By zioncmnd
Welcome to Illusion Cup Trainers!
In this meta, we began by trying to optimize neutral play with types that are less common in restricted metas. We also wanted the types and Pokemon to fit a theme that was loosely based on the notion of an illusory plains landscape with dragons flying about, grass Pokemon abundant, and the mystical ancient trainers harnessing those Pokemon in battle. As is common with restricted metas, we decided that a good fourth type to bring in would be normals, which are neutral in most matchups.
Typing Bans
After curating the initial list of eligible mons, we noticed that dark, fairy, and flying dual types would cause issues with psychics, dragons, and grasses. Each of those dual types yield super effective damage against the three core typings we chose to build the meta off of. For that reason, we banned them at the outset. There were some dual fire types that were also present, notably Turtonator and Delphox, which certainly had counters in the meta, but both of which had bulk and or energy generation that would prove cumbersome to the grass types. We hesitated, however, to ban fire types outright, as Victini seemed fair to retain since it lacks a spammy fire-based charged move and has no access to a fire-based quick move. So, fire avoided the ban barely, but only one dual fire type escaped the purges.
Move Bans
While working with the primary typing allowances and bans, some members of our team pointed out that Gallade had access to charm, which caused some alarm. Even non-stab charm posed a toxic risk to the health of the meta, and would result in extreme farm-down situations with the dragons in the meta. Twenty Pokemon had access to this oppressive move – it had to go.
Pokemon Bans
In addition to the fire dual types, we had banned common and spammy grassroots staples like Lickilicky, Lickitung, Abomasnow, Diggersby, and Ursaring. Diggersby had access to fire punch which was a no-go, and we did not want trainers overusing bulky and/or spammy mons, so all these mons were on the insta-ban list. As we evaluated the allowances, however, it soon became clear that there were a lot of Pokemon that presented issues. Furret with its pacing and access to Brick Break would be on every team if allowed, Dragalge’s unique typing created troubling resistances for the grass types, and commonly used bulky Safe Swaps like Dragonair seemed out of place. And the fighting dragons, Hakamo-O and Kommo-O, presented too many issues for the normals we had in place. In the end, we banned twenty Pokemon that were either unhealthy for the meta, had troubling quick/charged moves, or are just overused and too high-meta for restricted grassroots play.
Move Update
It is always challenging to build metas on the cusp of move updates and this build was no exception. The move update was pretty large, but due to our restricted typings, there was only notable impact to Dynamic Punch users and to Grumpig, which now learned psywave. Grumpig, while originally a spice frog at the bottom of the ranks with Extrasensory, soared to the rank 1 spot and caused some initial alarm. Indeed, Grumpig is now open GL heavy meta, so there were concerns that it might not be a good fit for Illusion Cup. But when has Grumpig ever been used?! Every trainer in this space knows the answer to that. Never. It felt wrong to most of the dev team to ban a Pokemon that finally became viable after nearly a decade of non-usage. However, it was also too good to let it run free, so we added it to the restricted list to limit pairing it up with other viable picks.
The boost to Dynamic Punch helped Medicham soar in the ranks significantly. It also meant that we had three Dynamic Punch users: Medicham, Grumpig, and Breloom. No one on the meta team was too concerned with Breloom – it lacks stats and bulk and even with the boosted Dynamic Punch and access to Force Palm – it still simmed very badly. But it did not seem right to have an overused bulky stalwart like Medi being in what was otherwise, a very spicy meta. It was either the pig or the psychic fighter, and we picked the pig. We also added Drampa to the restricted list because it was already a very viable Dragon but it now had access to Swift, which would prove troublesome due to the fast pacing and spamminess. Bronzong was a source of contention and was originally restricted, then unrestricted, and then restricted again. It’s just too good to let it run wild …
We hope everyone enjoys the Illusion Cup meta! A gentle reminder that ranked play begins March 7th and that communities have an additional week into April during which to conclude tournaments.
Thanks,
Zi and the Devon Corporation