GS Cup Announced as Pokémon’s 2016 Ruleset
Today, Pokémon announced the ruleset we’ll see in place for the 2016 World Championships as well as all events after January 1st, 2016. The GS Cup ruleset is one that should be familiar to anyone who played in 2010 as well as those who played in the Generation Showdown tournament late last year.
If you’d like an analysis on the format, make sure you check out the first part of this great guide at Pokémon’s strategy site. Don’t forget to also check out the stats from the Generation Showdown for ideas or cool teams from 2010 for inspiration.
Simplified Ruleset – 2016
- All matches are played in the Doubles format.
- Time Limit: 90 seconds for Team Preview, 45 seconds for each turn, 15 minutes for the match for all tournaments at Regionals-level or higher.
- Players choose 4 of their 6 registered Pokémon after team preview.
- Pentagon Rule: All Pokémon must have the blue pentagon on their stats page indicating they were caught, bred, or received as an official gift in Pokémon X, Y, Omega Ruby, or Alpha Sapphire.
- Species Clause: No two Pokémon on your team can share the same Pokédex number.
- Item Clause: No two Pokémon on your team can hold the same held item.
- The following items are banned:
- Soul Dew
- The following Pokémon are banned (all forms):
- Mew
- Celebi
- Jirachi
- Deoxys
- Phione
- Manaphy
- Darkrai
- Shaymin
- Arceus
- Victini
- Keldeo
- Meloetta
- Genesect
- Diancie
- Hoopa
- You may have up to two of the following Pokémon in your Battle Box:
- Mewtwo
- Lugia
- Ho-oh
- Kyogre
- Groudon
- Rayquaza
- Dialga
- Palkia
- Giratina
- Reshiram
- Zekrom
- Kyurem
- Xerneas
- Yveltal
- Zygarde
About the Author
Firestorm is one of the co-founders of Nugget Bridge and the Community Manager for eSports Tournament Platform Battlefy. He has been playing Pokémon since 1999, competitively since 2007, and attending tournaments since 2010. He lives in Vancouver, Canada with a degree in Interactive Art & Technology + Communications. You can follow him on Twitter at @rushanshekar.
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Welp, time to start SRing…
I’m really liking the look of Sableye for this meta. Only problems are that I want to run about twelve moves at once on it and it just barely doesn’t have enough special bulk to take the important hits on that side.
A very scary yet exciting new meta awaits us. Some of my thoughts:
– it’s gonna suck for people who don’t have friends with Legendaries that can clone to get these things. Soft-resetting is a pain, even in this generation v.v
– Steel types are gonna be BIG! Even bigger than usual
– Gamefreak really needs to get off their lazy asses and patch the game with both a VGC ladder and a rule option that mimics this for local tournaments. The problems with practising ánd organizing VGC have only become bigger with this new ruleset and it just baffles me how they can be so slow in fixing something that everyone desperately wants fixed for years now and should take only minimal programming effort on their part >.<
– Could Mega Houndoom actually be usuable now? Primal Groudon is the partner of his dreams: a very powerful automatic Sun setter that doesn’t share too many weaknesses, just Ground as long as Desolate Land is active. Not longer having to jump through all kinds of hoop(a)s to fit Sun on a Houndoom team sounds very very nice on paper. Definetly will be experimenting with this duo
– Lugia won’t see much usage most likely until people figure out it can be run as a more offensive CM Cresselia
There’s a ladder on showdown for people who want to practice in the meantime.
I’m sure the next special ladder on battle spot will be this format. That’s what they did for VGC 2014 after all.
argh, I have in mind to start build 4 different teams but I don’t know the meta yet.
My ideas are:
Maxie’s team: Trick Room with Dialga and Primal don with mega kanga as support for setting the room.
Zinnia’s team: heavy bird spam with physical Rayquaza and special mence, obviously i have to think to others temmate
Lysandre’s team: helping hand Clefable + Dazzling gleam xerneas
Then i wanna build on kyogre but now i have not idea for it.
anyway scarf kyurem-w is a good rayquaza killer, even if I don’t think scarfRem is so good in genera
Lots of talk about groudon, kyogre and rayquaza for obvious reason. But as a noob im curious how the other legends will preform. Can anybody make a list with pros and cons of all legends? Especially curious about yveltal, dialga and mewtwo.
http://www.pokemon.com/us/strategy/vgc-2016-champion-series-preview/
Part one of the strategic overview of the new legendary additions to this format.
I’m on the fence about this altogether. I was just finally adapting to the current VGC meta, and finding the team that really compliments my play-style the best (recently climbing to high 1600s/low 1700s on BS has been an amazing time). But at the same time, the current meta needed a huge shakeup. Just going to have to sit back, and theorycraft in the mean time.
Side note: It’s no longer a wonder as to why they have suddenly changed the “hacked pokemon” rules for online play…
Not really sure if I agree with the new format. If people thought 2015 was centralizing imagine worlds being overrun with primals and mega rayquayquay. Will be interesting to see how the meta develops
So I’m seeing a lot of posts concerned about both Mega Rayquaza and overcentralization. Certainly, I agree with people like Yoshi and Ray who have noted that Rayquaza is not the biggest threat here. I am also a little confused as to how people think this format is going to be less centralized than VGC 2015, since basic team composition kind of prevents that from happening. Even ignoring the absurdity of last year’s Masters Worlds top cut, there were 8 Pokémon used at > 25% rates in the top cut of US Nationals and Autumn Regionals last year and then a relatively massive drop off to the rest. I would expect we will see a more balanced drop-off after the top group this year, as well as many more reasonable choices this year than last year because most of the most common Pokémon will be competing only with each other for slots on teams dedicated to restricted and Mega-Evolving Pokemon.
This is basically how your team should be setup this year:
Obviously, you should be using two restricted Pokémon. I don’t think anyone would be surprised if five Pokémon exceed that 25% mark from the restricted group (Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, Xerneas, Dialga, and Mega Rayquaza). On top of them, Yveltal, Palkia, Giratina, and maybe Mewtwo are pretty interesting options that will probably show up on a non-irrelevant amount of teams. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some weird stuff even at big events doing well from the restricted slots as well – no one was expecting TR Mewtwo in 2010 (even Lugia is pretty weird), for instance. Technically you have to pick from two of 15 Pokémon here, but in real life it’s more like two of eight for most players. You’d expect a 25% average usage rate there, obviously it’ll be higher for the top four or five.
Then you get to select anywhere from 0 to 2 Mega Evolving Pokémon. This is part of why those of you who were freaking out about Mega Rayquaza have probably noticed many of us being a little condescending – here is the biggest part of the opportunity cost. Other than restricted Pokémon, it’s tough to get too much offensive presence in this format, but Mega Evolving Pokémon can either give you that or some serious alternative firepower. Kangaskhan will continue to be the best Mega Pokémon: its defensive stats aren’t what they were in 2015 when it has to take hits from restricted Pokémon, but they’re still strong, it still has Parental Bond, and it can support its teammates with Fake Out. There are plenty of other solid Megas: Salamence, Metagross, and Mawile stand out, but Gengar, Lucario, Gardevoir, Venusaur, and maybe even the Dark-Type Pokémon on Yveltal teams are playable. This is somewhere between selecting from 0-2 of 4 and of 10ish depending on what you’re looking for. I want to emphasize the two option: dual mega is pretty reasonable as long as you have reliable Pokémon from the next group, since you basically just wind up playing a manageable 2-1-1 every game (restricted-mega-neither). At this point, most players will have selected 3 Pokemon of about 15-20 reasonable choices, which are also essentially the only Pokemon that have a great reason to be on > 25% teams other than maybe Aegislash.
You then finish your team with 2-4 Pokémon that are neither restricted or Mega. The other part of the format I think many people are misreading is what you should be expecting to get out of these Pokémon. It is not 2015 and these Pokémon are not going to be picking up multiple KOs most games. You have three Pokémon on your team in most cases with base stat totals close to 700, it is their job to go on the offense. These Pokémon should be designed to support the rest of your team. There are a lot of ways to do this. I am going to be a little vague here since I will almost definitely write an article about it obligatory pokemon.com/strategy shoutout:
I would say this group is literally between 30 and 50 reasonable choices, if not more. There are so many silly ways to play off the big Pokemon it’s hard to even get your head around all of them. I would expect there’ll be a lot more low-appearance Pokemon that do show up in top cuts because of this than any year in recent memory.
EDIT: Also check out our overview of the first 9 restricted Pokemon, as learning about the format is probably more productive than complaining about it.
Firstly my first taste if this format is really great. It’s definitely over centralised with a lot of games that will be decided by 50/50 rolls through speed, rolls, etc. But to have a completely different and wacko format is so far interesting to play!
Funny notable things:
1)Due to difficulty to obtain Pokémon I’m sure less players will attend major events
2)Games should be shorter and hopefully lead to faster rounds
I’ve been testing skill swap Goth paired with kyogre and mawile. The ability to lock in and ko an opposing groudon, xerneas,or mega ray is fantastic.
I feel like the over-centralisation isn’t all that bad. I’ve been laddering a bit on Showdown, and in spite of the fact that all of my decent matches have been basically mirrors (at least in the restricted department), I very much enjoyed the games. I like that games are more focused on skill rather than luck now, thanks to less Prankster Thundurus and Rock Slides. There are still a few misses around, but that fact that Groudon gets Earthquake or Precipice Blades while Kyogre gets Scald/Surf or Origin Pulse makes misses much more bearable. We’ll have to see how long it takes before playing the same teams becomes extremely boring, though.
My thought for the day – Ferrothorn puts so much work into matches it’s untrue. Out of the 9 big restricted pokemon Scott listed above, Ferrothorn checks 5 of them, and the number can cover another 3 if they lack a fire move (since Mewtwo will carry that or a fighting move). Pair it with Primal Kyogre, and I can imagine that getting so scary.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
No Kyogre clones
Mega Ray without a mega stone
I have the smallest minute complaint /quirk. I wish we had HA of restricted legendaries, almost every ability being pressure is kinda boring. But other than that i am having a ton of fun on PS! Jumpluff is my new favorite mon.
Article art for this season is gonna be sweeeeeeeet! I made this little trinket to celebrate.
Speculations for 2016:
– Eviolite Bayleef is going to dominate. With Primal Groudon entering the fray, Leaf Guard is too OP. Have you guys played this mon? I didn’t think so.
– Regigigas is a thing.
– As Heatran loses popularity, Serene Grace Dunsparce will take a hold of the meta.
– Mega Audino will soar in usage as the perfect counter to Ray Ray.
– Hold Hands finally has its time to shine, prepare your Vivillion counters.
I feel like we needed a PG rating on this upcoming format
Can we have less meme posting and more serious discussion again please?
Although Scott’s post really makes me want to close the topic and call it a day, because it’s probably the most accurate and informative compilation of what has been going down the past 30 hours.
Great discussion – for those who are new to the VGC community, welcome! Below are some notes:
Does this mean Pokemon will not be leveled down to 50?
Erm….
Does this mean there won’t be an in game patch to play this format? That’s absurd. People need to practice against friends and online in a realistic format, disallowing that is ridiculous.
If players time out at team preview in tournament games and end up bringing all 6 of their pokemon, what kind of penalty should they be awarded?
Does Air Lock from Rayquaza work the same as Cloud Nine from Golduck/Altaria/Lickylicky?
Yes.
Apparently we’re not gettig a patch after all, which is a huge disappointment. What reason is there or that? Lack of cooperation from Game Freak’s side? Lack of communication?
This is precisely what I’m worried about. Both solutions I’m thinking of seem unfair. We either give them a loss, or we allow players to scout for leads, thus making a bo1 match look way more like a bo3 one.
As for the format, I’ve been having fun testing a unorthodox core of 4 that I’m trying to improve. There is definitely great potential on this metagame and the key is on the supporting Pokemon imo. It’s still early though, so please, every one of you disliking the format, give it some time and thought.
For Masters/Seniors a game loss seems well warranted, screwing up like that unintentionally seems really unlikely, and if it happens to you once, it probably won’t ever happen again.
For Juniors a warning the first time it happens seems more appropriate.
How will Pokemon be leveled down now that flat rules can’t be used? Screws up damage calcs and everything