Published on June 11th, 2013 | by Firestorm
Nintendo Confirms Fairy Type for Pokémon X and Y at E3
For all those waiting for the reveal of a new type for Pokémon, Nintendo President & CEO Satoru Iwata has just confirmed that Pokémon X & Y will introduce a new type: Fairy. So far the only confirmed Pokémon of this type is Sylveon. We’ll have the trailer in this space once it’s up. A Pokémon X and Y roundtable later today should reveal more on this type!
Update: Jigglypuff, Gardevoir, Sylveon, and Marril are now Fairy Types!
Update 2: Trailer added.
Update 3: Jigglypuff is Fairy / Normal, Gardevoir is Fairy / Psychic, and Marril is Fairy / Water.
Update 4: Fairy is super-effective against Dragon.
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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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Well, I certainly didn’t want a new type, and I didn’t think Dragons were too overpowered (and if they were a little, they’re Dragon’s right? they’re supposed to be powerful…).
But now we have a new type, I’m very interested to work with it and see how it’ll change things. Certainly if Togekiss became Fairy/Flying for example, that could be awesome… but hopefully they’ll have given the Fairy type enough weaknesses to prevent Fairy becoming the new Dragon.
I’m at work so I’ll have to watch all this E3 stuff afterwards but did they say anything about whether we can transfer Pokemon from 5th gen to 6th gen?
I’m worried that all these in-game changes and then moving to the 3DS might change the structure of the games such that we won’t be able to transfer Pokemon, like what happened when going from GSC to 3rd gen.
I believe I read something about that. Nintendo said that what happended to GSC change to 3rd gen won’t happen again.
So, hopefully you can trade from 5th gen to the new one c:
Adding a new type means we will all have to reconsider our team building strategies. After all, anyone who uses the titans that dominate the metagame will have to worry about one more type to counter.
I’m up for anything that will freshen this currently dreadful metagame. Even if Fairies don’t make a big splash, at least it will be one more thing teambuilders need to take into account.
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned the *huge* power spike we’re going to see from Poison next gen now Fairy type’s been confirmed. Dat Sludge Bomb.
Obviously joking ._.
Hey now. Nidoking doesn’t approve of your sarcasm
I think Poison types WILL get a power spike >_> There’s also the rumored base 120 Poison move that needs to consume a berry. Just saying, in VGC with 4 pokes, that could definitely be useful. Also fairy type seems awesome. I like the concept for it and I think that it will definitely help check dragons seeing as Steels are the best ‘check’ there is right now.
If it’s true that Fairy is weak to Steel, Steel is going to be one of the best types in the game. It resists Dragon, is possibly super-effective against Fairy and is immune to Poison.
Definitely wouldn’t mind seeing some adjustment to Steel… 13 resistances and 3 weaknesses seems a little ridiculous when one of the types it’s weak to has more weaknesses than resistances and another has an even 3/3. It was one thing when Steel was first released and Scizor didn’t have decent attacks or Technician yet and Skarmory and Steelix were just walls, but now that we have a much stronger Scizor and Heatran, Metagross, and even Bisharp and Excadril exist it’s probably time for some adjustments beyond just adding Fairy. Especially given that Dragons dominate both singles and doubles metagames right now and presumably Fairy will help to contest that… Steel is in way too good of a place right now.
I hope Poison finds a way to get a little help if there are any other type chart adjustments, because SE on Fairy wouldn’t cut it to bring Poison-types out, especially with hard counter Steels getting even better. As with Normal, having Poison typing is pretty much a death sentence for every Pokemon that has it unless the Pokemon in question has really good unique qualities like Crobat, Nidoking, and Tentacruel sort of do, and even then they’re all just barely playable in their niches. Poison isn’t that bad defensively with 4 resistances and 2 weaknesses, but Ground is one of the game’s worst weaknesses to have and the resistances are half to uncommon attack types in Grass and Poison, with another to a type that normally has a neutral STAB option beside it in Bug, leaving the only really valuable poison resist being Fighting… which isn’t going to get Poison-types put on any teams in a metagame where most like half of the top 10 resists Fighting already, including Latios and Cresselia who also have STAB Psyshock to kill Poisons. Poison just doesn’t offer enough right now.
I’ll later post this, but I did a typing study to see where types would fall offensively/defensively/overall based on resists/weaknesses and steel ended on top. And it’s more than just because of defense–it didn’t look too shabby offensively also.
And being SE against fairy (bleh) is only going to increase this. Steel is going to be the new dragon.
Omg this is exciting!
I’m all for the new type. If it actually possesses the anticipated resistances and weaknesses, I think it would be good for leveling the type-playing field and make the game more cyclical which is better for younger players since you keep up the whole rock-paper-scissors thing.
Fairy neuters dragon. Fairy leads to the rise of steel which leads to the rise of fire (which fairy resits), ground & fighting. Like Scott said, still not too sure if poison will get a big enough boost and steels are looking pretty scary right about now.
Can’t wait for Azumarill (&Fairy friends) to make a big splash!
I definitely agree on ridding on IVs, I don’t care if all of my Pokémon from the previous generation just become the same as everyone else.. I believe it should have always been that way. If people really want Hidden Power / they decide to keep it, then I’m sure an NPC could be added to let you select what type you want it to be.
Imagine a Steel/ Fairy type….
Mmm. Yes.
Happy that Dragons are getting knocked down a peg.
I hope this spells out a whole slew of new and old tools for the meta game.
Fairy type, how cheesy. But I’ll be the first in line to caress some yamsing Tyranitars… ♥
If Fairy is only super effective against Dragon but doesn’t resist and/or has a weak type-chart in general, it’s pretty much not cutting it. Remember the Ice type we know? It’s an awesome offensive type but resists absolutely nothing besides itself. Add weak physical STABs and mostly mediocre mons to that and you see why only Abomasnow makes Top 50s of use-lists.
On IVs, I don’t think they’ll ever be removed. The point behind them is modeling genetic information and if they were to go, individual Pokémon would officially lose their individuality. It would be a giant step back even against RBY to see Pokémon of the same species being absolutely the same when you catch them and a lot of casual players would most likely hate that… For what is actually realistic, there may be more ways to (effectively) influence the IVs. What I’d much prefer is if they just lock legendary mons’ IVs to flawless because they, with regard to the story, are unique and deserve to be “perfect” beings as titan-like entities.
Make it a set 70 base power for every Pokemon and make the type a random value unto its own. Simple.
Nah, I gotta have my gimmick HP Electric Scizor at 60 power for the Technician boost.
When I started competitive battling in singles at the beginning of 5th gen, I actually ran HP Fire base 60 Porygon2 with Trace half-seriously to stop Scizor. Imagine my surprise when I managed to almost consistently destroy a number of Scizor, Ferrothorn and Forretress that way.
if you look at the pokemon there, it doesnt look like they will be making dragons less deadly in competitive… unless sylveon is actually a fairy (that was a good pun :3) useful eeveelution (vaporeon and jolteon were alright… but not amazing).
This is going to be quite epic, not sure how much of an impact fairy type will have on the VGC metagame though. TBH im mostly excited to see what new standard type pokes they have coming out.
Very interesting turn of events; ever since dark and steel types being created in the 2nd generation I didn’t really think there could be a new type. Depending on the fairy types weaknesses and strengths it could have a varied impact of the metagame.
All this means is that pokemon like Gengar are gonna get alot more play next year and we will see ALOT of steel gem bullet punching Scizors next year and im sick of them already!
First of all, CALM DOWN. We got a little while longer to wait until the weaknesses and resistances (let alone strengths) of the Fairy type are announced. Steel may be likely as a counter, but to me it makes little sense why fairies would hate steel. If nothing else, that utterly useless Babiri Berry will finally get some use.
I predict that a lot of Normal/whatever types will change from Normal to Fairy. it just makes sense.
As regards getting rid of IVs…. please no. We need them to keep things from being totally luck based. Do you REALLY want to it ALWAYS come down to a coin flip as to whether your HP Fire Latios goes before the opponent’s regular 31 Speed Latios, rather than the regular one going first by default? Additionally, it would greatly nullify TR strategies. What would become of TR Dragonite if he always outsped Ice Punch Metagross? Pokemon isn’t just for competitive players; there are TONS of 8-year-olds who play it, and wouldn’t give any eggplants about it. (Notice I switched out “yams”?)
Now as regards the CONFIRMED announcements…
Azumarill will get a power boost, but it’ll still be rather outclassed in some respects. I’m eager to play with the new Gardevoir… Telepathy will allow it to function in some good combos, and thus create synergy. (You figure out what I mean.) Do we REALLY need another Dragon/Flying type? I was seriously hoping for a non-legendary Steel/Dragon…. Now Ice has just been reaffirmed as the most deadly Dragon-slayer. Mamoswine and Cloyster say hi.
I wonder what type of move Boomburst will be. If that’s a Dragon Type move… then the curtain hasn’t fallen on their reign of terror yet. (wth, a spread Dragon move? yml) Moonblast sounds cool. Here’s hoping that Umbreon gets to share in the moon-themed move. (A dark type with a Fairy move could be useful…) Doing big damage and lowering the foes attack means that Garchomp, even if it survives, won’t be doing much else. poor guy.
I’ll reserve further thoughts until we actually get more info.
In b4 every fairy Pokemon is nicknamed nami and tinkerbell
In most fork lore, fairy’s weakness is cold iron.
I’ve said it many times, but I love the fantasy element of having fairy types
like pokemon needed more fantasy elements.I can’t wait to see what else is in store for the 6th gen.I just realized that Heatran will get a lot more play because it’s super-effective against Steel and Fairy and resists Dragon.
I yamsing hate this, there should be more anger in this thread than there was in the blisseyfest that was the European feedback thread
I was looking forward to X and Y but NOT AS MUCH ANYMORE because we have to BOW TO THE
FURRIES FAIRIESFURRIESI was also looking forward to make jokes to all people who have a fanboy/fangirl living with them to buy flood insurance asap once this stupid rumour was shut down because the flood of tears would be unbearable, but NOPE, feed the furries. Kjfldsjfslgjklkjdsg I’m legitimately upset about this, even more upset than I was about Zoroark existing.
At least we get anothah lobstah, I guess .-.
Man! I almost had a heart attack when I saw the headlines on the official website! I already get teased enough at school for playing pokemon, and now the game gets even more embarrassing to play! Why would you do this to me Nintendo?!
Togekiss becoming Fairy/Flying would give it a much better advantage to deal with Hitmontop, Follow Me while Resisting Fighting Gem Boosted Close Combat would be really great for this Pokemon, you would still have to watch out for Top + T-Tar though, or Zapdos or anything like that in general. (Then again, I hardly know what else Fairy Moves are strong against and what resists them, or what Fairy Type Pokemon resist and what they are weak to, lol)