Black and White gave us some amazing Pokemon. They certainly threw balance out the window, but the designs are amazing. Personally, I'd love to give Archeops an ability to represent what an unwieldy flyer it is. Perhaps something like Hustle would be a good pick. It might push it into a borderline tier, though.
Archeops is surprisingly the only intentionally nerfed Pokémon along with Slaking and Regigigas that wasn’t unviable. Then again, they made so many at that point they know how to “balance”/nerf Pokémon without even trying.
I know I'm late but I think the best way to rework Archeops is to change Defeatist to halve defense and special defense upon reaching half health. Basically, it puts Archeops in range to be killed by basically any attack, easily thwarted by revenge killers. But this means Archeops gets to maintain its incredible speed and attack and just becomes the flimsiest glass cannon. I think this would make it much easier to find use for it, especially in high tiers. It could probably find a solid niche on hyper offense teams that want fast paced games. A Pokémon that fast and strong with great STABs with the only drawback being that it'll die to literally anything after being hit below half health? Sure, it'd serve near no defensive niche but it'd still be much more viable.
Before this video dropped I was literally using this as my "underdogs" team opener/mascot. Endeavor Stealth rock set-up is amazing and so underrated. Also, for an ability, I believe Rock Head for a 2nd, and Prankster for a Hidden.
Very impressive that it wasn't constantly untiered, since it has an ability that harms itself. Imagine how good it would be if it didn't have an ability like that, like Unburden or something.
In Archeops' case, it being paper thin bulk-wise means that realistically, Defeatist isn't going to trigger very often unless you have Focus Sash or switch it in twice while Rocks are up.
The main difference between Archeops and Regigigas/Slaking is that, unlike those other troops, Archeops can, in theory, prevent its ability from activating. While the other two will start over with their drawbacks, and in Slaking's case, never recover from them.
The only time I've ever seen Slaking used some what usefully in a non-community made game is in Pokemon Colosseum where it is combined with a Skill Swap Slowbro by the last boss. Which is awesome, and an absolutely utter shame that no core series game has ever done this afterwards, but it still goes to show that you need to be extremely inventive to make Slaking useful, which is a crying shame as I really quite like the design. I don't know why GF has a hard-on for making these ridiculously gimmicky Pokemon instead of, I don't know, actually making them fun an usable. It's like 99% of the time we get the same old template copy-paste Pokemon, and that 1% they make different is always a joke.
Fun fact: 252+ Atk 252 Spe Slaking with Retaliate (after one of your teammates has been KOd) or Gigaimpact is a guaranteed 1HKO to offensive Landorus-T, has a 13'5% chance to 1HKO offensive Garchomp, and is also a guaranted 1HKO against offensive Kyogre, among other Pokémon. Without a Choice Band or even a Life Orb. The thing with Slaking is that, due to its massive stats, if they give him some other "useless" ability, like let's say Illuminate, it would end up in Ubers inmediatly. Ironically, maybe only Defeatist would be enough but not too much for a Pokémon like Slaking
@@HannibalKantter I think Slow Start is actually better than Truant in this regard, as Slaking gets a few stalling moves, like Yawn and Rest. Pokemon Volt White has a Slow Start Slaking, and honestly, I found it far easier to make use of it with this than Truant. You can also find many ways to make Slaking work in Doubles, but you essentially have to sacrifice another Pokemon for this, but you get an absolute monstrosity in return depending on what ability you manage to swap with! Slaking definitely has Uber worthy stats,and you can actually make use of it in the core games if you play around Giga Impact to essentially brute force the opponent if they don't have a good counter to it.
Basically it's ridiculous that Regigigas has been nerfed since he is Legendary. Or what if they gave Skill Swap to Regigigas, since he is the creator of the Regititans? That alone could be The Uber Gimmick. But i think Gamefreak thought it could be ok to give 100 base speed to Regigigas, which without that ability makes it ridiculously strong.
@@AveSicarius actually, Stall(ability) Slacking is pretty good. Because it's base 100 speed is made useless since it always go last. But it's not half bad it can go with a Bulky attacker spread still be usable but not super strong.
I feel defeatist should have been 'fight or flight' inspired. Say, at half health the pokemons attack and special attack are halved, but its speed gets doubled as fight is taken over by flight.
interesting buff to archeops: remove the special attack drop from its ability. it would make it a really nuanced and interesting pokemon. do you run a mixed set and use special moves after head smashing? do you still run full physicial? do you run full special and bait in counters to a physical set? there's lots of potential i think. edit: ppl in the comments are definitely right that just removing the special attack drop from the ability would just make archeops run full special so the stat changes i like the best are sptck from 112 --> 102 and atk from 140 --> 150.
It would literally go up to at least UU if defeatist didn’t halve sp.atk. Thing gets air slash, heat wave, earth power, focus blast, like the others said meteor beam. Sure that’s not as expansive as it’s physical move Pool, but if keldeo can be gen 6 ou with running primarily just STAB, surely arcehops can hit UU with just 5 useable special moves.
I feel like the reason why Archeops was so much better than Regigigas or Slaking is because while it's ability IS no doubt a hindrance, it's not as bad as truant making the user unable to do anything literally every other turn or slow start neutering it's stats for such a long time before going away. At least with Archeops's defeatist ability, it can potentially keep itself able to do something as long as you're careful enough to not let it's HP drop too low.
@@theboi5584 Yes, that definitely does help it out quite a bit. I also find it to be funny that it could actually manage to pull off a defensive set in a lower tier, despite not seeming like such a strategy would be at all viable, and yet somehow, the lower power level of tiers like NU and PU, alongside Archeops's defensive typing let it become usable in that role
567 is a crazy stat total. By comparison, Gyarados is only at 540, and the legendary birds are 580. With its ability changed, this Pokemon could dominate.
I’d change Defeatist from “halving attack and special attack” to “drop them by two stages.” Head smash to less than half health, then White Herb to bring it back and Acrobatics everything else! Pretty predictable but a lot more useful
@@SufferingSuccotash the goal would to make the 567 bst Pokémon stay balanced instead of going "hurrr it would be great if it had rock head or another good ability instead"
@@MegaShepardsPie what about mega rayquaza or mega mewtwo? Super OP. Same with golisopod. It's emergency exit ability stopped it from being a good mon too
With the announcement of Gen 9 coming out this Fall, it’s kinda sad knowing that your future videos won’t feature many official Gen 8 VGC tournaments. Fortunately they’ll finally be returning next month!
The reason why this is the case is because it's ability, while objectively bad, is not as crippling of a hindrance as slow start or truant. The thing you need to remember is that truant makes the user unable to do anything every other turn, essentially giving your opponent free turns when it is in effect, while slow start cutting it's attack and speed stats in half for FIVE whole turns, on top of getting reset if it switches out, and these abilities are far and away the biggest hindrances to their users of anything. As others have pointed out in other comment threads on this video, defeatist at the very least is not going to automatically kick in from turn 1, since it needs to have it's HP drop low enough first, which can be played around far more easily than slow start or truant. Archeops is definitely flawed, but it's high offensive stats make it a threat as long as it can keep it's HP above half
@@AverageHandle_ archeops would be too frail for vgc/double with rock slide, discharge and double targeting rendering its items such as heavy duty boots and focus sash useless . Archeop's offense could also be blocked effectively by follow me and trick room shenanigans.
Archeops, aside from megas, UBs, Slaking, School Form Wishiwashi, pseudo-legends, legendaries and mythicals, has the highest base stat total of any regular Pokemon, as most fully evolved Pokemon range from 440-540, except Togekiss, Arcanine, Florges, Ursaluna and Volcarona. Its BST is based on the dex number and the Dewey Decimal number, 567.9. But despite the BST, I don’t think it deserves having a crippling ability considering its defensive typing and frailty.
I mean it wouldn’t be broken without defeatist sure but that would be a bit unfair to Carracosta since anyone would chose archeops if it were like this due to the BST difference
@@galvsparks6295 I don't understand why they didn't also make Carracosta strong, I'd still use it regardless because I prefer the design, but just make both the Fossil Pokemon seriously powerful to reflect the environment they apparently inhabited. Give them a relatively high BST and at least non-detrimental abilities, I don't actually see a reason why they wouldn't, it isn't like the core series game's are difficult anyway, and by the time I have a fully trained Archeops I could easily have a whole bunch of Pokemon just as powerful. I find it very difficult to actually understand the thought process by many of Game Freaks decisions, yes having a powerful Pokemon with a severe drawback is a gimmick, but it isn't a fun one, and even in casual play nobody is going to use Slaking when they could just use a more useful Pokemon. Pokemon Colosseum actually did something interesting with Slaking, all battles are doubles, so the final boss uses Slaking and Skill Swap, making his Slaking an absolute monster. This is an interesting combination we've never even seen in the core games, I mean gen 3 was the generation where doubles were introduced and they couldn't come up with this despite having all the tools to do so? It's so odd. I feel like Game Freak uses their imagination in the worst way, and for the majority of the time they take no risks at all, but when they do it's always to create some absurd gimmick.
@@AveSicarius It makes me wonder if a Pokémon like Slaking would have ever been a thing prior to Gen 3 due to abilities not existing at the time. GF does balance Pokemon in terms of BSTs and rarely by abilities (Slaking for example) but it’s not really sufficient.
Look on the brightside, Archeops. Your pre-evolution was a dominant force in Little Cup. I hope Archen gets a video the next time FSG covers Little Cup.
While slaking Is a gimmick and regigigas maybe needed It in gen 4(no Reason why he still has It, give him intimidate at least) archeops got shafted for no reason
@@SoggySlopster Slaking only had one generation where it had any kind of viability while Archeops has thrived in the lower tiers since its debut. I dunno about you, but Archeops has had a far better career than Slaking did.
@@quilavafactorynotreallybut5429 Iirc Slaking was UUBL in Gen 3 and had a slight niche in Gen 4 NU (Only C rank viability). Then it fell to untiered in Gen 5 and stayed that way for the rest of the generations
I love how it struggles to fly like how it says in its dex entry... And just like how it kinda struggles in competitive... I still love Archeops. Its idle animation, its design, and the dinosaur it's based on. I'm a sucker for bird Pokemon, man.
@@mrgaudy1954 It’s only getting one-shot if the enemy doesn’t lead with a defensive mon like Dusclops or smth. That said, I do think that Archeops could do with a Protect since it will end up drawing aggro because of its offensive capability.
@@mrgaudy1954 You'd be surprised by how many neutral hits it can take. I run it with Focus Sash sometimes but the real kicker is that even if Defeatist does activate it doesn't nerf his speed which makes Rock Slide Spam still viable because Flinches can turn games.
Archeops is quite literally tied in first place of being my #1 favorite fossil Pokemon, alongside Tyantrum - both have stellar designs, above decent stats and good typing.... hell, if it weren't for Archeop's ability, it'd take the #1 spot without question.
I'm also quite fond of Archeops as well, in no small part because I tend to pick it for my team when I play a gen5 game, both because it's one of the best flying types you can use in the main game, but also because I tend to pick Oshawatt, so I don't really need another water type on my team
Thank you for mentioning the only piece of trivia I ever added on bulbapedia. The BST and Nat Dex number being 567; part of the Dewey decimal system for feathered dinosaurs, 567.9.
possibly the most relatable pokemon of all time, struggling to stay afloat, ready to fight but low defensive stats and HP, and its personal ability is to demolish itself when things go awry. I mean, that hits close to home.
i dont think i’ve ever looked at archeops’ base stats. thats pretty monstrous. i didnt even remember that it was in gen 8 and im really surprised that it was never seriously used for vgc with not only dynamax but also weezing. especially considering it has stab max airstream and seemingly decent coverage
What does Archeops have over Slaking and Regigigas? This fossilized bird hasn't been put in the dreaded rank of Untiered in it's competitive history (at least as of Gen 8).
Those two are gimped as soon as they are sent out. Archeops at least gets to use it's full power right away and can keep it as long as it stays healthy. It's a struggle but it's not doomed to fail from the start.
Also unlike the two, Archeops doesn't need Weezing's Neutralizing Gas to omit its ability to become usable. It can still cause mayhem before being brought down to Defeatist range and that can be fixed by roosting off a predicted switch.
Being untiered in all 4 generations where it’s possible is truly a horrible dishonor. (3 for Slaking but it would very obviously be untiered in gen 8, even if it was added before any DLC) Yeah Archeops’s ability is really bad but it’s still nice to at least see it as a force in the lower tiers
@@mauroperez2848 Hell, even if it doesn’t NEED GWeezing, it really, really appreciates it, because that means that Archeops can use recoil moves without fear of cutting itself short too quickly.
I wouldn't give him an overpowered ability like sheer force or something (although that would be insane to play with). I think just an ability like own tempo or limber would be enough to jump it a couple tiers.
Raimaizen. No way. We don't want another Regigagis victim to another Pokemon. I agree. Just give it something that isn't hindered to it; while at the same time, not make it ridiculously O.P.
I love how they made the flapping of its wings in the sprite to be super-weird and awkward...as that would have probably been true to life for Archaeopteryx. Of course, no one knows exactly how Archaeopteryx moved in flight, but we're pretty sure it could fly (unlike the actual earliest birds, Aurornis and Anchyornis,) and most paleontologists think it couldn't fly nowhere near as well as modern birds and would've been incredibly awkward, even on short distances. Some think it actually couldn't reallly fly and just glided from branch to branch in forests.
Hidden ability Tough claws would be something cool, or maybe a new ability that boosts the power of switching moves (in the card game several Archeopts cards have a mechanic that involves cycling and switching through your deck and discard pile
I’d give it Mold Breaker personally. Mold Breaker usually does nothing but it does have some niche uses with getting past Levitate Pokémon, whereas Tough Claws would almost always benefit Archeops
I will always remember how Chuggaa's Archen decided to choose utter, dominating violence when up against Elesa. One of the best moments of his LPing career.
Finally, my favorite pokemon, i use it on showdowns gen 8 and it does score some major knockouts, also special attack archeops is pretty funny (unless theres celesteela), i think little speed increase and other ability would be jsut fine to make archeops solid RU or UU. Sadly i feel like gamefreak mostly just forgotten this pokemon
@@fabiii9954 Considering gen 8 Ou which has many mons countering archeops, most of which will probably still remain viable and popular in next gen, I dont think it would even with something like adaptability or other strong abilities
Archeops was an interesting addition to the fossils in Gen 5, but in a good way. Yes, Defeatist sucks when it activates, but Archeops can at least cause major damage before then. It's funny how power creep ended up helping Archeops by pushing into the lower tiers where there are not many pokemon that can stand up to its might. The fact that it got banned from PU in gen 7 due to being too strong can be seen as an accomplishment. Reminds me of Galarian Darm and Dracovish.
Archeops is amazing in the single player adventure when you know what your opponent is bringing in next and can switch out before they can bring it in...that, and their Pokemon have no EVs and their AI is laughably bad.
Fun fact, in a smogon metagame that allows almost any abilities (called Almost any ability or AAA) Archeops is banned along with its two other abilities limit their power breathern in Regigigas and Slaking because they are just too good with great abilities
That doesn't surprise me; in Archeops's case, it's biggest flaw is it's frailty, other than defeatist. There are several examples of Pokemon that are glass cannons that are able to be really threatening if they also happen to be fast as well, with things like Alakazam, Pheromosa, and Weavile (among others) immediately coming to mind. I also think that if Archeops is good enough to be a strong Pokemon in the lower tiers, than it would definitely become a lot more viable in UU or possibly even OU without it's ability holding it back
The first mon I thought of when I found out about AAA was archeops. Was gonna run a magic guard, life orb set with head smash and brave bird. But knowing AAA, even those power levels would be outright beaten by something like cosmic power toxic-heal zygarde. AAA is just crazy
It should get an ability called Flightless XD Where it loses it ground immunity and stab on flying moves. But in return gets .5X increase in speed. (And gets it animation changed to where it just hobbles off the ground)
Archeops has the distinction that, while its ability is horrible, its not as crippling as Slaking´s and Regigigas´, because 1- it only triggers when a certain event is met (half health) instead of being always active and 2- since Archeops is a glass cannon, a lot of the time it will just die anyway lol.
Archeops is the Jon Jones of Pokemon. He's amazingly strong, but he's also his own worst enemy. I honestly feel the power creep within the franchise, and the design philosophy of the game as a whole, has reached a point where Archeops can easily afford to be given a hidden ability, and it wouldn't be OP at all. Granted, if you were to give it an ability that makes it stronger, like Rock Head, THEN it would be OP, but if you were to give it an ability that doesn't really do anything for it, like Early Bird or Big Pecks, I strongly believe it would be fine.
In singleplayer however, it needs Defeatist to not be broken. Like, if you give the player a 110 speed 140 attack monster by like the 3rd gym, you kinda need some drawback. It’s the same idea with Slaking.
@@vicaf1617 There's a few differences in how the player gets Dragapault compared to how a player gets Arcehops. Archen is a guaranteed encounter if the player picks the Plume Fossil. And it evolves into a 140 attack, 110 sp atk and 100 speed monster at level 37. In contrast, Dreepy is an extremly rare encounter in certain parts of the wild area and a rare spawn in Max Raid Battles. And it only evolves into its final form at Level 60. Archeops need defeatist to not be broken for where and how easily it's obtained. If Archeops evolved at like level 45 and was a rare encounter, then he wouldn't need defeatist since he'd be on par with the most powerful Pokemon obtainable. Basically, Archeops having defeatist is the cost to get a guaranteed mini Dragapault early.
I'd probably give Archeops Aerilate if I wanted to make it OU viable, not just coz "aBiLiTy GoOd", but because it lets the mon genuinely make use of Flying STAB, instead of being stuck with Dual Wingbeat.
if you ever were at the receiving end of a mega salamence spaming double-edges and/or returns at you, you would realize how stupidly broken that would be. Especially considering *that Archeops could combine that with Choice Band* and break through even most resistences. 252 Atk Choice Band Aerilate (gen 7) Archeops Thrash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tyranitar: 171-202 (50.1 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO Well ... not gonna happen,lol
IIRC, in the AAA metagame, Magic Guard Archeops is/was a terror. I also tried to "obtain" one in my replay of BW2 and it absolutely completely cleaned up the whole game by itself.
I messed around with a Skill Swap doubles build, actually worked nicely. Archeops is a fun Pokémon and years later Im really happy they made it, it's one of those that still stands out years later. Think Archaeopteryx translates into Old-Wing which is pretty cool.
While we’re on the gen 5 train, I feel like there’s so many Pokémon from this gen with amazing competitive presence. Seismitoad stands out to me because it’s always existed in a super odd position, yet has fulfilled a variety of niches. Or what about the presence of vanilluxe in basically every hail metagame? (Just to name a couple personal interests)
@@OriginalGameteer I agree, it's honestly a big reason why Darmanitan's zen mode hidden ability isn't very good: sure, it does get significantly bulkier when it actives, but it needs to be at half health or less to change into that form, making the boosted defensive stats far less meaningful. A similar argument could also be made for why the pinch berries that raise your defense or special defense (I forget what they are called, even) are also never seriously used, either
For Zen Mode to work, the defense stats of the Pokémon would not only have to be substantial but also max out both defense and special defense. This way, it’s hard to take down the Pokémon and harder to get it to die.
Archeops DID NOT NEED to be nerfed this hard , they could've given it ANY useless (not hindering) ability and it would be fine , i bet it still won't be meta defying or get banned to ubers i don't know much about the metagames and haven't played competitive so if anyone would like to prove me wrong please do , i'm very open to any counter arguments but my arguement is Rock flying is not a great defensive typing it's frail and glass cannons generally don't break the metagames stealth rock weakness also cuts it's longevity if anyone who knows about competetive please correct me ,,, but i think if archeops had something like steadfast or something similar it'd be OU at best but probably UU or BL
It'd be really cool to see another version of it with an ability called optimist or something, where its atk and spatk are doubled when it hits half hp and starts off with lower stats, as a high-risk high reward Pokémon, due to the nature of Pokémon battles tending to be ohkos
I have a very fun relationship with this mon, I used to run it in UU back in Gen 6, with Sky Attack, power herb and acrobatics. That's when I was reminded that Sky Attack only has 95% accuracy because I missed one that would've won me the game several times and that's just painful. The other reason is because I play competitive smash and once the crew I play for decided to assign everyone a Pokémon for fun and I got Archeops because ya know... defeatist lmao
I'd say get rid of defeatist for unnerve or something and give caracosta a buff to match archeops' stat total. Archeops' stats arent as op as slacking and if caracosta got a buff to match archeops' bst then I think it would be fair. Archeops in my eyes isnt op even without defeatist and letting cara match it means that we wont be upsetting the balance of the fossil duo.
One thing I love about Archeops is that it has so many moves, the list is still on the left, rather then the bottom. Some Pokémon get to the point where they are only running 6 different moves, maybe even less, but not Archeops!! He runs the gambit!!
The Archeoboy overcame his own depressive thoughts to be one of the best fossils, even when Aerodactyl was still better. Not only I like its design, but the idea of imagining this friend to help him realize that it is useful and powerful.
Post-nerf Gale Wings would be a pretty neat ability for Archeops imo. It's an ability that's not too strong so it doesn't become overpowered with its strong offense, and it's thematically similar to Defeatist in that it loses out on its full potential once it takes a hit.
Ugh I hate how mediocre the fossil Pokémon almost always are….then you finally get a good one in Dracovich and it’s TOO powerful AND it’s just ugly and stupid looking….I love using Tyrantrum, Rampardos and Aerodactyl but damn they’ve all got such glaring flaws….strong when used correctly but they require pretty specific, not-very consistent teams
Archeops was a Pokémon I loved using in my Black playthrough and when I learned about Flying Gem Acrobatics, it became one of my most OP Pokémon I've ever used in the franchise.
I've always wanted Defeatist to make Archeops do increased damage to Pokemon under 50% health, maybe 25% increased damage. Like Archeops is a prehistoric predator and if you're wounded (50% or less health), you are basically dead if it comes flying towards you lol. Maybe it can be a double edge sword like Rivalry. (25% lower damage for Pokémon above 50% health and 25% increased damage for Pokemon below 50% health).
Gamefreak: *Creates a glass cannon Pokémon with paper thin defences and severely crippling ability* Competitive players: *Uses it as a bulky defensive pivot*
I think Archeops is one of Gamefreak's better done "Everything great hindered by ability" mon. There's actually good rewards for taking the risk of offensive stat drops on half hp, unlike the "OP but gives out free turns to opponent" approach with Slaking and Regigigas. You *can* avoid activating defeatist if you take care to take out its checks and send it out safely when the enemy has run out of options to deal with it. A careful approach on this risky mon rewards with great sweep potential.
fully expected this to simply be an unfortunate episode, but it looks like Archeops had enough going for to be alright at lower tiers through every generation.
I remember how the Archeops anime cry was literally a guy taking gargles. "A-RGRGRGRGRGRGRG-EOPS!" But in a serious note, I'm actually glad Archeops is viable in RU, NU and PU (It's no OU, but what can you do against Sword Scooby-doo)
