xXBlu3BreathXx

It probably wont be buffed to 120bp (devs like to be consistent with the main games if they can) until we get fairy types so I wouldn't hold out hope for the near future.

Sorry it took so long for an update, I will update the OP at some point with the following changes: Thanks again to @Umbramol

IGN: BlueBreath Reason: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Preferred Tiers: OU but can play any if you got cash to make teams Competitive accolades (optional, although it certainly increases your chances of getting picked/having an higher salary): I'm bad trust me :( Other random stuff: Yes.

Update: I will try to give a brief summary for reasons. Would also like opinions on Gengar and Rotom forms after gaining nasty plot. I will update the OP when a consensus is reached on those two.

Will try to update this in a week or two, I want to gauge the meta a bit more first.

Woah I was just weighing in some input there, I ultimately agree with your stance. I was more coming from the angle of a Draco reversal since that is what appeared to inspire your post and it was newly introduced (most players are aware it could be removed/banned). And by no means did what I say was the “right” solution, sorry if my post came out the wrong way. I’m open to suggestions on how to tackle the issue but would prefer complex bans to be avoided if need be but understand that may not be a reality.

I agree that there is currently a problem with those mons you mentioned but I am unsure if complex banning everything is the right solution. In an ideal world we would have the fairy typing and the problem is pretty much solved but we realistically have no knowledge when or even if we get them. Even some legendary mons could fix the situation e.g. mew for conk, but that has the same problem mentioned earlier. Now I’m not claiming that I know what the ideal solution would be currently, just I’m not sure complex banning everything is right. It could lead to more complex bans and when it comes to the point where we have so many complex bans it may be difficult to understand the competitive scene. If we do go down that path I would think Volcarona fills similar characteristics, would we complex ban quiver dance on it? Well that would mostly kill the mon but we know that quiver dance is the core issue on it. Similarly what if we ban the wrong aspect of the mon? Say with your Conkeldurr example that people start running toxic orb instead, sure it’s worse but effectively it still performs its job. Overall I really like that you brought up this topic but complex bans appear to be a short term fix, if the main issue here is Hydreigon then maybe Draco should be banned again. Again, no clue what the right solution would be currently, I just hope we get more tools to deal with them.

There is no deadline, I have stuff sitting in my mail for years to be claimed.

While I agree that it is annoying, it holds true to the flavour of Pokemon and gives a quick option to lower happiness for frustration (lol). Maybe the ideal solution would be to highlight the happiness when the mon is traded so you can boost it right away.

Most of the time this obscure mon in the current system is a result of counter teaming, which shouldn't be an issue if you change your team up between rounds. I've witnessed many counter team fail because their mon(s) that were supposed to carry them are suddenly dead weight. The issue with a LIT is you cannot change your team in the earlier rounds to prevent an auto loss. I have participated in VGC events in the past. VGC is a completely different ball game due to time restraints, many events run for the whole day and the bigger ones can run into the next day. When I refer to "Pokemon is not meant to be played like this" I mean that both players should have no concrete knowledge of the opposing team(s). The reason nobody complains about this in VGC is because VGC uses a swiss format for the earlier rounds and single elimination for the top cut. It would be incredibly difficult to scout anyone in a real life event, essentially each round you are paired with someone with a similar win/loss ratio but most likely have no clue who they are let alone what they are running. I guess it could be a small problem for the top cut but the vast majority of players don't have to worry about this. I mean no doubt there will always be some differences but my problem with this system is that free information is given away. A lot about playing Pokemon is gaining information, just from Team Preview alone you can infer some things. Some sets solely rely on the opponent not knowing what their set is, e.g. I see my opponent is uses HP electric Volcarona so I will never use my Gyarados to check it. If I had not known this my opponent would have got a knock out. Sure this specific set is gimmicky but Volcarona can run a variety of moves and figuring out the coverage could mean it does nothing. It is usually best to build multiple solid teams and just switch between rounds to prevent this. Sure it costs a lot of time and resources but counter teaming in of itself is a huge risk and this will capitalize off that. Sometimes matchup is rough but you can still pull it back. Sorry for misunderstanding, I figured you were bringing a whole new team into a tournament. As for this being a gimmick tournament once in a while I wouldn't mind a trial but would much rather have a traditional tournament.

500 wins is quite a lot, especially if you want to earn it for multiple tiers. Maybe win streaking could help you earn more points or your final position on the leader board can give you additional points as an end of season reward. E.g. Top 10 + 500 points, Top 20 + 400 points.

Usually replays break after a new update hits. Darmanitan is listed as zen mode in the OU pokedex and its probably just a visual error.

Knock off has not been updated, we don't have megas, z stones and fairy Pokemon yet.

VGC doesn't really have many scenarios where you can have a bad matchup. It's more about planning ahead to what you think your opponent with bring, specifically what they will lead. Most cases of a bad matchup is just having a bad lead matchup. I'm not exactly sure how to phrase this but you say it is unlikely for this scenario to happen, there are many noob vs noob games in the early rounds of a tournament. Most people which play this game have no idea how it works and can still win just because of RNG or some insane matchup. I would much rather players worry about swapping their team instead of thinking "if I run into X mon with Y move in the tournament I lose". Pokemon is not meant to be played like this, you are supposed to make a educated guess on what they might or should be running. E.g. I see Chansey, Garchomp and 4 other pokemon that don't learn Stealth Rocks. I will assume that Chansey will be carrying Rocks, however with the system you propose I will know that Garchomp is the Rocker. This is not fair for both parties to know each others full movesets. Sure with scouting you can make an assumption they will bring that same team but it is never guaranteed. Tournament play would be fundamentally different from match making and PSL, to me that just doesn't make any sense. Why should there be different rules in play for only tournaments? Counter teaming will always happen but not to the extent you would probably think. The only times I see it working in full force is if someone has used the exact same team multiple rounds in a row, at that point you are kind of asking for it. If you were serious about tournament play I would advise getting 2 teams and some substitutions to throw off counter teaming, there isn't much you can do to lower the barrier of entry without changing how the game is designed to be played. If anything getting competitive mons and items cheaper is how you would do it. Sure 5x31 or even 6x31 are optimal but new players can make do with 2x31 and have the rest 27+ to start off with. Testing a team in a tournament isn't a great idea, players are there to win. Imagine if you reach the finals and want to test out a brand new team, sure it can work but finals isn't exactly a great place to do so.

Though I like the principle of lowering the barrier of entry for newer players I do not think this suggestion is feasible. I would like to go over your cons again as I believe I should elaborate. "Bad matchups are amplified" This is really unhealthy for the tournament, why should the better player lose because he/she couldn't change his/her team? Even in VGC where you are forced to bring only 1 team it does allow both players to change up their 4 picks (out of 6) to make each game different. Not to mention scouting is near impossible with the bracket changing every round. At the end of the day, it would suck to see the better player lose because his opponent brought an obscure mon that is not very consistent but was amazing for that one team. I would also like to point out that some people prefer to use different play styles depending on who they are playing, if they were forced to use only one team that could place an impact on their results. "Surprise gimmick moves/pokemon are less powerful" If you take this at face value, many strategies become useless. Got a mon with an unusual hidden power? Well now your opponent will never get lured in. This kind of ruins creativity and consistency. Now if we look at this from a broader angle, no doubt would we see usage stats being very skewed. The gimmicky mons would fall down tiers and the better players would somewhat control the top used mons because they are simply playing more games. Another point is that scouting is very unreliable. Sure you could try to fully counter team poor Timmy in a tournament but what if he changed his team? Suddenly you are the one that has a poor matchup and Timmy wins as a result. If you are very concerned about being scouted ask your friends to borrow a team or grind up another squad of mons. You should treat every game uniquely and be more concerned with how consistent your teams are rather than counter teaming.