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With the release of X and Y, entering the Competitive community has become a lot easier. Super Training and Destiny Knot get our Pokemon in to Top preforming shape within hours. How do you guys feel about it? Do these update ruin the competitive community by filling it with a bunch of Casual Players or does it add a new brand of challenge?

I agree that it's a very good thing, as it encourages people who have never had the time previously to get into the thick of it as soon as possible. What used to take days or weeks now takes hours, not to mention the friend safari actually encourages you to get as many friends as possible, thereby opening up more opportunities to battle. Then there's the new functionality of the EXP Share making it easier to level up multiple pokemon at a time. All in all, I think this is probably the most accessible online battling has ever been.

Super training is mostly for people that haven't beaten the game yet, tbh. When I started Pokemon Y, I loved it because it meant that I could EV train my starters from the go rather than just let them get whatever crap EV's they get from swooping through the gyms. Pokerus+power items+hordes is definitely the way to go for getting a pokemon in fighting shape as quickly as possible. I've found that the best way to get a pokemon to lvl 50 as quickly as possible is to take up the battle restaurants' tripple battles with EXP power since the powers will last until you're done with all of the battles.

I believe that the biggest problem of last Generation Competitive Battling was the lack of having a battle format where every Pokemon was put at the same level. Be it Level 50 or Level 100. So what happens? Well, you grind your 6 Pokemon to level 100 and then, when you decide to swap out your physical wall because he's not doing his role well enough, you have to train another Pokemon to Level 100 to fill its place. That was the biggest problem of Gen 5. (Gen 4 did not have this problem, which led to much more popularity)

Gen 6 fixed this, introducing Level 50 Battles. Slightly different, but more or less the same as Level 100. This is an acceptable way to dodge the redundant grinding to Level 100.

Other than that, what were the problems last gen? Steel was OP defensively, as it always has been. Dragons and Fighting types were offensive powerhouses seen on most every team. Rain teams were overly dominant, they were the centerpiece and it was hard to counter. Sand teams were right behind them. Infinite weather was everywhere. This is nitpicking, but these things are generally accepted by the competitive community.

What makes Gen 6 better other than the Level 50 Battling? EV Training is faster, Breeding is faster. Egg moves can chain (Belly Drum + Aqua Jet is now a possibility on Azumarill, that sort of thing). The type match-ups are more balanced than ever. Fairy puts a cold stop to the Fighting and Dragon heavy metagame of last Generation. Weather teams got a reasonable nerf that just erased the over-centralization putting it on par with using Rain Dance/Sandstorm/Sunny Day (Why was it not this way to begin with?) Did I mention Critical Hits now only do an additional 33% damage instead of the additional 100% it used to do? Still goes through defense buffs, but the hax factor has never been less game changing. BP on most popular moves also took a small nerf (5-10 BP on most moves). It seems defensive teams can function much better in this format. Then there's Defog, Knock Off, etc. The list goes on.

Steel, was and still is the best defensive type in the game, lost 2 resistances, but gained the advantage of resisting/being super effective against Fairy. The STAB Steel typing is actually viable now. And their defensive capabilities are that much weaker with two less resists. Pokemon like Jirachi and Metagross gained 2 weakness because of this. Poison also gained a second type to hit Super Effectively in Fairy (Plus, Grass, as it always has. Why can't it pollute Water? Hmm..)


RECAP: Less time breeding/training, more time to be spent battling and getting a feel for this new metagame, more even playing field, more variety, there are so many factors that make this Gen great. Creativity and planning mean everything. Cookie cutter teams won't hand out easy wins like before. This is truly the best the Metagame has ever been in all my years of battling.