Shadowing Practice: How a Route 1 Bug Pokémon Became a Champion - Learn English Speaking with Video
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1
Let me tell you a story. I have a feeling it might be familiar.
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You're a kid, and you're playing your first Pokémon game ever, Pokémon Blue.
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You've picked a starter, nabbed a few rats and birds, and then about halfway into Viridian Forest, something happens.
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Your newly acquired Caterpie is bathed in white light, as you stare, transfixed, as it transforms into a Metapod.
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Now you've seen this chrysalid Pokémon before, on the teams of the Bug catchers who prowl the forest, but as the canopy of trees thin out and light filters for the exit from the maze, you're greeted with a brand new sight.
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Not the light of evolution, but the creature that emerges: your first third stage Pokémon ever, Butterfree.
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You're captivated.
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It doesn't matter that Butterfree gets immediately trounced by Brock, it's got a Psychic type move, a taste of the more arcane power that lurks later in the game.
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Soon it has status moves as well, and it becomes a stalwart companion.
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But as time passes, a disquiet grows and you; your other Pokémon evolve as well.
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A cause for celebration, sure, but a shift in the status quo that becomes hard to ignore.
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Butterfree, despite your fascination, can't keep up, and eventually you make a decision.
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Maybe it's at Lieutenant Surge, when the Electric tides are overwhelming.
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Maybe at Sabrina, when the Psychic typing has lost its luster.
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Maybe you hold out longer, hoping you were wrong.
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Or maybe you bailed earlier.
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Eventually, you decide that Butterfree has overstayed its welcome.
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And without even the courtesy that Ash had to set it free to be with its partner, you can sign it to a life in Bill's PC, and that is where it stays; not just for the rest of the game, but for the rest of your time playing this series.
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You evolve, just like Butterfree did; from a casual fan to one more dedicated, maybe even a competitive player.
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You use plenty of other Pokémon, and over time, the thought of Butterfree fades, till it scarce crosses your mind whenever you sit down to build a new team.
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After all, if it couldn't hack it in game, how could it possibly keep up against Pokémon designed for battle at the highest level?
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For reasons that shouldn't surprise you, Butterfree has pretty much never been viable in competitive play.
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Butterfree comes with one of the worst typings imaginable a paltry attacking move full, and stats that you could call disappointing if you were trying to be especially kind.
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When you consider that it's a Pokémon that has already evolved twice, things look pretty dire.
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In fact, only fellow Bug type Dustox has lower stats among the Pokémon that have evolved twice.
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No one could be blamed for ignoring Butterfree, and for almost all of its existence, that has been just what people did; but 6 years ago, something special happened.
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Pokémon Sword and Shield released, and Butterfree was catapulted out of the storage system and into the spotlight.
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Suddenly, Butterfree was viable; in fact, viable enough to win a whole Regional-level tournament, one with tons of players in attendance.
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Butterfree had suddenly become not just good, but a tournament-winning threat.
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How is this possible?
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The short answer has less to do with what Butterfree gained, and more to do with what everyone else lost.
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But I'm getting ahead of myself.
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Let's take a deep dive into the time that Butterfree was actually good.
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Now, I told you that Butterfree became good in Sword and Shield, and that's because it received two buffs in Sword and Shield.
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Want to guess what they were?
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If you remember that Butterfree got its own signature Gigantamax form, congratulations, that that is one of the two buffs. Good job.
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But despite being a bit buffed size-wise, it was by far the less important change.
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Gigantamax forms were special Dynamax forms that granted signature special moves called a G-Max moves.
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Butterfree's signature Gigantamax move was called G-Max Befuddle, and it caused its max Bug move to inflict poison, paralysis or sleep on both of its opponents after doing damage.
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That sounds really strong, which is surprising given that I just told you that this wasn't really the important buff, and that's not because the G-Max form was useless; it definitely was an upgrade.
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We've actually seen how strong this secondary status effect can be, even recently, with Sneasler's Dire Claw, and that only hits one Pokémon and only has a 50% chance to activate, whereas Butterfree G-Max move always inflicted status.
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Anyway, Butterfree may have technically gotten a personal buff and a new form, but I'm glossing over it because while it was strong, you didn't normally want to use your once-per-battle Dynamax effect on Butterfree, unless you were really far behind and you wanted to throw some chaos into the mix to try and come back into the battle.
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Nobody looked at Befuddle as anything other than a cherry on top; a bonus for a Pokémon strong for other reasons.
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Interestingly, the main reasons to use Butterfree were not because of other additional buffs that had gotten these new games, but in fact, a set of tools it had already possessed for years.
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First, and most importantly, is the move synonymous with Butterfree since its introduction: Sleep Powder.
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Sleep is, and always has been, one of the most powerful statuses in all of competitive Pokémon, but its availability is often limited.
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Thankfully, since most sleep-inducing moves are unreliable and risky and really annoying to play against, usually Sleep Powder falls into that category as well due to its 75% accuracy, but that number isn't accurate when Butterfree is the one using the move; thanks to its ability Compound Eyes, Butterfree's Sleep Powders are 97.5% accurate, meaning 39 out of 40 times you were basically clicking the 100% accurate Spore, and we all know how good Spore is.
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So 97.5% of the time we're using one of the best moves in the game, basically.
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Kind of. Let's move on.
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Next up is another powder move, but not one of the ones that populated your Gen 1 Butterfree's moveset back in 1995.
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Instead, we're traveling to Generation 5, when Butterfree first got access to Rage Powder.
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Rage Powder redirects all of your opponent's moves via ragebaiting, causing them to target the user instead of the partner.
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It might not sound very strong, but protecting your offensive and often frail partners frail partners is always important in competitive play, especially when those partners are Dynamaxed and need to survive for the full three turns of the effect.
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Now, I can't honestly call Rage Powder one of the best moves in the game, because it is strictly worse than Follow Me, since they do the same thing, but some Pokémon and items can ignore Rage Powder, but Rage Powder's still very very good.
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Redirection is a game-warping tool in Pokémon, it's what allowed Pachirisu to win the World Championships, and combining it with sleep, Butterfree had some pretty elite powers of disruption at its disposal, and we're not done yet.
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Introducing move number 3.
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The last addition to Butterfree is movable, and the actual impactful buff that it received in Generation 8: the move Pollen Puff.
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This move was initially introduced in Generation 7 as Ribombee's signature move, before they decided to spread the Spores around in Sword and Shield, with Butterfree being one of the lucky recipients.
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Pollen Puff, if you're not familiar, is a move that changes its effect depending on who you target.
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If you use it on an enemy, it's a 90 base power Bug type special attack, but if you use it on an ally, it heals your fellow Pokémon for 50% of their maximum HP, meaning Butterfree had an incredible supporting movepool.
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With just 3 moves, it could redirect, disrupt opponents, deal damage, and heal your team, leaving the last slot open for a move to keep itself safe, like Protect.
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Now, at this point, you might be thinking "okay, I get it, Butterfree had an amazing supportive movepool that got rounded out with Pollen Puff, and that's why it saw usage", and on the one hand you would be right, but by the exact same hand you would also be wrong.
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Confused? Let me explain.
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Those of you who are familiar with competitive Pokémon may have been reminded of a certain Pokémon as we've gone through Butterfree's kit.
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It's a Pokémon that also has access to sleep.
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It also has access to Rage Powder.
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It also has access to Pollen Puff, and it has used these tools to dominate competitive Pokémon for more than a decade.
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I have very intentionally not mentioned it up until this point, but no longer.
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I am speaking, of course, about Amoonguss.
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Amoonguss is better than Butterfree in nearly every single way.
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It has no need for Compound Eyes thanks to its access to the better Spore, and it feels that freed up slot with a healing ability.
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Regenerator an absolutely incredible ability that takes advantage of Amoonguss' monstrous bulk, bulk that looks especially monstrous when you compare it to Butterfree's embarrassing defenses.
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Butterfree's only advantages are a stronger Pollen Puff and a Ground immunity, and its signature Gigantamax form; even its speed tier isn't strictly better, as despite being a good bit faster than Amoonguss, Butterfree is still relatively slow, and Amoonguss' low speed stat lets it function so well in Trick Room, where slower Pokémon move before faster ones.
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Contrast these upsides with Amoonguss' better typing, bulk and ability, and there's absolutely no contest, so why use Butterfree at all?
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Simple, because in early 2020, Amoonguss, much like it has been for this entire video, was absent.
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In fact, many Pokémon with access to powerful redirection were totally absent, except for Togekiss.
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Do you know what happened to Togekiss in 2020?
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It became the single best Pokémon in the entire game.
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For just a minute, it was like we were back in the good old days of Red and Blue, when Charizard was the most powerful Pokémon you could conceive of, and Butterfree, after 25 years, could finally shine again.
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All right, so, mystery solved.
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Butterfree succeeded because although Amoonguss was gone, it was 2020 and we were all obsessed with Among Us.
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So identity fraud was in, and Butterfree filled a niche that we've all been craving.
83
Well, that's that done with; the imposters win and crewmates lose.
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Not so fast, Wolfe- what?
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Who are you?
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I'm the real reason Butterfree succeeded.
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Not you, you imposter!
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Oh, no. I've been found out and I'm getting dumped out of the airlock, aaaaaah!
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Okay, enough of that. (Wolfe was NOT the Impostor) These two Pokémon have had the same important move for all of their existence, including when they got access to Pollen Puff.
90
So it is true that Butterfree can only ever succeed when Amoonguss isn't around, but that's not the full story, because early 2020 wasn't the only time where Butterfree was legal and Amoonguss was not.
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There was actually one other time, and this time it lasted for an entire year.
92
Welcome to 2017.
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Amoonguss was missing from the AlolaDex, meaning the 2017 AlolaDex-only format should have been another moment for Butterfree to take wing.
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And while it didn't have one Top 16 and one of the very first tournaments of the format, it's safe to say that Butterfree was not taking over the game.
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In fact, it was totally absent.
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Now, again, you might be saying, "Oh, Wolfe, it didn't have Pollen Puff yet".
97
Right, but also wrong, because we already know that Amoonguss didn't need Pollen Puff to be successful; it had dominated the last two generations on the power of Rage Powder and Spore alone, and that continued to be true when Amoonguss was eventually added in Generation 7.
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Amoonguss returned to its throne as soon as it was legal.
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Butterfree might not have had Pollen Puff's dual purpose efficiency, but it could still attack with moves like Bug Buzz or even supporting moves like Electroweb, so there has to be another reason that it wasn't usable.
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There was a really simple one, actually.
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Tapu Koko was one of the most popular Pokémon in the entire game.
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Not only is Tapu Koko incredibly fast and able to KO Butterfree with even its weakest moves, but it also has an ability aimed at ruining Butterfree's day.
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Electric Surge sets up the Electric Terrain, and when Electric Terrain is active, all Pokémon touching the ground are incapable of falling asleep.
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So the real issue in 2017 was not that Amoonguss was around to do Butterfree's job better, it's that one of the most popular Pokémon in the game completely shut down our beloved butterfly.
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In this case, that really is mystery solved.
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But I haven't taken this detour just to show why Butterfree wasn't used in 2017 in my own roundabout way; this is also my way of explaining just why it was used in 2020.
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Look, I said this already, but Butterfree is...
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Well, unfortunately, it's a bad Pokémon competitively.
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It's certainly not able to function in inhospitable conditions like 2017, but even more than this, I would actually say that it needs an actively friendly metagame to work at all.
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So what made early 2020 the perfect environment?
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Aside from the lack of Amoonguss. There were a few things.
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All the type of Pokémon weren't around, and that definitely helped, but the biggest benefit I think, was actually Dynamax.
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While Gigantamax was just a nice bit of extra credit for Butterfree itself, the mechanic as a whole was especially weak to Butterfree.
114
Sleep is an incredible tool on its own merit, but the potential to nullify your opponent's turns takes it to another level when you consider the Dynamax only lasts for 3 turns; losing even one of them to sleep is devastating, and that's the same reason why moves like yawn saw so much more usage and Sword and Shield.
115
That same power dynamic applies to Rage Powder: when the move quality is higher, redirection is even more valuable.
116
Butterfree with one HP can save a healthier partner from a devastating attack.
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Not to mention, all Dynamax moves become single target, so you can't use a relatively weak move that hits both your opponents, like Dazzling Gleam or Icy Wind to finish off a low HP Butterfree while also doing damage to its partner.
118
The one thing worth noting is that Pollen Puff doesn't actually benefit that much from Dynamax.
119
I mean, it still did damage against Dynamax Pokémon, but if you use it on your partner or Dynamax Pokémon, it would only heal 25% of their health rather than 50%.
120
25% healing on your most important Pokémon is still pretty decent if Butterfree is already put everything else to sleep.
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Dynamax on its own wasn't the only reason that Butterfree succeeded.
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Thanks to its abysmal defenses and offenses, Butterfree only got a few turns of redirection before it was wiped off the field, even when considering it almost always held the Focus Sash item, which prevents it from being knocked out by a single attack if it at full HP.
123
For it to succeed, you need to make sure that these limited turns really counted.
124
And in the early Sword and Shield metagame, you could.
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That's because one of the absolute strongest strategies was none other than Trick Room.
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In a format with such limited offense, Pokémon like Rhyperior and Torkoal, who traded speed for power, were massive threats, especially when they were Dynamaxed.
127
These teams often use the Weakness Policy held item, which gives massive power boosts if the holder is hit with a super effective move, and they plan to activate this item themselves with a very weak attack like Bulldoze from Dusclops.
128
After setting up, these powerful sweepers could easily run away with the game.
129
It was under these conditions that Butterfree found itself most useful.
130
For such a soft-looking Pokémon, Butterfree had very sharp win conditions.
131
It wanted to get in, redirect some attacks so its partner could set up Trick Room and then get out.
132
And by get out, I mean get knocked out, to be clear.
133
And actually, for this purpose, it was able to turn one of its cons into a pro.
134
Having such a low bulk meant that Butterfree could force the opponent to knock it out faster, even if they weren't using their strongest moves.
135
This doesn't sound like a good thing, but if Butterfree fainted the turn that you set up Trick Room, you'd be allowed to bring in your offensive sweeper with full turns to take advantage of the twisted dimensions.
136
So a common set up might be that you lead Butterfree and Dusclops, go for Trick Room + Sleep Powder or Rage Powder If you thought your Dusclops was in danger and then Rage Powder until Butterfree went down so you could guarantee Rhyperior gets in safely just in time to take a Bulldoze, doubling its attack stat.
137
Or you could just lead Rhyperior and Butterfree, start firing off attacks from the get go, and then bring in the Trick Room setter later once Butterfree went down.
138
it was with precisely these strategies that Butterfree saw its most success.
139
The first two Regionals of Sword and Shield, Bochum and Dallas, both saw a gamut of Butterfree and Rhyperior teams through their Top Cut, which is the final stage of the tournament.
140
In fact, a dual Tailwind and Trick Room team using Butterfree next to Rhyperior and Charizard placed third at Dallas Regionals, the first North American Regional of the Generation.
141
For many players, that was the end of Butterfree.
142
The next few tournaments saw a huge uptick in Butterfree's most natural enemy: Tyranitar.
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Tyranitar could ignore Rage Powder with Rock Slide, which deals damage to both Pokémon, bring Butterfree down to Focus Sash due to its quadruple Rock weakness, and then passively finish it off with the damage from sand that Tyranitar sets with its ability.
144
In many ways, Tyranitar's existence seemed to completely invalidate our little Bug.
145
At the Oceania International Championships, 11 out of the top 16 teams used Tyranitar, and 25 out of the Top64.
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Butterfree? One single placement in the top 64, at 43rd place.
147
And as we moved into the third ruleset of Sword and Shield, it seemed like Butterfree would have to be content with its bronze medal back in Dallas- which, to be fair, was a much higher accolade than had ever seen before.
148
Then came Malmö Regionals, where Tobias Koschitzki, the lone Butterfree player in the tournament, took home first place, by committing fully to the Trick Room strategy.
149
While previous Butterfree teams had tried to split between different versions of speed control, a few dedicated Trick Room players had seen a decent amount of success.
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One such player was actually Ludwig, from videogames.
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At the beginning of Sword and Shield, I invited 8 players who maybe had a little experienced Pokémon, but not a ton with competitive play to a tournament where they'd be assigned a professional coach, and they could compete against each other.
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Ludwig actually ended up winning the entire tournament using a hard Trick Room team.
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Of course, he wasn't the only one who saw success; a few players in official tournaments had also been doing well.
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Inspired by their results and eager to try out Gigantamax had Hatterene, Tobias fully committed to going slow, and was rewarded with a Regional win in turn.
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What's notable about this team is that Butterfree actually wasn't Tobias' only director.
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He also had Indeedee Female on his team.
157
These days, Indeedee is a standard pick for any Trick Room team, but you have to remember that back then, Expanding Force didn't exist yet, Indeedee Female couldn't learn Trick Room, Dynamax made your Pokémon immune to flinching, and so Psychic Terrain, while still useful for stopping priority, wasn't as impactful as it has been in Scarlet and Violet.
158
Still, Hatterene was so strong that it justified using Indeedee.
159
And while using two directors might seem like overkill, in fact, they complemented each other.
160
Indeedee was the pick against Pokémon relying on either Fake Out or Prankster, such as Incineroar and Grimmsnarl.
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Butterfree was picked against more defensive teams, so it could disrupt with Sleep Powder, or to get your sweeper in quicker.
162
While Indeedee's Psychic Seed let it sit in the field and deal out healthy damage with Psychic over time, Butterfree's low bulk was once again turned into a boon, making it easier to get Torkoal or Rhyperior in inside the twisted dimensions.
163
While Tobias' Butterfree set was standard, the way that he used it wasn't.
164
Prior teams have put a lot of weight on Butterfree's very fragile shoulders; by splitting redirection duty, Tobias left Butterfree come in the situations where it really could shine.
165
He took a niche Pokémon and made it even more niche, instead of forcing it to perform in situations where it just couldn't keep up.
166
Malmö Regionals really was the end of Butterfree.
167
Series 4 introduced Grassy Surge Rillaboom, a Sleep Powder and Rage Powder immune Fake Out priority user who put a drumstick-shaped wrench in all of Butterfree's plans, and Series 5 brought back, you guessed it, everyone's favorite Poké Ball-shaped mushroom.
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Since then, Amoonguss has been legal for every single format, which means that Butterfree has been sent off to the nice butterfly garden upstate, and that would be the end of it.
169
Except that I have one big takeaway to leave you with before we go.
170
Butterfree was successful for three reasons.
171
First, it got a nice buff in Pollen Puff.
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Second, its unique toolkit is well suited to disrupting and supporting in formats with concentrated bursts of power, such as Dynamax.
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And third, undeniably the most important, it can only thrive when Amoonguss is not around and the overall power level goes down.
174
Now, I've been talking about this limited availability pretty matter of factly, but it was actually anything but simple.
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See, the limited Pokédex in Sword and Shield was a bit different than in previous Generations.
176
Black and White, X and Y, and Sun and Moon had all had one year where the competitive format was limited to that game's regional Dex, but the first few formats of Sword and Shield weren't exactly a Regional Dex; they were actually a National Dex, because there was no Regional Dex, because this was the time of... oh Lord.
177
I mean, I guess it's been a long enough, I can talk about it, right?
178
This is the time of <i><b>Dexit</i></b>, and at the time, it was a pretty big deal, and people were pretty angry that the National Dex did not include every Pokémon ever made.
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But I felt differently about the lack of a National Dex then, and I still feel the same way now.
180
There's a lot of thinking that goes around that says that the more Pokémon that are available, the more variety you will see.
181
But in my experience, it's kind of the opposite.
182
With over a thousand Pokémon total, what ends up happening is you just see the strongest Pokémon, over and over and over, and Pokémon that can't compete with the power level of these monsters just get left behind, like Butterfree did for so long.
183
In reality, I think limitations breed variety.
184
That's the reason why, after 25 years of Pokémon, Butterfree of all things, can suddenly become relevant for really the first time.
185
Though it is true that these Regional Dex formats existed before we had Dexit.
186
And to be fair, they have tended to be the formats where the weirdest Pokémon can shine.
187
But recently, with how fast the rulesets change, and how fast these stronger Pokémon get added into the game, these low power formats have been few and far between, and even when we've had them, they haven't lasted long at all.
188
The first format of Scarlet and Violet was the lowest power level one that we had for the entire Generation, and it only lasted for one tournament per region, which was the equivalent of one month of real life events.
189
To me, Butterfree is a shining example of just why we should continue to hope for less Pokémon to be legal in competitive formats, because this creates the conditions that allow Pokémon that have never gotten to thrive to finally have their day in the sun.
190
More Pokémon that I would like are totally outclassed by the Pokémon that came after them, and the more Pokémon they make, the more true that this becomes.
191
Butterfree is, more than most Pokémon, made totally obsolete by a later addition to the franchise.
192
The fact that they gave both Butterfree and Amoonguss Pollen Puff is just one more kick in the antenna?
193
Actually, Butterfree does have teeth, huh.
194
That's... that's pretty weird.
195
So the fact that a Pokémon has been rendered redundant can succeed is actually pretty rad.
196
I want to see more of it.
197
With a new Generation on the horizon and an entirely new game that we're competing in, I don't currently know what new formats are going to look like.
198
We're switching between rulesets faster than ever before these days, and only time will tell what that allows.
199
But for the sake of all those Pokémon that you loved long ago, then boxed for being bad, let's hope that there are some limitations, because it's only when things are most constricted that we can finally be free.
200
See what I did there? B-utter-free?
201
Okay, video's over now!
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Now go watch the breakdown of the strongest team in Sword and Shield if you want more of this Generation 8 nostalgia, and bye, bye!
203
Bye, butter, bye! Butter- bye-butter- Bye, bye-tterfree! Bye, bye!
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “How a Route 1 Bug Pokémon Became a Champion”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Butterfree, Pok, mon, Amoonguss, powder. This video has 203 sentences and 4368 words to shadow. The speech runs for 21:34. The speaker talks fast, about 202 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 76% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| powder noun | /ˈpaʊ.dɚ/ | The fine particles which are the result of reducing a dry substance by pounding, grinding, or triturating, or the result of decay; dust. |
| format noun | /ˈfɔːɹ.mæt/ | The layout of a publication or document. |
| buff noun | /bʌf/ | Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals. |
| succeed verb | /səkˈsiːd/ | To follow something in sequence or time. |
| signature noun | /ˈsɪɡ.nə.t͡ʃə/ | A person's name, written by that person, used as identification or to signify approval of accompanying material, such as a legal contract. |
| bulk noun | /bʌlk/ | Size, specifically, volume. |
| ignore verb | /ɪɡˈnɔː/ | To deliberately not listen or pay attention to. |
| opponent noun | /əˈpəʊ.nənt/ | One who opposes another; one who works or takes a position against someone or something; one who attempts to stop the progress of someone or something. |
| shine verb | /ʃaɪn/ | To emit or reflect light so as to glow. |
| heal verb | /ˈhiːl/ | To make better from a disease, wound, etc.; to revive or cure. |
| evolve verb | /ɪˈvɑlv/ | To move (something) in regular procession through a system. |
| butter noun | /ˈbʌtɚ/ | A soft, fatty foodstuff made by churning the cream of milk (generally cow's milk). |
| compete verb | /kəmˈpiːt/ | To be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend. |
| knock verb | /nɑk/ | To rap one's knuckles against something, especially wood. |
| absent adjective | /ˈæb.sn̩t/ | Being away from a place; withdrawn from a place; existing but not present; (sometimes) missing. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| set up verb | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | To make ready for use. |
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| get out verb | To leave or escape. | |
| keep up verb | To maintain; to preserve; to prevent from deteriorating or falling. | |
| bring back verb | /ˈbɹɪŋ bæk/ | To fetch something. |
| deal out verb | not to deal cards to someone who is leaving a game. | |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | You've picked · you've seen · has lost |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is bathed · could be blamed · was catapulted |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | strong, which is · Cut, which is · one who saw |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 58 contractions and reduced forms, such as wasn't, didn't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thrive /θɹajv/, thin /ˈθɪn/, throne /θɹəʊ̯n/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shine /ʃaɪn/, dimension /daɪˈmɛn.ʃən/, limitation /lɪmɪˈteɪʃən/, sharp /ʃɑɹp/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/
- Long words — get the stress right: priority /pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/, availability /əˌveɪ.ləˈbɪl.ɪ.ti/, limitation /lɪmɪˈteɪʃən/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like powder, format, buff.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.