Smogon, the most popular online battling community for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, is considering outright banning Terastallization from its most popular tier, OverUsed. Though Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Terastallization mechanic makes for more diverse teambuilding and helps otherwise unviable Pokemon shine, many players feel that the level of unpredictability it offers is too much for a competitive environment.Pokemon is no stranger to new mechanics, with recent generations introducing powerful quirks such as Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, and Dynamax in the hopes of keeping gameplay fresh. The latest addition introduced in mainline titles Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Terastallization, allows Pokemon to change their type to that of their Tera type, which can be any of the 18 types in the game. Though the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Gym Leaders use Terastallization ineffectively, the mechanic lets Pokemon turn matchups on their head through Terastallizing into a type which counters its traditional checks - such as Skeledirge turning into a pure fairy-type in order to negate traditional ground and dark-type threats. Similarly, offensive Pokemon can also Terastallize in order to break through Pokemon that would traditionally wall them.After much back-and-forth discussion, Smogon has announced a particularly unique vote to decide the fate of Terastallization. When Smogon makes Pokemon tiering decisions, it traditionally utilizes what is known as a 'Suspect Test,' with players being able to reach certain requirements on the Pokemon Showdown online ladder, typically needing to win around thirty games with little to no losses in order to qualify and thus necessitating the use of only the strongest competitive Pokemon. While the Terastallization suspect will share these same voting requirements, participants will be asked to answer two questions instead of the traditional "Ban/Do Not Ban" query.
The first question, "Do you want tiering action on Terastallization?," is simple enough, but the second question asks "What are your (ranked) preferred actions?" Voters will then be asked to rank four possible tiering actions in terms of personal preference, having to pick between an outright ban, limit to 1 Tera user per team, reveal of all Tera types during team preview, and the limitation of Terastallization to STAB types only. If the first question reaches a 60% majority in favor of undergoing tiering action, responses to the second query will be counted. Following this count, the option with the most votes will be implemented into the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet OverUsed ladder - which has already banned several Pokemon Scarlet and Violet critters.
Though Smogon's staff are reluctant to completely outlaw a new and innovative mechanic such as Terastallization, it poses several key balance issues to the competitive scene that cannot easily be resolved. Though the voting form contains three custom modifications to potentially make Terastallization more manageable, there is a good chance that the nuclear option of banning it outright may be the final outcome - though a future Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC could always lead to a retest further down the line.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now on Nintendo Switch.