@@laprasrules12 Which makes it ironic that the theorem is named after Slowbro, since king is the bigger benefactor while bro fell off without Teleport in gen 9
The Slowbro and Slowking family are such CHADs that: - They have always stayed competitive ever since their debuts all the way in Gen 1 and Gen 2 (never fall below RU while the frauds Snorlax and Tauros went to ZU and Untiered) - Oblivious to all forms of power creeps, always grinding in the gym to become their better selves (Regenerator in Gen 5, Mega Slowbro in Gen 6, Teleport in Gen 8, Chilly Reception in Gen 9) - Are so CHAD that the only one who could power creep their roles are their cousin in Galar!
I’m ngl, I’m REALLY glad that there’s a bunch of moves, Abilities, Pokémon and viable strategies that hinge on you being slower that your opponent. It just shows that higher numbers aren’t the end-all be-all.
I like thinking slowbro becomes the flash and gains alakazams IQ under trick room; then proceeding to spout the most unhinged philosophical hot takes during those 5 turns.
Technically Slowpoke is the smartest of them but cannot use it because there is too much, Slowbro and Slowking are more active and aware because the pain of the "Shellder" bite forces them to prioritize what is immediately around them rather than perceiving everything all at once.
Mons with weather setting abilities also benefit from being slower because if they enter the same turn as an opposing weather setter, the faster mons ability activates first, only for their weather to be canceled out by the slower one. This means being slower is an advantage as you can get your weather up while preventing theirs.
@HieuMai-go1cxIt'll start as a friendly fade, then Slowbro will out Deoxys as a sex offender that is truly not like us. Craziest rap beef of 2025 get ready for it.
Them psycho boost getting neutralized I can only watch in silence. The famous lead we once knew just got paralyzed and I'm smiling. You spiking just like a degenerate the uber council think you might be distasteful. I calculate you not as calculated I can even predict your angle. Fabricating lies on the smogon forms cause you hate scarf darkrie.
Taking Slowking even further beyond - I made a kinda goofy gen 9 trick room singles team, and my Slowking was the trick room setter. Chilling reception does not have lower priority like teleport does, and the slows dont have teleport in gen 9. This means after Trick Room is set, Slowking would normally go first with Chilling Reception the following turn. To ensure that the Chilling Reception instead went second, I used a Lagging Tail, allowing something like an Assault Vest Iron Hands or a Guts-Flame Orb-Facade Ursaluna getting in safely so they can immediately get to work with the remaining 3 turns of Trick Room.
@@jonahbrown5669 If you think about it, every stat is constructed around reducing or preserving HP. Every win condition is based on who has more HP at the end of the battle, so it is the most important.
@@jonahbrown5669 HP is the win condition. The amount doesn't matter, so long as it is not zero, you "can" still win. In Yu-Gi-Oh, the only life point that matters is the last one. (Unless you're in a shadow game with ontological inertia, then you just die when the game ends.)
One thing i noticed is that a "mid" speed is far worse than low speed because you still won't outspeed anything relevant, are worse in trick room, and are wasting BST that was better off in any other stat...
If I am not mistaken the gist of it was that the trick room operates on a formula that subtracts the speed value (-10k I think), and then makes it a positive number, what that does is that the smaller numbers from the slowest pokemon turns into a very negative number that later becomes a big positive number thus reversing the turn order, but since regieleki is so friggin fast his number remains positive even after subtraction wich makes him still the fastest pokemon in the order
@@DarkSymphony777regieleki is so absurdly fast that due to how tricky room works, it’s speed stat overflows and ends up still faster than everything out regardless. I’d recommend looking up a video, it’s really interesting.
@@DarkSymphony777because of the way the game calculates trick room turn order, Regieleki can get a high enough speed stat that it still goes first in it’s priority bracket. Specifically, Trick Room converts speed stats to (10000-(og speed)), but 8191 is the maximum possible speed value before it reverts back to 0. Most pokemon have less than 1809 speed, so their trick room speed is “reset” after passing the 8191 mark and looks like a somewhat normal amount. However, Regieleki with speed investment and a couple boosts from Agility can reach 2192 speed, so it’s trick room speed can be in the 7000s
TFW speed is NOT key and slow and steady can win the race. I'm glad that Pokémon such as Slowbro, Slowking, Ferrothorn, and Reuniclus can thrive despite their slow speed.
Very generally speaking, the bulkier you are, the more you can afford going second, and bulky pivots actively want to go second. If you're frail though, you'd better be going first, otherwise you're in trouble. Also, wow, I had no idea about gen 2 phasing mechanics, that's hilarious. I never thought Raikou would want a set that would lower its speed.
Another great example of this is the occasinal instances steelix was actually used in Gen 4 OU. It exceled at compa ting roles. Like it could rocks, explode, constantly switch into twaves and toxics, if you gave it an iron ball with 0 speed investment it could also be trickroom and trick punish while getting the benfit having 150 power gyro balls agaisnt a lot of targets. Straight up OHKO'd most latias and did 50% to Rotom
You forgot to mention the impact of speed on the weather wars, which had huge impacts on the turbulent Generation 5 competitive scene, but also on the Gen 6 to 7 Unrestricted VGCs. Since the faster setter lost their weather to the slower one, players were trying to set their speed to beat the other setter, but not too slow to be a liability when facing other Pokémon. This was especially true with the Primal VGCs, as Kyogres and Groudons specced each other to be slower than the opposing weather setter. I also think this is the reason why ultimately the Ray-ogre core gained an advantage, as Rayquaza Mega Evolving AFTER the weather has been set makes it unconcerned about speed ties with the other two weather legendaries.
Stakataka is good at representing this therom as once it gets trick room, it can snowball out of control, and it has great bulk. It can even use a focus sash to live fighting or ground moves just in case
This could still be considering speed being everything…considering it’s still a video on how GOOD speed is. Now, if the first video was why “going first” was everything-then you could make an argument
I thought that the Slowbro Theorem was the idea that no matter who you fall in love with, there would always be some dissenters towards who you are because that's who people were.
Another example which is applicable to VGC is with Incineroar. If paired with another Intimidator with a switch move (like Landorus-T), you can have this interaction: Turn 0: Both opponents will be at -2 attack from both Intimidates Turn 1: Lando-T uses U-turn and switches out, then Incineroar moves after the opponents and brings Lando-T back in for another Intimidate. If Parting Shot was used, one of those Pokémon will be left with -4 Attack and -1 Sp Atk at the end of the turn, while the other is left with -3 Attack. This is all enabled because Incineroar is as slow as it is.
Ditto also wants to underspeed opposing ditto so they dont transform and keep more pp on the move, effectively meaning you get a win-win scenario where the opponent switches out their ditto and you immediatly transform, or they stay in and burn 5 pp before you burn 16 of your own transform, making them use struggle several turns before you
In tiers where Cofagrigus was a decent Pokémon and used as Trick Room sweeper some people used lv.99 Cofagrigus to make sure the opponent's Cofagrigus can't outspeed in Trick Room and do a counter sweeping.
You know what they say: slow and steady wins the race! Unless the speed tie happens, which definitely will with certain Pokemon. Speed not being a factor in accuracy is a huge reason why it can be just as important to dump it as much as possible. Unlike in Pokemon Conquest, where speed determines accuracy, and accuracy sure as heck is everything.
Hot take. Trick Room Zong was underrated in Gen 6 OU. You could threaten most of the meta game with it. EQ, Gyro Ball, Hp Ice, Trick Room. Heatran, Clef, Chomp, Lando, Latis, TTar. None of them eat hits well from you. He carried me pretty high up the ladder because no one expected the funny bell to sweep once the team was weakened.
Elaborate, cuz the only examples I can think of is shedinja wich is something very exclusive because of wonder guard, the pain split that works best on pokemon with lower base health, and the f.e.a.r strat that has its own video
I believe for a time in gen 7 clefable and the slow twins used to even drop a level down to 99 to become even more slow for their negative priority teleport. Stakataka used to do something similar for trickroom aswell. But after this became the norm peopele tried dropping down even another level to outslow again but this proved to be too much wasted stats and everyone returned to lvl 100 again because it always ends up being a speed tie anyways so they preferred having their full stats.
Could you look at the competitive history of “snatch”? I feel like this was a hidden move nobody was ever expecting and low key the most versatile move created
This also makes me think about how have a low speed stat is a saving grace for low BST mons. Having an extra 20-50 to put into stats other than speed is what some low BST mons to have a chance and helps them min max their stats. Some mons that come to mind are the Slow twins, Amoongus, and Amomamola
Also another point of being slower is in abilities procing, an example is the weather war and the slower mon for their ability to set off second so Kyogre would set rain over Groudon but it eventually came down to people bringing level 49 Groudons in order to under speed level 50 Kyogre just to set sun over the rain
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
Gen 5 using fusion bolt/flare after the other was really cool. I once had a battle where I faced a double NPC who used after you on my reshiram, used fusion flare, then I got a boosted fusion bolt and fusion flare. It's a shame the visual effect never continued
One of the most crazy speed tech I saw in VGC was using Pokémon with a neutral nature and a specific IVs (usually a middle ground) to keep the speed advantage against both standard variants of the Pokémon (using Trick Room) and Trick Room variants (outside Trick Room). The first was Ray Rizzo in the BW era with Metagross (Adamant 14 IV) (also part of a strategy with Cresselia that is exactly one point slower than Metagross. Protect + Trick Room, then Cresselia uses Swagger on Metagross, that heals with Lum Berry and start hitting things at +2 attack) and later was recycled by some players in formats where Primal Groudon was available (12-13 IV with neutral nature).
I'm surprised you didnt mention HIGH priority moves, one of the first lessons I learned and give is how a slow ratata can be better. Quick attack is just a weak move on the faster ratata but on the slower one it's a chance to move twice essentially. If you manage to pick up a ko this way the opponent's switch in even if faster has to manage the threat of High priority, regular priority or switch options.
Didn't mention how people would actually run underlevelled Slowbro/king purely so they could consistently get their teleport to go off second in the mirror
@@mrsuperheatran2794at least he’s solid in some gen lower tiers with belly drum. I feel pikachu would be the better candidate, with nice contrast with eevee and clefable
Going second is an absolute god-send in the case where you team-build somewhat defensively pike i do, where tanks and bulky sweepers are vastly favored over pure sweepers
Would've loved to see you add to the Slowbro teleport speed tie with how some people started running their slowbro at level 99 to get the speed even lower, and in response others put theirs at level 98 and so on. I think it only really got down to 97 as after that the returns weren't worth it considering you were dropping too many defense stats
I've ran Counter + Mirror Coat on Gastrodon before. Very fun since Gastrodon only has 1 weakness, and with it's bulkier sets, you can do chunks of damage, and then Recover when you need to.
Potentially hot take: certain recovery moves (Recover, Soft-Boiled, etc.) should also have negative priority similarly to Teleport. The idea here is that this would remove situations where a faster but frail Pokémon, such as Magic Guard Alakazam, uses Recover to heal 50% (or less) and takes more than the amount healed in retaliation on the same turn. Negative priority would, at least mathematically, help recovery move users get the most out of each use of their healing as possible.
It's amazing that you left out the most basic strategy where Speed isn't everything. That is the Move Dig. A geodude will out dig a Charmander in Pokemon Stadium, for example.
In gen 8, there were a few instances of people running lvl 99 versions of the slow family just so they could outslow them. Losing the speed tie was just that important.
Aegislash is also a special case that wants to move second. It transforms into the frail Blade Form upon attack, so it wants to tank a hit under Shield form first. In fact, in Ubers, there's an Aegislash set that uses Iron Ball to further lower his speed for the sole purpose of countering Xerneas. Whenever Xerneas shows up, you know he's going to Geomancy and attempt to sweep your team. Aegislash can just casually switch in, take whatever Geomancy-boosted attack Xerneas throws in Shield form, and one-shot back with a powerful Gyro Ball in Blade form. The Iron Ball is needed for that Gyro Ball to reach max power and one-shot Xerneas, without the drawbacks of Life Orb and Choice Band.
don't know if I missed it being mentioned but sometimes having a level 99 pokemon to guarantee having a lower speed was an option that were used sometimes
for moves that switch the pokemon out (your pokemon not the opponents) you should be able to choose what pokemon you want to switch to BEFORE the move goes off. gives gameplay just a little bit more rng
Lagging Tail on Galarian Slowking means you always win mirrors. Final action in priority bracket means you always get the slow pivot. And higher natural speed means you win any damage races.
