gp - psywave

Psywave is, frankly, one of the oddest moves in Pokemon history. It's a set damage Psychic-type move akin to Seismic Toss, only the damage is between 1 and 1.5* the user's level. This equation has changed quite a bit over the years, but we'll be focusing on RBY's today. As a result of this equation, at L100, you can deal between 1 and 150 damage to the opponent. However, this also means that around 2/3 of the time, you're dealing equal or less damage than if you used Seismic Toss, which is partly why it's so frowned upon, in addition to the fact it's only 79.7% accurate, considering the 1/256 miss. Did you know that this was Mewtwo's signature move in the Pokemon Adventures manga, by the way? Another fun fact, Psywave's animation also <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=purUT9X9bhY&ab_channel=ChickasaurusGLEvie>doesn't shake the whole screen</a>!

When I said that Psywave deals damage between 1 and 1.5* the user's level, this was a half-truth. It's true for in-game battles and the Stadium games, as well as one side of a Link Battle. However, the other side of a cartridge link battle will have the damage be between 0 and 1.5* the user's level. Thus, one Pokemon will take 1 damage, the other 0. As you would imagine, this <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KmTCdnWzVI>causes the two games to desynchronize</a> and end the game there and then.

The desync, given its nature, becomes more common the lower the Psywave user's level is. Here is a table showing the chances of it occurring, courtesy of <a href=https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/rby-psywave-imperfect-dvs-and-thawing-desync-glitches.3668900/>Peasounay and the RBY Council on Smogon</a>. L1 has been omitted due to being an unobtainable level for any Pokemon, as well as causing a game crash. It should be noted that being L0, L1 or L171 will <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyIFL_-l2o4>cause the game to softlock</a>.

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The chance for a desync can be as low as 25% with normally obtainable levels, before lowering to 0.662%, or 1/151. As a result, should a player want to trigger the desync, the best way is to get a Pokemon with a level as low as possible. An L8 Clefairy can be caught in Mt. Moon, which has a 7.692% of causing a desync with Psywave if it connects. However, with tradebacks, more Pokemon get access to Psywave by breeding, such as Koffing, allowing it to be used at L5 with a 12.500% chance of causing the desync.
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<h1 id="ohgod">The Policy</h1>

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Due to the potential for a desync, Psywave was <a href=https://www.pokemonperfect.com/forums/index.php?threads/psywave-ban.4246/>banned on Pokemon Perfect in 2017</a>, and it wasn't until around later when the ban would be questioned. This was due to the arrival of more effective battle simulators and the ability to customize the implementations, namely Pokemon Showdown. The process of patching moves began with the <a href=https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/rby-counter.3659041/>RBY Counter Vote</a>, though its validity is contested due to the circumstances behind it. Regardless, this set enough precedent for <a href=https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/rby-psywave-imperfect-dvs-and-thawing-desync-glitches.3668900/>patching thaws from freeze and Psywave</a>, allowing the latter to finally be unbanned. I've personally patched Psywave on Pokemon Showdown after a few months of it not being done, calling it the "Desync Clause". The first replay with it working can be seen <a href=https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/rby-gen1customgame-897>here</a>.
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However, the concept of patching RBY in general has been of significant debate among the community. Prominent voices believe that patching desyncs is bad for cartridge accuracy, which is the spirit of a battle simulator, and that anything that could cause a desync should be banned by this principle. Others argue that due to the potential to find desyncs in the future, as well as ones that could cause big bans like the thaw desync, it's more efficient to patch them. In fact, we conducted <a href=https://rby2k20.com/read.php?article=articles/Survey1#desyncs>a survey</a> for our own tiering, which showed patching as the majority's first choice, with bans coming a close second.
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Psywave can be considered to be one of the worst moves in RBY from many perspectives: policy, competitive use and even in-game use. There's virtually no reason to ever use it in a real game, except for maybe Random Battles. Even if you do try to use it in a competitive battle, every use can potentially mean a desync. It's frankly astonishing. That's all for today, though. Maybe leave your thoughts in the <a href=https://discord.gg/WSXrBba>RBY 2k20 Discord</a>!
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