Pokémon scarlet and Violet's first DLC the teal mask just released and although only seven new Pokemon were added there's one that stands clearly Above the Rest already ogre Pon the main Pokemon in the story of the teal mask is clearly going to be a forced to be reckoned with in competitive Pokémon but what exactly is it that makes ogre Pon so strong and why are competitive players so sure that it's going to be broken awesome Champion intense PVE and PVP content tactical upgrade system sounds like a pretty good game right well let me tell you how raid Shadow Legends has all of these and is a must play for you right now raid has just introduced a new Rarity of Champions mythical A Step Above legendary what's really cool about these mythical Champions is they have a really unique mechanic called metamorph that allows them to change between two different forms mythical Champions are basically two champions in one these mythical Champions are the most versatile champions ever seen in raid you can tell your play style and create synergies across both forms we all love to show off our style don't we well raid's latest update is all about you and your clan showing off just how great you are thanks to the new Clan league and Clan Insignia feature customize your own super awesome logo for the whole world to see and work together with your clan mates to earn shiny Clan Stars that'll decorate your ins this month also sees the return of prime gaming drops in game so Amazon Prime members can earn themselves some special in-game goodies new players click my link or scan the QR code right here you'll get a free starter pack with this cool in-game loot so just click the link in my description and I'll see you on the battlefield before we can answer these questions we have to understand a little bit more about ogre Pon itself first even though thus far we've been talking about ogre Pon like it's one Pokemon if you've played through the DLC you probably know that it's actually more like four ogre Pon has four different masks it can wear and these masks change the typing and ability of the Pokemon behind it the player gets to choose which mask ogon is wearing in battle by deciding which item ogre Pond holds the Wellspring mask changes it to a water and grass type the Hearth flame mask a fire and grass type and the Cornerstone mask a rock and grass type if ogre paon is given any other item it will remain in its teal mask form as a pure grass type but before we get into the differences between the different masks we should talk about some things that all forms of ogon have in common starting with the stats ogre Pon stats across the board are good at a glance they don't appear broken by any means but they also don't have any major weaknesses it's faster than a majority of Pokémon but not so fast that it's outspeeding everything else in the format its attack stat is very respectable again not so high that it makes your eyes pop out of your head but better than the majority of Pokémon and high enough that it'll KO most Pokemon at hits with a strong super effective attack and it'll do a respectable amount of damage to anything it hits or neutral and while its bulk isn't as good as either its attack or its speed it isn't bad either the specific numbers mean stuff to people like me who are really in the weeds when it comes to Pokémon stats but to make it a little easier to understand how much bulk a Pokémon has roughly translates to how many neutral hits they can take super frail Pokémon will get koed one attack frail Pokemon might be able to take one but can never take two hits middling Pokemon can maybe take two but they certainly won't take three bulky Pokemon can take three or maybe four attacks and super bulky Pokemon can take four or more attack ogron's bulk puts it solidly in the middling category it should be able to take a strong nons super effective attack and maybe two weaker hits but it won't take much more this is actually a really nice place to be on a more offensive Pokemon on because even if you don't invest heavily in bulk it should naturally be tanky enough to be able to stick around without even needing a Focus dash and if you choose to invest in bulk you can make it actually pretty respectably tanky if you so choose to give up speed or power of course there are other ways to make ogre Pon tankier but we'll get to that later now I know what you're thinking wolf you said this Pokemon was broken but when you talked about its stats you made it seem like they were nothing special what gives the answer is shocking but I think you're old enough to hear it what makes ogre Pond broken isn't its stats It's a combination of pretty much everything else including its move pool another thing that all four of ogre Pond's forms have in common more or less ogre Pond's move pool is incredible in so many ways first it gets a signature move that is unbelievably strong called Ivy cudgel this is a 100 base power 100 accuracy move that changes type depending on ogre Pawn's mask now moves with 100 base power and high are typically given some kind of drawback such as lower accuracy or maybe some recoil damage but Ivy cudgel has none making it a super spammable no drawback move this is especially impactful in its rock form as rock moves for some reason are almost always given imperfect accuracy rock slide Stone Edge even Rock blast all Miss at least 10% of the time even on the other forms Ivy cudgel rocks but it's far from the only good move ogre Pond gets wood Hammer horn Leach and grassy Glide are all present in its kit for good reliable grass type attacks and it's been given a ton of great coverage moves as well such as superpower knockoff U-turn stomping tantrum and even play rough but to be honest despite such a deep coverage move pool I think that most of the time the majority of these moves won't make it onto ogre Pawn's move set reason being its setup and supporting moves are absurd ogron gets access to Swords Dance allowing it to double its attack attack stat in a single turn combine this with the healing from horn Leach and ogre Pond's good natural bulk and you have a Pokemon that can run away with the game if left unchecked not to mention this can also combo with the different abilities of ogre Pawn's masks but again I'm getting ahead of myself while ogre Pawn doesn't get many other moves I would personally consider in terms of setup it doesn't really need more Beyond Swords Dance especially given how absurd its supporting move pool is starting with the more tame moves ogre Pawn gets spiky Shield spiky Shield is identical to protect except if a Pokemon hits spiky shield with a contact move they take damage given almost every ogre Pon set would want to run protect this is pretty much just a no drawback upgrade Encore helping hand charm and taunt are all great moves as well and though not every ogre Pawn will use them on specific teams it'll be nice to have the option the big move though and one that I truly have no idea why game freak chose to give it is follow me follow me is widely considered one of the greatest moves in competitive Pokémon up there with trick room and fake out it's the main reason pisu was able to win the World Championships back in 2014 and its presence alone causes people to use Pokemon that they otherwise wouldn't touch such as Clefairy and Riolu in order to balance how powerful fall is Game Freak tends to be pretty stingy in its distribution for example prior to the DLC only three Pokémon could learn follow me in scarlet and violet even when a new Pokémon gets follow me they typically make sure they give it to Pokémon with below par stats such as Indi and mousehold both of whom rely heavily on their abilities to remain relevant which begs the question what on Earth were they thinking giving it to ogre Pon now to be fair follow me typically works best on defensive Pokemon whose primary role is to tank hits but also to be fair we've never really had an offensive follow me user with good stats the closest thing we got was in sword and shield where Togekiss would often be an offensive Dynamax Pokémon but could also pivot and turn into a supporter when it needed to it's hard to say how good ogre Pawn will be as a follow me user but my personal hunch is it will be extremely strong while its main goal won't be to redirect attack the fact that it has the option to is just absurd imagine you have a low HP Choice specs flutter man against a grassy Glide RAB boom or a sucker punch chenow or an Aqua Jet U with follow me suddenly your opponent can't stop another dazzling gam without getting rid of ogre Pawn First and just this threat alone can stop them from even going for a priority move in the first place opening up a mind game normally one of the main ways you beat Pokémon with follow me is to just keep throwing attacks at the partner because they tend to have trouble doing damage you can typically ignore them and force them to follow me until they faint that won't work on ogre Pawn ignore it and you might eat a powerful Ivy cudgel or wood Hammer but if you try and get rid of it quickly it can spiky Shield block your attacks and maybe even damage you with a shield while the partner gets off scott free even without using follow me it presence alone creates so many guessing games when it comes to ogre Pawn that playing against it will be a nightmare and that's before even factoring in the stat boosts you see giving ogre Pon a no drawback type changing signature move wasn't enough giving it a better version of protect wasn't enough giving it follow me wasn't enough they also had to give it stat boosts when it terzes let's break it down ogron has four masks and its ability and type changes depending on which mask it's wearing in the teal mask it's a pure grass type with defiant the Wellspring mask makes it a water and grass type with water absorb the Hearth flame mask a fire and grass type with mold breaker and the Cornerstone mask a rock and grass type with sturdy I rank the abilities as Define as the best and water absorb then mold breaker and then sturdy and the typings as fire then water then pure grass and then rock theant is the best ability allowing ogre Pond to boost its attack when any of its stats are lowered but this only works when it's wearing the teal mask now the teal mask is in contention for one of the best ones but there's three major drawbacks to it two of which we'll talk about in a second the main drawback we can talk about now is that Ivy cudgel is a grass type attack and wood hammer and Horn Leach are both good alternatives to it so it's less valuable as a grass Type move compared to fire or water water absorb is the next best ability healing whenever you would take a water move is great especially with uru Rapid Strike running around of course ogon wouldn't take much damage from water moves anyway with its water and grass typing but still one of the main drawbacks of this form is that neither water nor grass types can hit opposing grass and Dragon type Pokemon though the defensive benefits of water and grass do balance this out a little bit of the four forms I think follow me is best on this one then there's mold breaker and the fire form mold breaker is a weird ability that allows the user to ignore other Pokémon's abilities when it attacks them which won't come up super often but can still be very useful for example ogron can ignore the abilities of Disguise from mimikyu and flash fire from Heatran Heatran who would otherwise destroy fire ogon suddenly has to be very fearful especially if it ever terzes two grass ogron fire can't hit either fire or dragon types for neutral damage with this combination unfortunately but it's still strong offensively especially as fire hits The Grass bug and steel types that resist grass it's also worth noting that fairy moves from flutter man and Ice moves from chenow are both weakened by virtue of the fire type which is a pretty major deal and then there's overon rock with the sturdy ability Rock isn't a very good typing though it does synergize somewhat well with grass as the grass ground and water moves that hit rock types for super effective are all resisted by grass the thing is sturdy is kind of a waste of an ability most of the time ogron won't be getting one shot which is the only thing that sturdy even helps with in the first place that being said it isn't like this form is bad rock hits a lot of the types that resist or threaten grass and you gain a flying resistance which is nice against Tornadus it also gives you the ability to play a little more recklessly with ogre Pawn since you know you can't get one hit KO anyway and unlike the other masks which each have multiple types resisting their stabs only steel resists both Rock and grass but the abilities and typings aren't the only thing to consider when choosing which mask you want ogre Pond to wear you also have to consider what happens when ogre Pond terzes you see each mask can only talize into a single type but as a benefit of this restriction ogron receives a different ability when it terzes depending on the MK while these are technically four different abilities it's kind of just one ability with four different effects ogron will will lose its base ability and instead gain a sta boost when it terzes with the specific sta being raised depending on the mask steal mask gets speed Wellspring mask gets special defense Hearth flame mask gets attack and Cornerstone mask gets defense that means that at any point in the battle you can suddenly boost a stat of your choosing so long as you're willing to talize the two most impactful stats are speed with the teal mask and attack with the Hearth flame mask these boosts are massive for example with the teal mask you go from being slower than flutter man and chenow to outspeeding them and with the Hearth flame mask you can suddenly boost your damage not just with the Boost from tralization but also with a separate attack boost the defense boost is the least impactful of the four though in the right circumstances it can be valuable but the special defense boost of the Wellspring mask could make ogre Pawn incredibly difficult to take down which is especially annoying for a Pokémon with Follow Me Not only is pure water a great great defensive type but taking down a follow me Pokémon with a special defense boost is going to be tough as a benefit these boosts will reactivate if ogre pwn is switched out and in again so if you somehow lose your Boost switching ogre Pawn out will allow you to get it again later in the match I cannot stress enough how big a deal this stat boost is and how difficult it will make playing against ogre Pawn not only do you need to constantly be trying to play around follow me and spiky Shield you also have to consider that at any point the ogre Pawn could suddenly increase its speed and KO you before you move or get an attack boost and suddenly be picking up Kos that shouldn't seem possible of course as a player it also makes ogre Pawn extremely difficult to use should you use the teal mask the speed boost and defant are incredible but you lose some of the power of IV cudgel what about the Hearth flame mask the damage is absurd but if you're not careful you'll get outsped and KO not to mention you can only run four moves spiky shield and iy cudel are no brainers but now what if you fit follow me you probably want to Grass move as the last but that means no coverage or taunt for you what about a Swords Dance set should you value the speed of the teal mask or the coverage and bulk of the Wellspring mask there are so many additional decisions you need to make if you're using ogre paon that I think it's one of the highest skill stealing Pokémon that we've ever seen not to mention that in battle there is a very real drawback to terizing if you launch it too early you lose access to your other abilities imagine Hearth flame ogre Pond terizing to pick up a surprise ko. but then getting totally walled by Heatran because it gave up mold breaker there's so much to consider in a way that I don't think we've ever really experienced in a Pokémon before and despite all of this there's somehow an additional even more broken mechanic of ogre Pond that I haven't even mentioned yet let's do a quick recap ogre Pon has good stats an absurd move pool and four different forms each with unique typings face ability and a secondary ability when it terzes and for three of these four masks there is one more thing to consider when ogon wears one of the Wellspring Hearth Flame or Cornerstone masks all moves it uses do an additional 20% damage just like a flat damage increase across the board it is so much that Pokemon like U often run Mystic water which boosts only the power of their water type moves Alone by 20% life orb which gives a 30% increase cost the user 10% of their health every time they do damage and exra belt will only give you the Boost if you're hitting for super effective getting 20% on all your moves for free is almost Unthinkable and yet we have to think it because it's reality this is the final consideration to make when choosing ogre Pond's mask if you use the teal mask you can hold any item you want but you lose that 20% damage increase while I don't love how powerful ogre Pawn was made made I do think that it's a really interesting mix of tradeoffs personally I like the ability and Terra ability most of the teal mask but the typing and coverage of the Hearth flame mask using the teal mask gets you defiant and a speed boost but you have to give up Ivy cudgel's better typing and the 20% damage increase is there an item that makes that trade-off worthwhile I don't know yet but it's something that players are going to have to consider when I first saw ogre Pon I thought they did a good job of Designing a Pokemon that was relatively fair and balanced as I've learned more and more about ogre paon that feeling has continued to shrink until it disappeared into nothingness ogre Pond is an incredibly powerful Pokémon but it's also an extremely difficult Pokemon to use to me the question is not whether or not ogre paon will dominate competitive Pokémon because let's be honest it probably will what's more interesting is thinking about how players will stop this monster and which player will find the Innovation that allows them to push ogre Pon to its fullest potential