Unpopular opinions

[Ryota Mitarai]

I would say making Fairy resist Bug is rather awful decision by Game Freak. I mean, it's already underpowered as a type itself, I don't see why you should nerf it even more.

This is worse than Town of Salem buffing Vampires that are already broken.

 

[Codraroll]

Considering almost all Dragons already learn either poison (poison jab mainly) or steel (both iron head and flash cannon are common learnset moves), i'd not see any "issue" with them also having fire coverage as anti-fairy option.

Dragons were also happily spewing fire for the first five generations when Ice was the only thing effective against them. But maybe Game Freak considers it excessive if they could hit both their intended counters super-effectively with one move?

 

[Worldie]

Dragons were also happily spewing fire for the first five generations when Ice was the only thing effective against them. But maybe Game Freak considers it excessive if they could hit both their intended counters super-effectively with one move?

Steel attacks also hit both fairies and ice types already so again, I don't quite see the issue there :P

Random mentions:
Garchomp gets Iron Head and Iron Tail
Salamence gets Steel Wing and Iron Tail
Hydreigon gets Flash Cannon, Steel Wing and Iron Tail
Altaria gets Steel Wing and Iron Tail
Dragonite gets Iron Head, Iron Tail and Steel Wing
Goodra gets Iron Tail
Latios and Latias both get Steel Wing
....

Iron Tail and Steel Wing expecially are particularly well distributed (well, makes sense, almost all dragon types do have a tail and wings i guess :P )

So yeh, I insist it wouldn't really change much. You'd trade supereffective against grass/bug of fire for supereffective against rock for steel, but it's not like they don't already have options to hit both Ice and Fairy supereffectively already.

 

[Worldie]

Unpopular opinion of mine:

Fairy type is not broken. Rather, we got too many *good* Fairy types in last 2 gens.

I went a bit out of curiosity to check the success of Fairy types in this year VGC.
According to VGCstats, those are the fairy types who obtained the presence in top 25 CP winning teams.

Sun series:
- Xerneas at 2 with 53%
- Tapu Koko at 7 with 26%
- Tapu Lele at 8 with 23%
- Tapu Fini at 13 with 14%
The next closest is Clefairy at 28 with just barely off 3%

Moon series:
- Xerneas at 2 with 47%
- Tapu Koko at 3 with 39%
- Tapu Lele at 12 with 18%
- Tapu Fini at 19 with 9%
- Whimsicott at 21 with 7%
The next closest was Bulu at 36 with basically just 1 round

Aside from the omnipresent Xerneas, Tapus and couple niche options (Whimsi bringing Prankster Tailwind / Z-Nature Power, Clefairy's Follow Me, etc), we don't actually really see other Fairy types at all. Other formerly popular fairy types like Alolan Ninetales dropped in usage very fast.

Even when you look at Smogon tiers, the only Fairy types viable in OU are (Mega)Diancie, Clefable, Magearna, Mega-Mawile and the Tapus, with the odd appearance of A-Ninetales, Ribombee.
They either are blessed by having some overpowered feature (Geomancy, Huge Power, terrain, Steel/Fairy typing, ..) or particularly strong niche (Veil, Webs)
And Ubers actually don't feature a single fairy type aside Arceus, Xerneas and some of the OU ones.

Other fairy types slowly but surely plummeted in bottom tiers, and if they are relevant in a tier it's generally due to again a specific niche/ability rather than just because they're a fairy type with BST to back it, expecially as poison types are more common in lower tiers than they are in OU/Ubers or VGC.

While Fairy typing is definitely a strong type, I think the issue is more that they made very strong fairy types in the last 2 gens.

They actually overcommitted in making strong answers to Dragon types, making combinations of very strong Pokemon with an also strong type to back it out.

I don't think that *Fairy type itself* really needs a nerf, I think what the game really lack is an answer to those strong Fairy types. Steel/Poison coverage right now are often suboptimal (as they really lack useful supereffective or neutral coverage compared to just running stabs), and strong Poison types are particularly rare to begin with, with Fire types who would otherwise resist Fairy being cursed by the Stealth Rock weakness.

 

[ChrystalFalchion]

Personally I think Rock types should remove Stealth Rock upon switching in, instead of taking damage from it. It would make the hazard much less overcentralising, it would give Rock-types a valuable defensive niche and most tiers have at least one good Rock type (OU has Tyranitar, UU has Terrakion, RU has Tyrantrum, NU has Rhydon, PU has Carracosta). I would also like to see an Ice type version of Stealth Rock that Ice types remove upon switching in, for the same reasons.

 

[King Feraligatr]

I would say making Fairy resist Bug is rather awful decision by Game Freak. I mean, it's already underpowered as a type itself, I don't see why you should nerf it even more.

This is worse than Town of Salem buffing Vampires that are already broken.

To this point, I usually remove Fairy's Bug resist in my ROM hacks. I don't get why it randomly resists Bug either. (Also tend to make Ice resist Water, just because that type needs a defensive type chart buff.)

And Worldie, why you might have a point with Fairies having several really good Pokemon, I think the type's implementation is borked anyways. It was obviously wedged into the type chart to balance things out without concern for making things feel "natural". It's also too good on the type chart because you have to get people to use your new type somehow. Fairy coverage feels too rare outside of Fairies themselves and the type itself is lacking on moves (only one Physical Fairy move? Granted it's pretty good, but geeze Gamefreak. Lazy much?). Plus the name Fairy rubs be the wrong way. I was not opposed to a new type (nowadays we're probably good on types), but Fairy was haphazardly and brokenly implemented. I'd dare say Steel and Dark were implemented better in their debut Gen and improved more in their next Gen than Fairy was in Gen 6 and 7.

 

[Worldie]

Plus the name Fairy rubs be the wrong way. I was not opposed to a new type (nowadays we're probably good on types), but Fairy was haphazardly and brokenly implemented. I'd dare say Steel and Dark were implemented better in their debut Gen and improved more in their next Gen than Fairy was in Gen 6 and 7.

Consider in Japanese, Dark type is actually "Evil type".
Fairy type makes perfect sense as name in that case :P

 

[Ryota Mitarai]

Well, to be fair, I don't exactly expect Game Freak to make rational decisions.

Just look at Dark Void's nerf. I don't see why it had to be restricted to Darkrai AND be 50% accuracy. It's not like Darkrai would be allowed in VGC anyways, because it's a Mythical mon, thus not allowed, so just the former would have been enough.

 

[Worldie]

Well, to be fair, I don't exactly expect Game Freak to make rational decisions.

Just look at Dark Void's nerf. I don't see why it had to be restricted to Darkrai AND be 50% accuracy. It's not like Darkrai would be allowed in VGC anyways, because it's a Mythical mon, thus not allowed, so just the former would have been enough.

I think this deserves the mandatory meme

Yeh, solid chance that if a nerf to Fairy types happens, it'd overshot as usual :P

 

[Hugin]

IDK if this was actually GF’s intent, but Poison and Steel being super effective against Fairy makes perfect sense in the context of European fae, who tended to weaken when the land was sickened or if they were exposed to cold iron.

Though tbh the lack of good inhuman and inscrutable Fairy-types would argue that wasn’t their inspiration, sadly.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Though tbh the lack of good inhuman and inscrutable Fairy-types would argue that wasn’t their inspiration, sadly.

(I'd argue differently. Be lucky I didn't use the Mr. Mime from the movie...)

 

[Siggu]

Though tbh the lack of good inhuman and inscrutable Fairy-types would argue that wasn’t their inspiration, sadly.

That's more like an actual problem. We have Xerneas (as the powerful supernatural creature you don't want to mess with), the Guardians of Alola (as the creatures that would cause mischief towards humans if they wanted), incredibly minor cases like the Ralts line's Egg Group and Mr. Mime... and that's it.

Pretty much every other Fairy-type is Disney-style fairies. I'd like the deception part played up much more.

 

[Pikachu315111]

That's more like an actual problem. We have Xerneas (as the powerful supernatural creature you don't want to mess with), the Guardians of Alola (as the creatures that would cause mischief towards humans if they wanted), incredibly minor cases like the Ralts line's Egg Group and Mr. Mime... and that's it.

Pretty much every other Fairy-type is Disney-style fairies. I'd like the deception part played up much more.

Eh, there's more, though some you got to look deeper/put a twist on:

Mawile bites and rips apart those it prey upon with its mouth-like horn.
Whimsicott can squeeze through cracks in homes in order to leave cotton everywhere.
Aromatisse emits such a strong scent that only trainers who like the smell can even be around it.
Sylveon uses its calming healers to purposely weaken foes before attacking them.
Dedenne sneak into people's houses to charge itself on outlets (and causing the electric bill to go up).
Though not malicious, Carbink and Diancie do live deep underground in a secret kingdom.
Klefki steals keys.
Morelull and Shiinotic put people to sleep with their spores and steals their vitality while they sleep.
Mimikyu kills you if you see its true form (and can also argue it wants to befriend you by deceiving you making you think it's something else).

I think an idea what GF might be going with the Fairy-type is that they're not directly malicious (that's the Dark-type) but more amoral: they do not care if they're hindering or helping you, they're just doing what they want. Now some they're just doing what they need to survive like Mawile, Sylveon, Dedenne (to an extent, it can survive in the wild but isn't above stealing if its easier), & the Morelull family. However others are just following a behavior either with no clear benefit as far as we can tell (Whimsicott, Klefki, Mimikyu) or its a natural process they do that doesn't bother them (Aromatisse).

Honestly, the only Pokemon I'd say that matches the Tinkerbell-type Fairy would be Ribombee. While there's other Fairy-types that are more benevolent (though does seem to be a recurring theme that Fairy-types have a connection to emotions), I would say they're quite more unique than your average Fairy who is a humanoid figure with insect wings.

That said, I would also like to see more Fairy who are based on "The Fey". Maybe if they ever do a region in England.

 

[Worldie]

It's notable that Tapus themselves are also shown to not *really* be benevolent at all. They don't mind attacking / murdering people if it means defending their territory or asserting power.

 

[Ryota Mitarai]

It's notable that Tapus themselves are also shown to not *really* be benevolent at all. They don't mind attacking / murdering people if it means defending their territory or asserting power.

Confirming, just look at Tapu Bulu's intentions of destroying that Megamart. Probs wouldn't have cared if someone died there

 

[Detective Barricade]

Eh, there's more, though some you got to look deeper/put a twist on:

Mawile bites and rips apart those it prey upon with its mouth-like horn.
Whimsicott can squeeze through cracks in homes in order to leave cotton everywhere.
Aromatisse emits such a strong scent that only trainers who like the smell can even be around it.
Sylveon uses its calming healers to purposely weaken foes before attacking them.
Dedenne sneak into people's houses to charge itself on outlets (and causing the electric bill to go up).
Though not malicious, Carbink and Diancie do live deep underground in a secret kingdom.
Klefki steals keys.
Morelull and Shiinotic put people to sleep with their spores and steals their vitality while they sleep.
Mimikyu kills you if you see its true form (and can also argue it wants to befriend you by deceiving you making you think it's something else).

I think an idea what GF might be going with the Fairy-type is that they're not directly malicious (that's the Dark-type) but more amoral: they do not care if they're hindering or helping you, they're just doing what they want. Now some they're just doing what they need to survive like Mawile, Sylveon, Dedenne (to an extent, it can survive in the wild but isn't above stealing if its easier), & the Morelull family. However others are just following a behavior either with no clear benefit as far as we can tell (Whimsicott, Klefki, Mimikyu) or its a natural process they do that doesn't bother them (Aromatisse).

Honestly, the only Pokemon I'd say that matches the Tinkerbell-type Fairy would be Ribombee. While there's other Fairy-types that are more benevolent (though does seem to be a recurring theme that Fairy-types have a connection to emotions), I would say they're quite more unique than your average Fairy who is a humanoid figure with insect wings.

That said, I would also like to see more Fairy who are based on "The Fey". Maybe if they ever do a region in England.

I'd honestly expect more Fairy types at least partly based on yokai, simply because Game Freak is a Japanese company. (that is, if another type doesn't fit them better, but both of the ones I can think of are Ice type: Jynx and Froslass)

 

[DrPumpkinz]

My unpopular opinion: critical hits being based on speed was an interesting idea that should have been kept, albeit perhaps a bit tuned down. It makes sense that a quick Pokemon would be able to maneuver around an enemy's defenses and strike at a weak spot.

 

[Ryota Mitarai]

My unpopular opinion: critical hits being based on speed was an interesting idea that should have been kept, albeit perhaps a bit tuned down. It makes sense that a quick Pokemon would be able to maneuver around an enemy's defenses and strike at a weak spot.

I find it that quite beneficial to competitive Pokemon as well, cause literally everyone hates losing to random crits, so reducing the amount of random crits swinging the matches is all out support from me

 

[stage7_4]

Currently critical hits ignore your offensive stat debuffs, ignore the foe's defensive stat buffs, and boosts the power by 1.5.

So if by tying speed to critical hit triggers, a Deoxys-Speed spamming Psycho Boost without drawbacks doesn't scare you I don't know what else will. Not to mention Draco Meteor, Overheat, and Leaf Storm and all their fast users.

That and it basically encourages "rocket tag gameplay" where defense stats no longer matter because it's all about hitting faster and stronger and OHKO or nothing!

So yeah, critical hits are going to need a pretty big nerf to make Gen 1 critical hit mechanics to make a comeback.

 

[Ryota Mitarai]

Currently critical hits ignore your offensive stat debuffs, ignore the foe's defensive stat buffs, and boosts the power by 1.5.

So if by tying speed to critical hit triggers, a Deoxys-Speed spamming Psycho Boost without drawbacks doesn't scare you I don't know what else will. Not to mention Draco Meteor, Overheat, and Leaf Storm and all their fast users.

That and it basically encourages "rocket tag gameplay" where defense stats no longer matter because it's all about hitting faster and stronger and OHKO or nothing!

So yeah, critical hits are going to need a pretty big nerf to make Gen 1 critical hit mechanics to make a comeback.

Keep in mind that Electrode in gen 1 only had 30% of getting a crit. Add few more percentages, it won't be a guaranteed. It will be higher than normal but still spamming Psycho Boost isn't going to have no drawbacks.

 

[Caramel Prisoner]

If anything, I think they should bring Gen 1 Hyper Beam mechanics back (and apply the same to Giga Impact I suppose).

 

[Ryota Mitarai]

If anything, I think they should bring Gen 1 Hyper Beam mechanics back (and apply the same to Giga Impact I suppose).

Make Tauros great again

 

[Worldie]

Make Tauros great again

Sadly by now even that wouldnt save him

-ate hyper beam / giga impact or the starters signature recharge moves, on other hand..

 

[Pikachu315111]

My unpopular opinion: critical hits being based on speed was an interesting idea that should have been kept, albeit perhaps a bit tuned down. It makes sense that a quick Pokemon would be able to maneuver around an enemy's defenses and strike at a weak spot.

Ehh... maybe they can make it an effect for an Ability or Move but overall I don't think they should make it a standard battling mechanic again. Even if they weakened it that would still give a slight lean toward faster Pokemon who already have a leg up over other Pokemon.

 

[DreamPrince]

Unpopular opinion of mine:

Fairy type is not broken. Rather, we got too many *good* Fairy types in last 2 gens.

I went a bit out of curiosity to check the success of Fairy types in this year VGC.
According to VGCstats, those are the fairy types who obtained the presence in top 25 CP winning teams.

Sun series:
- Xerneas at 2 with 53%
- Tapu Koko at 7 with 26%
- Tapu Lele at 8 with 23%
- Tapu Fini at 13 with 14%
The next closest is Clefairy at 28 with just barely off 3%

Moon series:
- Xerneas at 2 with 47%
- Tapu Koko at 3 with 39%
- Tapu Lele at 12 with 18%
- Tapu Fini at 19 with 9%
- Whimsicott at 21 with 7%
The next closest was Bulu at 36 with basically just 1 round

Aside from the omnipresent Xerneas, Tapus and couple niche options (Whimsi bringing Prankster Tailwind / Z-Nature Power, Clefairy's Follow Me, etc), we don't actually really see other Fairy types at all. Other formerly popular fairy types like Alolan Ninetales dropped in usage very fast.

Even when you look at Smogon tiers, the only Fairy types viable in OU are (Mega)Diancie, Clefable, Magearna, Mega-Mawile and the Tapus, with the odd appearance of A-Ninetales, Ribombee.
They either are blessed by having some overpowered feature (Geomancy, Huge Power, terrain, Steel/Fairy typing, ..) or particularly strong niche (Veil, Webs)
And Ubers actually don't feature a single fairy type aside Arceus, Xerneas and some of the OU ones.

Other fairy types slowly but surely plummeted in bottom tiers, and if they are relevant in a tier it's generally due to again a specific niche/ability rather than just because they're a fairy type with BST to back it, expecially as poison types are more common in lower tiers than they are in OU/Ubers or VGC.

While Fairy typing is definitely a strong type, I think the issue is more that they made very strong fairy types in the last 2 gens.

They actually overcommitted in making strong answers to Dragon types, making combinations of very strong Pokemon with an also strong type to back it out.

I don't think that *Fairy type itself* really needs a nerf, I think what the game really lack is an answer to those strong Fairy types. Steel/Poison coverage right now are often suboptimal (as they really lack useful supereffective or neutral coverage compared to just running stabs), and strong Poison types are particularly rare to begin with, with Fire types who would otherwise resist Fairy being cursed by the Stealth Rock weakness.

I asked some people on the VGC Chatroom on Showdown and they told me the most popular Dragon types back VGC 12-13 ( seasons before the Fairy Type ) were Latios, Hydreigon , Garchomp and Kingdra. Of course, there are no more statistics to support these, but if that was the case, I see no reason to think Dragon was " overpowered " since there are only 4 of them. Rather, they are blessed with attributes, such as Draco Meteor, high stats or Swift Swim.

Looking at OU from BW: Dragonite, Haxorus, Garchomp, Hydreigon, Latios, Latias, Kyurem-B and Salamence. That's equivalent to the amount of the fairy types you stated. Every other Dragon type was in a lower tier. Not to mention Dragon is an average offensive type, since it only resists itself. The issue probably arises that they insist on making Dragon a type you have to 'earn ' the right to use, thus why we so many overpowered Dragon Types- the types are given high base stats totals and Strong STAB and Movepools because GF treated them that way.

My point is that Dragon isn't an obscenely powerful type, GF just chose to give them the VIP treatment, which I feel they are doing to the Fairy-type. The problem is that GF didn't take in consideration VGC and as a result, there trying to balance it out, but that was poorly executed and now they've created a new " Dragon Type. " Masuda's reasons on why Fairy Type was introduced. He states that he tries to encourage diversity in tournaments, but wanted to introduce Fairy as a way to discourage Dragons. Well if his goal, to promote diversity, it sure falls flat. Lando-T, Amoonguss, Salamence, Kangaskhan, Charizard, Cresselia, Heatran, etc. still dominate most tournaments, with things like Tapus, Kartana, and Incineroar joining the mix, yet there hasn't been a serious knockback to these Pokemon and from minor introductions like Competeitive and some nerfs to Aerialate and Parental Bonds, these Pokemon still dominate season after season. In other words, I feel like GF balances VGC very poorly.