Nerfing the Fairy Type

[Anime Psyclone]

The Fairy type is arguably the most OP type we currently have. It’s 2 weaknesses aren’t good attackers, and it is super-effective against 3 very common and powerful types. It resists 3 types and is completely immune to the Dragon type. It is arguably more OP then the type it was made to counter: Dragon. Able to use Psychic and Psyshock to ward away the Poison type, it’s main weakness, Steel, was only used for defense prior to Fairy. So, as it is clearly established that the Fairy Type should be nerfed, how would you do it?

I would give it more weaknesses. I think the Ice type would be a good one because, well, the Ice type should be buffed, as shown here. The reasoning? Imagine a tiny fairy vs a snowstorm. Normal would also work, though with the amount of powerful Normal attacks, maybe Fairy shouldn’t be weak to it. If it was weak to Normal, it could be justified that most people don’t believe in fairy tales these days.

 

[Silktree]

Why does it need to be nerfed? Other than Mega Mawile, which has Huge Power, none of the Fairy types are overpowered.

 

[SpikOriundo]

At most, I'd remove the Bug resistance, because... It doesn't make sense. I just don't see it. Outside of that, to me, Fairy types aren't really a problem. Probally because I use Mega Metagross everywhere, but anyway...

 

[PurplePopplio]

I don't see it as needing any nerfs except, like mentioned above, the resistance to Bug should be removed.

 

[Anime Psyclone]

Why does it need to be nerfed? Other than Mega Mawile, which has Huge Power, none of the Fairy types are overpowered.

Well, I put the reasons above. When a type’s only weaknesses are very bad offensively, the type is super effective against some of the most powerful types, and resists 3 types and isn’t affected by one, you have a very dangerous type on your hands. Many Fairies have options to get around the types they are weak to(Like psychic moves to beat out Poison types). And with an average Sp. Attack stat of 95(This is averaged across all final Fairy stages, remember that!) many Pokemon are now useless. Hydreigon dropped from the OU tier to UU. At the very least, Fairies can take out many of the strongest Pokemon like Darkrai.

 

[SUP3RN0VA]

I'll just teach my Dragonite Steel type moves to destroy those pests. That'll teach them to mess with Dragons.

 

[BorgyDudeMan]

Just turn the Dragon immunity into a resistance. And oh, give it a fire weakness!

 

[Anime Psyclone]

Just turn the Dragon immunity into a resistance. And oh, give it a fire weakness!

I think that would work wonders to nerf it. The reason I said the Ice type was because it’s gradually becoming less useful. I still think the Fairy type should be weak to Fire considering Fire already resists it.

 

[Sakuraa]

I've never considered fairy-types to be over powered. I admit the bug resistance is weird and that maybe that could be replaced with an ice weakness (just to give ice-types another boost), but I'd hardly say they need to be nerfed.

 

[SinnohEevee]

I don't get the resistance to Bug.

I am not sure where immunity to Dragon is justified.

But that's Game Freak for you.

 

[IncineROAR]

There are some really powerful Fairy type moves, but as a Pokemon type they aren't really that amazing.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Simply put, no. Why? Because the Fairy type is designed to be an anti-meta type. It's not this super-broken, god-crushing type you're making it sound like, but it is geared to be a type to fix the metagame. I may know very little about the metagame, but before the Fairy type was introduced, it was overrun with brutal killing machines that were usually of the Dragon or Dark type that could crush anything. The Fairy type was designed to be a counter to it and balance things out. Otherwise certain Pokemon would run rampant in the metagame (plus the meta had about the variety of vanilla ice cream in terms of diverse teams, meaning every team was the same). Fairy was geared to tossing the game and metagame on its head and it helped change things for the better.

Besides, Fairy isn't almighty. Most Fairy Mons are slow and have little bulk in HP and Def, so a solid physical move can cut them down, and most of their attacks aren't super-powerful, as only a very small handful have BP of 80+. Sure, Poison and Steel aren't the biggest hitters in terms of being an offensive type, but they still do well regardless against Fairy. A single solid Iron Head or Poison Jab can take down most Fairy types, which are very common moves, and only a handful of Fairy Mons pack extremely powerful punches, like Mega Mawile, so it's not this super-broken type you make it sound like. I agree that the Bug resistance is odd at best, and I wholeheartedly agree that Ice should gain at least a resistance to Fairy, since it's been shafted for so many gens otherwise (plus it's my favorite type), but you have to remember that Fairy is designed to be an anti-meta type. They're not breaking the game, they're just mixing things up and forcing people to take different approaches when it comes to strategy and the metagame. So I don't think Fairy needs to be nerfed at all, as it was designed to be this way. Just like when Steel and Dark were introduced to balance the Psychic type, Fairy was introduced to balance things out as well in the same mindset. So it doesn't need any sort of nerfing, as it's not this almighty type, but it is geared to level the playing field and balance things out more. So, no, it doesn't need to be nerfed, as it's not this god-smiting type you're portraying it as. It's just like any other type, only geared a bit more to balance out the game, but not break it.

 

[@ngel]

They are not OP at all. If anything they are there to balance out the powerhouses, which are actually OP like Dragonite, Garchomp, etc.

Mega Mawile is very powerful, but can be checked by a fast ground type, or fire type.

Other than Mega Mawile, Mimikyu would be a top threat, but again there are ways to get past it quite easily.

 

[Steven Seagull]

Fairies' major problem is a lack of good moves. The best fairy attack (discounting ones like Fleur Cannon that are restricted to on Pokémon) is Moonblast, with a 95 power, and best physical is Play Rough, at 80. Neither of these are that good, and most types have a spamable attack with higher power (Stone Edge/Earthquake at 100, Fire Blast/Blizzard/Thunder at 110, Close Combat/Superpower at 120, Draco Meteor at 130, etc.). Steel types are more common than one might think in competitive play, with things like Ferrothorn, Excadrill, Magnezone, Heatran, Kartana, and Celesteela being common in OU, and Aegislash, M-Metagross and M-Lucario being good enough to be in Ubers. Sure, the Fairy type is good, and the prominence of the Tapus attests to that. But as long as they don't do anything stupid like release a Fairy-type variant on Outrage or Draco Meteor, we'll be fine.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Simply put, no. Why? Because the Fairy type is designed to be an anti-meta type. It's not this super-broken, god-crushing type you're making it sound like, but it is geared to be a type to fix the metagame. I may know very little about the metagame, but before the Fairy type was introduced, it was overrun with brutal killing machines that were usually of the Dragon or Dark type that could crush anything. The Fairy type was designed to be a counter to it and balance things out. Otherwise certain Pokemon would run rampant in the metagame (plus the meta had about the variety of vanilla ice cream in terms of diverse teams, meaning every team was the same). Fairy was geared to tossing the game and metagame on its head and it helped change things for the better.

Besides, Fairy isn't almighty. Most Fairy Mons are slow and have little bulk in HP and Def, so a solid physical move can cut them down, and most of their attacks aren't super-powerful, as only a very small handful have BP of 80+. Sure, Poison and Steel aren't the biggest hitters in terms of being an offensive type, but they still do well regardless against Fairy. A single solid Iron Head or Poison Jab can take down most Fairy types, which are very common moves, and only a handful of Fairy Mons pack extremely powerful punches, like Mega Mawile, so it's not this super-broken type you make it sound like. I agree that the Bug resistance is odd at best, and I wholeheartedly agree that Ice should gain at least a resistance to Fairy, since it's been shafted for so many gens otherwise (plus it's my favorite type), but you have to remember that Fairy is designed to be an anti-meta type. They're not breaking the game, they're just mixing things up and forcing people to take different approaches when it comes to strategy and the metagame. So I don't think Fairy needs to be nerfed at all, as it was designed to be this way. Just like when Steel and Dark were introduced to balance the Psychic type, Fairy was introduced to balance things out as well in the same mindset. So it doesn't need any sort of nerfing, as it's not this almighty type, but it is geared to level the playing field and balance things out more. So, no, it doesn't need to be nerfed, as it's not this god-smiting type you're portraying it as. It's just like any other type, only geared a bit more to balance out the game, but not break it.

This. Fairy's strengths and weaknesses were intentionally chosen to nerf stronger types and buff weaker types for the most part (except that random Bug resistance, no idea what they were thinking there). It's supposed to be immune to Dragon because Dragon used to dominate the metagame, now Fairies throw a monkey wrench in that. Likewise, it's weak to Poison and Steel because those types had no useful type advantages offensively, their only type advantages (Grass, Rock, and Ice) had several other weaknesses to other popular types. Now with Fairy, you have a reason to use them. So they don't really need to nerf Fairy. What they need to do is buff Poison and Steel so they become more popular. Introduce better Poison and Steel type Pokemon and moves and then we'll start to see more balance.

 

[Saraform]

Pretty sure that it's weak to Steel and Poison due to fairy tales more than anything else. A new type shouldn't just be about balancing the metagame, you know.

 

[godiego]

A new type shouldn't just be about balancing the metagame, you know.

i mean that is the reality of it all though. Steel and Dark were introduced to check Psychic, and, in a similar vein to Dark, Fairy was added to check Dragons.

 

[Anime Psyclone]

i mean that is the reality of it all though. Steel and Dark were introduced to check Psychic, and in a similar vein to Dark, Fairy checks Dragons.

No, it takes dragons and tosses them into the garbage.
A standard Choice Specs Gardevoir set will 2HKO a Goodra, one of the bulkiest Dragon types, with Moonblast.
And the same Gardevoir set can 2HKO a Guzzlord with a base 50 power Draining Kiss. An Assault Vest Max HP Max Sp. Def. Guzzlord, the Blissey of Ultra Space.

 

[Saraform]

i mean that is the reality of it all though. Steel and Dark were introduced to check Psychic, and, in a similar vein to Dark, Fairy was added to check Dragons.

I don't doubt that they picked Fairy to counter Dragon, as they said as much. But the other two advantages are just logical and happen to be reasonable for the metagame.

Steel is especially a tricky argument since they had to remove two of its resistances to balance its countering Fairy.

 

[Morningstar]

i mean that is the reality of it all though. Steel and Dark were introduced to check Psychic, and, in a similar vein to Dark, Fairy was added to check Dragons.

And Dark checks Psychic in the same way, an immunity to their attacks in addition being super effectiveness.