Pokémon Presents - Pokémon Day 2025 - Pokemon ZA Info & Pokemon Champions Announced

Avira said:
Just look at this calc, Sharpness Mega Gallade's Sacred Sword is stronger than Life Orb Tera Ice Baxcalibur's Icicle Crash, and Bax was a mon that basically had no switch-ins in OU.
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I mean mega gallade with sharpness is probably broken in OU but what isn't, they don't balance based on singles. I fully expect after the megas hit singles that OU will be forced to ban a lot of them just like Gen 9 in general has been a balance nightmare for singles. Game Freak doesn't make choices based on singles very often if they ever do.

I don't think any of the sharpness pokemon are good in vgc afaik? the vgc is dominated by pokemon like both Urshifu that are Ubers in singles. Mega Gallade with sharpness *might* be really powerful in vgc but that's just basing it off of what vgc looks like at the moment. the meta could align entirely to screw it or a new mega could be even more powerful than it.

pika pal said:
Ostensibly Lightning Rod does have a benefit on Mega Sceptile by nullifying Thunder Wave given it's a speedy attacker
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yeah I don't think mega sceptile's ability is its problem, is that it doesn't get draco meteor because base sceptile isn't a dragon. same problem ampharos has.
 
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Karxrida said:
You'd have to be actively trying to make a Mega worse than Mega Audino lol.
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Ehhhh maybe if you made it 67/58/97/81/107/121 and gave it more tools besides Super Fang and Nuzzle...?

Like, lots more tools...

CTNC said:
Bunch of random thoughts:

Knowing Regional Variants might as well be different species than the originals won't stop me from being so disappointed if (probably when) Galarian Slowbro and Alolan Raichu don't get Mega Evolutions. Only one version of the Pokemon being able to Mega Evolve just feels wrong to me.
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I'll be honest, I'm too much of a boomer and I hated how they hated Galarian forms. The hell you mean only this variant has an extra evolutionary stage? You should give it to both forms! Thankfully they dropped this stupid idea in SV so they may not repeat it ever again, but now I think Kantonian Farfetch'd and the likes will never get a shot at a proper evo.
 
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Do we know when end the first season to get the first Mega stone ? Because I might buy Switch 2 (and Legends ZA) but can I wait Black Friday promotions ? :o

Or is it the same game on Switch 1/2 so I can start on Switch 1 and move late for Switch 2 keeping the same save ?
 
Antihaxxer said:
Do we know when end the first season to get the first Mega stone ? Because I might buy Switch 2 (and Legends ZA) but can I wait Black Friday promotions ? :o

Or is it the same game on Switch 1/2 so I can start on Switch 1 and move late for Switch 2 keeping the same save ?
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As far as I know your save will transfer over when you do your system transfer and you will be able to use it with the switch 1 version, I don’t think the upgrade would interfere with that
 
I have a personal fondness for Drain Punch sets on Gallade (there aren't many other Fighting-types with good SpDef), so I'm not a huge fan of having the Mega also heavily encourage a different Fighting STAB. Besides, it's cool when the base form and Mega want to run different moves.
 
To be honest I think you do underestimate the impact of Inner Focus on a physical attacker pokemon that is locked on not using a item but does need the mega to hit a relevant speed tier.

...but then again Lopunny exists and has Scrappy which also blocks intimidate...
 
Worldie said:
To be honest I think you do underestimate the impact of Inner Focus on a physical attacker pokemon that is locked on not using a item but does need the mega to hit a relevant speed tier.

...but then again Lopunny exists and has Scrappy which also blocks intimidate...
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it's a tradeoff for sure but I think Sharpness would be better than Inner Focus. granted, Gallade doesn't have a way to stop intimidate before it can mega evolve anyway so if anything I think you are mostly trading your ability to ignore flinching for effectively a choice band that doesn't lock you into moves. if you get intimidated the sharpness boost kind of negates it too unless you get intimidated again I guess.

you could also pair mega sharpness gallade with psychic terrain to avoid fake out, I assume most uses of regular sharpness gallade are doing that? I wonder if any of the new or old megas will get any of the surge abilities added to them. I could see mega delphox or even alakazam getting it, but maybe that would actually be broken lol.

like an earlier person said, Mega Gallade with Sharpness in singles is probably getting banned very quickly unless the Mega environment is insanely powercrept.
 
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CynicalGiant said:
like an earlier person said, Mega Gallade with Sharpness in singles is probably getting banned very quickly unless the Mega environment is insanely powercrept.
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We’ve just went through an insane power creep between Paradox Pokémon and broken signatures (the non-Paradox Pokémon that have those are mostly fine otherwise) and Mega Evolution, while having a few broken ones, is responsible for the infamous CHALK (the K stands for Kangaskhan and it’s Mega), so I severely doubt Game Freak will learn from it and might instead cause the new Megas, both base and DLC, to powercreep to an even more insane level, even with the one-per-team limit in mind.

This might have a negative impact in Champions if offcial VGC competitions will indeed take place in that game starting next year or so.
 
Samtendo09 said:
We’ve just went through an insane power creep between Paradox Pokémon and broken signatures (the non-Paradox Pokémon that have those are mostly fine otherwise) and Mega Evolution, while having a few broken ones, is responsible for the infamous CHALK (the K stands for Kangaskhan and it’s Mega), so I severely doubt Game Freak will learn from it and might instead cause the new Megas, both base and DLC, to powercreep to an even more insane level, even with the one-per-team limit in mind.

This might have a negative impact in Champions if offcial VGC competitions will indeed take place in that game starting next year or so.
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yeah the main thing I'm expecting isn't even really the megas themselves being insane, which I'm sure some of them will be on their own, but the last legends game introduced a lot of crazy new moves, as did Gen 9 and its DLCs. a lot of previous megas will be stronger just from the addition of gen 7-9 moves added to the base forms, but who knows what insane new moves game freak is cooking up.

imagine mega gallade gets sharpness, but they introduce like several insane flying type megas with new insane flying type moves and mega-gallade just sucks because of it, lol.
 
I don’t even think Mega Gallade would be broken in Singles, let alone VGC. As previously mentioned, gaining Sharpness would mean losing the Intimidate immunity, but even in Singles Mega Gallade had decent but not excellent Speed by modern standards and a lot of the newer defensive Pokémon would eat this thing alive. The Unaware walls are the big ones, specifically Skeledirge and Dondozo that I think could match up well into this, and with Champions including the Omni Ring almost anything may be able to Terastalize into something that might not resist any of Mega Gallade’s attacks but does soften up any of their weaknesses. Offensively that Speed comes into consideration when considering Pokémon that may try and pick off a weakened Mega Gallade late into the game, such as a Choice Scarfer, and between the return of Max Airstream and its lower physical Defense than special, I do think getting the leg up on this will be easier than people think when the opportunity cost that comes from using Mega Gallade isn’t quite as favorable as a handful of other Megas that could absolutely run this game.
 
Avira said:
Mega Blaziken with Moxie isn't even better than the Speed Boost version since getting all the Speed boosts is what makes Mega Blaziken insane.

+2 252 Atk Life Orb Tera Ice Baxcalibur Icicle Crash vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 364-429 (91.2 - 107.5%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
+2 252 Atk Sharpness Gallade-Mega Sacred Sword vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 367-433 (91.9 - 108.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO

Just look at this calc, Sharpness Mega Gallade's Sacred Sword is stronger than Life Orb Tera Ice Baxcalibur's Icicle Crash, and Bax was a mon that basically had no switch-ins in OU. Yes, I realize that Fighting/Psychic/Dark is not as offensively potent as Ice/Dragon/Ground, but I think you undersell how strong Mega Gallade with Sharpness would be. The reason Samurott-Hisui is balanced is 'cause of its relatively mediocre Base Attack, the low Base Power of its moves, and its middling speed, but with Mega Gallade, it'll get STAB Sacred Sword as well as having good speed for a wallbreaker, which is more than enough to be a top threat in OU.

And pika pal, you should calc with Close Combat for Mega Gallade since you didn't give it Sharpness. It's not a fair comparison to not use Mega Gallade's best STAB attack for a comparison like that.
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I calc'd using Sacred Sword because the main point of the demonstration was that Sharpness is a bigger boost than the raw ATK buff, while also advantaging Gallade over CC by not reducing its already Meager defenses (and thus making it even more vulnerable to chipped Revenge Kills).

252 Atk Gallade-Mega Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Manaphy: 234-276 (68.6 - 80.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Gallade-Mega Zen Headbutt vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Manaphy: 156-184 (45.7 - 53.9%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Sharpness Gallade Sacred Sword vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Manaphy: 213-252 (62.4 - 73.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Sharpness Gallade Psycho Cut vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Manaphy: 166-196 (48.6 - 57.4%) -- 49.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

As also demonstrated here, Close Combat is the only case where Mega Gallade out damages Sharpness since it's the only move with that high a natural BP due to the drawback nature.

The Baxcalibur comparison is also missing the context that Baxcalibur was broken by a variety of sets that shored up its survivability (Veil + Snow = Easy Boosts). Mega Gallade does not get free Swords Dance to the extent Bax got them or DD, nor does it have traits like Burn immunity or set variety to force prediction like the Ice Body/Sub sets.

252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur in Snow: 284-336 (76.5 - 90.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+1 252 Atk Baxcalibur Glaive Rush vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Mew: 316-373 (92.6 - 109.3%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
+1 252 Atk Baxcalibur Icicle Crash vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Mew: 225-265 (65.9 - 77.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252 Atk Baxcalibur Glaive Rush vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Mew: 423-498 (124 - 146%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Keep in mind all of these calcs are without its item)

Baxcalibur is slightly weaker for significantly less commitment, and this is mostly looking at power output. The sheer neutrality of Glaive Rush + Ice and Ground coverage means this power goes a lot further into the majority of opposing mons.
 
Also I think there is a misunderstanding on "balancing".

New tools are purposely more powerful than the old ones. New pokemon will not get use / spotlight if they aren't better than the previous ones.
There is nothing to "learn" because the powercreep is on purpose and natural course of long running competitive games.

There is no doubt several of the new megas will match if not surpass the powerlevel of the old ones. What would be the point of introducing 20 new megas all worse than the preexisting ones?
Doesn't have to all be mega rayquaza level of dumb, but I would be extremely surprised if at least 4 or 5 of the new mega (expecially the starters, raichu and dragonite) aren't at minimum mega salamence level of power or mega sableye level of utility.
 
Worldie said:
Also I think there is a misunderstanding on "balancing".

New tools are purposely more powerful than the old ones. New pokemon will not get use / spotlight if they aren't better than the previous ones.
There is nothing to "learn" because the powercreep is on purpose and natural course of long running competitive games.

There is no doubt several of the new megas will match if not surpass the powerlevel of the old ones. What would be the point of introducing 20 new megas all worse than the preexisting ones?
Doesn't have to all be mega rayquaza level of dumb, but I would be extremely surprised if at least 4 or 5 of the new mega (expecially the starters, raichu and dragonite) aren't at minimum mega salamence level of power or mega sableye level of utility.
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This also depends a bit on where we're talking about, because while Mence was a viable attacker as far as I can tell in VGC (the format GF's active design tends to focus on), Mega Sableye I don't think was ever particularly notable there compared to its Singles Stall team prowess. I do not know for the record if Mega Mence was considered overly centralizing or "too strong" like Kangaskhan was, or was just a good option alongside Restricted Meta mons like Primal Groudon or Xerneas.

There's also the question of if that level of power IS something Gamefreak wants to shoot for, as we did see rare instances where things got strong enough that their effect on the publicized formats was negatively received and things were outright nerfed in response (Mega Kangaskhan and Zacian being the most obvious examples). They might tread more gimmicky or less "raw power" to avoid having to deal with another such case, especially if being non-comparable deflects from power creep concerns even temporarily.
 
Mence was one of the viable megas in gen 6 and one of the best in gen 7, mostly for the notable access to super fast tailwind and spread hypervoice combined with ST nuke (special or physical, user choice!)

I mentioned Sableye cause honestly... I can't think of a utility mega that had any use in doubles. But if they are to attempt more defensive megas that is the standard I expect.

The "intended power level" definitely varies per gen, but honestly looks pretty clear that they rather make something op then nerf it next gen (see Kanga, Tapus, Zacian, etc) than release underwhelming "spotlight pokemon".
 
Worldie said:
The "intended power level" definitely varies per gen, but honestly looks pretty clear that they rather make something op then nerf it next gen (see Kanga, Tapus, Zacian, etc) than release underwhelming "spotlight pokemon".
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This paragraph reminds me of a certain popular 2016 mobile game and the fact that said mobile game actually has a lot in common with this design philosophy. Assuming you guys know what game I’m talking about, they’re releasing new cards every month as well as “Evolutions” for older cards which, let’s be honest, might as well be the same thing as Megas for Pokémon. The past few years of this game have also seen the rise of Champion cards, of which you can only have one of in your deck of eight at a time and are specifically made to be stronger and rarer than the other card rarities.

The financial strategy of both of these games is pretty simple: release new content on a rotating schedule of some kind, gaslight people into buying your game (or in their case, copious amounts of Gems) by making the new content disproportionately strong as financial incentive to want to do so, and then rip off your entire player base who did buy into it by immediately nerfing them in the next set(s) of balance changes.

Dang, VGC really is just Clash Royale at this point, isn’t it :smogonbird:
 
bdt2002 said:
The financial strategy of both of these games is pretty simple: release new content on a rotating schedule of some kind, gaslight people into buying your game (or in their case, copious amounts of Gems) by making the new content disproportionately strong as financial incentive to want to do so, and then rip off your entire player base who did buy into it by immediately nerfing them in the next set(s) of balance changes.
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this is absolutely not how competitive works, and its a pretty silly comparison. people arent being ripped off for pokemon being nerfed, one because their competitive existence is tertiary to peoples enjoyement of that pokemon, and two because youre not like... buying the pokemon. the pokemon come with the game (for the most part. calyrex i hope you die). and you need to buy the new game to play the new competitive and that new game comes with the new pokemon youll use for the meta on it.
 
Bakugames said:
this is absolutely not how competitive works, and its a pretty silly comparison. people arent being ripped off for pokemon being nerfed, one because their competitive existence is tertiary to peoples enjoyement of that pokemon, and two because youre not like... buying the pokemon. the pokemon come with the game (for the most part. calyrex i hope you die). and you need to buy the new game to play the new competitive and that new game comes with the new pokemon youll use for the meta on it.
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You might not be buying the Pokémon (even though I can absolutely see a world where Greed Freak eventually makes us do that), but you are still counting on that Pokémon to be included in the PokéDex and subsequently not receive major needs after you’ve spent time training it. In that sense it’s kind of similar if you squint hard enough. The lack of micro-transactions for VGC is made up for by the fact that these games are as overpriced as they are because they know they can get away with it, too. Ultimately, yes, I do agree with your post. My main point I’m trying to make is that both games are equally scummy even if they’re very different genres and styles of gameplay. And in my defense, is there even really one set definition for what the word “competitive” means in this day and age?
 
I wouldn't exactly call it a new scheme. TCGs have been making the new stuff OP for a long while and, because nerfs are harder to apply to paper, they'll just ban everything, even the balanced stuff, on a regular schedule. Sometimes they makes something so egregious it needs immediate action, thus proving that they have a more selective system available and don't need to do sweeping restrictions. But hey, rotation also means that the players not swayed by power creep still need to buy a full set of new stuff. I kind of feel like the one positive of this kind of practice being widespread is playerbases trying to move beyond this model for their own games.

Ultimately, there's a pretty clear conflict of interest in having the competitive ruleset and restrictions being decided by someone trying to sell stuff to competitive players. This is why I doubt I will ever enjoy VGC as much as Smogon.
 
bdt2002 said:
but you are still counting on that Pokémon to be included in the PokéDex and subsequently not receive major needs after you’ve spent time training it. In that sense it’s kind of similar if you squint hard enough
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??????? no its not. even if a pokemon receives 0 changes youre most likely not using your old mons because each game has a different meta with new pokemon and new roles to fulfill. also pokemon isnt a gacha game where you have One character you need to roll to build and use to keep up with the meta, you can catch as many incineroars as you want ant give them whatever niche ivs and moves you need for your specific teams forever. just breed the things. theres actual problems with pokemons implementation of competitive when it comes to pokemon accessibility that we dont need to make up fake problems to be mad at.

bdt2002 said:
And in my defense, is there even really one set definition for what the word “competitive” means in this day and age?
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this doesnt sound relevant to the context of this conversation
 
Bakugames said:
??????? no its not. even if a pokemon receives 0 changes youre most likely not using your old mons because each game has a different meta with new pokemon and new roles to fulfill. also pokemon isnt a gacha game where you have One character you need to roll to build and use to keep up with the meta, you can catch as many incineroars as you want ant give them whatever niche ivs and moves you need for your specific teams forever. just breed the things. theres actual problems with pokemons implementation of competitive when it comes to pokemon accessibility that we dont need to make up fake problems to be mad at.
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Alright, alright. You make good points. I’ll let you have this conversation. Gg

Getting back on topic, I will still say there is a part of me that is still excited for this game even with the price situation and the DLC… existing, but I don’t know if it’s enough of a part of me to ignore all of the points being made about Nintendo recently as a whole. I for one am really excited about the Mario Galaxy bundle for Switch/Switch 2, but I don’t know still if one bundle that’s going to probably be optimized for Switch 2 is enough get me to want to upgrade now. I’ve already told all of my friends I’m only getting Legends ZA if I play it on Switch 2, but even my patience is starting to wear thin. Scarlet & Violet have basically nothing worthwhile to do after the DLC story and I am still looking for a genuine reason to want to place Kalos higher in my rankings at large (I currently have Kalos at 6th with X & Y as low-tiers). The story should be mildly interesting, I suppose, but more than anything I’m just happy it’s not Masuda directing this thing still.
 
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