Because you have.
Gen 9 VGC has been absolute fucking disaster thanks to all the ridiculous power creep.

>>58849540
does everyone need gholdengo no matter what? it seems like it but I don't even know why it's so good. just ridiculous stats and moves that are better than everything else? I hate when power creep is literally just LOL THE STATS ARE BETTER AND DO MORE DAMAGE THAN EVERYTHING ELSE BEFORE IT.

>>58849514
soon Pokemon will be the good old No items, Fox only, Final Destination, everyone with the same team of 6 of the same pokemon with the same moves

Then we'll truly get into the one TRUE meta, when we drop the game and just beat the living shit of eachother with our fists

>>58849552
It has one of the best typings in the game, broken as fuck signature move, and a fanfic-tier ability.

>>58849590
what the fuck were they thinking? and on top of everything it looks stupid as fuck.

File: Screenshot 2026-01-18 171602.png (442 KB, 724x400)

442 KB PNG

roaring moon gholdengo amoongus ogerpon

Legendaries were a mistake, Reg H was way more interesting

>>58849540
Only started being mildly interested in VGC again with Champions being a thing soon, but didn’t Sword and Shield also bring in some busted Pokemon?

>>58849633
It was not.
That was just Ursa B, Gholdengo, Sneasler, and a select few other mons. Just as centralized.

>>58849594
it's only good because the actually good stuff is banned right now

>>58849661
Reg H at least had some variety. Every team feels samey in this reg.

>>58849680
Well yeah they all have the same roles, but I can't complain when a fucking Okidogi(+ Entei) made top cut, that's stupid.
The only thing worth complaining about is Bolt balance teams.
I hope Paul loses this match.

i thought this guys name was like a play on pikachu + hawktua but it's his actual last name

>cat
>monke
>urshifu
every battle man

>>58849696
Sadly, justin lookin shook.

Pokemon Champions will save us.

please kill pauls team
amen

>he's only been playing a few years they said
kek because you only need the last couple games to get pokemon that rape everything else

>>58849514
That's just competitive gaming in general and why I don't care to "git gud"

>>58849514
Vgc sucks. The worst part of the by shill dlc was having to wait 10,000 years for all the animations to stop playing

>>58849540
t. VGC player since gen 6

it's not even the power creep, if it was power creep at least you'd have pokémon nuking each other which would give battles some semblance of thrill

it's the proliferation of fake out switch out balanceslop that turns games into a snoozefest

Incineroar needs to lose parting shot and rilla needs to lose fake out and u-turn. I can live with Incin keeping those, gen 7 wasn't too bad with only one mon having that toolset. Parting shot sapping your offenses every other turn is cancer though.

>>58849514
that's because it is, vgc is fucking boring

Every team in this reg is just some permutation of the following:
>Incineroar
>Urshifu
>Rillaboom
>Ogerpon
>Amoonguss
>Gholdengo
>Landorus
>Paradox Pokemon

Prove me wrong.

>>58850197
It’s not even just them though. The proliferation U-Turn and Fake-Out is nuts. I really don’t know why the former has been given to a shitload of Pokémon when Volt Switch has, for the most part, stayed exclusive to Electric Pokemon despite doing the same thing.

>>58849594
>what the fuck were they thinking?
They were thinking it would be extremely funny if Pokemon #1000 was a "lol look at how rich you made us!" joke while also making it one of the most powerful Non-Legendary Pokemon in the game.

>>58849552
It's basically gen 3 milotic hard to get tier with gen 2 gyarados prowness

>>58850505
Gen 2 Gyarados sucked ass, anon

>>58850508
snorlax ownz

>>58849752
You're forgetting the electric brontosaurus that Bolt-Balance gets its named from.

>>58850197
Rillaboom keeping Fake Out is fine. I do agree Fake Out + pivot moves on any Pokemon, much less ones with abilities that activate on switch in is just too much. There needs to be a cost to resetting Fake Out, and Parting Shot and U Turn make that "cost" a gain.

>>58850125
There's no soul to be had in copy/pasting the same slop every other min/maxing sperg uses. I can't bring myself to do that shit in literally any game with a wide variety of options and it tends to be more fun that way. I only wish I could see the look on the sweats' faces when their Fluttershits and Urshitfus get folded by something like Slaking or whatever the fuck I queue up in ranked with

>>58851176
It's not that non-meta teams can't compete with meta team, they are just at a disadvantage. Pokemon is a game where role compression gives you an advantage. A Pokemon that can bring multiple forms of utility or deal a large amount of damage to a large number of opponents is better than one with a more niche focus. Yes, Slaking can hit hard, but it requires you to bring a partner to disable Truant and either spend a turn doing so or just be Wheezing. Meanwhile a Pokemon like Flutter Mane or Urshifu can deal nearly as much damage as Slaking, but without that drawback, giving you much more versatility in where you can use it. That leads to situations where a Slaking team can get pinned and have to rely on luck, reads, or their opponents' mistakes where a traditional meta team could win without those and just with safe, smart plays. Over the course of 100 games, that means a higher win rate, which, if you're playing ranked, is your actual goal.

>>58850197
>>t. VGC player since gen 6
Oh, please.
You say it like if Gen 5 and Gen 4 VGCs were super duper ultra mega hyper giga developed long-standing metas or something.
3/4 of Gen 4 VGC was a meme featuring explosion and the one time it was not was a GS Cup with rules so wacky it's never been done again and Gen 5 was goodstuffs left and right.
If you're gonna shitpost me while trying to parade yourself as a oldfag at least say gen 8 or something. Do you seriously not realize how fucking old gen 6 is at this point?

>if it was power creep at least you'd have pokémon nuking each other which would give battles some semblance of thrill
Oh boy I oneshot you, you oneshot me, I oneshot you, you oneshot me, gg ez.
What the fuck is thrilling about that?
And we already had that too, it's called Reg I, and it was fucking buns.

Mind you, I don't disagree with you in that fake out/pivot spam is also not part of the cancer, but it's undeniable that Gen 9 powercreep and some cancers from Gen 8 like Urshifu, that were ironically enough curbed thanks to Mememax, haven't made the game unfun as hell.

>>58849514
I pray that Champions does some actual balance changes or every format involving legendaries will continue to be the same shitshow.

Weirdly enough, this is kind of why I like the competitive format in Legends ZA. Like, you still have the top tier of Pokémon and several similar teams but stuff like positioning and timing matter and you can win vs. a copy/paste team by using good tactics. They should make it a part of VGC, it'd be way more entertaining to watch IMO

File: soccer-simpsons.gif (715 KB, 640x480)

715 KB GIF

>>58851359
>If you're gonna shitpost
projecting? what a schizo reaction this whole comment, only makes sense if you're shitposting yourself.

>What the fuck is thrilling about that?
as opposed to fake out, switch, fake out, switch, switch, switch, fake out, fake out, switch

>>58849552
gholdengo was stupid in reg H, but I feel like in reg F the ruins keep it at bay to some extent. Of course it's very good, just not horribly broken. It won this weekend but won't win every major.

>>58851386
It would have to be a separate circuit, because it's a whole different game. But I'm all for it.

just limit uturn to bugs

Remove Urshitfu

That's it

>>58849778
I sure hope so
>dynamic regulations as opposed to a few additions every time
>singleplayer stuff like PBR/Stadium
>balance patches
VGC being relegated to a platform they never want to update in the middle of has always been ridiculously terrible

Worlds 25 was really good, wide variety of teams in the double restricted format.
Ho-Oh made top 16, horses didn't win.
Giovanni put on a masterclass and if you haven't watched the finals then you should.

>>58851497
>projecting
No, I'm just calling you a retard for trying to parade yourself as le heckin' oldfag.

>as opposed to fake out, switch, fake out, switch, switch, switch, fake out, fake out, switch
That's shit too. I agreed with you in that regard. Both things can be true at the same time. Can't you read?

VGC has always been poopoo

How do I get into vgc

>>58852498
Pokémon Showdown is your best bet until Champions comes out. There’s also a lot of VGC Poketubers on YouTube you can watch if you want.

>>58852498
get a rental team and just start playing on ladder, in-game or on showdown. the in-game ladder doesnt match the format at irl tournaments right now (its reg I, which includes box legends, whereas the irl format is reg F, which doesnt. you can play either on showdown, and can also do best of 3 on there, but id stick to best of 1 since open team sheets wont do anything for you if you dont have the game knowledge to make sense of the info and best of 1 is better for spamming games faster), but for starting out really you just want to get a feel for how the game actually plays if your only previous experience is fights in a story playthrough.

id pick a team with a pretty defined form of speed control (trick room or tailwind) so you get a sense for the importance of setup as well as learning pokemons' speed tiers (very slow pokemon will stick out as they underspeed you in trick room, and very fast pokemon will do the same in tailwind). id give you free elo laddering team but its a bit gimmicky and probably not good for a beginner, but if you want i can throw something rough together for you

its really just a case of playing a ton of games, getting a feel for whats important in doubles, getting a feel for what the different meta relevant pokemon do and how fast they are, and getting a sense of the type of team you like to play. once you have all that down, look for a specific rental that fits your playstyle (still dont make one yourself, thats something you dont want to do until youre more experienced) and start going into matchups thinking about actual strategy and the lines you can take to try and win consistently. like basically for now dont even think that much about making predictions or trying to win, you literally just need to see a lot of pokemon in battle to get a feel for what they do since playing vgc requires a shitload of game knowledge

>>58852498
Just to start? You can play some of the random showdown doubles to get a little of the hang of it, then just use/rent a team from the sample thread and play on cart or showdown

>>58852532
also, id add reg I is probably vastly better for a beginner anyway. the power levels in a format with restricteds tend to be much higher but that kind of play-around-your-big-hitters playstyle gives beginners a focal point to latch onto, meanwhile reg F is slow, positioning-centric ass cancer

>>58852498
at this point just wait for Champions