Hey, everyone! First off, I wanna say how excited I am for
1v1 Classics! It warms my heart to see the project I led and participated in a whole lot already attracting a big enough following to get it's own tour! I have no doubt it will be a lot of fun. I am particularly interested in seeing what 1v1's lead players can come up with, and how their choices will shift the metagames. It'll be more than worth the 4 month wait.
Second of all, I would like to bring to your attention some things across the gens that don't look so hot. And by that, I mean they are borked, pls ban:
Gen 1: Toxic + Leech Seed
For the unaware, in Gen 1, there was a bug which would cause Leech Seed and Toxic to stack, and their damage to multiply with each consecutive turn. Now, this sounds broken already, but you see, Toxic also reverted back to normal Poison if you switched out. Leech Seed also went away with switching. In other words, the effect of this combo is nullified by an ability that you do not have in 1v1. Remember: Exeggutor is a fine Pokemon with good bulk and a good typing for the time up it's sleeve, so this could get rather... unsavory if it isn't banned. Now this isn't super critical, just kinda bad and gay. After all, only two fully evolved mons get it, and there are things like Tauros and Ice types that can muscle through. Also, Substitute kinda dicks this strat too. But the next thing is worthy of note.
Gen 2: Curse
If you know the slightest thing about Gen 2's competitive scene, you've heard the horror stories about Curse stall wars. Except in 1v1, Curse has even less counterplay than in regular 6v6 due to not being able to be phased or having a full party. The only things that can beat Snorlax, for instance, are Machamp, Growl/Charm PP Stall, and hax such as Thunder from Zapdos and Raikou. Snorlax isn't the only Curse user: You also have things such as Machamp, Miltank, Skarmory and Steelix who can use the move with just as much success. Is this the kind of meta you want? I didn't think so. Please, for the good of this format, I decree that we eliminate Curse from Gen 2.
Now for some quick VR suggestions!
Gen 1
Slowbro: A ---> A+
Tobybro is so freaking good. Maybe a little too good. But I digress. It deserves a rank up, no doubt about it.
Jolteon: Unranked ---> B+/A-
Thunderbolt critting past stuff like Lapras and Slowbro is definitely a cool novelty worthy of some sort of rank.
Gengar: B+ ---> B
Without sleep, it's honestly not that great. Normal types like Tauros can just take it out with EQ most of the time. It can still sort of check it if doesn't have that move, I guess. Lack of STAB seriously hurts it.
Gen 2
Gengar: A+ ---> B+ or below
Sleep isn't a good enough niche anymore to where it deserves A, especially with the low accuracy of Hypnosis.
Exeggutor: A+ ---> B or below
Self-KO Clause really hurts it's viability. Nidoking is simply a better sleep-based bulky attacker overall.
Tauros: A ---> B or B+
I seriously over-hyped this thing. We all overhyped Berserk Gene in general, honestly.
Ursaring: Unranked ---> B+
130 Attack STAB Hyper Beam's gotta count for something, right?
Gen 4
Latios/Latias: B ---> B+/A-
Upon further testing, these two are better than I thought.
Also
urkerab pls add gen 4 1v1 to rom k thx
Also
DEG pls add gen 5 resources to this forum k thx