Only Pokémon from the Kalos Pokédex to be Usable in VGC ’14 Winter Regionals?
We’ve recently learned that there is a very high possibility that the ruleset for the upcoming set of Regional Championships will only allow Pokémon attainable in the Kalos Pokédex. This may sound familiar to those of you who played in 2011 where only Pokémon in the Unova Pokédex were allowed in order to promote the recently released Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version.
Unlike the 2011 ruleset however, a Kalos-only tournament with Pokémon X and Y would have some very important differences. Most obviously, the Kalos Pokédex includes Pokémon from many different generations rather than just the ones introduced in Kalos. Though this allows for more teambuilding options, it may create a harder to understand ruleset for newer players. To add to the confusion, many Pokémon that can be caught in Kiloude City’s Friend Safari are not actually a part of the Kalos Pokédex even though they can be caught in Pokémon X & Y, which would ban them from use.
It’s important to note that there is no way to practice a Kalos-only ruleset in the game at the moment. The ladder allows all Pokémon but certain legendary Pokémon, and one of the single most used Pokémon is currently Togekiss, which would not be allowed come January if this ruleset turns out to be the one we play under. To give you an idea of what wouldn’t be allowed, we have a list of some of the more metagame-relevant Pokémon not in the Kalos Pokédex below:
- Arcanine
- Bronzong
- Chansey
- Cresselia
- Dusclops
- Electabuzz
- Empoleon
- Excadrill
- Gastrodon
- Grotle
- Heatran
- Hitmontop
- Infernape
- Jellicent
- Landorus
- Latias
- Latios
- Magmar
- Metagross
- Misdreavus
- Musharna
- Ninetales
- Porygon2
- Porygon-Z
- Raikou
- Registeel
- Stoutland
- Suicune
- Swampert
- Terrakion
- Thundurus
- Togekiss
- Tornadus
- Virizion
- Volcarona
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.
Related Posts
Nugget Bridge Update →
GS Cup Announced as Pokémon’s 2016 Ruleset →
2016 Pokémon World Championships Date & Location Surfaces →
NPA News: Season 4, Week 1 →
144 Responses to Only Pokémon from the Kalos Pokédex to be Usable in VGC ’14 Winter Regionals?
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
As someone who is just stepping into the format, the kalosdex only would make my ability to gather a team actually feasible. I was worried before the rumor. I wasn’t sure how I was even going to get the legendaries from other games, yet now If it’s in kalos I can use it. That means the barrier of entry for me is only time now. Of course there is still a non marginal amount I have to learn but at least I can build teams, and play competitively, or at least attempt to do so.
At my community college
I kept on forgetting to fill out applications okayPokemon X/Y are very popular. Pretty much everyone here knows about IVs and EVs but whether or not people actually care about them depends entirely on whether or not they’re a “collector” or “battler”, really (or both, of course). They do tend to know about the Destiny Knot, a lot of hidden mechanics, a general gist of what Pokemon are good or bad (again, whether or not they care varies from person to person), etc. So in a nutshell my school has a sizable “casual competitive” audience or however you want to put it. They like “competitive” battles but want to use their favorites and most of them mainly play to kick their friends’ arses.Long story short I have given up on trying to explain the difference between not-broken legendaries and broken legendaries. This is to people who understand IVs, EVs, base stats, etc. and know how to manipulate them.
Explaining why a Kalosdex-only ruleset is a thing would probably be a futile effort. ._. The important thing here is justification because even if they understand the ruleset, if they think it’s “dumb” they won’t be interested.
That’s just based off of my experience, though.
So this new Dragon tournament only allows Pokémon obtained within X & Y. Apparently we now know the blue pentagon on each Pokémon’s stat screen indicates it was received in Kalos, meaning there is the potential for our VGC rules to only allow Pokémon obtained in Kalos (and an easy way to explain it; if it has the blue pentagon, it’s legal.) Although it could still either be Kalos-dex only or Kalos-dex + Friend Safari, this still has significance when we’ve been waiting for things like Bug Bite on Scizor and Icy Wind on… everything. The blue pentagon would bring an end to these BW2 Move Tutor moves…
The people who are whining about the possibility of banning any Pokémon not obtained in Gen VI from tournaments are most likely people who are mad they have to use their Pokégen’d/RNG’d stuff for breeding instead of taking the lazy way out.
If they actually go through with this, this is a great way of mixing up the metagame and, most of all, get rid of all the hexaperfect Pokémon (especially those with move tutor moves from Gen 3/4) that plagued the scene for so long, because those who refused to Pokégen/RNG were more or less unable to get a hold of those realistically.
I am still concerned about legendaries though, will we not see any Heatrans/Cresselias/Lati@s anymore? Or will those be excluded from those possible regulations?
I for one welcome this drastic change to the tournament meta, especially because we have to rethink strategies because of the lack of old tutor moves.
Kuhni, learning how to RNG is probably the single most difficult thing to do in Pokemon. And that’s just learning how to do it. Actually RNGing can take a lot of work depending on what you’re after. I wouldn’t call RNGing “the lazy way out”, since it involves way more hard work than regular breeding (trust me, I’ve been there). I definitely wouldn’t lump RNGing with Pokegen either, which is the real lazy way out since it involves hacking.
Banning Pokemon obtained from the Bank wouldn’t “get rid of all the hexaperfect Pokemon” because breeding’s so much easier in XY. Everyone’s going to be walking in with flawless Pokemon anyways. Just ask around and you’ll find a bunch of people on here who’re already on the Battle Spot with flawless Pokemon.
Personally, after thinking on it for a while, I don’t really care much anymore which ruleset we go with, as long as we can feasibly practice in-game and have access to all the old move tutor moves. Without move tutor moves, we can’t use Pokemon to their fullest extent. There are even some new ways to use the move tutor moves from past games now that we’re in XY. I’d hate to not be able to try them out if they inexplicably ban move tutor moves from past gens. They’ve never even done that before, so why start now?
Honestly though, if they really want to get rid of most of the legendary Pokemon that dominated last gen, it would be easier just to ban legendary Pokemon altogether. Simplest ruleset ever. It’d also stop all those YouTube posters from complaining about that, at least.
If you breed a non kalos /friend safari native pokemon like jellicent in xy the child frillish would still get the pentagon, wouldn’t it? Not sure that creates an easy way to distinguish between what’s kalos dex legal and what’s not…
I just want to post that the Kalos only ruleset is the most fun meta I’ve played since 2010. (so far at least) and I really hope this is the confirmed ruleset.
I hatched a shiny 31/X/31/31/31/31 Timid Infiltrator Noibat with Switcheroo, no MM, 1/12 chance of inheriting correct IVs, no trading shenanigans. Get on my level, yo!
As you can see, yes, you’ll still be facing those.Funny how this followed more or a less four pages of people mentioning that their problem lies largely with the lack of specific moves being available.
Also, as someone else mentioned, RNG isn’t really any easier than the Destiny Knot method (when you factor in learning how to do it). Heck, I’d even go so far as to refer to the DK method as the lazy way out- I know it is much less stressful, for one. (Then again, maybe I was the only one who was stressed out while RNGing?)
Nope, I’m mad because the limitations on species and movepool significantly restrict teambuilding options, and because I have to breed new copies of Pokémon I already have which is dumb and pointless. And I already have a full team of pentaflawless Pokémon that I bred over the course of a week or so – it’s not like people are going to settle for inferior Pokémon just because it’s a little more time-consuming now, never mind all the other problems with that line of thinking.
Obviously it will change up things a lot, some of you might say it’s restricting, but then again because certain threats will be less prevalent it might give different Pokémon a chance to establish their position in the VGC meta.
Besides, who knows what the move tutors for the 3rd/sequel game/s will be like, maybe they’ll introduce new and exciting options that make up for the removal of older ones.
None of which would be available for this season, the only season this year’s ruleset is likely to be relevant for.
You should probably try looking at the potential rulesets and what would probably happen in them and form your opinion based on that, rather than deciding which ruleset you think you want and then trying to form opinions about why it’s a good idea, which is pretty clearly what you’ve done.
*I’m going to refer to the most generous definition of the hypothetical “Kalos-dex” metagame (as in, so long as it can be bred/caught in Kalos, whether it be Friend Safari or whatever, it is legal) as the “Pentagon” metagame (an obvious reference to having a Blue Pentagon, which means the exact same thing as generous Kalos-Dex).
I feel like the Pentagon metagame is the “best” compromise we are going to get in terms of a generational cut-off. Obviously Game Freak wants to avoid a hard cut-off like between Gen II and III, especially since there have not been any changes to Pokemon data structures to require that. But why do we need any sort of cut-off between Gen VI and before? Event-exclusive moves,legendaries, both of which fuel one of the unforgivable sins in TCPi’s eyes: PokeCheck.
Event-Exclusivity
Banning Event Legendaries is easy and clear-cut. But what do we do about normally legal Pokemon that have “event-exclusive” moves, like Eruption Heatran and Weather Ball Raikou? Or what about new players who want to use Gen III tutors or Pokemon XD exclusive moves? The Pentagon metagame creates a hard cut-off to all of these Pokemon who cannot be captured by newer players by any realistic means and helps give the game a fresh start. Are most of these even relevant? Aside from maybe 3, not even close, but it eliminates any need to use PokeCheck to find them.
Legendaries
I know this argument is obnoxious, but there is something to be said about how “difficult” it is to get pre-Gen VI Legendaries to competitive standard as it is any breedable Pokemon thanks to Gen Vi mechanics. RNG abuse is definitely learnable and seems to be acceptable by TPCi standards, but that doesn’t matter, because a lot of casual people will just resort to PokeCheck and the like. I know I was way too stupid to figure out Gen IV / Entralink RNGing, so my Cresselias and Thundurus-T are completely 100% illegal.
“Legality” has always been the most frustrating obstacle to competing, but it is a much bigger problem to TPCi, who has to deal with one of the most pirated franchises in video game history. And all of this is only relevant because XY aren’t cracked yet (at least to the masses, I am aware of the dude that got the Event legendary data), which means that the pure arbitrariness of the Pentagon metagame can actually mean something, in terms of preserving “legality” in competitive Pokemon.
Obnoxious commenters on YouTube aren’t just complaining about Legendaries, but about all the shinies people have. Does it even matter? No. But did TPCi seem to listen? Unfortunately.
There is no happy ending with a Pentagon metagame, because everyone loses something (awesome to use legendaries, useful tutors), and it is even worse that TPCi will not be completely straightforward as to why (like I do not think TPCi ever made a formal note during 2011 that said “Look, I’m sorry you can’t use most Pokemon, but think of our side”).
And I think the “easiness” of the Pentagon metagame completely depends on the person (see HipsterWhale and his/her two likes on page 4 for a pro-Pentagon post), but I am not going to try and pretend that the Blue Pentagon actually makes it easier to explain. (“Why do I have to breed another Jellicent so it has a Blue Pentagon?” “Because Blue Pentagon Rule.”)
I don’t see why it’s such a big fuss about the pentagons. It is NOT hard to explain. A large amount of people hacked for perfect Pokemon in past competitions, and the blue pentagon ensures their legality. They want to eliminate the “necessity” of players cheating to get a competitively viable team, so it is extremely likely that the Pentagon-only metagame will be how things will go from here on out. Sure, RNGing may be difficult and, by their standards, legit, and I personally have no issue with it, especially now that I can breed competitively viable Pokemon fairly easily. However, I would think it’s pretty plain to see why TPCi doesn’t want several people at the same event all using perfectly identical Eruption Heatrans and the like.
They REALLY should have included move tutors, but you can’t argue that it’s a hard rule to explain. “Blue Pentagon” means it must be obtained this gen, to try and eliminate illegitimately obtained Pokemon from the past. I don’t see why TPCi needs to be “straightforward” about something that is straightforward already. I personally don’t care what they do, though I am a tad biased as I’d rather not play with the genies/cress/heatran anymore, but I’m not going to complain or argue about whatever they end up deciding, though it seems like a pretty safe assumption that the old move tutor moves are out with the blue pentagon deal.
I’m sure I just repeated all of what has been said over the last several posts, but there’s really not a whole lot more to talk about related to the ruleset until we just get a straight answer.
I’m not sure what the big fuss is about the pentagon. The application deadline for the first few locations in the Japanese tournament is before Pokebank is released but others are not. They are ensuring a consistent ruleset.
I look forward to you whining again in 3 months about how “stale” it is.
As opposed to you whining about it now?
i’m not sure why you felt the need to make that comment, I’m just saying that the actual games in this potential ruleset have been enjoyable.
we’re not whining about how stale it is, we’re whining because we can’t reliably practice with no in-game ladder. showdown is still bugged and probably needs a bit of tlc before i would use it for serious practice. rushan is referencing the fact that every metagame becomes stale for someone after a while. 2013/12 was refreshing after 2011, 2010 was refreshing after 2009 etc. its only a matter of time before someone decides they are bored with kalosdex and we have different people complaining about the same thing.
i guess it really doesn’t make a difference if anyone is excited for any format but what does make a difference is being able to actually play that format outside of regionals, which we can’t do with kalosdex. if you’re happy with it then be happy with it but don’t ignore the problems that come with it as well.
Just when you thought TPCI wasn’t doing their best to turn away potential new players to the competitive scene, they decide to not announce the rules. Now the people who aren’t turned off by lack of being able to use there favorite pokemon they had for years, will not go because they don’t have time to breed a new team for a metagame they did not play. Good thing too, we wouldn’t want to inconvenience 2 day TCG tournaments by taking up too much space playing a kids game
According to Alpha Z the other day on IRC, the rules are coming “soon”. Which if you play stuff like WoW, that is scary as “soon” tends to mean never or too late to be any good lol…
So hopefully TPCi “soon” means in the next week or 2, because it’s only about 2 months now before Regionals start…
External
News post will be up shortly…
From the document:
“9.2. Kalos Native
The relevant bit for those who haven’t read the article
Fantastic decision AZ.
Inb4 giant ragestorm
I for one welcome those rules, it’s something fresh and shouldn’t be in no way as stale as 2011 just because of the sheer number of usable mons in comparison to BWs 147.