What Makes Pokemon Viable? An Analysis

[infamy]

(The full title is "An Analysis of the Factors That Determine the Viability of a Given Pokemon in a Given Pokemon and the Importance of Said Factors" but I thought that was too long. Regardless, I can figure that out later.)

OUTLINE:

OPENING PARAGRAPH:
It's a question everyone's asked themselves at some time or another: What makes a Pokemon viable? It's also a question that could do to be answered, if only for the hope of reducing the number of Meganium users on the OU ladder by helping them understand this question. The following article will aim to answer that question. (probably going to be changed a lot, but this sums up the theme of the article)

SUMMARY OF REST OF ARTICLE:
-lay out which factors will be covered in this article: bst, ability, typing, movepool, matchup vs metagame (maybe not the last one)
-write a paragraph or two on each of the factors
-give examples of pokemon being successful almost exclusively because of one of the factors under the paragraph on factors but before the next paragraph on factors
-give examples of pokemon not being successful due to a lack of one factor
-final paragraph or two sums up findings etc.

I hope that's brief and well-explained enough for you.

WHAT DOES IT RELATE TO:
It relates to all metagames, though OU will be the metagame discussed in the article because most people have at least a basic understanding of OU (I'd prefer to write about the concept by discussing LC, but it has a small playerbase so its not really worth it). It helps us understand why certain Pokemon are so good- stuff like Tyranitar being in OU for all 5 gens it's been around for (I'm pretty sure it has, but don't quote me on that).

KIND OF CONTENT I PLAN TO CREATE:
I'm planning on trying to be as objective and scientific as possible, while remaining understandable and using layman's terms if necessary in order to convey my point better. I'm not entirely sure what Jumpluff meant by that, but I hope that's sufficient.

CREDENTIALS:
one time i won an lc room tour with a finneon
To be completely honest, I don't really have many credentials, I've been playing for about a year now but I've never really achieved too much.
I guess I've made it fairly high on the LC ladder a few times (eg top 20's, I probably could've gotten reasonably high on the OU ladder too but I'm not patient enough).
I lurk a lot on the OU forums and the RMT section, so I'm not an idiot as to what goes on in that metagame.

Thank you for your time, I appreciate it!

EDIT: I'm not entirely sure what to tag this, sorry :[

 

[Bummer]

To be quite honest, I'm very hesitant to approve a topic that is as broad and fundamentally important as this one, to a user who I barely recognise around this place. I rarely play the reputation card, seeing as we want most users to feel that they can write about any subject as long as they have experience with it, but this really is one of the cornerpillars of Pokebattling right there

So

If I'm gonna feel more comfortable with this, I'm gonna ask you to expand on your article skeleton. What arguments and factors that are important, what mons you were planning to sue as examples, or anything else you were planning to bring up. Also gonna tag a bunch of other people.

skylight Vacate Toast++ Oglemi Molk TRC Valentine Valmanway Goddess Briyella

I'm not entirely sure what Jumpluff meant by that, but I hope that's sufficient.

Do ellaborate on this part. Did she encourage you to make this pitch, or are you referring to a quote from her?

 

[infamy]

To be quite honest, I'm very hesitant to approve a topic that is as broad and fundamentally important as this one, to a user who I barely recognise around this place. I rarely play the reputation card, seeing as we want most users to feel that they can write about any subject as long as they have experience with it, but this really is one of the cornerpillars of Pokebattling right there

So

If I'm gonna feel more comfortable with this, I'm gonna ask you to expand on your article skeleton. What arguments and factors that are important, what mons you were planning to sue as examples, or anything else you were planning to bring up. Also gonna tag a bunch of other people.

skylight Vacate Toast++ Oglemi Molk TRC Valentine Valmanway Goddess Briyella


Do ellaborate on this part. Did she encourage you to make this pitch, or are you referring to a quote from her?

No, I meant from the article submission guidelines about the jumpluff bit, but you're completely right I'm probably not experienced enough to be writing an article of this scope. Maybe I can revisit the idea in a while, and I completely understand what you mean- I really haven't made a name for myself yet.

That being said, I do want to start writing for the Smog, so what would you suggest I begin with?

 

[Goddess Briyella]

Just chiming in to say that I believe this topic is much too broad to fit into one reasonable article without excluding everything that can actually make a Pokemon "viable". There are really WAY too factors, and WAY too many tiers that have different major threats and directly affect the viability of the Pokemon in the respective metagames they are found in.

You'd literally have to include Ubers, OU, UU, RU, NU, LC, Doubles, and potentially other metagames as well, and then you'd have to go into detail about way too many factors...

• Typing
• Offensive Power
• Defensive Power
• Ability
• Ability + Typing Combination (i.e. Rotom formes are all saved from Earthquake by way of Levitate)
• Recovery
• Movepool Versatility (for having an unpredictable factor, usually the mon has a variety of sets)
  
• Speed (or lack thereof for Trick Room etc)
• Exclusive moves (i.e. Victini has worse offensive stats than Delphox but is still tiered higher because it has more powerful moves, it makes a big difference)
• Access to moves that deter the Pokemon's checks (i.e. Druddigon OHKOes Aromatisse with Sheer Force LO Gunk Shot)
  
• Setup capability
• Access to hazards / a way to remove them
  
• Vulnerability to hazards, especially Stealth Rock
• Vulnerability to Knock Off
• Vulnerability to status

I'm probably missing some points, but you get the idea. I like your submission here, but I think the scope of what you're doing should be narrowed down quite a bit. You'll need to limit this to either one tier with one aspect of what makes Pokemon of that tier viable (i.e. something like Top Threats in ORAS UU or Why Stall is Effective in RU) or somehow take one aspect, such as offensive power or abilities, and pan out the most effective ones for their tiers and why.

I don't mind helping you begin writing for The Smog if you can come up with a more specific concept to write about. :)

 

[infamy]

Yeah, I've definitely realized this was way too ambitious of a topic for my first article. Thanks for the advice, I'm considering maybe writing something much more modest like why balance/bulky offense are so good in LC right now or maybe something like setup sweepers through the tiers- eg Fletchling in LC, MegaZardX in (XY) OU, Feraligatr in NU, Mega Mence's brokenness, etc. Thanks again!

Just chiming in to say that I believe this topic is much too broad to fit into one reasonable article without excluding everything that can actually make a Pokemon "viable". There are really WAY too factors, and WAY too many tiers that have different major threats and directly affect the viability of the Pokemon in the respective metagames they are found in.

You'd literally have to include Ubers,
OU, UU, RU, NU, LC, Doubles, and potentially other metagames as well, and then you'd have to go into detail about way too many factors...

• Typing
• Offensive Power
• Defensive Power
• Ability
• Ability + Typing Combination (i.e. Rotom formes are all saved from Earthquake by way of Levitate)
• Recovery
• Movepool Versatility (for having an unpredictable factor, usualy the mon has a variety of sets)
  
• Speed (or lack thereof for Trick Room etc)
• Exclusive moves (i.e. Victini has worse offensive stats than Delphox but is still tiered higher because it has more powerful moves, it makes a big difference)
• Access to moves that deter the Pokemon's checks (i.e. Druddigon OHKOes Aromatisse with Sheer Force LO Gunk Shot)
  
• Setup capability
• Access to hazards / a way to remove them
  
• Vulnerability to hazards, especially Stealth Rock
• Vulnerability to Knock Off
• Vulnerability to status

I'm probably missing some points, but you get the idea. I like your submission here, but I think the scope of what you're doing should be narrowed down quite a bit. You'll need to limit this to either one tier with one aspect of what makes Pokemon of that tier viable (i.e. something like Top Threats in ORAS UU or Why Stall is Effective in RU) or somehow take one aspect, such as offensive power or abilities, and pan out the most effective ones for their tiers and why.

I don't mind helping you begin writing for The Smog if you can come up with a more specific concept to write about. :)

 

[Vacate]

I agree with Bummer and Goddess Briyella that this is a bit too broad for an initial article. You might want to take up Goddess Briyella's offer of helping you with getting integrated with The Smog, Infamy - I'm sure you'd be able to write an article for us if you have the desire to.