#pokemon metagame

[hjyboy1218]

Being really into competitive pokemon but not actually playing very much has led me to feel both of these at the same time:

[bug-coded]

pla haters confuse me so much. what do you MEAN i'm supposed to respect the opinion of someone who says volo is a cheap twist villian even though they drop many MANY subtle hints (i.e wielder instead of trainer). what do you MEAN you don't love all the little lore drops throughout the game like the old verses that tell the tale of the celestica people. what do you MEAN you don't like adaman and irida and cyllene and laventon an

[weedle-testaburger]

i hate metagamers. just saw one of these fuckers say 'ditto is not a good pokemon'. they should be strung up for that, we all know ditto is perfect

[strontiumsun]

Thoughts on the TCG Pocket meta now that I've played it for a week

Well I've certainly enjoyed playing TCG Pocket. I'm surprised at how easy it is to get rare cards and rare art cards on top of that, and the streamlined battle mode is easy on-the-go fun. But despite not having played the actual TCG, I'm not unaware of how much nuance was cut out of the game to streamline it into a bite-sized experience. In specific, the metagame lacks depth.

Of the ten archetypes, Fire, Water, Grass, Lightning and Psychic have clear strategies baked into the cards (with Water having multiple, IMO). Fighting, Darkness, Metal, Dragon and Colorless, not so much. Some of these strategies are meta, some are not.

Meta Strategies:

Grass: A surprisingly reliable deck, with access to an excellent supporter card in Erika, healing +50 hp to any Grass Pokemon. Exeggutor is your lead mon - regular or ex, both work - with its high HP and annoying low-cost move that does double damage on a coin flip. While Eggy sponges damage and heals with Erika, you work on building up a Venusaur ex in on the bench. Sprinkle in any support Pokemon you'd like - I think Butterfree's healing ability has great potential. Unfortunately I don't have all the cards for this deck, but I've seen other players use it to great success.

Psychic: The only deck with reliable energy acceleration. It has multiple strong attackers in Mewtwo ex, Alakazam and Gengar ex. The name of the game is building up Gardevoir on the bench so she can use her broken Psy Shadow abilty to attach 2 Psychic energy per turn. That takes 3 turns minimum if you get lucky, with luck being the name of the game. Sometimes, you can have Mewtwo ex ready to dish out 150 damage by turn 3. Otherwise, you have to hope you draw your cards before your opponent sets up. I don't have two copies of the Gardevoir line so my version of this deck isn't up to snuff.

Powerful but Volatile:

Fire: This deck is potentially very powerful but highly luck-dependent. Moltres ex provides energy acceleration... at the cost of a coin flip. You can generate anywhere from 0-3 energy per turn. And unlike Gardevoir, it has to be in the active spot to accelerate energy. The core strategy here is to build up multiple Fire attackers, specifically Charizard ex, while Moltres tanks attacks with its high HP and accelerates energy. The caveat is that once Charizard ex is in the active spot, it won't be able to regain energy from Moltres - and it loses 2 energy per use of its 200-power attack. I faced an opponent with this deck today and they surprised me in the end with a backup Magmar powered by Blaine. Definitely gets results, but cross your fingers.

Water: Like Fire, Water has a luck-based way to accelerate energy - Misty. Unlike Moltres ex, Misty is a supporter card, and you can have 2 per deck. But you can get very unlucky quite easily with this card, as one tails and you get nothing, whereas Moltres ex gets 3 chances to flip heads. Water has a lot of good ex Pokemon, like Blastoise ex and Lapras ex. It's a very flexible archetype, and I've found success with a particular deck (more on that later).

Dragon: Probably the most volatile deck in the game. There are no cards that support Dragon-type Pokemon, which is a problem when Dragonite - a Stage 2 - takes 4 attachments to do damage. Its attack deals damage to the active and benched Pokemon... at random. If you want this deck to succeed, you need max copies of Dratini/Dragonair/Dragonite and a lot of luck.

Noob Trap:

Lightning: Pikachu ex decks are super easy to use! And super underwhelming. It's easy to stack Lightning Pokemon on the bench, but the most damage you can do is 90, and you often find yourself falling short of KOing bulky Pokemon ex before you get KO'd. Unless you're up against a Water deck, the damage just isn't high enough.

Underexplored:

Fighting: This archetype has a surprising number of cards, including two Pokemon ex and multiple reliable 1-prize attackers, but is largely underexplored by the player base. Being Psychic- and Grass-weak when those are two of the best decks is a factor.

Colorless: Colorless cards have a ton of utility but not a ton of power. It's an archetype I haven't seen anyone trying, but as they can be used with any deck, it's still common to fight against Colorless Pokemon. I'd be on the lookout for Fearow, Kangaskan and perhaps Cinccinno.

Underdeveloped:

Darkness: If Psychic is meta, you'd think Darkness decks would be a good counter, right? Unfortunately, there are no Darkness Pokemon ex in the game currently. Without a strong Pokemon to anchor them, this archetype doesn't have any real estate in the meta. That said, I did fight an opponent that combined Mewtwo ex with Weezing and Koga and it actually worked really well.

Metal: There are 5 Metal cards currently. Better than Dragon, right? But the cards aren't very splashable. Meltan has built-in energy acceleration but it has to be in the active spot to use it, and once it evolves it loses that ability. Paired with its low HP, and there's a reason I have never faced a Metal deck. Future expansions will hopefully give this archetype a chance to shine.

My Water deck - Splash Damage

I've recently developed a Water deck that I think is pretty strong. I call it the Splash Damage Deck. This deck plays Articuno ex in the lead and builds up Greninja on the bench. The idea is to combine Greninja's Water Shuriken ability (meaning it activates while on the bench) with Articuno ex's relatively weak for an ex Blizzard attack. With one Greninja, you can amp Blizzard from base 90 damage to 110 damage. With two Greninja, you bring that damage to 130. Not only that, you also do splash damage to the bench. And if Blizzard's 90 power is going to KO the active Pokemon, you can throw Water Shurikens at a Pokemon on the bench, potentially doing up to 50 damage.

I play two copies of Articuno ex, Froakie, Frogadier and Greninja, one copy each of Staryu and Starmie ex as a back-up attacker and cleaner, two copies of Misty and then general support and item cards. I could get rid of two items or two supporters to run another set of Staryu and Starmie ex if I have consistency problems.

If you read all that, let me know what strategies you've found success with and what your favorite cards are!

[savefrog]

The metagame should take note of these moves and items in the upcoming competitive season. If I see another Inteleon run without considering this shit Im gonna lose it. Get it together gamers.

[trans-clown-catgirl]

National Dex OU council is killing terastalization, like to make it die faster

[existingkirb]

Basic Information

Magnemass (Magnet + Mass/Massive) - The Magnet Army Pokemon, Electric/Steel type.

Evolves from Magneton at level 40.

Pokedex Entry: When a Magneton attracts even more Magnemite to it's body, they evolve into a Magnemass. The Magnemite on the top functions as the "brain" of the group and uses it's powerful magnetism to command the others.

Abilities: Magnet Pull, Sturdy, Skill Link (HA)

Stat Spread: 70 HP - 130 ATK - 90 DEF - 60 SPATK - 70 SPDEF - 115 SPD (Total: 535)

Roles in Battle:

A speedy all-out physical attacker with access to powerful STAB moves like Zing Zap, Volt Tackle, Meteor Mash, and Iron Head. You can also be a set-up sweeper with Shift Gear and Agility.

A supportive mon' with access to moves like Light Screen/Reflect, Encore, Taunt, Disable, and entry hazards. A supportive role with hindering stauts moves is especially good considering how fast Magnemass is.

Notable Moves

Signature Move: Magnetic Rush - "The user launches a barrage of magnets at the opponent. This move has 25 BP and can hit 2-5 times for a max of 125 damage."

Electric (STAB): Thunder Wave, Magnet Rise, Zing Zap, Volt Tackle.

Steel (STAB): Shift Gear, Bullet Punch, Iron Head, Meteor Mash.

Other Moves: Agility, Disable, Encore, Endure, Fury Attack (Skill Link), Ice Punch, Light Screen/Reflect, Recycle, Rock Blast (Skill Link), Spikes, Stealth Rock, Substitute, Taunt.

[transmetropolitan]

POV: youtube's algorithm thinks you're a white cis guy and bombards you with these kinds of videos

[fractaldunes]

Big Yellow is so pretty holy shit

[regallibellbright]

Going back to the longtime Pokemon player thing and then picking up a concept from meta-cosmic horror Pokemon stories (ie, that one story about undoing a Bad Egg from the perspective of the Bad Egg, even if it’s not horror by the end, Twitch Plays Pokemon depicting themselves, the Twitch Chat, as a force of Unown possessing a single Trainer,) and given I DO give my Trainers at least some degree of personality remove from me the Player (only the first game I ever played uses my name as the Trainer, all other Pokemon in the intervening decades are still mine but I started making up stories about these other Trainers pretty much immediately,) you do gotta wonder. Plenty of this conceit talk about the idea of the PC not being in control of their lives and all the horror there, but you’ve gotta wonder what it feels like as the rival, too.

Like, ESPECIALLY with rivals who are either established trainers already (Nemona being the latest type, also Brandon/May, I can’t remember if Hau has experience or not) or have noted insecurity not measuring up to you even if you start simultaneously (Hop, Serena/Callum, Cheren). Because they’re going about their lives, thinking they’re a pretty decent Pokemon trainer or excited to start their journey and be the very best, and then they’re getting thrashed by this other kid. Total newbie. Absolute battle prodigy.

Only this other kid ISN’T a total newbie. This other kid’s gone through at least one round of it before, and has a full team of Pokemon they saved the region and became Champion with, and they love those Pokemon very much but they want to have another adventure and get to know new Pokemon. Again. And again. And again. They’re utterly screwed through no fault of their own, not just because they’re up against their universe’s protagonist, but because they’re up against their universe’s protagonist who already knows what they’re doing, and therefore feels no shame hitting you with a massive STAB attack that they wouldn’t have had down if this were their first rodeo. (Granted, I still don’t always have everything memorized - say, Bug vs Ground, I might get reversed from time to time - but I’ve used every type at least once by now on a final team, I’m pretty sure, and that leaves some resting awareness of most of the big type advantages to disadvantages. I can’t tell you how many Pokemon are in any given type, but I can tell you what typing any given Pokemon is up to Alola or so, and at least one type for the rest.)

The fact that in recent years, rivals get the type that’s WEAK to your starter rather than strong only reinforces how cosmically screwed they are.

Poor kids. Not your fault your universes are constructed so that your repeated failure is both inevitable and necessary.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing this game’s speedrun in a few weeks. Happy Pokemon Day, all.

[jojolimons]

kinda insane how hard terrakion fell off?? like it was almost ou (UUBL) in gen 8 and now its PUBL???

[silkhy-john]

So anyway, Type plays a big role in what moves a pokemon can learn, but so does Egg Group.

‘Why does Rhydon/Rhyperior learn surf?’ Cause it’s part of the Monster egg group, which seems to have learnsets based on environmental mastery. Same for the Nidoran line.

Just as another example, a lot of pokemon in the Field egg group get access to surf as well, the exceptions being water-weak pokemon, specifically fire and ground types.

The coverage a water type pokemon has depends somewhat on which of the Water egg groups it’s in—1, 2, or 3—and on their second egg group (if present).

The pokemon in the Mineral egg group tend to have a wide variety of rock, ground, and steel type moves in their learn set.

Pokemon in the Amormphous egg group tend to have ghost, poison, dark, psychic, or fairy type coverage; sometimes a combination of each, sometimes (rarely, might have to find an example) all five.

And the thing is, it might seem that because of how types and egg groups are linked, egg groups don’t play that big a role in learnset, but egg groups are very important in explaining what might seem like an outlier when it comes to explaining the presence of a certain move in a move set.

But generally, Field and Monster tend to have the widest coverage per individual pokemon.

But also, the biggest part of a Pokémon’s learnset, I think, is the Pokémon’s design. What is it based on? What does what it’s based on do? Beyond that, what role does it have in the player’s journey?

Starters have wide-ish coverage mostly because they’re meant to be good enough that they don’t fall off later in the game. The first route rodent is meant to evolve early and solve any power issues you might have early to mid-game, and then its usefulness once it falls off in terms of power is its access to so many HM moves(until gen 6 that is). The route bird is there to hit hard with its stabs and not much else, especially because fighting types can be difficult to deal with. And we can get more specific with roles (slow offence, fast defence, weather setting, status affliction, etc) but you get the point, I hope.

But yeah, learnsets have more nuance and make more sense than you’d think at first glance. Unfortunately, they don’t always make for the most fun interactions in terms of gameplay (which is why, for example, not many electric types learn a great ice move if any at all, and vice versa.) They can also make for miserable metagames (e.g. Tera and Regieleki)

But yeah.

[gfaqscartridge88]

Paul has accepted his fate. This is his punishment for bringing the meta game into the Pokémon world.

no context. here

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Weakness Policy

Debut: Pokemon X and Y

You ever notice how we never just talk about a Pokemon on this blog? We mention them sometimes, it's clear we all LIKE Pokemon a lot. Don't you wonder why we never dedicate posts to them? Good question! It will not be answered.

It's a classic rule you get told all the time in Pokemon games! If you give your Pokemon a berry to hold, it can eat it on its own in battle. Creatures know what a fruit is. They know how to eat a fruit. If you give them a human-made item like a Potion, though, they DON'T know how to use it! Creatures don't know how to use a spray bottle! This all makes sense.

This being said, they would introduce more artificial held items, but these would usually still make enough sense. Something like the Rocky Helmet is more "worn" than "held", and acts passively. Many of the stat-boosting items can be justified as having some kind of elemental energy that powers up certain types just by existing.

Then there's stuff like this! This is just a signed document! When holding the Weakness Policy, a Pokemon's Attack and Special Attack will be raised when it is hit by a super-effective attack, and the document itself will be used up. I know this sounds boring but please keep in mind that we are talking about what happens when this piece of paper is held by a funny magical superpowered fighting monster friend.

Imagine, for example, a Vanilluxe given a Weakness Policy. If this Vanilluxe were to be hit with a fire attack and not be COMPLETELY melted to nothingness, it would present its fine paperwork, like "hm, yes, my insurer provides compensation in the form of enhanced offensive capabilities in the event of such an attack".

And then, I don't know, it eats the paper because it's still ultimately just a weird animal, or something. I don't know why the paper completely disappears after one use. What a shame! I hope the notarization fee wasn't too high!

More recently, Blunder Policy was introduced, which insures your Pokemon against moves that miss their target by increasing its speed. The more mundane official papers the better, I say! I hope one day the metagame will be dominated by a bug holding its tax return document!

[bynineb]

i've seen the future - the next generation will feature sponsored pokemon. they will turn flo from progressive into a deeply unsettling pokemon. there will be a version of sinistea called sinispepsi, which will only evolve if you purchase a limited-edition Poke-Pepsi ™. there will be a meowth with a bitcoin. all of them will be incredibly overpowered and completely break the metagame

[sexhaver]

i like pokemon from both a worldbuilding and competitive perspective, but trying to mesh the two leads to some really funny conclusions if you think about it too long. this is especially true now that the competitive metagame is played almost entirely using hacked-in/generated mons, meaning that you can change any aspect of your team basically instantly (instead of grinding for dozens of hours to do it legitimately). this gives competitive players the chance to easily tweak minor aspects of their pokemon to give them a slight but measurable edge in as many niche scenarios as possible depending on the current meta.

for example, there was a point when Gen 3 Metagross was running just barely enough Attack EVs to have Meteor Mash do a minimum of exactly 47% to physically bulky variants of Zapdos instead of 50%, because 47% still guarantees a two-hit-KO in sandstorm even if Zapdos is holding Leftovers (sand chip damage happens before lefties recovery, lol). imagine bringing a Zapdos to a tournament and having it faint like that and afterwards you go over to shake your opponent's hand and say something like "man that was a lucky 2-hit-KO" and they would respond with "actually I bred, hatched, and raised that Metagross from birth specifically to do exactly that to exactly your Zapdos". how would you feel.