Pokémon Rant #1

Ever since the release of Pokémon ORAS (6th generation), I have seen the meta-game evolve in an unexpected way. This once intellectually-stimulating game has fallen from grace and has turned into a meta-game where everyone has decided that their main priority is to status their opponent’s Pokémon. This mentality has caused many players, in my experience, to make brain-dead plays/decisions in battles. This is likely because are no repercussions for doing so, unlike for other statuses like sleep (smogon sleep clause). But before I dive into this topic, how about we take a walk down memory lane and see how the previous generations led up to the current one?

Box art legendaries for DPP

The DPP (Diamond/Pearl/Platinum) meta-game was the 4th installment (generation) of the Pokémon franchise, and was the first installment where there was a prominent online community for competive Pokémon. In the DPP meta-game, OU was arguably the most balanced. Unfortunately, the variety then was quite scarce, since there was a limited selection of Pokémon to choose from. In this meta-game, everything had a check/counter (unless someone got really lucky with Machamp’s DynamicPunch), and all of the play styles (balanced, hyper offense, stall) were quite viable. This meta-game promoted critical thinking, as you had to predict what options your opponent had to take against you in order to win. Also note that, in this generation, status moves like Thunder Wave were not as prevalent as they are now. This environment made for an enjoyable meta-game where the winner of a battle was decided on their skill, and not luck (most of the time).

The 5 central powers for Generation 5 of Pokmeon

After this came the Black and White (5th generation) OU meta-game, where the tier revolved around the following Pokémon: Ninetails, Politoed, Hippowdon, Abomasnow, and Tyranitar. These Pokémon all respectively had the following abilities: Drought (Sun), Drizzle (Rain), Sand Stream (Sandstorm), and Snow Warning (Hail). These weather conditions, for the most part, hindered your opponent’s Pokémon and gave tremendous benefits to your own Pokémon, assuming your team was built well. The most common abusers of these weather conditions were Volcarona (Sun/Rain), Keldeo (Rain), Excadrill (Sand), and Black Kyurem (Hail). From this list of abusers, the most common were Volcarona and Keldeo, who, under the effects of weather, could manage to OHKO or 2HKO almost all opposing Pokémon. Volcarona had its immensely powerful 120BP Fire Blast under the sun (essentially 180 BP) along with its immensely powerful 120BP Hurricane under the rain (100% accurate). Keldeo had its immensely powerful 120 BP hydro pump and utility 80 BP scald (180BP and 120BP respectively under weather). Now, a newcomer may wonder why this was all so instrumental to the meta-game. The simple answer is that throughout this generation weather turns were endless, meaning that these abusers could run rampant through unprepared teams with relative ease. So, in a meta-game with one overly powerful play-style (weather), the meta-game soon became dull, as the same abusers were seen on every team. It is for these reasons the 5th generation was coined as the generation of Weather Wars.

I believe it’s also important to point out that a very game-changing move introduced in this generation was Scald. This move’s secondary affect is quite nasty, as it has a 30% chance to status your opponent with burn, which lowers your opponent’s attack by two stages and removes 12.5% of their health each turn. This was pretty game-changing, since it allowed many users of Scald (primarily water-types) to defeat Pokémon they were never meant to defeat. The classic example is Keldo vs Amoongus. Amoongus completely walls Keldeo (bar HP flying Keldeo), but with some pressure from residual damage from burn and entry hazards it would be worn down quite quickly. Also, most physical attackers had to be much more careful when facing users who carried Scald, as they would risk getting burned and put out of commission for the entire game. Scald’s introduction was likely the entry point for many users to realize the power of RNG based tactics.

Image of all the mega evolutions which were introduced to ORAS and XY

Pokémon XY/ORAS (6th generation) brought with it a slew of new game mechanics. These include: move adjustments, typing adjustments, critical-hit mechanics, weather mechanics, and, the most gaming changing of all, mega evolution. Several move adjustments were made, but I believe the most influential of these would have to be the change to Knock Off. Knock Off received a BP boost, which powered it up from 20BP to 65BP. This, in tandem with its new secondary effect, gave it a 50% BP boost if the opponent was holding an item. This brings Knock Off’s power to a frightening 97.5 BP. But the ride doesn’t stop there: this move became even more powerful due to the typing changes introduced. Game Freak decided that Dark and Ghost types moves had to deal neutral damage against Steel types. These changes, when combined, made the move Knock Off a low-risk, high-reward move, due to its very little resistances, high damage output, and niche in removing the opponent’s item. This change gave rise to Dark type Pokémon like Bisharp being commonly used, as they could take great advantage with their high base attack. Likewise, the other typing changes were game-changing as well. The new Fairy types managed to tame the offensive presence of Dragon-type Pokémon (Since Fairy-types are immune to Dragon-type moves). This new typing also breathed new life into Pokémon like Clefable, Mawile, and Azumarill, which gained impressive offensive and defensive capabilities.

Critical hits (one of the biggest momentum changers) received a buff in the form of frequency (15% chance instead of 7.5% chance) at only a minimal drawback of it dealing 1.5 times the normal damage instead of a 2.0 times. In retrospect, there is no real drawback, since most of the time all you need is a 1.5x boost to kill off an opponent considering how strong Pokémon are nowadays (I’m looking at all of you mega evolutions!).

Now, all these changes weren’t for the worst. In this generation, weather was nerfed and was restricted to 5 turns. This had a tremendous impact on the meta-game, since the representation of weather teams soon became scarce. Ultimately, this change allowed a more diverse array of teams to enter the meta-game.

It is finally time for the bitter sweet implications of the new game mechanics: mega evolution. Mega evolution is great in the fact that it gave spiced up old Pokémon and gave them fresh start. In most cases they made them a lot more viable in a certain aspect (think offense or defense). What I dislike about mega evolutions is the fact that it made several Pokémon too fast, too strong, too bulky, and in general into mindless sweepers. You can probably watch several replays where someone could lead off with a Charizard x, set up with a Dragon Dance then proceed to sweep their opponent’s team. This change resulted in an over-centralized meta-game where it’s mandatory to run your own mega Pokémon to be able to compete with your opponent. The only true counter for these fast and strong threats is Thunder Wave, as it drops their speed just enough so that your strong and fast Pokémon can defeat your opponent’s!

OP Anything Goes team for comedic relief

Now the time has come for my opinion on the current state of the Pokémon meta-game, specifically OU. But firsts lets step back and look of the state of the past meta-games. In the 4th generation the meta-game was balanced, fun, and thought-provoking but was somewhat stale, since there were limited Pokémon from which to create a unique team. The 5th generation adopted the mentality of fighting broken with broken, and consisted of many high-stakes match where one single mistake could cost you the whole game. Both of these meta-games were quite enjoyable, albeit both being quite stale due to variety. Then came the 6th generation, a meta-game so diverse that the chances of you having the same team as your opponent is practically 0. In this meta-game there are so many viable Pokémon that most matches are highly decided on team match-up since every mega evolution can tear a whole through an unprepared team with little ease. So how do we counter the new fast and strong mega evolutions the meta-game? By running your own mega of course! But wait there’s one more thing that almost every player has opted to start running. Yup, you guessed it: Thunder Wave. Since the meta-game is filled with so many fast and strong Pokémon, it’s impossible to have a universal check too; for the majority of them, the only solution is to rely on Thunder Wave, which offers speed control and complete paralysis.

Overall, the meta-game has come along way. We can see that it has had its ups and downs, and every generation had a small issue, be it from variety to broken game mechanics. But we can also see that the game has become more reliant on RNG-based mechanics to deal with threat; this displeases me, since I often see players simply going for these RNG-based tactics since they have no repercussions. However, what’s most infuriating is that sometimes players even choose these tactics over making plays that could win them the game. I can only hope that for Gen 7, Thunder Wave will not be as prevelant.