Pieces of oddly specific, but fascinating competitive history like this are the reason I love this channel

Actually the speedrunning community knew about this long before the competitive community did. Still interesting to see such a shift in the meta.

I think the extra fascinating thing about this is that the reverse has happened in Gen 2, with Golem becoming super popular and Rhydon falling off a lot. This was a really great explanation!

What's the most crazy thing about the Body Slam discovery is that they TOLD us in Pokémon Stadium 2. There's an Academy in the game where they cover changes from Gen I to Gen II, and there's a bit there where they tell us that in Gen I moves couldn't status Pokémon of the same type, but in Gen II they can. They use an Electabuzz getting paralysed by Thunderbolt to demonstrate it, which the game explains wasn't possible before in the original games. So they kind of did tell us and there were probably people out there who knew about Body Slam and normal types because millions of people had that game!

You only touched that point on the surface, but this seems to be yet another case of a Pokemon that had uses in a high tier (OU), but is unviable in a lower tier (UU). RBY UU doesn't have the demand for a bulky normal resist the way OU does, so Golems main use just wasn't needed. This is similar to Quagsire and Gastrodon having their uses in OU and even Ubers despite being RU/UU/PU by usage. Before the Body Slam discovery, Golem had enough usage to stay in OU, but once it droped, it went almost straight to NU because it was way worse in UU than in OU.

Kinda interesting that Golem wasn't good in UU despite being OU for most of RBY. Goes to show how different two metagames in the same generation could be.

The most interesting part is that Stadium 2 told us about this so-called hidden mechanic in the Gen 1 games long ago.

Request: Why is Quagsire so... Quagsire? It's a Pokemon which has consistently been a lower tier lifer, yet somehow always found ways to finagle its way into viability in many, many tiers, including even Ubers.

I remember reading something on the smogon forums about how its impossible to catch a perfect IV geodude in gen 1, and people were debating whether trading one from gen 2 would be allowed. I never did find out the conclusion of this.

Golem hit rock bottom.

slight correction - Chansey and Snorlax WERE already on every GOOD competitive team in 2014, it's just Reflect was rarely seen and chansey didn't run seismic toss. Also the rhydon/golem debate wasn't as clear cut in golem's favor as you make it sound, some players were already adamant Rhydon was better even back then. I think the meta would have EVENTUALLY shifted to Rhydon anyway given enough time and new players, since looking back, rhydon might have always been better. I was a diehard pro-golem guy back then and after using the same pokemon since 2003 it was hard to convince me to change my mind. I think a lot of players were like that, stuck in the mindset of using the same Pokémon since the beginning, and It took the metagame shifting hard for players to finally switch.

Could you maybe do a video on dugtrio? Specifically how it went from OU in Gens 3-6 to untiered in Gen 7 and 8. I don’t think there’s been a fall of tiers that bad since lucifer.

Kinda weird how just a discovery of a one line code can change a competitive's game entire strategy.Damn

I like obscure and intricate trivia facts like this, I find them more interesting than the ones that can be summed up with "the mon is broken" like why was Dracovish or Greninja banned, altough the way you explain in extreme detail what part of their kits make them so good in their metagame is very good too

I was so confused about the "discovery", so having it finally explained was nice. Amazing video

Make more videos on gen 1. It’s the most interesting generation mechanically and not many are educated on it due to how different it is

Hyper Beam skipping the recharge after a K.O. needs to come back.

RIP Golem. whenever i played casually, i always had Rhydon on my team, because Golem required an in game trade, which was too much of a hassle. plus you can catch Rhydon fairly commonly in Cerulean Cave in Pokemon yellow version, which is a great place to save your game, and catch a whole bunch of Rhydon, and try to find one with that 15 attack DV

Thanks for this, used to browse Smogon over a decade ago and Golem used to be OU, so I was stunned to see that on a revisit, it had dropped all the way to NU.

You never stop with the niche stories/metagame explainations! Keep it up bro. Love the content

I sincerely love how abruptly these videos end.

Worth noting, while what was said here is the reasons it dropped to NU, it's not a bad pokemon in OU. It's not the easiest pokemon to use but if you know how to, it can still be a great addition to a team.

You are doing a great job on those short informative video's, i really enjoy them. You have earned my sub man.

Yeah, it's a weird but unique thing in gen 1, where pokemon can't be given a status by moves of the same type as them. I honestly think it should be something that could be brought back as it'd be a nice little interesting thing to add on top.

That's fascinating! Thanks for sharing

Man, you discover 1 little immunity, & everything just spirals out of control, & it all comes tumbling down. Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

Golem is pretty good in NU though. Its stats are pretty high for the tier and NU has this problem were every fire spinner in the game is in the tier and they are really good and most of the good water type are in the upper tiers you can make a half your team consist of just fire spinners and the other half just to counter what fire is weak too and have a really good chance at winning. fire spin should be banned from NU honestly

I'm gonna be honest. I don't actually play competitive Pokémon. At most maybe some random team battles occasionally. But I've still grown to love this channel. The videos are short (although I wouldn't mind longer ones too) so I always feel like I can watch it whenever, they're also just interesting. I think that mainly lends to the way its presented, not just the info. You could definitely make a video saying this information, and have it be very boring. But their videos somehow always balance that line perfectly, of being pretty niche and nerdy, but still avoiding being boring!

Having started to play in 2017 in gen 1 ou specifically, watching the metagame legitimately shift in the last few years has been wild, considering how golem/Rhydon were still treated as somewhat interchangeable even then.

I love seeing the waves the bodyslam change made with the community. Its really fascinating and adds alot to RBY's storied metagame.

I love how decades later peope can still discover things about pokemon. People might complain about its' code being held together by duct tape and bubblegum but we still discover new stuff all the time. Its amazing. I doubt theres many other video games that have undergone this level of scrutiny

Well, never seen any of your videos before but I love bites of history or lore, and this shit was a good watch. Subscribe earned.

2:28 "It shouldn't be exploding early" good one there

Snorlax: "See me as I am, no longer afraid of anything!"

It's super interesting how metagames can change so far after the games were released! I've never played Gen 1 (or any of the remakes tbh... don't look at me like that), so this certainly comes as news to me!

I knew golem usage dropped over time, but I didn't realize this was the reason. Cool vid.

Yay, you used my suggestion!

An intresting additional note is that fire types are infact not immune to burn inately in generation 2 only that they cant be burned due to sharing a type with fire moves which cause triattack to be able to burn fire types in generation 2.

I love how the both things looks unrelated at first, but once you explain, make sense. How a simple discovery ruined Golem's career.

Literally my favorite Pokemon in the entire game. I had one in Pokemon Leaf green that straight up beat half my older brother's team. We were kids but up until gen 8 I ran Golem in every team I played. (Note, I only play monotype)

Great video, as always. I recommend you to have a tiny outro, the ending always seems a bit abrupt

It’s amazing how taking a shortcut in programming can have such a heavy effect on a game. I believe the reason Body Slam doesn’t paralyze normals and such is a side-effect from them making Ice, Fire and Poison types immune to their respective statuses. Instead of taking the time to specifically code each type, they just made a “types can’t be statused by moves of their same type,” not thinking about moves like Body Slam or Tri-Attack that have statuses without being associated with their expected types

Love this kind of content

My man's speedrunning youtube algorithm 30k almost already

Can you do a video on what determines the available formats on Showdown? Like is there a reason they still don't have an anything goes or national dex format for doubles?

I love how different gen 1 is

Welp, golem got grounded.

Golems world got turned on its head. What a discovery.

0:30 I'm subbed & chill voice

hey, i saw you were using the random battles addon but mine doesnt work. do you know why?

I’m always amazed by the math that goes on competitive play

I like how it took Smogon until 2014 to realize the paralysis quirk of Gen 1 when Stadium 2 basically tells you this and the speedrunning community knew about it well before lol

This is only on Smogon / RBY cartridges / ROMs, though. In Stadium, Golem should retain its usage, right?

This is my goto channel for my competitive daily dose.

The weird part of no one ever knowing this is that the EXACT thing abuot normal types being immune to para by T-wave is in stadium 2's classroom mode in one of the lessons there.

LOVED THIS VIDEO

To be fair though...If rhydon didn't exist it might still be used up there right? So it is just the case of a pokemon being completely outclassed rather than fundamentally trash (yes I count them as two separate things.)

Ohhhh... Amazing how the mecanics can change to turn GEN 1 glitch into a new meta. I have no words.

Love this video.

Yeah, I remember old false swipe gaming videos talking about how it was it or rhydon and then nowadays its always just rhydon

3:05 Don't you mean "Butterfree effect"? ...Okay, I'll see myself out.

If you're open to taking suggestions: something I'm wondering is why Scizor went from being an all-time great from Gens 2-7 to being projected to drop from SwSh OU soon. (It's still great in BDSP OU, though.)

Insane that wasn't discovered until 2014, I just replayed Red and saw that plastered all over Bulbapedia, that's so funny.

It bugs me that this is considered a discovery when Pokémon Stadium 2 literally tells you that this was a mechanic.

Wait how was this bug _just_ discovered, I noticed RNG seemed to fuck me over on my body slams after my 7th playthroguh (and I'm just a casual fan) and by 2007 (I don't know I found this out from) I knew about the bug. And a lot of other Pokemon Red Blue Yellow bugs. If I'm just a causal fan, how did I know about this bug a decade before the competitive players?

Ok now thats just depressing.

1:15 what was that "wah" there?

I'm having fucking flashbacks to Gen 1 Netbattle battles taking forever because of Paralysis 20+ years ago... my Gen 1 competitive trauma is a LIE!

I may be wrong but I think pokémon Stadium 2 had this info mentioned, and probably Stadium 1 too

Crazy but such a mechanic in Gen 1 makes sense it feels like it would have some immunity thing to the type if T Bolt can't Para Elec.

0:32 cool tauros nickname

Oof, yeah that's a HUGE drop. Time makes fools of us all isn't usually supposed to mean that but for Golem it sucks super hard.

Is there a reason why people say that SD/Explosion HALVED the enemy’s defense instead of IGNORED or PIERCED half of it? Did the enemy somehow become twice as vulnerable to physical hits if they survived the blowing up? Edit: I’m a dumb dumb and forgot to add in the “half” part after ignore/pierce

Why didn't Snorlax and Chansey use Reflect before this change?

fun fact: initially after the discovery golem WAS considered better than Rhydon by a long shot

You know, this drop was so sharp... You would think there was some sort of power behind it, assisting Golem to be the best it could be. *and then one day, it didn't answer.* Nothing but glitch noise...

Is this true for Pokémon Stadium, too!?

One thing to note, golem still has a niche in OU because explosion isn’t awful, it’s just not quite as valuable. So it still has some use.

Man Gen I was so weird

As the last OU Golem user, I think its higher Speed is also worth mentioning since it will beat Rhydon in the 1v1 scenario. Still, doing better into 1 mon at the cost of worse performance into the rest of the tier outside of Explosion is a tradeoff I think most people don't want to make. Ultimately when people see a mon get dropped from OU they just assume its "become useless." Golem is still a genuinely strong Pokemon in the right situation, same with Victreebel and Lapras (the latter of whom I think is much worse than Golem in competitive OU). But I can certainly understand why people would be less receptive to it with Rhydon as its competition.

There has to be at least one guy who figured out the body slam quirk back in the 90s who now feels extremely vindicated that it took over 15 years for everyone else

That's incredible tbh

you should check that on the first battle simulator lol

That is absolutely insane to me. Golem was always a huge powerhouse in the gen 1 meta game and honestly in a lot of respects was just better than Rhydon. Now it can't even hold it's own in UU because it can't deal with the water types. Insane.

Only ohko on alolan muk with eq and outspeeds in let’s go. Fun fact. It’s why I run gaze on my team just for that

It’s so wild to me, how long this actually went undiscovered. I noticed it within days, when fighting Lorelei. During long stall battles between snorlax and her Lapras with bodyslam, I was like „damn, that’s odd“.

Wait if you’re just playing RBY on cartridge body slam can’t paralyze normal types wow that’s crazy

wait....normal types were immune to body slam paralysis???? i legit thought that was the only thing that could harm everyone (baring Gastly line because body slam couldn't hit them). huh. I'm glad stuff like this can be discovered 25 years later.

It would be cool if Body Slam's chance for paralysis was based on weight. A Chansey Body Slam would have little chance. A Snorlax Body Slam would be almost guaranteed.

I thought they knew this awhile ago...

This was a big uff

I think this discovery occurred so late because, pokemon effectiveness and status was a thing after gen 6 when Electric Types can't be paralyzed and Grass Types nullifies powder moves. Who could think Gen 1 had this type of stuff lol

I know this vid is old but I think it might be prudent to point out something. In gen 1 no pokemon will be affected by a status condition if they are the same type as the move. If an ice type move could burn it would not burn ice type pokemon and if a ground move could posion it wouldn't affect ground types. It just so happens that the only moves I can think of that would ever do this is body slam and tri-beam. Both of these will not affect normals but can freeze/burn/paralize ice/fire/electric types respectively as the move itself is normal type

I would never know that lol

there's something else that people found out about the RBY mechanics that was also never implemented in simulators You cannot catch a 15/15/15/15 pokemon in RBY iirc

Ok this one was actually cool af

I guess this means a new golem video is due on False Swipe Gaming. Heck, I wonder what this change did to tauros in gen 1.

This doesn't make sense. So the Body Slam paralysis thing was discovered in 2014, yet Golem dropped only in 2019? Was this information gatekept or why is there such a massive gap between the two events?

Could you talk about Gen 1 Porygon?

U can say that rhydon was rock solid