Metagame Terastallization Tiering Discussion [ UPDATE POST #1293]

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I'd like to preface this post by saying I don't find Tera as restricting as many people say in this thread. People act like this is the second coming of Dynamax when it's not even close. Dynamax was literally a free Power Construct Zygarde with multiple Contrary Draco Meteors... It was absolutely braindead compared to Terastallization and I'm glad it got banned. Mind games are not uncompetitive. They are perfectly fine within reasonable limit. I see Turn 5 in this game the same way I play around something like Z-Freeze Shock Kyurem-B in SM. I can either a) scout / mid-ground around Tera or b) go for the immediate prediction in this case. The fact he brought Kingambit in so recklessly also screams the potential swap to either Ghost- or Flying-type. Here is another high ladder game that demonstrates how you can scout Tera instead of going for an immediate prediction (Turn 25). Overall, the mechanic does have a bit of guessing involved but it's not anything overly egregious like a lot of the "every turn is a 50/50!!!" arguments in this thread are making it out to be. I will demonstrate more of these scenarios in the replay section, but in short I do not think Terastallization is worth taking tiering action on yet because its applications are mostly balanced offensively and defensively:

:Volcarona::Dragonite::Roaring Moon: Offensive Applications - Adding STAB

Adding STAB is one of the most common ways Terastallization is abused-- Volcarona's Giga Drain, Dragonite's Extreme Speed, Roaring Moon's Acrobatics... and a lot of users of this application tend to be predictable! When someone sends out one of the aforementioned Pokemon, any competent player knows what Tera most of these Pokemon settle with. Roaring Moon is the most versatile of all the Tera users in this category, but I would rather see a Suspect Test for it vs banning Tera in order to limit it. Second of all, not every Pokemon has the versatility of a Roaring Moon. I have experimented with unique sets such as Tera-Psychic Volcarona to get past Unaware Clodsire, but overall the set is an inconsistent matchup fish. While one can argue there are "too many possibilities", the reality of the situation is that most people on the higher end of competitive play are not going to pull up with Tera-Bug X-Scissor Iron Valiant, then proceed to sweep you 6-0.

This is definitely a bit extreme so I'd like to display a more realistic example. Here is my Round 2 tournament replay of the No Johns SV Release Tournament. Turn 17 reveals that my opponent's Volcarona has a tech in Tera Blast-Ice. It is clear that the intention of this set is to snipe Dragonite and defensive Garchomp. However, I did not have either of these Pokemon. Thus, all the set really accomplished was get phazed out then die to Sacred Sword later due to how awful Ice is defensively. If my opponent was the standard Giga Drain or Bug Buzz, my opponent could have preserved his Tera for something else and not be forced to burn it off to chip my Ting-Lu. Matchup fishes have existed for generations at this point, and using unique Tera sets still have an opportunity cost (albeit less compared to Z-Moves due to having no item lock). Overall, I find this aspect of Terastallization to be balanced.

:Skeledirge::Clodsire::Garganacl: Defensive Applications - Switching To Superior Defensive Typings

Another common way Terastallization is abused is by switching to "S-Tier" defensive typings such as Fairy, Water, and Steel. Skeledirge prefers Fairy as it allows it to function as Unaware Clefable did in previous generations, while still abusing what makes the base form great in Torch Song, Slack Off, and Will-O-Wisp. Even on more niche Pokemon, competent players can predict what typings are most likely to come out. Turn 50 of this high ladder match I played today is a great example. I was testing Arcanine and my opponent made a great play of clicking Ice Spinner, which covers both the possibility of me Terastallizing into a Fairy-type and also the potential Ting-Lu sack. There are only so many consistent typings that defensive Pokemon like to use. The final thing I would like to say is that defensive Tera will not cost entire games. For example, even if Clodsire surprises your Espathra by Tera'ing into a Dark-type, the most it will be doing is dropping a Toxic or 40% with Earthquake. I find this application of Terastallization to be balanced. I actually think it's healthy because of the breathing room it can provide teams not only in the builder, but also in practice.

:Chien-Pao::Dragapult::Chi-Yu: Offensive Applications - Compounding STAB

The fact that you can basically give any of your Pokemon an Adaptability boost can feel unfair at times. Chien-Pao goes from a great Pokemon to a Suspect Test worthy candidate by Tera'ing into an existing stab such as Ice or Dark. Chi-Yu is another Pokemon that goes from balanced to unmanageable defensively because Tera'ing into a Dark-type drops your weakness to Stealth Rock and allows you to cleanly 2HKO would be counters such as Clodsire. Dragapult is another offender as Choice Specs Dragapult has historically been held back by its low power, but by compounding your Ghost-type stab, it becomes stupid to deal with considering its 142 base speed tier. The only opportunity cost with the latter is you have to drop your Dragon-type defensively, but the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

While I do find this aspect of Tera to be unbalanced, I don't think it's unmanageable. A lot of Pokemon do lose their ability to consistently counter threats, but this does not effect many checks. Iron Valiant is still revenge killing a Chien-Pao, even if it's a +2 Tera-Dark Adamant Life Orb Sucker Punch. Tera can even be used reactively to deal with these proactive strategies such as Tera'ing Gholdengo into a Fighting-type. More defensive playstyles are effected the worse by this but this isn't anything new. Every generation has playstyles that are more dominant than the others, and despite this, defensive playstyles are still thriving in current SV OU. I have seen many players on the higher end of the ladder using stall, and, as we saw in the SV Release Tournament, balance and BO are very much viable! This is most likely due to us getting 3 new great Unaware users (all of which use Tera amazingly btw); the recent bans of Palafin and Iron Bundle have also allowed for more flexibility in the teambuilder of all archetypes as we can see in z0mog's series.

:Kingambit::Annihilape::Gholdengo: Defensive Applications - The Best Offense Is A Good Defense

I could not find a simpler way to phrase this so I'm going to start off with an example. Kingambit has been using Tera-Flying recently, even though none of its stabs benefit from it. Why? Because it allows you 1v1 Great Tusk. Annihilape is another good example as changing to the Water- or Normal-type limits the amount of the options to revenge kill it, where the Ghost / Fighting typing would otherwise fall short with its common weaknesses to Moonblast and Shadow Ball. Similar to Roaring Moon, I'd rather see tiering action on Annihilape instead of axe'ing Tera. Finally, we have the aforementioned Gholdengo turning into a Fighting-type to check Sucker Punch users such as Chien-Pao in a pinch. While this form of Tera is very powerful, it's not outright winning games as we can see in the replays below. In the case of Flying-type Kingambit, Great Tusk can still get meaningful chip with Knock Off, while Ice Spinner is a very viable option on its own. This form of Tera is very balanced because the metagame can adapt to it and I'd actually argue it promotes more creativity in the teambuilder.
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I have only touched the surface of what this mechanic can be used in, and the mechanic is balanced in more ways than it is unbalanced in my opinion. It can be used to spinblock, absorb Toxic Spikes, and many more! I know the council wants to do something about the mechanic before majors but I don't think leaving it untouched is going to make SPL feel any less competitive. Here's why:

Round 2 of No Johns has shown a massive increase in competitive quality. Round 1 was a complete disaster with all the cheese, Palafin, and Iron Bundle, but with these being banned, I believe Tera truly adds something special to this metagame. I'd like to take a small sample size in order to reiterate this and the points I have made above:

Round 2 [Bracket B]
Competitive
Uncompetitive
No Effect


Game 1: No significant uses of Tera
Game 2: Chi-Yu is able to overload Clodsire due to the initial critical hit. I blame this more on hax because if he did not crit, iKiQ would have no reason to Tera. From mushamu's side, Tera-Flying Roaring Moon, a standard set, is accounted for in both iKiQ's teambuilding and plays here. The second critical hit was annoying, but most likely would not have mattered with Helmet Garchomp in the back. Even with Tera, I don't think there were any overly unbalanced sequence of plays in this game.


Game 1: Iron Valiant's Tera here allows Lusa to avoid a potential speed tie kill from velvet's Iron Valiant. While this can be viewed as uncompetitive, the counter play still would have existed via Extreme Speed had velvet won the tie. I didn't find Tera's inclusion here to make this game any less competitive than it could have been without the mechanic.
Game 2: Tera-Ghost Ting-Lu is phenomenal teambuilding from velvet's side to force chip damage on Annihilape. I absolutely loved that interaction. Lusa's use of Tera will probably be more controversial, but I stand by this opinion that Shadow Ball was never the play. If Lusa ended up being the Tera-Water or Tera-Fairy set, Shadow Ball would not have killed and you'd still lose another Pokemon in this exchange. Tera-Normal was a very real possibility as well (ends up being the case). My suggestion? Trick could have avoided all of this, allowing you to keep Corviknight late-game for Dragonite. I'd rather see tiering action on Annihilape than Tera. The game itself wasn't "uncompetitive" by any means though.


Game 1: Game was done at the point Kingambit swapped to Tera-Flying, but I can see why someone would find that interaction as uncompetitive, despite myself touching on it in the intro and in "Defensive Applications - The Best Offense Is A Good Defense."
Game 2: Fairy Skeledirge is to be expected at this point, and jay was prepared on how to manuever around it.
Game 3: No significant uses of Tera.

Game 1: Sucker Punch would not have killed even without Tera and Tera-Fairy Espathra is to be expected at this point.
Game 2: Pretty lame game tbh, but once again, I'd rather see tiering action on Annihilape instead of banning the mechanic. Annihilape is one of the most broken Pokemon in the tier right now and Tera simply just enhances these already insane capabilities.
Game 3: Amazing interaction here. So Noisy goes for the mono-Dark typing to get the safe Swords Dance on even the potential Tera-Fighting Gholdengo. However, he reveals to be Normal- here in fact. Really cool dynamic and I love the layers it adds here. Even with So Noisy's great play, Tera alone does not win him the game as Z Strats Dragonite is able to clutch up both the game and the series.


Round 2 [Bracket C]
Competitive
Uncompetitive
No Effect

Game 1: No significant uses of Tera.
Game 2: Annihilape proves why it is on the radar with its phenomenal balance breaking. Not even a Tera-Dark Dark Pulse from Chi-Yu can swing the favor into ChrisPBacon's way. Once again, I'd like to see tiering action on Annihilape instead of banning Tera.
Game 3: Steel-Tera is a bit overkill vs Blissey and Tera wouldn't have changed the outcome of the game, but one can argue whether or not the damage boost here is considered balanced, which I talked about in "Offensive Applications - Compounding STAB."

Game 1: Changing to pure Fire-type allows Chi-Yu to avoid the KO from Focus Blast. This was definitely an unexpected turn of events that can be seen as uncompetitive, but TPP was already in an unloseable position at that point. Overall a great game, albeit 1-sided.
Game 2: Great interaction. With Iron Moth using Tera-Fairy to boost Dazzling Gleam, 3d was forced to Tera-Normal as a response. This is an example of using Tera reactively and I found the sequence to be really cool.


Game 1: Mewthree69 uses his Tera-Ground to combat the standard Earthquake set. bilb owo, however, catches Mewthree69 off guard by revealing a non-standard Dragonite set with Tera-Fire Punch. As you can see, this set has its flaws because he did not get the fish he wanted and its lack of Extreme Speed. Tera was not used nor meant to outright win the game. It was just a great interaction and I loved the extra layers it added to this match.
Game 2: Tera-Electric secures the KO on Corviknight, albeit unnecessary. Tera was a non-factor here, and the fact it was used yet didn't affect the game is a testament by itself.
Game 3: Tera-Flying Roaring Moon won the game but bilb owo had counter play to it in Thunder Wave. He just got hax'd. Competent players have shown how well they can prep for the norm in their teambuilding.

Game 1: Great interaction right here. Tera-Normal is the norm when it comes to Dragonite sets and Toustar shows his skill in the teambuilder by tech'ing Tera-Ghost on Chien-Pao. However, MZ scouts for that possibility by sacking Cyclizar, easily the most useless member on the team. Very complex layers added to the game due to Tera and I found this game to be very competitive, and one of the best examples on the list.
Game 2: No significant uses of Tera.
Game 3: Ghost Tera on Chien-Pao allows it to cheese past Corviknight in theory, but it wasn't revealed whether that attacking move was Body Press or Brave Bird. The final interaction can be viewed as uncompetitive though as Gholdengo would have forced a potential 50/50 but because of Iron Valiant's Tera-Steel, Toustar was automatically placed into the checkmate position.
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There is still skill involved in Tera-based SV games.
I actually think there is more skill when it comes to building this generation.
Tera is just as good when used reactively, vs being used proactively.
Tera adds more layers to the game, and not in an extremely unhealthy way Dynamax did.

Based on this sample size, most of the games are either a) improved or b) not effected by Terastallization's inclusion. The amount of games in the red will decrease as the metagame continues to develop, especially if you ban Pokemon such as Annihilape which is the main culprit of most of the "uncompetitive" games highlighted above. Thus, I support no tiering action. Thank you for reading.
After reading through 5 pages of absolute headaches this post gives me peace still. I’d still encourage everyone to read it, especially pro-ban people. And actually read it. This argument is hard to poke holes in.
 
.I played a game recently that soured my opinion on tera a bit. My opponent and I were down to our last two pokemon, my Garganacl vs their Kingambit. I run tera fighing on Garganacl for the sole purpose of stopping Kingambit from destroying my whole team late game. My opponent predicted tera fairy instead and used iron head, while i just body pressed for the win. (This is not an assumption, they said this themselves.) What this made me think about is that is the ease of concealing your tera type.

Imagine you're facing off against Tapu Lele and you have idk, choice band Togedemaru. If Lele is scarfed, it can outspeed you and ohko with focus blast, but if it's not, you outspeed and kill with iron head. In isolation, this is a similar guess, but in the context of an entire game it's not terribly hard to figure out what item Lele is using after it takes a turn or two. Meanwhile, I was using my Garganacl the whole game, and my opponent had no way of knowing that it was tera fighting and that they needed it gone to enable their Kingambit to sweep lategame
Do you have the replay though? It's hard thinking about these things in isolation. Even a Scarf lele when used skillfully can hide its set. You can switch it out of weaviles and Dragapults. You can come in on things it's faster than regardless of specs or scarf (like say Nidoking) and threaten psyshock ohko but click Future Sight instead and then switch out (which isn't boosted by specs so your opponent won't tell the difference). Some of these are risky but there are ways.

You should still have in the back of your mind that if your opponent has not used Tera, then a devasating Tera type could still swing the game.

and there's nothing stopping Kingambit from theorectically using a Tera as well to sway things.
 
I personally have refrained from putting my input to this thread, but with what others are saying, I would just like to say, items and Tera are essentially the same thing. Items are not shown on the team preview, and the only way to find it out is if it is used. The only differences is that there are a lot more items and also items have a few abilities like frisk that tell you what they have. A normally choice scarf garchomp suddenly running a band set, for example, would completely wreck you if you were unprepared for it. And Tera can only be activated on one mon, but items are on all six. Tera will just need an understanding of the meta game in order to be predicted, and surprise factor will always be a part of Pokémon, it’s unavoidable, Tera adds more surprise but also 17x the depth while building a team. Tera blast is also just hidden power with more commitment, so limiting it wouldn’t make sense.
 
I personally have refrained from putting my input to this thread, but with what others are saying, I would just like to say, items and Tera are essentially the same thing. Items are not shown on the team preview, and the only way to find it out is if it is used. The only differences is that there are a lot more items and also items have a few abilities like frisk that tell you what they have. A normally choice scarf garchomp suddenly running a band set, for example, would completely wreck you if you were unprepared for it. And Tera can only be activated on one mon, but items are on all six. Tera will just need an understanding of the meta game in order to be predicted, and surprise factor will always be a part of Pokémon, it’s unavoidable, Tera adds more surprise but also 17x the depth while building a team. Tera blast is also just hidden power with more commitment, so limiting it wouldn’t make sense.
Item’s don’t typically change your pokemon’s type. That’s kind of a big deal.
 
Item’s don’t typically change your pokemon’s type. That’s kind of a big deal.
Items do, however, change how your Pokémon plays, and have more of an impact on a game than I think Tera ever will. Dynamax mad a bit of sense, mainly because games came down exclusively to it, but I’ve had quite a few games where I genuinely never Tera’d because I wasn’t going to put myself in a better position. However, I’ve never been in a game and said “I wish I didn’t bring an item on this mon, it put me in a worse position” except for one time and that was an acrobatics mon
 
Items do, however, change how your Pokémon plays, and have more of an impact on a game than I think Tera ever will. Dynamax mad a bit of sense, mainly because games came down exclusively to it, but I’ve had quite a few games where I genuinely never Tera’d because I wasn’t going to put myself in a better position. However, I’ve never been in a game and said “I wish I didn’t bring an item on this mon, it put me in a worse position” except for one time and that was an acrobatics mon
the vast majority of Items have notable drawbacks though. If you're comparing Tera to items, Tera is then like an item that also lets you hold another item that not only allows your pokemon to change types, but can give you stab on a coverage move or a free additional 1.5 boost. The impact is quite different from the majority of other items
 
I feel like everyone who wants it to stay has that one mon that is abusing it and doesn’t want to lose it lol.
Personally I use mons that do abuse it and I wish tera was banned, it makes the wins I get feel less fun/earned when it's because of tera. Not like I can just not use tera without putting myself at a disadvantage eithter
 
Items do, however, change how your Pokémon plays, and have more of an impact on a game than I think Tera ever will. Dynamax mad a bit of sense, mainly because games came down exclusively to it, but I’ve had quite a few games where I genuinely never Tera’d because I wasn’t going to put myself in a better position. However, I’ve never been in a game and said “I wish I didn’t bring an item on this mon, it put me in a worse position” except for one time and that was an acrobatics mon
I think items complement your strategy rather than altering it. Regardless of whether my opponent's Scizor is holding a choice band or leftovers, I know what type of pokemon to use against it and using the types to your advantage was part of pokemon battling before hold items or abilities.

Tera is much better than Dynamax both in concept and in execution. Dynamax was a blight upon poke-humanity.
 
At that point, you might as well ban the whole mechanic, that's absolutely insane.


A lot of the most off-the-wall restrictions and even the "Tera restricted to the same type" idea simply change the mechanic to the point of it being unrecognizable.

It's one thing to vote for "Tera Type on Team Preview" because it ultimately allows the mechanic to function the same, it just solves a potential issue of Terastal being too unpredictable.

It's another to stack complex bans and remove key characteristics from the mechanic. At that point, you're just asking for a completely different thing. That's not particularly directed to you btw.
I agree with this take, and it's the main reasons why I think that trying Tera Type on Preview should be tried and then if that doesn't work just ban it.
 
I know it's a complex ban, but I still think creating a "Terastall ban list" can please both sides.

Not banning a type of tera, but like: Terastal Clause: "The following pokemon can't terastalize.".

Problems: identifying the ones that makes the mechanic broken and community complains, more suspect testing etc.

Other way is just ban the whole mechanic.

"What's the difference between this and banning certain pokemon from Dynamax in Gen 8, instead of the whole mechanic itself?"

Well, Dynamax had boosted moves that boosts stats, generates weather or terrain or decreases enemy's stats. And HP regen factor in a way like Zygarde-Complete transformation. Things like Aerial Ace were viable because of Max Airstream.

Right now Teras are used to boost it's own stabs, removes weaknesses or boost coverage. It does not gives moves, stats or stat boosts.

Edit: Actually, this will probably results in 50%+ of OU not beeing able to terastalize, since OU is the tier of pokemon borderline broken that has 2 or 3 exploitable flaws, and those can be solved with Terastal.

So, just ban Tera as a Whole.
 
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Haven't read all of the posts so apologies if this was already suggested.

An alternative suggestion: using your tera form costs a whole turn. This would obviously be a large divergence from the cartridge functionality but it would ease some of the power of the new mechanic. It is quite a lot to change your typing with perfect priority and launch an attack the same turn, particularly if the attack is a newfound STAB or a type that the mon couldn't use typically. Requiring the forfeit of your turn when you tera would still give you the defensive advantage this turn and a new offensive threat on future turns, but would remove your ability to punish your opponents "misplay" for not predicting your tera.
 
Haven't read all of the posts so apologies if this was already suggested.

An alternative suggestion: using your tera form costs a whole turn. This would obviously be a large divergence from the cartridge functionality but it would ease some of the power of the new mechanic. It is quite a lot to change your typing with perfect priority and launch an attack the same turn, particularly if the attack is a newfound STAB or a type that the mon couldn't use typically. Requiring the forfeit of your turn when you tera would still give you the defensive advantage this turn and a new offensive threat on future turns, but would remove your ability to punish your opponents "misplay" for not predicting your tera.
I think the issue is this can't be reasonably implemented as a gentleman's agreement. The only options currently are making the Tera pokemon click a useless move during that turn but that requires a moveslot.
 
Personally I use mons that do abuse it and I wish tera was banned, it makes the wins I get feel less fun/earned when it's because of tera. Not like I can just not use tera without putting myself at a disadvantage eithter
That's your fault for not playing to win and not liking strength, I've only had fun with this and don't think it cheapens my wins. Grass Torkoal in doubles is the most epic Mon in the world and it's changed how my sun teams work immensely rather than being enslaved to it's Fire typing's short comings. It adds so much potential in the team builder

Haven't read all of the posts so apologies if this was already suggested.

An alternative suggestion: using your tera form costs a whole turn. This would obviously be a large divergence from the cartridge functionality but it would ease some of the power of the new mechanic. It is quite a lot to change your typing with perfect priority and launch an attack the same turn, particularly if the attack is a newfound STAB or a type that the mon couldn't use typically. Requiring the forfeit of your turn when you tera would still give you the defensive advantage this turn and a new offensive threat on future turns, but would remove your ability to punish your opponents "misplay" for not predicting your tera.
This is ridiculous and goes against cart mechanics not just for the sake of following them but you'd have to go out of your way to do so. They designed this to be dynamic, not to take up your whole turn
 
I think the issue is this can't be reasonably implemented as a gentleman's agreement. The only options currently are making the Tera pokemon click a useless move during that turn but that requires a moveslot.
I liked this idea, like the pokemon can only terastalize if it has Tera Blast on it's move slot. I mean, not every tera abuser needs Tera Blast and this restricts the "everyone can tera with no drawback" thing.
 
That's your fault for not playing to win and not liking strength, I've only had fun with this and don't think it cheapens my wins. Grass Torkoal in doubles is the most epic Mon in the world and it's changed how my sun teams work immensely rather than being enslaved to it's Fire typing's short comings. It adds so much potential in the team builder
God forbid I don't get satisfaction for victories I feel are cheap and have nothing to do with my skill. It's a video game dude, let's take it down a notch.
 
I liked this idea, like the pokemon can only terastalize if it has Tera Blast on it's move slot. I mean, not every tera abuser needs Tera Blast and this restricts the "everyone can tera with no drawback" thing.
That's such a tiny nerf to it that I believe we'd go back to the drawing board with it. It's like banning Tera Blast, it's a restriction that isn't gonna go too far in pleasing people

On another note, anyone who can't deal with Tera types has never dealt with mixup in a fighting game. Just guess, bro. Block the hits, wall their threat come on now

God forbid I don't get satisfaction for victories I feel are cheap and have nothing to do with my skill. It's a video game dude, let's take it down a notch.
I didn't make it a big deal and say "God forbid" about it so don't try makin your issue into my issue. I didn't take it up a notch, you're just sneeding
 
That's such a tiny nerf to it that I believe we'd go back to the drawing board with it. It's like banning Tera Blast, it's a restriction that isn't gonna go too far in pleasing people
I agree, but at least it increases 4MSS of some threats if it does not tera. Actually, this is annoying. Forget this idea pls.
 
I didn't make it a big deal and say "God forbid" about it so don't try makin your issue into my issue. I didn't take it up a notch, you're just sneeding
Saying "god forbid" is hardly making a big deal compared to you basically giving me the start of a shonen rival monologue about power. I just personally think having fun should always come before winning in any hobby, don't know why that idea seemed bad enough for you to personally reply with what you did lol
 
I liked this idea, like the pokemon can only terastalize if it has Tera Blast on it's move slot. I mean, not every tera abuser needs Tera Blast and this restricts the "everyone can tera with no drawback" thing.
If you make it so that you have to run Tera Blast on a Pokemon if it's Tera is to be useable in battle, this still wouldn't help much on its own. The meta will change into those pokemon that like having Tera Blast on their set. And you can still bluff the Tera types at preview. The opponent won't know what's running Tera Blast and what isn't. Even revealing the Tera Types at team preview wouldn't help much with this. the opponenent still won't really know when the opponent could tera
 
Haven't read all of the posts so apologies if this was already suggested.

An alternative suggestion: using your tera form costs a whole turn. This would obviously be a large divergence from the cartridge functionality but it would ease some of the power of the new mechanic. It is quite a lot to change your typing with perfect priority and launch an attack the same turn, particularly if the attack is a newfound STAB or a type that the mon couldn't use typically. Requiring the forfeit of your turn when you tera would still give you the defensive advantage this turn and a new offensive threat on future turns, but would remove your ability to punish your opponents "misplay" for not predicting your tera.
that is not how it works in game at all.... u cant even agree to it since pretty sure tera is like dynamax ... u use the dynamax and choose the move u want to use .... its not like u can make dyna skip a turn in game
 
I know it's a complex ban, but I still think creating a "Terastall ban list" can please both sides.

Not banning a type of tera, but like: Terastal Clause: "The following pokemon can't terastalize.".

Problems: identifying the ones that makes the mechanic broken and community complains, more suspect testing etc.
A quick 2 cents, I like the idea of a Terastal Clause as it reminds me of banning certain megas. I know you spent the rest of your post breaking it down and ultimately feeling like banning the mechanic would be better, but as someone on the boat of 'avoid banning it', this would be a neat middle ground between full banning tera and not banning tera that feels like it makes the most sense. I don't think it'd result in '50% of the metagame not being able to tera'.

Tiering stuff so it's competitive is a huge thing in Smogon and doing this to Terstallization would set the precedent going forward for future generational mechanics that certain Pokemon, for balance, can't use the mechanic for balance reasons.

Either way, tldr banning specific mons from using Tera feels like the most clean non-total ban solution to Terastallization, fits better as a solution to attempt to balance the mechanic (saying they must hold a specific item or no item so they're megas-lite feels silly to me) and also fits organically with what Smogon already does best, tiering stuff for individual metagames.
 
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A quick 2 cents, I like the idea of a Terastal Clause as it reminds me of banning certain megas. I know you spent the rest of your post breaking it down and ultimately feeling like banning the mechanic would be better, but as someone on the boat of 'avoid banning it', this would be a neat middle ground between full banning tera and not banning tera that feels like it makes the most sense. I don't think it'd result in '50% of the metagame not being able to tera'.

Tiering stuff so it's competitive is a huge thing in Smogon and doing this to Terstallization would set the precedent going forward for future generational mechanics that certain Pokemon, for balance, can't use the mechanic for balance reasons.

Either way, tldr banning specific mons from using Tera feels like the most clean non-total ban solution to Terastallization, fits better as a solution to attempt to balance the mechanic (saying they must hold a specific item or no item so they're megas-lite feels silly to me) and also fits organically with what Smogon already does best, tiering stuff for individual metagames.
that doesnt sound well.... if its broken on some pokemon... its gonna be broken esp in lower tiers and a lot of mons will have to get tested to see if terra is the problem. This sounds like the dynamax uber clause that they did but dynamax was banned there to as a result of being bonkers.
 
.I played a game recently that soured my opinion on tera a bit. My opponent and I were down to our last two pokemon, my Garganacl vs their Kingambit. I run tera fighing on Garganacl for the sole purpose of stopping Kingambit from destroying my whole team late game. My opponent predicted tera fairy instead and used iron head, while i just body pressed for the win. (This is not an assumption, they said this themselves.) What this made me think about is that is the ease of concealing your tera type.

Imagine you're facing off against Tapu Lele and you have idk, choice band Togedemaru. If Lele is scarfed, it can outspeed you and ohko with focus blast, but if it's not, you outspeed and kill with iron head. In isolation, this is a similar guess, but in the context of an entire game it's not terribly hard to figure out what item Lele is using after it takes a turn or two. Meanwhile, I was using my Garganacl the whole game, and my opponent had no way of knowing that it was tera fighting and that they needed it gone to enable their Kingambit to sweep lategame
"My plan worked, I hate this." :pikuh:

Your opponent just made the wrong read bro, this could've happened in a lot of other ways. It happens.
Especially when you have a lure set with the specific purpose of having this interaction happen. :totodiLUL:
 
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