Keep the circuit feedback coming; I'm hoping to do some follow-up work near the end of the month.
Some feelers:
- How do we feel about Pressure, Lucky Egg, or other large reworks?
- How do we feel about switching a mon into, say, Spikes in order to faint, and influence post order?
- How do we feel about nerfed Pokemon? Do they still check what they're supposed to?
We're not going to have perfect information on any of these after only one month of play, but I still would prefer to check.
I will try to give my own two cents here.
1. How do we feel about Pressure, Lucky Egg, or other large reworks?
Pressure: I actually really like the Dread on send-in effect. It's a very nice way to give the Pressure user a bit of setup time and is a nice flavor win for Dusknoir and various legends. I'm a little worried about the increase in energy based on Round count. Even at Round 5 the opponent is burning 15 extra energy per round unless they take a turn off. That said my only experience with it has been my Realgam vs. Mustard, where it only partially worked due to Ring Target.
In fact can we delete Ring Target from the game? Overall though, a very positive change to an ability that wanted some love.
Lucky Egg: Take my opinion with a grain of salt on this item, because I've historically hated this item for making my stat-stick Pokemon worse. That being said, this item is brutal against anything without item control. Unless the opponent heavily outstats the user, the opponent has access to Penalty Proof, or the opponent has item control it makes stats no longer matter. Now it does not even have a self-disposal clause, making it's presence even more oppressive. A particularly notable user (on paper) for this is Shiftry, who can patch their stats, buff with Wind Rider, and even Pickpocket a damage item from their opponent (unless their opponent doesn't bring a damage boosting item, which is a win in itself). Most other forms of getting Attack Aid and Defense Aid require a very specific Pokemon setup, this one is just too free to me. Just seems like an overly oppressive item to me.
Others:
Commander: Didn't need a nerf, how dare you! Nah I'm just kidding, I actually like the change here. I get that Dondozo's Commander effect is equivalent to Lucky Egg, but at least it has a price of having to use specifically Dondozo and Tatsugiri in the same game.
Unnerve + Intimidate: Viva La Masquerain! (I like it)
Damage Adapting Berries (Kee and Maranga): Probably a bit too strong for raids specifically. Especially since you can use the Commander role to hold both, and the Butler role to regenerate them. Fine otherwise.
Power Items: I actually like the change here. It's a pretty interesting way to incentivize stat boosting. Only thing I'm not sure about is the Silence effect on Lens, as I'm not sure how it ties into SpA stages
other than randomly countering my Primarina, smh.
Shell Bell: Super excited to try this with Primarina!
Imprison: This feels way better now. Great Job with this!
Evasion Abilities: Hello Brightpowder Ninetales-Alola my old friend... (Split down the middle on this one).
2. How do we feel about switching a mon into, say, Spikes in order to faint, and influence post order?
I rather like the idea of sending in a Pokemon to change the post order. At the end of the day the player switching into Spikes is spending a resource that could be brought in with Heavy Duty Boots or Defog/Rapid Spin in order to influence post order. Seems fair to me.
3. How do we feel about nerfed Pokemon? Do they still check what they're supposed to?
I think most of the Pokemon nerfs were handled really well. The changes kept most of the power while making them not as obscene. Gallade is still strong but not a huge menace, Ursaluna now has some additional options for countering with status effects, and Bellibolt is no longer made of cheese. The only one I'm iffy on is Dragonite, where it feels almost stronger than before, but I don't think there's been a Dragonite match since the change and it was recently edited to let Mold Breaker work again, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.