It's funny that Focus Band exists while also Bright Powder existing at the same time as they essentially have the same effect in terms of survivability

There was a octillery named octain that held on with focus band three times in an row. This was on a Japanese show called pokemon Sunday so it was pretty well known in Japan given that it happened on TV. That octillery was later given out as an event pokemon and had a unique model in the wii ware games

I, too, occasionally indulge in pondering my sticky barb

Metronome actually resets upon the move failing. So you need to play around every protect.

Another note on Metronome that makes it unviable (especially in VGC) is that Protect will reset the boosts

Big Root Yveltal was one fun set I ran back in USUM. It was pretty funny recovering 97.5% of the damage it dealt with Oblivion Wing.

This was always something I enjoyed doing in Gen's 3-6 where I would just look at all the fancy items at the battle tower facilities and just be mesmerized by the sprite art because they were "battle items" that couldn't be found in the overworld.

As someone who mainly plays singles, the starf berry has some minor potential. You can use it with pokemon with gluttony and recycle (like the elemental monkies) to possibly create an awkward moody-esque snowball effect. Still, you would be much better using berries you can actually play around with like liechi or petaya

Ability SHield can also prevent Mold Breaker Haxorus from sweeping through Unaware pokemon like Clodsire and Quagsire with it's boosts, where Mold Breaker would usually ignore Unaware.

8:58 it’s pretty funny to say the Float Stone is a worse Air Balloon because in the TCG, the Air Balloon is actually a literal worse version of Float Stone

the ability shield also blocks the effects of neutralizing gas as well, so in the pure hackmons metagame where anything can use any ability the ability shield is basically mandatory on anything not using neutralizing gas

With regard to competitive singles, starf berry has a niche in some of the lower tiers along with harvest (ability to restore consumed berries) and recovery, and in some generations sticky barb clefable has been a stall staple. Its a really nasty trick to take an enemy item AND put that enemy mon on a clock, no matter it's type.

I was gonna say, Black Sludge is still a nice option for poison types and is a mischievous surprise if you use Trick. But admittedly it's more of a gimmicky item and doesn't see as much competitive meta viability anymore.

A use I found for the utility umbrella is for when you have a pokemon that relies on synthesis, morning sun, or moonlight to heal. Rain will reduce it to a mere 25%, and the utility umbrella protects you from that. Also, I think it made hurricane miss me in the rain once?

Gotta say, the funny script and your line delivery + the editor having fun with visual gags (DON'T EAT THE ROCK) make for a very enjoyable and hilarious video. Great stuff, hope to see more videos with this style!

Focus band could be interesting with diminishing chances 90% at 90-100% health 5% at 1-5% health And everything in between

I actually brought an Apicot Berry Oinkologne to Hartford Regionals and it was super good. Stuff Checks for +2 defense and +1 SpDef from the apicot berry saved me in a handful of games. Don't ask what my record was though... I don't want to talk about it.

Metronome is actually good in Tera Raids cuz you don't want to be locked to a single move or lose HP with every attack

Got some niche uses for some items for you. Sticky Barb has a use for Tatsugiri who would use endure to live an ally clicking uturn/volt switch. This would bring out Dozo and the Tatsugiri holding the Barb will take damage at then end of turn in order to bring out the Coestar Flamigo. Utility Umbrella Amoonguss would allow it to dodge Hurricane in Rain as Hurricane would have its normal accuracy. Note Birghtpowder would not allow Amoonguss to dodge as Hurricane has perfect accuracy in rain otherwise. Float Stone can allow some pokemon to be lifted with sky drop where they would of been too heavy previously. Yea thats all with that. No mention on Ring Target? mind you the best use i found for it was a better "Bread" for Poltergeist as it would allow you to hit normal types with the move.

The starf berry is actually very underrated, i recently heard about a team based on it in gen 3 OU which uses a swellow to sub down to the activation range for the berry then it can either endeavor to effectively trade or baton pass to whatever mon needs the boost (so with a modern team you could pass def or sp.def bonus to like a cresselia, pass offensive boosts to a flutter or palafin and mabey pass speed to a brute bonet with booster for a really fast spore)

I’ve got an idea for a gimmick item: The Sticky Stone. -The opponent cannot remove it by any means. -However, the user can still Fling it, or give it to an opponent with Trick. Uses: -Foiling Choice Scarf Trick sets. -Nerfing Acrobatics and Unburden sets. -Allowing an opponent to get hit by a boosted-power Knock Off multiple times. -Making an opponent vulnerable to Poltergeist. -Leaving the opponent with an item that’s conditionally useful, while keeping their unconditionally useful item. Inspiration: -I was inspired by how Mail was used to foil Trick Scarves, so I decided to make an item like that. A very niche and gimmicky item, but it gets results.

A video on priority moves would be pretty cool

I feel the Utility Umbrella is better used as a hinderance item tricked onto the opponent rather than holding it yourself. For example if you're facing a sun team and their Torkoal relies on sun to survive a Rapid Strike Urshifu's water attack- if it was tricked to hold the Umbrella it would still take the full attack's damage (as the Umbrella neutralizes the sun's weakening effect on that water move). Not only that but you could also have a Utility Umbrella and then trick it onto your opponent's Chlorophyll/Swift Swim Pokemon to suddenly slow them down. Although in both cases just changing the weather yourself is way more consistent and a much better answer.

Ring target. What happened there?? “The holder's type immunities granted solely by its typing are negated.” Means the holder can be hit by a poison move if it’s a steel type or hit by a ground type if the holder is flying. I cant see how this can be used defensively at all and offensively it only works if you trick it onto something then hit that same target with a move it was previously immune to. Imagine if it was reversed and allowed the holder to hit a target regardless of its type immunity. Could use it on something like garchomp to hit flutter mane with dragon claw or corviknight with earthquake which would both be very relevant.

‘Do not eat the rock’ got a much bigger laugh out of me than I’d be willing to admit to my parents lmao

Just wanna say that your videos are SO addicting to watch, great job man

0:28 switcheroo bread is a legit strat. Never let them know your next move

i love how everyone just missed the sweet home alabama reference at 8:50 ,more like bro sis relation

It's interesting how they use focus band in pokemon unite, where in that game, when your hp is low, you recover hp to like, a quarter, which can help with escaping since you can avoid more moments where you almost get to safety but get snipped because you were left with low hp.

In actual defense of Big Root, last I checked it’s effect boosted the HP regain of Aqua Ring, so certain mons (Araquanid with Leech Life, for example) could hypothetically get a lot of recovery off of it. Still probably not worth using though

Ability Shield could be a decent niche pick if/when Weezing returns

A bit late, but back in 2014, my uncle brought a Heracross holding Heracronite to an event. The catch was that he didn't Mega Evolve it. At the time, my area had lots of annoying Scarf/Band Trick users. My uncle knew that if a Pokémon held a Mega Stone, it couldn't be removed in any sort of way. So he ran a Moxie set with Megahorn, Brick Break, Substitute, and Rock Blast (just incase he wanted to go Mega as a do-or-die effort.) He didn't get a good placement, but I loved seeing him think outside the box.

i actually used Binding Band Whirlpool Volcanion on a rain team in singles to trap and remove Water-types It was very funny when it beat a Toxapex

How dare you slander the absolutely OP item that is bread

I actually do remember liking sticky barb as a sorta niche damaging option in prankster trick plays. Since holding a sticky barb is not a status effect it allows you to do the damage over time thing without getting countered by abilities like poison heal or moves like facade that would benefit from you handing over one of the status effect orbs.

I used once gonlan berry. It was in doubles (not VGC, but I think it could be used in VGC). It was equiped in a pokemon with fling, for using it with your ally, a simple ability swoobat with weakness pollicy. In the first turn, the other pokemon used fling with swoobat and swoobat used calm mind, so in one turn, the swoobat was +4 attack, +2 defense, +6 special attack and +2 special defence, and then, spam stored power.

I do like Grip Claw on Altaria so it can get more Fire Spin Turns to setup Perish Song, but that's more of a testament to just how few good Perish trapping options available in singles. Does pair really nicely type wise with Flutter mane

Your binding band strat reminds me of my sand team in SS where I used a G-max Coalossal, tossed out Ttar (or Gigalith when Ttar was banned) and pretty much watch the enemy melt by just existing

kinda surprised no one thought to talk about the old ring target battle item (which basically makes the type holding it have no immunities) putting it on a pokemon with trick or switcheroo is super niche and gimmicky but it exists

My only "fix" for the defensive Berries would make them a bit broken, being to maximise their respective Defense. Obviously, these changes won't apply to other stat Berries, but for the defenses, it's for the sake of you actually being able to tank a hit...also, Stored Power with these hypothetical buffed Berries could prove monstrous-

I remember a gastrodon surf team with a driftblim that had the moss that got unburden boost…it was interesting

The Sticky Barb could be pretty good if it worked like a status effect so even if your opponent has an item it still applies and it was like a one time use item instead. Focus Band feels like it was designed for single player at least prior to gen 9 as having a pokemon use a Focus Sash in single player used the item up meaning you'd have to get a second one and a third then a fourth and so on. I'm curious about the Ring Target, it seems too troublesome to use even with Trick or Switcheroo

Imagine a TCG only player being telled that the float stone is the nichest meme ever created and a videogame only player being telled how float stone is cracked stuff that you should carry on if the format allows it. A Pokémon moment indeed.

I think the halved normal type damage berry fits here

I used the Ability Shield in the Tera Raid Typhlosion! My Daschbun had the ability Well Baked Body, was Tera Normal, and holding an ability Shield. Typhlosion couldn’t hit mean with any fire or ghost moves, so just earthquake hit me. Then I used Work Up, Helping Hand, Snarl, and Crunch. It worked really well! Took a while, but I barely took any damage. The ability shield was clutch because Typhlosion was trying to suppress my ability but couldn’t for the whole raid battle.

Shout out to heavy duty boots: one of the best items ever added to Pokemon that is completely useless in vgc.

If someone wins because of multiple Focus Band activations, I will post the “Unfortunate doesn’t begin to describe my series” speech.

I remember the Def and spDef berries being very niche in singles, it'd be for Harvest Synthesis/Gigadrain Exeggutor.

Absorb Bulb is also nice on rain with Ludicolo and Surf (VGC15) so i can see Luminous Moss playing a similar role

glad u mentioned ur playlist at the end of the vid imma do a rewatch

Ring Target is funny, because you have to trick it onto an enemy for it to benefit you, then its job becomes to help you KO exactly one of the opponent's pokemon, at which point the Target goes down with that pokemon. Seems silly unless you desparately need to support a choice sweeper that relies on ground/normal/fighting moves or something

Shell bell: so does this mean I’m useful everyone: Technically yes but actually no

I used binding band with Tangrowth and Alomomola (infestation and whirlpool) back in gen 6/7 ou, basically it gives passive mons a way to be threatening, especially if you have protect like alo Sticky barb as well, on trick clefable, basically consider it a stall disruptor when you use stall teams, even stuff like toxapex with regen will find the damage troublesome

I genuinely thought that the sticky barb on the thumbnail was Xurkitree's head

Starf Farigiraf was a thing for a little while before Cud Chew got nerfed Funny how you called Focus Band the younger sibling despite it being introduced a generation before Sash

Klutz: Finally, a worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary!

Good stuff Moxie!!

The only time I’ve used a metronome on a pokemon was to stack its boost with fury cutter to power it up faster.

I will say in singles sticky barb can be used to shut down unburden acro sets, so if thats something you're weak too its worth considering. Sticky barb trick gholdengo is actually pretty good cause whatever item you steal, gholdengo probably makes good use of it

"You're not gonna get hit by water type moves all that often." Oopsie scald's coming back.

Who up pondering they barb

As a draft player I have seen and used quiet a few of those before. What's also funny is that there is a niche where enigma berry is actually the item of choice. You may say sitrus/pinch berrys/lefties or weakness policy will always outclass it, however if you run a bulky set up psychic type like cosmic power/stored power/body press mew, odds are your opponent will use knock off after which enigma berry will still heal you, something none of the other berrys or lefties will do

Still putting out banger content dude . He does not miss

The Utility umbrella is likely referring to people who have Sunlight/Water allergies making the people who hold the umbrella capable of doing their everyday things but since these people get sick if they get into contact with Sunlight/Water due to their allergies their reduced movements and activity potential options the umbrellas added effect of halving the fire/water attacks while the other effect is in play also makes some sense.

If your looking for a Focus Band coming in clutch: Chuggaaconroy's pokemon emerald LP has a graveler proc focus band 3 times in a row. In the same turn, no less

I did some shenanigans with Teatime and Ripen, Starf Berry, Recycle Appletun in gen 8 doubles. Really slow, but it’s pretty funny when you get the boost you need and save your skin

Every time I see *that* long post, I always stop to read it in a fancy, melodramatic way. It gets a kick outta me each time

I was sure the Ring Target would pop up. The Ring Target will negate the immunities of the holder, so if an Aegislash held the Ring Target, then suddenly you can hit it with Normal, Fighting, and Poison attacks. I believe the thought process here was to pair it with Trick or Switcheroo so that the target will then have its immunities ignored, and maybe I can see it coming up in left field strategies. I mean, it's not like Lucario is going to catch Gengar on holding Ring Target with a Close Combat while Gengar goes for the Trick to let Lucario be hit with Toxic, but how much is a strategy like this going to accomplish?

Video ideas! One centered around making your favorite Pokémon work in competitive (within reason), maybe workshop teams submitted by viewers, or a series focused on competitive teams centered around the starters?

I would love to see a video on Little Cup bans! Some make sense like gen 9 dunsparce and girafarig but then you have others like cutiefly where i'm like "huh?" like i know there's a reason for it but i'd love to see what it's all about

Utility Umbrella should be changed to ignore all weather penalties, like there's an ability that already does that and a lot of abilities are made items, so it would make sense for it to be like that

Ability shield also protects from neutralizing gas which is arguably more devastating than mold breaker, since it also (1) prevents passive abilities from activating, and (2) lets the partner pokemon also benefit from the anti-ability effect. Though neutralizing gas isn't yet common enough to justify usage, it's entirely possible that if the meta shifts otherwise, ability shield could see some use too.

Apart from the Berries, Float Stone, Destiny Knot and that Luminous Moss, the other items can be used at some point for fun in other formats. In BHM I love to use Giratina with Pressure and Aerial Speel, but this is only possible with Binding shenigans for better efficiency.

I loved running Starf Berry on Harvest Appletun in SwSh... It was bulky enough I could sometimes get use out of it and recover so the defense boosts were useful. Over time it could gain quite a few boosts thanks to Harvest. It was more gimmicky than useful, but it was fun!

I dig the visual gags and how they aren't super pompous and that they don't overstay the welcome.

8:04 My OCD kicked in here. The focus band is a much less successful OLDER brother to the focus sash, debuting in Gen III.

Sometimes I forget how many item options there are. You see the same 10 or so, it’s easy to forget just how many options are available.

“the blender” is my favourite moxie video

the starf berry does have one use, in gen 3 ou singles, swellow can be used as a lead with a starf berry and baton pass on a team with mons that benefit from any possible stat boost, a fun strategy that leads to an interesting game for sure

Some of these have niches in singles but most of them really do make me think gamefreaks strategy for making good items is to just make everything possible and let us sort the good stuff out

Correction on the focus band (even though it don't really matter): is the OLDER sibling, came out in Gen 3, 1 whole Gen before sash

I actually had fun with an Apricot berry on a stally super large Gourgeist once in doubles. Protect, phantom force and leech seed let it get back HP fairly easily while I found the extra bulk really helpful.

Seeing the Ganlon berry from that angle made me realize it looks very similar to a like-like from Zelda, which could explain the name

My favorite thing to do with Ability Shield is to give it to a Pokémon with Sticky Hold. It may be less optimal than some other choices, but being immune to item changes and ability changes combined can be a little funny.

I could see ability shield being used on neutralising gas weezing team , to protect it from anyone else attempt to change its ability to something else, crippling their partner slacking and gigas

Focus Band is the older sibling, it's been around since Gen 2. Which really makes it look like Focus Sash is the more popular younger sibling, while Focus Band is the weird older sibling who likes to troll people.

Clefable is my favorite Pokémon so the thumbnail made me really happy.

The Ring Target is one, I think. Not that it can't be useful, but... For those who may be unaware, the holder of the ring target can be hit through immunities. So Ghost can hit normal, and electric can hit ground. But, the problems are these You have to be holding it to have an effect, so you have to trick it onto an opponent There aren't too many immunities in general It's like the effect of odor sleuth or foresight, but with a slightly wider range of attacks it affects, but without the removal of evasion or accuracy lowering. Why would you need to hit an opponent with a move they're normally immune to? You may still be in trouble even if they are not immune to any type. An electric type can hit a ground type, but you're still probably going to face stab earthquake if you're not careful. Maybe there's something else I'm missing, maybe it has an effect that does help, but like, it's a weird item that just, the situations that you're like "Yes, I will make my foe no longer immune to things" and for it to be actively important seems way too uncommon to me. There's like, ghost to normal, Fighting and normal to ghost, dragon to fairy, poison to steel, ground to flying, psychic to dark, and electric to ground. 8 or so immunities in the entire game or something (It's midnight so I may be forgetting some), you can probably find an easier way to work around those immunities.

Imagine holding a rock that instantly makes you 50% lighter

2:04 These also got powercrept by the Kee and Maranga Berries from Gen 6 are just better because they activate just as long as you get hit by the respective type instead of at a low HP Threshold. Maranga Berry is also hilariously a straight up better version of Luminous Moss as well since it's Luminous Moss but for all types lol.

Unfortunate doesn’t begin to describe my series I remember that wall of text from anywhere

Big shout out to the berries that cute individual statuses. Just use a Lum berry friends

I once ran an absorb bulb on a Manectric for a doubles team, and have my partner run surf to set it off. Usually a Pelliper, before abilities like drizzle got banned, bc that boosted thunder was fun.

Funny thing about starf berry and stored power combo is that it in theory would have been pretty powerful if gamefreak didn't "fix" cud chew. TLDR cud chew was apparently bugged to allow Farigiraf (and Turos) to eat the berry again every other turn instead the following turn the berry was used. So in theory you could have stalled out with Farigiraf with it having such a high base HP stat and access to wish while racking up stat boost to get a super powered STAB stored power. But as mentioned gamefreak "fixed" cudchew to work how it is described of reusing the berry the following turn which yeah can be good but preventing priority moves including prankster boosted one seems better than reusing a berry.

ZU ISNT READY 💯💨💨 Greedent (M) @ Ganlon Berry Ability: Cheek Pouch Tera Type: Ghost EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe Relaxed Nature - Stuff Cheeks - Body Press - Crunch - Body Slam

Muscle Band and Wise Glasses would be decent If Choice Band and Choice Specs didnt exist, even then, its up in the air.

8:34 He did not just use the lavos copypasta 😂.

In the balanced hackmons format, i use ability shield sometimes cause there is a strategy that sometimes surfaces with ghost pokemon with normalize and skill swap

I have seen utility umbrella being used once in a draft league where it was used against a mon that uses weather ball.

I know this isn’t a vgc thing but I know a guy who used Grip Claw Ledian in gen 6 singles to trap a passive Pokémon like ferrothorn with grip claw Infestation, Encore lock them, then SD up to max and BP into a Mega Pinsir who could Sub up and just break with return + feint lol . mind you the grip claw turns made the difference there because you could SD for a whole encore and then encore again lol