The Pokemon VGC 15 Metagame and What VGC 16 Should Bring

[RydexVGC]

I've been playing Pokemon for about 10 years and I have been playing VGC competitively for about 4 years. When I started, the Pokemon used by competitors were very different and there was variation in teams. During VGC 2014 and 2015, I can say that I am ashamed of the metagame in VGC and frankly, I hope VGC 16 allows no megas or no legendaries because of the pure amount of Mega-Kangaskhan and legendaries like Landorus-T, Thundurus, Heatran, Cresselia (You get the point) that there is in the VGC 15 metagame. What do you think about the metagame and what do you want to see from VGC 16?

 

[Steven Stone]

Yet again this controversial topic is brought to light, and i'll give my regular opinion. Even though consistency might say otherwise, this metagame has been able to show ourselves the amount of variety we had this year, and even today, the 2015 Metagame is still evolving. Since January to today, even though Kangaskhan and Landorus-T still have their crowns, Pokemon have been moving around and players have been testing different options for what we call the "anti-meta calls". Pokemon that don't get much spotlight such as Virizion are raising in popularity, and these Pokemon (i mean, Kangaskhan and Landorus-T), even though they're overcentralizing, a lot of players don't see much of a problem with them. Straight up banning things in VGC doesn't help because i feel like banning something in VGC will leave an unstable metagame during some weeks, leaving players that have events during the few first days of the new ruleset blindfolded and consistent players could lose valuable championship points. The VGC metagame might be relatively overcentralizing, but i don't feel like there isn't variation at all. Recently in Namur, Hitmontop won that regional championship. We still see Mega Metagross somewhere, most notably, with a strong top 4 at Berlin. Wurzburg was won by Mega Swampert, and London's runner up went with Mega Latias. This VGC metagame is definitely still evolving, and straight up banning something will leave some of the VGC players completely out of balance during the first weeks. Although i wouldn't be mad with a top 12 banning, similar to what they did in Special 11.

 

[Pyritie]

I'd like to see a meta a bit like the "doubles UU" battle spot competition a while back. It gets rid of the pokemon everyone's sick of while still allowing plenty of other pokemon.

 

[ProjectTitan313]

Humorously enough I haven't seen that much of Khan recently, I've seen Salamence and Gardevoir more than anything on Battle Spot. CHALK + Thundy is the most popular archetype, this is pretty undisputed, but there's honestly a lot of good shit out there. The small banlist of VGC15 is grand, I have honestly adored the meta. The only thing it needs is to reinstate the Dark Void ban, like previous years have had. I'd love a Perish Song ban but I won't shove for it / can bite my lip and deal with it.
Anti-meta mons are still rising out of the shadows (an older, infamous example being Modest Wide Guard Swampert), and while a lot of random people are running Khan / Landog / Thundy / Heatran / Cress / Amoonguss and such I've seen a lot of interesting and effective teams (not gimmik shit, actually competent, creative, functioning teams). Saw a pretty nice Japan Sand team Sunday as well.

Also, Mega Metagross is awesome right now for me.

VGC16, I have no idea what to expect, but its a 99% chance I will forever miss VGC15.

 

[R-B-Y]

Vgc 15 could be better, but there is certainly that zing about it. Porygon2, skill swap, azumarill, volcarona, and virizion show that there are certainly a lot of viable mons out there. Remember, it's not all chalk.

For vgc 16, I hope no legendaries, or the pokedex is rather small and doesnt contain legends

 

[Derivatives]

I want drop 2 ubers aside from mega ray but there's no way tPCI is doing that unless mega ray is legal lol

If I wanted something realistic it'd be a tour setting that isn't teamlock, a meta that bans the top 60 mons from 2015, or the same thing as this year but with the old gems back and no more pentagon rules (these are also probably unrealistic but why did you have to leave us Flying Gem Tornadus ;_;).

 

[nicholascookie]

This fucking Worlds8888888 whinefest again?

Why weren't you fuckers ashamed of the likes of Landorus, Metagross and Latios back in 2013? Or even, bloody hell, Kyogre in 2010? "(You get the point)"™

Holy fucking shit stop pulling the M-MUH NOSTALGIA blind over your eyes and actually realise that each metagame has its shitstains.

Jesus christ.

Edit: also if you're just salty http://pokemonshowdown.com/users/rydexvgc then just shut the fuck up and git gud, VGC chat probably wasn't wrong when they described you as an "embarrassment" or something along those lines

 

[ck49]

I enjoyed VGC '15. It was fun for a long time and steadily evolved. However, it's gotten stale recently and I've been playing less and less of it. I hope they mix it up in 2016, not because of any inherit flaws in the VGC '15 meta, but because at this point its stabilized. While small innovations will still be made, I don't think there will be much discovery a year from now. It'll be interesting to see what Pokemon does, and I look forward to it.

 

[Codraroll]

For vgc 16, I hope no legendaries, or the pokedex is rather small and doesnt contain legends

Well... there's always VGC '17?

 

[R-B-Y]

Oh my god vgc 16 announced 2010 rules OMG

 

[SlashingScizors]

LOL oh well there are legendaries after all XD! 2010 rules......and mega ray is allowed....