PokeStats: A Power Creep in OU?

[Yellow13]

Everyone has heard of the Power Creep. To keep sales coming in, designers gradually increase the power of their products, be it Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or any other series. The trading card games are especially well known for a Power Creep. In the first Pokémon card set, no HP value was above 120, and the greatest attack did a hundred damage for four energies. And two of the energies got tossed.
In this PokeStats, or Pokémon Statistics, I examine the possible power creep in the Pokémon metagame, specifically the OverUsed game, and ponder the possible effects and cures. Feel free to PM me or comment.


Edit: The Poll at the top will assist in the creation of the next OU PokeStats articles, on the Psycology of powerful but risky and likely to miss moves. Again, I am new to this forum, so tell me if this poll is out of place. Basically, what percent of turns can you not afford to have your move miss or fail in your OU matches? Thank you for your help.

Why is this a problem?


Of course, if there is no problem, there need not be a solution. I am mainly concerned that the Pokémon Metagame may gradually evolve into something like the TCG, where each new set is more powerful than the next, making time-honored strategies, like the original Blastoise Rain Dance, useless. The Pokémon that all of us know and love from the first five generations would be overshadowed by newer, more powerful monsters. And the new monsters would become the new Uber and OverUsed tier, while such old powerhouses as Metagross and Tyranitar would become outdated and UnderUsed.
Already, this can be observed. The new dream world abilities of Politoed and Ninetales, Drizzle and Drought, respectively, were up till recently strictly in the Uber tier, belonging solely to Kyogre and Groudon. The addition of these abilities to the OU tier revolutionized the game, created an entire new ban for Rain Teams to work around, and shoved the recipients from lower tiers into the heights of OU.
That is but one example of the dangers of a Power Creep. If left unrestrained, the creep will break out of control. I know that the Smogon community has no say in the designing factions, but we can be heard. Again, the Pokémon games were not originally designed for the intense Metagame we make them, but Smogon represents a large and influential force in the world of Pokémon, rivaling giants like Serebii in usefulness and sway.


Power Creeping into the OU tier.


In the first generation of Pokémon, in the days of Red and Blue (and Green!), there were sixteen Pokémon in the OU tier. Thus, out of the 151 legal Pokémon, 10.6 percent were considered overused. Of those original 16, 6 still remain in the OU tier at time of writing; Chansey just moved back up, while the others have remained for most if not all 15 or more years.
However, these statistics alone are not enough to warrant charges of a Power Creep. The below table shows that the percent of total Pokémon in each generation, barring those in Limbo (currently, five, a statistically small amount), has remained basically constant throughout the generations.
Generation/% of POkemon in OU
1/10.6% (R/B/G)
2/9.6% (G/S/C)
3/7.7% (R/S/E)
4/9.2% (D/P/P)
5/7.4% (B/W)


So what is the big fuss? It does not appear that the percentage of Pokémon in OU is increasing?


That is not the point. The point is a large portion of the most powerful Pokémon in OU come from the more recent generations. Theoretically, it should be an even spread. Of the fifty Pokémon currently in OU, approximately 13 are from the 5th Generation, as opposed to the ideal 10.
Again, that is not too bad. However, the most powerful moves and items come from the most recent generations. When one adds all the factors together, the most recent Pokémon, items, moves, and abilities are the most commonly used in the competitive Metagame.


Is it anyone’s fault?


Not at all. I don’t speak for the game designers, but I doubt that they originally planned Pokémon to become a cutthroat competitive sport. However, the increase in the power of recent addition is easily noticed.
One may comment that if the older aspects of the game simply cannot keep up with the newer aspects, then it is probably better for the OU community to go with the changes and continue experimenting. Nonetheless, rapid changes make it difficult to maintain a strong understanding of the Metagame across generations. I thought I was starting to understand the Metagame towards the end of the fourth Generation, and then the fifth came along, and I was outdated. Is it good that old, respected battlers are beaten by those that simply jump in and have an understanding off the bat of a new generation, as the Old-timers struggle to adjust?


What can be done?


The Smogon community as a whole could just sit back and watch. There is nothing wrong with allowing the designers free reign to make the Pokémon as powerful as their hearts desire. Smogon would have to continuously change, and would keep churning out new and exciting strategies, as it always has. Life would go one as usual.
But when someone returns from college in four or five years, and thinks, “Gee, what will I find on Smogon” and decides to log on for a laugh, he or she will stumble into a totally different community, one in such chaos as the Metagame tries to adjust to thousands of useable Pokémon across dozens of generations. Half of those Pokémon would be considered Uber by today’s standards. The other half, the half we have come to know and love, would all by UU or NU.
This is a dystopian future. But I can easily see the Metagame going the same way as the TCG. It is not something I think should be allowed to happen. The Pokémon franchise is coming to an important junction in its career. Will it slow, stop, and fade away? Will it moderate the subtle creep of power up the ladder throughout generations? Or will that creep take hold and radically change the very nature of our beloved Metagame?


By Yellow13


Thank you to all who have read this far.

 

[new]

Maybe it's just me, but I haven't really noticed this. Maybe it's because I usually only do in-game stuff, but I still feel that some OU Pokemon could still work as the metagame evolves. Sure, some strategies will become outdated, but that happens with all things. Even if they stopped making Pokemon games, the metagame would still evolve.

 

[uslowbro]

I have noticed this too. Like the release of Haxorus, Thundurus-T, and even Chandelure. They all have God-like attacking stats, but GameFreak at least tried to balance them out by making them frail or giving them troll speeds like Haxorus. And Dream World may have been a way to make sure the older Pokemon ,like Dragonite, see some use again. I think a constantly evolving metagame is good, but I wouldn't be a fan of the old first gen favorites getting unused.

 

[Yellow13]

Unfortunately, uslowbro, I see that happening right now in the Metagame. The Item Eviolite completely turned the NFE tier onto its head, and that is only one example. Thank you for your reply. I am asking very respectfully, could someone please RMT? I don't know how to put pictures into a post and it turns up very Wall of Text-ish.

 

[No Luck Involved]

What is the point of this? New games introduce new things... Are you saying this is bad? Would you rather new games introduce inferior things so the ones from the first game will always dominate?

 

[Yellow13]

I am saying that the gentle increase in power through the generations is not beneficial to the Pokemon Metagame. The accelerated rate of creeping will outpace Smogon's ability to stay the best in the field of competitive Pokemon, and if Smogon can't do it, no one can.

 

[uslowbro]

Unfortunately, uslowbro, I see that happening right now in the Metagame. The Item Eviolite completely turned the NFE tier onto its head, and that is only one example. Thank you for your reply. I am asking very respectfully, could someone please RMT? I don't know how to put pictures into a post and it turns up very Wall of Text-ish.

I would, but idk much about the DW meta.

What is the point of this? New games introduce new things... Are you saying this is bad? Would you rather new games introduce inferior things so the ones from the first game will always dominate?

I know this isn't my thread, but i used to play Yugioh and I saw this happened and it kinda ruined the game. I'm not saying that it would be bad for Pokemon bc playing this game competitively is non-profitible so idk why GameFreak is doing this other than to keep the game fresh. But to many people this game is only enjoyable for the original Pokemon that they grew up with so by constantly changing the game many people may leave the game bc they can't use their first gen favorites. (My opinion. Not necessarily the opinion of the thread.)

 

[Yellow13]

uslowbro, the purpose of this thread was to ignite discussion on the future of the OU metagame, looking far ahead into future generations! Thank you for mentioning Yu-Gi-Oh!, I agree. All the funky new types of cards got old five years ago. That is why I switched to competitive Pokemon. I don't want this Metagame to go the same way.

 

[Jimera0]

I think you're getting worked up over nothing.

Yes power is gradually increasing, but I have to ask...

Why is this such a bad thing?

Pokemon have always shifted around tiers, it's normal and expected. The metagame is constantly developing, that's the way it simply works. The factor of leaving for a while, coming back and finding everything changed is a factor for ALL constantly developing games, be they TGC games, competitive metagames or MMOs. It's a fact of life; as the makers introduce new content, stuff changes.

And I have to say, your concern that new Pokemon will come to dominate over old is completely unfounded, because in Pokemon, old pokemon are constantly gaining new toys too. Just look at the dream world this generation! Dragonite, Breloom, Salamance, Alakazam, Chansey and even goddamn DITTO are all getting tricks that improve them. Because of this, it means the power creep ends up being balanced across the board. You don't see 30 fifth generation Pokemon in OU because Gamefreak isn't stupid enough to make all its old Pokemon useless. The fact that there are several Pokemon that have remained OU ever since generation 1 (Gengar and Starmie, some others like Tentacruel and Alakazam have bounced around a bit but remained near the top) is a testament to the fact Gamefreak hasn't forgotten it's roots.

Personally, I don't see the problem with power increasing in general, so long as it's across the board. And the way GF does it is pretty damn sweet too you have to admit, with random ass Pokemon like Sableye suddenly becoming useful overnight. A dynamic metagame is a good thing. It's not chaotic or anything; we always have a few months to adjust to new shifts at the very least. The last thing we want is for the game to get stale and old, and you seem to be advocating having that happen.

Just sit back and relax a bit. There is no crisis.

 

[Yellow13]

Jimera0,
Thank you for your post. It gave me a lot of insight. I agree with what you said, but my opinion is that GameFreak needs to be careful. I do not advocate a stale and old Metagame, rather, I advocate a Metagame that develops at a reasonable and manageable pace. What I see, in the release of BW2, is people saying that the Metagame will be turned on its head, just recently after being turned on its head by the entrance of the 5th generation. This, in my opinion, is too fast.
But then again, it is an opinion.
I promise that the next PokeStats article will be more grounded in statistics.
Yours,
Yellow13

 

[Nix_Hex]

Jimera0 made some pretty good points, and I'd also like to say that each generation is self-contained. The BW(2) metagame is the BW(2) metagame, not DPP, not ADV; it's its own thing. Also, what does it matter that only 6 of the original OU Pokemon have remained OU from generation to generation? You made the point later that Politoed and Ninetales have jumped from the bottom of the bottom from their introduction to solid OU status. I thought that was the coolest thing ever; GameFreak finally threw two completely outclassed and forgotten Pokemon a freakin' bone. Who would have guessed, 12 years ago, that Politoed would some day become a powerhouse attacker with self-supplied rain, a single boosting item, and the third most powerful Water attack in the game (and Choice Specs is only one of its many viable sets)? Who would have thought, 16 years ago, that our cute little Ninetales could supply one of the most deadly weather affects for your team, and have stuff like Venusaur reaping the benefits?

Embrace the change, don't fear it.

Also, for future reference, to insert images use the yellow button with the mountain and sun right above the text area, or just use [ IMG]http://url.com/image.png[/ IMG], without the spaces.

 

[Yellow13]

NixHex,
I acknowledged that Jimera0 has good points, and clairified my statements. However, specifically, I was interested by the Politoed and Ninetales cases. Such abilities were previously reserved for legendary Uber Pokemon. I see it as very interesting how they were rapidly brought into OU.
As I mentioned, these next few years will determine the future of Pokemon.
Yours,
Yellow13

 

[Ningildo]

Uh...I fail to see how there is a power creep. It's already been mentioned, but the so called OP mons (chandy, hax and the like) all have a key flaw that prevents them from taking the metagame by storm. Even so, there are still pokemon that check them or outright counter them.

As for your items theory, yes, the more empowering items are in the recent gens (Choice items, LO etc), but, again, all have flaw that evens it out. All items have a disadvantage and advantage over other items (Do I use leftovers to possibly gain more boosts or do I use LO to make sure I only need the first boost? But then I'll slowly kill myself...and etc.). Besides some key exceptions, most items are balanced.

As for the politoed/ninetales case, there aren't many others that can compare to the enormous metagame shift brought by them. This will probably be not be happening again (at least not to this magnitude) for a generation or 2.

Everything else has already been said.

 

[Master of the Six Kings]

You compared this situation to the power creep happening in the card game, and i'd like to examine that statement. Truthfully, this is nothing at all like the power creep in the card game. The card game has rotations which are made to try and keep the game pace high and the need to use new cards equally high. In the game, we have tiers that allow a majority of Pokemon to shine, and even in Nationals type games, there is usually a banlist.

The card game is certainly reaching a point unlike it has ever seen, with rediculous HP and Damage on easier to power up Pokemon yes. But there, because of the rotation, the newly released Pokemon always have to be able to hold their own against the newly released Pokemon. This creates a huge power gap between obviously over powered Pokemon and those that would long ago have been decent or playable cards. With the video game, we have access to every Pokemon that's been out, and many of the Gen 1 Pokemon are still used. While each new generation sets a new metagame, it does not inherently make older Pokemon useless and doesn't force us to use only the new ones.

We also have the council and usage based tiering systems that limit the success of a Pokemon in any tier to a certain amount of dominance (Terrakion/Dragonite in OU) and not a complete power gap (Darkrai and Castform in OU). So really, while each generation may push the threshold on what we consider good, fair, OU or Uber, this game has a far better balancing technique then its tcg brother. We also have a higher population of willing battlers for older formats, which allows players who prefered Gen 4 or earlier to still play those at a competitve level. The tcg only supports choatic second formats (Unlimited, 150 singleton and professor cup rules) that aren't regarded by many competitve players.

So i don't really see a problem myself.

 

[ss234]

There has been a significant power creep in the change from BW to BW2 in my opinion. Haxorus can 2HKO the entire metegame with the right move-if that's not power then I don't know what is.

However, the council will most likely ban these over-powered Pokemon. Thunderus, Excadrill, Garchomp and Blaziken are examples of this, and Haxorus and Thunderus-T will probably be banned if they prove to be too dangerous. I don't see it as a bad thing though-eventually, the metagame will stabilise like it did in BW.

 

[SHUCKLE MAN]

If all did come to the "worst" and it ended up with RBY Pokemon being unusable in OU, all that would happen would be that the stronger Pokemon from the later generations would fill up OU, and then the RBY Pokemon would be in UU with the weakers later generation Pokemon, where they might actually be able to compete. So the Starmie lovers could still use it in UU in that scenario.

 

[No Luck Involved]

Your opening post pretty much says: "Pokemon changes with each new game and I don't like it."

You give no logical reason why change is a bad thing, only that old players will have to adapt everytime a new game comes out. The bad news for you I guess is that Pokemon is a money making machine for Nintendo and it is in their interests to make new games. And when they make new games there will be new stuff, because for common sense reasons they will not want to rerelease RBY continually. Personally I think they have managed the balancing act quite well. They have introduced genuinely new mechanics and ways to play with each instalment and overall there hasn't been a noticeable dominance of the newest generation Pokemon and items. The fact that Leftovers is still a top tier item and generation 1 Pokemon like Starmie is still a top tier Pokemon is testament to just how successful they have been in balancing things. It would have been incredibly tempting to release a Leftovers2 or a new generation completely outclassing the previous ones to sex things up a bit, make everything older obsolete and try to sell via the cheap cool factor of (for example) an upgraded Starmie with a cigar and machine guns (and +10 in every stat etc etc).

And there isn't even anything inherently wrong with constantly releasing much more powerful stuff. If they went on releasing the original 150 just with different names and upgraded stats each year I still don't see how that is a bad thing, and they haven't been doing this at all. It just sounds like laziness and an unwillingness to pick up new knowledge when you complain that old players will not know the new metagame. Power creep here is different to power creep in trading card games because you do not have to spend a fortune every year trying to keep up with trends that are imposed on you. With this you don't even have to buy a new game! You just need to be aware of what the new top Pokemon are and you can play and enjoy it and still be able to enjoy older metagames. There is a lot of freedom in simulator Pokemon play.

If you think the change in Pokemon is dramatic, wait till you see what real life is like... (hint: Few people owned a computer 20 years ago, Youtube didn't exist 10 years ago, and 5 years ago MySpace was more popular than Facebook - that is some serious 'power creep' right there! Imagine trying to get to grips with that!)

As long as the metagame remains balanced I don't see anything wrong with 'power creep' (and keep in mind we as the community actually are the ones doing the balancing in the metagames we play so it's completely in our hands). Long may they give us new toys to play with.

 

[Thorhammer]

So each new game introduces something radically new and relevant. Sounds great to me.

 

[WaterBomb]

I don't see so much of a power creep, mainly because BSTs have not changed much. Sure there are new pokemon in each gen with different stat distributions and moves, but all that is is an introduction of new strategies, not extra power. In fact, until Gen 4 when Arceus came out, the original Mewtwo still had the highest BST in the game. I could see the argument in favor of a power creep if GF had been implementing new pokemon with higher BSTs, but they haven't. They've been operating within the same parameters as they always have, just playing around with the tools they already have like type combinations and stat distributions. The only area where power has noticeably increased is in the addition of new Moves, which were given to pokemon of all the generations so the new ones weren't automatically more powerful.

As has been said before, the evolution of this game is simply strategies and pokemon becoming more diverse, not a power creep.

 

[Codraroll]

I mentioned it in another thread as well, but I think I can repeat it here: A well-built team from the BW2 metagame should have no problem beating all the ~50 Pokémon from D/P OU in 6-vs-6 matches without healing in between. It would likely beat teams consisting of every single Pokémon in Gen. III as well, the only hindrance being PP running out.

That being said, this just shows that the general power level goes up for everybody for every generation. As said earlier, this has no ill implications as long as it's equal across the board. Practically every single Pokémon got a power buff in every generation since its introduction, if its usefullness fell, it was because other 'mons got better tools than it. No single Pokémon objectively got worse in transitions between games since the Physical/Special split.

Another "Pro-creep" argument: Base stats. This one is rather interesting:
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_pokemon_by_base_stats

Let's look at the six stats one by one. If we sort the top 20 Pokémon in every stat list by their generation of inclusion, a list of compiled data for every stat would look like this:

LATE EDIT: I realized that Bulbapedia doesn't have listings for the new formes. Please bear this in mind.

HP: (21 spots in "top 20" because of shared base stats)
Gen. I - 5 Pokémon among top 20.
II - 3 Pokémon (Two among top 3, the last at a shared 18th).
III - 4 Pokémon
IV - 6 (The highest being at a 6th place)
V - 3

Analysis: Surprisingly even distribution. Ideally, each generation would have been represented by 4 Pokémon among the top 20. Only one generation stands more than 1 'mon short of this.

Attack: (This one is interesting for the "pro-creepers")
Gen. I - One Pokémon among the 21 strongest Physical attackers is from Gen. I. It's Dragonite, who we find at the very bottom of the list with 134 Attack.
II - Same story. One Pokémon (Tyranitar) who shares the bottom spot with Dragonite)
III - 7 Pokémon, the top spot being among them. Only 3 of those weren't legendary Pokémon (Slaking, Metagross, Salamence).
IV - 3 Pokémon, surprisingly. Regigigas, Rampardos and Rhyperior.
V - Topping the list with 8 Pokémon in the top 20 list. One of which is a legendary.

Analysis: Power Creeeeeeeep!!!!one! Well, at least, it shows that for two generations, base 134 Attack was the highest that existed. Then, in Gen. III, tons of Legendary Pokémon were introduced. These started a trend with wickedly high, unevenly distributed stats. We also got two new Pseudo-legendaries with slightly higher Attack than the previous two, and a random ape who was too lazy to use its terrible strength. The latter started a trend that has been kept since.
In Gen. IV, remarkably high stats were suddenly handed out to "regular" Pokémon, and in Gen. V, it took off completely. Pokémon who could be found hanging around in the wild had stronger Attacking stats than the mythical beasts of legend from earlier. The trend shifted from "only unusual and generally strong Pokémon hit hard" to "Some Pokémon hit really, really hard".

Defense:
Gen. I - 2 Pokémon (Cloyster and Onix)
II - 4 Pokémon (among them the top 2)
III - 8, exactly half of them being Legendary (two regis, Groudon and Deoxys-D)
IV - 3, none being Legendary
V - 3; Cofagrigus, Carracosta and Ferrothorn.

Analysis: Physical Defense took a peak around the time GameFreak began their obsession with ancient, sleeping Pokémon. Three of those were ancient "robots", one was an armoured behemoth, and one just excelled in every stat, depending on its form. I'd say creature designs rather than game design created this peak, and attribute it to chance rather than a deliberate boost of defense. Disregarding the legendaries of the third generation, Physical Defense has been kept rather steady over the years.

Special Attack: (the realm of legends)
Gen. I - 3 Pokémon, among them the second strongest Special Attacker in the game, and the strongest whose high stat isn't due to a gimmick.
II - 1 Pokémon, Espeon.
III - 5, all of them Legendary.
IV - 7, four of them were Legendary. The rest were evolutions of previous Pokémon.
V - 5, among them two legendaries, Reshiram and Kyurem. Kyurem is found at the shared 20th spot.

Analysis: The powerhouses of Sp.Atk have been relatively well distributed among generations. At first glance, Legendary Pokémon completely dominate here, but upon closer inspection we see that in every generation save for the third, almost or more than half of the most powerful Special Attackers were regular Pokémon. Alakazam, Gengar and Espeon have been mighty 'mons from the early generations, where we like to believe only the terrifying and rare Legendaries possessed such tremendous stats. In reality, the "regular guys" have been with us in this field since the get-go. Chandelure, Darm-Z and Volcarona's presence on the list of the most powerful special attackers isn't breaking an unwritten rule, it's following the norm.

Special Defense:
Gen. I - 0. That's right. Zero, null, nada. The most specially defensive Gen. I Pokémon is Articuno, taking 22nd place.
II - 6 Pokémon, including the top spot.
III - 6. Two of them in top 3.
IV - 5.
V - 3, all of them fairly low. Cryogonal, Virizion and Meloetta-A.

Analysis: I was very surprised by the lack of Gen. I Pokémon here. But disregarding that, the special defenders have been quite well distributed over the generations. Recently added Pokémon are under-represented in the statistics, though. It looks like Special Defense is going out of fashion. I think my collection of data is too small to say if the trend coincides with the Defense stats, but Gen. IV and V are both under-represented in the defensive fields.

Speed:
Gen. I - 6 Pokémon among the 20 speediest*.
II - 1 Pokémon, Crobat. Things were more leisurely paced back in the days.
III - 6 Pokémon, among them the top 4 as well as Swellow and Sceptile.
IV - 4 Pokémon.
V - 4.

Analysis: Speed Creep? What Speed Creep? Disregarding speed boosting natures, the Speed Stat is almost perfectly evenly distributed in all generations except the second. Of course, Deoxys screws up the statistics yet again, taking 3 of the top 4 slots.

*I refuse to say "fastest" as I believe the Speed stat reflects reaction time, not actual speed.

Base Stat Total:
This list coincides nicely with the Ubers metagame. The number of legendaries introduced in every generation rather accurately reflects the generation's standing on this list.




All in all, the raw numbers don't support the idea of a massive power creep going on. Extraordinarily powerful Pokémon have always been a staple of the Pokémon games. Only Attack stands out as having more and more "ordinary" Pokémon receiving unnaturally high stats. Earlier, only Uber Legendaries possessed such marvelous physical attacking capabilities, now they appear to be handed out on street corners for pocket change. As the current Standard metagame is rather physically oriented and has predictably few Uber Legendaries in it, it appears that a massive creep has taken place, while really only the distribution of the very high stats within a generation has changed.




Hope some of this made any sense. English is not my first language, and it's getting rather late in the evening. I hope I get time to update this list with the recent Forme additions soon.

 

[The LoudWendle]

After coming back after a break, I've realised the meta-game has become way more aggressive, its really awkward to play stall and if a bit of luck crops up its unforgiving.

If we look at the base stats, over the generations its only the attacking stats that are getting the higher base stats and these high agressive stats are getting more common in every gen.

If you look at the attack base stat of 140, 4 pokemon has 140 base attack. 1 was introduced in gen 4 and the other 3 in gen 5. Hell even landorous that has just been introduced has a base of 145.

Each gen should change the game but it shouldn't change it so the only the stuff is usable/good

 

[IcyMan28]

Good analysis, Cobraroll, but do note that Special Defense is a unique situation because it technically did not exist in Gen 1, and was rolled together with special attack. Articuno has the highest special defense, but technically Gengar's 130 special meant it had 130 SpA and SpD, functionally. Just a quick note.

EDIT: Also, power creep is not reliant on pokemon stats alone. Gen 3 introduced CB, which was a big deal for a lot of physical attackers. Gen 4 really upped the ante with high-powered attacks like Close Combat and Outrage, so now pokemon that were manageable (Heracross) gained powerful new weapons. This is in stark contrast to defense, where your ability to take hits depends solely on stats rather than attacks.

 

[PK Gaming]

Ughhhhhhh.

I'm entirely sure what the point of this thread is. We all know that the scope of the pkmn series increases as more and more games are released and stats are more ambitious than ever, but at the same time GF has always tried to give each and every Pokemon a raison d'etre. Gen V has given numerous Pokemon from past gens buffs which actually gave us more usable Pokemon in general. BW OU isn't limited to just 50~ pokemon, lots of Pokemon from the lower tiers are very viable in OU, which is definitely a change from previous gens (ADV esp). I feel like you're describing a problem that doesn't really exist.

(And did you really type "dystopian future" with a straight face :/)

 

[doughboy]

I think one of the reasons for the massive power creep is the amount of legendaries in OU. Now don't be quick to dismiss me, I don't think "omg ALL legendaries need to be banned". However, legendaries do receive higher base stats than their normal pokes counterparts. Pokemon with relatively high BST's find themselves in OU. With the amount of legendaries Game Freak is introducing (I'm looking at you Gen 4) increasing every generation, it creates a situation where it inflates the BST of OU.

Let's look at the base 600 benchmark shall we? We know that with each generation, apart from Gen 3, one pseudo-legendary is made. However, the pace in which pseudo-legendaries are made does not match the pace of when other legendary base 600's are introduced into the metagame (whether it being made by GF or being dropped from Uber).

We will start with Gen 2 since that is when you can start having 600 BST. Note all the totals are for OU unless otherwise specified. I am not counting the legendaries without 600 BST because it isn't relevant to what I am trying to prove. I am not counting forms because it becomes inflated, but I will note that BW2 gave us an extra 1 extra BST legendary.

OBSERVE!

Gen 2:
-Total Number of Pokemon in game with 600 BST: 4
-Total Number of Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon in game (600 BST): 2

-Total Number of Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon in OU(600 BST): 1
-Total Number of Legendary Pokemon with 600 BST in OU: 0
-Total Number of Pokemon with 600 BST in OU: 1

Gen 3:
-Total Number of Pokemon in game with 600 BST: 10
-Total Number of Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon in game (600 BST): 4

-Total Number of Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon in OU(600 BST): 3
-Total Number of Legendary Pokemon with 600 BST in OU: 2
-Total Number of Pokemon with 600 BST in OU: 5

Gen 4:
-Total Number of Pokemon in game with 600 BST: 16
-Total Number of Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon in game (600 BST): 5

-Total Number of Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon in OU(600 BST): 3
-Total Number of Legendary Pokemon with 600 BST in OU: 4
-Total Number of Pokemon with 600 BST in OU: 7

Gen 5:
-Total Number of Pokemon in game with 600 BST: 21
-Total Number of Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon in game (600 BST): 6

-Total Number of Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon in OU(600 BST): 5
-Total Number of Legendary Pokemon with 600 BST in OU: 6
-Total Number of Pokemon with 600 BST in OU: 11

So what does this all mean? Well first look at the jump between Gen 4 to Gen 5 then from Gen 2 to Gen 3. Noticed that they both have the same jump in amount of number of 600 BST's in OU even though Gen 3 introduced 2 new pseduo-legendaries. This happened because we let those 600 BST's, such as Lati@s, into OU. More importantly, we will see a general trend across the whole Pokemon series where the introduction of 600 BST legendaries has outpaced the introduction of pseudo-legendaries. While some of these 600 BST's are lackluster (like Cresselia), you have to ask "what is the potential?". Well, it is most likely in the future these Pokemon will be OU since Pokemon with relatively high BST's are found in OU. Yes I do know that abilities, stat spreads, and typing contributes to a Pokemon. But having a high BST isn't detrimental and having more stat points to work with means it can have more extreme combinations. It may be unrealitic but let's say Pokemon continued for the another 4 gens. Over time this pattern will create a meta where it will become inflated with 600 BST's, with most being legendaries.

I would like to point on Cobrabrall's analysis that Medicham should be as high as Deoxys in terms of attack. Overall there has a bigger power jump from Gen 2 to 3 than from Gen 3 to 4. While you were now only limited to two maxed stats, those maxed out stats could go even higher than ever before due to natures.

 

[WinstonShnozwick]

New things are bad? Sounds like a genwunner.