Is it just me? or is Pokemon competitiveness losing its originality?

[ddark624]

I've just started to get back into competitive battling and have noticed that literally every single person i battle is running some for of rain or sun team....

Whatever happened to 'randomway' mix ups of pokemon you liked the look of? enjoyed the different attack styles of? It seems battling has been ruined by everyone running slight variants of exactly the same team!

Let me know your thoughts on this.

[Blue Harvest]

If you think this is bad you should have seen the end of 4th gen. Pretty much every team was fire / water / grass / scarfer / steel / filler from a pool of maybe 10-15 Pokemon.

[abrar14]

If you think competitibve battling in losting its originality don'd do it. No one is forcing you

[Eliteknight]

i find if you try to stay original you can come around and win a few but the higher you get the same basic team you fight so in some ways yes ino others no

[thatjeremykid]

oh, yeah, it totally is. i can go on a huge rant about everyone and their grandparents running a rain team and spamming surf and water absorb, storm drain, whatever. but i wont. i really don't like drizzle/drought being in non-ubers.

[123fakestreet]

It is quite sad really. I never go with the trends but this team I found I had to run some form of weather to combat rival weather teams which was sad. Though using swift swim kingdra on my sun team was an unusual idea that has payed off quite well.

[jesusfreak94]

On the one hand, half of the teams you see nowadays are some sort of weather or Volt-Turn team it seems. As far as individual sets and Pokemon go, however, I'd say that 5th Gen is the most creative metagame generation we've had. There are more options for Pokemon to choose from than ever, but what's even more important is the fact that there are far more OU viable Pokemon now then there have been in any other generation before. That in mind, it's far more likely for new creative, anti-metagame sets to spring forth now than ever.

Besides, if you think this is bad, try 1st Gen when it was an eat or be eaten by Psychics world, 2nd Gen where Snorlax was everywhere and stall was the golden standard, or late 4th Gen when nearly every team was Heatran/Gyarados/Shaymin/Flygon/filler/filler or something.

[abrar14]

If you don't like weather just play Clear Skies

[Zachmac]

If you don't like weather just play Clear Skies

No one ever plays clear skies. I've tried, but I couldn't find any opponents.

[overlordmewtwo]

^ I play clear skies. Besides that, yes, I'd agree that there are many teams out there that follow the same base format, but there is still originality, even among weather teams (although sometimes that originality is very hard to find).

[abrar14]

Po beta has a decent clear skies base when theres a tournament.

[Zachmac]

Po beta has a decent clear skies base when theres a tournament.

Only when there is a tournament. :/

I prefer laddering. On smogon.

[Asbestospoison]

I never liked OU much, just to much of the same types of teams. Occasionally I'll play some OU with a niche poke like stoutland, or I'll just use whatever I feel like, like my Beartic team, but I always get less interested after that.

Not all of the other tiers are as bad though. Play some NU or something of to get tired of the Politoad/Scizor/Drag/Ferrothorn/ bs.

[bugcatchersdream]

I'm no fan of overcentralization, but the reasons that some things are used so much are valid. Take Ubers, where Kyogre, a Pokemon that is able to 2HKO every Pokemon in the game that doesn't have an immunity to Water, is used on half of all teams and any team that wants to get anywhere needs a dedicated counter to it.

[Gundam Leafeon]

you should see my team; i promise it's 100% orginal. the best part is that it's comprised of "inferior' pokemon.

[ProjectTitan313]

Its not just Rain and Sun, plenty of Sand too. And VoltTurn, I really hate VoltTurn. Other than that you see... uh... HO?

And yes, I do realize I sound like a hypocrit with a sun team in my sig. My try stall one day but I just like Drought.

[zerofield]

OU literally means Overused. Play RU its the best tier >_>

[Zachmac]

Its not just Rain and Sun, plenty of Sand too. And VoltTurn, I really hate VoltTurn. Other than that you see... uh... HO?

Sand is flexible though. I'm fine with people using sand. It's just sun and rain...

[Pinsirius]

A lot of it just weather being that damn good. It's almost become the next stealth rock.

I'm no fan of overcentralization, but the reasons that some things are used so much are valid. Take Ubers, where Kyogre, a Pokemon that is able to 2HKO every Pokemon in the game that doesn't have an immunity to Water, is used on half of all teams and any team that wants to get anywhere needs a dedicated counter to it.

Kyorge and Darkrai basically broke doubles, outside of clever choice scarfing. Zero skill to use.

Which has given me an odd affinity to Choice Band Sceptile and Primeape, because they both deal with those two almost perfectly. But even then I'll either have to make a risky switch or give something up to get Sceptile in a safe spot to Leaf Blade, since I don't lead with it.

If you want to see Creative, try Ubers. Steel Arceus with Cosmic Power, Mew baton passing not Nasty Plot or Swords Dance but Iron Defense and Amnesia, or THUNDER WAVE GROUDON (I approve!) Really shows off all the game breakers Game Freak never considered, because, you know, they don't. Outside of Regigigas and Slaking where they deliberately build something amazing and neuter it with equal deliberation.

But after a while you'll wonder why you're playing anymore because of how overpowered everything is... of course you can say that about the 5th, and often the 4th, gen in general. Everything's gotten better, and too many things seem overpowered- but then I've been playing Ubers a lot lately.

[ParaChomp]

As generations come, no, Pokémon gains more uniqueness. However, competitive battling shoves usage stats and the bitter taste of gimmicks down our throats. Luckily, these gimmicks are more viable in lower tiers.

Either have fun by doing things differently and be more likely to be crushed by your foes. Or stick to the system and savour the sweet taste of victory.