I've gravitated between 1850-2100 ELO throughout the various metagames since I've joined in 2014 including this one and I must say, I am enjoying RandBats A LOT more than I have ever done before and I feel like Dynamax is just such an awesome, fresh mechanic that quite frankly, I'm going to be so sad to see it go. I'll try to explain:
It Forces You to Have a Pulse On the Game From the Get Go: More so than ever, getting a feel for what is going through your opponent's mind is the key element to victory. I initially stagnated at around 1500 ELO for this generation and attributed to how unfair and unbalanced Dynamaxing initially appeared. But after playing so many games, I feel like I am rarely ever taken by surprise when my opponent Dynamaxes and when I am, it's usually because it was a really egregious misplay or blatantly premature. Gaining this ability to anticipate an opponent's Dynamax takes some time to develop, but once you do, literally every turn is so much more exciting. It's all about laying not just laying the groundwork to maximize the effectiveness of your own Dynamax but to also see what kind of long-term plan your opponent has in mind. You can't just bust out your shell-smash sweeper, because you can Dynamax as soon as a Shell-Smasher comes out, lower their stats, trigger their White Herb with a Stat Drop (or boost your defenses) and be in a more favorable position. So it's all so much more calculated than ever before and to really understand what risks your opponent is taking or when they're desperate enough to use this game-changing mechanic.
Pokemon Become Much More Versatile Now: No longer is Lucario limited to being a powerful but frail glasscannon. With Max Steelstrike, you can boost his defenses to respectable levels and if the set features Swords Dance, you can even become a beastly sweeper to boot. Suddenly any Pokemon wielding Earthquake can become a defense giant. Glaring weaknesses that come with the luck of the draw can be mitigated by the sheer type of moves your Pokemon possess and at any moment you can completely transform your Pokemon into a completely new playstyle outside of their traditional role to patch up weaknesses that naturally come from a randomly generated team.
Team Information Is More Vital and New Team Synergies Can Arise: Every little bit of information revealed, every switch performed and even the type of every move in your opponent's moveset becomes valuable information. Does your opponent have a Swift Swim user and another Pokemon that carries a water-type move as coverage? Well then, that does provide a pretty clear avenue of information. By the same token, knowing YOU have a Swift Swim and a Pokemon with water-type coverage may make you want to hide your Swift Swim Pokemon until the very end to spring a nasty trap on your opponent.
Encore, Taunt and Other Disruptive Moves Aren't As Useless As They Initially Appear: At first glance, this may seem like a preposterous statement. If a Pokemon can just Dynamax to negate move like encore, of what use is it? Well, you just have to stop viewing these moves the same way you did in previous generations. Before your opponent has Dynamaxed, you can view these moves as a challenge to your opponent. Are you willing to go all-in after using your set-up move or will you back down? This can actually force your opponent to go into a premature Dynamax which you can fully exploit. You can even use this to willingly lure your opponent to Dynamax when you know you have a counter for their sweeper. In other words, you can't just sit back after using these kinds of moves like in previous generations. You have to incur some risk, but by the exact same token, so does your opponent. And if you can use it to bait out Dynamax, your opponent is triply screwed. For the rest of the match, assuming you yourself didn't Dynamax, they must be wary of your set-up sweepers since now they can always bypass a taunt or encore with Dynamax so they can continue to set-up in peace knowing no Dynamax Pokemon will ruin their setting up, the opponent won't be able to use Dynamax defensively against any of your set-up sweepers, making their team that much more vulnerable and all of their set-up sweepers will now have to be wary of taunt, encore, etc. It's just too good and opens up so many mindgames that quite frankly never existed before Dynamax.
You Have More Ways of Dealing with Pokemon That Shut Down Your Entire Team: This has and will always be an issue with RandBats in particular. You know the games. Where your opponent just so happens to have that ONE Pokemon that just seems to be tailor made to counter your party. But before, you were severely limited in how you could deal with this one problem 'Mon. But with Dynamax, you now have safer ways of severely taking the Pokemon down. Is the Pokemon too fast for your team? Your Dynamax Pokemon can probably take a hit and then Max Strike it down, get another nasty hit in and now that it's slower, maybe another Pokemon can pick up a revenge kill it wouldn't have otherwise. If that Pokemon sets up a Dragon Dance, you can kiss your chances of winning good-bye? Well maybe you can lower it's attack, and even if you don't kill it, it won't be able to get the +1 Attack that would make it impossible to deal with, allowing you to negate a free opportunity to set up. I can't tell you how many games I've won by using my Dynamax in this defensive way. Not as a way to counter another Dynamax but as a way of getting rid of one or two powerful counters to my team. Additionally, really unfair things that you would never be able to prepare for before, such as being Arena Trapped with Dugtrio on the first turn, now carry some risk for the person doing the trapping. Additionally, it really limits the amount of unmitigated set-up your opponent has. Does anyone really want to risk a second Swords Dance when the opponent can just Dynamax and nuke the sweeper? It makes it way harder for the game to get carried away from unfortunate match-ups because there is always the risk of getting nuked if you get greedy AND if you want to ensure your sweeper doesn't get nuked, you have to go all-in. Oh and now everyone has a way of countering serene grace BS, even if your entire team happens to be slower!!!!
Wildly Different Ways To Utilize Your Team: This kind of touches upon previous points, but I think it's worth mentioning. I legitimately get really excited seeing all the moves my team has and the many, many different strategies can develop from each unique secondary effect that comes from their movepool. It allows me to create very intricate plans that cannot exist if there wasn't this mechanic that gave moves "underlying" qualities to exploit. It basically adds so much more depth to what each individual Pokemon can do and this can allow you to be better able to react to new information as it comes up. Did you just suddenly realize that your opponent's Pokemon are mainly Special Attackers? Then maybe your best Dynamax option is with a Pokemon with ground-type coverage and not just the one that has the weak Max Knuckle and poor special defense! It just expands the game and the possibilities at each game state in such a clever and nuanced way.
So with all this said, I do have four gripes that I will admit really do suck:
It Forces You to Have a Pulse On the Game From the Get Go: More so than ever, getting a feel for what is going through your opponent's mind is the key element to victory. I initially stagnated at around 1500 ELO for this generation and attributed to how unfair and unbalanced Dynamaxing initially appeared. But after playing so many games, I feel like I am rarely ever taken by surprise when my opponent Dynamaxes and when I am, it's usually because it was a really egregious misplay or blatantly premature. Gaining this ability to anticipate an opponent's Dynamax takes some time to develop, but once you do, literally every turn is so much more exciting. It's all about laying not just laying the groundwork to maximize the effectiveness of your own Dynamax but to also see what kind of long-term plan your opponent has in mind. You can't just bust out your shell-smash sweeper, because you can Dynamax as soon as a Shell-Smasher comes out, lower their stats, trigger their White Herb with a Stat Drop (or boost your defenses) and be in a more favorable position. So it's all so much more calculated than ever before and to really understand what risks your opponent is taking or when they're desperate enough to use this game-changing mechanic.
Pokemon Become Much More Versatile Now: No longer is Lucario limited to being a powerful but frail glasscannon. With Max Steelstrike, you can boost his defenses to respectable levels and if the set features Swords Dance, you can even become a beastly sweeper to boot. Suddenly any Pokemon wielding Earthquake can become a defense giant. Glaring weaknesses that come with the luck of the draw can be mitigated by the sheer type of moves your Pokemon possess and at any moment you can completely transform your Pokemon into a completely new playstyle outside of their traditional role to patch up weaknesses that naturally come from a randomly generated team.
Team Information Is More Vital and New Team Synergies Can Arise: Every little bit of information revealed, every switch performed and even the type of every move in your opponent's moveset becomes valuable information. Does your opponent have a Swift Swim user and another Pokemon that carries a water-type move as coverage? Well then, that does provide a pretty clear avenue of information. By the same token, knowing YOU have a Swift Swim and a Pokemon with water-type coverage may make you want to hide your Swift Swim Pokemon until the very end to spring a nasty trap on your opponent.
Encore, Taunt and Other Disruptive Moves Aren't As Useless As They Initially Appear: At first glance, this may seem like a preposterous statement. If a Pokemon can just Dynamax to negate move like encore, of what use is it? Well, you just have to stop viewing these moves the same way you did in previous generations. Before your opponent has Dynamaxed, you can view these moves as a challenge to your opponent. Are you willing to go all-in after using your set-up move or will you back down? This can actually force your opponent to go into a premature Dynamax which you can fully exploit. You can even use this to willingly lure your opponent to Dynamax when you know you have a counter for their sweeper. In other words, you can't just sit back after using these kinds of moves like in previous generations. You have to incur some risk, but by the exact same token, so does your opponent. And if you can use it to bait out Dynamax, your opponent is triply screwed. For the rest of the match, assuming you yourself didn't Dynamax, they must be wary of your set-up sweepers since now they can always bypass a taunt or encore with Dynamax so they can continue to set-up in peace knowing no Dynamax Pokemon will ruin their setting up, the opponent won't be able to use Dynamax defensively against any of your set-up sweepers, making their team that much more vulnerable and all of their set-up sweepers will now have to be wary of taunt, encore, etc. It's just too good and opens up so many mindgames that quite frankly never existed before Dynamax.
You Have More Ways of Dealing with Pokemon That Shut Down Your Entire Team: This has and will always be an issue with RandBats in particular. You know the games. Where your opponent just so happens to have that ONE Pokemon that just seems to be tailor made to counter your party. But before, you were severely limited in how you could deal with this one problem 'Mon. But with Dynamax, you now have safer ways of severely taking the Pokemon down. Is the Pokemon too fast for your team? Your Dynamax Pokemon can probably take a hit and then Max Strike it down, get another nasty hit in and now that it's slower, maybe another Pokemon can pick up a revenge kill it wouldn't have otherwise. If that Pokemon sets up a Dragon Dance, you can kiss your chances of winning good-bye? Well maybe you can lower it's attack, and even if you don't kill it, it won't be able to get the +1 Attack that would make it impossible to deal with, allowing you to negate a free opportunity to set up. I can't tell you how many games I've won by using my Dynamax in this defensive way. Not as a way to counter another Dynamax but as a way of getting rid of one or two powerful counters to my team. Additionally, really unfair things that you would never be able to prepare for before, such as being Arena Trapped with Dugtrio on the first turn, now carry some risk for the person doing the trapping. Additionally, it really limits the amount of unmitigated set-up your opponent has. Does anyone really want to risk a second Swords Dance when the opponent can just Dynamax and nuke the sweeper? It makes it way harder for the game to get carried away from unfortunate match-ups because there is always the risk of getting nuked if you get greedy AND if you want to ensure your sweeper doesn't get nuked, you have to go all-in. Oh and now everyone has a way of countering serene grace BS, even if your entire team happens to be slower!!!!
Wildly Different Ways To Utilize Your Team: This kind of touches upon previous points, but I think it's worth mentioning. I legitimately get really excited seeing all the moves my team has and the many, many different strategies can develop from each unique secondary effect that comes from their movepool. It allows me to create very intricate plans that cannot exist if there wasn't this mechanic that gave moves "underlying" qualities to exploit. It basically adds so much more depth to what each individual Pokemon can do and this can allow you to be better able to react to new information as it comes up. Did you just suddenly realize that your opponent's Pokemon are mainly Special Attackers? Then maybe your best Dynamax option is with a Pokemon with ground-type coverage and not just the one that has the weak Max Knuckle and poor special defense! It just expands the game and the possibilities at each game state in such a clever and nuanced way.
So with all this said, I do have four gripes that I will admit really do suck:
- Destiny Bond is way too risky and useless a lot of times. Unlike with Taunt or Encore, this will fail the next turn and if your opponent Dynamaxes, not only did you lose a Pokemon but even your chance to deal any damage. I do feel like Dynamax should carry the risk of running into a destiny bond in the back of their minds and since this generation it will always fail the next turn, the user of Destiny Bond also bears a great risk if they predict wrongly
- Max Airstrike maaaay just be a bit too strong. I actually don't have too much of a problem with Max Knuckle and while Max Ooze has its problems (see point 3), they both bear the huge risk that type immunities exist for both. Your opponent carries a huge risk in using either, especially if they haven't scoped out your team and you can easily bait them out when your opponent has imprecise information (and this adds yet another layer to my earlier point about how team information is much more complex and valuable this generation than ever before), but with Max Airstrike, it will hit anything and go off without hitch and it doesn't have it's damage dented. Sometimes, it really isn't wise to Dynamax just for the +1 if you need that raw power. With Max Airstrike, the benefit is insanely good with next to no detriment.
- Max Ooze Feels Underused: Poison is a terrible attacking type and complicating things even more, special attackers will rarely ever run poison coverage and Pokemon that do have poison moves rarely are special attackers. What a terrible thing! It does make setting up a Special Sweeper feel especially hard to pull-off. This is somewhat mitigated by the terrains and weather effects, but realistically, only Gengar and Toxicitry really benefit. I don't think it's game breaking but maybe some more sets of special sweepers could use the odd poison move.
- Certain Pokemon Do Not Benefit and Are Nearly Always Liabilities: This goes especially for Pokemon like Shuckle, Wobbuffett, Pyukummuku and both Orbeetle and Toxipex to a much lesser extent, because they will never be able to benefit from Dynamax, effectively taking away the creativity usually allowed by Dynamax. In "normal" matches this isn't so much of an issue since a player conscientiously puts these Pokemon into their team and can build a team around it. But in RandBats, these Pokemon can be super risky to send out and to make matters worse, if you get two or god-forbid 3+ of them on your team, well...your options really are appallingly limited and your plays so much more telegraphed. It's not much fun when you have two Pokemon that are essentially deadweights for a good chunk of the match.
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