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Teams viewable before the start of a battle

Ophie

Salingerian Phony
Regarding Zoroark--some of the surprise may not be there anymore, but that doesn't mean Illusion has become useless. After all, Zoroark will still take the form of another Pokémon on the player's team.

All it means is that you'll have to be more vigilant for Zoroark when you see it appear on the opponent's team, but you still have no way of knowing beyond a reasonable doubt that it's Zoroark out there instead of some other Pokémon (unless Zoroark is the player's last Pokémon).
 

BaldWombat

Mortal Wombat!
I didn't say the idea of having a win condition was thrown out the window, players will always need win conditions. No, I meant that the skill used to find and follow through with a win condition has been neutered. Even if you don't know a certain pokes set, some checks for opposing pokes are obvious, like Tran to Rachi, and Vappy to Gyara. So now that your opponent knows your team, there is no scouting for checks, they know what you're gonna switch in, so they will make blind predictions instead of how it works now, where you have to use lures and more skill to find an opponents check, and eventually eliminate it.

There used to be something called the Serebii Premier League that we ran every 6 months. You registered a team of 6 Pokemon, that everyone got to see, and then you battled the people in your division. Some of the most intense, prediction heavy battles I have ever played were in this league. We knew each others but we didn't know each others movesets so we still had to scout. It is a different way of playing but in my experience it is better.
 

Aerophoenix

The Great Speculator
I seriously doubt it will change it all that much. The only pokemon really affected by this are those with just one viable moveset, or ones easily identified to fill a certain role. You might see an Infernape, but is it mixed? physical? special? Besides, you only see it after both teams are chosen, so it's not like it's a total game breaker by allowing you to customise and block the other team.
 

ParaChomp

be your own guru
Has its ups and downs.

We could just cover our eyes?
 
This will DEFINITELY put a new spin to battles. I think that this will be both good, and bad. Part of the fun in battling, for me anyway, was to think "okay, I'll seen these Pokemon, what will they likely also have?" which has (un?)fortunately been taken away.

However, there is still the option for predicting what sets they run. Like mentioned before, a lot of Pokemon have varied sets (Jirachi, Salamence, Infernape, etc.) so you'll still have to watch out for that. I can also expect more Pokemon to have more... unorthodox sets, to screw with the opponent.

But like everything else introduced, we'll just have to wait and see and actually play it often in order to make a proper judgement on it.
 

TR_Jessie

Adventure Seeker
This is fantastic! I've been waiting for this for a while.
 

A.J.

Wobba wobba wobba!
It really doesn't matter. The only thing that will change is that you will have a better idea of who to lead off with. After you pick your leader, it's all the same when it comes to the other five pokemon.

I play PBR a lot, so this is nothing new to me.
 

GolemGuy

Better Than Thou
Hey, there is a way to take it off.

Infared battles. And, with infared transmitters, they can be done over the web too.

Of course, they autolevel to 50, so that will revolutionize EV spreads. But, that's still an option.
 

SHINY CATCHER

Epic Snake is Epic!
Doing most of my wifi battles through PBR this doesn't bother me as I'm used to being able to see my opponents team. It doesn't really help much but that could be because I overpredict a lot.
 

fschulze47

Mighty Marvo
I'm pulling out my old copy of PBR to get some practice with this concept. I remember always being really bad at it.
 

calze6

Reclaiming da ladder
I do not like this. Taking away the surprise element and prediction really sucks. Prediction is skill it this just makes it obvious that "I must protect suicune or this will sweep" or "my opponent is gonna switch to heatran". The surprise is lost and knowing the opponents team can just exploit early weaknesses.
 
^I agree in that I'll kinda miss the surprise element. Not knowing what your opponent has was a great way to keep a player on his/her toes. But I think prediction could be very interesting this Gen. Not only do you know yor opponent's team, but your opponent knows your, so it's possible that one of you could, I guess you could say, over-predict. Say you have Poke A and your opponent has sent in Poke B. You know that your Poke C can beat Poke B, and your opponent knows your team. Thy anticipate your switch and send out Poke D. However, you chose not to switch after all, and Poke A decimates Poke D and sweeps. It's kind of a "They think I'm going to do this, so I need to do that" mind game.
 
I do not like this. Taking away the surprise element and prediction really sucks. Prediction is skill it this just makes it obvious that "I must protect suicune or this will sweep" or "my opponent is gonna switch to heatran". The surprise is lost and knowing the opponents team can just exploit early weaknesses.

If you're team has a weakness that devastating it's your problem and should work a way to fix it, and don't forget their team will have some kind of weakness of its own. It will become a game of who can exploit the others weakness better and that's where the better trainer will prevail.

I don't understand one aspect though, some have said you see the pokes in a random order, doesn't that mean that the "surprise factor" as far as a lead goes is still there, or am I just lost?
 

foxyman1167

From Zero To Hero
The metagame will change to meet this new development, just like it always has. The effectiveness of leads may change though.
 
This is great. It will make late game less a cluster**** of "I hope I can kill his last unrevealed Pokemon!!" and more of a well planned out tactical game, with the borderline luck of early game removed.
 

calze6

Reclaiming da ladder
I rather like switching the leads though. It makes you not have to use a specific lead and you can just play accordingly.
 
This makes stall so easy to play. Just remember to paste a screenshot of their team in Paint and you can immediately tell if its worth laying Rocks, Spikes or TS first, and when its ok to sac a wall or what has to be at high health. You can predict when they will send in what to the point without blind switches or guessing.
 

Human Being

Well-Known Member
Regarding Zoroark--some of the surprise may not be there anymore, but that doesn't mean Illusion has become useless. After all, Zoroark will still take the form of another Pokémon on the player's team.

All it means is that you'll have to be more vigilant for Zoroark when you see it appear on the opponent's team, but you still have no way of knowing beyond a reasonable doubt that it's Zoroark out there instead of some other Pokémon (unless Zoroark is the player's last Pokémon).

Someone who has been playing on the Skarmbliss VGC I have seen people use Zoroak. It is actually quite the threat if used by a good player. Leading with it, then multiple switches to mislead them later on in the game, but that is only viable in Doubles where you can change the order of the pokemon with more ease seeing you only are using four pokemon. Problem with Zoroak in Singles is that it can take damage easily and that you can not reliably switch with it. It can work as a great revenge killer though, especially paired with Shandera in the back so it has Flamethrower. It can easily bluff, you just need to play well with it in singles and make sure it doesn't get hurt, to try to keep entry hazards off the field and mislead. It definitely gets an advantage now that you can choose what it disguises itself as at first.
 

streetlightdsb

Uni hiatus
Can anyone tell me why PO has not implemented this mechanic? I try to play on the Smogon server but it takes so long to find a battle I just get bored, so I mainly visit the official server, and I just don't know why it still does the unknown team aspect...
 
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