Competitive Pokémon Is In Shambles Because Of A Bunch Of Little Guys

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have only been out for 10 days, but they've already caused chaos in the competitive Pokémon scene. This is not because of Terastallizing, the newly introduced mechanic that allows a Pokémon to completely change its type, but because some of the new cute critters introduced by Game Freak have left trails of Pokéblood in their wake.

Competitive Pokémon is much different than the experience an average player will have on their adventure. While most players can mash through a standard game by spamming Thunderbolt, Flamethrower, Surf and Earthquake, competitive Pokémon is a game of math, eugenics and intense team-building tactics.

At the moment, the kings of the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet competitive meta are four little idiots that seem to bypass all the thorough strategies devised by players and decimate teams in one hit.

Smogon, an independent competitive Pokémon community, has taken action to ban Palafin, Flutter Mane, Iron Bundle and Houndstone from their matches. If you're not aware of the quartet's immense power, it may amuse you to learn what the banes of Pokémon fans' existence look like.

In a pair of posts, Smogon's "council" explained the reasoning behind the bans.

Palafin has perhaps the most unique ability introduced in Pokémon in Zero to Hero. When it enters a battle, it's an extremely weak Pokémon. However, when it's removed from battle and switched back in, it becomes a killing machine with statistics to rival those of legendary Pokémon. Its Attack stat goes from a negligible base 70 to base 160, more than enough to decimate common meta-relevant Pokémon like Tyranitar, Torkoal and Garganacl.

Houndstone, the evolution of fan-favorite Pokémon Greavard, has no such ability, but it does have one particular move that can turn it into a nightmare: Last Respects — a move that gets powered up the more of Houndstone's teammates faint before it's used. If it's the last Pokémon used in a 6v6 battle, the Pokémon essentially becomes an IRL version of this meme.

The bans of Flutter Mane and Iron Bundle are slightly less surprising, since the new Paradox Pokémon are simply too strong — no gimmicks necessary.

Of course, with four meta threats banned, there's plenty of room for other Pokémon to rise into the role of being absolute nightmares. Currently, Annihilape, Cyclizar and Chien-Pao are among the new Pokémon in contention for the banhammer, and there's plenty of time for Smogon and other competitive organizations to see if the new Pokémon are actual, game-breaking problems.

For the moment, the official competitive Pokémon scene, the VGC, has not yet banned any Pokémon from play, so we may soon see matches between two teams of Palafin, Flutter Mane, Iron Bundle and Houndstone on the biggest stage possible. But the average player should remember the wise words of Karen:

"Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokémon they love best."