How Nintendo plans to get around the problem of PokéSav

[Talon87]

According to the published rules for VGC 2014, Pokémon transferred from Generation V games by Pokémon Bank or Poké Transporter are banned. They can however be used to breed new Pokémon in Pokémon X and Y. Quoting Rule 9.2:

Pokémon used in the Standard Format must be native to the Kalos region in Pokémon X or Pokémon Y. A native Pokémon is a Pokémon that is hatched or caught in Pokémon X or Pokémon Y. Pokémon that have been transferred to Pokémon X or Pokémon Y via Pokémon Bank or Poké Transporter are not native.

If you're a competitive player, this practically begs the question "Why even bother with Pokémon Bank? " After all, none of your hard work in Gens 3-5 is going to be of any use to you going forward. So why bother? For me, this news is bittersweet. On the sweet side, it spares me the agony of having to try and capture uncaught legendaries in my older games with good natures and good IVs, even though I don't use them, out of a stupidly paranoid concern that I may regret at some later date settling for inferior goods. On the bitter side, however, it practically deflates any initiative I had for importing my Gen 3 team to Gen 4, my Gen 4 team to Gen 5, and my Gen 5 team to Gen 6. I'd been working on this goal off and on since the summer, and now it feels like all of that effort was for nothing. Absolutely nothing. I mean, sure, it could still be nice to have my old friends around for casual games with UPNers and what not. But the whole pride and joy I took in raising these Pokémon legitimately -- no PokéSav, no RNG abuse, no nothing, just straight-up old-fashioned catching and breeding and EV training -- has been shut down, hard, by Nintendo's execs. I expect many, many unhappy fan letters to result from this decision. I also expect absolutely zero budging by Nintendo. It's pretty obvious that this was their master plan for how to shut the whiners up (give 'em Pokémon Bank) while still not giving the competitive scene over to the PokéSavers.

If you're a casual player, I don't think this news will affect you whatsoever. You're going to be able to import Fluffy and Sprinkles and Mr. Snoogums just fine. You can still use them in-game if you like. You can also use them when battling friends. You can probably even use them over the Nintendo WiFi Connection to battle strangers from all around the world. You just can't use them in VGCs. If you weren't ever planning on competing in the VGCs, what's the big deal? No big deal, that's what.

Honestly, I think this is an almost childishly gleeful solution to the problem of hacked Pokémon running rampant in the competitive scene. Nintendo is going to look really fucking stupid if they cling to this hard ban on Gen 3-5 imports once PokéSav for the newest generation comes out and people start trading hacked Pokémon from their computers to their 3DSes. At that point, you'd be wrongfully punishing innocent players who have legit Pokémon from Gens 3-5 while stupidly giving a free pass to Gen 6 cheaters. Which means that, once we see cheating in Gen 6 everywhere, Nintendo's probably going to want to scrap this rule and we're going to be right back at Square One. Does Nintendo really believe that they can stomp out hacked Pokémon like this? I think that's pretty darn naive of them if they do.

[Jerichi]

I saw that and I was really, really confused. Banning a good 50 Pokémon, especially some of the most prominent legends and starters, completely changes the metagame. By not allowing for PokéBank at all, you shrink the metagame significantly and make it entirely different from what it was previously.

Some of the beauty of the old metas was being able to import old 'mon and do things you couldn't in the newer games. Now they're choking a lot of the meta off in order to avoid hacks. They already have a legality check method and there's ways to verify that Pokémon are legit without this on-sight method that they've used for years. And now that it's mind-numbingly easy to breed and train perfect Pokémon (and with a handful of new exploits, it's gotten even easier), why does it matter? Everyone who cares about doing well is going to have roughly the same exact Pokémon, be it by RNG, Pokésav or breeding. At this point, legality checks are totally irrelevant and taking such a hard line to them really fucks with a lot of things for no good reason.

[Kindrindra]

See, I'm not sure if this is an anti-hack maneuver, or if they're trying to do to the metagame what they did in Gen III without stepping on too many toes. I'm never apposed to forcing people to use new and different 'mon, so... Yeah.

(THIS MEANS NO KAMI TRIO NO KELDEO NO GENESECT SUCK EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET [/BIASED])

[Emi]

The funny part is Kin Keldeo and Genesect were always banned in VGC anyways.

This is useless. You can just use those flawless PokeSav mon to make more perfect mon, especially with the change in breeding mechanics in Gen VI. Completely and totally useless.

[The Morg]

Wait, you had a goal of buying games from Gen 5 and 6?

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Kindrindra

See, I'm not sure if this is an anti-hack maneuver, or if they're trying to do to the metagame what they did in Gen III without stepping on too many toes.

No, see, when they did "Gen 5 Pokémon only! " for the first year of VGCs in Generation 5, it was for the reason you're describing. They wanted to encourage people to try out new Pokémon, so for just one season (or was it one year? I forget) they decided to go ahead and implement a ban on any Gen 1-4 creatures.

But what they're doing here isn't that. They're not saying "Gen 6 mon only" or something. They're enthusiastically saying "You can use any and all Pokémon you wish minus the usual banlist ... except they all have to come from a Gen 6 cartridge. No imports." Which is just stupid when you think about it since it is at complete PR odds with their Pokémon Bank initiative. Basically, they want to have their cake ("GIVE US $$$ FOR THE IMPORTABLES!") and eat it too ("TROLOLOL NO MORE HACKMONS YES WE ARE SO SMART"), and I just don't think they realize how stupid they're going to look when PokéSav for Gen 6 comes out.

Originally Posted by blazeVA

This is useless. You can just use those flawless PokeSav mon to make more perfect mon, especially with the change in breeding mechanics in Gen VI. Completely and totally useless.

Ignoring your soft spoiler, I think you're missing the point about legendaries being a dominating presence in VGCs. I watched the 2013 World Championships this summer on YouTube and all I kept seeing, again and again and again, were Thundurus and Cresselia. Whether or not Cresselia is available in Gen 6 (i.e. ignoring Jeri's soft spoiler ^^; ), the point is that a legally caught, legally trained Cresselia from DPPt can not only not be used in battle but cannot even be used to produce a baby Cresselia with Mommy's stats.

Originally Posted by The Morg

Wait, you had a goal of buying games from Gen 5 and 6?

You're a bit late to the party on that one, bub.

[Hanatori]

I can't believe Morg would just dismiss the newer games like that! How Kalos of him.

[Shuckle]

Originally Posted by Hanatori

I can't believe Morg would just dismiss the newer games like that! How Kalos of him.

I Kanto imagine anyone feeling that progress is bad.

[Slash]

Jhoto hell

[Lady Kuno]

Who cares about VGC? You can still battle your friends and stuff with them.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Holy Emperor

Who cares about VGC? You can still battle your friends and stuff with them.

Was honestly hoping, starting with Gen 6, to maybe start trying to go to some local tournament preliminaries and see how far I could get. This shits all over that, and all of my hard work spanning three generations of games.