some pokemon scarlet And purpleThe new moves and items are detailed in the trailer, clearly geared toward competitive Pokémon players. It was first shown during the 2022 Pokémon World Championship, and with crowds watching a trailer like this one — especially one full of people who know the ins and outs of Pokémon math and who see every fight as a chess match. Kind of believe – is always exhilarating. The Pokémon Company produces Worlds trailers for these players, revealing small mechanics that can have a big impact on battle strategy.
But you don’t have to be a competitive player to have fun with the new mechanics. every pokemon generation becomes new materialAnd red And purpleThe key mechanic of this is the Terastal incident, which was revealed in the previous trailer. Like Mega Evolution or Dynamaxing before it, Terastalizing is this generation’s “gimmick”—a mechanic that all players, not just the most hardcore fighters, will encounter and adapt to throughout the game.
Based on the trailer, the Terastal Phenomenon is all about messing with your opponent—and even outside of Terastalizing, the new moves and items share the same theme. To shake things up and keep trainers on their toes, these new mechanics can give Pokémon with a bad battle rap a new lease on life. Here’s how they’ll affect competitive play.
terastalize wonder
Image: Game Freak / The Pokémon Company, Nintendo
Let’s start with what we already knew: The Terastal event will allow Pokémon to convert mid-battle types to their “thy type,” which is dormant until the Pokémon terastalizes. Each individual Pokémon has its own Tera type, so one Pikachu may have a different Tera type than the next, providing some variation and lots of possibilities for collectors. The new trailer showed off a few examples — and they’re kind of diabolical.
Take Colossal, a Pokémon Introduced sword And shield, Colossal is typically of the rock/fire type, giving it four times the vulnerability to water-type moves; However, its signature capability, the steam engine, massively increases its speed when affected by water-type movements. Increasing Coalosal’s speed can be a good thing, as running first can cause or break a fight, but being vulnerable to a water-type attack… isn’t ideal. In the trailer, the Coalosal Terastallizes become a water-type, allowing it to experience the benefits of a steam engine without any major drawbacks. And because tera types are completely hidden until the Pokémon is terastalized – And Because one Coalosal can be different from the next Tera type—the opponent won’t know about it until it’s too late.
Even with simple strategies, there is still room for some tricks. The trailer gave an example of a Tyranniter with the Bhoot Tera type; Ghost-type Pokémon are immune to fighting-type moves, so terastalizing completely misses out on the opposing Galed’s fighting-type close combat. Sucks to be galled.
It’s actually doubly useless to be Galled, as Tyrannitar then uses the new Terastal-based move Tera Blast, which is normal-type until the Pokémon terastalizes. After the transformation, Tera Blast becomes the same as the Pokémon’s Tera type, meaning Tyranitor did no damage and Then Responded with a ghost-type move, which is super-effective against Galaday’s psychic typing. Galled would generally have the advantage in this matchup, but Tyranitar had an element of surprise.
Competitive Pokémon is all about prediction. A good player can look at their opponent’s Pokémon—which are revealed via a pre-battle team preview—and imagine what their strategy might be. In sword And shieldIf your opponent had a colossal, you can guess that he might have a steam engine and do everything that is in your power No To kill it with a water type attack, no matter how tempting it is, can do all that damage. You may decide to go for a ground attack instead. but in red And purple, you won’t know at a glance whether your ground-type attacker will even be safe against the Colossal, who can counter the water-type Tera Blast. Everything you think you know about a Pokémon can go out the window as it terrestrializes.
In the competitive scene, this can give new life to Pokémon that would typically be written off by lossy typing or a poor move pool. And He The overall can give new life to the competitive meta, where only a small subset of Pokémon are generally considered “viable”—and where the element of surprise, a rarity, can win championships.
turning tables
Image: Game Freak / The Pokémon Company, Nintendo
Of course, the trailer wasn’t about terastalizing. There were also some regular new moves and items, all of which could have given seldom-used Pokémon another shot at competitive viability.
The Shade Tail, used by the new Pokémon Cycler in the trailer, is particularly interesting. Shade Tail creates a Substitute – which costs HP, but costs your Pokémon a certain amount (Pokémon math!). built it; For example, a choice made by a Pokémon with a really high defense but low attack can help protect a Pokémon with low defense but high attack, allowing the stronger attacker to take a few more hits and therefore There are more opportunities to do damage. (And that stronger attacker gets a choice without sacrificing his own HP, whichever helps.)
Strategic switching is a big part of competitive Pokémon, and there’s a lot of potential for galaxy-brain playing with Shade Tail. red And purple Meta. But even in a regular gym fight during the main story, it can be helpful to switch Pokémon that can’t do much damage, for one — and Shade Tail will allow you to do so safely instead of switching. Pokémon in general and exposing the newcomer to an opponent’s attack.
The trailer also revealed two newly held items. The most exciting, Mirror Herb, copies the growth of the opposing Pokémon. In the trailer, we see the Mirror Herb activate after Azumaril’s belly drums, a move that maximizes the user’s attack in exchange for half his maximum HP. Mirror Herb gives Sesitan the advantage of a belly drum without drawbacks (A theme of this trailer). In fact, it lets you punish your opponent for daring to boost their stats; You can also use a mirror herb to reduce the consequences of your mistakes, such as if you accidentally trigger the Colossal’s steam engine. And best of all, as an edged item, the Mirror Herb — unlike moves that uniformly copy an opponent’s stat change — is available for any Pokémon, not just Pokémon that perform a specific move. can learn. The pool of viable Pokémon keeps expanding.
Image: Game Freak / The Pokémon Company, Nintendo
The second item, Loaded Dice, grants a very rare ability, a modified version of Skill Link, to any Pokémon that possesses it. When a Pokémon holding a loaded dice uses a multi-strike move that can hit anywhere from two to five times, the loaded dice increases the chance that the move will hit more often. (The skill link guarantees that it will hit five times, which is preferable, but very few Pokémon can have that ability.) Because these moves will continue to hit and take damage even after completely taking damage and removing an option Delivered, Loaded Dice is potentially a good Shade Tail’s answer. Plus, the trailer showed it alongside Breleum, one of those Pokémon that never gets the spotlight and is sadly easy to forget. Shout out to Breloom.
A third new item surfaced on the official red And purple website but not in the trailer: The Secret Cloak. This item allows the holder to ignore the additional effects of the move, which is especially handy against attacks that, in addition to doing damage, cause the target to swoop and miss a turn. Flinching can really cost you in a fight, and the flinch-causing move is incredibly popular in the competitive game of Fake Out. Will that bring new Pokémon faces to the competitive scene? Maybe not. But it’s good.
