(approved by G-Luke , images from the offical Pokemon Let's Go site because I can't draw lol)
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Pokemon Let's Go Eevee are possibly the most conterversial Pokemon games ever announced, with their simplification of many Pokemon standards like catching, and only the original 151 Pokemon + one new mystery Pokemon being in the game. And yet, not many people have talked about how a competitive Pokemon Let's Go metagame would be like.
This pet mod aims to change that, by using playtesting and available information about the games to speculate in a totally new way: by playing the game before it comes out this November!
As a note, this metagame has a pretty finite end date: As soon as Pokemon Let's Go comes out, there's no point in this petmod anymore since we have the actual games to make an OM out of maybe! But, this pet mod may at least give us some interesting experiences and stories to share after Let's Go comes out!
Note that while there are a few mechanical quirks confirmed, this metagame does not need a ladder or format selector to be mostly playable. You can simply challenge someone to a custom format on Pokemon Showdown with the below rules in mind, and you'll be mostly set! Main issue is that I'm not sure how you can give Megas custom abilities without dragging them in as a mega on the team builder, but it should be sorta ok for now if we just start with the mega I guess until something is implemented...
Rules
The big rule is that we are emulating what we know about Pokemon Let's Go as much as possible. This does lead to two mechanical changes that aren't required, but I'll talk about them later!
Also, with a few exceptions, the general pattern here is that if something isn't confirmed, then we assume it doesn't exist. If something gets confirmed later, we add it in!
0: This is a 6vs6 singles metagame. Standard OU clauses like Sleep Clause, Species Clause, Evasion Clause, and OHKO Clause apply.
I just wanted to get this out of the way first :P
1: Only the original 151 Pokemon + all of their variants (Alolan formes and Mega Evolutions) are allowed.
These are all the currently confirmed playable Pokemon in Let's Go, and Masuda has been pretty explicit about it being just kanto stuff + a new Pokemon since the announcement.
2: No items outside of Mega Stones are allowed.
Held items were not only NOT in the E3 demo, but the recent Japanese trailer that showed Charizard being able to choose its mega evolution in battle is making items a particularly unlikely part of Pokemon Let's Go.
3: No Abilities outside of useless ones like Honey Gather and Illuminate are allowed.
Abilities aren't totally deconfirmed, but we've seen no evidence of them yet, even in the Mega Evolution trailers which had Mega Charizard Y! So we have to leave this be for now.
4: Only moves learned via the gen-7 level-up and TM list are allowed, with a few exceptions
Not only are tutor moves not confirmed for Let's Go, but Breeding is outright deconfirmed for it too! Now I'm being a bit lenient here since if we only used "known" moves, then we'd have almost no game to play!
The exceptions are currently based off of moves that Pokemon in Let's Go have been shown used (We'll add to this list as more trailers and screenshots come out). They are:
Charizard: Dragon Pulse
Pikachu: Double Kick
There's also some egg and tutor moves that Pokemon Go transfers can grant Kanto Pokemon. Thanks to ToadBrigade for brining this up! Note though, since you can only have one charge move and one quick move in Pokemon Go, that means that a Pokemon can only choose one of each of these. So for example, Dragonite can't have Draco Meteor and Iron Head at the same time, it'll need to use Iron Tail if it wants Draco Meteor.
Charge moves
Pidgeot, Dodrio
Machamp (no need for Cross Chop)
Dragonite
Persian, Persian-A
Venusaur
Machamp, Onix
Onix, Tauros, Aerodactyl
Quick moves
Blastoise
Nidoking, Dragonite
Machamp,
The confirmed mechanical changes
So we don't need these to be in a playable mod right away since they aren't tooo big, but there are two major mechanical changes we do know of.
The Starter Pikachu is a totally new forme
So this sounds like a big deal at first, since starter Pikachu has way better stats! Here's the base stat estimates for it. There are ranges posted in the Orange Island thread, but I'm just gonna nail them down to "Pokemon looking stats" for lack of better terms lol. They aren't wide ranges though at least!
HP: 50
Attack: 90
Defense: 50
Special Attack: 85
Special Defense: 65
Speed: 125
Thing is, with no items except mega stones currently being allowed, I don't think this Pikachu will have a big impact since it needs Light Ball to be an effective offensive Pokemon. If gamefreak throws another curveball like the mega evolutions one and confirms items, then its a different story with Light Ball making Starter Pikachu a dangerous glass cannon! As of now though I don't think its too impressive.
Charizard (and likely Mewtwo) can select which forme they mega evolve into while in battle. They can only do this before mega evolution. Once they choose a forme, they're locked into that Mega Evolution.
On paper, this means you can used a mixed Charizard that selects a forme based off of what has a better match-up. It could be dangerous for sure, but I imagine most people are gonna stick to one Charizard forme in mind. If this could be implemented though, could be interesting to experiment with!
How are we going to deal with ban-worthy Pokemon?
Unlike most Pet Mods, there's no real "submission" process to fix broken Pokemon, since really Gamefreak has the car keys here! However, that doesn't mean we're just gonna plop the ruleset here and let nature take its course! Much like an OM, I think we'll have tiny little suspect tests and votes to figure things out!
For the first part, I want to get this out of the way now: Mewtwo is quickbanned. I think most of us know that Mewtwo would be extremely broken in a lot of formats, and it's especially the case here since its Kanto Pokemon only. Not even Alolan Muk, the star of Psychic-type checks, can handle Mewtwo, since not only does it get Earthquake and Will-O-Wisp, but it can also Mega Evolve into Mega Mewtwo X to get rid of the Dark-type weakness!
As for everything else, here's the phases I suggest
Phase 1: Bringing the problem Pokemon up
I'm thinking if we get a certain threshold of users suggesting that a Pokemon is causing problems (what number that'll be will be determined by the number of people playing and thread activity), then they become a suspect!
Phase 2: Suspect Test!
Don't panic, I'm not imagining anything as fancy as how these usually go on Smogon! Basically, as soon as one starts, we don't change the ladder, or even use ladder rating as a factor (since I don't think there will be enough people playing for that). Instead, we just declare that we're having a suspect test for the problem Pokemon, and give ourselves about one week to mull over it after some playtesting of any kind.
Phase 3: Vote!
We simply just vote. I'm thinking we go with a simple majority here since this metagame has a very finite lifespan anyways.
Phase 4: Reconsideration when Gamefreak throws a curveball
Since this metagame strives to emulate what we know of Pokemon Let's Go, theres a chance gamefreak may make a crazy annoucement. They already shocked us by confirming Mega Evolutions, so whose to say they might not just say "hey items and abilities are totally in!" If something like that happens, then in addition to submitting a "problem" Pokemon, we can also submit Pokemon that can come back in. If for any reason the change is as huge as items being allowed though, we can also just allow everything but Mewtwo back in too as a submission option. In this case, for bringing stuff back in, I say we just take a 3 day vote and get on with it.
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