i used to think stealth rocks did nothing as a kid because the only times i saw it used were against wild pokemon i didnt end up switching against anyways lol
Only BKC could make a hour and half long video over a move that seems so simple in execution. I doubt VGC is mentioned but that would probably add another 2 hours
Managed to finish this video after putting it off. My God. No wonder you became the writer for FSG. Your attention to metagame detail is impeccable. ^_^
5:47 The automated captions say "choice bad choice bad choice scarf" and I don't know if that's some scathing commentary on the game or AI failing miserably, lmao
the best part about it is that after the double switch you can still use protect again because it failed, which means, the protect counter will be at 0. This is the absolut best and most obnoxious thing ever if you go for a double-protect (because you are still in kill range of something that is dangerous to your team or to hard-stall toxic turns) and your opponent switches on the second turn, effectively allowing you to triple protect.
Didn't listen to this yet, but just wanted to say that your ability to theorize pokemon is amazing. I always thought that if we created an academy of pokemon sport competition, you definitely should be its headteacher
My favorite Gen 3 competitive use of Protect is Toxic Stall with Wish + Toxic + Protect Rachi. The best feeling is when you predict the Boom with Protect, and there there is that slight pause as your opponent registers what happened. The funniest use of Protect is completely neutralizing Slaking due to its awful ability.
my favourite use of protect in gen 3 is to use it on 3 attacks metagross. The amount of health you gain from lefties is legit insane, and extremely useful on a pokemon like metagross that tends to get hit by a lot of things throughout the game. It also can help making the metagross mirror a lot less awkward because you can simply protect and see what it does (just don't do that if your team is in agility metagross sweep range)
@@MrBoss71210 Heatran + Bulu is such a no-brainer. They destroy each others counters and the terrain massively helps Heatran. Put on Rotom too and it's a really annoying core. And that still leaves so many other options, it can be semi-stall or bulky offense. I had a team like that (with Z Chomp and, I believe, M-Mawile) but my old laptop died the heat death and I don't remember the team name on pokepast.es ;_;
I recently discover your channel, it has a ton of information. These videos about general concepts of Pokémon and the ones where you analize play by play are very helpful
I have no interest in playing older gens and yet this was one of the most comprehensive and interesting videos I've ever seen about a subject that isn't relevant to me. I watched the whole thing
This video actually inspired me to try building a toxic spike team in DPP OU with protect + roar Empoleon to get the most out of leftovers, but I’m also throwing on Aqua ring onto it to get even more health back in a turn if I can afford to get one up. Suddenly, my leftovers doubled and my protects are wayyy more threatening
I know you play mostly old gens but sub toxic protect salazzle from gen 7 ru is one of my favorite sets ever. Sub and protect with black sludge manage to make a pokemon with basically zero bulk into a great defensive force. Team walled by bulky poison? Toxic salazzle. The only bad part is it leaves you with one move and I had trouble choosing between sludge wave for cleric florges and flamethrower for metagross and registeel
Worst is : this set works wonders in gen 8 OU as well and it shreds defensive cores apart. It is niche but damn it is it both good and infuriating (Sub Toxic is always nasty on fast mons, but one that can also toxic poison and steel types ? Nope, nope nope nope)
Sometimes when I use protect and I see my opponent is using a super effective move on me I intentionally stay and attack him cause he might think Im going to switch to something else so he uses another move but nope. This has won me a few games. Of course its high risk high reward but whatever its just a game and it is fun when I get the read.
@@reun1clus mold breaker: "This Pokemon's moves and their effects ignore the Abilities of other Pokemon." Neutralizing gas on other hand: While this Pokemon is active, Abilities have no effect.
@@Gnolte By that description, Protect and it’s effect should in fact ignore Unseen Fist. You’re still right, of course; I just find it it funny how useless the English language is for describing this interaction.
Gardevoir is viable in gen 4 OU currently because of protect. It checks specs/scarf hetran better than anything. As long as gardevoir hasnt fainted it makes most opposing hetran a liability because they cant safely use a fire move without Gardevoir just absorbing it. Gardevoir doesnt even have to offensivly threaten it either. It can just sit on it so funny things like roserade switching in on hetran, or Gardevoir using will o wisp and landing a burn on a ttar or something happens
I doubt anyone cares but The Gardevoir i run is bold with 132hp 136def and 240 speed The 240 speed is soley to outrun max speed breloom in an emergency but it doesnt have to be that fast. The hp and défense invesment let it live ttars crunch and scizors u-turn. Moveset is will ô wisp/ wish/ protect/ psychic
don't forget the alterations of protect lik bainfull bunker or kings Shield. There is a reason some stall teams run bunker pex to poison Medicham mega Even in newer gens like 7, protect saw some use on pokemon like diancie mega or even more important celesteela. The flying rockets defensive capabilities would be next to none existent if it wasn't for the sweet sweet 6% recovered every time it klicks protect
I’m 5 months late, but I think it’s worth mentioning that some tspikes teams now use vincune instead of offensive tect cune in DPP, and it’s hella nasty (i.e. Soulwind vs ABR in classic finals)
The use of protect kinda reminds me of balanced hackmons where people love to use there imposter blissey only to scout out the set the enemy is running.
Colosseum and XD really made me appreciate this move. Most of the late game is unbeatable if half your team doesn't have Protect and you haven't EV trained
Vincune is my favorite set of any pokemon ever and prior I really thought Protect was super mediocre in singles but that set is such an absolute demon it shows the power of sub and Protect snowballing boosts. Suddenly leftovers becomes a reliable recovery move, and if calm mind stops your sub from being ohkoed by whatevers in front of you, you pretty much win because you're constantly healing more than you're losing health, snowballing boosts, and any threat ends up pp stalled out of their move. It's funny that Scald is the move I find myself clicking the least with that set.
Bulky jirachi in DPP with sub, protect, iron head, and body slam is the most nightmarish thing i have ever had the pleasure of using. I've RNG'd my way through heatran quite a few times with it, and anything else is even worse off against it.
I don't expect to come up with a solution to that disgusting suicune set in oras, when so many other people were playing during that time. but I just had to wonder, was there any pokemon that could effectively taunt the suicune and then force it to switch out or something?
Just helping out by commenting But even though at first I only watch a couple minutes of these, for some reason I just wanna keep coming back to them and watch more I don't understand it
Protect is good for stalling trick room teams, weather teams and obviously choice item pokemons. But I still don't think to keep it on offensive pokemon for an attack slot.
there is a few offensively oriented pokemon that can make great use of it - mostly pokemon that also have some defensive utility. Metagross and more offensive variants of Swampert (both of which like to run 3 attacks + protect because they heal in sand with lefties) in gen 3 come to mind here.
the other way around. detect has less pp. The only niche, detect has over protect is in doubles, where less pokemon can learn detect + imprison than there is pokemon with protect + imprison (plus, the lower pp don't matter)
no mention of the 50/50 that is double protect in older gens? I don't know how common it is to fish for a double protect in singles, but when you're basically forced to sack your protect mon I can imagine having the 50% chance of another round of chip on the opponent is very nice. I can also imagine the idea of your opponent going for that double and getting 50% chance at another round of toxic damage on your offensive mon can also be a scary prospect
A few years back when I played Gen 4 OU, with 1 mon left (Machamp went down to Zen Headbutt) I knew my scarfed Ttar was gonna win me the game (vs Bronzong Starmie & specs Latias), I came in on stealth rocks and traded Crunch for Toxic against Bronzong (my 88% HP vs his 4%)... my opponent *[[literally]]* used Protect 5 times in a row without fail and I never played Pokémon Showdown ever since... I might pick it back up after this video though
Help every time I try to watch this video CZcams forces me to load an hour-and-a-half-long unblockable ad labeled “The Power of Feint”
He protect
And he protect
But most importantly
He protect
pelipper is that you?
swampert also learns protect
@@tecul1 the joke may spamming protect but it's horrifying
You forgot he protecc
Me as a child: Haha Protect does not do damage, what an awful move
Me as an adult: DEFENCE IS THE BEST OFFENCE
me before: ew screw protect
me now: ew protect its used on stall
when I was a child if any move did no damage i didnt use it
NOOO, YOU CAN'T JUST COMPLETELY INVALIDATE MY MOVE!
haha project go shing.
i used to think stealth rocks did nothing as a kid because the only times i saw it used were against wild pokemon i didnt end up switching against anyways lol
I USED TO KNOW SOMEONE WHO SAID THAT SWORDS DANCE IS WORTHLESS AND EXPLOSION IS WORTHLESS AND TRASH IS GOOD
WE WERE TALKING ABOUT GEN 4
Only BKC could make a hour and half long video over a move that seems so simple in execution. I doubt VGC is mentioned but that would probably add another 2 hours
A protect in vgc video would probably be like 12 hours lmaoo
@@warrenbuffet1250 ikr but over the generation vgc has used less protect it's still amazing but it's being used less
@The Slayer you clearly aren’t a seasoned vgc player
@@whydoiexist2180 protect is the most used move in all of vgc, everything that isn't choiced uses protect unless very rare exceptions
@@roccopiosaracino3681 the only few I can think of are incineroar and maybe ummm dusclops
Managed to finish this video after putting it off.
My God. No wonder you became the writer for FSG. Your attention to metagame detail is impeccable. ^_^
5:47 The automated captions say "choice bad choice bad choice scarf" and I don't know if that's some scathing commentary on the game or AI failing miserably, lmao
Protect protecting yourself from double switches is such an obnoxious application of the move lol
the best part about it is that after the double switch you can still use protect again because it failed, which means, the protect counter will be at 0. This is the absolut best and most obnoxious thing ever if you go for a double-protect (because you are still in kill range of something that is dangerous to your team or to hard-stall toxic turns) and your opponent switches on the second turn, effectively allowing you to triple protect.
'I'm a poet... and didn't ven know I was rhyming those words' -Captain Holt -BKC
It scouts moves, HP types, give more of both passive recovery and/or damage, stalls out Perish Song terms, and protects from Self-destruct+Explosion.
it doesn't scout types necessarily. if your opp uses an hp on your swampert lets say it doesn't mean they have hp grass, its just a lot more likely
and it wastes some pp
@@ryankeathley5939 imagine using HPIce on Swampert kekw
@@butteredsalmonella Everyone knows you use HP Water on Swampert lol
@@ryroller9394 yeah, its a nice stab
Didn't listen to this yet, but just wanted to say that your ability to theorize pokemon is amazing. I always thought that if we created an academy of pokemon sport competition, you definitely should be its headteacher
My favorite Gen 3 competitive use of Protect is Toxic Stall with Wish + Toxic + Protect Rachi.
The best feeling is when you predict the Boom with Protect, and there there is that slight pause as your opponent registers what happened.
The funniest use of Protect is completely neutralizing Slaking due to its awful ability.
hey its not funny to neutralize slaking you heartless monster :(
my favourite use of protect in gen 3 is to use it on 3 attacks metagross. The amount of health you gain from lefties is legit insane, and extremely useful on a pokemon like metagross that tends to get hit by a lot of things throughout the game. It also can help making the metagross mirror a lot less awkward because you can simply protect and see what it does (just don't do that if your team is in agility metagross sweep range)
only BKC can make an hour and a half long video about one move and keep the analysis engaging
protect? Urshifu says LOL
And that's a reason why that edgy form got banned.
Love Urshifu hate that it got banned because we FINALLY got an out to annoying stall protect.
Laughs in tapu koko
@@DustyDustington89 just use rapid strike
Protect Heatran is great in gen 7. It can easily get back to full from like 30% against fat teams
especially with grassy terrain, how many times i've seen a 10% heatran going all his way back to 80%
@@MrBoss71210 Heatran + Bulu is such a no-brainer. They destroy each others counters and the terrain massively helps Heatran. Put on Rotom too and it's a really annoying core. And that still leaves so many other options, it can be semi-stall or bulky offense.
I had a team like that (with Z Chomp and, I believe, M-Mawile) but my old laptop died the heat death and I don't remember the team name on pokepast.es ;_;
@@Butt3rk3ks2306 and it makes eq weaker wich can be nice sometimes
@@mystic2445 That's another plus with Heatran/Bulu - Earth Power isn't weakened by grassy terrain.
and now you can pair Heatran with Grass Monke
More than a year later and no one has commented about your "I was a poet, and wasn't even aware" joke. That's a good one
thank you, I stole it from an excellent source (captain holt on brooklyn 99)
Not gonna lie, I never knew I needed a "History of Protect in Competitive Pokémon" so badly as I do now. I'm definitely going to enjoy this a lot!
At 13:51 that nickname for the moltres was perfect
protecting to stuff double switches was something i didn't expect to see. Now that you bring it up im having flashbacks
The amount of times ive seen gross get 2 mmash attack raises in a row good lord
This is my favorite kind of content from you, thanks so much BKC
What scares me about this is that you're right
I recently discover your channel, it has a ton of information. These videos about general concepts of Pokémon and the ones where you analize play by play are very helpful
I have no interest in playing older gens and yet this was one of the most comprehensive and interesting videos I've ever seen about a subject that isn't relevant to me. I watched the whole thing
This video actually inspired me to try building a toxic spike team in DPP OU with protect + roar Empoleon to get the most out of leftovers, but I’m also throwing on Aqua ring onto it to get even more health back in a turn if I can afford to get one up. Suddenly, my leftovers doubled and my protects are wayyy more threatening
Oh yay some new Pokémon being released in the DLC can hit through protect
There is a fucking move for that.
"Feint"
I know you play mostly old gens but sub toxic protect salazzle from gen 7 ru is one of my favorite sets ever. Sub and protect with black sludge manage to make a pokemon with basically zero bulk into a great defensive force. Team walled by bulky poison? Toxic salazzle. The only bad part is it leaves you with one move and I had trouble choosing between sludge wave for cleric florges and flamethrower for metagross and registeel
Worst is : this set works wonders in gen 8 OU as well and it shreds defensive cores apart. It is niche but damn it is it both good and infuriating (Sub Toxic is always nasty on fast mons, but one that can also toxic poison and steel types ? Nope, nope nope nope)
too bad it's on a mon that already beats steels
this set is soooooooooooooooooooooo evil, I love it :D
Sometimes when I use protect and I see my opponent is using a super effective move on me I intentionally stay and attack him cause he might think Im going to switch to something else so he uses another move but nope. This has won me a few games. Of course its high risk high reward but whatever its just a game and it is fun when I get the read.
@Renown Blue yea it feels great
@@VideoGameManiac8 Protect is a move that is at its core after it’s shown a mind game on both sides.
Urshifu: what’s a protect?
Moldbreaker Excadrill protected itself!
@@reun1clus mold breaker: "This Pokemon's moves and their effects ignore the Abilities of other Pokemon."
Neutralizing gas on other hand: While this Pokemon is active, Abilities have no effect.
@@Gnolte
By that description, Protect and it’s effect should in fact ignore Unseen Fist.
You’re still right, of course; I just find it it funny how useless the English language is for describing this interaction.
I’m glad I can go to sleep relistening to this
Gardevoir is viable in gen 4 OU currently because of protect. It checks specs/scarf hetran better than anything. As long as gardevoir hasnt fainted it makes most opposing hetran a liability because they cant safely use a fire move without Gardevoir just absorbing it. Gardevoir doesnt even have to offensivly threaten it either. It can just sit on it so funny things like roserade switching in on hetran, or Gardevoir using will o wisp and landing a burn on a ttar or something happens
I doubt anyone cares but The Gardevoir i run is bold with 132hp 136def and 240 speed
The 240 speed is soley to outrun max speed breloom in an emergency but it doesnt have to be that fast. The hp and défense invesment let it live ttars crunch and scizors u-turn. Moveset is will ô wisp/ wish/ protect/ psychic
I'm gonna try it in bdsp.
Urshifu doesn't care about protection and just goes balls deep lol
don't forget the alterations of protect lik bainfull bunker or kings Shield.
There is a reason some stall teams run bunker pex to poison Medicham mega
Even in newer gens like 7, protect saw some use on pokemon like diancie mega or even more important celesteela.
The flying rockets defensive capabilities would be next to none existent if it wasn't for the sweet sweet 6% recovered every time it klicks protect
And around 18% after leech seed
thanks for the insightful analysis, i appreciate the work you put into these vids
I’m 5 months late, but I think it’s worth mentioning that some tspikes teams now use vincune instead of offensive tect cune in DPP, and it’s hella nasty (i.e. Soulwind vs ABR in classic finals)
The Refresh Dol army is coming dude ... watch out.
The use of protect kinda reminds me of balanced hackmons where people love to use there imposter blissey only to scout out the set the enemy is running.
Colosseum and XD really made me appreciate this move. Most of the late game is unbeatable if half your team doesn't have Protect and you haven't EV trained
Annoyed as a kid with Winona's Pelipper spamming protect. Annoyed now with Leech Seed Toxic Ferrothorn spamming protect.
in speedruns that pelipper is actually taken advantage of, showing both sides of protect
to be fair, the AI spams protect for absolutely no reason and it is ... both obnoxious and useful at the same time, lol
Amazing video on such a powerful move being use by power pokenon such as breloom in gen 5
Vincune is my favorite set of any pokemon ever and prior I really thought Protect was super mediocre in singles but that set is such an absolute demon it shows the power of sub and Protect snowballing boosts. Suddenly leftovers becomes a reliable recovery move, and if calm mind stops your sub from being ohkoed by whatevers in front of you, you pretty much win because you're constantly healing more than you're losing health, snowballing boosts, and any threat ends up pp stalled out of their move. It's funny that Scald is the move I find myself clicking the least with that set.
torment tran is goated ngl
rare instance of a niche move really making or breaking a set
Great Video :) would love to see more of these coming
Bulky jirachi in DPP with sub, protect, iron head, and body slam is the most nightmarish thing i have ever had the pleasure of using. I've RNG'd my way through heatran quite a few times with it, and anything else is even worse off against it.
Love your vids! Keep it up!
Thanks for the quality content
so many people seem to think that if they just hit hard enough protect will treat the attacks like they're z-moves lmao
I shiny hunted and found a shiny magnemite while listening to this!!!
now you have the obligation to teach it protect!
Urshifus: allow us to introduce ourselves
Always wear protection
I don't know why, but I like to jokingly
pronounce the title as 'de powah of plotek'
I don't expect to come up with a solution to that disgusting suicune set in oras, when so many other people were playing during that time. but I just had to wonder, was there any pokemon that could effectively taunt the suicune and then force it to switch out or something?
Torment heatran from gen 4 is my fav set ever.
this gonna be god
Just helping out by commenting
But even though at first I only watch a couple minutes of these, for some reason I just wanna keep coming back to them and watch more
I don't understand it
beast video
So much knowledge.
advanced pokemon 101
Protect is good for stalling trick room teams, weather teams and obviously choice item pokemons. But I still don't think to keep it on offensive pokemon for an attack slot.
there is a few offensively oriented pokemon that can make great use of it - mostly pokemon that also have some defensive utility. Metagross and more offensive variants of Swampert (both of which like to run 3 attacks + protect because they heal in sand with lefties) in gen 3 come to mind here.
Urshifu: hahahaha
stall-tect
This is precisely why I think Urshifu is gonna go straight to ubers when they get released: they just fucking ignore protect on all attacks.
1 year later, and one did go to Ubers.
nice
Who else thought Protect was garbage as a kid?
It's just worse detect tbh
the other way around. detect has less pp. The only niche, detect has over protect is in doubles, where less pokemon can learn detect + imprison than there is pokemon with protect + imprison (plus, the lower pp don't matter)
no mention of the 50/50 that is double protect in older gens? I don't know how common it is to fish for a double protect in singles, but when you're basically forced to sack your protect mon I can imagine having the 50% chance of another round of chip on the opponent is very nice. I can also imagine the idea of your opponent going for that double and getting 50% chance at another round of toxic damage on your offensive mon can also be a scary prospect
I definitely mentioned double protect at some point
def did
19:30 in
A few years back when I played Gen 4 OU, with 1 mon left (Machamp went down to Zen Headbutt) I knew my scarfed Ttar was gonna win me the game (vs Bronzong Starmie & specs Latias), I came in on stealth rocks and traded Crunch for Toxic against Bronzong (my 88% HP vs his 4%)... my opponent *[[literally]]* used Protect 5 times in a row without fail and I never played Pokémon Showdown ever since... I might pick it back up after this video though