And yes, this means we're talking about the Sword and Shield leaks. So here's your last warning: if you don't wanna see any of those leaks, please click away. I'll even enlarge this picture of Galarian Weezing to hopefully keep the spoilers out of view. Got it? Everyone still here who wants to be? Okay.
So, without further ado, and with this tweet as a reference, let's get to discussing how crazy this whole thing is.
Here’s the Galar dex. Did your bro make it? pic.twitter.com/iOCSxRLPDX— Pokemon Sword/Shield Leaks (@LeaksPokemon) November 4, 2019
Alright, let's address the Donphan not in the room here: the cut Pokemon, many of whom were staples in both VGC and Smogon that have just been Thanosed. To be fair, I think it was fair to assume Pokemon like Landorus, Incineroar and the Ultra Beasts would no longer be around because they're either Legendaries from another region or are starters from another region whose names aren't Charizard but, even then, there are some surprisingly good Pokemon who I fully expected to make the cut who just didn't.
Garchomp? Gone! Skarmory? Gone! Amoongus? Gone! As well as 80% of all Regenerator Pokemon, frankly.
This paired with the removal of Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves tells me two things:
1.) Game Freak really wanted to take a look at Pokemon who were over centralizing in VGC and probably Battle Spot and make sure they wouldn't be a problem.
2.) Game Freak wanted to give other Pokemon who were good but always outclassed another chance to shine.
Take a look at some of the Pokemon who did make the cut: Haxorus, Diggersby, Flygon, Galvantula... few will deny that these Pokemon have amazing traits but even fewer will deny they was always something or someone that was keeping them from anything outside of experimentation and maybe a stint in the lower tiers. But now that the PokeDex has essentially been cut in half and a lot of Pokemon who were just better than them have gone, they have another chance to make either OU or do very well in VGC.
Flygon in particular stands out to me as, while it was never a meta game super star even in Generation III and saw little if any use in VGC, it was still a very important player in the OUs of Generations III and IV because of its, typing, ability and movepool, allowing it to provide its team with a backbone or safe pivot despite its less than stellar base stats. And with the power creep that left Flygon obsolete potentially gone, I'm left wondering if it'll soar to those heights yet again.
That's not to say every single potentially centralizing staple is gone though. On the contrary, Sword and Shield will see the return of a few Pokemon who ran wild in one format or another; Pokemon like Arcanine, Hydreigon, Ferrothorn and Toxapex. The first two have been terrors in certain VGC formats while the last two have primarily been singles headaches (though Ferrothorn has seen some success in VGC too.) This, of course, begs the question: will the new metagames be ready to handle these mons? To some, like Arcanine and Ferrothorn, I'd say, "Probably." After all, what makes Arcanine so great isn't its offensive prowess but how it supports the rest of the team with tools like Intimidate, Will-O-Wisp and, for doubles, Helping Hand. Meanwhile, Ferrothorn's still rocking a nasty x4 weakness to Fire so there's that. To others, I'm not so sure.
I already joked about how Regenerator mons are mostly out but there's one or two who stuck around and, much to my dismay, one of them is Toxapex. As much as I disliked Z-Moves in Sun and Moon for how volatile they made the meta game, they at the very least put one of the most annoying walls in Smogon OU in check. Now they're gone and Toxapex still has access to Haze (so, ya know, no Swords Dancing or Calm Minding around this thing) and Regenerator. So I could see it becoming so problematic that it becomes uber. At least it doesn't do much in doubles.
Aegislash. Great in doubles. Uber in both Gen VI and Gen VII. Walls and eliminates most Pokemon, potentially even some of the newcomers. Yeah, he's not staying in OU. I mean, I'm also down to be surprised since I love this guy but, unless the new Dragapult can take a +2 Shadow Sneak or something and hit back hard, I'm not holding my breath.
Hydreigon is trickier for me to nail down. Like Ferrothorn, it's also rocking a x4 weakness (in this case, Fairy) but, unlike Ferrothorn, it's not passive. It's got 125 Special Attack and isn't afraid to use it. Even the most obvious counter to it, Clefable, can be cleanly 2HKO'd by a Flash Canon coming from this thing, so switching into Hydreigon isn't the safest thing in the world. That said, it's also got an awkward speed stat of 98 so it's not like Hydreigon can't be played around... honestly, this is true for most of these mons, but I think the jury's out on ol' three heads here. I at the very least think, however, it will really put the hurt on whatever meta game it ends up in. Probably will still be excellent in VGC as well.
Tyranitar has had its ups and downs in competitive play but, even at its worst, it's always been at least decent. And I suspect the same will hold true for Generation VII. Now sure, there's not much in terms of Sandstorm support but we're still looking at a Godzilla rock with only 2 base stats that are under 100 and access to stuff like Pursuit, Ice Punch, Fire Blast, Stone Edge, Crunch, Superpower, Dragon Dance... he's always been something of a Swiss Army Knife in terms of what he can do. These days in Gen VII, he's less prominent but, again, even Tyranitar's worst days are still pretty alright. And now that the power level has probably been toned down a bit, we might be seeing more of Tyranitar on its good days. Probably won't be banned but I fully expect it to be a competent OU and VGC Pokemon.
You may have noticed I didn't bring up the newer mons very often. And that's because, without any stats, we really don't know how good most of them will be, and I'd really rather speculate using stuff we already know. That said, there are some Pokemon that intrigue me so we do have some stuff I'm willing to discuss.
Let's start with our new pseudo-legendary, Dragapult... well, okay, we don't know that for sure but it's listed next to the confirmed Pseudos so it's safe to assume. Dragapult is rocking a Ghost/Dragon typing, just like Giratina, which is of much intrigue to me personally and, by its looks, it's probably going to be an offensive mon. The baby canon thing is interesting to me, though. Is this indicating a Special Attacker? Maybe one that's got a high Special Attack stat but still a good physical Attack? Or maybe it's just a physical attacker! After all, catapults tend to launch more solid objects. It also looks pretty frail to me, though, tbh, that's only because of its small body compared to its head. Maybe it's meant to be bulky, maybe it's a glass canon- erm, catapult. Who knows? I just hope my baseless speculation showcases why I prefer talking about already established concepts.
Well, we already used him as a spoiler shield so may as well talk about him. You already know; Galarian Weezing is probably the most hyped new Pokemon in terms of the competitive scene. Obviously for VGC, but I'd argue there's reason to be intrigued by this thing in Smogon Singles too. Don't forget that Weezing classic already has a decent 120 Defense and support movepool. And even though Neutralizing Gas is the hot new thing right now, it still has access to Levitate PLUS it has a Fairy typing now, implying the existence of new Fairy moves which could include Moonlight, which would provide Galarian Weezing with something critical that its Kanto form was lacking: reliable recovery. Now granted, classic Weezing's HP and Special Defense still aren't great and, if the Alolan forms of yesteryear are any indication, even if Sword and Shield does improve that, it won't be by much. But, then again, Dynamax forms have been shown to bump up HP so it's very likely Galarian Weezing will still see some success. At the very least, you can expect to see this thing experimented with.
While I'm not really expecting this thing to be competitively great (I mean, I realistically can't expect it to be anything,) I do wanna draw attention to the new fossil fusions. Specifically, let's talk about Arctozolt. Now, yes, both it and Dracozolt are undeniably two of the most adorable fossil mons ever and I just wanna pinch their cheeks but, in the case of Arctozolt, let's not forget that its typing, as the name implies, is Ice and Electric, a typing only shared by Rotom in its frost form. So you're telling me we may be looking at a Pokemon with true Bolt/Beam coverage that's STAB and it's got the cutest smile ever? Yes, please! Please! You can expect me to experiment with this thing early on at the very least and I really hope it's good too. Not holding my breath as fossils tend to flop but if we live in a world where this thing makes it into OU, I think I can die happily.
As for Dynamax/Gigantamax forms, there's still so much we don't know about them that I don't really feel comfortable giving my thoughts as to whether or not I think they'll be good. But, since some of the Gigantamax forms are either already decent base form Pokemon or have traits that are already pretty interesting themselves, let's do it anyway.
Look at Machamp here! Some people have said Dynamax forms are just going to increase HP and the Base Power of certain moves but it's designs like these that make me think there may be more going on with Gigantamax forms. Glowing arms? Cracks in its skin? There's no way this thing isn't getting at least an attack buff. Machamp had already been OU in previous generations before power creep did its thing, so I can see this form pushing it back into relevancy.
Gigantamax Butterfree could very well be banned to Ubers despite regular Butterfree being pretty bad. With its attacks always guaranteeing poison, sleep or paralysis, I can already feel myself groaning when I see this thing in team preview, cause I know I'm going to have to prioritize taking it out before it ruins my team's whole career which, in VGC, would give its teammates plenty of breathing room to do their thing (unless Flinchstones do their thing, lol!) Hell, it probably already violates Smogon's Sleep Clause, which stipulates that you can only put one of your opponent's Pokemon to sleep at a time. If this thing still has pretty bad stats, maybe it'll be manageable. But I doubt we'll be that lucky.
Lapras is already kinda bulky and it looks like its Gigantamax form isn't gonna stray away from that (and, as an aside, how did the leakers not think to snap a picture of what the other's G-Max moves did?) G-Max Resonance intrigues me because it's essentially Aurora Veil without the need for Hail. Outside of putting Alolan Ninetales out of a job (which I'm not sure that version made it in anyway,) I wonder what this thing will do in both VGC and OU? Will it be a staple in either metagame? Will it be just kinda okay? I can't see this thing being outright awful so I'm assuming being okay is the worst case scenario. Only time will tell, but I'm certainly happy Lapras might be seeing relevancy again.
I love Alcremie and I especially love its Gigantamax form. It's adorable and it makes me hungry. But that's not what makes me wanna talk about it here. Rather, I'm curious about its Gigantamax move, G-Max Finale, where it essentially heals its teammates as it attacks. What's weird is that we don't know what that really means, exactly. Healing its teammates is obvious but does it heal itself? And if so, for how much? Will it be bulky enough for that to matter? How powerful can we expect the damage do be? Nobody really knows except I guess the leakers who have already played the games, but I have high hopes for this thing as a decent supporter and/or attacker.
Finally, while not much is known about its stats, what it does or (apparently) what it even looks like, I feel it's only fair to briefly talk about the first Fairy/Dark Pokemon line and its supposed Gigantamax form. Grimmsnarl (Impidimp's final evolution) had a typing that I felt could make it be anything from an offensive threat to a wall to Sableye-esque support but it looks like it has decided to go with that first one. Maybe it'll be a bit bulkier rather than faster, given its regular form looking like a Liefeldian wet dream, but it could still be pretty fast in its longer, presumably sleeker form. Again, with so little known about it or Gigantamax as a whole, it's hard to say for sure, but one can't deny it'll be intriguing to see how this line ends up playing.
And that's the end of my rapid fire thoughts. Overall, I'm really excited to dive right into Gen 8. Do I miss the missing Pokemon? Of course. Do I miss fighting Landorus and Magearna? No, no, definitely not. I'm sure all those mons will return at some point or another though. I'd absolutely love to see a Stadium game dedicated solely for battle where every Pokemon and mechanic makes a comeback. But, for now, the future of Smogon and VGC feels uncertain, but in a good way. And I, for one, cannot wait to see how it plays out.
