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I don't even need the thumbnail to know that Dark Void is the star of the show. Smeargle must pay for its crimes.

as someone that plays a lot of ou: it would NOT be cool if Dondozo had a trapping move. Getting locked on the field as Dondozo clicks curse over and over again to become an unkillable sweeper sounds like actual hell LOL

Bibarel back in gen 4 had 6 signature moves being surf, waterfall, rock smash, rock climb, strength and cut

I'd also like to mention that teatime (polteageist's signature move) is pretty bad as well, it makes everyone on the field eat their berries if they have one.

Ah yes sing, my favorite bug type move

Big oopsie on the powder section Also the patreon scroll broke my bad!

Signature moves are always fascinating because if a pokemon gets it, it can often define how they're used if it synergizes with their ability/movepool, while other times they're jsut. There.

One small correction on hisuian Goodra. It doesn’t run iron defense either. It instead runs acid armor, which has 5 more base pp than iron defense (8 after pp max), and 10 more than shelter (16 after pp max). It also is less likely to be available to Pokémon who learn imprison although that is rarely relevant.

Shoutouts to the generous patreon supporters such as As well as And specially For making this video possible

Darkrai didn’t deserve to catch strays just because Smeargle was copying its flow

9:53 they are not the same move, Kowtow is boosted by Sharpness, False Surrender isn’t.

In Gen 1, Waterfall was the signature move of the Seaking line. It was a worse version of Surf.

An interesting way to address H.Goodra's would be to make it a Protect-like move that buffed defense by 1 stage when attacked. Not sure how broken that'd be competitively but it fits the move's intended design a lot more than just being worse iron defense. Edit: Kinda like how King’s Shield drops the attackers attack

Goodra-H surprisingly doesn't learn iron defense, but that doesn't matter because it learns acid armour which also outclasses shelter

here's some other signature moves that are really bad: Triple Kick: the older and worse version of it's younger brother Triple Axel as it maxes out at...30 power if all 3 hits connect Glaciate: for being Kyurem's signature move it is incredibly underwhelming being a slightly stronger icy wind Relic Song: ...why bother running this on meloetta to make her change into a physical attacker, there's no point

Ever heard of camouflage? What do you mean no? You mean you never heard of Starmie's signature move? The one that changes it's typing to pure normal and was added 2 generations after it's debut? Look this up. This is real

As someone who loves Goodra and has it as their favorite Pokemon, I fucking despise what GF did to Shelter. They didn’t think of any other way to make it interesting. It’s literally just Iron Defense but WORSE

I wish powder was given more distribution. Giving it to something like Volcarona would be a cool way to mix up offensive fire types. I also need Gamefreak to change freeze to frostbite so bitter malice can achieve its full potential.

1:25 ah yes, because everyone knows how prevalent Steel types are in gen 1 OU.

There's also Primarina signature Sparkling aria, a decent move with 90 power and also a sound base move, but the problem is that Primarina would rather use Scald, Surf, and even Hydro pump for reliable water stab, sometimes it can use a niche option in Liquid voice Hyper voice, Sparkling aria is basically the opposite of Scald, healing burn instead, which is extremely dumb since normally you would want to cripple a physical attacker with a burn for easier set up or for a teammate to take advantage, and that's the reason why Sparkling aria sees no use for Primarina

Fun fact: Barrage is one of the best moves in Mystery Dungeon, it has really good range and damage.

They ruined parting shot by giving it to incineroar

some corrections: darkrai was accidentally referenced as a legendary, but i'll forgive this clamp was OP in gen 1 due to gen 1 weirdness(it prevented the opponent from moving while it was active), in a singles-only format, clamp can take down an opponent by sheer chance(wrap does the same thing) darkrai was technically legal in series [REDACTED],but we don't talk about gen 8's chaos formats. "powder" was accidentally shown as sing with sing's accuracy, though that one is hilarious because both have equally low usage.

Octazooka is one i remember from the top of my head that was missed. Horsea and grapploct got it later tho

"Damn, I forgot to put Spore on my Smeargle. Maybe I'll get matched against an Amoonguss round 1 so I can Sketch it mid-battle."

just to shed some light on the gen 1 moves, both multi hit moves and trapping moves have some very unique mechanics back then. multi hit moves basically have a hightened crit rate (since if any one of the hits crits they all do), and trapping moves like clamp actually prevent the opponent from moving or doing anything. when cloyster clamps something it can't switch and just sits there as cloyster repeatedly clamps for good damage, and clamp is unique for being way stronger compared to the other trapping moves. if you get the full 5 turns and don't miss then clamp is a 175 power move with no drawback, which can easily put things in range of blizzard or hyper beam

erm, actually (yeah, I'm gonna be that guy). H-Goodra doesn't learn Iron Defense per se, but instead Acid Armor (which still has more PP than shelter, I was just being a nuisance lol)

LETS GO SPIDOPS GANG SILK TRAP A GOOD MOVE!!!!!

I think Spicy Extract is a pretty strange one. Scovillain's signature move which lowers the target's Defense by 2 stages but raises their Attack by 2 stages as well As a midspeed mon, Scovillain struggles with both using this to boost an ally before the ally attacks or using this to cripple an opponent before your ally attacks them. Scovillain itself can hardly make use of the Defense drop given its physical movepool is terrible (its vest Fire stab is Fire Fang) In general this move feels incredibly situational. Would have good synergy on a Opportunist mon and it does sorta combo well with Foul Play but in general its a pretty weak move that does not synergize with anything else on the pretty weak pokemon it comes from

Ideas for Revamps Kinesis: Lowers the targets evasion and makes it so the following move will always hit (like Lock-On, except it works for ally's moves). It keeps its low base accuracy as a tradeoff. Clamp: Increases the users Defense for every turn used, boosts wear off when the effect ends. Payday: Deals double damage if the user is holding an Amulet Coin or Luck Incense, or if Happy Hour is in effect. Powder: Affect both opponents, also increases damage taken by Fire moves (like the revision for Tar Shot). Shelter: Sharply increases Defense, increases Special Defense, and lowers Speed. Fillet Away: DRASTICALLY (three stages) raises the users Attack, Special Attack, and Speed. (Z-Sketch was pretty good) Also, some moves you didn't mention (with upgrades) Vital Throw (Machop, Gen II): Reduced priority, cannot miss. (+ If the user took damage, deals a critical hit.) Camouflage (Staryu, Gen III): Changes type depending on arena/terrain. (+ Increases Evasion by one stage.) Triple Kick (Hitmontop, Gen II): Attacks three times in a row (+ Damage increases with each consecutive hit.) Shift Gear (Klink, Gen V): Sharply increases Attack and increases Speed (+ Doubles the damage of Gear Grind.) Glaciate (Kyurem, Gen V): Inflects damages and (+ sharply) lowers both opponents Speed. Fire Lash (Heatmor, Gen VI): Inflicts damage and lowers the targets Defense (+ Has a heightened Critical Hit ratio.) Noble Roar (Litleo, Gen VI): Increases users Attack and Special Attack (+ If the users stats were lowered this turn, sharply increases users stats.) Aromatic Mist (Aromatisse, Gen VI): Increases Special Defense of ally (+ user).

In a world where Crabominable existed, Ice Hammer is definitely in the underwhelming camp. A retyping of a pretty mid move.

Some of these moves, especially the gen 1 ones, were meant to be early-level moves when they don't even have a full moveset yet. Even if it's just a copy of a different move or a plain worse version of other moves, they add some flavor to the opponents you fight throughout the storyline.

"False Surrender" is such a cool sounding name though.

Ooh I got one: Twin Beam, the move that Girafarig learns that's required for it to evolve into Farigiraf. It's cool that it hits twice, but it's unfortunately an effective 80 base power, which basically means that no one is using it over Psychic or Psyshock

What about purify, pyukumuku's signature move (heals your partner's status condition, which is both extremely niche and extremely low value plus it requires you to run pyukumuku), freeze shock and ice burn, kyurem black and white's signature moves (140 power 90 accuracy charge move with a 30% paralysis or burn chance, minor upgrade over sky attack but terrible for the same reasons), rolling kick, hitmonlee's signature move (60 power, 85 accuracy, 30% flinch chance, which is a straight-up downgrade from stuff like iron head, air slash and icicle crash) and shell trap, turtonator's signature move (150 power fire move but that requires you to get hit by an opponent's physical move to activate, generally a downgrade from counter since it has a type meaning it can be resisted, and if you want fire stab there are way more reliable options)

Since you forgot some signature moves: Fairy Lock, Eerie spell, Night Daze, Snap Trap, Meteor Assault, Ice Burn Some not sure abt: Magic Powder, Trick-or-Treat and Forest's Curse, Freeze Shock (Kyurem B had no physical Ice moves than it for some gens), Spin Out, Doodle and Spicy extract, Bitter Malice

i love the parallel with the crabrawler's iron defense vs the goodra shelter, very well done!

This dude really just winning, he got good aim, good hair, good voice, W mans

loved seeing all the patrons and the end card at the end of the video!

TIL Veluza had a signature move...and how to say its name.

2:27 of course Kinesis worse than Sand Attack, nothing beats pocket sand

9:42 funny u mentioned the whole kowtow kleave and false surrender being the same concept literally- so much so I combined them into one unique move for both of them in my rom hack 💀 and used false surrenders animation for a widespread dark recoil move

Literally how did you miss splash? Now even though it's literally useless, it did however was used in swsh vgc where it surprisingly became useful

Lmao you got me with sketch, well played well played

I'm kinda sad you didn't bring up how partial trapping works in gen 1 when talking about clamp

A potential proposal for how to fix shelter: make it have the effect of iron defense... while removing the user's dragon type for the turn, allowing it to resist fairy type moves for the turn. this being because hisuian goodra hides in its metal shell, meaning that probably wouldn't be hit as though it were a dragon-type.

Shellter can be cool if it has the same pp as iron defense and lowers it speed, making it better in trick room strategys with body press.

I'd love to see a video on how you'd re-balance type match ups for generation 10.

8:59 Torkoal: “Do it, make my Eruption *stronger!”*

Video on all signature moves

make barrage a grass type scale shot with spdf drops and speed increase

If that tar shot change was in game then Tailwind tar shot eruption or heat wave would crazy

If they wanted kinesis to be more interesting, they could change the move to essentially be a one turn mimic. Where the user gets to select a move from their opponent and use it against them as a psychic type move.

I don't even play pokemon anymore and you still make this topic very interesting.

The answer to why they still nerfed Dark Void to 50%: because it still massively sucked in these formats that *did* allow it, there are doubles formats that aren't VGC; heck thing was toxic even in singles. Easy as that

note: it said sing not powder for the descripton of the move powder

In gen 1 clamp works in a different way: if you use it the target will not be able to take an action during the next turn (so it will not be able to attack or switch) This is actually really strong because it can be used in two different ways, either be spammed until the target is in range for being koed and then killed (it can't switch) or as a sort of U-turn (you hit something and you give a safe switchin to one of your partners). So yeah, in gen 1 it is actually a really good signature move

Farigiraf's signature move Twin Beam is so close to being good, if it was 5 bade power stronger it'd be Psychic That Breaks Sashes, but its just weaker than Psychic on a Pokemon that doesnt hit very hard.

this could've been changed i guess but i'm playing x right now and goomy can learn curse and acid armor as an egg move making shelter literally useless lol

6:53 “Sing 55 accuracy. If using a fire move, target loses 1/4 HP.”

Any signature move that has good flavour is a “good” signature move, because even if it’s bad in competitive, then at least it’s funny. In my casual playthrough of Shield, I had fun with doubles strats in Raihan’s gym. My Polteageist’s Teatime triggered my Ripen Appletun’s Salac Berry, and later I used a Decorate Alcremie as well 😁

6:55 you called powder "sing"

I'd love for you to talk about Smogon Doubles OU ngl

The problem with clamp is that the JP name is literally “to clamp with shells” so it can really only be used by shell smash users

Clamp was an awesome move in gen 1 back when the Trappers meant your opponent did not get a turn

Hey I actually used Tar Shot Smeargle on a Ho-Oh team this Regulation. Was fun

dont forget that in gen 8, darkest lariat became a tr that grimmsnarl could learn, which is slightly stronger than false surrender, same pp, 100% accurate, and ignores stat changes, which would include evasion boosts. Like it literally just had a better option in every way (ig itd be better if grimmsnarl had its accuracy lowered, but muddy water never hits its fine)

alright Dark Void, take a seat.

Didn't finish the video yet but This Thumbnail Goes CRAZY ASF, like usual

Hey Marcos. Where does Trick-or-Treat or Forest's Curse land on this list?

Shocked that twineedle didn’t make the list

Surprised that Purify wasn't mentioned. I've never seen a pyukumuku click that move ever.

Pay Day should be buffed to Normal physical make it rain… or even just 60 BP spread to use technician

Clamp was actually amazing in gen 1 since partial trapping moves stopped the opponent from moving and even allowed you to switch in for free if you landed it on the previous turn, acting as a hybrid of a flinch move and U-turn

Shell Smash only cuts the user's Defences to 2/3, not 1/2

2:04 of course it isn’t cutting it, it doesn’t exist anymore.

I think you could maybe forgot the signature mov of scovilian

honey wake up moxie boosted dropped a video

Signature moves are funny sometimes because nowadays Game Freak really wants to make every Pokemon unique by giving them, or signature abilities, to every 2 or 3 Pokemon. But then the old mons just... get nothing? And when they DID go back to older mons? ...Gen 7 came up with Toxic Thread for Ariados, and Fire Lash for Heatmor (which got de-signatured next gen with Salazzle and Centiskorch anyway). Take it or leave it.

How I would improve some of these signature moves (besides simply increasing the move’s power or accuracy) -Powder, turn it into a field effect, turning it from a move most effective if you are able to make a read that your opponent is going to use a fire type move, into a move that pressures the opponent into not using any fire type attacks -Shelter, either give it more PP than Iron Defence, have it increase Defence stat by +3, or having it increase Defence by +2 and Sp. Def by +1 -Fillet Away, setting Attack, Sp. Attack, and Speed to +6 might be a little too op, it could set those three stats to +4 each instead if that’s more balanced

Octazooka is a move that exists

6:49 wtf

Correction: Hisuian goodra actually doesnt get iron defense, but instead gets acid armor as an evolution move from sligoo, which has max 32pp instead of shelter or iron defemse's 16

I cant believe you didnt mention thunder cage, but i wouldnt blame you if you just forgot it exists because really who remembers that regieleki has a signature move

It's absolutely terrible in comp, but Pay Day is top tier in Emerald Rogue. That's a Roguelike hack where money is in short supply, and fainted mons get dropped from your team, taking any TMs, tutor moves, and held items with them. Being able to rebuild can be the difference between wiping to a Gym Leader or not, and Pay Day lets you farm a meaningful chunk of extra money without risking your team against trainers. And if you do beat some trainers, you'll be ballin out of control and can slam Mints on everything while stockpiling important TMs (like Protect for your 4x weaknesses). I'd legitimately rather start my run with a Meowth holding an Amulet Coin than with the likes of Mega Mewtwo, because the extra money from Pay Day is just that good for your whole team on your whole run.

Me when chilly reception and syrup bomb aren’t even mentioned

unpopular opinion: Dark Void can have it's accuracy buffed back up to 80 because it's currently hard coded to fail unless Darkrai uses it and Mythicals are never VGC legal. Heck, Smeargal can't even Sketch it anymore as of Gen 9. As for other moves: - if Kinesis lowered Accuracy by 2 stages, that 80 accuracy would be justified - Barrage is trash. Needs to be buffed and made grass-type like you said. - Clamp got nerfed due to the changes to trapping moves that were implemented in Gen 2 onwards. In Gen 1, running it on Cloyster was not bad since Cloyster couldn't learn any other trapping moves, and trapping moves were busted in gen 1. I think it's fine as tbh, but when you have the perfect accuracy trapping move of infestation which was a TM, all other trapping moves kind of fail in comparison - Powder is trash. not worth using - I like Tar Shot, but it is pretty niche and not very useful. I think the change you made makes sense - False Surrender got done dirty. lol - Shelter is disgusting in Legends Arceus, but in the mainline games it got done dirty - Triple Dive should of got the Triple Kick treatment were it gets stronger on each consecutive hit - Filet Away is just Belly Drum at Home

Random note, i wish that shelter was a protect variant

Darkrai payed for smeargles sins

It also gets acid armour

As a Raichu boi, volt tackle is one of those moves that makes me scratch my head. It's an AWESOME move. Except, it has recoil. That would normally be fine, but for pokemon as squishy as the Raichu line, it's not really a good choice unless you have some kind of healing setup. I know that moves with a power of >110 must have drawbacks, but like. I feel that decreased accuracy and crash damage would be a better fit for it.

Does sparkling Aria have VGC use? I figured it was just worse than anything else.

Who's up Smelling they Salts rn (no one because the move is garbage, Hariyama why?)

I guess you would never use smelling salts on hariyama but you nailed the rest

Y’all remember magic powder?

A couple of reworks that might help: 1. Make shelter recover hp or increse the Evasiveness. 2. Make filet away give a +3 or +6 to the stats. Not needed the +12 that belly drum gives because that is too broken

Wicked blow

Kinesis should be a freeze dry type move, dealing super effective damage to steel types. Alakazam can bend spoons so it makes sense that he’d be able to bend steel with this move.

They could’ve made Shelter raise defense by one and heal like aqua ring instead of just a worse iron defense