Hi, **NOTE: this article I have written does not expressive my actual views: I'm playing devils advocate! :D
As someone who has pretty much seased to play (only for personal time reasons, career etc.) I remember having disscussions back in 386 about the neccessity of clauses. I'm talking:
-Evasion Clause
-Sleep Clause
-OHKO Clause
-Freeze Clause
-Hax Item Clause (not listed on smogon's "Introduction To Competitive Pokemon page, does this still exsist? The pokemon-prescriptivist in me hopes so, but the descriptivist view I'm trying to present in the article hopes not :P!).
Now, whilst Spieces Clause is a no-brainer, the others remain pertinant. Now note, I played a bit of initial D/P metagame, but nothing since Pt. came out and nothing of HG/SS. I started my competitive playing in the oh-so-fun stall enviorment of G/S/C, loved R/S enviroment but 386 is where I really found legs and ran with the game).
Let's theorymon these things up.
Evasion Clause; the treatise appears on this to be to limit the effect that luck has on the metagame. Luck is a slippery slope in pokemon with its CH's and its 10% Freeze IB's etc. I remember Nettbattle being full of Double-Teaming Ninjask's Baton Passing to some sweeper. But, what would actually change in an enviroment where it was allowed? Is it OP in that it would dominate the metagame? My theorymon radar (which of course has no proof behind it) see's it as wave cancellation: the fact its unreliable and flawed would cause it not to be worth it, and therefore leaving a metagame where the option is there but no one would use it. Or the other possibility is that it would gain ultra-specific use.
Sleep Clause: This one is hard to defend (and I dont want to!) but for the purposes of this article... why ban the status effect sleep? Would it be that centralizing? Theorymon suggests a metagame without sleep clause would become one based around a little stat called speed: and who could get it in first. And, it would seem, luck also enters this arguement. When does the pokemon wake up? Next turn? Or 5 turns later? *points to sleep being op in the itial japenese TGC metagame, but then realises this is about the videogames enviroment and no one cares about that tangent, so moves on*.
OHKO Clause: Ahh, the joys of being straight sweeped by fissure whiscash in a wi-fi 3v3 match. Can one argue its 30% accuracy balances its power out? Is a metagame without a OHKO clause suddenly dominated by Quagsire? *I jest*. I read about the metagame become more and more overtly offensive since the semi-balanced range of teams 386 play had... would a removal of OHKO clause be the ultimate hyper-offence? Substitute, I look to you, you beautiful thing.
Freeze Clause: This one appears to be the easiest to argue (thank God, this is a difficult thing to write!) since one is not conciously trying to freeze an opponant. Blizzard raises things to 30%, and Serene Grace is an ability on... an interesting mix of pokemon (granted, I cant remember if any D/P new pokemon have Serene Grace as an option so, cut me slack here if there is). But unlike other status effects theres not a Freeze move. So... its a debate on how accuratly you want to imitate GameFreak's little cartridges. Heal Bell and Aromatherapy anyone?
Hax Item Clause: My quick claw means my curselax strikes first and wins the game for me! +1 Evasion item + sandstorm +1 evasion ability = lots and lots of instant evasion! Can'o'worms indeed. King's Rock Flinch hax... or a way of improving Dunsparce's Headbutts to more extremes of OP?
What I am putting forward here is a perception change of what are actually the raw components of the competitive game we play. Are they antiquated left-overs (carefully hyphonated to avoid confusion) from the old metagames or neccessary boundaries that need to be removed?
My actual opinion of course bias's the arguement toward "we need them". But I hope to provoke thought into: why, and what if they weren't?
What would the game be with 1, if not all, of those clauses removed?
