Hello everyone
After the stats have been released for all pokemon and I've looked through them, I've decided to open this thread on the lack of power creep this generation as compared to last, and open a discussion on the possibilities this adds to a more quickly balanced metagame.
Let's ignore Mega Evolutions for a second.
On a look through the stats, one will notice that nearly every pokemon has more balanced stats than many of those from the last generation. Not only are there only 3 pokemon with an excess of 130 base Attack or Special Attack, two of them are the cover legendaries and the third (Aegislash) has 50 defenses and horrible speed when using that form.
There are several bulky pokemon introduced, but none of them are Blisseys (or even Jellicents, it seems). Though Goodra and Fur Coat Furfrou might give the power houses of last gen a little bit of a struggle (less so Furfrou, due to the emphasis on Fighting Type in last gen).
This is a very good sign for the competetive game, as many of the old threats will remain threats, with new intermediate threats being added, but seemingly no 10 new pokemon that will dominate the ladder in usage.
Chou Toshio Edit: DO NOT discuss what should or should not be banned. Disobey this rule again and I will be tacking a warning on here as well. This goes for the replies as well.
This is again, due to the lack of power creep. The power creep, in the uber case, comes again in nearly all offensive prowess. Only a handful of pokemon that received mega evolutions would be considered as defensive pokemon, and even then, not always. Blastoise, Aggron, Venusaur, and Tyranitar are all that come to mind off the top of my head. Segregating the potential power creep pokemon (The mega evolutions) and adding things into the meta game as it develops, rather than allowing all of the powerful pokemon and banning as necessary, will make a potentially slightly less diverse meta game at the beginning (though, through a potentially smaller amount of centralization, could end up being MORE diverse) but a widely more balanced and enjoyable meta game on the whole.
Being as though seemingly all of the power creep comes in this one classification of pokemon, it is my hope that this generation will have a very balanced meta game, allowing the advancements made in the previous generation to keep much of their worth now, rather than having to re-evaluate many of the already banned pokemon. This is a very important step for the players, as we look forward to and hope for a balanced meta game, and we are all very aware of how much work everyone here at Smogon put in for that. Being so, we don't want to see all of you put in that amount of unnecessary labor trying to re-invent the wheel. You've done a very good job in previous generations, take this as an opportunity to springboard forward into the new metagame, not a slip backwards. We are going into a very promising looking metagame, it's okay to keep working on the problems that haven't been resolved from the previous generation before looking at the somewhat humble spreads of the new pokemon.
In short, the lack of power creep and addition of many balanced, solid but not over whelming pokemon will hopefully lead to a very healthy metagame both during first implementation and in the future.
After the stats have been released for all pokemon and I've looked through them, I've decided to open this thread on the lack of power creep this generation as compared to last, and open a discussion on the possibilities this adds to a more quickly balanced metagame.
Let's ignore Mega Evolutions for a second.
On a look through the stats, one will notice that nearly every pokemon has more balanced stats than many of those from the last generation. Not only are there only 3 pokemon with an excess of 130 base Attack or Special Attack, two of them are the cover legendaries and the third (Aegislash) has 50 defenses and horrible speed when using that form.
There are several bulky pokemon introduced, but none of them are Blisseys (or even Jellicents, it seems). Though Goodra and Fur Coat Furfrou might give the power houses of last gen a little bit of a struggle (less so Furfrou, due to the emphasis on Fighting Type in last gen).
This is a very good sign for the competetive game, as many of the old threats will remain threats, with new intermediate threats being added, but seemingly no 10 new pokemon that will dominate the ladder in usage.
Chou Toshio Edit: DO NOT discuss what should or should not be banned. Disobey this rule again and I will be tacking a warning on here as well. This goes for the replies as well.
This is again, due to the lack of power creep. The power creep, in the uber case, comes again in nearly all offensive prowess. Only a handful of pokemon that received mega evolutions would be considered as defensive pokemon, and even then, not always. Blastoise, Aggron, Venusaur, and Tyranitar are all that come to mind off the top of my head. Segregating the potential power creep pokemon (The mega evolutions) and adding things into the meta game as it develops, rather than allowing all of the powerful pokemon and banning as necessary, will make a potentially slightly less diverse meta game at the beginning (though, through a potentially smaller amount of centralization, could end up being MORE diverse) but a widely more balanced and enjoyable meta game on the whole.
Being as though seemingly all of the power creep comes in this one classification of pokemon, it is my hope that this generation will have a very balanced meta game, allowing the advancements made in the previous generation to keep much of their worth now, rather than having to re-evaluate many of the already banned pokemon. This is a very important step for the players, as we look forward to and hope for a balanced meta game, and we are all very aware of how much work everyone here at Smogon put in for that. Being so, we don't want to see all of you put in that amount of unnecessary labor trying to re-invent the wheel. You've done a very good job in previous generations, take this as an opportunity to springboard forward into the new metagame, not a slip backwards. We are going into a very promising looking metagame, it's okay to keep working on the problems that haven't been resolved from the previous generation before looking at the somewhat humble spreads of the new pokemon.
In short, the lack of power creep and addition of many balanced, solid but not over whelming pokemon will hopefully lead to a very healthy metagame both during first implementation and in the future.
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