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SwSh Competitive Battling Discussion Thread

EmpoleonProd

Empoleon Master Trainer
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The new trailer that debuted at the Pokemon World Championships yesterday revealed a lot of neat information on the topic of competitive battling, and I hadn't seen a Discussion Thread yet dedicated to competitive play so I figured this trailer definitely warranted one be made. New information we got includes:

Galarian Weezing's new Ability, Neutralizing Gas, which is stated to disable all other abilities, it was shown neutralizing a Gastrodon's Storm Drain and a Rotom's Levitate.

8_16_maxmoves_9.jpg


A few new Held Items, the "Room Service" which lowers the holder's Speed during Trick Room. The "Eject Pack", automatically switches a Pokemon out when it has a stat lowered, such as after using Overheat or Draco Meteor.

8_16_maxmoves_11.jpg


8_16_maxmoves_14.jpg


A new move was shown off, "Breaking Swipe", being used by Flygon, which hits both targets in double battles and lowers the Attack.

Corviknight's Hidden Ability, "Mirror Armor", reflects stat-lowering effects, such as from Growl or Intimidate. I personally believe Corviknight will be popular in both singles and doubles formats due to having a Gigantamax form AND such a strong HA.

Dynamax'd Pokemon are shown to be unable to be flinched, such as by Fake Out.

Max moves were revealed to have effects when used, such as raising a stat on your side of the team, or causing a weather condition or terrain condition. Really cool stuff.

They also showed off a new tier system for online ranked battles, as visualized below:

8_16_battle_chart.jpg


Additionally, you'll also be able to host and participate in competitions with your friends that you get to customize and setup, the depth of which you can do that isn't clear yet but this is the UI for that:

8_16_battle_6.jpg


There's so much more information, anything I didn't list here can be viewed on the official Sword & Shield website.
 
I have to admit, their excuse for Dexit being to balance competitive play is being seen here a little bit, so I wouldn't be surprised if Regigigas and Slaking aren't in the game (those two would benefit greatly from being paired, or used as a counter, to Galarian Weezing). The new held items aren't TERRIBLY impressive but might see some niche use. Hidden Ability Corviknight is an absolute monstrosity, DEFINITELY adding one to my team. I must admit I've been a fairly loud detractor to SwSh and Gamefreak's decision-making in the last few years but I do like the immense support for competitive play, I'm being turned to buying at least one copy (probably Sword). I just wonder if we'll get an NPC like Madam Celadon, to make hunting some of these Pokemon from max raids in particular a little easier, I definitely want a Gigantamaxing HA Corviknight, probably Adamant, Bold, or Jolly...

I do like how weather and terrain wars from Gens 6 and 7 are back, with some Max moves also causing some of these effects to trigger in battle.
 
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Seen plenty of people say how Weezing will mess up doubles, but honestly I am pretty sure that at worst it will just make a strong Psychic/Ground/Steel (maybe, can't recall if Steel does half damage to poison types...) attack to blast it. Abilities are too important to give up easily, and we do exist in a world where Torracat sees high level VGC play.

....Yeah, let's not forget that 'excuse' is the key word. Can't say I trust that word when you remember that a certain durian is still in the game. Short of Lando T and Garchomp I can't think of a Pokemon that shapes competitive so solely and stayed that way for a long time.

(Plus blah blah they balance competitive play in the past by adding in counters to previous strong play styles, for example against Psychic types in Gen 2, Snorlax in Gen 3, and non perm weather/Fairies in Gen 6, plus arguably other things like Psychic Terrain for priority in Gen 7).

Room Service could help some people be more useful in Trick Room, and DynaMaxxing....

Okay, let's just be blunt. DynaMaxxing isn't going to be some universally helpful mechanic. It's too broad. It's like a Life orb or Choice Item.

These sort of things never help a Pokemon rise up, to do that you need something specialized to them like a Mega or a specific Z-Move like Komo has.

A Z-Move or a Dynamx would not have let BEEDRILL have viability in higher level singles play, let alone Mawile. Dynamaxxing is basically Mega Rayquazaing things......and Game Freak thought that was a good idea.....
 
Weezing isn't likely to be a huge shake-up. it ditches Levitate which, considering that it's still part poison, is an incredibly useful ability for it to have. unless they drastically change its stats, Weezing manages to become even more vulnerable. i doubt they'll nix Slaking and Regigigas because of its ability though; i think it would be a different case if the ability neutralizer was an item or really widespread across pokemon, but seeing how it's tied to Weezing, that just makes it all very predictable and cut and dry. and it's not like either of those pokemon have that great offensive presence beyond hitting real hard. there's also the likeliness that Truant gets an exception as well (like it does for Simple Beam, Entrainment, and Worry Seed).
 
Weezing isn't likely to be a huge shake-up. it ditches Levitate which, considering that it's still part poison, is an incredibly useful ability for it to have. unless they drastically change its stats, Weezing manages to become even more vulnerable. i doubt they'll nix Slaking and Regigigas because of its ability though; i think it would be a different case if the ability neutralizer was an item or really widespread across pokemon, but seeing how it's tied to Weezing, that just makes it all very predictable and cut and dry. and it's not like either of those pokemon have that great offensive presence beyond hitting real hard. there's also the likeliness that Truant gets an exception as well (like it does for Simple Beam, Entrainment, and Worry Seed).
Agreed. What would make it a bit more interesting is if Neutralizing Gas went unannounced. Then your opponent wouldn’t know if Weezing had Levitate or NG and they also wouldn’t know if the rest of the Pokémon on the field still had their Abilities active.
...that being said we know this isn’t the case unfortunately.
 
Agreed. What would make it a bit more interesting is if Neutralizing Gas went unannounced. Then your opponent wouldn’t know if Weezing had Levitate or NG and they also wouldn’t know if the rest of the Pokémon on the field still had their Abilities active.
...that being said we know this isn’t the case unfortunately.
i mean it's just straight-up too predictable. there are few pokemon that you'd want to have their abilities neutralized on your side so if you saw them, then you would know that the Weezing was packing NeutroGas. and it's all still hinged on Weezing anyways so if you take it out, then you're stuck with a team of semi-duds.
 
While a lot of my hype has died in fire in battling due to triples being officially confirmed in the online info, I still am a bit curious of some things. I'm wondering if the obvious Pokemon like Slaking with bad abilities will be in the game as well.
 
i mean it's just straight-up too predictable. there are few pokemon that you'd want to have their abilities neutralized on your side so if you saw them, then you would know that the Weezing was packing NeutroGas. and it's all still hinged on Weezing anyways so if you take it out, then you're stuck with a team of semi-duds.

I think you are giving this ability too little credit.

For Singles, NeutGas can be used to block many offensive threats out cold — like stopping a weather sweeper or removing offensive abilities like Huge Power and Tough Claws — as well as defensive threats — like Poison Heal Pokémon taking damage and immunity abilities becoming worthless.

Sure, in some cases having your own abilities disabled can be a detriment, but you have to consider this: it will be the same for your opponent. NeutGas can be used to mess up with your opponent’s strategies if used well, and bonus point if you use it alongside Pokémon who don’t care much about their abilities (ex. Cursed Body Gengar). This applies to both Singles and Doubles.
 
I start to wonder what other new abilities they have created that they created N.gas for a poison/fairy?

Hmm the most will loose Sturdy, Damp and all contact abilities. Shed skin. Galar weezing will do chaos.

Interesting if we will get moves to neutralize abilities too? Gastro Acid(should do some damage) and N.gas are nice but we would need some more non legendary then Core Enforcerer.
 
Interesting if we wil get a old or new pokemon with Thick Fat with one of this types:

-ghost
-electric (Electrivire, Dedenne, Galvantula)
-steel(??? weird that they didn't give Excadrill , Togedemaru or Alolan Dugtrio it?)
-bug
-flying (Cramorant? Braviary?Delibird?)
-dragon
-rock (Rhyperior or new mammal???)

other poison, grass and maybe ice? a rock/grass(gorilll...) with Thick Fat anyone?

Immunity is rarely used ability through out generations... weird that Gumshoos, Patrat , dark, ghost , ice , electric, fire , grass and a bug line didn't get that one.

Polteageist reminds me of Gourgeist a little. Acces to water , poison, slime and liquid moves for sure, liquidation and shell smash will look interesting.
This pokemon if it gets Liquid Ooze, Liquid Voice, Waterproof, Heatproof or Steam Engine would be nice. Taking the nature of tea, tea cups and ceramic it will be interesting, evo can get other abilites if it has one to shake things up.

How would you like all a Delibird with Thick Fat?
 
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