Luigi
spo.ink/shadowtag
I'm posting this on behalf of Astamatitos
ADV is the tier known for being the most balanced generation, allowing for an extremely large number of team archetypes to be viable options for high level competitive play. This is owed partially to the lack of power creep, the presence of stable speed tiers not affected by speed modifying items and to its in-game battle mechanics.
Regarding the last point, ADV's battle mechanics are significantly modified to most other generations. While the move-type split is obvious, there are many more subtle differences which give players a lot more control when executing offensive options. The most notable one is the universal mechanic in ADV where once a Pokemon dies, the turn concludes. This makes Explosion arguably the strongest move in the game as it has the ability to deny the opposing player a turn which could be used to utilise a setup move such as a Dragon Dance, a Calm Mind or to stick a layer of Spikes.
Of course, this mechanic is consistent through all of ADV, with moves such as Double-Edge allowing you to execute the same sacrifice sequence provided your Pokemon dies on recoil. Finally, this mechanic, which is also what defines ADV compared to other generations has the ability to provide counterplay to Spikes (a very centralizing element of the game) without resorting to using a Rapid Spin user. Notably, it is the ability to 'spike sac' a Pokemon in order to bring in a new one whilst denying your opponent a turn, whether this would be an attacking move, or provided the user has switch priority, a switch as well. Given recent complains about Spikes by many well-established players (see: Spikeless SPL Finals ADV Game) mechanics that allow counterplay to this element are always desirable.
Another mechanic worthy of note in ADV is 'switch-priority'. In the cartridge, when a link battle begins, the person who acts as player 1 gains switch priority over player 2. To put this in layman's terms, player 2's switch-ins are always performed second. This has the advantage for player 2 to get, say Intimidate off opposing Salamences in Intimidator mirrors. It had, however, imposed a disadvantage to player 2 with regards to the points I made earlier in my previous paragraph. Notably, when player 1 goes to to an aforementioned 'spike sac' while player 2 attempts to switch, player 2's ability to switch would be negated. This was deemed to be an unfair disadvantage, imposed to player-2 on a very ad-hoc basis. In NetBattle, where cartridge mechanics were obeyed, this would often lead to people deciding who would challenge first via scripted coin-flips in the main server chat.
It was anticipated by the PS development team that this assymmetry in cartridge mechanics would be uncompetitive and as such a symmetry was imposed upon ADV. Notably, in order to not give either player an unfair advantage, it was decided that switch priority is defined by whoever is using the faster Pokemon. This has implications such as revealing which of the two Pokemon is faster in an exchange for instance, as Leftovers and Sandstorm damage priority is also decided by Speed within the altered framework. On the implementation of this symmetry however, the 'spike sac' mechanic denying turns was not implemented by the developers by choice as to them it was unclear whether the ADV community desires this mechanic to be reinstated.
While I'm a strong supporter of the symmetry imposed upon competitive ADV, I find that not abiding to ADV's universal 'turn ends when a Pokemon faints' mechanic is a perversity to the generation's mechanics. What I propose is to bring back this mechanic within the symmetry framework. This mechanic will be welcome by the high level ADV competitive community as it will provide a secondary counterplay to the generation's strongest team archetype.
Despite SPL9 being just around the corner and given the minimal impact this mechanic will have on team building, I believe that the players will find having access to this high-level sequence of moves welcome.
Tagging the ADV crowd:
UD dekzeh Ojama undisputed Fakes danilo Golden Sun Triangles JabbaTheGriffin
BKC McMeghan M Dragon
Also tagging Marty
- Astamatitos
ADV is the tier known for being the most balanced generation, allowing for an extremely large number of team archetypes to be viable options for high level competitive play. This is owed partially to the lack of power creep, the presence of stable speed tiers not affected by speed modifying items and to its in-game battle mechanics.
Regarding the last point, ADV's battle mechanics are significantly modified to most other generations. While the move-type split is obvious, there are many more subtle differences which give players a lot more control when executing offensive options. The most notable one is the universal mechanic in ADV where once a Pokemon dies, the turn concludes. This makes Explosion arguably the strongest move in the game as it has the ability to deny the opposing player a turn which could be used to utilise a setup move such as a Dragon Dance, a Calm Mind or to stick a layer of Spikes.
Of course, this mechanic is consistent through all of ADV, with moves such as Double-Edge allowing you to execute the same sacrifice sequence provided your Pokemon dies on recoil. Finally, this mechanic, which is also what defines ADV compared to other generations has the ability to provide counterplay to Spikes (a very centralizing element of the game) without resorting to using a Rapid Spin user. Notably, it is the ability to 'spike sac' a Pokemon in order to bring in a new one whilst denying your opponent a turn, whether this would be an attacking move, or provided the user has switch priority, a switch as well. Given recent complains about Spikes by many well-established players (see: Spikeless SPL Finals ADV Game) mechanics that allow counterplay to this element are always desirable.
Another mechanic worthy of note in ADV is 'switch-priority'. In the cartridge, when a link battle begins, the person who acts as player 1 gains switch priority over player 2. To put this in layman's terms, player 2's switch-ins are always performed second. This has the advantage for player 2 to get, say Intimidate off opposing Salamences in Intimidator mirrors. It had, however, imposed a disadvantage to player 2 with regards to the points I made earlier in my previous paragraph. Notably, when player 1 goes to to an aforementioned 'spike sac' while player 2 attempts to switch, player 2's ability to switch would be negated. This was deemed to be an unfair disadvantage, imposed to player-2 on a very ad-hoc basis. In NetBattle, where cartridge mechanics were obeyed, this would often lead to people deciding who would challenge first via scripted coin-flips in the main server chat.
It was anticipated by the PS development team that this assymmetry in cartridge mechanics would be uncompetitive and as such a symmetry was imposed upon ADV. Notably, in order to not give either player an unfair advantage, it was decided that switch priority is defined by whoever is using the faster Pokemon. This has implications such as revealing which of the two Pokemon is faster in an exchange for instance, as Leftovers and Sandstorm damage priority is also decided by Speed within the altered framework. On the implementation of this symmetry however, the 'spike sac' mechanic denying turns was not implemented by the developers by choice as to them it was unclear whether the ADV community desires this mechanic to be reinstated.
While I'm a strong supporter of the symmetry imposed upon competitive ADV, I find that not abiding to ADV's universal 'turn ends when a Pokemon faints' mechanic is a perversity to the generation's mechanics. What I propose is to bring back this mechanic within the symmetry framework. This mechanic will be welcome by the high level ADV competitive community as it will provide a secondary counterplay to the generation's strongest team archetype.
Despite SPL9 being just around the corner and given the minimal impact this mechanic will have on team building, I believe that the players will find having access to this high-level sequence of moves welcome.
Tagging the ADV crowd:
UD dekzeh Ojama undisputed Fakes danilo Golden Sun Triangles JabbaTheGriffin
BKC McMeghan M Dragon
Also tagging Marty
- Astamatitos
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