Hyper drill goes through protect, meaning that it is better than protect and therefore the best move, making its only user dundunsparce the best pokemon, Dundunsparce sweep, 1 dundillion usage for the goat
Wouldn't it be absolutely hilarious if they made that same hypothetical bear always crit, so it essentially ignores intimidate? Nah that's just impossible haha
@@notafish8229 wouldn’t it be incredibly amusing if they also gave said bear some of the best offensive types in the game, with incredible STAB and coverage, along with high attack, decent bulk and decent speed to boot, enough speed that with a scarf it outspeeds almost the entire metagame? that would be so broken right?
Wouldn't it be particularly absurd if they also gave it two variants that both look identical on team preview, with no way to tell how best to prepare for it until Schrödinger's Fist coalesces itself into your face? Haha, no
@@ElectricWindGirlFriend meanwhile mega rayquaza has a higher bst than regigigas and it gets an actual ability (and it can still hold an item just because) fucked up
@@usernametaken017 I think Gamefreak nerfed Regigigas with Slow Start because it was a time before they realized that people LIKED really overpowered legendaries. But now that ability so integrated into Regigigas' identity that they won't remove it.
@@JanusHoW I think they wanted players to actively feel good _not_ getting it. Like there was some conflict of gameplay and marketing pressures I think. czcams.com/video/Msi_e3tOEpY/video.html
Protect is such a perfectly elegant piece of game design. No frills or flash, just a simple, straightforward move that creates so much depth and complexity.
@@PatrickArcatoAlso, in the beginning, it was a single use TM. Nobody playing old school Pokémon was going to waste something that was equally valuable and useless at the same time
*Smeargle on the list of pokemon that can’t learn protect* I mean, they’re not technically wrong. He does only have a single move in his learnset after all…
As I said in the video I do personally see the variants as being adjacentish to protect so I talk about them here. If you don't count the variants thats fine, I still think protect is the best move anyways (discounting stuff like spiky shield).
@TheDeathmail it's not that the variants are worst, it's that nearly everything learns protect, while moves like spiky shield (used to be a signature move) or king shield (is a signature move) are less spread around.
@@TheDeathmailThey're not strictly worse since the rider effect is often really valuable, but a lot of them only block damage rather than blocking everything.
The one good Electric physical move most of them have access to. Seriously, the only thing that sets Wild Charge and Thunderbolt apart is Wild Charge having recoil, which... Why?
@@dawnclark9921 When Fire, Flying, Water and Grass types get access to a 120 physical move with recoil but it's electric version, Volt Tackle, is only given to the mascot of the franchise, who isn't even good competitively. Heck, Volt Tackle predates all of them by one generation (ignoring that Volt Tackle is just Electric Double Edge ofc)
@@M4x_P0w3r I don't get why they don't just buff Wild Charge into a true Double Edge clone and then buff Volt Tackle further. Bouffalant's Head Charge already works under a similar principle.
@@pikminman13 I am not really a stall guy surprisingly enough, but maybe I am wrong and what I did was stall all along, because I'll be the first to admit that I don't have the most enormous knowledge about competitive pokemon ever.
@@Eclipsmon8421 dw about it, im just messing with you. you probably dont use proper team structures (that isnt an insult) and just use what you think is good and thats fine. you would only use a stall team if you know exactly what a stall team is (regenerator spam, toxic stalling, spamming recover, etc).
Literally all they need to do is make it so Unseen Fist deals reduced (25%) damage rather than completely ignoring it. Maybe also make it so if you pierce protect you also don't get secondary effects on moves (like crits). Max and Z moves had this, and it made defensive play against them doable.
@@GeorgeDCowley Hoopa can bypass Protect but only with its signature moves Hyperspace Hole and Hyperspace Fury. Meanwhile, Urshifu is able to bypass Protect with any of its moves so long as it is a contact move.
On a related subject - I wonder how Pokemon would change if there was a "Defend" command like in other RPGs; it would have infinite uses, and work like a half-Protect - reduce incoming damage in half, and increase ability to avoid status moves (while not outright blocking them 100% of the time).
i feel like fake out has to be up there with the strongest attacking moves for the amount of control over the battle it gives and the mind games that play into it, similar to protect
I’m currently playing a romhack named Elite Redux and it has the optional all double battles mode and Protect has been hard-carrying the game so far. I can see why Urshifu broke the game with its Unseen Fist
Burning bulwark is probably one of the best protect varient. Being able to completely shut down a physical attacker (that doesn't have or run guts) is invaluable.
I just watched TierZoo's video on Crows, and he mentioned a special move they have that made me consider whether that should be a thing in Pokemon. Corvids do a thing where they peck animals to make that animal start fights with other animals, a "Goading Strike" as TZ called it. Wouldn't this be a really useful thing in Pokemon? What I came up with was a 20 BP Dark Type physical contact move with high priority. The user attacks an opponent, tricking them into targeting their own ally. The idea was that Corvid pokemon should get it, and some of the monkeys, and probably some others too. So a pretty niche move, with very little offensive power, but if you predict correctly, your opponent gets screwed. And the best part is that it's a good counter to Urshifu. You can't stop Urshifu from attacking with Protect, but you can make him hit his teammate instead. If it has equal priority to Fake Out, it would be a strong counter to that as well, since the speed of the pokes would decide which side would get flinched out. Obviously the move would be useless in singles, but I think it could transform doubles.
Would be giga broken even if it dealt 0 damage. You would turn a 2v2 into a 3v1 every turn making it impossible for your opponent to ever hit you because you target their faster mon with that.
protect is just the first turn of dig except magnitude and earthquake dont do double to you and no guard doesnt get through it but unseen fist and mighty cleave does and its got priority
Anyone know the term for levels of mind games he described? I know there's a term for it but I can't remember what it is and I already tried googling and can't find it.
protect isn't really a "top move" in singles; it's useful but the number of pokemon that can truly get use out of it over other options is a very small pool; usually no more than five in OU and a couple of niche other picks from lower tiers in OU great vid as always though!
@@jdrmanmusiqking No you say that when someone says something stupid, such as “urshifu isn’t even that broken” Not when someone says “no salt cure user has seen any success in current competitive
Wish they would rework detect so it isnt just protect but less pp. An idea i had was for detect to cause all moves direceted at the pokemon to always miss.
How is that any different? Either you don’t take damage because detect blocks damage like protect Or you don’t take damage because detect makes moves miss
It is not. Same goes for Endure. However you can switch between Substitute and Protect/Endure in case you need to PP stall something, get passive boosts etc.
its sheer usefulness is exactly why i dont like it. it stunts moveset variety a bit because it takes up a move slot. might as well just be a universal mechanic at this point, its not that crazy to think that any creature would know how to defense itself. im ok with the potential balance insanity this decision would make, because gamefreak made lots of fucked up decisions before, might as well see how this would choice would play out and shape the meta.
THIS *drill* MOVE IS THE ONLY *drill* REASON WHY THE *drill* URSHIFU IS EVEN BEING *drill* USED IN VGC WITH HIS *drill* ABILITY Edit: GODDAMNIT JACKY GET THE *drill* OUT WITH YOUR DRILL BEFORE I *drill* YOU
I think it's the worst move. In fact i was asking people around the internet if they were to remove ONE move from pokemon games what would it be and majority agreed they would get rid of Protect. Not only access to protect promote stall gameplay on bulky pokemon wich waste time of the already low timer but you also block some valid strategies that, if not executed may straight up lose you a game turn 1 (pivot moves that need to hit enemy). If you think it's annoying to land Order Up on protect and getting nothing out of that turn then it is also annoying to see dondozo stall with protect and leftovers while your team suffer from toxic. And don't get me wrong Fake Out is a problem but i would rather have leftovers heal 2x as much as it does but have no access to protect just to speed up the fight. "Oh he is gonna protect to get lefties heals" Well duh, we are just gonna sit here and wait for the animations to waste our time how fun /sarcasm It is also frustrating how you basically have 3 moves for coverage and a protect because it feels mandatory. But yeah if we really need some crucial protects, i.e for fake out then at least they should limit it like they did in pokemon GO. So how about getting rid of Protect and replacing it with mechanic that give you 2 charges of Shield that you can use on any pokemon, but yeah since it's just 2 of them you can only use them that twice per battle so you'd need to think carefully when to use it. No more long stall, less frustration when pokemon protect, more gameplay involving proper switching in and out, 4 actual moves to use on every pokemon (this Shield will not be taking up moveset slot) so basically faster fights.
Hyper drill goes through protect, meaning that it is better than protect and therefore the best move, making its only user dundunsparce the best pokemon, Dundunsparce sweep, 1 dundillion usage for the goat
1 dundundillion dollars methinks
@@leaffinite3828 we need Dududunsparce
Mighty Cleve and Hyperspace: 🤭
Urshifu crying pissing shitting his pants rn
@@UNDEFINED1984 fraudshifu goes through protect, hyper drill breaks it, they are not the same
wouldn't it be funny if they made like a bear pokemon that can just completely ignore protect? haha, it would be overpowered. that would never happen
Wouldn't it be absolutely hilarious if they made that same hypothetical bear always crit, so it essentially ignores intimidate? Nah that's just impossible haha
@@notafish8229 wouldn’t it be incredibly amusing if they also gave said bear some of the best offensive types in the game, with incredible STAB and coverage, along with high attack, decent bulk and decent speed to boot, enough speed that with a scarf it outspeeds almost the entire metagame? that would be so broken right?
Wouldn't it be particularly absurd if they also gave it two variants that both look identical on team preview, with no way to tell how best to prepare for it until Schrödinger's Fist coalesces itself into your face? Haha, no
@@Rainbro359Schrödinger's Fist will be the nickname of my Urshifu whenever the day arrives in which I play generations past gen6 on showdown.
Hoopa did it before the bear. So get off his meat.
Reminder that regigigas didnt get protect until gen fucking 8
On god the most insane design decision ever
@@ElectricWindGirlFriend meanwhile mega rayquaza has a higher bst than regigigas and it gets an actual ability (and it can still hold an item just because)
fucked up
@@usernametaken017 I think Gamefreak nerfed Regigigas with Slow Start because it was a time before they realized that people LIKED really overpowered legendaries. But now that ability so integrated into Regigigas' identity that they won't remove it.
@@JanusHoWDon't need to, add a secret ability.
@@JanusHoW I think they wanted players to actively feel good _not_ getting it. Like there was some conflict of gameplay and marketing pressures I think. czcams.com/video/Msi_e3tOEpY/video.html
Protect is such a perfectly elegant piece of game design. No frills or flash, just a simple, straightforward move that creates so much depth and complexity.
Protect's sheer utility is the sole reason why I don't believe Pokemon needs a "Guard" mechanic like in other rpgs
Protect takes a move slot, giving it as a generic mechanic would completely change the game and make it way more boring
@@PatrickArcatoAlso, in the beginning, it was a single use TM. Nobody playing old school Pokémon was going to waste something that was equally valuable and useless at the same time
@@lancesmith8298 It's a pointless tm during the main game
Fraudtect when Holding Hands comes in (it is clearly the superior non-damaging move):
Above is gay
@@twilightsilver6230hooray
day 1 of waiting for lightningairboyfriend
Better yet, lightningairboyaquantance (I think I spelled that right)
you didn’t, it would be lightningairboyacquaintance
Electric Wind God Fist
GroundGroundBoyEnemy
ConductiveOxygenCompanion
*Smeargle on the list of pokemon that can’t learn protect*
I mean, they’re not technically wrong. He does only have a single move in his learnset after all…
It is a "By TM" list after all.
As I said in the video I do personally see the variants as being adjacentish to protect so I talk about them here. If you don't count the variants thats fine, I still think protect is the best move anyways (discounting stuff like spiky shield).
Why do you think the variants are worse??? Do they protect less or is it because they are used on too few Pokemon...
@TheDeathmail it's not that the variants are worst, it's that nearly everything learns protect, while moves like spiky shield (used to be a signature move) or king shield (is a signature move) are less spread around.
@@TheDeathmailThey're not strictly worse since the rider effect is often really valuable, but a lot of them only block damage rather than blocking everything.
Protect also has the niche use of screwing over physical electric types, Explosion users and Hi-Jump kick users
Why physical electric types?
@@Eclipsmon8421 Supercell Slam (the one good physical electric move) has crash damage
The one good Electric physical move most of them have access to. Seriously, the only thing that sets Wild Charge and Thunderbolt apart is Wild Charge having recoil, which... Why?
@@dawnclark9921 When Fire, Flying, Water and Grass types get access to a 120 physical move with recoil but it's electric version, Volt Tackle, is only given to the mascot of the franchise, who isn't even good competitively. Heck, Volt Tackle predates all of them by one generation (ignoring that Volt Tackle is just Electric Double Edge ofc)
@@M4x_P0w3r I don't get why they don't just buff Wild Charge into a true Double Edge clone and then buff Volt Tackle further. Bouffalant's Head Charge already works under a similar principle.
With a name that abreviates to EWGF you'd think it's a Tekken channel but here we are discussing Pokémon with dracoplush
Protect is legit my favorite move to use, and I say that as a singles player, and that says something, because it's even better in VGC.
Big stall shill detected
@@pikminman13 I am not really a stall guy surprisingly enough, but maybe I am wrong and what I did was stall all along, because I'll be the first to admit that I don't have the most enormous knowledge about competitive pokemon ever.
@@Eclipsmon8421 dw about it, im just messing with you. you probably dont use proper team structures (that isnt an insult) and just use what you think is good and thats fine. you would only use a stall team if you know exactly what a stall team is (regenerator spam, toxic stalling, spamming recover, etc).
I will not accept diglett getting headlong rushed
lmao why would you run protect, it doesn’t even do damage
This guy is a noob, he never even played gen 1 apparently
The second I saw this video, first thing that came to mind was Urshifu and how it completely invalidates the move lol.
Literally all they need to do is make it so Unseen Fist deals reduced (25%) damage rather than completely ignoring it. Maybe also make it so if you pierce protect you also don't get secondary effects on moves (like crits). Max and Z moves had this, and it made defensive play against them doable.
Didn't Hoopa do that, to a degree?
@@GeorgeDCowley Hoopa can bypass Protect but only with its signature moves Hyperspace Hole and Hyperspace Fury.
Meanwhile, Urshifu is able to bypass Protect with any of its moves so long as it is a contact move.
@@clothieredward5248 Any of its contact moves.
Protect is also used on gsc a bit because of explosion
Your Hyper Beam is now Ordinary Offense Magic
This ewgf arc has been the best since I literally came back to pkmn the moment you started making these vids lmao
I love Unseen Fist!! 😁
On a related subject - I wonder how Pokemon would change if there was a "Defend" command like in other RPGs; it would have infinite uses, and work like a half-Protect - reduce incoming damage in half, and increase ability to avoid status moves (while not outright blocking them 100% of the time).
Maybe replacing the bag in online matches?
Me when my opponent hits the quintuple protect and stalls out my banded espeed dnite so I struggle and lose
In a vacuum ignoring distribution Imo the best move is geomancy. Getting 2 calm minds and an agility in one turn sure is something.
i feel like fake out has to be up there with the strongest attacking moves for the amount of control over the battle it gives and the mind games that play into it, similar to protect
Love how they nerfed kings shield in the same gen that they inteoduced urshifu, brilliant balancing
Had this discussion a while ago with some friends. We eventually ended up on considering Encore the best move in the game.
I’m currently playing a romhack named Elite Redux and it has the optional all double battles mode and Protect has been hard-carrying the game so far.
I can see why Urshifu broke the game with its Unseen Fist
Yeah knock off is probably the best damaging move
Eq doesn’t compete tho due to its major drawback in VGC
EQ is still really strong in vgc, esp with disquake in old gens
Burning bulwark is probably one of the best protect varient. Being able to completely shut down a physical attacker (that doesn't have or run guts) is invaluable.
Urshifu seeing this vid: 🤣😂🤣🤣😂😂🤣
I just watched TierZoo's video on Crows, and he mentioned a special move they have that made me consider whether that should be a thing in Pokemon. Corvids do a thing where they peck animals to make that animal start fights with other animals, a "Goading Strike" as TZ called it. Wouldn't this be a really useful thing in Pokemon?
What I came up with was a 20 BP Dark Type physical contact move with high priority. The user attacks an opponent, tricking them into targeting their own ally.
The idea was that Corvid pokemon should get it, and some of the monkeys, and probably some others too. So a pretty niche move, with very little offensive power, but if you predict correctly, your opponent gets screwed. And the best part is that it's a good counter to Urshifu. You can't stop Urshifu from attacking with Protect, but you can make him hit his teammate instead. If it has equal priority to Fake Out, it would be a strong counter to that as well, since the speed of the pokes would decide which side would get flinched out.
Obviously the move would be useless in singles, but I think it could transform doubles.
Would be giga broken even if it dealt 0 damage. You would turn a 2v2 into a 3v1 every turn making it impossible for your opponent to ever hit you because you target their faster mon with that.
Protect wish my beloved stall.
Everybody gangsta till they start breaking protect
Unseen fists goes burrr
Meanwhile Urshifu be like: the fck's protect ?
protect is just the first turn of dig except magnitude and earthquake dont do double to you and no guard doesnt get through it but unseen fist and mighty cleave does and its got priority
Then AI with protect is just ,,ima spam it without any reason at lvl 15 to drag out a one sided fight as much as possible”
Anyone know the term for levels of mind games he described? I know there's a term for it but I can't remember what it is and I already tried googling and can't find it.
I know you probably dont take requests but i think it would be awesome to make a power point about iron boulder
The most fraudulent Mon ever
protect isn't really a "top move" in singles; it's useful but the number of pokemon that can truly get use out of it over other options is a very small pool; usually no more than five in OU and a couple of niche other picks from lower tiers in OU
great vid as always though!
I meant in an all-time sense which I didn’t clarify well-enough. 100% my bad
Day 1 of me asking you to show us an electric on Tekken
Crazy that smeargle can learn just about any move but not protect
That list doesn't factor in Sketch.
Thank you, FireBreezeBoyEnemy
I would say Salt Cure is now the best move followed by protect then knock off. Stealth rocks at #4
The move that sees no use at high level is the best in the game
@@GravityIsFalling Lol post your elo
@@jdrmanmusiqking
No you say that when someone says something stupid, such as “urshifu isn’t even that broken”
Not when someone says “no salt cure user has seen any success in current competitive
@@GravityIsFalling So its low as hell. Gotcha.
@@jdrmanmusiqking
Post successful salt cure users in regulation F
Wish they would rework detect so it isnt just protect but less pp. An idea i had was for detect to cause all moves direceted at the pokemon to always miss.
How is that any different?
Either you don’t take damage because detect blocks damage like protect
Or you don’t take damage because detect makes moves miss
The benefits of Detect is that if you use it again it has a 50% chance of working again instead of 30%
The list placed freaking smeargle on "pokemon who cannot learn protect" list, ignoring the fact it can just sketch protect
It's Pokémon that can't learn the move by TM.
@@TheRedSmarty oh, but that wasn't my point. Smeargle can get nearly everything by sketch so it should be an exception
and then theres urshifu like nah id win
Everyone gangsta with their protect until someone pull up with that urshifu rapid strike and single strike 💀
Edit/context: unseen fist go brrrrrrrr
Wait... is it possible to do Spiky Shield and then Protect???
It is not.
Same goes for Endure.
However you can switch between Substitute and Protect/Endure in case you need to PP stall something, get passive boosts etc.
Should have renamed this to why urshifu is so good
vgc is like: when you predict that he wold predict you but hee predict that you would predic that he would predict you 😡😡😡😡
I love unseen fist
Talk about dynamax next
RIP king's shield harshly attack
Assuming Trainer Codel doesn't have any counterargument to make. 👀
Ogerpon detected, day saved
Urshifu is my favorite Pokémon of all time.
Don’t ask me why though.
Remember to use protection
The best move and typing is U-turn.
Best move is aurora beam in gen 3 games
FiufiufiuFUFUFU.
oh im actually in the process for a report on a community voted best singles moves of all time, and uh protect didnt get all that high
PROTECT the name of me Joker Persona 5.
I feel like we have been here before
Silk trap is aso a variant
Brick break should go through protect
I'm sorry what about gen 7 ally switch though jt was protrct but it never failed
Unseen Fist:
its sheer usefulness is exactly why i dont like it. it stunts moveset variety a bit because it takes up a move slot. might as well just be a universal mechanic at this point, its not that crazy to think that any creature would know how to defense itself. im ok with the potential balance insanity this decision would make, because gamefreak made lots of fucked up decisions before, might as well see how this would choice would play out and shape the meta.
Then there is Urushifu
Soo Urshifu is just the best mon then, eh? Figures.
GIVE US RAICHU VIDEO
Hi
THIS *drill* MOVE IS THE ONLY *drill* REASON WHY THE *drill* URSHIFU IS EVEN BEING *drill* USED IN VGC WITH HIS *drill* ABILITY
Edit: GODDAMNIT JACKY GET THE *drill* OUT WITH YOUR DRILL BEFORE I *drill* YOU
:)
Hmm I could see Knock Off being the second best move but there is no shot that EQ is better than U-Turn and it's variants
I now know about trans rights amoongus and that is epic
Kid named unseen fist
scald imo
kid named urshifu
The move protect is pretty cool but I wish more people used it during their honeymoons.
I think it's the worst move. In fact i was asking people around the internet if they were to remove ONE move from pokemon games what would it be and majority agreed they would get rid of Protect.
Not only access to protect promote stall gameplay on bulky pokemon wich waste time of the already low timer but you also block some valid strategies that, if not executed may straight up lose you a game turn 1 (pivot moves that need to hit enemy). If you think it's annoying to land Order Up on protect and getting nothing out of that turn then it is also annoying to see dondozo stall with protect and leftovers while your team suffer from toxic.
And don't get me wrong Fake Out is a problem but i would rather have leftovers heal 2x as much as it does but have no access to protect just to speed up the fight.
"Oh he is gonna protect to get lefties heals" Well duh, we are just gonna sit here and wait for the animations to waste our time how fun /sarcasm
It is also frustrating how you basically have 3 moves for coverage and a protect because it feels mandatory.
But yeah if we really need some crucial protects, i.e for fake out then at least they should limit it like they did in pokemon GO.
So how about getting rid of Protect and replacing it with mechanic that give you 2 charges of Shield that you can use on any pokemon, but yeah since it's just 2 of them you can only use them that twice per battle so you'd need to think carefully when to use it. No more long stall, less frustration when pokemon protect, more gameplay involving proper switching in and out, 4 actual moves to use on every pokemon (this Shield will not be taking up moveset slot) so basically faster fights.
Stealth rocks > than protect in singles, and its not close especially before gen 8 like 10x better. Protect not even top 10 moves in singles.
boooooo vgc sux!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nah. Protect and all its variants are the worst thing in Pokemon. Boring garbage and one of many reasons why VGC is trash.
5 views 1 minute… bro fell off
Protect isnt really that good. You blocked a move? Cool! Youll just get hit by it the next turn.