoid just getting whirlwind/roared out.

Here in ZU where I play, we have to deal with Alcremie which uses that strategy. It has Aroma veil so it's immune to Taunt and encore and has plenty of viable boosting sets. It usually goes either calm mind plus acid armor or just calm mind to have one extra move slot for a coverage option. For healing options it can use either ChestoResto or recover plus aromatherapy. And as attacking options it usually goes either stored power, dazzling gleam, draining kiss or if it can also mystical fire depending on what sets it uses. It's really the mon I hate playing against the most in ZU

Crits became even less frequent after gen 7 since the crit chance was tuned down to 1/24 but not mentioned until fans found out about it.

rip sigilyph, ignored despite doing this since gen 5

That sponsor jumpscared me lmao

Congrats on the sponsor, well deserved for the content you put out

First time I'm excited for a Raid : Shadow Legends sponsor Congrats man, you deserve it

Metagross is probably the most balanced of these. It can be offensive with meteor mash or set up and sweep.

I think the best way to beat this strategy overall, which isn't mentioned in this video, is tricking these mons a choice item. Especially in OU you have a ton of common choice scarf users that learn trick AND mons like clefable or slowking-galar even occasionally run trick-scarf. Scarf fini is such a good anti-cheese mon in general and really helps here.

While Latias doesn't usually run defense boosting moves aside from CM, it's actually decent as a SP sweeper because of it's access to reflect type and it's good speed.

I honestly didn’t know the crit chance dropped in Gen 7

Oh, I used to use a super gimmicky version of a Crit-me-not sweeper around gen 6/7. Sableye @ Sablenite Ability: Prankster EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Bold Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Will-O-Wisp - Calm Mind - Snarl - Recover Switch in on a physical threat and neutralize with will-o. Start boosting with calm mind. Hit all mons with snarl and lower their SpA making you more likely to survive. Recover as needed. Gen 7 really fandangled me with the Prankster dark type stuff, but mega sab means that you can now get a defense boost and bounce back toxic when you suspect it. You win slowly and despise crits.

Sounds like it’s time to think about using moves like darkest lariat and secret sword

Congrats on the sponsorship my dude, well earned

ZU has some crit me not sweepers in it as well. Alcreamie has a crit me not set of Acid Armor, Calm Mind, Rest, Stored Power/Dazzling Gleam. Best part is that Aroma Veil autimatically blocks taunt. Dubwool has a similar set with cotton guard rest talk body press, however it has no spdef boosting move so it's incredibly vulnerable on the special side.

Congratulations, Freezai, you finally got sponsored. That's awesome

the sheer volume change from "crit-me-not sweeper" to "THIS VIDEO IS SPONSORED-" gave me a damn heart attack

I’ve been using these kinds of sets for years - Unaware Quagsire with Stockpile, Recover, Rest and Scald

I loved using torkoal in gen 7 ZU using a similar strategy (curse, amnesia, rest) because of it's ability shell armor that prevents critical hits. the only downside is that it has very few physical moves to rely on, but fortunately it learned flame wheel which also has alot of PPs (since generation 8 it can also use flame charge to boost it's speed or heat crash/body press as a stronger attack)

congrats on the sponsor! Such a thorough video, too. I barely scratch 1200 on the anything goes ladder, and part of it is a mix of OU/Uber teams stomping me, and these critmenot sweepers. They are SO tricky to deal with when I'm just trying to be creative with my teams/strategies. But that's what you get when you play anything goes

Congrats on the sponsor man! Keep the good videos coming and we'll keep watching

I remember I used it with sigiliph. Cosmic power, psycho transfer, roost and stored power with flame orb

A Raid sponsorship is a big milestone in RU-vidr careers. Good Job man!!!

Yo cool video, also i find it funny that Wolfey just uploaded today an entire video with a very similar topic

You're a real youtuber now with that raid sponsor! Very cool info too, wasnt aware of this strategy's popularity.

glad you finally are getting sponsers!!!

You and wolfeyvgc both brought up some good points about crits in the last couple of days. Very interesting to get insight from pros like yourselves! Also, congrats on the sponsor, even if it is RSL 😂

Imagine if Zamazenta got body press, calm mind and stored power, it could probably have had some use in ubers

nice to see you getting a sponsor! well deserved!

This is a nice follow up to Wolfey's Crit video

Funny you bring this up. I did this just earlier today.

These kinds of sets are why moves like Sacred Sword or Chip Away might be ideal depending on the team comp

cant wait for that LC tournament!

Ideas for videos: what if there were more double type moves (flying press etc). What is the best type combo/ the hardest to switch in what if Pokemon could only use stab moves (and status move of the same type). What Pokemon would be most affected? What if there was an item, that gave you another type (Heatran + flying stone = fire/steel/flying), would that be balanced? What would be the best type combos?

I tried this in BDSP. Specially defensive resting curse snorlax. Worked great, but I'd always lose to a stray Crit or getting parahaxed

Congrats on getting a sponsor!! Well deserved

Love you Freezai

I really want to see more conditional crit effects. Like if abilities like Blaze and Torrent were “Crit when HP is 1/3 or lower”, Synchronoise could be “crits when sharing type”, etc. Moves could also be conditional with crits like “crits if faster”, “crits in misty terrain”, or an item to be immune to crit effects. Feel like there is a lot of design space and having more reliable crit conditions could remove the frustrations behind some of the luck.

the most insane part of this video is that you used a new pyramid graphic to illustrate the different tiers, and it wasn't poorly cropped

You know you’re a beloved RU-vidr when the comments section isn’t complaining about your raid sponsor.

Raid add, nice to know that you are a real RU-vid'er now

My boy getting sponsored, moving up in the world !

I almost skipped through the ad and then it hit me that you got a sponsor, congrats!

my boy getting sponsored now. Lets go!

The first time I saw this strat was when I was watching a Pokeaimd video and he was up against an unkillable Mew who swept him. I also saw a recent video where Blunder got swept by a Corvinight who did the same start

LOVED THIS VIDEO

Awesome and informative video as always! Sad you didn’t talk about Crocune though :( the first and original crit-me-not sweeper

4:32 Gen 9: and I took that seriously

Dope video as always congrats on the sponsorship

That dr doom custom avatar is so dope

Amazing!

Hey good for you getting that raid sponsorship bag you deserve it

this was doable before but just very narrowly, you need shell armor or battle armor or something to prevent crits entirely and then stack defense and use stored power.

Z stockpile water spider with aqua ring was my go to in gen 7

Wow a real sponsor! Nice work

Congrats on the sponsor🎉🎉🎉 maybe a less abrupt transistion tho

I think we need to buff +1 critical hit rate to be a 1/6 chance instead of 1/8

hell yeah, my man Freezai securing that bag with the raid sponsor

My mans new content format got him a Raid sponsorship, you get that bread homie good on you.

damn it's really nice watching u grow, well made video and congrats on the sponser

homie shouted out my favorite nuzlocker, love to see jt

Another fun one I used to use was Sigilyph. Cosmic power, stored power, roost, psycho shift. Holding a flame orb, so you could absolutely cripple physical attackers. Like Mew and Reuniclus tho, it was weak to dark types (specifically Houndoom) and Taunt. Still, if you didn’t have a check, you’d just have to sit there and watch it go in

I always love when my favorite youtubers get sponsored by raid cuz i know they pay good for those ads and its easy to skip them

Yoo my man freezai getting that sponsor. Congrats dude

Wow you already have an sponsor? Been here since 2k subs I think. Congrats!

Fun fact, theres another move thats just store power but for dark/physical attackers, use power trip :)

freezai getting sponsored now lets go

This is why I always have a Scope + Focus Energy Sniper Kingdra dropping Crit Draco’s, Scald’s, & Flash Cannon. It’s fun Sweeping in 7 moves when I see a Stall team

these videos are so informative and fun to watch, how do you know all this lol

Let's go you got a sponsor!

Seeing you get a sponsorship makes me very happy

LETS GO FREEZAI GET THAT RAID BAG!!!!!!!!!

Congrats on the sponsorship!

I always thought the chance of a crit was boosted in Gen 6, but it looks like that's only the case when you have +2 or greater with critical hit boosts. And honestly, I'd be fine with a higher chance to crit with the nerfed damage because it specifically stops boring strategies like this while not being as detrimental to bulky Pokemon just trying to switch in.

WolfeVGC's video on the importance of crits fits this video so well it's crazy

4:47

My boi got a raid sponsor. Hell yea

bro got the raid sponsor that's hugeeee congrats

sheeeeesh freezai getting sponsors

FIRST SPONSER ON FREEZAI'S CHANNEL WOOOOHOOO

LETS GOOOO SPONSORED FREEZAI

Back in gen 6 I used these strats with Sigilyph especially in doubles

One way to deal with this is to react immediately with a strong wallbreaker while they are at still +1 defences and pray to ur damage calcs to 2hko at +1/+2

very cool video

Another addition is Cofragrigus in PU can be a Body Press sweeper, but I'd say it's not that great due to lack of reliable recovery and how dangerous the other 2 Ghost types in the tier and the 2 high tier Dark Types are, along with Gallade running Knock Off for coverage and Druddigon with Taunt. Not a great option, though it exists. Though if I wanted a defensive booster in PU, I'd use Contrary Shuckle

2:46 Hawlucha being one of if not the only pokemon I’ve ever seen use the electric/psychic/fairy/grassy seed items, is just an attestment to how broken the unburden actually is. I mean it’s so simple to use, do you have a Koko put a Hawlucha with electric seed on your team, I personally use a Hawlucha on my OU team with both Zard Y and Terrain extender Koko, and assault vest Victini for STAB V-Create and electric terrain powered bolt strikes, last two mons are scarf Lando-T with only just enough speed to outrun a max speed Electrode, to increase it’s physical bulk, and a Protean Greninja with Waterium-Z to kill pokemon weak to water in sun, and hp fire to roast any 4x weak pokemon like Scizor of Ferrothorn. Not to mention 4 of my pokemon carry U-turn or Volt Switch, Koko carry both of them, and Lando, Greninja and Victini have U-Turn. Tldr; Hawlucha rounds out an electric terrain team well. And I just wanted to share my team since I love it so much.

freezai when a big poketuber makes a new video: write that down write that down

I love using topsy-turvy against this strat, it’s so fun seeing a bulky mon turn into paper

Never would i of thought freezai would get sponsored by raid shadow legends

Ayyyyy, get that RAID bag, congrats