Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Suddenly Protean seems like a bad idea.

After the Mega Salamence quickban, the first actual suspect test of the ORAS era involves not another one of the new megas, but rather a Pokémon that got a substantial buff with the move tutors - Greninja. It was one of the best Pokémon in X/Y, but Fairies and Chansey stopped it dead in its tracks. However, with Gunk Shot and Low Kick now complimenting an already decent movepool, that's no longer the case. Of course it suffers from a bad case of moveslot syndrome, but there isn't a single Pokémon out there that can kill every permutation. If you want to get rid of it, you have no choice but to run one or two checks that can only be qualified as shaky (or the wonderfully exotic Porygon2), or lose right then and there. See, the reason why Contrary is probably going to work just fine with Serperior is because it has virtually no moves to abuse it. Giving STAB on every move to a Pokémon that has both blistering speed and a good movepool, while also boasting well-distributed stats with a total worthy of a starter, is just asking for trouble, especially with the knowledge that said movepool would be expanded later on.

The buzz? Don't be silly, this is a formality. Greninja's a goner. Now I just want to go back in time by two years and tell my 2012 self, two years from now a Pokémon's gonna get banned because it gets Gunk Shot, just to see the look on my fance.

Edit: Seems like the considerable majority of anti-ban people in the Smogon thread have a post count in the single digits. Imagine that, total noobs who just bust out damage calcs without any proper context, or worse, say "just use Porygon2", come crawling from the rocks they've been living under to save their OMG KEWLEST POGEYMAN EVAR. Never saw that coming.

28 comments:

  1. I spend next to no time at ALL on Smogon's forums, my time with simulators is limited to minutes, and I am by all means a total competitive noob, but this is just basic stuff. Something can carry movesets and has the stats to counter anything, it will probably get banned. Mega-Lucario, for example.

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    1. That's more time than I've spent on them. (unless you count the ones in XD in which case I'd say we're even)
      Also on a different note imagine if something like this somehow happened to something like Charizard. The tears of it's fanboys would be enough 1hitKO the flying lizard with more damage than Shuckle could potentially do.

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    2. Ah, Shuckle. The classic "ermagerhd gud pokemon so indestructibru" that those very same fanboys obsess over.

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    3. Meh. Give me Dusclops or Porygon2. I use Galvantula for Sticky Web (fast and can attack worth something)...

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    4. XModxGodX if it happened to Charizard I'd be very happy since I don't battle competitively and I like my favorite pogeymanz to be very overpowered tyvm.

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  2. Protein is a bad idea? Dang, I thought you needed protein! Or is it the protein that makes you overpowered?

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  3. At this rate I might end up taking "Banned by Smogon" the team to the next VGC event.

    Aegislash
    Greninja
    Blaziken
    Mega Kangaskhan
    Mega Mawile
    ??? (Maybe something with Swag-Play?)

    Really though, Gunk Shot... Maybe next gen something will be banned because its Focus Blast is too good.

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    1. To be fair, you don't usually take all six Pokemon into battle in VGC. Usually four...

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    2. Indeed. It's fairly common for VGC teams to carry two megas.

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  4. The difference between the Gen 5 and 6 starters is that the latter don't suck except for Delphox. Then again, they had their Hidden Abilities right from the start. Though Shell Armor really won't help Samurott...

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  5. Always hated Protean, especially on Greninja. The stuff is of the kind that shouldn't be seen except on the kind of Arceus. Heck, Arceus itself would like the thing... if it wouldn't force him on Normal type for Judgment, that is.

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    1. Well, it would slow down the battles considerably to see Arceus change Forme for every Attack. To be fair, we didn't know Mega Rayquaza would easily surpass God itself...

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    2. If they made Mega Arceus and gave it Protean, that would be the only thing more broken than Mega Rayquaza. Imagine if Mega Arceus only needed one of those plates to Mega Evolve, or for consistency the plates could be replaced with versions that have the same effect of the old ones + the Mega Evolution effect.

      As I said, if THAT happened, it would be the most overpowered thing ever and would be banished to Anything Goes quicker than you could say "Mega Salamence quickbanned"

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    3. Not sure if they're going to do a mega on a legendary to the extent of Rayquaza, I'see it as a test more so and they certainly found out it was broken

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    4. On the other hand, Giratina would really appreciate some time in the limelight...Even if technically, they'd have to give Giratina two Megas...

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    5. And how do you plan on mega evolving a form that already requires a held item?

      Regardless, if anything Protean belongs on Pokémon that suck, not god-tiers to start with. And who knows where Greninja would've ended up without Protean?

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    6. Maybe in the same way Rayquaza mega evolves? Through knowing a certain move?

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    7. I wasn't referring to Arceus as a "god-tier pokémon", but as of a "pokémon with a gimmick revolving around types".

      I just don't think Protean belongs in OU, though. I wonder what it'd do with Smeargle and defensive pokémons though, that seems more interesting to me than getting STAB on everything to sweep like a brute.

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    8. I don't think any ability doesn't belong in any tier if the Pokémon that has it would otherwise be bad enough. The problem is that Greninja would still be solid if it didn't have Protean. Maybe not OU material, but still solid.

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    9. It would probably be a bit better than Delphox because it's not weak to Stealth Rock...

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    10. Anthony, Protean isn't an issue. No one's going "JESUS CHRIST BAN KECLEON IT'S BROKEN!" because that's silly, but Kecleon does have Protean. The problem is GRENINJA, who is fast, strong, and has a wide movepool to abuse Protean with.

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  6. Oh man.

    So, there's been scuttlebutt about FRLG remakes, yeah?

    Here's the thing: if those hit, they almost certainly mean Mega Mew. Because of course you want a new Mega legend to advertise, and you can't really give Mewtwo another Mega right now.

    What would be the single best flavor fit for Mega Mew out of every ability in the game?

    Yep. I think Game Freak is nuts enough that they might seriously drop a 100/120/120/120/120/120 Protean Mega Mew on us before the gen is out. Imagine that thing.

    Then, uh, cry yourself to sleep, because damn.

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    1. They won't happen. To be more accurate, they're about as likely as Delta Emerald, which is not very...
      To make you cry more, if they did that, they'd give Mew the Deoxys treatment...

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    2. I don't personally think they're very likely - but in the event that they do happen I expect that Mega Mew will come with them, and I can't see Game Freak not making it a hilariously terrifying Protean monster.

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    3. So one fanart for Mega Mew that doesn't look like mewtwo that i've seen is
      http://puu.sh/dLUZ5/45931af7f8.jpg

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  7. Well... it seems like the distribution for the Unova HA starters is pseudo-worldwide since it seems like it will be one code that multiple people can use. Serperior's is known but not redeemable until early January.

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    1. I'd say Emboar's is POKEMON500, and Samurott's is POKEMON503...

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