Greetings, Pokefans!
Michael here, and each
new generation of Pokemon
brings about some big changes
to the series' mechanics.
Now while some of these changes
end up positively impacting
older generation Pokemon,
there are quite a few that
end up negatively impacted.
That is the
definition of a nerf.
Not the dart gun brand, shout
out to Nerf War Gone Wrong,
but a change in a certain
video game's mechanics
that ends up making a character
or some other
aspect less powerful
and less good than
it was before.
This has happened
in Pokemon before.
In gen seven, Gengar's
ability was changed
from Levitate, which gave it
an immunity to ground types,
to Cursed Body, which means
that it's now weak
to ground types.
Another example is Talonflame's
ability Gale Wings,
which gave priority
to flying type moves,
and therefore made it an
excellent competitive Pokemon,
was nerfed to only work
when it was at full HP.
Pokemon Sword and Shield
have also brought brought
about several nerfs
to several Pokemon,
and I'm gonna talk
about some of those today,
in no particular order,
the first of which is Mimikyu,
whose ability Disguise
is not as good as it was before.
In generation seven,
Disguise prevented Mimikyu
from taking damage
from one attack,
or from hurting itself
in its Confusion once,
whichever happened first.
It protected it from
only the first hit
of multi-hit moves,
and it did not stop
the extra effects of
moves, only the damage.
Only direct attacks or hurting
itself in its confusion
could break the Disguise,
not entry hazards or
status conditions,
but that also means that
it could still be hurt
by entry hazards or
status conditions,
even when the
Disguise was still up.
Once the Disguise is broken,
Mimikyu changes to
its Busted form,
which behaves like
a regular Pokemon.
Fun fact, if Mimikyu
had its type changed
by Soak or some
other move like that
prior to the Disguise breaking,
when the Disguise breaks and
it changes to busted form,
it actually goes back
to ghost fairy type.
However, in Generation 8,
Disguise isn't as
good as it was before.
Now when Disguise breaks,
Mimikyu takes damage equal to
1/8th of its maximum health.
Now don't get me wrong,
Disguise is still a
fantastic ability.
Being able to take just
a little bit of damage
instead of potentially
a lot of damage
is a really big deal.
However, it's still
considered a nerf,
because it is technically
still worse than it was.
One big drawback is that can
no longer utilize a Focus Sash,
like, literally at all.
In the past, Mimikyu could
potentially stop one turn
of damage because of Disguise,
and then save itself from dying
using the Focus Sash
on the next turn.
However, since Disguise now
causes damage to Mimikyu,
if it's holding a Focus Sash,
the breaking of the Disguise
breaks the Focus Sash.
The item is now
useless on Mimikyu.
Additionally, 1/8 damage
doesn't seem like a lot,
but it's definitely
nothing to scoff at.
That could be the difference
between surviving a hit
and not surviving a hit.
You now have to run all
your damage calculations
at what it could survive
from 7/8 health,
instead of full.
Like I said, Disguise
is still really good,
and Mimikyu is still
gonna be a great Pokemon,
but it is a nerf to its
defensive capabilities.
The next big nerf is
another ability-based one,
that being Pokemon
with Intimidate.
Intimidate has been one of
the most prevalent abilities
in Pokemon since
abilities were introduced.
Being able to instantly lower
your opponent's physical
attack by one stage,
simply by entering the
battle is really good.
It's even more better
in double battles,
because Intimidate lowers
the physical attack
of both enemy Pokemon.
In the past, there have been
ways to block Intimidate.
Abilities that
prevent stat reduction
like Clear Body, or White
Smoke, or Hyper Cutter,
with physical
attack specifically,
are are able to completely
block Intimidate.
Also, abilities like
Defiant or Competitive,
which boost stats if any of
their other stats are lowered
actually end up with
a net positive change
if Intimidate comes into play.
There are other ways
to block Intimidate,
but these are the
most prominent ones.
However, generation
eight has made it
so several abilities now
block Intimidate specifically
that did not before.
Own Tempo, Oblivious,
Inner Focus, and Scrappy
now all prevent the Pokemon
from be affected by Intimidate,
in addition to the normal
effects they already had.
Also, Rattled, an
ability that boosts speed
if it's hit by a bug,
dark, or ghost type move
now also gives that speed boost
if the Pokemon is intimidated.
Additionally, while
this is not a nerf
to Intimidate specifically,
Corviknight's new
ability Mirror Armor
bounces Intimidate back onto
the Pokemon with Intimidate.
And since as of now,
Corviknight is a pretty
prevalent Pokemon
in the competitive scene,
that's gonna scare off
a lot of Intimidate
users, ironically.
Because of all these changes
making somewhat less viable,
I do think it will end up
a less prevalent ability
as it was in
previous generations.
It's not gonna
completely go away,
but I do think a lot of Pokemon
that have it as an option
might wanna go for
something else.
The next big nerf was to
Pokemon with mega evolutions,
especially those that depended
on mega evolutions to be viable.
Generation seven
competitive Pokemon
was kind of a mess, in
my personal opinion,
because you had to deal
with the two different,
insane mechanics of mega
evolution and Z moves together.
It was just too
much to think about,
and too much overpowered
stuff all at once,
and it just made
it really crazy.
Game Freak clearly
wanted Dynamax
to be a big important
mechanic in generation eight,
so they, I believe
rightly, made the decision
to remove mega
evolutions and Z moves
from Pokemon Sword and Shield.
I think this is a good decision
for the overall health
of competitive battling,
but this decision
does negatively impact
quite a few Pokemon.
Z moves being removed
aren't that big of a deal.
I never really liked them, or
really thought they were cool,
and also, for the most part,
they only impacted
one turn of a battle.
But mega evolutions,
on the other hand,
created a completely
overpowered Pokemon
that could dominate the
rest of the entire battle.
I remember back in VGC 2014,
when I was really into
that competitive scene,
and Mega Kangaskhan
was everywhere,
because it was stupid powerful.
But now that mega
evolution is gone,
the Pokemon who had them are
back to they were before,
and this is a really severe nerf
for a lot of Pokemon,
because as I've said,
mega evolution's, with their
insane base stat totals
and oftentimes broken abilities
were just impossibly strong.
The Pokemon available
in Sword and Shield
that had a mega evolution
and don't anymore
are Manectric, Glalie,
Abomasnow, Gardevoir,
Gallade, Gengar,
Gyarados, Steelix,
Sableye, Mawile,
Charizard, and Tyranitar.
Of these Pokemon,
I personally feel
like only Gengar,
Tyranitar, and Gyarados,
plus maybe Gardevoir,
are going to end up still used
in the competitive scene
without their mega evolutions.
The rest of them just
simply aren't strong enough
without their mega evolutions.
Although I must say,
the one that has
definitely experienced
the greatest fall
from power is Mawile.
Mega Mawile was
crazy overpowered,
'cause its ability Huge Power
doubled its physical
attack stat.
It was actually banned
to Ubers in Smogon.
However, regular Mawile only
has a base stat total of 360,
which is 45 points lower
than the middle stage starters.
It's a completely
useless Pokemon.
The next entry is back to
being a specific Pokemon,
that being Aegislash.
In generations six and seven,
Aegislash had a base
stat total of 520.
The stat spread
changed depending on
whether it was in its shield
form or its blade form.
Most of its stats are
poor, but in shield form,
its defense and special defense
are an astronomical 150 each.
In blade form, the attack and
defense stats are swapped,
so it has the incredibly
enormous attack stats instead.
This was really overpowered.
Assuming you have more
battling prowess than Leon,
which, let's be honest,
you probably do,
you can make it so that you
are always defending with
the high defensive stats
and always attacking with
the high offensive stats.
It's crazy, crazy good,
and while it's not
as good in doubles,
'cause it can be
double targeted,
it's still a massive threat,
Smogon banned it to Ubers.
However, in Sword and Shield,
I suppose they decided that they
wanted to nerf the sword
and shield Pokemon,
which is kinda funny,
and they lowered
its base stat total.
The total is now
500 instead of 520,
and the base 150 stats
in each of its forms
are now only base 140.
I'll be honest, while this
is technically a nerf,
it's not really a big one,
because 10 base stat
points isn't a whole lot,
and also, 140 is
still really high.
But hey, in my limited online
VGC battling experience,
I haven't seen that
many Aegislash, so,
maybe it had the desired
effect after all.
Probably not.
And the final
entry for this list
are Pokemon who depended
on Hidden Power.
If you don't know, Hidden Power
is a 60 base power
special attack
that can be any
type accept fairy,
and which type it
is is determined
by the individual Pokemon's IVs.
In other words, if
you have two Pokemon
that are completely identical
except for their IV spreads,
they will have different
Hidden Power types.
In previous generations,
Hidden Power was widely used
to give special attackers
a way to have some coverage
that they normally
wouldn't get access to.
It allowed them
to counter Pokemon
that would normally wall them,
due to the limited move
set they may normally have.
However, Hidden Power
received a pretty severe nerf
in Pokemon Sword and Shield,
uh, not being in
the game anymore!
Several moves were removed
from Sword and Shield,
and no Pokemon can
learn them anymore.
People who have
analyzed the code
have determined
that if a Pokemon
with one of these attacks
is transferred in later,
once Pokemon Home has come out,
the move will not
be able to be used.
The game will tell
you to delete it.
Of all of the moves
that were cut,
Hidden Power is definitely
the most prevalent
one that was removed,
because as I said, it
was widely utilized
all over the place.
But now that it's gone,
a lot of the special
attackers that depended on it
are kinda screwed.
I can't cover all
examples, 'cause as I said,
basically any special attacker
is negatively impacted by this,
but I will cover a
couple specific examples.
Jolteon almost always ran
Hidden Power in the past,
because its access to non
electric type special attacks
that are decent in power
is extremely limited.
Basically, its only
option is Shadow Ball.
So, not having Hidden Power,
usually Hidden Power ice,
to counter other ground types,
or really, any other Pokemon,
is really bad for it.
I don't think Jolteon
will really end up used
at all because of this.
Roserade was another a
potent user of Hidden Power
because of its the
ability Technician,
which boosts the power of moves
with 60 base power
or less by 50%.
Since Hidden Power
is base 60 power,
for Roserade, it was a
base 90 power attack,
which is pretty strong coverage.
Roserade would often
run Hidden Power fire
to counter steel type Pokemon
that completely walled its
grass and poison type attacks.
But now that it doesn't
have that anymore,
it's far more limited
in what it can achieve.
Although on the flip side,
there are definitely
some Pokemon out there
that really appreciate the
removal of Hidden Power,
particularly those with
four times weaknesses,
such as Ferrothorn.
In the past, it had to worry
about a stray Hidden Power fire
from basically any Pokemon
completely ruining its day,
but now it only has
to think about Pokemon
that can normally
learn fire type moves.
So that wraps up my list
of five massive nerfs
in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
Thank you so much for watching,
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fwun, (chuckles)
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All right, that's
all I have for now.
So 'til next time, Pokefans...
Gotta catch them all.
