Metatube
  • 14 hours ago
Some of the coolest Pokemon ever are Ground type - but which one is the strongest?

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Transcript
00:00What's the best ground type Pokemon? I want to know. You want to know. Good news, we're going
00:04to find out together. I think ground type Pokemon are cool because although it's not the single
00:08best type or probably even a top three type, ground type Pokemon are consistently good. So
00:12I feel like there's some real classics on this list here. Normally I start these videos telling
00:16you how hard the list was to make, but this one was actually pretty easy. There were only about
00:1910 ground types that I was even considering for this list and they range from pretty good in a
00:24niche context to some of the best Pokemon of all time. So it was actually pretty easy to put
00:28together. We'll start at the bottom of the list and work our way up to number one. So the Pokemon
00:31will get better as the list progresses. Also, I know what you're thinking and it's probably that
00:35my hair is really stupid, but I was up late working on the world's video and then I showered
00:39late and then I went to bed because I was really tired and now it looks like this. Okay. And were
00:43there solutions to this problem? Yes. But did I find them? No. So I don't want to read any comments
00:48about it. Anyway, let's talk about the number 10 best ground type Pokemon, Nidoking. Nidoking?
00:53Nidoking. Nidoking. Nidoking. I don't know. For viewers familiar with competitive Pokemon,
00:59you might be a little surprised to see Nidoking on this list. It's not a Pokemon that often pops
01:04off. In fact, it's a Pokemon that really doesn't see that much play in most formats. However,
01:08it does have some things going for it and under the right conditions, it was very strong. Nidoking
01:12isn't a very powerful Pokemon, but it compensates for this by also not being very bulky. The thing
01:18is, although it's not exceptional in either dimension, it's also not very fast, but all this
01:22is okay because all of its stats are also okay. Like none of them are terrible. It's all like
01:26middle of the pack. The reason why Nidoking is on this list is because it has some things that
01:30it does really well that are somewhat unique to it. See, ground types as a whole are really heavily
01:35geared towards being physical attackers. It's similar to fighting type Pokemon, where most of
01:39the Pokemon of that type tend to be better as physical attackers than special. Nidoking is one
01:44of the exceptions. Although it doesn't have a super high special attack stat, it's able to use
01:47its ability to make itself stronger. Sheer Force is an ability that powers up all moves that have
01:52a secondary effect, but takes away that secondary effect. This is valuable on Nidoking because
01:56almost all of the moves that it wants to use have a secondary effect. And for the most part,
02:01these secondary effects are only like happening 10 to 20% of the time. So you don't really mind
02:05giving them up. Sheer Force is a really good ability because it has a weird interaction with
02:09the item Life Orb, which also gives a power boost, but then causes the user to lose 10% of their
02:14health every time they hit something. What's weird about Life Orb and Sheer Force is that when
02:17you have both Life Orb and Sheer Force on the same Pokemon, and you use a move that has a secondary
02:22effect, you don't take the recoil damage. For some reason, the damage that you would take from Life
02:26Orb counts as a secondary effect of the move from Sheer Force. This might be a little confusing,
02:31but basically you get double the benefit for none of the cost. Nidoking is an especially good user
02:35of Sheer Force because it has a really weirdly deep move pool. It gets moves like Flamethrower,
02:41Ice Beam, Thunderbolt. Like, I don't know why a ground and poison type Pokemon is able to use
02:45these moves, but it's able to use a ton of weird moves that don't match either of its typing. Also,
02:50I kind of alluded to this earlier, but just to say it out loud, it's really hard to get ground type
02:54attackers that are also special attackers, because almost all of the good ground type Pokemon are
02:58physical. So Nidoking being able to be a source of ground type damage that's a special attacker,
03:02while also having valuable coverage moves, is really valuable. Poison also became much more
03:07valuable after X and Y because of the addition of fairy typing. So having a poison type to resist
03:11fairy and also to hit fairy type Pokemon for super effective damage was really valuable.
03:15All of this combined to make Nidoking a special attacking Pokemon that was able to resist key
03:20threats and hit key threats for super effective damage, while also providing special damage in a
03:24way that not a lot of other Pokemon could kind of substitute for. And this resulted in it getting
03:28second place at an international championship in 2018. Nidoking also got second place at a
03:33national championship back in 2012, so it saw a little bit of longevity across formats, though
03:38this was pretty much the extent of its success. Our number nine Pokemon has had a lot more success
03:42than Nidoking has, and at one point was even one of the dominant forces that players were using.
03:46It's Rhyperior, the evolution of Rhydon. Now, Rhyperior was used a little bit back in Black
03:51and White and X and Y. It actually got second at nationals back in 2013 in the last year of Black
03:562 and White 2, and then placed fourth at a national in 2014, the following year, the first year of X
04:01and Y, but neither of these finishes are so remarkable that it would earn its place on this
04:04list on its own. The real reason Rhyperior is here is that it was one of the best Pokemon during Sword
04:10and Shield's initial few months. Rhyperior was kind of perfectly positioned to just take advantage
04:15of all the unique conditions surrounding the earlier part of Sword and Shield, and it resulted
04:19in it being an extremely threatening Pokemon. Here's what you need to know. First, Sword and
04:23Shield introduced Dynamax, which allowed a Pokemon to double its HP pool and powered up all of its
04:28individual moves. Rhyperior was a good Dynamax attacker for a couple of reasons. First, it has
04:33the ability Solid Rock, which causes all super effective damage to do less damage than it would
04:37otherwise. This is a big deal when you double your HP pool because even though Rhyperior has
04:41a couple of quadruple weaknesses, it has really good natural physical defense and a decent HP
04:46stat, and so when you're tuning down super effective moves and you're doubling how much
04:49health you have, it becomes really difficult to get rid of. Rhyperior was also able to take
04:53advantage of the fact that Dynamax powered up your moves. Of course, all Pokemon benefited
04:57from their moves getting stronger, but Rhyperior was able to take advantage of it for other reasons.
05:01As a Rock-type Pokemon, it wasn't able to use any moves that are 100% accurate. This is a fun fact
05:07many of you might not know, but pretty much all of the Rock moves worth using can miss. There are a
05:11couple exceptions, but moves like Rock Slide, Meteor Beam, and Stone Edge are some of the most
05:16prevalent ones, and they all are inaccurate. So first of all, Rhyperior could not only get a
05:20damage boost, but it could also not miss. The other advantage, though, was that each Dynamax
05:24move gained a secondary effect, and both of Rhyperior's secondary effects were really valuable.
05:29The Rock-type one set up the Sandstorm, which not only overwrote your opponent's weather conditions
05:33and did a little bit of damage to your opponents every turn, but it also makes Rhyperior tankier
05:37on the special side, which is its far lower defensive stat. Max Quake also just gives both
05:41Rhyperior and its partner a special defense boost, again making them much harder to get rid of.
05:46Rhyperior is also very slow, which made it a very good Pokemon to use in Trick Room where slow
05:51Pokemon move before fast ones. The last piece of the puzzle that I've kind of buried the lead on
05:55here, though, is the item that Rhyperior would hold. It's the Weakness Policy, and it doubles a
06:00Pokemon's attack and special attack stats after they've been hit by a super effective move.
06:05This not only has incredible synergy with Solid Rock, which again weakens opposing super effective
06:09moves, but many players would actually activate their own Rhyperior's Weakness Policy on their own.
06:14This not only has great synergy with Solid Rock if your opponent ever hit Rhyperior with a super
06:18effective attack, though many people would actually just activate their own Weakness Policy.
06:22Dusclops was the most popular partner, and it could use moves like Bulldoze or Brick Break to
06:26attack its own partner Rhyperior, doing basically zero damage because Dusclops is so weak, but
06:31doubling Rhyperior's offensive stats. I used this combination to get second place at a regional
06:35actually back at the beginning of Sword and Shield, and it was really, really dangerous. It had a ton
06:39of success. All these factors combined to make Rhyperior one of the best Pokemon when Sword and
06:43Shield first released, and the fact that it had a little success outside of just Sword and Shield as
06:47well definitely convinced me that it should be on this list. I learned a fun fact recently that I
06:52thought was a little bit surprising. According to researchers at Dark Cat University, subscribing to
06:56the WolfyVGC YouTube channel can actually make you 10 to 15% more attractive on average to
07:01strangers. Now, I was as surprised as you probably are to hear this, but I figured I would pass it
07:05along because yeah, this is really groundbreaking stuff. Researchers also found that there are other
07:09benefits to subscribing as well, such as telling YouTube that you want to see more of this content
07:13and supporting the channel as well as everybody who works on it. Anyway, if you don't like hearing
07:16about it, I'm sorry. I'm just a messenger. You can take it up with the big cat. Coming in at number
07:20eight is a Pokemon that's actually a world champion, Mamoswine. Mamoswine not only won
07:25the world championships back in 2013, it also won multiple regional championships during Black and
07:30White. That being said, the world's victory was over 10 years ago, and Mamoswine hasn't had a ton
07:34more success since then. That's being a little bit kind about it. It really hasn't seen any usage
07:39since then, so that's the reason why despite being a world champion, it's not higher on the list.
07:43That being said, being a world champion is a really big deal. Mamoswine was able to win worlds
07:47despite not being very popular or really even used at all in 2013 because of a combination of its
07:52typing and its stats. There were a lot of flying type Pokemon during the last year of Black and
07:56White's competitive scene, one of which was Thundurus, who was just a nightmare to play
08:00against. Thundurus was used as this incredibly disruptive support Pokemon that really focused
08:04on just paralyzing all of your Pokemon and making them unable to move. Mamoswine was kind of
08:08perfectly positioned to deal with Thundurus because not only was it a ground type Pokemon making it
08:13immune to all electric type moves, but as an ice type Pokemon, it was also able to threaten the
08:17flying types back. Thundurus, Landurus, and Tornadus were all very popular this year and
08:21they were all hit by the ice type moves, but Mamoswine's coverage was also able to hit many
08:24other meta Pokemon as well, like Heatran and Tyranitar with its ground type moves,
08:28and Amoongus with its ice type moves. Mamoswine was also fast enough that with a choice scarf,
08:32it would outrun most of the popular Pokemon in the format, allowing it to attack them for
08:36big damage before they could move. Again, it wasn't very popular at the time, I think the
08:40Worlds Mamoswine was the only one I saw all year, but it was so well positioned that it was able to
08:44win the World Championships. Now even though Mamoswine hasn't been good for a while, I do
08:48think it's worth noting that it could be good again at some point if the conditions were right
08:51again, because it received a pretty major buff, I think in Sword and Shield, though it might have
08:55been in Scarlet and Violet. Mamoswine's primary ability that it used to use was Thick Fat to
08:59reduce damage from fire and ice type moves, but recently its Oblivious ability was buffed.
09:04Oblivious was not a very useful ability before, but now it prevents a Pokemon's attack from being
09:09lowered via Intimidate, and Intimidate is very popular. It's the main way that you reduce the
09:14damage from physical attackers, so being immune to it as a physical attacker is a pretty big deal.
09:19Now this buff didn't take Mamoswine to being meta-relevant at all, but I think that it could
09:23again in the future be good in part because of this buff. Our number 7 slot is another Pokemon
09:28that's won the World Championships, Krookodile. I really like Krookodile, I think it's a funny
09:32Pokemon and its name is fun to say. Now Krookodile is above Mamoswine because not only did it win the
09:37World Championships in 2017, it actually got second at the World Championships in 2011 as well.
09:42On top of that, Krookodile was a great Pokemon throughout 2017 and a bit of 2018 as well,
09:48actually winning multiple regional championships. Now I'm not gonna sit here and tell you Krookodile
09:51is like the strongest Pokemon of all time, it's really just a Pokemon that can shine when the
09:55power level is lower because there aren't stronger alternatives around. But some competitive rulesets
10:00do ban a lot of the Pokemon out and so in those formats, Krookodile has been able to shine.
10:04Krookodile is a ground and dark type Pokemon who is primarily used with the Intimidate ability,
10:09which as I mentioned before, is just one of the most valuable and versatile abilities in the game.
10:13Krookodile has decent stats, it's not unbelievably bulky, but it's bulky enough,
10:17especially with Intimidate, that it probably isn't gonna go down to one hit. And it's not
10:21so fast, but it's fast enough that it can kind of play in this middle speed tier,
10:24and it's decently powerful. I wouldn't say that dark is an incredibly synergistic type with ground,
10:29but it is just nice to have a secondary type so you get a couple more resistances and you get more
10:33offensive moves. One of the reasons why Krookodile was used a little bit in 2017 or 2018 was actually
10:38because it was a really good Pokemon to pair with Eevee. Eevee was given a signature Z-move,
10:43which we can't show you because it will flag copyright because it was shown in a trailer,
10:46but basically this Z-move doubled all of Eevee's stats. Now Eevee couldn't really use these stats
10:51very well, so what it would do is Baton Pass to give the stats to another Pokemon. Krookodile
10:55was a prime choice here because not only was it immune to Prankster moves because of its dark
10:59typing, but it also was able to use the move Power Trip, which is a move that starts out
11:03very weak but becomes stronger the more stat boosts you have. With Eevee passing Krookodile,
11:07I think 10 stat boosts, Power Trip would KO pretty much any Pokemon in the game.
11:11Krookodile is another Pokemon where I think it can only come back when the power level is
11:15significantly lower, but it does have enough going for it that I think it wouldn't be shocking to see
11:19it perform well again in the future. That's a little different than our number 6 Pokemon,
11:22which is a Pokemon that is actively still getting results today. It's Excadrill,
11:27a ground and steel type Pokemon. Now, Excadrill's never won the World Championships,
11:31but it did place top 4 in 2012 and top 8 in 2013. It also had multiple national top 4s during the
11:37black and white era, it got a first and a second at nationals in 2015, it won nationals in 2018,
11:42it was really good in 2020, and most recently, it won a regional just a couple months ago.
11:47So what makes Excadrill so good? First, steel is just a great type to have, it's good offensively
11:51against fairy types which can be a real problem, but it's mostly good defensively, giving the
11:55Pokemon a ton of resistances. The real reason that Excadrill is so good though has to do with
11:59its stats and its ability. Excadrill has a high attack stat, allowing it to do big damage,
12:03and it's reasonably fast, but it really becomes scary when the sand is up, thanks to its ability,
12:08Sand Rush. Excadrill is pretty much the only Sand Rush Pokemon that has ever been relevant.
12:13Sand Rush doubles a Pokemon's speed in the sandstorm, and doubling your speed stat is a
12:17pretty big deal. There is an ability like this for every weather condition, but whereas there's
12:21multiple good Pokemon to choose from when it comes to sun or rain, sand, you pretty much just have
12:26Excadrill, which is okay because Excadrill is really good. Because it has such a high attack
12:30stat, and ground and steel have pretty decent synergy together, it's a very threatening Pokemon
12:34when you're facing down against it in the sand. It can also buff its own attack stat with Swords Dance
12:38if you ignore it. It's also nice because even though it has two types, and Tyranitar also has
12:42two types, and between them they have the three types that are all immune to sandstorm, there's
12:45no typing overlap between the two, which is nice because Tyranitar is far and away the best sand
12:50setter, so you're able to use two Pokemon and get four different types out of it. Even though they
12:53do overlap a lot in their weaknesses, you're still not overlapping on your typing. This is the
12:57main way that Excadrill has been used over the years. It's an offensive, fast sand rush attacker
13:01where it often holds the Focus Sash item, which requires two hits to knock it out. It can come in
13:05when the sand is up and finish off low HP Pokemon, or threaten flinches with Iron Head or Rock Slide,
13:10or just big ground type damage. But it's not the only way that Excadrill has been used. Let's say
13:13you want to run Excadrill, but you don't want to use sand on your team. Well, Excadrill has another
13:18very useful ability, Mold Breaker. This allows it to ignore the abilities of other Pokemon,
13:22which mostly takes the form of ignoring Levitate so you can hit Pokemon like Rotom with your ground
13:26attacks, but also allows you to hit Pokemon like Mimikyu, ignoring their disguise. This was one of
13:30the main sets that people ran on Excadrill during Sword and Shield, again, when Dynamax was first
13:35released. And that's because Excadrill was one of the best Dynamax attackers in the game. You
13:39already know that Max Quake, the ground type Max move, raises your team's special defense,
13:44but Max Steel Spike raises their physical defense. In other words, even though Excadrill is such an
13:48offensive Pokemon, it was able to boost both of its teammates' defense stats while also outputting
13:52huge damage. And even though Excadrill doesn't have phenomenal bulk, when you double its HP stat
13:57and start giving it multiple boosts in its defense stats, it becomes really difficult to get rid of.
14:02It also had incredible synergy with Togekiss, who was probably the best Pokemon when Sword and Shield
14:06first released. Togekiss was a very threatening support Pokemon who could flinch your Pokemon
14:10with Air Slash, redirect attacks with Follow Me, and even put Pokemon to sleep with Yawn.
14:14Because Togekiss was an actual flying type and not a levitate Pokemon,
14:18it was also immune to ground type moves like Earthquake coming out of Excadrill. And it could
14:22also Dynamax itself if it wanted, using flying and fairy type Max moves to do big damage and
14:26raise its team's speed. These two had incredible synergy, and they were on a lot of successful
14:31teams when the game's first released. Now that Dynamax is gone though, Excadrill's back to being
14:35a Sandrush attacker. It most recently won a regional, even though it wasn't thought to be
14:38a top threat, when paired with Pokemon like Tyranitar, Indeedee Mail, and Sneasler. It's
14:42a Pokemon that I think will always be good, unless they invent a Pokemon that's basically
14:46Urshifu but Extradill for me, which hopefully they never do. Coming in at number 5 is a newer
14:51addition to the games, Ursaluna. There are two different Ursaluna forms, but I'm lumping them
14:55together here at number 5 because they have the same Pokedex number, and I think it's weird to
14:58split a Pokemon like this up. Anyway, Ursaluna is one of the strongest Pokemon to come out of
15:02Scarlet and Violet, and it has some of the best results of any Generation 9 Pokemon, which is
15:07funny because it wasn't even legal for most of the first year. Let's talk about what the different
15:10Ursalunas do. Both forms share some things in common. They're both Ground and Normal type
15:14Pokemon who are relatively slow and hit really, really hard. Regular Ursaluna uses the Guts
15:19ability, almost always when paired with the Flame Orb item, to give itself a 50% power boost and
15:24make it immune to all other status conditions. This is a big deal because Ursaluna as a Normal
15:28type is able to use the move Facade, a move that starts out pretty weak, but doubles in power if
15:33it's affected by a status condition. Combining the status condition, the boost from being a
15:36Normal type, and the boost from Guts, turns Facade into one of the single strongest attacks
15:41in the entire game. It's even able to chaos super tanky Pokemon like Amoongus in a single hit.
15:47Ursaluna also makes use of its Ground typing, as it can use both Earthquake for spread damage,
15:51and Headlong Rush. Headlong Rush is a newer move that is incredibly powerful,
15:56but lowers both the user's defense stats after it hits. This is effectively Ground type close
16:00combat, and given that Earthquake also hits your partner, it's a really good option because it
16:04not only does immense amounts of damage, but it also gives you access to a Ground type move that
16:08doesn't miss, and also doesn't attack your partner. Ursaluna Blood Moon plays a bit differently.
16:12While it's also a slow damage dealing bear, its stats focus instead on it being a special attacker,
16:17which again is hard to get as a Ground type. It gets a signature move called Blood Moon,
16:21which is just... stupid. It's a stupid move. It's a Normal type move that's pretty much as
16:25strong as Hyper Beam, and never misses, and the only downside is that you can't click it two
16:30turns in a row. This really isn't that big of a downside because Ursaluna Blood Moon has other
16:33great moves, like the always consistent Earth Power, and Hyper Voice which hits both your
16:37opponent's Pokemon. Normally the way you'd get around a strong Normal type attacker is to use
16:41Ghost type Pokemon, but Ursaluna Blood Moon has a signature ability called Mind's Eye,
16:45which not only allows it to ignore the target's evasion changes and any accuracy drops on its own
16:50end, but it also lets Normal type moves hit Ghost type Pokemon. Both Ursalunas have had a ton of
16:55success, and it's cool because we've seen them used both as Trickerm attackers, and as Tailwind
16:59attackers, and as Hybrid attackers, actually being used in both Tailwind and Trickerm on the
17:03same team. They both output tons of damage and are really hard to deal with, and for players
17:07who are really good at positioning them, can basically just win the game on their own. Because
17:10they are so strong, they've also seen success both in the highest power level formats and the
17:14lowest ones. I think that as long as Ursaluna is put into Pokemon games in the future, it will
17:19continue having results. And personally, I hope that I never have to deal with Dynamax Ursaluna
17:24Blood Moon. Okay, here's where things get really interesting on this list. There are 4 remaining
17:28Pokemon in the main portion of this list, and each of them has won the World Championships not
17:33once, but twice. Every single Pokemon remaining has exactly 2 Worlds wins, and so ranking them
17:39was a little bit tricky, but in the end, I found an order that I really like. Let's start with
17:43number 4, Gastrodon. I guess Gastrodon technically also has 2 forms, just like Ursaluna, but
17:49because they have the same stats and are only cosmetic differences, I'm not going to talk about
17:52them separately. Sorry to all the pink Gastrodon enjoyers. Anyway, in addition to being a 2-time
17:56World Champion, Gastrodon is also a 3-time International Champion. Gastrodon's interesting
18:01because while a lot of the ground type Pokemon on this list are offensive Pokemon that just aim to
18:04blow their opponents up with ground type damage, Gastrodon takes more of a supportive role. It's
18:08got really respectable natural bulk, allowing it to stick around, especially with a defensive item,
18:12but the main draw of Gastrodon and the reason why it's a 2-time World Champion has to do with its
18:17ability. Stormdrain is a really powerful ability. It not only makes the user immune to all water
18:22type attacks, but it also draws them in, acting as a pseudo-redirection for any single target water
18:27attack. This means that if Urshifu Water tries to attack Gastrodon's partner, it'll be redirected
18:31into Gastrodon, do no damage, and give Gastrodon a special attack boost. For this reason, Gastrodon
18:36really shines when there are powerful water type Pokemon who are dominating the format,
18:40but Gastrodon still has some use even when the opponent isn't using water type attackers.
18:44Ground is such a solid offensive type that Gastrodon is able to put consistent damage
18:48out with Earth Power turn after turn, especially since it's so hard to get rid of it. It's not a
18:52Pokemon that you're often relying on for one-hit KOs, but it is a Pokemon where it can gradually
18:56chip your opponent down over time. It also learns the move Ice Beam, which has really good synergy
19:00with Ground, since it's the grass and flying type Pokemon that Ground isn't able to hit.
19:04Ignoring Gastrodon can also be dangerous for other reasons as well. During Dynamax,
19:08one of the best disruptive moves was Yawn, which causes a Pokemon to fall asleep unless
19:12they switch out. Switching out your Pokemon can range from being not a big deal at all to
19:16not even possible, but in Dynamax, you really didn't want to switch. You couldn't get rid of
19:20Dynamax with pretty much anything. Moves like Roar and Whirlwind didn't work, and there was
19:23really only one very cheesy strategy that you could use to force your opponent to give up their
19:28Dynamax. But if you hit a Dynamax Pokemon with Yawn, they'd be forced to either stay in and fall
19:33asleep the next turn, wasting their Dynamax turns, or switch out and finish their Dynamax turns and
19:38not be able to get full value out of it. Because Gastrodon was so tanky and it has two different
19:42immunities, it was one of the best Yawn Pokemon during the Dynamax era, and that's part of the
19:46reason it was able to win Worlds. It was also really good during the final year of Sword and
19:50Shield, because Kyogre was a very popular Pokemon, and Dynamax Kyogre could only use single target
19:55water attacks. Basically, if you had Gastrodon on your team and your opponent Dynamaxed their Kyogre,
19:59they wouldn't be able to use their strongest moves. Ground and Water also have decent coverage,
20:03because Water is only weak to Grass and Electric, and Ground type Pokemon are immune to Electric
20:08type attacks. Ground is also weak to Ice and Water, both of which Water resists. This results
20:13in a type combination that only has one weakness to Grass, though it is a quadruple weakness.
20:17Although Gastrodon doesn't have the best stats, its ability and its movepool and its typing and
20:21its coverage all combine to make it a very threatening Pokemon, and I'm not shocked at
20:24all that it won Worlds twice. And I think it's a Pokemon that can always pop up, especially when
20:28there are strong Water type Pokemon around. Okay, before we talk about the top three,
20:32let's talk about some honorable mentions. These will be quick. Number one, Tinglu. This is the
20:35Pokemon that I was the closest to putting on this list. It was really good during Regulation C of
20:40Scarlet and Violet. I think if it has good performances in future years, I could definitely
20:43put it on here, but it really was only good for one format so far within Scarlet and Violet. And
20:48after the real Pokemon became legal, like Urshifu and Incineroar and all these other really powerful
20:53Pokemon came back, Tinglu just hasn't had any results. I think it definitely could make it on
20:58here in the future, but for now, not present. I wanted to mention Rhydon here. Actually, Rhydon's
21:03best performance at the World Championships is better than Rhyperior's. It made it all the way
21:06to the semifinals in 2013. This is because Rhydon actually has a decently high attack stat and with
21:10the Eviolite item, it's very bulky. And that year in particular, like I said, Thundurus was
21:14incredibly dominant and was paralyzing everything. And Rhydon could use the Lightning Rod ability,
21:19which is the Electric type version of Storm Drain to make its partner Pokemon immune to all Electric
21:23type moves. And that was really valuable that year. Another honorable mention is Zygarde.
21:27Zygarde is a restricted Pokemon, which is definitely interesting. It's only legal during
21:32a couple of rulesets every couple of years. And it's definitely not super dominant, especially
21:36because it's not that powerful, but it is really tanky, especially in its complete form. It's
21:40really hard to get rid of. It saw a bit of success. It was used with like Coil sometimes to set up its
21:44attack and defense stats. And sometimes you'd use it like Tapu Fini next to it and you'd activate
21:48the Misty Seed to make it really bulky. It was annoying to get rid of. It was definitely strong,
21:52but I didn't think it deserved its place on this list. Nidoqueen I actually initially had over
21:56Nidoking on this list before I checked the results. It has a couple results. It's similar to
22:00Nidoking except it's a little weaker, a little slower, and a bit bulkier. So just a different
22:04trade-off. It's basically just an alternate skin of Nidoking. And then lastly for the honorable
22:08mentions is Marowak. Marowak also was used in the top eight of the 2013 World Championships.
22:14Similar to Rhydon, it's a Lightning Rod user that again makes its partners immune to Electric type
22:18moves, which was very valuable back then. And it hits a bit harder than Rhydon because it can hold
22:22the Thick Club item, which doubles its attack stat. That being said, it hasn't really seen a
22:25lot of success outside of its Alolan form. And its Alolan form is a Fire type and Ghost type,
22:30so it's not relevant here. Okay. Now all that we have left is the top three best ground type
22:34Pokemon. Number three will shock you, I have a feeling, because number three is Garchomp. Now
22:39Garchomp is an incredible Pokemon. I don't think anyone's surprised that Garchomp is on this list.
22:43The real question though is why is Garchomp not higher? And that's because the Pokemon above it
22:47are really, really good. Garchomp is also a two-time world champion and a six-time national
22:52and international champion. It's pretty clear that it is the strongest non-legendary ground
22:56type Pokemon. I guess spoilers for what comes next. Garchomp is fast, strong, and relatively
23:01bulky, with good typing and multiple good abilities to choose from. Early on in VGC's
23:05history, it was often paired with Tyranitar because of how good Sand Veil is, Sand Veil
23:09giving all moves a chance to miss when the sand is up. Back in Black and White, sand never ended,
23:13it was just permanent weather unless your opponent overrode it somehow. And Garchomp
23:17has good enough natural bulk that it often took two or three different hits to get rid of it.
23:20And every time you attacked Garchomp, you had a chance to miss. Given that Garchomp is so strong
23:24and so fast and so good at putting out damage, missing two or oftentimes even one move against
23:29it could cause you to fall too far behind to recover. Nowadays though, Garchomp tends to use
23:33the Rough Skin ability more often because it often works as a standalone Pokemon rather than one
23:37paired with Tyranitar. Rough Skin isn't as insane as Sand Veil is, but it is more consistent because
23:42it always activates when the effect triggers rather than Sand Veil, which only activates,
23:46you know, 20% of the time. And also it's really good at breaking focus sashes. And if you don't
23:50have sand on your team, then you don't really want Sand Veil anyway. The main thing that makes
23:53Garchomp so strong is how fast it is and how strong it is. It definitely doesn't have the
23:57same stats as some of the, you know, new power crept Pokemon, but it is really good and really
24:01consistent. And it's faster and stronger than a lot of Pokemon that tend to be used within a
24:05format. The real number you want to be above often is base 100. That's like where a lot of
24:09Pokemon tend to fall and most formats prior to Scarlet and Violet, like back in the day.
24:13And with the speed stack, Garchomp was great at just outputting consistent damage. Dragon also
24:17has good synergy with ground offensively because for a while, the only type that resisted Dragon
24:21type moves was Steel and Steel type Pokemon are weak to ground. Now we have Fairy type Pokemon
24:25who are immune to Dragon moves, but ground is at least still neutral against them. So it's not
24:29awful. Garchomp's main weakness is its quadruple weakness to ice and the fact that it has stats
24:33that were really broken for a fourth gen Pokemon, not a ninth gen Pokemon, but overall it's able to
24:37work around these weaknesses somewhat well. It is a Pokemon that has struggled a lot in recent years.
24:41Power creep has not been kind to Garchomp and it has trouble keeping up with some of the most
24:45broken Pokemon that they're releasing nowadays. That being said, Garchomp just had a major
24:49resurgence because in the rule set following last year's world championships called Regulation H,
24:54all legendary Pokemon were banned and all paradox Pokemon to boot. With many of its main threats
24:59removed, Garchomp had an incredible string of performances, winning multiple regionals,
25:02getting second at multiple regionals, and being overall one of the staples of the format. It was
25:07able to take advantage of one of the newer tools added to the games, the clear amulet,
25:10which prevented its attack stat from being lowered primarily via intimidate. I do think that power
25:15creep has not been kind to Garchomp and when all of the Pokemon are available, it's a Pokemon that
25:19probably can't keep up, which is part of the reason why it's not higher up on this list. The
25:22Pokemon above it absolutely can still keep up, but I do think that in formats where the power level
25:26is lower, we'll definitely be seeing more of Garchomp. Okay, top two, and they're both legendary
25:31Pokemon. My guess is that some of you probably expect that the number two Pokemon, Landorus,
25:35was going to be the number one, but it's not. Just like Ursaluna, Landorus has two forms and
25:39I'll talk about both of them here. Actually, also similar to Ursaluna, they both share typing and
25:43one is a physical attacker, one is a special attacker. The most infamous one, of course,
25:48is Landorus Therion, who for a while was thought to be the best Pokemon of all time. In addition
25:52to winning worlds twice, Landorus Therion also got second at worlds twice and has won six national
25:58and international championships. Landorus Therion has a ridiculously high attack stat, in addition
26:03to good natural bulk and a respectable speed tier. It feels even bulkier than it actually is
26:07because it gets access to intimidate, which again is one of the most versatile and generally useful
26:12abilities in the entire competitive game. It's also one of the best intimidate users because of
26:16its stupidly deep move pool, which I really don't understand. Landorus gets great coverage moves like
26:21superpower and knockoff, but it also gets U-turn, which causes it to not only do damage, but also
26:26switch out. U-turn is an incredible staple of its move pool because it allows Landorus to switch out
26:30while also doing damage and scouting for what the opponent wants to do, and this allows it to get
26:34off the field while still doing damage, which then in turn allows it to reactivate intimidate later
26:39on in the battle. U-turn is also decent as a coverage move because although Bug isn't a very
26:43strong offensive type, one of the main Pokemon that countered Landorus for a while or was supposed
26:47to counter Landorus was Cresselia, who's a super tanky Pokemon that's immune to ground type moves
26:52and can learn ice tape moves, which Landorus is weak to. That being said, Landorus can do good
26:56chip damage to Cresselia with U-turn while also keeping itself safe thanks to its higher speed
27:00stat, making it much harder to pin the tiger down. Ground and Flying also have really good offensive
27:05synergy together, since ground type Pokemon are unable to hit grass and bug type Pokemon for
27:09neutral damage, both of which are weak to Flying, and Flying's not very effective against Steel,
27:13Rock, and Electric type Pokemon, all of whom are weak to ground. Of course, this is less of a big
27:17deal because Landorus doesn't learn really any good Flying type attacks, but that's not so much
27:22of an issue because it's able to use Flying type moves with Z-Max and then Dynamax and now
27:27Terrestrialization. Landorus Incarnate was certainly never as dominant as Landorus Therion, but it was
27:31still very powerful, and it actually got second at the World Championships last year. It also has
27:36two national wins and a handful of regional wins. Landorus Incarnate I think is the best ground type
27:41special attacker of all time. This is because, similar to Nidoking, it gets the ability Sheer
27:46Force. With Sheer Force, Life Orb, and its much higher special attack stat, Landorus Incarnate can
27:51output tons of ground type damage that can't be slowed down by Intimidate. It was certainly never
27:56as dominant as Landorus Therion, but it was still a good Pokemon in its own right, and it actually
28:00had a ton of good performances last year alone. I actually think that last year it probably
28:03outperformed Landorus Therion on the whole. Landorus and Landorus are certainly two of the
28:08best ground type Pokemon of all time. But the best ground type Pokemon of all time is Groudon.
28:21Groudon is a two-time World Champion, placed second at Worlds twice, and has eight national
28:26and international wins. He's the Don. But what you have to understand about Groudon is that although
28:32it has pretty much as good or better results as any other Pokemon on this list, it's only legal
28:37for a fraction of the time. Groudon is a restricted Pokemon, and restricted Pokemon are only legal
28:42during very specific rulesets. I started playing competitively in 2011. The first year that Groudon
28:47was legal after I started playing was 2016. For contrast, Landorus was legal every single one of
28:53those years that Groudon wasn't, and Groudon still has better results. Groudon also technically has
28:59two forms. It has its regular form and its primal form, which was similar to Mega Evolution but more
29:04broken, if you can believe that. Primal Groudon was insane. It gained the fire typing, which caused
29:09it to only have two weaknesses, two ground and a quadruple weakness to water. But its ability,
29:13Desolate Land, turned the sunlight to primordial sunlight, which caused all water moves to
29:18evaporate and do zero damage. So effectively, if the primordial sun was up, Primal Groudon only had
29:24one weakness. Primal Groudon has some of the best stats of any restricted Pokemon ever.
29:28It is ridiculously tanky, it hits super hard, and it even has the option of being a special attacker
29:33because it has a respectable special attack stat. It has a signature move called Precipice Blades,
29:37which is kind of Earthquake for gamblers. It's higher risk, higher reward. It can miss,
29:42unlike Earthquake, but it's much stronger, and it doesn't hit your partner. Primal Groudon also has
29:46ridiculous synergy with Xerneas, who at the time was the single most threatening restricted Pokemon.
29:52As a fairy type attacker, Xerneas's moves were only resisted by fire, poison, and steel type
29:57Pokemon, all of whom are weak to Groudon, every single one of them. Steel's actually weak to both
30:02of Primal Groudon's types. Primal Groudon and Xerneas were the most threatening restricted
30:06duo in all of the years that they were legal, and they won the majority of tournaments,
30:10by far the most out of any restricted pairing. But regular Groudon is no slouch. It won the
30:15World Championships in 2010, and got second at the World Championships in 2022 as well.
30:19Groudon was probably the second best restricted Pokemon behind Zacian during Sword and Shield,
30:23because it not only worked as a Dynamax attacker, becoming incredibly tanky,
30:27resetting its own weather if it went down with fire moves, and making its team more
30:30specially bulky with Max Quake, but it also enabled Gigantamax Charizard, who was probably
30:36the most threatening Dynamax attacker. Gigantamax Charizard was able to do unholy amounts of damage,
30:41often picking up one hit KOs even on Dynamax Pokemon, but it was only able to do this if
30:45the strong sunlight was up. The combination of regular Groudon and Gigantamax Charizard
30:49dominated for most of Sword and Shield during the year that it was legal,
30:52and it only just barely didn't win the World Championships.
30:55Now it is worth noting that Groudon was legal during Scarlet and Violet's first restricted
30:59format, where you were only allowed to use one restricted Pokemon, and it didn't really have
31:04many good results. It was used as like a niche option here and there, and it certainly was
31:08threatening, like it was a Pokemon that players were aware of, but it was not in the top seven
31:12best restricted Pokemon. I think this is in part due to power creep, I think this is in part due
31:16to the fact that it doesn't currently have access to its primal form, and I think it's because
31:19there's another restricted Pokemon that can set the sun up, which is much faster than Groudon.
31:23That being said, I would never count Groudon out, and I'm sure that it will certainly have
31:27a resurgence at some point in the future, especially if it ever gets its primal form back.
31:31And those are the 10 best ground type Pokemon. I actually did another of these videos recently,
31:35where I talked about the best ice type Pokemon, so if you enjoyed this one, you should check it out.