History WebVideo / FalseSwipeGaming

* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: A common theme covered is how Pokémon often find niches, or outright solidified use, in tiers that should have been above their punching weight thanks to a unique combination of traits that allows it to do something valuable no other stronger Pokémon can do.

* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Something that frequently comes up is how the most unlikely imaginable Pokémon can end up making forays into Ubers on the sole basis that they can stand in the way of Kyogre, or at the very least its Drizzle and Choice Specs-powered Water Spout. This includes the likes of Shedinja, Quagsire, Abomasnow, and, of all ''possible'' things, '''''Parasect'''''.

** In the Golem episode, it's noted that, while Alolan Golem was ordinarily a PU-Tier Pokémon, players would often use it in OU-Tier matches to trap and defeat Steel-type Pokémon that Magnezone - the Pokémon normally known for handling that job - can sometimes have trouble with, including the likes of Heatran and Magearna.
** Ariados has normally been a horrible Pokémon in every generation, but in Gen IV Ubers it was noted to have a niche as a lead thanks to Insomnia, Toxic Spikes, and the Bug Bite-Shadow Sneak combo to take out the most common leads in Darkrai and Deoxys-S.

** In Golem's video, the running theme is it being outclassed by Rhydon since Gen 1; they're both physical MightyGlacier Rock/Ground types with similar movepools that fulfill the same role, but Rhydon hits ''much harder'' thanks to its higher base Attack, and Rhydon's much better HP gives it a bit more durability too despite Golem's slightly better defense stats. All Golem had was being marginally faster, that really only served to let it win the 1-on-1 against Rhydon as it wasn't outspeeding anything else relevant that Rhydon couldn't, and a couple niches in its movepool that Rhydon didn't have, particularly Explosion and Rapid Spin (which did let Golem [[ADayInTheLimelight briefly avert this in Gen 2]] whose meta that niche was tailor-made for, but was too little to matter in every other Gen). It would only get worse in Gen 4 when Rhydon got an evolution in Rhyperior, dashing any hope of Golem seeing usage in higher competitive tiers ever again, and said evolution also meant Rhydon could use Eviolite from Gen 5-onward to boost its defenses to incredible levels when it was already bulkier than Golem without it, on top of Explosion [[{{Nerf}} losing half its power]] in Gen 5, ensuring Golem would eternally be pushed out of the lower tiers by Rhydon too.

** The Deoxys video mentions that its Normal form has always been outclassed by its Attack form; they're both an extreme GlassCannon, with Normal Deoxys having lower attack stats in exchange for less bad defense stats, but its defenses are still too low to let it survive anything meaningful over Attack Deoxys as it'll still get one-shotted by most things, especially in the Ubers tier, whereas the higher attack stats of Attack Deoxys did let it exceed crucial KO benchmarks that Normal Deoxys couldn't reach. This results in Normal Deoxys seeing almost no use in Ubers for every Gen it been available in, but Normal Deoxys has also always been too strong to allow in OU, resulting in one of the least competitively used Pokemon of all time.

** The Deoxys video mentions that its Normal form was always overshadowed by its Attack form, so the Normal form saw extremely little usage.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Some Pokémon didn't see play in higher tiers because others fulfilled the same role, but better.

** Earlier videos in general were a lot more brief with surface-level analysis, and didn't cover much of non-OU Smogon tiers nor delve much into metagame shifts that changed a Pokémon's standing within a Gen over time. As such, early videos about even the most competitively successful Pokémon would barely stretch more than ten minutes, whereas a modern FSG video about them can be over an hour long. This has led to old videos gradually getting remade to not only cover the new Gens since the video's release, but to also go much more indepth on the Pokémon's performance in older Gens; the difference between a n old FSG video and a modern FSG video is night and day.

** Ledian got a full-on joke episode detailing a fictional reign of terror as an unstoppable beast on the battlefield whose overwhelming power would only eventually be put to a stop by Dunsparce, before it's pointed out that Ledian's actual battle performance is as far from that as it's possible to be.

* TheRemake: False Swipe Gaming has done seven remakes of Pokémon videos including Dragonite, Scizor, Skarmory, Tauros, Chansey and it's evolution Blissey, Charizard, and Heracross. These were done due to the channel's increased production value compared to their earlier videos. For example, in the case of Chansey/Blissey, their original video was barely 10 minutes long compared to their remake clocking in at a ''whopping 67 minutes.'' In Charizard's case it's even more extreme, going from a 6-minute video to almost as long as the Chansey/Blissey video.

** Seaking is an overshadowed, generally MasterOfNone bulky Water, but its semi-unique LightningRod ability has given it sparing use in VGC. Most notably, being able to shrug off and take out Tapu Koko with a Specs-boosted +1 Hydro Pump in Gen VII.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Reshiram boasts the unresisted STAB combo of Dragon/Fire,[[note]]until the Fairy-type was introduced in Gen 6[[/note]] and can 2-hit KO just about anything in Gen 5. However, its inability to switch in safely, vulnerability to entry hazards, and low speed rendered it impractical to use. And when Kyurem-White was released and did everything Reshiram did but better, Reshiram was rendered unviable.

-->''Kellen'': Parasect would then Spore something on Kyogre's team, in an infuriating reversal of both momentum and ''the natural order''.

* {{Corpsing}}: The usually educational and serious Kellen can barely contain a laugh when he asks, "How good was Regigigas Actually?", due to the Colossal Pokémon's detrimental Slow Start ability.

*** As a lesser example, Murkrow tends to appear in the VGC format considerably more than Honchcrow, though in this case, it's more due to the Prankster ability giving it a few unique tricks than Honchcrow being outright worse.

* TheRemake: False Swipe Gaming has done six remakes of Pokémon videos including Dragonite, Scizor, Skarmory, Tauros, Chansey and it's evolution Blissey, and Charizard. These were done due to the channel's increased production value compared to their earlier videos. For example, in the case of Chansey/Blissey, their original video was barely 10 minutes long compared to their remake clocking in at a ''whopping 67 minutes.'' In Charizard's case it's even more extreme, going from a 6-minute video to almost as long as the Chansey/Blissey video.

*** Furret, a forgettable ComMon who never got anything notable or useful in the entire history of Pokémon, stands out even among these, getting the dubious honor of having its episode be titled "How ''UNFORTUNATE'' was Furret actually?"

!!''False Swipe Gaming'' provides examples of:

* AwesomeButImpractical: Reshiram boasts the unresisted STAB combo of Dragon/Fire,[[note]]until the Fairy-type was introduced in Gen 6[[/note]] and can 2-hit KO just about anything in Gen 5. However, its inability to switch in safely, vulnerability to entry hazards, and low speed rendered impractical to use. And when Kyurem-White was released and did everything Reshiram did but better, Reshiram was rendered unviable.

* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: In the video covering Mr. Mime and Mr. Rime, Kellen says that Mr. Mime was banned from OU in Gen 3[[note]]Due to only having the ability Soundproof, which blocks the move Roar, meaning it was able to get off a successful Baton Pass chain consistently. Later gens gave it Filter as an alternate ability, meaning it was allowed to be used in OU, provided it didn't have Baton Pass.[[/note]] and says that it's not some delayed April Fools' prank. He even says you can look it up yourself if you don't believe him.

* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Something that frequently comes up is how the mostly unlikely imaginable Pokémon can end up making forays into Ubers on the sole basis that they can stand in the way of Kyogre, or at the very least its Drizzle and Choice Specs-powered Water Spout. This includes the likes of Shedinja, Quagsire, Abomasnow, and, of all ''possible'' things, '''''Parasect'''''.

** Also brought up with Tauros in Gen 1, to the point that one of the most important confrontations in a Gen 1 battle was often the one between the Tauros in both players's respective teams.

* FromBadToWorse: A frequent theme in videos covering Pokémon that are less privy to PopularityPower is that when they start dropping in usability, they tend to drop fast and not recover, as Game Freak will rarely bother to make any effort to improve such Pokémon, causing them to fall behind as new and more powerful Pokémon are created, and as luckier mons get stat boosts, new abilities, and new moves to help them keep up. These Pokémon will often go from falling to low tiers, to becoming less and less useful even in these tiers, before finally becoming "untiered", the point where players no longer bother trying to find a viable use for them in competitive play.

*** Furret, a forgettable ComMon who never got anything notable or useful in the entire history of Pokémon, stands out even among these, getting the dubious honor of having its episode be titled "How ''UNFORTUNATE'' was Furrent actually?"

* CripplingOverspecialization: Electrode had the highest Speed of any Pokémon until Ninjask was created, and remains one of the fastest to this day, but at the cost of mediocre offenses, even worse defenses, and absolutely miserable type coverage. At times this has helped it, such as in Gen 4, when it ended up being indispensable support for Rain Dance teams. Less so at other times, such as Gen 5, where it saw very little usage in NU since the likes of Zebstrika and Electabuzz were much better offensively and were themselves already faster than pretty much anything worth outspeeding in the tier, rendering Electrode's higher Speed pointless.

* FromBadToWorse: A frequent theme in videos covering Pokémon that are less privy to PopularityPower is that when they start dropping in usability, they tend to drop fast and not recover, as Game Freak will rarely bother to make any effort to improve such Pokémon, causing them to fall behind as new and more powerful Pokémon are created, and as luckier mons get stat boosts, new abilities, and new moves to help them keep up. These Pokémon will often go from falling to low tiers, becoming less and less useful even in these tiers, before finally becoming "untiered", the point where players no longer bother trying to find a viable use for them in competitive play.

* TakesOneToKillOne: {{Downplayed}} with Snorlax in Gen 2. While anyone can technically defeat Snorlax, the only way to knock out Snorlax in one hit without a CriticalHit is for another Snorlax to use Self-Destruct.

* FromBadToWorse: A frequent theme in videos covering Pokémon that are less privy to PopularityPower is that when they start dropping in usability, they tend to drop fast and not recover, as Game Freak will rarely bother to make any effort to improve such Pokémon, causing them to fall behind new and more powerful Pokémon are created, and as luckier mons get stat boosts, new abilities, and new moves to help them keep up. These Pokémon will often go from falling to low tiers, becoming less and less useful even in these tiers, before finally becoming "untiered", the point where players no longer bother trying to find a viable use for them in competitive play.