I hope they don't bring back transfers. Even if that means Gholdengo is broke, we can ban that at some point.Just wanted to pop in with some relevant in game knowledge: We have nothing confirmed yet on transfer moves being in or not for certain.
There is circumstantial evidence they might not be in with gen 8’s treatment of intergenerational transfer moves and how SV lacks a battle ready NPC so older gen Pokémon can have their movesets wiped for cartridge formats, but that’s it for now. Both of these could be pretty easily addressed since Gen 9 isn’t hampered by supporting three games and the NPC could simply be patched in with the Feb update a la what SWSH did with IoA. Some rumors spread early off bad info that they were gone for good. Unless there’s some new development i’m not aware of, the truth is now we simply don’t know.
Wanna know the true way to stop Knock Off spam without Crystals or Stones? or zamazenta-c in ou to stop weavile from spamming knock off the full game?
not having a bajillion pokemon with knock off, making the Pokemon that have it have more utility!
Toxic made no sense in the lore, or gameplay wise; why would every Pokemon learn Toxic. That's weird and kinda dumb! Now, Pokemon with Toxic have that extra value and utility.
Outside of Gholdengo, hazards have been on a downwards trend. I'm not fully against that, but also having Defog on a lot of Pokemon was kind of overkill. Not only did Rapid Spin give a lot of Pokemon more utility, but it made... say it with me... Pokemon with Defog have more utility!!!
Lando-T in Gen 8 is the epitome of this. It just had like all utility moves + Earthquake, it was pretty funny. It could mix and match as well.
Two more points:
1. Making These Pokemon on Cart
I know a lot of people don't care here, but this change in Gen 8 made a split in terms of pre-Gen 8 and ahead. If you transferred a Pokemon into Gen 8, to use it in Ranked Battles (singles or doubles), you had to remove transfer moves. A part of that is because some of these moves on certain Pokemon we use competitively go back... Literally 15+ years. Or, more likely, to play Smogon on cart (doubles ou or singles ou, etc. etc.) you have to PKHEX to be optimal.
2. Something You May Not Want To Hear
Moves are one of the easiest ways to nerf or buff a Pokemon. Being able to say "Clefable can't learn X" in the next gen? Well, now it's worse, and maybe even more in line. And that... is a good thing. Using transfer moves means Game Freak's decisions cannot meaningfully nerf a Pokemon in Smogon's formats meaningfully outside of circumstantial decisions, or base stats. A lot of the most annoying Pokemon are suddenly not that obnoxious now that they don't have every utility move in the game, or broken moves from before.
Otherwise the only way is to nerf moves, remove them from the game (lame), or use base stats/abilities. Which all are IMO a lot lamer than just following the fact that maybe, that one Pokemon just isn't supposed to learn that move anymore.
Game Freak has made good balancing decisions with movesets before!!!
I remember early Gen 8 where people were excited to get all of these moves from HOME, and then they made the game way worse. Suddenly, most Pokemon became more obnoxious, and the new Pokemon from Gen 8 which didn't universally learn shit like Toxic were left behind, it felt disjointed.
I hope and pray that Gen 9 marks the end of transfer moves. For convenience, balance, lore and congruety between pre-Gen 8, and post.