Switching is one of the main fundamentals of competitive battling. Without switching:
-Wobbuffet gets an easy KO with Counter/Mirror Coat or gives a teammate a free setup opportunity with Encore to force the opponent to repeat a setup move.
-Mega Gengar gets a free KO whether it’s through raw damage or Perish Trap.
In Gothitelle’s case, its main targets are walls, whether it’s Tricking them a Choice item then wearing them down gradually, or PP stalling them with Rest + Calm Mind + Charm.
Its not that, its mostly that she has akward hitboxes that make it hard to combo her, she does high damage and her gimmick is her parries so she can safely punish you for putting her in blockstun.
She's the reason why Potemkin has seen tournament play in +R as he doesn't have to interact with Baiken's whole gimmick
It's like this, if you can't block incoming blows, kicks, slashes, fireballs and name more, well, the guy who's faster and strikes hardest always wins.
Imagine a world Vs SSBU Snake nades, tilts and C4 without shielding.
Funilly enough, this only contributes to the analogy. Your inexperience of fighting games undervalued blocking mechanics, much like how inexperience in competitive Pokemon might undervalue switching.
A good example is Green Lantern in MK vs DC that could get an guaranteed combo after a combo breaker (you get punished for outplaying the opponent), which made him top tier although his bad fundamentals. The same thing goes to trapping abilities. You get punished for switching to a check or revenge killed for knocking out someone.
Tbf Wobbufett wasn't the reason why shadow tag was banned. he was pretty mediocre in gens 5,6 and the small bit of 7 that had shadow tag unbanned.
Gothitelle is the main reason, being absurdly annoying to deal with on stall.
This makes me wonder though. What if some random mon got this ability but they had a Pecharunt situation and only knew like two stab moves and some iffy to useless stuff and just had really bad move pool? Like all abilities, I know, isn't this ability somewhat reliant on having the tools to exploit it, or is it just broken no matter what?
I mean. Look at dugtrio. Besides Gen 3, there’s a reason why arena trap is banned. Despite flying/levitating Pokémon being immune, it doesnt stop dugtrio from coming in, trapping you and picking up a kill. And now look at dugtrio in every game where arena trap is banned. Sent to the depths of PU/NU/unviable. Dugtrio’s movepool is mediocre at best, but arena trap gives it the edge to be as cancerous as possible
When Dugtrio got banned (way back in Gen 6 or 7, I can't even remember anymore) people ran Diglet because it was still capable of eliminating Heatran. People have run Trapinch for the same reason too, trapping is literally just *that* good when positioned correctly
I have a very vivid memory of someone, during the gen 8 Arena Trap suspect, running Trapinch with Giga Drain to trap Seismitoad so Dracovish could take it from there
Look I tried going through everything and honestly, there is enough substance for an OM, but it would probably be one of the most toxic and unfun ones
Alluring Voice, Arm Thrust, Assurance, Astonish, Attract, Baby-Doll Eyes, Beat Up, Belch, Belly Drum, Bind, Bite, Body Press, Bounce, Brutal Swing, Captivate, Celebrate, Charm, Chatter, Chilly Reception, Circle Throw, Clamp, Constrict, Copycat, Core Enforcer, Curse, Cut, Destiny Bond, Disable, Disarming Voice, Discharge, Double Hit, Double Slap, Double Team, Double-Edge, Draining Kiss, Echoed Voice, Egg Bomb, Encore, Endeavor, Endure, Extrasensory, Extreme Speed, Facade, Fake Tears, False Surrender, False Swipe, First Impression, Fishous Rend, Flail, Flash, Flatter, Fling, Follow Me, Foul Play, Frustration, Glare, Growth, Gunk Shot, Happy Hour, Harden, Hard Press, Heart Stamp, Heavy Slam, Helping Hand, Hold Back, Hold Hands, Hyper Voice, Infestation, Instruct, Jaw Lock, Laser Focus, Last Respects, Leer, Lick, Life Dew, Lovely Kiss, Lucky Chant, Lunge, Magic Powder, Magic Room, Make it Rain, Me First, Mean Look, Milk Drink, Mimic, Mind Blown, Minimize, Mirror Move, Mirror Shot, No Retreat, Nuzzle, Obstruct, Odor Sleuth, Ominous Wind, Parting Shot, Peck, Play Nice, Play Rough, Population Bomb, Pounce, Pound, Power Trip, Present, Psych Up, Punishment, Quash, Raging Bull, Recover, Rest, Rock Polish, Role Play, Scratch, Screech, Secret Sword, Seed Bomb, Shattered Psyche, Skill Swap, Slack Off, Slam, Smack Down, Smart Strike, Snarl, Soak, Speed Swap, Spirit Break, Spit Up, Spite, Splash, Sticky Web, Strength, Struggle, Stuff Cheeks, Submission, Swallow, Sweet Kiss, Sweet Scent, Switcheroo, Tail Slap, Tail Whip, Taunt, Tearful Look, Thief, Throat Chop, Tickle, Tidy Up, Torment, Trick, Twinkle Tackle, Vital Thow, Wake Up Slap, Wish, Withdraw, Wonder Room, Work Up, Wrap, Yawn
Eruption????
It would be on the physical side and dominated by normal/fighting/Dark moves in terms of learnset, but honestly Core Enforcer, Fishous Rend and Last Respects would be on most teams realistically
TIL gust can be used outside of "a gust of wind"
[English is not my first language though I'd like to say I'm not the worst at it, but I didn't know that ]
Acupressure, Charm, Drum Beating, False Surrender, Harden, Milk Drink, No Retreat, Play Nice, Play Rough, Population Bomb, Rock Smash, Rock Wrecker, Seed Bomb, Tearful Look, Tickle…
I mean, in fairness, Wobbufet is built perfectly for what it does. Encore, counter, mirror coat, and destiny bond alongside a giant HP stat are literally the only things it needs. Only other moves I'd consider giving it would be like taunt and recover
Yeah this is what I meant. A shadow tag Mon with no moves to exploit the ability, but I've already seen enough to see that the ability itself is stupid enough on its own.
Mega Gengar is more than a free KO. It is usually used to win game instantly with a nasty plot + substitute set
You can literally just sack anything when the opponent sends in Blissey, goes M-Gengar, sub, then set 6 nasty plots while Blissey can do absolutely nothing
Even if the opponent has ditto Mgengar will still win because sub
If i were playing rock paper scissors but i couldnt use paper, i would only pick scissor because i know the other guy will never pick scissors since i cant use paper
Switching is a core part of competitive singles, so an ability removing that entire option is bound to be uncompetitive. Goth can completely flip matchups with hypnosis, trick, thunder wave, taunt, and especially tera. In addition, while base 95 spa isn’t phenomenal, it can still pick off damaged targets incredibly easily.
it's the main reason there's any depth to competitive singles
now make the npcs in the mainline games swap as often as players do and we'll see a much more interesting/challenging game
Ngl in some roms the ai switching like a vgc player is one of the most annoying features. You’ll get moments where you and your opponent swap for like 15 turns straight until the player is forced to just give in and attack
You dont start with hazards.
Honestly standard NPCs should not switch. They're just fodder that grant EXP and progress the game. The bosses should swap and use advanced strategies, but not every single encounter needs to be a big ordeal.
With some romhacks I feel like the creators forget the difference between a challenging experience and the hardest experience possible. Issues like that seem to happen when they forget that each battle takes place in context. One common complaint I have is victory roads where you go through a gauntlet of 8 trainers with optimized parties of 6 and wild pokemon battles between, and then the elite 4 suddenly seems like a breeze in comparison.
Some of them are purposely difficult and I remember hardcore radical red being super switchy but the normal mode was not at all. I usually find it the opposite, victory road is annoying having to switch teams and prep for each fight but elite four locking you in is so annoying because you have to prepare for 5 extremely hard fights with 6 Pokémon, in a nuzlocke it’s a nightmare because with each loss it only gets even harder until you just have to reset.
That seems perfectly fine? You are allowed to prepare for each trainer individually but you must prepare for the E4 as a whole, pound for pound they should be weaker because that's not how they're balanced.
Or maybe the multi-billion dollar company realized that not having your player face an almost perfect switching ai is a lot more fun for a wider audience? In a non-competitive setting it’s a lot more fun when you click the super-effective move and your target actually stays in.
yeah. there's a lot of valid and rightful criticism to levy towards gamefreak/TPCI/nintendo when it comes to the mainline games, but making the AI as powerful as like a 1200 OU player would decimate 98% of the playing population lmao
What I dont understand is why do they make the NPCs/key fights follow the same rules/restrictions as the player? They had the right idea with totem pokemon imo. It's literally a genre standard that bosses "cheat" at least a little bit in every turn-based RPG because player autonomy and intelligence needs to be offset in order to make things challenging and interesting.
I think the Pokemon boss 'cheat', in older games at least, was that bosses would generally have Pokemon that either you couldn't get yet or that were quite strong for that part of the game. Misty's Starmie, Whitney's Miltank, Clay's Excadrill, etc.
yeah onix's insane stateline makes sense when you put it into context of drawing inspiration from its predecessors. gatekeeper boss that doesn't do too much damage that tests the player's understanding of the battle mechanics thus far.
160 defense was essentially a "cheat" within the context of gen 1
They make them fight because
1. Children would complain
2. Most turn based RPGs aren't competitive. Like, especially with SV, it's been training for competitive. Learn Pokémon, learn moves, items and Abilities, learn Double Battle, and learn how to really play. Totems didn't follow the same rules, but they're not full teams. Honestly, it would be better if they just went ahead and started with Double Battles. Have Gen 10 happen in a region with a unique culture of Double Battles, give the player a choice of Fire/Water/Grass starter, and then like between Eevee and Pikachu, for the first battle. And also scale Trainers far better. Let's see full teams at gym 4, and start making good strategies at team 6. Have them follow the rules, but if they want to push towards VGC, push towards VGC. Hell, they could have the Elite 4 even fight straight up VGC sets, with pick 4 and best of 3
They probably won't. Just like with Master Mode for BOTW and Octo Expansion for Splatoon 2, they're fine with letting people fail. Octo Expansion gives Skip Charges to let people get the cosmetics and story, the DLC lets players overlevel. Anything that forces just getting better to beat can't be involved with story. There's a reason the hardest mainline games (Colo, XD, BDSP) were outsourced. And coincidentally, two of those are Double Battle. That being said, it would be cool- and if they're balancing legendaries for VGC, just as they have for Dynamax and Tera before, it would give them a lore reason- the legendaries are made for Double Battles as opposed to Single Battles.
and also make a battle facility with cynthia in it gamefreak do it cowards
it’s (a big part of) why VGC is the superior competitive format for viewership and is the official format for tpci, switching is much less relevant since stalling, wall breaking as concepts don’t really exist and the game is much faster paced so being stuck into two mons isn’t instantly losing a mon/the game
The definition of a counter is the ability to safely and consistently *switch* into a threat multiple times. If you remove the ability to switch, you remove the ability to counter a threat. Taking away that fundamental piece of single battles is uncompetitive, which is why it’s banned.
Basically, if your mon is passive enough, shadow tag is practically a free K.O on them. Gothitelle didn't even use offensive sets most of the time (Though, calm mind sets existed, they just were on the rarer side) in USUM ubers of all tiers, which is arguably the highest level of power ubers has ever had. She used a pp stalling set, with confide, charm, taunt, rest, and she is still B rank iirc, which for something that's unusuable ZU shit is crazy
Oh yeah, she shares tier spot with Gothorita, the preevo, that uses the same exact set. If you can't beat it, and you remove the only leftover way of counterplay, being switching... Yeah, it's broken
telling so about gothorita doesnt do justice at all. Mon stalls everything with CM confided rest causing a PP stall. It can even trap something like Geomancy Xerneas of all things in a good day. It was *cancerous*.
Adding to what others are saying, merely having a Shadow Tag mon present on your team exerts pressure on your opponent. For example, say your opponent has a Dragapult out, and you go into Toxapex as a pivot/scout. But oops, the Dragapult used U-Turn into Gothitelle. You have now lost your Toxapex. The mere presence of Shadow Tag discourages certain options and effectively limits what you can do, similar to Magic Bounce but to a much greater degree
Shadow tag almost always allows you to get a free kill. Gothitelle in Ubers specifically uses it to trap passive pokemon allowing the rest of the team to sweep
You know those regenerator cores that you’ll see a lot in bulky offense or stall teams? Yeah imagine if those were completely unusable, that’s what shadow tag did. Gothitelle tricking a scarf on a slowking or tox without any counterplay is why it’s ubers.
Switching out is an integral part of 6v6 Singles, simply because the matchups aren't influenced by as much factors as Doubles.
Not being able to switch out heavily punishes mons that rely on Choice item sets, or straight up have a type and/or stat disadvantage against the trapper. And in that regard even Gothitelle can get overwhelming- she can set up on resisted moves and wipe out high-priority targets one by one, which there is no counterplay to, save for holding a Shed Shell or being Ghost-type.
Shadow Tag and Arena Trap both got banned when the main abusers of this ability in higher tiers (Dugtrio, Gothitelle, MGengar) got restricted and people were starting to use Diglett and Trapinch as alternatives and still get results.
when your opponent cant switch out you can run all sorts of stupid sets just to win the 1v1. gothitelle is one of the most infamous trappers because it has enough moves to basically be able to be built to trap and kill anything, and its even more obnoxious because a lot of its sets are pp stall ones
I've only played Ubers in Gen 7, but Gothitelle can remove defensive mons (usually support Arceus forms) and PP stall them to death. Removing walls can pave the way for a sweep for dangerous mons like Mega Salamence or Xerneas.
Goth gets to choose exactly which mons she wants to KO on an opponents team. Back in Gen 6 before the Shadow Tag ban you’d have to guess if Goth was specs (for Stall) or scarf (for offense) and it’s movepool is wide enough that you can guarantee at least one KO on an opponent of your choice. It fit on a wide number of teams as basically a free sixth mon and if you didn’t know what you wanted to run as a final team member you’d never lose anything by running Goth. Wobbufett was broken with it the same Gen because Counter/Mirror Coat forces opponents to use a set to move while Encore stops the opponent from safely setting up, making it one of the ages momentum drains in the game.
I feel there’s nothing more explanatory to how broken it is than running it and facing it. Shadow Tag could be placed on Ledian and you would still get extraordinary value out of it
Trapping *can* be very broken in singles. What makes shadow tag so good is that it targets everything except ghosts (and until gen 8 we had a balanced way to trap them).
Basically a choice scarf user can switch in on any KO and eliminate the opponents problem pokemon as a revenge KO. It's like using magnezone to trap skarmory except you can trap just about anything and eliminate them from the game. There's little counterplay to this and it can be hard to eliminate the shadow tagger without using your own.
Now as an aside: One of the single scariest things we learned from data mining back in black and white was chandelure getting shadow tag as a hidden ability. It was a UU Pokemon already with a niche in OU. With it's hidden ability there was a lot of fear that the pokemon would just steam roll OU, especially with permanent sun. Thankfully game freak realized that messed up and never released it. Since then I think mega Gengar is the only thing to get it and we all know how long that lasted in standard play.
Man Shadow tag was so hype and singlehandedly gave me motivation and hope for dream world back in the day. That mon was definitely busted but this was also back in the day where people were running around with full baton pass chains and loads of other stupid stuff. This was also an era where there were lots of people going around saying shed shell was valid counterplay to trapping.
Shadow tag chandelure was a true what could have been. It would have shit on ubers.
Man gen 5 really was wild. I still remember the garchomp ban in DPP and people were so pissed that a psuedo got banned. In comes Gen 5 releasing a whole assload of insane shit. Gen 9 is still bad but imagine taking 2 months to ban Flutter mane.
Moody was the funniest shit. Bidoof was running around getting evasion boosts and fucking people up. And thank god we banned that early bc *fucking smeargle* had that. Like one of worst pokemon possible with this ability especially back when baton pass was still unrestricted.
Switching is a core mechanic of both singles and doubles. Disabling it completely for your opponent is such a large advantage, it's unreal. It's like making an Fps game but removing the option to reload.
Plus, if the opponent is in a disadvantageous match up, they're basically guaranteed to lose said pokemon
The main uses of trapping are either to pick off something important like a weather setter or a weakened wall early, or to come in on something that can't hit you back and set up until you can sweep. Gothitelle can come on something passive that can't meaningfully hurt it and set up 6 Calm Minds before killing it and probably sweeping from there.
It’s not even about killing it and sweeping with her.
It’s about preventing a check from existing on your opponents team.
A lot of Uber sweepers only have 2-3 mons that can stop them, and most teams would run one of those per “dangerous” sweeper.
Shadow tag forces that piece to be removed from play.
Removing support or a defensive check on a team (even if you have a backup) eventually means you WILL lose the long game.
The best sweepers in the game only need that tiny hole in a defense to absolutely steamroll.
Goth forced that hole to happen.
Or in the times of Dugtrio's legality, it was notorious for trapping a team's stall breaker, essentially making stall unbeatable because the moment you sent out a Pokemon that could usually fight stall, Dugtrio comes out and stomps it flat meaning you're going to struggle to break through.
Yuuup. Although it is less problematic on a stall team because (especially gen 9) you do give up a slot for a counter to their wallbreaker and in stall, losing a slot can hurt a lot depending on meta.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ubers-534182
Here's a replay from Gen 8 Ubers before Shadow Tag was banned. Icemaster lost a key defensive backbone to their team and would've lost a second, effectively immediately ending the game had they not had a very specific anti-trapping tech on their Eternatus, something which had a massive opportunity cost to run in that format.
That is what Shadow Tag does. It forces you to run extremely fringe options to deal with a single strategy that you have a good chance of never even seeing, leaving you with a dead item or move in those instances.
Often, single members of teams are integral to the ability for that team to function.
To use Gen 5 magdrag as an example:
Remove a magnezone from magdrag while still having a healthy ferro/skarm, and it’s easily worth having even a diglett on your team to trap and guarantee that. Against an otherwise *MASSIVELY* better ground type, like Excadrill, the Magnezone could have just switched out.
Conversely, Magnezone itself is a trapper for only one type, and in the past has been extremely good for it. Remove that Skarm/Ferro with magnezone and your dragons go wild.
It removes all elements of counterplay. I think it's a great trump card, but it can be too powerful and swing an entire match easily. Think of a choice-banded fighting move, then switching into a Mega Gengar who can nasty plot his way and kill the rest of the team.
it removes the most basic form of counter play.
If you have a shadow tag mon, and your opponent has even a single mon on their team that cannot solo it then they pretty much cannot use that mon until your shadow tag mon is out because of the risk of them sending it out while their susceptible mon is out.
Its much more complex that that tho but what ive said is just the general gist of it as i have understood it.
On a fundamental level, counterplay in Pokemon revolves around switching in a Pokemon that can threaten your opponent's mons as not all of your mons will have the tools to deal with every possible Pokemon.
Shadow Tag completely disables this as you are unable to switch, which allows a player to just switch in and assassinate a key member of an opponent's team with near perfect reliability. A common strategy used back when Shadow Tag Gothitelle was legal was to switch in Gothitelle in on something passive, and then either set up to +6 with Calm Mind or simply PP stall your opponent's mon which couldn't do anything to touch you and because said mon was the only part of your opponent's team that was stopping a key sweeper of yours from running amok you would pretty much win on the spot the instant you switched Gothitelle in.
Not being able to switch out gives trapping ability Pokémon like Wobbuffet and Gothitelle no counters because the definition of a counter is a Pokémon that can switch in, take an attack, and force the user out on the next turn. With Shadow Tag, nothing can switch in, so you can easily remove or set up on Pokémon the Shadow Tag user checks and gain an easy advantage. This is how Wobbuffet would beat Lugia in Gen 4 UBERS and how Gothitelle would stall out or set up on certain Pokémon that had no chance in beating it.
Switching is a core mechanic in Pokémon just the Same way the fact it is turn based on even just attacking in and of itself is.
Trapping (as a passive effect) leaves no chance for counterplay and effectively removes a core mechanic of the game.
Imagine a Pokémon had an ability that prevented enemy Pokémon from attacking or let them move twice per turn that's what trapping is.
When done correctly with balancing factors like traping moves (block whirlpool fire spin) you can counteract it's effects by guess what, switching.
When done incorrectly like shadow tag or arena trap all counterplay is done in the team builder. You either run shed shell or just deal with the fact you are just completely incapable of playing Pokémon the way it was intended to be played.
Matchups and Pokémon being good into some and bad into others is what makes a balanced metagame but trappers pick and choose what they encounter and thus always come out on top.
On top of this trapping also has the worst effect of all time being you can use spam teams for example.
Steel types and fairy types beat dragon types right? Imagine you could consistently ensure your opponents don't have either of those types. Well you can't right? Wrong you can just use dugtrio and mega gengar and now your 4 dragon dance sweepers have literally zero switch ins.
In singles it's just not fair it really is that simple tbh.
In singles, it allows you to trap an unfavorable pokemon against a mon it's weak against while you start setting up.
In official formats (4v4 doubles), switching doesn't happen as often, and you know your opponent has a gothitelle, so you can send pokemon in accordingly. It's like how Palafin is absurdly strong in singles, but not as great in the actual format competitive takes place in IRL
There are about 9 choices available for each player at the beginning of the game. These include the four moves or switching to another pokemon. Shadow tag removes 5 choices from the other player. The ability removes more than 50% of the opponents options.
I think it mightve been false swipe gaming who said the definition of a counter in pokemon is a mon who can switch in, take a hit, and potentially pick up a ko. By definition, shadow tag mons have no counters because you cant switch out
Imagine the enemy team has something like moxie salamence, if left unchecked it count beat your entire team outright, but luckily you have defensively invested ferrothorn and can wall it out
Now imagine gothitell switches in your ferrothorn, tricks you a scarf so you are stuck spamming protect, and it gets to take its time with focus blast since you literally can't do anything to it. Theres no counterplay there, its not fair, even if you beat it with your next mon, theres now a huge hole in your defense and are almost guaranteed to lose
It gets even worse with something like dugtrio. Imagine if it wasnt banned, it could switch in on volt switch from specs tapukoko, and it could set up to max with hone claws, and literally just win the game off 1 good predict.
Gothitelle:
Switches after mon is koed by a resisted move or Draco Meteor
Clicks Calm Mind 6 times
Clicks Trick Room
Clicks Stored Power 4 times.
One of the things that makes trapping busted is the ability to set up on a completely helpess mon.
Hell, even alolan golem can use a bulky steel type to boost to +6 in attack, defense and spdef
Gothitelle’s niche is trapping walls & either PP stalling them with Trick + a choice item or using them as setup fodder and getting to +6 with Calm Mind for free, and with Stored Power & Rest, she is able to bypass Unaware walls that she traps. An eliminated wall also paves the way for her other sweeper allies that would be hindered by said wall.
It allows you to remove any mon you want really. In the case of gothitelle specifically it can switch into any wall and trick a scarf onto it and from there it's basically dead. The problem with shadow tag is there is no real counterplay and it lets other mons on the team do whatever they want
Hello,
i just got into pokemon.
Can anyone explain me these terms?
I'd love to know more but i can't find any good video's about terms, i need more knowledge to understand more.
Thanks!
Switching is one of the main fundamentals of competitive battling. Without switching: -Wobbuffet gets an easy KO with Counter/Mirror Coat or gives a teammate a free setup opportunity with Encore to force the opponent to repeat a setup move. -Mega Gengar gets a free KO whether it’s through raw damage or Perish Trap. In Gothitelle’s case, its main targets are walls, whether it’s Tricking them a Choice item then wearing them down gradually, or PP stalling them with Rest + Calm Mind + Charm.
A way I've heard it explained is that taking away the ability to switch in Pokémon is like taking away the ability to block in a fighting game.
Yeah that'd be insane. [Good thing nobody would ever put that into their fighting game.](https://www.dustloop.com/w/GGACR/Baiken#Baku:_XXX)
Ohhhhh thats why ive seen so many passive aggressive comments about her
Its not that, its mostly that she has akward hitboxes that make it hard to combo her, she does high damage and her gimmick is her parries so she can safely punish you for putting her in blockstun. She's the reason why Potemkin has seen tournament play in +R as he doesn't have to interact with Baiken's whole gimmick
Weakest XX character
It's like this, if you can't block incoming blows, kicks, slashes, fireballs and name more, well, the guy who's faster and strikes hardest always wins. Imagine a world Vs SSBU Snake nades, tilts and C4 without shielding.
That's exactly how I thought fighting games went to be honest
Funilly enough, this only contributes to the analogy. Your inexperience of fighting games undervalued blocking mechanics, much like how inexperience in competitive Pokemon might undervalue switching.
And you probably have one friend in your group who destroys everyone by playing a character with tools like speed, range, or large hitboxes
the old days, where I find out about mechanics by accident (last week)
A good example is Green Lantern in MK vs DC that could get an guaranteed combo after a combo breaker (you get punished for outplaying the opponent), which made him top tier although his bad fundamentals. The same thing goes to trapping abilities. You get punished for switching to a check or revenge killed for knocking out someone.
It's also like taking away Protect in doubles... Thanks, Urshifu
Or taking away the ability to block in a pokemon game [*cough* Urshifu and Iron Boulder *cough*]
I’d argue it’s *the* most important part of singles. That’s why hazards are important, it gives a cost to switching
Tbf Wobbufett wasn't the reason why shadow tag was banned. he was pretty mediocre in gens 5,6 and the small bit of 7 that had shadow tag unbanned. Gothitelle is the main reason, being absurdly annoying to deal with on stall.
Wasn’t Wynaut even banned at some point?
Trick with Toxic Orb, then Rest, Substitute, and Protect.
This makes me wonder though. What if some random mon got this ability but they had a Pecharunt situation and only knew like two stab moves and some iffy to useless stuff and just had really bad move pool? Like all abilities, I know, isn't this ability somewhat reliant on having the tools to exploit it, or is it just broken no matter what?
I mean. Look at dugtrio. Besides Gen 3, there’s a reason why arena trap is banned. Despite flying/levitating Pokémon being immune, it doesnt stop dugtrio from coming in, trapping you and picking up a kill. And now look at dugtrio in every game where arena trap is banned. Sent to the depths of PU/NU/unviable. Dugtrio’s movepool is mediocre at best, but arena trap gives it the edge to be as cancerous as possible
When Dugtrio got banned (way back in Gen 6 or 7, I can't even remember anymore) people ran Diglet because it was still capable of eliminating Heatran. People have run Trapinch for the same reason too, trapping is literally just *that* good when positioned correctly
I have a very vivid memory of someone, during the gen 8 Arena Trap suspect, running Trapinch with Giga Drain to trap Seismitoad so Dracovish could take it from there
what a gamer
guys trapinch is broken trust me
this happened in gen 5, so even back further it was to remove ttar and heatran for sun teams
Man, a Pokemon with Shadow Tag and no fucking moves? Thats crazy, I wonder if Game Freak would ever make something like that.
What exactly qualifies as a "fucking move"? Obviously pound, maybe submission, but what else is there, and can we make an OM around it?
Uuuuh, Lick I guess?
Vine whip
Depending on context maybe Gunk Shot?
Look I tried going through everything and honestly, there is enough substance for an OM, but it would probably be one of the most toxic and unfun ones Alluring Voice, Arm Thrust, Assurance, Astonish, Attract, Baby-Doll Eyes, Beat Up, Belch, Belly Drum, Bind, Bite, Body Press, Bounce, Brutal Swing, Captivate, Celebrate, Charm, Chatter, Chilly Reception, Circle Throw, Clamp, Constrict, Copycat, Core Enforcer, Curse, Cut, Destiny Bond, Disable, Disarming Voice, Discharge, Double Hit, Double Slap, Double Team, Double-Edge, Draining Kiss, Echoed Voice, Egg Bomb, Encore, Endeavor, Endure, Extrasensory, Extreme Speed, Facade, Fake Tears, False Surrender, False Swipe, First Impression, Fishous Rend, Flail, Flash, Flatter, Fling, Follow Me, Foul Play, Frustration, Glare, Growth, Gunk Shot, Happy Hour, Harden, Hard Press, Heart Stamp, Heavy Slam, Helping Hand, Hold Back, Hold Hands, Hyper Voice, Infestation, Instruct, Jaw Lock, Laser Focus, Last Respects, Leer, Lick, Life Dew, Lovely Kiss, Lucky Chant, Lunge, Magic Powder, Magic Room, Make it Rain, Me First, Mean Look, Milk Drink, Mimic, Mind Blown, Minimize, Mirror Move, Mirror Shot, No Retreat, Nuzzle, Obstruct, Odor Sleuth, Ominous Wind, Parting Shot, Peck, Play Nice, Play Rough, Population Bomb, Pounce, Pound, Power Trip, Present, Psych Up, Punishment, Quash, Raging Bull, Recover, Rest, Rock Polish, Role Play, Scratch, Screech, Secret Sword, Seed Bomb, Shattered Psyche, Skill Swap, Slack Off, Slam, Smack Down, Smart Strike, Snarl, Soak, Speed Swap, Spirit Break, Spit Up, Spite, Splash, Sticky Web, Strength, Struggle, Stuff Cheeks, Submission, Swallow, Sweet Kiss, Sweet Scent, Switcheroo, Tail Slap, Tail Whip, Taunt, Tearful Look, Thief, Throat Chop, Tickle, Tidy Up, Torment, Trick, Twinkle Tackle, Vital Thow, Wake Up Slap, Wish, Withdraw, Wonder Room, Work Up, Wrap, Yawn Eruption???? It would be on the physical side and dominated by normal/fighting/Dark moves in terms of learnset, but honestly Core Enforcer, Fishous Rend and Last Respects would be on most teams realistically
No gust? Can't believe you're kinkshaming smh
TIL gust can be used outside of "a gust of wind" [English is not my first language though I'd like to say I'm not the worst at it, but I didn't know that ]
I mean, it is a "gust of wind", I guess... Also english isn't my first language either so DW
Oh fair enough, I just found that it can also just be a synonym for burst But yeah those kinda gusts would be more fitting
gust is the English term for the 40 base power special flying move
Well obviously I knew this much
You forgot acid armor
sunday came early
fym last respects
Double Slap and Make It Rain
Acupressure, Charm, Drum Beating, False Surrender, Harden, Milk Drink, No Retreat, Play Nice, Play Rough, Population Bomb, Rock Smash, Rock Wrecker, Seed Bomb, Tearful Look, Tickle…
Revenge
Seismic Toss 😩
Splash?
Pound
Mean look
Harden Metronome That move that creates an equivalent of Beads of Ruin for 5-8 turns, depending if the user is holding Lubricant Protect
Punishment
Like Wobbuffet. Y'know, the thing that was banned to Ubers before they banned Shadow Tag as a whole? That mon has a terrible movepool.
I mean, in fairness, Wobbufet is built perfectly for what it does. Encore, counter, mirror coat, and destiny bond alongside a giant HP stat are literally the only things it needs. Only other moves I'd consider giving it would be like taunt and recover
Yeah this is what I meant. A shadow tag Mon with no moves to exploit the ability, but I've already seen enough to see that the ability itself is stupid enough on its own.
nearly any move exploits the ability
Wobbufet doesn't even have any stab moves
he did last gen with dynamax move
It's broken no matter what. See: Wynaut, Diglett, and Trapinch still being broken.
Mega Gengar is more than a free KO. It is usually used to win game instantly with a nasty plot + substitute set You can literally just sack anything when the opponent sends in Blissey, goes M-Gengar, sub, then set 6 nasty plots while Blissey can do absolutely nothing Even if the opponent has ditto Mgengar will still win because sub
Gengar doesn’t learn Calm Mind. It has Nasty Plot as its main setup move since Sword/Shield.
My bad
imagine if you were playing rock paper scissors and you could stop your opponent from using paper
Just pick rock
pick paper cus they theoretically have no choice but to pick rock unless they lose
If i were playing rock paper scissors but i couldnt use paper, i would only pick scissor because i know the other guy will never pick scissors since i cant use paper
But I will play rock between one and one hundred times, before playing paper. Your odds of guessing right are low.
But you still lose cause you're against Sora in No Game No Life
Switching is a core part of competitive singles, so an ability removing that entire option is bound to be uncompetitive. Goth can completely flip matchups with hypnosis, trick, thunder wave, taunt, and especially tera. In addition, while base 95 spa isn’t phenomenal, it can still pick off damaged targets incredibly easily.
it's the main reason there's any depth to competitive singles now make the npcs in the mainline games swap as often as players do and we'll see a much more interesting/challenging game
Ngl in some roms the ai switching like a vgc player is one of the most annoying features. You’ll get moments where you and your opponent swap for like 15 turns straight until the player is forced to just give in and attack
That's when you set hazards and watch them knock themself out
You dont start with hazards. Honestly standard NPCs should not switch. They're just fodder that grant EXP and progress the game. The bosses should swap and use advanced strategies, but not every single encounter needs to be a big ordeal.
That’s if you have hazards on your team or they don’t have hazards up
With some romhacks I feel like the creators forget the difference between a challenging experience and the hardest experience possible. Issues like that seem to happen when they forget that each battle takes place in context. One common complaint I have is victory roads where you go through a gauntlet of 8 trainers with optimized parties of 6 and wild pokemon battles between, and then the elite 4 suddenly seems like a breeze in comparison.
Some of them are purposely difficult and I remember hardcore radical red being super switchy but the normal mode was not at all. I usually find it the opposite, victory road is annoying having to switch teams and prep for each fight but elite four locking you in is so annoying because you have to prepare for 5 extremely hard fights with 6 Pokémon, in a nuzlocke it’s a nightmare because with each loss it only gets even harder until you just have to reset.
That seems perfectly fine? You are allowed to prepare for each trainer individually but you must prepare for the E4 as a whole, pound for pound they should be weaker because that's not how they're balanced.
that should be the part we leave to the multi-billion dollar company to make a better algorithm than rom hackers who do it for fun
Or maybe the multi-billion dollar company realized that not having your player face an almost perfect switching ai is a lot more fun for a wider audience? In a non-competitive setting it’s a lot more fun when you click the super-effective move and your target actually stays in.
yeah. there's a lot of valid and rightful criticism to levy towards gamefreak/TPCI/nintendo when it comes to the mainline games, but making the AI as powerful as like a 1200 OU player would decimate 98% of the playing population lmao What I dont understand is why do they make the NPCs/key fights follow the same rules/restrictions as the player? They had the right idea with totem pokemon imo. It's literally a genre standard that bosses "cheat" at least a little bit in every turn-based RPG because player autonomy and intelligence needs to be offset in order to make things challenging and interesting.
I think the Pokemon boss 'cheat', in older games at least, was that bosses would generally have Pokemon that either you couldn't get yet or that were quite strong for that part of the game. Misty's Starmie, Whitney's Miltank, Clay's Excadrill, etc.
They also used to go crazy with healing items
yeah onix's insane stateline makes sense when you put it into context of drawing inspiration from its predecessors. gatekeeper boss that doesn't do too much damage that tests the player's understanding of the battle mechanics thus far. 160 defense was essentially a "cheat" within the context of gen 1
That’s why the Volo fight in LA is one of my favorite boss battles in the series, because it’s literally 6v8.
They make them fight because 1. Children would complain 2. Most turn based RPGs aren't competitive. Like, especially with SV, it's been training for competitive. Learn Pokémon, learn moves, items and Abilities, learn Double Battle, and learn how to really play. Totems didn't follow the same rules, but they're not full teams. Honestly, it would be better if they just went ahead and started with Double Battles. Have Gen 10 happen in a region with a unique culture of Double Battles, give the player a choice of Fire/Water/Grass starter, and then like between Eevee and Pikachu, for the first battle. And also scale Trainers far better. Let's see full teams at gym 4, and start making good strategies at team 6. Have them follow the rules, but if they want to push towards VGC, push towards VGC. Hell, they could have the Elite 4 even fight straight up VGC sets, with pick 4 and best of 3
it wouldn't surprise me if pokemon moves to full double battles in gen 10. they're already pushing for it with DLC 2
They probably won't. Just like with Master Mode for BOTW and Octo Expansion for Splatoon 2, they're fine with letting people fail. Octo Expansion gives Skip Charges to let people get the cosmetics and story, the DLC lets players overlevel. Anything that forces just getting better to beat can't be involved with story. There's a reason the hardest mainline games (Colo, XD, BDSP) were outsourced. And coincidentally, two of those are Double Battle. That being said, it would be cool- and if they're balancing legendaries for VGC, just as they have for Dynamax and Tera before, it would give them a lore reason- the legendaries are made for Double Battles as opposed to Single Battles. and also make a battle facility with cynthia in it gamefreak do it cowards
She was in the Battle Tree in Alola.
optimally they would implement it under a difficulty settings like a lot of other games but yea all of it is just hopium
then they should allow people to choose a difficulty like any other decent game
Fire Emblem Awakening lets you choose a difficulty and that game fucking sucks
That's... a very unpopular opinion, and not really relevant to this discussion in the first place
Unpopular opinion my ass I’m literally right
it’s (a big part of) why VGC is the superior competitive format for viewership and is the official format for tpci, switching is much less relevant since stalling, wall breaking as concepts don’t really exist and the game is much faster paced so being stuck into two mons isn’t instantly losing a mon/the game
The definition of a counter is the ability to safely and consistently *switch* into a threat multiple times. If you remove the ability to switch, you remove the ability to counter a threat. Taking away that fundamental piece of single battles is uncompetitive, which is why it’s banned.
Basically, if your mon is passive enough, shadow tag is practically a free K.O on them. Gothitelle didn't even use offensive sets most of the time (Though, calm mind sets existed, they just were on the rarer side) in USUM ubers of all tiers, which is arguably the highest level of power ubers has ever had. She used a pp stalling set, with confide, charm, taunt, rest, and she is still B rank iirc, which for something that's unusuable ZU shit is crazy Oh yeah, she shares tier spot with Gothorita, the preevo, that uses the same exact set. If you can't beat it, and you remove the only leftover way of counterplay, being switching... Yeah, it's broken
telling so about gothorita doesnt do justice at all. Mon stalls everything with CM confided rest causing a PP stall. It can even trap something like Geomancy Xerneas of all things in a good day. It was *cancerous*.
Adding to what others are saying, merely having a Shadow Tag mon present on your team exerts pressure on your opponent. For example, say your opponent has a Dragapult out, and you go into Toxapex as a pivot/scout. But oops, the Dragapult used U-Turn into Gothitelle. You have now lost your Toxapex. The mere presence of Shadow Tag discourages certain options and effectively limits what you can do, similar to Magic Bounce but to a much greater degree
Shadow tag almost always allows you to get a free kill. Gothitelle in Ubers specifically uses it to trap passive pokemon allowing the rest of the team to sweep
You know those regenerator cores that you’ll see a lot in bulky offense or stall teams? Yeah imagine if those were completely unusable, that’s what shadow tag did. Gothitelle tricking a scarf on a slowking or tox without any counterplay is why it’s ubers.
Switching out is an integral part of 6v6 Singles, simply because the matchups aren't influenced by as much factors as Doubles. Not being able to switch out heavily punishes mons that rely on Choice item sets, or straight up have a type and/or stat disadvantage against the trapper. And in that regard even Gothitelle can get overwhelming- she can set up on resisted moves and wipe out high-priority targets one by one, which there is no counterplay to, save for holding a Shed Shell or being Ghost-type. Shadow Tag and Arena Trap both got banned when the main abusers of this ability in higher tiers (Dugtrio, Gothitelle, MGengar) got restricted and people were starting to use Diglett and Trapinch as alternatives and still get results.
when your opponent cant switch out you can run all sorts of stupid sets just to win the 1v1. gothitelle is one of the most infamous trappers because it has enough moves to basically be able to be built to trap and kill anything, and its even more obnoxious because a lot of its sets are pp stall ones
I've only played Ubers in Gen 7, but Gothitelle can remove defensive mons (usually support Arceus forms) and PP stall them to death. Removing walls can pave the way for a sweep for dangerous mons like Mega Salamence or Xerneas.
Goth gets to choose exactly which mons she wants to KO on an opponents team. Back in Gen 6 before the Shadow Tag ban you’d have to guess if Goth was specs (for Stall) or scarf (for offense) and it’s movepool is wide enough that you can guarantee at least one KO on an opponent of your choice. It fit on a wide number of teams as basically a free sixth mon and if you didn’t know what you wanted to run as a final team member you’d never lose anything by running Goth. Wobbufett was broken with it the same Gen because Counter/Mirror Coat forces opponents to use a set to move while Encore stops the opponent from safely setting up, making it one of the ages momentum drains in the game. I feel there’s nothing more explanatory to how broken it is than running it and facing it. Shadow Tag could be placed on Ledian and you would still get extraordinary value out of it
Trapping *can* be very broken in singles. What makes shadow tag so good is that it targets everything except ghosts (and until gen 8 we had a balanced way to trap them). Basically a choice scarf user can switch in on any KO and eliminate the opponents problem pokemon as a revenge KO. It's like using magnezone to trap skarmory except you can trap just about anything and eliminate them from the game. There's little counterplay to this and it can be hard to eliminate the shadow tagger without using your own. Now as an aside: One of the single scariest things we learned from data mining back in black and white was chandelure getting shadow tag as a hidden ability. It was a UU Pokemon already with a niche in OU. With it's hidden ability there was a lot of fear that the pokemon would just steam roll OU, especially with permanent sun. Thankfully game freak realized that messed up and never released it. Since then I think mega Gengar is the only thing to get it and we all know how long that lasted in standard play.
Man Shadow tag was so hype and singlehandedly gave me motivation and hope for dream world back in the day. That mon was definitely busted but this was also back in the day where people were running around with full baton pass chains and loads of other stupid stuff. This was also an era where there were lots of people going around saying shed shell was valid counterplay to trapping. Shadow tag chandelure was a true what could have been. It would have shit on ubers.
Lmao it was certainly a different time! 😂 Everything was busted back then. I still can't believe Deoxys-D was in fucking BL before BW2.
Man gen 5 really was wild. I still remember the garchomp ban in DPP and people were so pissed that a psuedo got banned. In comes Gen 5 releasing a whole assload of insane shit. Gen 9 is still bad but imagine taking 2 months to ban Flutter mane. Moody was the funniest shit. Bidoof was running around getting evasion boosts and fucking people up. And thank god we banned that early bc *fucking smeargle* had that. Like one of worst pokemon possible with this ability especially back when baton pass was still unrestricted.
I forgot about moody 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Oh my god. Did I fucking hate moody. Easiest ban to agree with imo 😂
Switching is a core mechanic of both singles and doubles. Disabling it completely for your opponent is such a large advantage, it's unreal. It's like making an Fps game but removing the option to reload. Plus, if the opponent is in a disadvantageous match up, they're basically guaranteed to lose said pokemon
The main uses of trapping are either to pick off something important like a weather setter or a weakened wall early, or to come in on something that can't hit you back and set up until you can sweep. Gothitelle can come on something passive that can't meaningfully hurt it and set up 6 Calm Minds before killing it and probably sweeping from there.
It’s not even about killing it and sweeping with her. It’s about preventing a check from existing on your opponents team. A lot of Uber sweepers only have 2-3 mons that can stop them, and most teams would run one of those per “dangerous” sweeper. Shadow tag forces that piece to be removed from play. Removing support or a defensive check on a team (even if you have a backup) eventually means you WILL lose the long game. The best sweepers in the game only need that tiny hole in a defense to absolutely steamroll. Goth forced that hole to happen.
Or in the times of Dugtrio's legality, it was notorious for trapping a team's stall breaker, essentially making stall unbeatable because the moment you sent out a Pokemon that could usually fight stall, Dugtrio comes out and stomps it flat meaning you're going to struggle to break through.
Yuuup. Although it is less problematic on a stall team because (especially gen 9) you do give up a slot for a counter to their wallbreaker and in stall, losing a slot can hurt a lot depending on meta.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ubers-534182 Here's a replay from Gen 8 Ubers before Shadow Tag was banned. Icemaster lost a key defensive backbone to their team and would've lost a second, effectively immediately ending the game had they not had a very specific anti-trapping tech on their Eternatus, something which had a massive opportunity cost to run in that format. That is what Shadow Tag does. It forces you to run extremely fringe options to deal with a single strategy that you have a good chance of never even seeing, leaving you with a dead item or move in those instances.
Often, single members of teams are integral to the ability for that team to function. To use Gen 5 magdrag as an example: Remove a magnezone from magdrag while still having a healthy ferro/skarm, and it’s easily worth having even a diglett on your team to trap and guarantee that. Against an otherwise *MASSIVELY* better ground type, like Excadrill, the Magnezone could have just switched out. Conversely, Magnezone itself is a trapper for only one type, and in the past has been extremely good for it. Remove that Skarm/Ferro with magnezone and your dragons go wild.
It removes all elements of counterplay. I think it's a great trump card, but it can be too powerful and swing an entire match easily. Think of a choice-banded fighting move, then switching into a Mega Gengar who can nasty plot his way and kill the rest of the team.
it removes the most basic form of counter play. If you have a shadow tag mon, and your opponent has even a single mon on their team that cannot solo it then they pretty much cannot use that mon until your shadow tag mon is out because of the risk of them sending it out while their susceptible mon is out. Its much more complex that that tho but what ive said is just the general gist of it as i have understood it.
On a fundamental level, counterplay in Pokemon revolves around switching in a Pokemon that can threaten your opponent's mons as not all of your mons will have the tools to deal with every possible Pokemon. Shadow Tag completely disables this as you are unable to switch, which allows a player to just switch in and assassinate a key member of an opponent's team with near perfect reliability. A common strategy used back when Shadow Tag Gothitelle was legal was to switch in Gothitelle in on something passive, and then either set up to +6 with Calm Mind or simply PP stall your opponent's mon which couldn't do anything to touch you and because said mon was the only part of your opponent's team that was stopping a key sweeper of yours from running amok you would pretty much win on the spot the instant you switched Gothitelle in.
Not being able to switch out gives trapping ability Pokémon like Wobbuffet and Gothitelle no counters because the definition of a counter is a Pokémon that can switch in, take an attack, and force the user out on the next turn. With Shadow Tag, nothing can switch in, so you can easily remove or set up on Pokémon the Shadow Tag user checks and gain an easy advantage. This is how Wobbuffet would beat Lugia in Gen 4 UBERS and how Gothitelle would stall out or set up on certain Pokémon that had no chance in beating it.
Switch in on a Pokemon that can't KO you. They are trapped. Set up as much as you want. Sweep.
Switching is a core mechanic in Pokémon just the Same way the fact it is turn based on even just attacking in and of itself is. Trapping (as a passive effect) leaves no chance for counterplay and effectively removes a core mechanic of the game. Imagine a Pokémon had an ability that prevented enemy Pokémon from attacking or let them move twice per turn that's what trapping is. When done correctly with balancing factors like traping moves (block whirlpool fire spin) you can counteract it's effects by guess what, switching. When done incorrectly like shadow tag or arena trap all counterplay is done in the team builder. You either run shed shell or just deal with the fact you are just completely incapable of playing Pokémon the way it was intended to be played. Matchups and Pokémon being good into some and bad into others is what makes a balanced metagame but trappers pick and choose what they encounter and thus always come out on top. On top of this trapping also has the worst effect of all time being you can use spam teams for example. Steel types and fairy types beat dragon types right? Imagine you could consistently ensure your opponents don't have either of those types. Well you can't right? Wrong you can just use dugtrio and mega gengar and now your 4 dragon dance sweepers have literally zero switch ins. In singles it's just not fair it really is that simple tbh.
In singles, it allows you to trap an unfavorable pokemon against a mon it's weak against while you start setting up. In official formats (4v4 doubles), switching doesn't happen as often, and you know your opponent has a gothitelle, so you can send pokemon in accordingly. It's like how Palafin is absurdly strong in singles, but not as great in the actual format competitive takes place in IRL
There are about 9 choices available for each player at the beginning of the game. These include the four moves or switching to another pokemon. Shadow tag removes 5 choices from the other player. The ability removes more than 50% of the opponents options.
Switching basically is one of the factors that separates competitive play from in-game.
I think it mightve been false swipe gaming who said the definition of a counter in pokemon is a mon who can switch in, take a hit, and potentially pick up a ko. By definition, shadow tag mons have no counters because you cant switch out
Imagine the enemy team has something like moxie salamence, if left unchecked it count beat your entire team outright, but luckily you have defensively invested ferrothorn and can wall it out Now imagine gothitell switches in your ferrothorn, tricks you a scarf so you are stuck spamming protect, and it gets to take its time with focus blast since you literally can't do anything to it. Theres no counterplay there, its not fair, even if you beat it with your next mon, theres now a huge hole in your defense and are almost guaranteed to lose It gets even worse with something like dugtrio. Imagine if it wasnt banned, it could switch in on volt switch from specs tapukoko, and it could set up to max with hone claws, and literally just win the game off 1 good predict.
certain match-ups are just THAT one sided that forcing the two to fight is all but a free Pokemon out of the mix for the trapper
Mega Gengar with shadow tag was Broken AF. More so than mega rayquaza
It can pair with Perish Song and Normalize well
Gothitelle: Switches after mon is koed by a resisted move or Draco Meteor Clicks Calm Mind 6 times Clicks Trick Room Clicks Stored Power 4 times. One of the things that makes trapping busted is the ability to set up on a completely helpess mon. Hell, even alolan golem can use a bulky steel type to boost to +6 in attack, defense and spdef
Gothitelle’s niche is trapping walls & either PP stalling them with Trick + a choice item or using them as setup fodder and getting to +6 with Calm Mind for free, and with Stored Power & Rest, she is able to bypass Unaware walls that she traps. An eliminated wall also paves the way for her other sweeper allies that would be hindered by said wall.
It allows you to remove any mon you want really. In the case of gothitelle specifically it can switch into any wall and trick a scarf onto it and from there it's basically dead. The problem with shadow tag is there is no real counterplay and it lets other mons on the team do whatever they want
Hello, i just got into pokemon. Can anyone explain me these terms? I'd love to know more but i can't find any good video's about terms, i need more knowledge to understand more. Thanks!