Competitive Battles Without Switching?

Mitja

Mitja

veteran smartass
Member
I've been thinking about how competitive play is all about switching to the right counters and outpredicting the opponents switches and switch to the right counter to their switch already etc...and I realized, this is probably not what gamefreak intended battles to look like, right? LOL

Pokemon battling without the option to switch would be so radically different that everything about it would be too and it wouldn't be the same game as the usual battles. For example a core difference would be how one approaches team building. It would involve making sure each pokemon is as versatile as possible and can endure many different opponents, last for a long time, while glass-cannons and one-trick ponies would be less useful in this case.

But the question is,
would the addition of a "no switching" mode for battles be any fun/interesting? (or even become the prefered way to battle?)
And is it closer to what Pokemon battles should look like?
(two pokemon facing each other and battling it out till one is down..)


The current competitive fanbase probably wouldn't embrace it as an "improvement" at all, but a gimmicky lame alternative at best, but I think it would be a more noob-friendly environment that's currently missing in the multiplayer aspect of the games.

I would certainly give it a try and if it developed into something at least a bit fun over time, it would be a cool "break" in between the real battles to just sit back and do a straightforward battle for a change.


Its hard to know how it would turn out without having a metagame and testing stuff...but at the start it would probably be a very fast paced (less than 10 turns) kind of battling, with each trainer sending out appropriate sweepers to KO each other to the end.
But who knows, with some time, people could start making their pokemon prepared for their threats.
 
Or how about a max number of switches per battle? For example 5 or 6 switches and then it's not possible anymore.
 
That was tried out here and here.

As you can see, certain moves (Destiny Bond, Perish Song, even just stat dropping moves although tbh I believe stat-boosting moves are better even in this format) have to be banned because they're so incredibly overpowered in a No Switch environment.

Boosting sweepers become nearly impossible to take out as they can come in on a single Pokemon you have that's not good at stopping them and get +6 whatever they want before you can bring out anything to shut them down. Trick was also rather broken as you can have your lead Trick the opponent a Choice Item, let your lead die, and bring in a sweeper resistant to whatever move your opponent is locked into for the win.

Also, if GameFreak didn't think that switching would be an important part of playing the game, they wouldn't have made 2 abilities (and moves) meant to prevent an opponent from switching out, and they wouldn't have encouraged the common U-Turn tempo strategy by releasing a U-Turn variant to a whole bunch more Pokemon. Battling without switching actually removes a lot of the strategy in the game; trying to Trick asap and then lose your lead (or maybe not, if your lead is a setup sweeper too) becomes a nigh-unbeatable strategy. so long as your sweeper can take out Quagsire
 
Dark Void said:
That was tried out here and here.

As you can see, certain moves (Destiny Bond, Perish Song, even just stat dropping moves although tbh I believe stat-boosting moves are better even in this format) have to be banned because they're so incredibly overpowered in a No Switch environment.

Boosting sweepers become nearly impossible to take out as they can come in on a single Pokemon you have that's not good at stopping them and get +6 whatever they want before you can bring out anything to shut them down. Trick was also rather broken as you can have your lead Trick the opponent a Choice Item, let your lead die, and bring in a sweeper resistant to whatever move your opponent is locked into for the win.

Also, if GameFreak didn't think that switching would be an important part of playing the game, they wouldn't have made 2 abilities (and moves) meant to prevent an opponent from switching out, and they wouldn't have encouraged the common U-Turn tempo strategy by releasing a U-Turn variant to a whole bunch more Pokemon. Battling without switching actually removes a lot of the strategy in the game; trying to Trick asap and then lose your lead (or maybe not, if your lead is a setup sweeper too) becomes a nigh-unbeatable strategy. so long as your sweeper can take out Quagsire
Click to expand...

Thanks!
That's the most interesting and useful info I've gotten from anyone anywhere yet.
(Mostly just people saying they dislike the idea without even actually considering it)

I thought the metagame might turn out fun after people would get used to it, improvise accordingly and change the playstyle to some that works better, and the stuff thats simply too cheap etc would get banned (I mean the usual metagame bans all kinds of broken stuff as it shows up too), but I see now that there is probably too much that would have to go out the window to make it playable.

Would a limit to stat boosts to +2 make a difference?
 
I personally would LOVE to see this as an actual form of meta. Much like STABmons and the like. Just for something new. However, I think if tht were to be the case, Much like how Dark Void said, things would have to be banned. If they were to be, that'd be quite enjoyable I think. However, would VoltTurn be banned?
However, as far as that being Game Freaks initial concept, I don't see that being the case, seeing as Mean Look was introduced in the second Generation. There'd be no need for that if it were to be the case.
 
U-Turn, Baton Pass, Volt Switch. These will be used on pretty much every Pokemon that can have one of them I'm guessing.
 
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