when you're at the stage of your first wild Encounters in the earliest routes of red and blue or you're a battle heartened veteran of many years and metag games who sees Lander theion in your dreams there is one thing explicitly clear about a Pokemon battle it's all about damage Pokemon does damage with move as the old net battle crowd used to say to win the game do more damage to your opponent than they do to you you don't say so how does one do damage when we play in game we intuitively learn that we want strong Pokemon with strong moves Charizard using flamethrower is better than Charmander using Ember and sure there are other things to consider like the type chart namely as well as things like status conditions weather and so on to say nothing of all the ways damage can be dealt indirectly which could be its own video however when you get down to it it is always in some way all about the direct damage Pokemon can dish out each metag game Begins by examining what the most effective offensive threats are and everything else is a response to them for example stall was powerful in diamond and pro but to build stall one must be aware of the metag game's four most threats that offensive teams will be running while offensive teams running those offensive threats are dictating their responses and so on in diamond and Pearl's case it was all about guard chomp as well as other monsters like infer that's because when the games came out the player base immediately searched for the strongest most threatening Pokemon around the ones with the fewest responses however as this video will demonstrate the strongest Pokémon are not always the most threatening if that was the case we'd be playing a pointlessly simple game it just be a matter of selecting Pokemon with the highest attacking stats with no regard for other stats typing ability move pull or a million other factors and being done with it here's a quick example take the Pokemon with the highest attacking stat in the game Mega meww y's base special attack of 194 which translates to a literal stat of a jaw-dropping 535 with a modest nature and Max special attack now let's put this Mega Mewtwo Y in psychic terrain so it stabs psychic moves will hit even harder let's also break the rules and give it Choice specs and let's break the rules some more and make its ability adaptability let's put it up against a psychic weak opponent one with not much bulk like Infernape for good measure we'll give Infernape a minus special defense nature and finally we'll give Infernape minus six special defense at this point of hilarious Overkill surely it doesn't even matter what the base power of Mewtwo's chosen psychic move is right even a base power of one would send Infernape not just to the moon but to another galaxy yeah not quite this one base power psychic move coming off of the highest special attack in the game that's boosted to even more astronomical Levels by choice specs adaptability and psychic terrain hitting a psychic weak opponent with pitiful bulk and minus 6 special defense will do a whopping 20 to 24% it will take five hits from Mega mewwy to KO Infernape if this were the case what about a base power of two would that do it nope 60 to 70% INF ferate could live the hit even with Stealth Rock and spikes up and most likely live Sandstorm afterwards what about a base power of three even that wouldn't do it it deals 79 to 94% a role that doesn't even favor it to get the KO with Stealth Rock up it's not until a base power of four that Mega meww y can get the KO and even that still isn't guaranteed it'll only get the job done 15 out of 16 times that's right even this comically overblown threat needs the attacks to have actual base power and clearly we have found the solution to bring meww into owe you Nerf the strength of its attacks you're welcome Jokes Aside this is obviously a ridiculously extreme example but it gets our point across power or at least one facet of it isn't everything we can make a similar yet opposite example of some move with a million base power doing no damage if used by Shuckle haini or Caterpie but you may protest this is silly what about huge base stats in conjunction with huge base power attacks We're Glad You theoretically asked this because that brings us to a very special Pokemon with which we will illustrate this point in Practical terms as we present to you the Rampardos theorem Rampardos doesn't need any madeup examples to achieve Stupify levels of power it packs an absurd base 165 attack stat which by comparison makes the likes of Groudon and Rayquaza look like YuYu Pokemon it's certainly not left wanting for powerful attacks either it strongest stab is head smash which possesses a mindboggling 150 base power again much stronger than any stab Groudon or Rayquaza can drum up it is as automatic and instantly delete the opposing Pokemon Button as it sounds even something as naturally bulky as Mew is koed more often than not from full health and that's before considering how raros can boost itself Choice ban for instantaneous absurdity or stord dance for truly incomprehensible levels of savagery especially since it can be paired with another boosting option in life orb so with this truly obscene level of power why is Rampardos not only not good but one of the worst Pokemon in the game simple everything else about it is bad it is a great way to see all the nuances in Pokémon that we with our experience often take for granted Ros is terribly slow and pathetically frail this is a death sentence for pretty much any Pokemon and it doesn't matter how monstrously overwrought your attacking stats are if you can't outspeed anything and you can't take a hit you're going to get shellacked at every corner especially since raros is mono Rock typing means it's riddled with weaknesses to some of the most common attack types in the game water fighting and ground even its steel weakness is relevant what about choice scarf for rock polishes fixed up that speed you might ask well ramp paress is still slow even with them number one and number two it's so bad defensively that it struggles to switch in or get a free turn against much of anything Rampardos is never ever left wanting for power but it's always left wanting for everything anything else as such it is the poster Pokemon for the concept of power not being everything of course this isn't just a video about R parles it is the Rampardos theorum meaning it can theoretically be applied to other Pokémon so next up we will examine a duel of Pokémon that are monsters threatening however they were held back by their abilities slack King and reig gigas if these two Pokemon had a competitively useless ability like illuminate they would be top tier however in what seems to be a case of Game Freak engaging in a case of active shot in fra that's particularly sadistic even by their cruel standards they are instead relegated to the bottom of the barrel situated at the bottom of a pile of barrels without their ability slack King and reig gigas would use their monsters attack and speed stats in conjunction with move PES that leave them wanting for nothing to shred through many other Pokémon they're so dangerous that their usually meager normal typing would be overlooked slacking however is turned into the biggest Sitting Duck in the game after it attacks thanks to its appalling crippling truin it means a free turd for absolutely everything it's also completely ruined by one of the most common moves in the game protect in Ruby Sapphire 200 a metag game where slacking was actually decent in if you were weak to its moves you just slapped protect on some Pokemon and went from being destroyed by it to having no problem with it whatsoever even welcoming its useless exploitable presence Slack doesn't do so hot against substitute either it's threatening for a turn maybe and after that your opponent is glad to see it regie gigas meanwhile can't even threaten anything to begin with but at least it can potentially wait out slow start right well not only is five turns a long time to even get going five turns you're realistically never going to get against a halfway competent opponent by the way let's just assume but when you switch out which you will then slow start will activate again when you switch back in later there is a reason why our videos on slack King and Rich gigas are asking the question how bad they were actually because they were really really bad in the realm of self- ruining abilities we must give a special mention to archo whose de feus ability ranks up there among the worst of the game however archo is more able to work around it and has had a solid lower tier career as a result that said on day one of generation 5 it was one of the most fearsome looking threats until the translation came in and its ability was explain as such it's like slacking and reig gigas in the what could have been category of would be threat next up we have examples which demonstrate that not all of Pokemon that fall under the rampal theum are this extreme either not all of them are pathetically useless the Rampardos theorem isn't just about Pokemon that seem terrifying but are actually awful it's more about showing that even Pokémon's strongest powerhouses need to consider the game's nuances in order to be successful this is Illustrated with a pair of monstrous special attackers Porygon Z and zurry now these Pokemon have quite decent competitive histories however it's nothing compared to what was expected of them based on the initial hype surrounding their staggering power not only are these two incredibly naturally strong with enormous special attack stats and Powerful stabs but they also possess a Litany of ways to boost themselves further Beyond just Choice specs Porygon has two outstanding abilities that make it stronger download and adaptability and even has access to nasty plot with life orb nothing was going to feel comfortable taking hits from it not even blissy meanwhile zerker Tre special attack makes Porygon Z look measly it has an even better boosting move in the form of tail glow it has a stab move that actually hit Pokemon super effectively and its ability Beast boost makes it even more powerful after it grabs a KO so you don't even feel comfortable sacrificing something against it well on paper anyway while these two are never unable to rip through opposing teams they are also unable to withstand the posing hits they aren't slow but their defensive typing isn't good and while they're not exactly true glass cannons they're certainly not bulky either this is a common case of Pokémon balance the Pokémon that hit the hardest are often unable to withstand opposing hits when this balance is disrupted the results can be catastrophic see zashi and crowns this is also why even defensive teams often employ a faster Pokemon against super strong threats like these the sturdiest walls in the game aren't going to be able to stand up against them so it's best to reinforce one's defenses not by doubling down on Walling but by being able to out offense them Walling Porygon Z and zurry no thanks out offens them no problem and we continue Rising through the tier ranks this time showcasing how the ramardo serum can be applied even to ow you Pokémon just like how pz and zerker tree were decent yet not overwhelming as they were first to be expected these next Pokemon 2 failed to live up to the day one hype of being overwhelmed by their stats this is a duel of dragon types beautifully emblematic of generation five as a whole haxus and Kuran black Kuran black didn't exist when generation 5 came out all eyes were on haxus then players had struggled to contain salamance in the generation prior sending it to Ubers not two months before black and white were released and reportedly had nightmares at the prospect of this new dragon type not just packing Dragon Dance AS as well but even Source dance it even had an ability mold breaker that let it destroy bronzong a would be Reus to the dragon ground combination mold breaker ignored levitate and let haxer smack it with earthquake it speed stat was quite decent too and it could even take a hit surprisingly well of course haxus was never banned or even close to it it was a solid part of OU the reason it wasn't banned despite its over-the-top attacking potential was you guessed it not being that fast in the lightning quick Gen 5 metag game and not exactly being difficult to KO for these faster adversaries either then in Black and White 2 Kieran black was unbanned to much controversy and replaced heis as U's resident banded outrage spamming Dragon its attack stat was the second highest in the game at the time and its outrage thus performed absurd Feats like potentially twoed killing Ferrothorn with Stealth Rock Kieran black also packed Fusion bolt which ensured that unlike haxus it couldn't be walled by Skarmory Kieran black is a particularly excessive example of the red parum because it was initially perceived as so strong it started in Ubers then it was unbanded OU and nobody could consider it broken in the fast-paced metagame which effortlessly exploited its many weaknesses K's partial ice typing while nice for making it neutral to opposing ice moves was also quite the hindrance as it most notably made it weak to Stealth Rock and fighting moves which meant his naturally High bulk wasn't that useful in practice still a great Pokemon but certainly not the literal Uber it had been before in a similar vein we must give a mention to darmanitan enormous power not just from its huge base attack and staff Flur Blitz that hit many common Pokemon super effectively but also from its sheer Force ability and from the permanent sunlight support it got from ninet Tales as drought however while feared at first their manit 10's flaws incredible Frailty and a Stealth Rock weakness meant that in practice it wasn't quite as fearsome as it seemed on paper though there was of course little more enjoyable than one hit killing something with a resisted flare Blitz finally we go to the Uber tier to show that the raros theorem is applicable regardless of the metag game this is abundantly clear in the case of reram reram is the Uber's version of Rampardos so much so that we almost call this video the rer Rampardos theorem R Ryme has all the power it could ever ask for two incredible stab moves whose typings complement each other perfectly from a huge base special attack stat its fire stab is of course boosted further by Groudon sun too additionally its turboblaze ability means that you can't use Heatran to resist the stab combination either as its Flash Fire gets ignored and blue flare blows it apart did Kyogre want to switch in and repl the sun with rain rusham stab Draco meter had something to say about that it was just about nothing rusham can't destroy this much has always been clear and it was thus one of the most hyped new additions to the Uber tier upon its appearance in generation 5 this however didn't last very long as it became clear you wouldn't want to use rusham if you were serious about winning so why is it that reram has been one of the worst Ubers for so long well being outclassed by Kiran white certainly had something to do with it but Russ Ram was a shining example of the ramp partis theem before Kieran white even existed its flaws cast a shadow over its virtues that was so long it may as well have been an eclipse rusham wasn't fast enough to make up for how badly it was destroyed by Stealth Rock and most attacks in the metag game even its solid natural bul couldn't help with its weaknesses to dragon and earthquake and not even at least being resistant to water like most other dragons its counterpart zeron for example got a lot further in large part thanks to its rocks neutrality and water resistances which let it make the most of that nice natural bulk rest Ram's longevity issues were compounded by things like protect counting Choice spec sets or hurting itself to be able to switch moves with life orb as a result even something it completely destroyed like Ferrothorn could irritate it no matter how you tried to run it rusham would never be as successful as its n on Match offensive potential would suggest and as such it's the highest example of the Rampardos theem so in conclusion good strategy will beat sheer power pretty much every time if something's so strong that it nullifies the need for strategy it goes through Ubers because it makes the game pointless there's no strategy if you can just click the strong buttons without repercussion that's why the strongest Pokemon in the game such as those we've mentioned in the video are balanced by severe weaknesses weaknesses so severe and allc consuming that they sometimes relegate them to joke status and if there are any other Pokémon you believe fall under the rampo stum please let us know in the comments together we will make science out of competitive Pokémon thanks for watching everyone I hope you enjoyed this different video we're trying more ideas as we said in our previous different video the most Nerf moved in Pokemon history so go check that out if you haven't already so if you have any more suggestions feel free we're down to try a lot of things and thank you so much to our patrs for continued support of our videos and thank you to everyone else watching as well and follow my crew on these social media platforms and that's all I got see you next time everyone [Music]