Usually I try to read the thread before commenting, but I've got a job and stuff, so:
The only two options that make sense to me are Outright Ban and No Action.
If Tera stays, we're probably looking at a perpetual state of suspects and re-tests as new `mons are introduced and new strategies become dominant, and this will probably be true in every tier, including a likely laundry list of bans from Ubers to AG. We'll all get used to regularly getting wrecked or wrecking people on the basis of a single bad decision, and we'll do it because, collectively, we decided that we prefer a metagame that provides some great surprise moments through nerve-wracking standoffs and unexpected techs. That is the biggest single benefit of terastallizing to the game, with new team-building options being secondary. Neutering tera neuters those surprises, which, to me, takes away most of the thrill of having it available.
Looking through the proposed options, none of them solve the mechanical issues of terastallizing while maintaining this fundamental "Evo Moment 37"-type benefit. Going through the list of initial proposals:
Tera Blast is not the most broken thing about Tera by a long shot, and there aren't a whole lot of `mons that are added to the "broken by Tera" list just by virtue of getting a new option to tech their counters. Palafin didn't become busted by running Tera Electric to wreck bulky waters. ESpeed Dragonite can benfit greatly from a Steel Tera type without running any Steel attacks. The list goes on and on and on. What are we balancing by doing this. Volcarona?
Limiting Tera type to existing STABS just feels pedantic. It's keeping Tera around in name only. Oh, cool, you made strong `mons stronger. That's a fun "generational gimmick". I guess my boy Lokix is more likely to stick in OU with the extra oomph of Bug Tera, but is that worth the cost in Ghost Tera Dragapult being everywhere? Next.
Showing Tera Types at preview is...meh. We have a lot of asymmetric knowledge in pokemon already. You don't know what moves your opponent is running. You don't know their items or their abilities. You infer it as best you can from known trends and team construction, bring your plan to the table, and adapt. Showing tera types is just making things more accessible to people who don't want to learn the tier while taking away the opportunity to tech off of it.
The problem with Tera isn't the unknown type. It's the unknown *when*. As I'm sure others have said, 50/50 predictions are already everywhere in Pokemon. Switches, taunting/subbing, etc on top of the inherent randomness of things like speed ties and damage/accuracy rolls. The problem with tera is that every turn until your opponent terastallizes something introduces another variable that provides far more benefit to the player with the best option to situationally terastallize. And this is driven mostly by the single turn defensive implications that can't be countered by good team building. Yeah, you may have a perfect counter to a Normal Tera Dragonite on your team, but you don't know when it's going from Dragon/Flying to Normal, and you can't counter both of those typings at once, whether you know the tera type or not.
Having a designated tera user makes a tiny bit more sense in that it at least tells you which pokemon you need to be wary of and limits the number of turns with that variance, but that "when" question and the leverage it creates remain. That's what ultimately broke Dynamax, IMO, and it's the same here.
The only option I can think of that would eliminate that would be if a pokemon can only terastallize on its first turn on the battlefield. Then, tera just becomes another tech you can run instead of a constant mind game (especially if this is combined with the "limiting which pokemon can tera option, functionally making it match the in-game usage by gym leaders and such). This more interesting team-building wise than "only existing STAB tera types" and more balanced than "show tera types", but it's also less exciting gameplay-wise than vanilla terastallizing. It is also faaaar too big a deviation from the cartridge to be considered a "gentlemen's agreement" type of rule, and thus infeasible.
So, yeah, if our options either (1) Fail to solve the mechanical problems of terastallizing (2) Make it deeply uninteresting or (3) are outside the realm of reasonable action, then all of our options for limiting terastallization are bad.
Personally, I think we make the most enjoyable day-to-day experience by just axing it altogether. There are so. freaking. many. good new `mons in this game. Like, so many. I don't think we need the gimmick to keep things exciting and fresh. And while we may miss out on some crazy ish by banning terastallizing, I think it's probably worth our sanity in the end.
The only two options that make sense to me are Outright Ban and No Action.
If Tera stays, we're probably looking at a perpetual state of suspects and re-tests as new `mons are introduced and new strategies become dominant, and this will probably be true in every tier, including a likely laundry list of bans from Ubers to AG. We'll all get used to regularly getting wrecked or wrecking people on the basis of a single bad decision, and we'll do it because, collectively, we decided that we prefer a metagame that provides some great surprise moments through nerve-wracking standoffs and unexpected techs. That is the biggest single benefit of terastallizing to the game, with new team-building options being secondary. Neutering tera neuters those surprises, which, to me, takes away most of the thrill of having it available.
Looking through the proposed options, none of them solve the mechanical issues of terastallizing while maintaining this fundamental "Evo Moment 37"-type benefit. Going through the list of initial proposals:
Tera Blast is not the most broken thing about Tera by a long shot, and there aren't a whole lot of `mons that are added to the "broken by Tera" list just by virtue of getting a new option to tech their counters. Palafin didn't become busted by running Tera Electric to wreck bulky waters. ESpeed Dragonite can benfit greatly from a Steel Tera type without running any Steel attacks. The list goes on and on and on. What are we balancing by doing this. Volcarona?
Limiting Tera type to existing STABS just feels pedantic. It's keeping Tera around in name only. Oh, cool, you made strong `mons stronger. That's a fun "generational gimmick". I guess my boy Lokix is more likely to stick in OU with the extra oomph of Bug Tera, but is that worth the cost in Ghost Tera Dragapult being everywhere? Next.
Showing Tera Types at preview is...meh. We have a lot of asymmetric knowledge in pokemon already. You don't know what moves your opponent is running. You don't know their items or their abilities. You infer it as best you can from known trends and team construction, bring your plan to the table, and adapt. Showing tera types is just making things more accessible to people who don't want to learn the tier while taking away the opportunity to tech off of it.
The problem with Tera isn't the unknown type. It's the unknown *when*. As I'm sure others have said, 50/50 predictions are already everywhere in Pokemon. Switches, taunting/subbing, etc on top of the inherent randomness of things like speed ties and damage/accuracy rolls. The problem with tera is that every turn until your opponent terastallizes something introduces another variable that provides far more benefit to the player with the best option to situationally terastallize. And this is driven mostly by the single turn defensive implications that can't be countered by good team building. Yeah, you may have a perfect counter to a Normal Tera Dragonite on your team, but you don't know when it's going from Dragon/Flying to Normal, and you can't counter both of those typings at once, whether you know the tera type or not.
Having a designated tera user makes a tiny bit more sense in that it at least tells you which pokemon you need to be wary of and limits the number of turns with that variance, but that "when" question and the leverage it creates remain. That's what ultimately broke Dynamax, IMO, and it's the same here.
The only option I can think of that would eliminate that would be if a pokemon can only terastallize on its first turn on the battlefield. Then, tera just becomes another tech you can run instead of a constant mind game (especially if this is combined with the "limiting which pokemon can tera option, functionally making it match the in-game usage by gym leaders and such). This more interesting team-building wise than "only existing STAB tera types" and more balanced than "show tera types", but it's also less exciting gameplay-wise than vanilla terastallizing. It is also faaaar too big a deviation from the cartridge to be considered a "gentlemen's agreement" type of rule, and thus infeasible.
So, yeah, if our options either (1) Fail to solve the mechanical problems of terastallizing (2) Make it deeply uninteresting or (3) are outside the realm of reasonable action, then all of our options for limiting terastallization are bad.
Personally, I think we make the most enjoyable day-to-day experience by just axing it altogether. There are so. freaking. many. good new `mons in this game. Like, so many. I don't think we need the gimmick to keep things exciting and fresh. And while we may miss out on some crazy ish by banning terastallizing, I think it's probably worth our sanity in the end.