Pokemon Scarlet & Violet - 18th Nov 2022! **OFFICIAL INFO ONLY**

[FloopThePig]

I hope we don't get another case of a good move stuck on a mediocre monster such as Solar Blade Lurantis. I'd sooner take another Dracovish situation.

I hate it when Gamefreak does this. Especially since they end up distributing the signature moves to older Pokémon when the next games release.

Terastallized trappers are gonna be so busted. Zone will actually get banned now since it could like scarf ground-type tera blast tran if it felt like it. Edit: now that I'm thinking about it, could you terastalize a steel-type to evade magnet pull?

I'm guessing can terastallize to avoid trapping, but you would have to be trapped for one turn to activate the gommick. Heatran, Ferro, and Celeateela commonly run Protect so they can change type to avoid trapping.

Anyway I don't think trapping is as bad since trapped Pokémon can change types as well. The opportunity cost of terastallizing a trapper is probably the same as Dynamax since you are essentially wasting your free gimmick on a low BST Pokémon. Here are the interactions:
- If the trapper and the trapped Pokémon terastalize at the same time, it would usually benefit the trapped Pokémon since you are wasting your gimmick on something with low BST.
- In a matchup where a Pokémon is weak to trapping (like Heatran into Dugtrio), Heatran can change type to beat Dugtrio while still being useful after. Sure your opponent still has their gimmick, but at least you used your gimmick on a good Pokémon.
- In a matchup where the trapper changes type to beat a Pokémon it usually doesn't (Dugtrio terastalizing to beat Bulu), then you wasted your gimmick on a low BST Pokémon while your opponent still has theirs.
The point of trapping is to use minimal resources to take out a strong Pokémon. Most teams generally have one Pokémon naturally weak to Arena Trap or Shadow Tag, so wasting your gimmick on them is unnecessary. Trapping may still be problematic, but this gimmick hurts trapping more than it helps imo.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Oooh, Cyclizar is the first of the SV mons I really like, Dragon/Normal is such a cool typing.

The battle interface looks a bit better than SwSh's. Looks quicker and more fluid, like BW's was. Hopefully they've sped it up a bit, though it's still disappointing to see Pokemon that should be massive like Tyranitar and Coalossal look so small.

 

[lucariomaster2]

Yeah, Cyclizar is cool and all, and the new items look neat, but really that was all filler for the real announcement.

MY BEAUTIFUL MUSHROOM BOY BRELOOM IS BACK!!!

 

[MaahirMomtaz12]

If it's Normal, (which it likely is) it might not be completely terrible for Pokemon that could still use the Neutral coverage if they don't Terastalize. Might. Depends on how bad the Pokemon is.


Pokemon aren't limited to one possible type. From what we can tell, any Pokemon can have any Tera Type.

Tera Blast is a Normal-type move on default, like Hidden Power and Terrain Pulse, and any Pokémon can be any Tera Type as long as they know a move of that type, so Tyranitar couldn't become Tera Fairy because it learns no Fairy-type moves

 

[Darvin]

also that new lizard pokemon surely evolves into the legendaries right

As surely as Carbink evolves into Diancie!

 

[doipy hooves]

Something else we got to see is the link battle arena and it looks pretty humble. Instead of being in a digital stadium you're fighting in an outdoor school arena with spectators. Hopefully they take a page from SWSH and let you customize your arena location with some gyms and such because they have the same kind of atmosphere from what we saw with Grusha's arena. At the least it's more interesting than the shot of the Hisuian Zoroark being fought in a regular grassy overworld which I thought was staged as a link battle.

It seems like the spectating students will all probably use the school colours of your own game based on the different POVs swapping shown in the trailer. It would be neat if they had the actual schools represented for both sides.

The ranked battle menu is pretty sleek compared to SWSH, with a nice capital font and a very stylized background. Rental teams return but the download rules option is gone. Also the website mentions the possible need for a day 1 patch to play battle stadium/online.

Note: A paid Nintendo Switch Online membership is required to use the Battle Stadium. To use the Battle Stadium, you may need to install update data that may become available on or after the games' release date. Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield players cannot battle with Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet players.

Tera Blast is a Normal-type move on default, like Hidden Power and Terrain Pulse, and any Pokémon can be any Tera Type as long as they know a move of that type, so Tyranitar couldn't become Tera Fairy because it learns no Fairy-type moves

This wasn't mentioned by anything official or unofficial and the website mentions that Eevee can have a Flying tera type when it does not learn any Flying moves. For now it's pretty safe to assume everyone has theoretical access to every tera type.

Also this just reminded me of someone mentioning this offhand in a chat a while ago, but I want to say that gamefreak would not need 18 different models for every pokemon's tera form, they would probably just render it in a crystal form and attach the respective hat to it. It's the "dynamax takes 4 models for the clouds counting down remaining turns" theory all over again and I don't know how that managed to live on after the game actually came out.

 

[Cuddly]

New item, Mirror Herb. Copies opponent's boosts sort of like a consumable Psych Up.

>Ruins your AG
Psssh…nothin personnel…kid…

 

[viol and bass]

There's like zero chance that Covert Cloak allows you to keep your cloak when you're knocked, right?

So then you could switch into pex without fear

 

[Project_Mars]

any Pokémon can be any Tera Type as long as they know a move of that type, so Tyranitar couldn't become Tera Fairy because it learns no Fairy-type moves

They have never said this and have in fact implied that a Pokemon can have one of any of the 18 typings as a Tera Type. Plus this new move seems designed for the situation of making Tyranitar a Fairy-type and still allow it to have STAB.

EDIT:

As surely as Carbink evolves into Diancie!

I kinda hope this is the case tbh. Would be neat to be able to use Cyclizar in VGC.

 

[AquaticPanic]

There's like zero chance that Covert Cloak allows you to keep your cloak when you're knocked, right?

Absolutely. This is effectively Shield Dust as an item and that doesn't stop Knock Off.


One point I want to bring up about Shed Tail - costing 50% HP (From what we've seen it appears to be rounded up) effectively means Cyclizar can't use the move often in battle, realistically it'd probably only be able to use it once per battle which imo is a pretty big balancing factor. Also worth pointing out that since its most likely a signature of Cyclizar, they could balance the move out through not giving cyclizar a very high HP stat

 

[Cuddly]

One point I want to bring up about Shed Tail - costing 50% HP (From what we've seen it appears to be rounded up) effectively means Cyclizar can't use the move often in battle, realistically it'd probably only be able to use it once per battle which imo is a pretty big balancing factor. Also worth pointing out that since its most likely a signature of Cyclizar, they could balance the move out through not giving cyclizar a very high HP stat

I think the balance factor is more so having it be harder to successfully pull off a Shed Tail. Ideally, you’d want to slow turn with it to preserve Max HP on the Sub. If you dip below Half Health, you can’t use it any more.
Even so, it seems wildly broken. Since Mirror Herb will definitely be too broken for even Ubers, Shed Tail makes it so you can have possibly multiple turns of set up 100% for free. So if you can pull it off, which shouldn’t be too hard against passive Pokemon, you can pretty much instantly win a game.

 

[Bakugames]

Cyclizars jp name is Mototokage. Most obviously moto (motorcycle in spanish) + tokage (lizard in japanese), but a fun thing is that moto also means original in japanese, and koraidon and miraidon refer to something from the past and future. Past, original, future huh

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

Has it been confirmed/denied if Mirror Herb takes into effect if your partner in a Doubles battle uses a stat boosting move?

Also depending on the type of move it is I can see Shed Tail getting banned almost immediately from OMs like STABmons lol. Like using a tanky Dragon Pokemon like a Multiscale Dragonite (provided D-Nite's in the game) to safely get a Shed Tail off and Roost up later. Even if its a Normal-type move you can pull off something similar with a Blissey, basically making it a more offensively inclined Teleport.

 

[pecanbegone]

can't wait for the funny Loaded Dice Icicle Spear Scale Shot Kyurem

 

[MrHands]

I think the balance factor is more so having it be harder to successfully pull off a Shed Tail. Ideally, you’d want to slow turn with it to preserve Max HP on the Sub. If you dip below Half Health, you can’t use it any more.
Even so, it seems wildly broken. Since Mirror Herb will definitely be too broken for even Ubers, Shed Tail makes it so you can have possibly multiple turns of set up 100% for free. So if you can pull it off, which shouldn’t be too hard against passive Pokemon, you can pretty much instantly win a game.

I think it will depend on the Pokémon. A fast frail offensive mon will want to get the sub pass off quick, so the recipient can benefit from a full HP sub using its own defenses. Slower bulkier Pokémon will want to make a slow pass, though I'm not sure if any slow Pokémon can withstand losing half its HP every time it switches out while still having the canonical ability to regenerate a tail.

Oh never mind.

 

[Morkal]

There was something strategy and competitive viability related in this trailer that I think everyone overlooked, and it's, in my opinion, even more groundbreaking than Shed Tail or the items.

Remember when Tyranitar's Tera type became Ghost (making it immune to Close Combat) and Coalossal's Tera type became Water to resist water? 4x weaknesses are essentially lures now. This not only means that some Pokemon with CRIPPLING weaknesses could be viable now, but it could also allow far more setup opportunities despite the new items. Let's take this scenario into account.

Say you have a Gyarados out on the field, and your opponent switches in Zapdos. You have your Gyarados's Tera type set to Ground, meaning that Zapdos's 4x SE Stab is now a 0x immune attack, and Gyarados can set up Dragon Dance. Tera typing will probably be the biggest game-changer in competitive because it'll dismantle so many multi-generational core strategies, and I am so EXCITED about that.

I think this is going to be one of the freshest competitive metas in Pokemon's history. People can be flexible with their team archetypes, and the same 20 Pokemon won't be consistently at the top of the chain anymore without some serious answers. It reminds me of Gen 5's meta, where Pokemon such as Parasect and Beartic were used on Rain teams.

 

[R_N]

Absolutely. This is effectively Shield Dust as an item and that doesn't stop Knock Off.


One point I want to bring up about Shed Tail - costing 50% HP (From what we've seen it appears to be rounded up) effectively means Cyclizar can't use the move often in battle, realistically it'd probably only be able to use it once per battle which imo is a pretty big balancing factor. Also worth pointing out that since its most likely a signature of Cyclizar, they could balance the move out through not giving cyclizar a very high HP stat

It's probably not going to be a common move, but they just label it a new move rather than something signature to Cyclizar specifically
I think most pokemon that get the move would be fairly mediocre, however.

I think the balance factor is more so having it be harder to successfully pull off a Shed Tail. Ideally, you’d want to slow turn with it to preserve Max HP on the Sub. If you dip below Half Health, you can’t use it any more.
Even so, it seems wildly broken. Since Mirror Herb will definitely be too broken for even Ubers, Shed Tail makes it so you can have possibly multiple turns of set up 100% for free. So if you can pull it off, which shouldn’t be too hard against passive Pokemon, you can pretty much instantly win a game.

feel like we're getting ahead of ourselves here

 

[Hugin]

Even so, it seems wildly broken. Since Mirror Herb will definitely be too broken for even Ubers, Shed Tail makes it so you can have possibly multiple turns of set up 100% for free. So if you can pull it off, which shouldn’t be too hard against passive Pokemon, you can pretty much instantly win a game.

Why is Mirror Herb broken? Just don't set up too early. Mirror Herb is only a problem if the player facing it plays badly. Also, it only works once, so you can outboost them on subsequent turns.

One thing this confirmed: Cyclizar is obviously what NPCs ride around on while the PC has the Legendary. But we could just ride on Cyclizar from the beginning and then upgrade to the Legend, which would eliminate the question of "why am I using Sprigatito and Pawmi to fight when I'm riding an ancient super-dragon?" So GF wants us to have the Legend from very early on, meaning it's going to be a key part of one of the stories from the beginning, and they considered that worth whatever hoops they're planning to jump through to avoid giving us the Legendary to fight with.

 

[R_N]

Why is Mirror Herb broken? Just don't set up too early. Mirror Herb is only a problem if the player facing it plays badly. Also, it only works once, so you can outboost them on subsequent turns.

One thing this confirmed: Cyclizar is obviously what NPCs ride around on while the PC has the Legendary. But we could just ride on Cyclizar from the beginning and then upgrade to the Legend, which would eliminate the question of "why am I using Sprigatito and Pawmi to fight when I'm riding an ancient super-dragon?" So GF wants us to have the Legend from very early on, meaning it's going to be a key part of one of the stories from the beginning, and they considered that worth whatever hoops they're planning to jump through to avoid giving us the Legendary to fight with.

or you find the legend near instantly and they just dont want to be captured until some arbitrary point

like they'll help you out because they like you but keep that ball away thanks

 

[Morkal]

There was something strategy and competitive viability related in this trailer that I think everyone overlooked, and it's, in my opinion, even more groundbreaking than Shed Tail or the items.

Remember when Tyranitar's Tera type became Ghost (making it immune to Close Combat) and Coalossal's Tera type became Water to resist water? 4x weaknesses are essentially lures now. This not only means that some Pokemon with CRIPPLING weaknesses could be viable now, but it could also allow far more setup opportunities despite the new items. Let's take this scenario into account.

Say you have a Gyarados out on the field, and your opponent switches in Zapdos. You have your Gyarados's Tera type set to Ground, meaning that Zapdos's 4x SE Stab is now a 0x immune attack, and Gyarados can set up Dragon Dance. Tera typing will probably be the biggest game-changer in competitive because it'll dismantle so many multi-generational core strategies, and I am so EXCITED about that.

I think this is going to be one of the freshest competitive metas in Pokemon's history. People can be flexible with their team archetypes, and the same 20 Pokemon won't be consistently at the top of the chain anymore without some serious answers. It reminds me of Gen 5's meta, where Pokemon such as Parasect and Beartic were used on Rain teams.

To add to my previous post; Lower-tier mons, Ice types, Rock / Steel, or Rock / Dark hybrids could be quite a bit more viable (in this new meta because they can make themselves immune to Fighting-type attacks with Ghost tera type, or they could resist Rock with Steel tera type, etc). Imagine something like Stakataka being immune to 4x Fighting, or Linoone setting up Belly Drum Extremespeed with no weaknesses, or Volcanion becoming immune to Ground attacks with a Flying tera type.

Hell, Zygarde-10% could be viable in OU with something like a Fire tera-type to get rid of its 4x Ice Weakness. People aren't getting the magnitude of this. Tera types are more a more significant gameplay change than Megas, Z-Moves, or even Dynamax / Gmax are. Frankly, from what I've seen of this, it could be the best thing to happen to comp Pokemon in a LONG time.

There is so much room for variety, experimentation, and creative teambuilding I don't even know where to begin!

 

[Cuddly]

Why is Mirror Herb broken? Just don't set up too early. Mirror Herb is only a problem if the player facing it plays badly. Also, it only works once, so you can outboost them on subsequent turns.

One thing this confirmed: Cyclizar is obviously what NPCs ride around on while the PC has the Legendary. But we could just ride on Cyclizar from the beginning and then upgrade to the Legend, which would eliminate the question of "why am I using Sprigatito and Pawmi to fight when I'm riding an ancient super-dragon?" So GF wants us to have the Legend from very early on, meaning it's going to be a key part of one of the stories from the beginning, and they considered that worth whatever hoops they're planning to jump through to avoid giving us the Legendary to fight with.

From my understanding of it, it will copy the opponent’s stat boost on switch.
The thing is that this is like making Ditto into an item if it’s like that.
With Ditto, you at least know your opponent has a Ditto. It’s impossible to know if your opponent has Mirror Herb and if they do which Pokemon it is.
Even if you did, you can make it so any team just shuts down any set up and make Pokemon who rely on setting up useless. Even if you know, you effectively lost all your set up moves while your opponent may have an item that does nothing, which is a massive deal.

If Mirror Herb isn’t an instant Psych Up on switch and is more like a one time Dancer for stat boosts, then it would be an ok item in VGC and the likes, but would still mean Shed Tail is broken af.

 

[Dusk Mage Necrozma]

To add to my previous post; Ice types, Rock / Steel, or Rock / Dark hybrids could be quite a bit more viable (in this new meta because they can make themselves immune to Fighting-type attacks with Ghost tera type, or they could resist Rock with Steel tera type, etc). Imagine something like Stakataka being immune to 4x Fighting, or Linoone setting up Belly Drum Extremespeed with no weaknesses, or Volcanion becoming immune to Ground attacks with a Flying tera type.

Hell, Zygarde-10% could be viable in OU with something like a Fire tera-type to get rid of its 4x Ice Weakness. People aren't getting the magnitude of this. Tera types are more a more significant gameplay change than Megas, Z-Moves, or even Dynamax / Gmax are. Frankly, from what I've seen of this, it could be the best thing to happen to comp Pokemon in a LONG time.

There is so much room for variety, experimentation, and creative teambuilding I don't even know where to begin!

Something like Aurorus or Aggron still won’t be great because you’re 1: basically locking yourself out of Terastallizing another Pokemon and 2: telegraphing from Team Preview that you’re Terastallizing your Aurorus/Aggron.

 

[Dusk Mage Necrozma]

From my understanding of it, it will copy the opponent’s stat boost on switch.
The thing is that this is like making Ditto into an item if it’s like that.
With Ditto, you at least know your opponent has a Ditto. It’s impossible to know if your opponent has Mirror Herb and if they do which Pokemon it is.
Even if you did, you can make it so any team just shuts down any set up and make Pokemon who rely on setting up useless. Even if you know, you effectively lost all your set up moves while your opponent may have an item that does nothing, which is a massive deal.

If Mirror Herb isn’t an instant Psych Up on switch and is more like a one time Dancer for stat boosts, then it would be an ok item in VGC and the likes, but would still mean Shed Tail is broken af.

No, it activates when an opponent uses a boosting move. So if you switch in on +6 DNite you don’t get its boosts, you only get boosts if you are in the field when it’s boosting. Edit: yeah like you said one time Dancer

 

[Morkal]

Something like Aurorus or Aggron still won’t be great because you’re 1: basically locking yourself out of Terastallizing another Pokemon and 2: telegraphing from Team Preview that you’re Terastallizing your Aurorus/Aggron.

On the flip side, imagine something like Celebi going from having a 4x U-Turn weakness to resisting the move.
The best tera strategies will be the subtle ones that people don't expect, and THAT'S what I'm excited about.

 

[AquaticPanic]

From my understanding of it, it will copy the opponent’s stat boost on switch.
The thing is that this is like making Ditto into an item if it’s like that.
With Ditto, you at least know your opponent has a Ditto. It’s impossible to know if your opponent has Mirror Herb and if they do which Pokemon it is.
Even if you did, you can make it so any team just shuts down any set up and make Pokemon who rely on setting up useless. Even if you know, you effectively lost all your set up moves while your opponent may have an item that does nothing, which is a massive deal.

If Mirror Herb isn’t an instant Psych Up on switch and is more like a one time Dancer for stat boosts, then it would be an ok item in VGC and the likes, but would still mean Shed Tail is broken af.

The site makes it pretty clear that it activates when the opponent's stats are first boosted, not like a psych-up

The order of events here makes Cetitan, who was already on the field, only copy Azumarill's stats after Azumarill boosts them. so i'd assume that this item works more like Burning Jealousy where it only applies at the same turn that the stat change happened