Metagame Analysis: Pokemon Types

[xcfrisco]

I was recently looking through the "create your own pokemon" thread and trying to think of some cool ideas for new pokes. Since I did not want to reuse old types, I searched searched through the typedex and found that a lot of Pokemon and types get little to no love in standard play. So I decided to see for myself how much typing truly effects the metagame.

Normal- 4/49; 8%

Fire- 3/49; 6%

Water- 7/49; 14%

Electric- 4/49; 8%

Grass- 6/9; 12%

Ice- 1/49; 2%

Fight- 4/49; 8%

Poison- 3/49; 6%

Ground- 8/49 16%

Flying- 9/49 18%

Psychic- 9/49 18%

Bug- 3/49; 6%

Rock- 4/49; 8%

Ghost- 2/49 4%

Dragon- 3/49; 6%

Dark- 2/49 4%

Steel- 6/49 12%


I'll make some quick analysis from what I immediately saw

-The metagame is pretty varied with only 3 types; Ground, Flying, and Psychic, being significantly higher than the rest

-Ice is in fact the worst type in the game, with only one repesentative, although, strong arguments can be made for Fire and Poison, for 2/3 of the pokemon used in those types being immune to EQ, and Venusaur being neutral

-Flying's immunity to EQ really propels it to the forefront and leads to some of the best typing out there (Electric/Flying and Steel/Flying are just too good)

- Even with attempts to balance Psychic moves with the advent of Dark and Steel, Psychic types still gets a lot of love. This is most likely due to Psychic's 3 main weanesses; Bug, Ghost, and Dark, being some of the least used moves in the metagame.

-Steel's million resistances make the type almost too good, even with its weakness to EQ, considering 6 out of the 10 final evolutions of Steel pokemon are standards

-We need more Ghost and Dark pokemon.

I was going to write a short analysis of each type, but I want to see other people's thoughts on this first. Maybe we could discuss about one type each day and see where the majority of opinions stand. I hope Nintendo makes some more innovative pokemon in D/P to flesh out the types and make the game more balanced. I think there's at least a Zapdos and/or Skarmory on every serious standard team out there. Any other thoughts/questions/comments/contributions would be appreciated.

 

[Pratty]

I think that judging from that water is used a lot too.

 

[Mekkah]

People already wrote type analyses, but they're beyond useless because they just sum up the typing's data (represented in the Battle Chart on NetBattle), the Pokemon Analyses of that type (covered in the Strategydex) and some assumptions about the types (Rock types have high defense except Aerodactyl, etc).

 

[Amazing Ampharos]

That percentage thing is pretty neat, but, yeah, type analysis as a whole tends to be somewhat useless. However, you can strike at some good stuff if you analyze some of the subcatagories often associated with typing such as a bulky water analysis or something. Eh, it's just a thought.

 

[Mekkah]

That still wouldn't bring anything new. You'd get the same old "Swampert is Water/Ground, so he is a good Metagross and Tyranitar counter with his STAB Earthquake, while Milotic survives two CB Salamence HP Flyings, can Recover and Hypnosis etc" thing, which is all covered in the strategy analyses, threat lists and stuff.

 

[xcfrisco]

Actually, the real purpose of me doing this was to see how much the move Earthquake affects the metagame, and why fire types get the shaft so much.

And I change my my comment about Ice types being the worst type in the game, Poison, is by far, the worse type. Grass is the only thing weak to it, 3 types resist it and Steel is completely immune to it. Why not just take this type out of the game completely? It sucks, big time.

I kind of figured this analysis as a contribution to this metagme, in that sense, is pretty useless, but I want to get some discussion going to see what can be done to make the game more balanced. Judging by the precentages, almost every team is guaranteed to have a Flying, Psychic, Ground, and Steel type. That leaves 2 slots open for the other 13 types, not very diverse is it?

Oh well, at least this game is more balanced than Marvel vs Capcom 2.

 

[hollabackitsobi]

IMO every team has a water type, a flying type, a normal type and a steel type. Or maybe that's just me.

 

[Mekkah]

Pretty much any team has a Ground-type, or they get ran over by Tyranitar, unless they want to rely on Suicune, Milotic or (ew) Starmie for it, or some random Fighting Hidden Power maybe. Similiary, unless you run a combination of Zapdos/Skarmory, you pretty much need a good Water to take care Salamence, unless you put Ice Beam on everything, or maybe use Weezing.

The only Normal resists are Steel, Rock and Ghost. While most Rocks are fairly good (Regirock, Aerodactyl, Rhydon), they just don't give the desired coverage or have enough impact or defense (Aerodactyl) to make it into a team. Using Gengar can be risky for your Normal resist, considering Snorlax with Shadow Ball could run it over, or the occasional Dodrio with Drill Peck. Usually people take a Steel like Metagross or Skarmory for it, since they're so much more reliable.

Therefore you'll find those on pretty much any team. Psychic types are everywhere, but not because of the Psychicness. Celebi is more of a Grass type, Metagross is a Steel, Starmie is a Water type (but thanks to his Psychic type probably can use Thunderbolt and Recover), Claydol usually acts as a Ground type, and Medicham is definitely more of a Fighter.

 

[makiri]

This is exactly why I stick to UU, you always have to have a counter for this and that, so I got tired and just decided to stay UU because there is variety, and is actually quite fun coming up with movesets for these pokemon and staying away from the old standards, I still whip out my Standard team but its still kinda boring

 

[Mekkah]

UU is like "counter Gligar, Solrock, Fearow, Muk, Nidoking, Aggron, etc" too, and it's not that varied. :/

 

[noobster]

good thing i use a cool uu team :]

(aka pokemon like politoed and persian and banette!!!!!)

 

[Pratty]

I think Dark types are the worst.

There's nearly no dark pokes with a good moveset and a dark type(The only good Dark Type I can think of is T-Tar.). Not only that but they are weak to fighting, Which I find VERY common.

So. That's my 2 cents. Hope you enjoy. More may be added later.

 

[Mekkah]

Umbreon and Houndoom are clearly good Dark types.

 

[Flub]

I don't seem to need a ground type to counter t-tar. Exeggutor (crunch isn't ohko and it doesn't go over 400 speed with DD), suicune, vaporeon, and many other non-grounders counter tyranitar.

 

[Mekkah]

"Crunch doesn't OHKO", more like so Exeggutor isn't a counter because it will get Crunched. You're not making sense anyway because this is about DDtar.

Suicune and Vaporeon make mediocre Tyranitar counters. They get worn down by Sandstream. After two Rock Slides, Tyranitar can Dragon Dance up and OHKO/2HKO them, perhaps with a flinch inbetween. They're better than nothing but Grounds are definitely a lot more reliable. Exeggutor isn't a great counter at all, maybe unless you add Giga Drain. Sunnybeaming will just give Tyranitar one more turn to bash your head in with Rock Slide, or worse, Taunt your Sunny Day so you're forced to do nothing except showing "IM GOING TO SOLARBEAM".