Most Important Generation Competitively

SunshineCat

Which Generation made the most important changes to today's metagame?

I say GSC because it introduced Hold Items, Scizor, Blissey, Skarmory, Heracross and other important Pokemon. Probably many GSC Pokes I've forgotten.
 
Don't forget Dark pokemon, finally giving us a way to prevent the complete and utter domination of competitive battling by Psychics that were running rampant in R/B/Y.
 
Can't forget celebi, though I wasn't around in RBY I'd heard that Sabrinas gym was by far the hardest.
 
I think GSC for the reasons above, or maybe even RSE for Abilities, Metagross, Salamence, Jirachi, etc...but maybe DP because of the phys/special split, Choice Scarf/Specs, Plat tutors, etc.
 
The most important thing that happened in GSC were the Special split into SpA and SpD, and held items, the most important of which is Leftovers.

The most important things that happened in ADV were abilities, natures and the Choice Band hold item.

The most important things that happened in DPP were the physical and special moves defined by move instead of by type, Choice Scarf, Choice Specs and Life Orb.

So basically all generations contributed to what is the DPP metagame today.
 
I'd say GSC as well for obvious reasons, but aside from that i'd say DPP. it gives us an eaasy way of beating stall.

And i have to say RBY's mechanics was lol
 
G/S/C or D/P/PL

G/S/C because of the split in Sp. and the dark type checking psychics(though basically just Umbreon and Tyranitar)

But I still think that the physical/ special move split in D/P/PL has been the single greatest improvement so far from any gen...
Not to mention SR being potentially the most impactful move in the game.

Yeah, I think D/P/PL takes it but G/S/C is so close its almost interchangable in my eyes
 
G/S/C did indeed introduce the Dark-type and the Steel-type,the ability to hold items,but that was pretty much it.SkarmBliss was introduced,Porygon-Z was introduced,and also Tyranitar.

R/S/E introduced abilities,which added more strategy,and more ways of team building.Although subtle,a pokemon ability can lead to many losses and victories,depending on the way it's played,for example,Intimidate.
If faced with Intimidate on your last pokemon,a Physical Attacker,you're pretty much screwed if you don't have a way to boost you attack up again.
Or,Porygon 2 and Trace,making it one of the more reliable counters to Gyarados.Giving it a use in the OU metagame,inspite of it's slightly mediocre stats.
Or,even Scizor in 4th Gen,where Technician gave it a use,and even more so,when Platinum gave it Bullet Punch,a reliable STABed Priority move.
D/P/Pt is the most important in my opinion.It gave Pokemon which had an awesome Attack stat to finally use it properly,and it gave those with an awesome Sp.Attack stat to finally use it properly.
For example again,Gyarados finally getting a reliable STAB attack,Waterfall.
 
technically rby is the most important gen because, as louis armstrong said, "gravy's nice, but you gotta have something to put it on." not saying that all the competitive mechanics changes are just superfluous gravy, but you need the foundation of rby to put those changes on. if you think about it, it is a lot easier to make changes to a game than to completely create one from scratch.

but if we're discounting rby (as i think we should since imo it's not even close that rby is the most important), dppt is probably the most important, mainly for one reason—wi-fi. without wifi we would all need to play on shoddy to play competitively, that and/or netbattle.

if we want to also discount the literal fact that the possibility of wi-fi play doesn't have an actual bearing on competitive play (which is fair but whatever), the "answer" is probably still dppt because of what xact already pointed out but with the addition of stealth rock, since there's no one move/item that has had the metagame revolve around it so much since sleep powder/lovely kiss/hypnosis and double team/minimize in rby, which resulted in the extremely important sleep clause and evasion clause respectively that have stood in place since rby (and probably rightly so), since. only the leftovers that xact also pointed out is a singluar move/item that has had an entire generation revolve around it, as choice band in advance wasn't quite the force that leftovers was in gsc and still is
 
I would say RSE, myself. It was the generation that uprooted the mechanics of stats from the first two generations and put in EVs and IVs as we know them. Additionally, natures are among the most important part of competitive battling today. The choice band was introduced in this generation. Finally, abilities were introduced, including shadow tag, making perhaps the most broken Pokemon in the game, Wobbuffet. These abilities also made it possible to summon up indefinite weather effects, making weather teams that much more viable.

I'd say the second most important generation would be GSC. The introduction of the dark and steel types completely changed what type of Pokemon a standard team would consist of. Gone were the days where psychic Pokemon ran rampant, with even Kadabra BL, not to mention the rise of the fighting type in order to counter these two. Plus, with the special split into special attack and special defense, many Pokemon were completely redefined between generations! Held items were introduced as well, perhaps most importantly leftovers. And of course, some of the most important moves were introduced this generation as well, such as spikes and the first of the weather moves.

Of course, this isn't to belittle the changes of DPP either! The special/physical split was quite the metagame shifter as well! No longer could Pokemon use physical hidden powers! Some Pokemon were seriously upgraded by this change, while others were completely ruined! The introduction of life orb, choice scarf, and choice specs made huge waves in the metagame. Stealth rock and toxic spikes have definitely left their mark on the metagame as well.

We mustn't forget about RBY for laying the groundwork for all future metagames!
 
The special split, hold items, and the Steel and Dark types (especially Steel type) are GSC's main contributions, and they are certainly big ones. However, GSC's only really good hold item was Leftovers. Still, the special split changed the balance of things a lot, and without it, the metagame would be very different. Also, it gave us Blissey, who, in her own way, has probably had the most impact on the metagame of any Pokemon.

ADV gave us the 510 EV cap and natures, which changed how stats were utilized. Sweepers had to forgo defenses to boost attack and speed, and tanks had to choose a defense to boost. Abilities had a decent effect, especially Sand Stream, Intimidate, and Levitate. Pinch berries and Choice Band are also notable.

DPPt gave us the physical/special split, which was a huge shift and gave most Pokemon more options to use. Especially special attackers, who could now attack with any type through Hidden Power. Stealth Rock has had a huge effect as well, completely destroying many otherwise useful pokemon. The extra Choice items were also nice, but Life Orb is the big winner here. 10% life lost is a somewhat small price to pay for a 30% attack boost. Lastly, Draco Meteor and Outrage, which are now learned by all dragon types, have forced the metagame to centralize around Dragons and Steels. Type resist berries are also notable.

DPPt is probably the winner here, though I'm not sure all of its changes were necessarily improvements.
 
I would have to say DPPt as well for the following reasons:

- Wi-Fi. This is probably the most significant game feature. Without it, you would need those lame link cables to battle your friends, and you would NEED Shoddy/NetBattle to play competitively.

- The Physical/Special move split is probably the most significant change to Pokemon and finally made strategy more important than anything. SkarmBliss is no longer the end all and be all to defensive play, CM Suicune is no longer the god of all Pokemon, and Outrage is actually considered a good move in DPPt.

- Stealth Rock. It is the single most important move in DPPt. It single handedly made Pokemon like BellyZard nearly unplayable. Every offensive Pokemon's EVs are constructed around getting the appropirate OHKOs/2HKOs with Stealth Rock factored in.

- While Choice Scarf/Specs and Life Orb may not have been as significant as Leftovers was, they're still a huge part of the metagame. Choice Scarf Heatran is one of the most feared Pokemon simply because of the Scarf.
 
I would have to say DPPt, giving us the physical / special split, WiFi, much more versatile items, such as Scarf, Specs, LO, etc., and game-breaking moves such as Stealth Rock (and the now relatively widespread Trick, along with more creative items to use along with it).
 
Really this thread would be alot more fun and interesting if it had a poll. Original Poster... you think you could hook this thread up?
 
Don't forget another key GSC mechanic - breeding. With breeding came egg moves and heredetary IVs. Breeding made every Pokémon more accessible, and makes wi-fi trading and battling what it is today. It's a great end-game mechanic that separates competetive players from casual players.
 
GSC introduced Items, but really, it only introduced Leftovers. This didn't really add a new depth of strategy or anything, I don't think, it just meant that now every Pokemon recovers 6.25% Hp at the end of each turn. It's there, but I don't see it as revolutionizing or anything. I guess it contributed to stall's dominance in GSC, since the only good item improved defense, not offense.

In terms of items, DPPt clearly wins. It introduced not one but two choice items, aswell as Life Orb and Focus Sash, along with a big helping of niche items such as the Type-Resist berries, Shed Shell, Damp Rock, etc. If you look at the RSE analysis for Starmie, the only item that appears is Leftovers, whereas if you check out the DPPt Starmie analysis, possible items include Leftovers, Choice Specs, Choice Scarf, Life Orb, Expert Belt, and Damp Rock. DPPt has by far the greatest number of competitive items available, not because it is the most recent generation, but because the greatest number of competitively significant items were introduced during this generation.

RSE wins for Abilities, not only did it introduce them, but it also introduced most of the significant ones. DPPt did bring some cool abilities of its own though, such as No Guard, Technician, Motor Drive, Poison Heal, Solid Rock, Snow Warning and Download/Adaptability. It's just that most of the cool new DPPt abilities are limited to single Pokemon, preventing them from being as influential as some RSE abilities such as Serene Grace, Natural Cure and Levitate which can be seen on multiple Pokemon.

As far as individual Pokemon go, each generation introduced its own significant number of competitively viable Pokemon. Yes, GSC might have brought us TTar, and RSE might have brought Salamence/Metagross, but DPPt brought in Garchomp, who eclipses the previous pseudo-legendaries in terms of competitive influence, considering that he actually managed to get himself banned from standard play. I don't think any one generation clearly takes the cake here. GSC does get special mention for Blissey though. It's also worth noting that a competitively viable Pokemon and the factors which make it competitively viable might have been introduced in different generations, the most obvious example being Scizor, so it's questionable as to which generation should actually get "credit" for the end result in such cases.

I think DPPt pretty clearly wins in the category of moves, because it created the incredibly influential nuisance that we call Stealth Rock. I'm not going to bother looking up exactly how many competitively useful moves were introduced in each gen, but in terms of the single most significant move ever introduced, the winner is pretty obvious. GSC gets second for Hidden Power.

Lastly there's miscellaneous stuff like EVs/IVs/Natures, for RSE, Steel/Dark and Special split for GSC, and the Physical/Special damage type split for DPPt. This is hard to call but I'm gonna go with DPPt. The introduction of physical Dragon attacks alone was ridiculously game-changing, without even delving into the innumerable other ways in which this affected the metagame (Gengar lost the elemental punches, but gained actual Ghost STAB, Gyarados lost HP Flying but gained Water STAB, Dugtrio lost HP Bug but gained the unholy trinity of Dark moves, Night Slash/Sucker Punch/Pursuit, etc.).

Overall, I suppose I'd say DPPt.
 
RSE

The EV cap and abilties added a lot more strategy into the game. GSC was a stallfest because everyone, even sweepers had 252 HP and 252 in BOTH DEFENCES. Walls became weaker because of the 510 EV and offense became actually playable in RSE.

Abilites also added more strategy into the game. Pokemon like dugtrio, who has shit stats became usable and filled its own little niche. Pokemon like gyarados and salamence, who could only be sweepers based on their stats, could be used as tanks because of intimidate, etc.
 
I have to say RBY. It laid the groundwork for the metagame we know today, and yes, it wasn't perfect, and yes it was Psychic-dominated (which of course today, we simply cannot fathom), but it was a start. Of course, later generations built on it, as we've already seen.

GSC gave us the Dark and Steel types, Hidden Power, Leftovers, many common Pokemon in today's metagame, like Tyranitar, Blissey, Skarmory, Heracross, Kingdra, and Celebi. It also gave us breeding, and egg moves, which added a whole new layer of strategy to raising your competitive squad. Interestingly, Magneton gained the Steel Type in the generation shift, making it the only fully evolved Pokemon to change types in this way. Crystal also gave us the first Move Tutor, who gave those without access to RBY Thunderbolt, Flamethrower, and Ice Beam. And there's something else everyone seems to have forgotten - the revamping of critical hits. No longer was it based on speed, now, every move had a set critical hit ratio. This caused a huge fall from grace for Persian and Dugtrio. Finally, weather moves and Spikes. Rapid Spin was now no longer completely useless!

RSE's most important change, though not the most obvious, was the EV Cap. No longer could you EV even the frailest sweeper with 252 EVs in HP and Defences. Now, you had to actually figure out what you needed to KO, what you needed to outspeed, and what you needed to survive. And then combine them all. Next, abilities! No longer was Gengar vulnerable to Earthquake, you thought twice about statusing Espeon, and Dugtrio became a revenge killing machine. Natures added another level of strategy, you had to ask if you wanted power, or speed. Salamence, arguably the most dominant Pokemon throughout the whole DPPt metagame was introduced, as were Metagross, Jirachi, Swampert, and Flygon, as were many others. Choice Band and pinch berries were also introduced, and more Move Tutors appeared, making the deadly Explosion available to many more Pokemon.

And now, DPPt. Oh my. The physical-special split, Stealth Rock, Garchomp getting banned, more awesome abilities, notably Technician, which turned Scizor into the bastard we all know and love in today's metagame, MORE Move Tutors, Choice Specs, Choice Scarf, Life Orb, Focus Sash, Toxic Spikes, which gave stall another weapon, type-resist berries, and, most crucially, Wi-Fi. No longer does everyone have to use Shoddy or Netbattle. The Battle Recorder now lets players see where they went wrong, and allow them to learn from their mistakes.

In short, RBY laid the framework, and that's why I feel it's most important. That said, each generation had slowly improved on it, and shaped the metagame into the thing it is today. Scizor, once pretty useless in GSC, sits at the top of the tree. Salamence, though weakened by Stealth Rock, is still an incredibly prevalent threat. You can now no longer be certain what item a Pokemon is holding as soon as it's sent out. Someone used Starmie as an example,saying it used to only hold Lefties. Now, it can run so many items, it's insane.
 
Tie between GSC and DPP.

RBY were great games and kicked off a successful franchise, but GSC was the first edition that was well suited to competitive play, with hold items, more types, and fleshing out several other things.

DPP changed everything. The special/physical split was immense, and allowed marginalized pokemon like Gyarados to become brutally effective. Add to that better hold items and actually USEFUL Bug, Steel, and Rock type moves that were largely absent from the previous games and you have an amazing update.
 
GSC introduced the system of residual damages on the switch (Spikes), which led several years later to Stealth Rock.

So GSC was the most important generation, after RBY obviously.
 
RBY wins it for me because it is the generation that started it all, obviously.

After that would probably be DPPt. Amongst other major things like physical/special split and stealth rock, the main thing that it brought was item diversity. I've glanced over a FRLG moveset guide and it seems everything there has either Leftovers or Choice Band or maybe a Pinch berry, and that's it. DPPt gave us a lot of useful items - they actually contribute to some surprise values now.
 
I think its RSE. The tourament circuit and Pokemon community really grew a huge amount during ADV. the smogon tour (nd really smogon) are all ADV occurences. I also think part of the reason for this is that ADV is probally the most balanced competitive generation which helped make the game much more popular.
 
GSC, because it brought about the (relative) balance in typing we see today. Without the introduction of Dark- and Steel-types, Psychic would still dominate. Of course, we do still see the over centralization around Steel- and Dragon-type pokemon today, but its not so bad to the point where the only resist (Steel) has pokemon that are generally incapable of handling Dragons, whereas Bugs were generally incapable of handling Psychics. Also, before GSC, every Fighting type was UU. :P

Coming in close second is DPPt. It brought us the physical / special split, a wide range of new threats and strategies, and unparalled attacking power in Pokemon history, including a pokemon that could OHKO a near full-health Blissey with a single, unboosted special move. (Choice Specs Modest Adaptability Porygon-Z's Hyper Beam.) In addition, Stealth Rock was introduced and the amount of threats became so numerous that many teams 'check' threats rather than countering them.
 
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