Other Features [Article Idea] What If Generation __ Was Missing?

[GRs Cousin]

One series of articles I'd love to see is one that explores the "what ifs" for what the current metagame if certain generations had never existed, more specifically being what Pokemon would see drastic tier changes if a given generation never existed.

For example, what if Generation III existed? We could go two directions with this concept.

The first is if the generation's mechanics were missing altogether. The metagame would have never been introduced to Abilities, Natures, and EVs. The lack of abilities would mean some Pokemon would lose their niche in the XY Meta while others would become more viable in comparison. Expected drops into RU or lower include but are not limited to Alakazam, Blaziken, Dragonite, Dugtrio, Espeon, Gastrodon, Gliscor, Greninja, Klefki, Reuniclus, Scizor, Talonflame, Trevenant, and Venusaur. Of course, Megas Gengar, Kangaskhan, and Lucario would, in all likelihood, not be banned. Additionally, many Pokemon would become a lot more standardized in what types of sets they could perform, as their stats would always be the same at Level 100 without natures and EVs to alter them.

Here's an example of what Smogon would have possibly written for Gliscor under these circumstances:

Gliscor @ Flying Gem
291 / 226 / 286 / 126 / 186 / 226
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Agility
"Gliscor's flagship moveset. Switch in on a resisted physical hit and start to set up. Agility will allow it to break its speed-tie with Zygarde and outspeed the normally faster Tentacruel and Haxorus, while Swords Dance gives it the immediate power to OHKO Rotom-W on the switch with Earthquake. Dragonite, Landorus-T, and Gyarados, who all are immune to Earthquake, take a clean hit with Flying Gem-boosted STAB Acrobatics and are all OHKO'd with hazards.

Ice Fang could be considered for extra coverage, but Gliscor's stats are otherwise subpar for a sweeper if it doesn't boost them and make full use of STAB. Although a defensive approach with Leftovers and Earthquake / Substitute / Protect / Toxic could be used on Gliscor, its 291 HP / 286 Defense doesn't allow it to recover with Leftovers at a strong enough rate to outlast and stall stronger physical attackers, leaving it outclassed by Skarmory for the most part."

Notice how the lack of EVs makes speed-tiers a certainty among several of Gliscor's checks, and that multiple Pokemon like Landorus-T and Rotom-W that could check or counter Gliscor are suddenly at a disadvantage without their defensive abilities. In this one set of one Pokemon alone, we can already peer into the realm of what is surely a different metagame entirely in the time of Generation VI.

Other notorieties of other generations include the introduction of Special Defense, Dark-type, and Steel-type in Generation II and Physical/Special-split of Generation IV.

= = = = =

Alternatively, we could go about this from an angle of less of what mechanics the generation contributed and more of what the Generation contributed directly to the metagame. In this case, without Gen III, we would lose:

• All Gen III abilities, including Arena Trap, Flash Fire, Guts, Huge Power, Intimidate, Levitate, Magnet Pull, Natural Cure, Shadow Tag, Speed Boost, Sturdy, and Water Absorb
  
• All Gen III moves, including Knock Off, Leaf Blade, Superpower, Bulk Up, Calm Mind, Dragon Dance, and Tail Glow, Aromatherapy, Taunt, Will-O-Wisp, and Wish
• All Gen III Pokemon, including Breloom, Jirachi, Metagross, Latios, Latias, and Salamence
• All Gen III items, including various berries, Choice Band, White Herb,

This being the case, we would have a meta much closer to what we're used to with abilities and natures. Certain Pokemon, such as Azumarill and Sableye, however, will find themselves with less options to use.

Azumarill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough / Waterfall
"Upon finally receiving an ability back in Generation V, Azumarill now has only a weakness to the Electric-type. Switching into Grass-type moves boosts Azumarill's attack stat to decent levels and makes its SubPunch set 2HKO many Pokemon with hazards set up, finally allowing Azumarill the chance to damage its opponents outside of Toxic stall. Who would have ever thought a Pokemon with a Base 50 Attack stat could kill anything?

Although its classic SubToxic set still works, Sap Sipper is a huge boost that only helps out physical sets, which is why it's not recommended over other Water-types like Gastrodon, who outclasses Azumarill in having an ability that boosts the power of its Scald and who has a higher Special Attack stat in general."

Despite functioning in a metagame with the same mechanics as what we're used to, certain Pokemon become hard to use without the tools they received in a given generation. Going about the articles this way lets us know which generations impacted certain OU Pokemon the most prior to their own existence.

Other notorieties of other generations include various staple moves from Generation II, new items from Generation IV, and new threats from Generation V.

= = = = =

The idea in all of this is that we get folks thinking about just what makes certain aspects of Pokemon so important to their usability and just how much each respective generation brought to the metagame we know today. I think it's a subject worth looking into and I hope The Smog's writers will consider it for future issues.

 

[Flora]

Hello! Yeah, this looks fine with me. I already said my piece in the PM. Pick whatever question you'd like; both are very interesting!

I'm going to give this another day to see if the other mods have anything to say, but ya, I really like this! I'd put this for the Other Features section.

I think it would also be wise to ask for feedback when you completely write up your article at Article Workshop. Hopefully there will be other experienced theorycrafters to swing by. :)

 

[Flora]

Yeah, this should be okay. I approve this. I'm going to tag Bummer or maybe Toast++, whomever isn't too busy! They'll give you access to the Article Workshop.

Here's some things:

Don't leak out any content from the article workshop. We just want to keep it a surprise, really.

Get your stuff done on time. That should be a no brainer, haha. At the time being, we are close to one of our deadlines, so you only have pretty much a week to get this article in for this issue. If you cannot do that, don't worry, just save/push it for the next issue! Your choice!

You'll see that we also have these weird tag things. There's a tag with a dropdown-thingy that gives stuff like WIP, Grammar, Pushed, etc. You can make a new thread with your skeleton and put WIP (Work In Progress) and leave it at that until you've finished your article up. When you do, move the tag from WIP to Grammar by Thread Tools => Edit Thread, so you can look for getting grammar checks from our official Grammar-Prose members. They will check your article twice. It would be nice to edit your title with the amount of grammar checks your article has received, like this [GP 1/2] or [GP 0/2] so they immediately know how many checks your article has. After you get 2 grammar checks, you can move this article to HTML, where someone will put your article into code. If you didn't get any art yet, you want to move to Images, but if not, you should be Done! Pushed is if you cannot complete your article for the issue and looking to do it next issue. Shelved means that the article has been abandoned; hopefully that doesn't happen with you! And, Uploaded means that your article is being implemented on-site; hopefully that happens with you!

Oh, we also use this other tag that you manually type it. You see stuff like [34-M] and the likes in front of other article titles. The number is the issue number, and the letter/two letters stand for the category. Since yours is Other Features, you want OF. So, if you're doing it for this issue, it'll say [34-OF], but if you're pushing it for the next issue, it should say [35-OF]. Okay? Shouldn't be too confusing!

Good luck and have fun! Also that's not a big text wall, definitely not!

 

[Toast++]

I did the access thingy.

 

[GRs Cousin]

Ah, so I have to write it all myself? I originally thought I was making a pitch for an article idea, with someone on The Smog team adopting it and raising it into a full-length article. I've never written full articles like these before, and I'm certainly not an expert for the material, so is there any way to get help with giving content for this? Typing up the article shouldn't be a huge issue, I just need a little hand-holding with some of the research that goes into finding good examples to use for these.

Also, considering my busy college schedule, I think this will have to be pushed until the following issue. I hope that's okay, eheh.

 

[Flora]

Ah, so I have to write it all myself? I originally thought I was making a pitch for an article idea, with someone on The Smog team adopting it and raising it into a full-length article. I've never written full articles like these before, and I'm certainly not an expert for the material, so is there any way to get help with giving content for this? Typing up the article shouldn't be a huge issue, I just need a little hand-holding with some of the research that goes into finding good examples to use for these.

Also, considering my busy college schedule, I think this will have to be pushed until the following issue. I hope that's okay, eheh.

Ya, authors are usually expected to write by themselves, unless it's planned ahead of time that they want to write with another person. Do you want to look for another person? Since this will be for next issue, I'm sure you have plenty of time to decide what you want to do. And as said before, you'll be allowed to ask for feedback while still working on your article.