it's remake time and today we're
examining the beetle with the horn heard
around the world heracross first
introduced in generation two haircross
was tough to find in the golden silver
games as players had to headbutt trees
and hope they get lucky in the anime ash
had a heracross which carried him
through many difficult battles including
the climactic one against gary
herrocross performed a stunning feat of
anime logic in that fight by beating
away magmar's fire with its wings today
we'll be examining if heracross was
similarly effective in the competitive
scene and so we asked how great was
herecross actually
and in this video we'll be going over
these competitive formats
despite its massive base 125 attack stat
and brutally powerful stab megahorn
heracross took on more of a supporting
role in its debut generation and it was
quite excellent at it it did hit many
pokemon incredibly hard but the problem
was that offensive teams packed zapdos
and defensive teams packed skarmory
neither of which heracross was going to
get by as the lack of true rock coverage
or fighting stab respectively really
hurt it now heracross could potentially
sweep if those pokemon were dealt with
but that was not its primary value more
of an added bonus its primary value lay
in its defensive profile which let it
stave off several threats which were
otherwise massively difficult to manage
most notably needle king as well as
being immensely helpful against machamp
marowak and even gengar it could even be
used to stave off cursed steelix nicely
thus protecting a teammate like skarmory
from getting exploded on and this was
but one example of how heracross
assisted its defensive team in dividing
and conquering and opposing offense and
team's attempts to concentrate their
wall breaking efforts on one particular
target they would often be unable to
reach that target because heracross
would stand in their way another example
was heracross walling gengar which
wanted to lure in and blow up on raiku
if gengar blew up heracross fine but
then raiku would still be around to wall
gengar's teammate zapdos meaning
haircross accomplished this job this
trait was as rare as haircross was
efficient in executing it and it was
thus an integral member of many balanced
teams rock solid defensive course being
forced to rest wasn't even a detriment
for it as it would pretty much always
call a useful move from sleep talk
heracross certainly wasn't just a wall
though though it struggled to actually
rip through teams on its own by virtue
of how common its walls were this didn't
mean it didn't slash through a
significant portion of the tier
especially with its solid speed for the
tier it's mega horn absolutely tore
through common bug weak pokemon like
tyranitar exeggutory and umbreon and
neutral pokemon weren't safe either the
likes of snorlax and raiku got hit
really hard even several common resists
like the needle champ guar heracross
cover or even something like mischievous
didn't exactly work as resist either
after all heracross tended to check them
and megahorn still chunked them quite
decently and even gengar's quad resist
and s toss immunity didn't help when it
wasn't healing unlike heracross and
getting chipped by spikes the extent of
heracross's offense wasn't just being a
mega horn machine either other sturdier
megahorn resists like fortress and
steelix got worn down by seismic toss in
conjunction with spikes too as a result
the only really safe answers were zapdos
and skarmory those of course were big
things to be walled by however heracross
and its team would actually take
advantage of how it was walled by them
the most classic examples was against
stall teams where heracross would force
in skarmory and repeatedly seismic toss
it eventually forcing skarm to rest this
was excellent in facilitating its
teammate the ferocious belly drum
snorlax s toss heracross was one of the
drumlax's favorite partners for this
reason but what about more offensive
teams with zapdos well same deal it took
a little while thanks to zapdos's larger
hp stat but eventually heracross would
force a rest which gave snorlax an
easier time switching into and
threatening out zapdos so it could set
up a belly drum something it couldn't do
in the face of thunders freely fired off
while zapdos was awake unlike against
skarmory heracross could also stay in on
zapdos if it felt like it thanks to its
great special defense for perspective
heracross easily lived a mewtwo psychic
so was zapdos just about never running
drop harrycross was at that baiting the
third into wasting thunder pp against it
providing another understated yet
valuable trait heracross brought to its
team this made his teammate drumblacks
even more threatening by really forcing
the issue of the timer zapdos's thunder
pp were on drumlax wasn't the only
pokemon that could take advantage of s
toss hera either something like the
dangerous curse ride on was similarly
appreciative now of course heracross
could act as a dangerous late game
sweeper with curse 2 it wasn't an
automatic replacement for s toss as it
did lose some defensive utility with it
for example calling curse in its sleep
and slowing itself down could
potentially impede its ability to check
the likes of marowak and machamp while
also becoming totally walled by steelex
and making itself susceptible to
exeggutor additionally as it was no
longer luring in zapdos to scar and
weakening them with s-toss and was
instead permanently walled its team had
to be built to account for that however
harecross was still an effective
valuable roadblock to the likes of
needle king and gengar and it came with
the benefit of cleaning up hard with the
right support which wasn't difficult to
find most commonly cursed self-destruct
snorlax was partnered with it as it was
the best lure in the game for destroying
skarmory and would thus clear a path for
haracrus to wreak destruction against
stall while exeggutor was another common
partner to bait in and ruin opposing
offensive teams to zapdos once hera got
going it was seriously tough to stop
however though curse could be
threatening the seismic toss set was the
variant that most showcased hair crosses
place in gsc as it allowed haircross to
most efficiently carry out the defensive
offensive roles that it was so unique
and valuable in executing it also
theoretically could use reversal sets
but those were incredibly unreliable
offensively and utterly worthless
defensively so they were relegated to
gimmick territory the complete opposite
of its standard set and so heracross was
an understated but outstanding pillar of
gsc balance team it was often overlooked
until it appeared in battle and did its
thing and it was an excellent debut
generation generation two's dearth of
options meant heracross was held back
from its enormous potential as a
physical attacker then generation three
came around and did everything possible
to correct that mistake first heracross
received actual fighting type stab which
was huge brick break was solid and
consistent even bringing a screen
shattering effect with it as if
haircross wasn't enough of a threat to
defense already but it could also go big
with the enormous power of focus punch
what about the flying types that
threatened it though we'll have no fear
because heracross learned rockslide now
and could smack them really good it
didn't end there though no far from it
as the already powerful hare cross can
now strengthen itself to superlative
levels with either the immediacy of
choice ban or the game ending potential
of swords dance heracross was
effectively even stronger with
generation three's shift to the eevee
system which meant not everything had
its bulk automatically maxed out anymore
plus with the addition of selectberry
heracross can even make itself faster
than its would be revenge killers
selectberry of course worked when
haircross was at low hp just like one of
its excellent new abilities swarm which
made its mega horn an even more
efficient kill button heracross wasn't
relegated to an ability useful only at
low hp either but that would have been
fine if it had been the case but most of
the time it ran guts which ensured that
if the opponent dared status it that all
its attacks would become even stronger
thus making it even more insanely
difficult to deal with now the one
downside heracross experience in
generation 3 was a complete loss of
defensive utility the most you could say
was that it was a physical attacker that
didn't fear water type however for
something this destructive who cares
heracross was instantly one of advance's
most ferocious attacker it was nigh
uncountable it was a pokemon that you
had to play around rather than answer
safely and if the heracross user played
well was pretty much impossible to do so
without at least sustaining serious
damage if not one ko minimum sure some
checks like salamance and gengar were
better than others but they weren't
exactly foolproof not just because of
heracross's coverage moves which were
excellent but because of its raw
immediate power with choice ban which
was just ridiculous at times it meant it
didn't need to predict switchings and
use coverage moves because mega horn was
just so appallingly powerful ripping
through even mints and zapdos that
thought they could withstand it while
ensuring neutral targets like swapper
and suicune got absolutely shattered
skarmory wasn't even a good check
anymore as it was potentially one-hit
killed by choice band focus punch it's
not like heracross needed choiceman
focus punch to invalidate skarm as a
check though there were several ways it
could do that but the most
straightforward way was to partner with
magnaton as it often did to make
skarmory a complete non-factor even
being prone to doug trio didn't stop
heracross not only did this not
necessarily work against variants with
sub and or slackberry but a well-built
haircross team would have many ways of
punishing a ducktrap for example giving
a partner tyranitar or salamence a free
dragon dance on certain teams heracross
even partnered with dugtrio itself for
one of the most unique strategies in
advance when the opposing dog trio
locked into aerial lace to remove hair
cross that allowed harry cross's partner
doug trio to come in and remove the
opposing duct trail this was absolutely
incredible for enabling hair crosses
dugtrio weak teammates like metagross
and tyranitar heracross wasn't the
fastest thing in the world but its speed
tier was still solid in fact its speech
that was one of the most important
numbers in the tier even being metagame
defining since many potential faster
pokemon like salamence zapdos and
moltres specifically ev themselves to
outrun it they would have absolutely
loved to have gone slower since there
wasn't much else in that hair across
speed tier what they couldn't or hair
across would crush them with this solid
speed and its great natural bulk in
addition to useful typing for a physical
attacker boasting a resistance to
earthquake and a neutrality to water and
ice heracross would always find some
opportunity to wreak havoc on a
game-to-game basis it was effective at
forcing huge damage on the opponent not
just in advertised matchups but even in
seemingly disadvantageous ones notably
being able to take psychics from the
likes of offensive jirachi and shelby
and that was just against fast-paced
team against slow defensive teams well
there was nothing they hated facing more
than heracross it absolutely destroyed
them it had all the opportunity in the
world against blissey clay doll slow
celebrities bulky suicunes they were
just torn apart by it haircross was the
single biggest argument against running
an all-out stall team you thought you
had everything walled then heracross
showed up and single-handedly ruined you
even obscure supposedly dedicated
counters like wheezing dust clops and
bulky salamance could stop it once but
in the long run heracross would bowl
them over they were too slow and weak to
stand up to it once it had gotten some
easily accumulated chip damage on them
and then chose to boost up and go for
game heracross would have been a solid
pokemon even if it was forced to go
itemless and use no move other than
megahorn but its set versatility made it
even better making it even more
difficult to handle and of course no
matter which set it chose it was always
going to be threatening by virtue of how
badly megahorn ripped the tear up we've
already mentioned the almost peerless
instant brutality of the choice man set
the substitute swarm selak swords dance
set was one of the tier's most dangerous
cleaners sure dropping to low hp was
risky on a sand affected pokemon in the
tyranitar tier but that could be a swage
through weather-changing teammates and
the rewards were worthwhile as one setup
heracross's cleaning prize was nigh
unmatched outrunning and one hit ko in
nearly everything there was something to
be said from the insanity that was one
hit killing metagross with a neutral
physical attack even if boosted
paracross could also source dance
without the sub and without the select
it became even more threatening when it
could fit fighting stab onto its set
meaning it didn't require scar removing
support as it could just do so itself
while heracross also loved the longevity
of leftovers meaning teams couldn't just
try to outlast it in sandstorm
especially in conjunction with protect
when scar marie started shifting away
from running drill peck in favor of
protect and toxic swords dance focus
punch harry cross appeared and punched
it like nothing else haircross didn't
even have to boost at all it could
simply use an all-out attacking set
maximizing his coverage with hidden
power ghosts for gengar it could dip
into other items too lum or chestelberry
allowed it to counteract sleep moves
with the latter being useful for
allowing it to stop sleep while still
making use of guts of being hit by other
status alternatively it could run sleep
tight it was a great breath loom stop
heracross can even function as a lead
instantly scaring the popular tyranitar
lead who thought it safely set up sand
at the beginning of the game indeed many
teams relied on dealing with haircross
through setting up passive damage before
it got a chance to come in meaning it'd
be on a timer as soon as it hit the
field but lead heracross threw a serious
wrench in this the best part was that
heracross can mix and match as a police
and even toyed with other options to
great effect sub focus punch sure toxic
haircross to utterly ruin salamance and
gyarados why not it can afford the
moveset thief hair cross to steal
leftovers absolutely endure reversal
hair cross it needed a lot of support
but under the right conditions boy could
that thing sweep quick claw hair across
once again it sure could afford it
tossing slack berry on a non-sub-hare
cross to take advantage of how often it
dropped to low hp sure in a similar vein
using swarm over guts on the choice band
set for a mega hormone that could one
hit ko salamance yeah heracross was one
of the single most dangerous pokemon in
advanced ou and was massively defining
and influential fun fact in japan
haircross was considered so dangerous as
to be bandworthy from ou so all in all
it was an insanely successful generation
for haircross as long as megahorn hit of
course it was a bit high risk but it
more than made up for it its potential
reward wasn't just high it was
stratospheric heracross also had a solid
niche and gen 3 ubers its choice band
megahorns were nearly impossible for
many teams to switch into every uber not
named ho'o or rayquaza was neutral or
weak to it making it incredibly easy to
spam and cleave huge chunks of damage on
whatever switched in plus ho-oh and
rayquaza were deathly afraid of banded
rockslide with how easily groudon and
kyogre spread thunderwave it was easy to
slow down opposing teams and run them
over with repeated megahorn
alternatively heracross could go for a
late game sweep with a sub select set
fully taking advantage of the fact that
sun and rain were the tier's dominant
weather and so heracross was one of the
best sleeper picks and gen 3 uber
capable of threatening pretty much every
team generation 4 gifted hero cross a
fighting stab of equal power to its
mighty mega horn in the form of close
combat making it even more insanely
dangerous and that wasn't all did
herecross want to instantly fix its
speed choice scarf it was did haircross
want to instantly boost its attack
without the move lock effort of choice
band it could go with lifeform flame orb
or toxic orb even heracross's coverage
options were stronger it threatened to
destroy flying types not with rockslide
but with the much more powerful stone
edge while night slash was an
improvement for ripping through ghost
types here cross could even take on
trapping duties with the now physical
pursuit and with all of these boosts
heracross instantly became one of the
most popular dangerous defining pokemon
in early diamond and pearl utilizing a
number of different sets much like it
did in advance to rip through the
metagame except now it was even more
instantly threatening because one
couldn't necessarily beat it by
outrunning it as choice scarf would make
quick work of pokemon like infernape
wheezing of all things was quite popular
in large part because it didn't crumple
against heracross sadly the huge
popularity and success heracross enjoyed
in diamond and pearl didn't quite last
it started when glice score started
eclipsing wheezing as thanks to ruth's
reliable recovery it was far more
resilient against prolonged herocross
assaults as well as being able to
out-speed non-scarf hair across variants
that could potentially boost up and blow
it away that was just the beginning
though the discovery of source dance
extreme speed lucario as a serious
competitor for hero cross certainly
didn't help matters however these were
mine are all things considered sure hera
wasn't as outright dominant as it had
been but it was still a highly prominent
pokemon the real blow came with the
release of platinum the rotom appliance
brought another effective heracross
check to the table but rotom a sword's
dance lucario and glasgow were nothing
compared to scissor if heracross had
just had to contend with the uptick in
usage of the other three it would have
barely slowed down they were
inconveniences more than anything else
however platinum gifting sizzler bullet
punch which in conjunction with u-turn
made for the perfect choice bander that
rocketed the red metal bug to number one
in usage was a death knell so precise it
almost seemed engineered to displace her
across from the metagame completely it
wasn't that harecross was bad far from
it it was just that it was never going
to be able to compete with the immense
utility sizzler brought to a team with
its coveted dragon resistant steel
typing powerful momentum maintaining
u-turn and ultimate revenge killing
priority attack as such haircross went
from being a top tier staple to all but
disappearing well from serious play
anyway it was still used enough in ou
that it remained in the tier but it was
never used in tournament play and slowly
but surely its ou usage began to slip
finally well into heart going souls over
the long awaited previously unthinkable
finally happened heracross dropped to
yuyu to say heracross destroyed yuyu
would be an understatement some players
naively predicted it wouldn't be so bad
after all wheezing was already a top
tier pokemon for its ability to stave
off other big threats like venusaur
heracross then promptly obliterated
wheezing with a plus two guts boosted
facade and then all bets were off this
pokemon was officially uncountable with
his useful speed and great natural bulk
i wasn't exactly left wanting for
switching opportunities either and it
smacked nearly the entire tier for
either super effective or neutral damage
and with the pokemon as strong as
heracross neutral damage was all it
needed to grab chaos against tier
staples like milotic every set was
absolutely ferocious scarf choice band
status orb sub variants they all
shredded the tear with minimal effort
certain players even began running an
excellent life orb set with both stabs
and rest talk which packed longevity in
addition to power and so eventually
heracross was predictably banned from
yuu so did herocross just languish and
bl well not quite it eventually found a
resurgence in ou not quite enough to
become a true ou pokemon again but its
niche was legitimate and it saw
tournament success for the first time
since diamond and pearl first sizzler's
uses had dropped off a cliff for a
number of reasons second the roll hair
across roasted phil was not something
sizzler could replicate in its
desperation to handle the externally
exasperating breadloom the playerbase
turned to heracrus whose choice band gut
sleep talks set turns spore into an
opportunity to fire off its devastating
attacks which cleave through even resist
even glitchcore couldn't switch into it
safely because of the insane damage
banned guts facade did it was a small
niche but a unique valuable one that
brought heracross back to a legitimate
place in gppou also despite enormous
power creep heracross once again had a
niche in ubers it was smaller this time
around but its scarf set was legit it
was hyper specific but it was one of the
few pokemon able to switch in safely
against dark ride it resisted both dark
pulse and focus blast as being slept by
dark void would activate guts and
darkrai was eviscerated by both megahorn
and close combat which were threatening
to much of the uber's tier even giratina
origin didn't particularly enjoy
switching into guts megahorn with
stealth rock up heracross wasn't exactly
the kind of thing you slapped on every
team but it certainly had its place and
it could be a fierce late game cleaner
since mega horn tore through mewtwo and
the ladies with ruthless efficiency so
overall heracross had a successful
adventurous generation four with the
immense power creep of generation five
heracross was never gonna make it an oyu
sizor continued to dominate glidescore
had gained poison heal and there were
several obnoxious new additions like
jealousy that would make life difficult
for it this sent heracrus down to yuyu
and there it became a start it pretty
much operated in two modes either it
would be tasked with tearing through
offensive teams with choice scarf or it
would act as a defensive team's worst
nightmare with swords dance using
leftovers for that all-important
longevity in both roles it was
outstanding especially because it had
never been easier to circumvent its
limited defensive profile it could hit
the field easily thanks to the many
u-turn and vault switching using pokemon
it could partner up with allowing it to
bludgeon the opposition repeatedly and
it had plenty of checks like zapdos and
evie like gligar but as always heracross
could destroy them with good play it
only got more dangerous over time too as
in black and white one it received its
dream world ability moxie which elevated
its scarf set to new heights it wasn't
just more effective at cleaning now it
was so capable of creating an instant
snowball effect where it take over and
finish a game with such minimal effort
that offensive teams now had to go out
of their way to not get swept by it and
even that might not be enough suddenly
not even being naturally bulky resist
was enough to stave heracross off even
something like offensive zapdos also had
to stay healthy enough to not drop to a
plus one close combat this was perhaps
the most significant contributing factor
to needle queen's increase in usage that
eventually lifted it out of are you it
was one of the very few pokemon that
could withstand hero crosses hits
without going full defensive plus even
if it wasn't exactly foolproof sure it
would stood here across his stats
decently but one earthquake on the
switch and it was in trouble heracross
loved making earthquake predictions in
general since it also slammed other
switches to its stabs like chandelure
and crowfish what made haircraft even
more effective was that it was part of
the fighting boom that defined much of
yuu's offense when paired with other
dangerous fighters usually myansha but
also very feasibly verizon kobaleon or
scrafty it was difficult for the
opponent to withstand the combined
fighting type of salt and as such scarf
harecross often wound up sweeping even
teams that were well prepared for it on
paper of course source dance terrace
continued to excel particularly at the
peaks of hale's dominance with leftovers
it was one of the few pokemon capable of
threatening those teams it was always
just common enough to prevent stall from
ever getting comfortable it wasn't just
a stall killer either since it also ran
guts it thus completely turned the
tables on would-be answers like coffee
grigas and sableye and was just a
fiercely effective attacker in general
the fact that such a brutally dangerous
pokemon was often overlooked was just
testament to how obscenely terrifying
defining and prominent the scarf set was
it's not often that scarf pokemon are
also among the most threatening pokemon
in a tier but that's exactly what
heracross was so chalk up another
success for the beetle in generation
five if you've got insectophobia no
worries vgc is one of the hardest places
for bug types to thrive spread rock and
fire moves have made it so only the most
exceptional insects are able to find a
place in vgc greatness scizor volcarona
araquinen escavaleire durant sha ninja
most of these bugs have some sort of
unique trait to set them apart be it
wonder guard or water bubble or
technician bullet punch it's a rough
ecosystem for the bug type so what sets
heracross apart well how about 125 base
attack one of the best abilities in the
game and access to stat megahorn yeah
that's that's pretty good heracross has
plenty of things going against it in vgc
it's not particularly fast its defenses
aren't that great and his typing leaves
it vulnerable to plenty of pokemon but
what it does offer is some of the best
in class single target bug damage in the
game and over time various trainers have
been tempted by that massive power now
bug isn't a particularly sought after
offensive type except for a few
situations one of which might be to
remove psychic types like maybe the
cresselia that dominated vgc 2012 one of
the first players to show heracross's
potential was randy r and anime qua r
anima developed the heracross team for
the international wi-fi challenge in
april 2012. our inanimate heracross was
a one-man cresselia removal force
outfitted with a bug gem and some
investment in its already okay special
defense to handle one of the format's
most dominant mods our inanimate also
gave his hair across close combat and
faint for some priority but
unfortunately his special defense
somewhat went to waste against many
crescelius which opted for psyshock and
bypassed his book he also showcased what
would become a common option on
heracross teams tailwind in this case on
his togekiss nevertheless our inanimate
inspired marco niskor sandoval to give
heracross a shot at pleasanton regionals
and this guard put the team to great use
winning the regionals and evaporating
some cresselias in the process but when
it comes to harecross players in 2012
there's another name we'd remiss not to
mention long time nugget bridge member
cassie at 2012 us nationals cassie
played a team that looked quite a bit
like the popular hail room teams going
around at the time and for harry cross
trick room seemed like a smart choice
give it a bug gem or a flame warp twist
the dimensions and let the bug go wild
but cassie's team was a bluff sure her
team had a trick room mode with
chandelure and obama snow but heracross
wasn't benefiting from it in fact her
haircross wasn't bug jam at all or even
flamewarp and it didn't need tailwind
support it was choice scarf a nasty
surprise to let it outrun key opponents
like gladios and zapdos cassie
recognized that even without a boost
heracross's megahorns were so strong
that it could one hit kale especially
defensive cresselia off rip not to say
anything of the ladies with stone edge
it could also remove opposing zapdos and
close combat was a useful second step to
hit tyranitar and high dragon as well as
opposing fire types cassie rounded out
the set with the ubiquitous rock slide
and here's the thing even though harry
cross wasn't carrying a flamewarp that
didn't mean it couldn't benefit from
getting a little singed cassie could
self-lift her hair across with her
prankster sableye giving it an immediate
boost while keeping its fearsome scarf
speed tier this strategy took her all
the way to the top cut of the us
nationals where she fell to eventual
tournament winner wolf glick and made
her name as a hero cross expert
2013 with its focus on landorus tea and
other genies was a difficult format for
heracross it also faced stiff
competition from kung kelter who brought
more bulk and priority along with the
same ability and even better power that
said a few beetles still managed to find
their way into tournament top cuts at
the salem regionals randy claw was in
for a familiar sight when he went up
against his own heracross team piloted
by max douglas randy defeated the team
but max still finished in the top eight
of the tournament over in europe
christopher coryo arthur ran a double
bug team with sizzler and heracross
coryo also found heracross's natural
climate the rain side of his team kept
his bugs from getting crisped up too
much and managed to net him top 16
placements at both the italian and uk
nationals but 2013's undisputed king of
heracross was steven morioka who managed
to take hair across to even greater
heights than it had ever seen before
steven gave haircross a whole trophy
case finishing second at two separate
regionals steven's first haircross used
at the 2012 fall regionals was very
similar to randy claude's version bug
gem guts with megahorn close combat
protect and faint in lieu of a coverage
move backed up by a whole bevy of speed
control steven used all of tailwind icy
wind thunderwave and trick room at some
point to facilitate his terror cross
with speed control coming from other
places steven was also able to give his
hero across decent special bulk enough
to lift unboosted heat waves from common
enemies steven's eventual nationals and
worlds teams had a supporting cast of
tyranitar thunderous eye heat ran
corcelia and brellow he emphasized the
defensive synergy between harry cross
teetar and heatran who appreciated some
of bug typing's only saving graces its
resistances to ground and fighting type
moves in addition to the obviously good
cresselia match up heracross also could
1v1 pokemon like keytar he ran ludicolo
and even hitmontop who it could wear
what really kicked steven's team into
overdrive though was the release of
heracross's dream world ability moxie
very few things could survive a bug gem
boosted megahorn once heracross launched
that off steven was off to the races
often able to chain kales and give
heracross an attack boost that put guts
to shame faint's priority could also
help here by picking off sashmonds and
their last legs this heracross team
managed to get top 8 at the us nationals
and top 16 at worlds that year and after
worlds at fall 2013 regionals steven's
dedication to hair cross finally paid
off when he won a gold medal to hang
around heracross's horn and special
thanks to steven morioka for the
information generation six gifted
heracross a mega evolution on the
downside mega haircross lost speed upon
mega evolving on the upside it was still
more than fast enough to do what hera
always did best bust up slowly bulky
pokemon on another upside it also gained
a ton of bulk which was immensely
valuable and allowing it to tank hits
from faster threats it wouldn't have
outsped anyway which actually increased
the number of pokemon it could go
toe-to-toe with on another upside still
it gained an absolutely obscene base
attack boost which made the term
overkill seem like an understatement
there was absolutely nothing it couldn't
rip the shreds about a million times
over as if that wasn't enough its new
ability was effectively a power boost as
well sure losing guts was unfortunate
but skill link guaranteeing five hit pin
missiles and rock blasts meant that mega
hera was hitting harder than it would
with mega horn and stone edge and with
more accuracy to boot of course mega
hero was far from the only pokemon
around that was nigh on wallable but
unlike its main competition mega
meta-chan it could earthquake asia slash
into dust giving it a significant
advantage in the xy metagame and there
was another fierce mega that heracross
competed with the similarly obscenely
strong mawwhile whose defensive typing
was excellent however amhara's superior
speed was invaluable in letting it blast
through pokemon like rotom watch and
mega venusaur that would otherwise stop
ma wild in its tracks its lack of an
earthquake weakness meant it didn't fear
landrieu's tea or glyce score at all
either which was huge additionally its
close combat was enormous in ripping
through the heat ran that was similarly
irritating for mawile finally mega
heracross was pretty much as automatic a
one pokemon stall killing machine as one
could get and thus saw plenty of usage
during the style's burst in uses though
not the most intuitive pick rain teams
loved using mega heracross reign
excelled at ripping through offense but
were destroyed by stahl and this allowed
them to balance out their matchups once
age of slash was banned mega heracross
got even better as it no longer had to
include earthquake into its moveset and
once mega maw wild got banned it had
even less competition yes there is still
mega meta champ but mew also became
incredibly popular to stonewall it and
mega heracross effortlessly ripped
through mew with pin missile then ores
came around and in the wake of mega
metagross diancie and altaria heracross
was forgotten for a while but once new
toy syndrome wore off terrorcross
returned with a vengeance with the help
of volt turn support from tier staples
like rotom watch landers theory and
tornado steering and jirachi mega
heracross would find its way on the
field and once it did it was pretty much
impossible to stop it from claiming a ko
especially as it enjoyed running
substitute to ease prediction against
switching that tried to play off
resistances the protection against burns
from a loma molo skull certainly didn't
hurt either clefable had become one of
the most popular pokemon around and it
resisted both stabs but it certainly
wasn't taking on herocross's insanely
powerful rock blast it was an immensely
reliable law breaker against pretty much
anything it would face now heracross
wasn't the most splashable mega around
but it always had its place whenever
stall or spike's balance teams got too
comfortable harold would show up and
wreck them plus even against offense
megahero crosses fantastic bulk and
useful typing ensured it would be able
to at worst keep something like superior
in check and trade one for one that's a
lot better than most dedicated wall
breakers and so mega heracross was an
understated but always effective piece
of auras oyu regular haircross returned
to yuu and there it was excellent once
again it massively enjoyed the buff
knockoff which ensured the scar set
could irritate even would be hard walls
however it was its choice band and
source dance sets that came to be
harrah's calling card this time around
right off the bat x and y uu was
populated by plenty of balance and stall
teams and hera showed and shredding them
to ribbons then by virtue of mega hera's
success in ou hare cross moved up in
usage and left uu for a while but then
oraz came around and base heracross
returned to rip you used bulky cores
once again it was always there reliable
at ensuring defensive teams never got
too out of hand and thereby cementing a
solid place for itself in the tier
however it was during kung kellder's
reign of terror that heracross really
began to shine using the leftover source
dance set for several notable advantages
whereas bulk of concelter was immensely
broken it did have times where it
struggled to really get going against
the opponent's floor just crobat or
cresselia heracross being completely
unwallable did not have this problem and
effortlessly shredded the balanced
course that tripped over themselves to
not lose the conch it blasted through
floor just with plus two megahorn and
could tear through crobat with a stone
edge on the switch plus unlike conk who
had to use choice ban and have good
prediction to do so heracross did this
while maintaining the excellent
longevity of leftovers furthermore
haircross could itself act as an
offensive check to conk eventually
konkelder was banned but heracross
maintained its niche as a valuable
balance breaker in oraz yuyu so overall
the sixth generation was another
excellent one for herrera cross bass and
mega alike gen 6 vgc wasn't a good look
for heracross talonflame is basically
built to exterminate this thing and on
top of that you have megazard zapdos and
volcarona everywhere all terrible
matchups bug gem was also gone reducing
its ability to pump out immediate damage
and potentially grab a moxie boost the
cherry on top fairy types who resisted
both his stabs and could easily hit back
super effectively the one saving grace
was heracross's own good matchup against
mega kangaskhan and tyranitar once more
2014 wasn't a format lacking for strong
physical attackers meaning that the
format was full of intimidates that
could diminish hair crosses one
attractive quality its biggest enemy was
mawwhile a fairy type who could exploit
hair crosses low physical defenses and
intimidated before evolving however with
the advent of mega evolution heracross
was capable of doing big damage even
through attack drops and it's hard not
to be just a little bit tempted by that
juicy 185 attack stat right and skill
link pin missile is 5 more base power
and 10 more accurate than mega horn and
you get rock blast too and yet despite
more valiant efforts players really
struggled to make mega heracross work it
simply wasn't worth using a mega slot
for and the 10 base speed drop really
hurt what's more one of heracross's best
qualities is as a willowist absorber a
trait it completely loses if it chooses
to switch over to skill league you can
see this reflected in 2014 results where
mega heracross only had a single notable
placement courtesy of pietro cheery who
placed 24th with it at the italian
nationals in order to access
megaherocross's massive power pietro
paired it with tailwind talonflame but
the more successful heracross placements
were all regular heracross llenn alica
dwell and tyler hagan ran a team with
good old scarf heracross that resulted
in an 18th in long beach and a 12th in
missouri but heracross never cut top
eight at an event daunted by the
unfavorable meta and special thanks to
len alica duel for the information
pietro wasn't done with heracross yet
though he brought the beetle back in
mega form to nationals in 2015 this time
placing 18th in germany and over in the
uk ethan hall managed a 20th place
however these were heracross's only
placements of the year and its last
appearance at all in gen 6 and it had no
place in the 2016's restricted meta with
generation 7's infestation of fairy
types and general sense of new toy
syndrome mega heracross's initial lower
uses was predictable but then again so
was its swift ban once it hit yuyu the
very concept of having mega heracross
and yuyu was mind-boggling it was
briefly reconsidered for another trial
but then the player base resoundingly
agreed that that would be ridiculous
amusing though this was it did
potentially leave mega hera out to dry
if it couldn't find an ounce fortunately
that wasn't the case as as many talents
were eventually put to good use the meta
eventually shifted towards bulky teams
with seemingly unbreakable course until
mega harris showed up that is and
dismantled them effortlessly there was
nothing it couldn't destroy and it
punished such teams ruthlessly even more
so than mega maw while since it didn't
fear glidescore and magnazone at all it
wasn't even potentially traded with by
tang growth like ma wild was mega
heracross was even more dangerous with
two of the terrains running around oyu
it was most commonly seen alongside
topafini whose misty terrain shielded
mega heracross from crippling status
thereby allowing it to tear through
toxopex and friends with maximum
efficiency however mega heracross also
occasionally enjoyed partnering with
topobulu and slotted bullet seed into
his moveset which became incredibly
powerful under grassy terrain and made
haircross even more unwallable plus the
passive recovery was invaluable in
maintaining hair crosses health
preventing it from getting worn down by
passive damage from spikes and the like
and of course preserving mega
heracross's great natural bulk to be put
to use against offense as well it was a
great answer to topoboolu itself and it
had plenty of other valuable resists
most notably dark because you could
never be too safe against ashgreninja
while also checking boosted mega maw
while additionally it could stretch that
grass resist to help against choice
carton so overall mega heracross had a
solid place in generation 7ou and saw
plenty of tournament success meanwhile
regular haircross dropped to ru again a
mind-boggling concept sure there's power
creep but how did it not just destroy
the whole tier oh wait that's exactly
what it did with this choice scarf and
flame orb sets alike the former was as
strong as always but the latter was
downright vicious not only because it
ripped everything to shreds though it
did do that but also because generation
7 had nerf burn damage to a paltry 6.25
percent switching around and stalling it
out was far less reliable than in the
previous generation as such it quickly
became a contentious pokemon within the
tier and wound up banned just like its
mega form had been in yuyu sadly for the
first time ever base here cross was
unable to succeed in yuyu at least
compared to the previous generations it
wasn't that it was bad far from it no it
was more that sizzler was now yuu and in
a cruel repeat of the platinum metagame
so many years prior it was just too much
for haracross to consistently keep up
with sizzler's all-around excellence
made it one of the best pokemon in the
tier and though heracross certainly had
its own advantages it was far more
specific relative to its competition as
such it didn't see much usage however
all in all generation 7 was another
successful one for both base and mega
heracross after all before base
harrycross found itself stifled in yuyu
it had blasted ryu apart tapus
incineroar megamence landers t gen seven
was not a fun type for heracross and
very few players even attempted to make
it work the only player to achieve any
success with heracross was james
farrugia who as you can see from his
twitter profile picture and youtube
channel name is uniquely poised to chase
beetle greatness james went all in on
making mega heracross work one of his
small adjustments was to use a hare
cross with moxie over guts and because
james was always going to be mega
evolving hair cross guts wouldn't do
anything for him whereas rare occasions
where heracross could snag a kale before
evolving could mean a boost to its
attack as if it needed one every single
move in heracross's set was 120 base
damage or higher from pin missile to
close combat to bullet seat to rock
blast the stab moves are self-evident
but they were quite well positioned to
take on multiple pokemon in the meta
like snorlax gothitel cortana and ttar
being the most prevalent rock type moves
should be self-explanatory by this point
and bullet c was helpful against bulky
waters like feeney and gastrodon all in
all pretty good coverage but with poor
defenses and lowered speed how does this
bug even hit anything well james had two
answers to that tailwind and trick room
mega heracross's base 75 speed actually
positioned it very well to operate under
both forms of speed control which james
set with porygon 2 and pelipper peller's
reign also helped keep herocrats safe
against fire moves and at that point all
harry cross had to do was get a hit off
charizard on the other side of the field
troubling you not after a rock blast
snorlax in your face no chance it was
living a close combat james was able to
get fifth place at the melbourne open
with this team giving mega heracross its
best placement ever and one day in the
sun for gen 7 even if it honestly
preferred the rain and special thanks to
james ferrugia for the information sadly
sword and shield took away heracross's
mega and even heracross itself for a
time it didn't return until the isle of
armor where it settled into yuyu it was
immensely difficult for many teams
relying on the standards the rooney's
slow bro kobali encore because it
handles the root and kobali on wealth
and was a fighting type that tore
through slow bro as well as its backup
fighting resist noivern it did have
plenty of fighting type competition into
rakion keldeo obstagoon and the
aforementioned kobalion most notably
their higher speed made them much better
against opposing offensive teams whereas
heracross was more geared towards
dissecting bulky cores still it had
enough distinct valuable advantages to
have a legitimate place in you such as
spikes which had now received as if it
didn't have enough ways to spread damage
onto the opposing team however for all
its good points heracross didn't have
enough to be a true uu pokemon and it
fell to argue where it was instantly
banned for tearing the tier to absolute
shreds for comparison the meta had
struggled to contain the likes of
fighters like beware and passimian so
when hero cross showed up it just
destroyed everything then the crown
tundra came around and the power creep
of the increased pokedex meant heracross
was no longer blatantly overpowered so
it returned to aru where it remains
today it thrives as a balance breaker as
it shreds all of register reuniklist and
umbreon which is immensely valuable to
have all in one slot while common checks
like crobat and togekiss are ruined when
their heavy duty boots are knocked off
heracross itself runs boots a decent
amount allowing it to stick around to
repeatedly hammer away at the opponent
thereby winning its own aggressive
version of the war of attrition it has
plenty of variety in how it can mess
with the opponent too since it no longer
runs the flamework set's facade it can
choose to lay spike's boost with source
dense or increase his coverage against
crobat and togekiss with stone edge it
isn't just good at beating up defensive
pokemon either its useful speed tier
places it above common mid-range
offensive threats like circuitry and
metagross and it is quite a solid
overall pokemon in argue as for uu
heracross maintains a niche in that tier
two though konkelda remains a massive
threat heracross once again
differentiates itself with a few key
adjustments first its speed out running
asia slash and primarina is excellent
second heracross threatens to instantly
destroy slow king and tangrow third
heracross is able to check two of the
tier's best pokemon and zygarde 10
percent and the rude fourth is of course
spikes now there's a reason why
concelter is used so much and why here
cross is relegated to more niche
territory heracross's ability to
completely shred bulky teams isn't too
needed whereas concelter's ability to
shrug off chip damage with powerful
drain punches and rip apart pokemon like
extra joe hi dragon and scarf diggersby
proves itself to be more consistently
valuable still heracross maintains a
niche and sees sporadic usage as a
result and so overall though has
definitely been on a stranger trajectory
than usual the eighth generation has
been another successful one for
heracross and that's it so how great was
haracross actually well from generation
two to eight every single one has been a
success for our megahorn spamming friend
it actually started out as a defensive
pillar in its debut generation but in
every generation after that it's been
one of the purest offensive terrors
around and has shredded pretty much
every metagame it's landed in shining an
ou many a time occasionally even ubers
and even being banned from several
iterations of uu and aryu and in vgc it
may not be the greatest thing but it
still hits really hard and it's still
got impressive placements from its
dedicated users so all in all heracross
has had an outstanding competitive
history and is an elite singles pokemon
thanks for watching everyone and as
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pokemon content and in the comments i
want to know what do you think about
competitive heracross what would you
give it to make it the true ou status
what would you give it to make it do
something in vgc whatever it is let me
know in the comments and thank you so
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