winners & losers let's go

Winners & Losers – Items

Winners
Megas – example Aero
Walls – no choice items for power and for tricking
Special attackers – no Assault Vest
Pokemon draft league play – no SE berries

Losers
Offensive mons – no choice items, e.g. Mr. Mime
Frail mons – no Focus Sash, e.g. Alakazam
AV users, e.g. Alolan Muk
Dark types for Knock Off e.g. Alolans

Winners & Losers – Abilities

Winners
Not many! But some not as affected
M-Gyarados – no need for Mold Breaker if no abilities!
M- Alakazam – no need for Trace if no opposing ability to copy!
Steel mons, grounded mons, all mons – no trapping abilities! (M-Gengar actually a winner?)
No Sturdy – Grass & Water types rejoice, can OHKO Golem/Onix etc
Offensive mons in general – lots of move absorbing abilities e.g. Flash Fire, Water Absorb, Volt Absorb, Levitate

Losers
Most megas, especially PINSIR! Gains Flying typing with all the weaknesses, but no extra STAB – for an offensive mon this is awful!
Weather setting mons, Zard-Y and Ninetales. Makes their attacks weaker, means they are weak to water and can no longer perform weather support role as well
Offensive mons – Tinted Lens for Butterfree & Venomoth, but they are still strong with Quiver. Sheer Force for Nidos is a big loss.
Dragonite – Multiscale loss is tough because set up is not so easy
Clefable – 2 fantastic abilities. Magic Guard (Alakazam too but it has a mega…) and Unaware!


Conclusions: fewer immunities mean switching in to attacks will be tougher and better team synergy required (which is difficult with a very limited pool of Pokemon!). No Choice items mean walls are more reliable, especially with recovery. Set up Pokemon seem to be the least affected – as long as they get a chance to set up they will still do a ton of damage. And Megas are back in style!



Winners & Losers Items

Hello everyone, it’s foofoo here and today I’ll be talking about Pokemon Let’s Go and which Pokemon will be stronger or weaker, specifically with reference to there being no hold items confirmed. Watch out for future videos about abilities and more!
Last week Ace Trainer Liam, Birdkeeper Toby and Serebii Joe got hands on with the Let’s Go games and confirmed that there were no hold items in battle! This will have a huge effect on Pokemon battles as hold item effects are very important in set building. So let’s first take a look at which Pokemon are going to be stronger because of this!

Winners
It may at first appear that all Pokemon will become weaker with no hold items, but this is not the case, and some benefit a lot from the fact the other Pokemon can no longer hold items.

The first group I want to consider are mega evolutions – these are confirmed to be in Let’s Go despite not being able to hold mega stones. Megas are much better in a meta without hold items because previously their only handicap was that they could not hold other items. Because of this, some normal forms holding items were strgoner than their mega evolution, e.g. banded Mega Aerodactyl does more damage than mega. Now there is no reason not to mega evolve your Aerodactyl because normal Aero can’t hold a CB, so mega will always be stronger, bulkier and faster!

The second group I want to think about are walls – they don’t have to worry about choice items. Without CB or Specs, no Pokemon will have as much immediate wallbreaking power, meaning walls can more frequently survive switching in. Also, they can’t be tricked a choice item to lock them in to passive moves! They won’t get their lefties/healing berries, but that is a small price to pay!

The third group to mention are special attackers purely because of the removal of one item – Assault Vest. This could be given to tanks that could then sponge many special attacks and attack back. Without this, an opponent will have to rely more on passive special walls.

A final consideration to make is for draft leagues – attackers no longer have to worry about super effective berries. These are a tactic people employ to catch an attacker off guard to survive the attack. Play will be a little more predictable. Better for attackers, but does this make for less exciting battles & videos?

Losers

All unevolved Pokemon! No Eviolite is huge! Very little reason not to evolve your Pokemon.

As mentioned above, offensive Pokemon that like to use choice items lose out. This especially affects Pokemon like Mr. Mime or Primeape. Both like to act as offensive Pokemon, but like either Choice Scarf boost to speed or Specs/Band boost to power. Especially Mime with Trick!

Frail pokemon too – like to use sash, but this item no longer exists to guarantee a hit. A good example of this is Zam, but at least it has a Mega.

Pokemon specific items – Farfetch’d’s Stick, best item, but farfetch’s is a bit of a gimmick. Marowak would be most of the most powerful Pokemon with the Thick Club, but instead it will be relatively weak.

AV users e.g. Muk

Dark types (Alolan forms) Knock Off will be weak or might not even exist!

In conclusion, no items benefits the most powerful Pokemon – Megas, bulky walls with recovery – and harms the more niche Pokemon that require a boost to be useful – Eviolite for unevolved mons or anything that relies on a choice item/Marowak. It also may limit how many useful sets a Pokemon can run which sucks a bit. I’m not a huge fan of this from what we know right now, but it remains to be seen how this will actually be implemented.

Winners and Losers – Abilities

Hello, welcome to the follow-up video to No hold items. This one will focus on the effect the loss of abilities will have on Pokemon battling and identify the biggest winners and the sorest losers.
First I want to say thanks for all the comments on the last video – I wanted to start a conversation and that’s definitely what happened! Very interesting to hear views, want to quickly address a couple:

1.	They will suck – don’t know yet, but I’m sure they won’t be to everyone’s tastes, especially fans of competitive. It’s a fair opinion to have and you can’t tell people their opinion is wrong (like some people are trying to do!). At the same time, no need to shove negativity in everybody’s face, a lot of people are excited.
2.	They will have no competitive – I disagree. You will be able to play competitive battles, watch Joey Pokeaim’s video about this. He’s very knowledgable about competitive and lays out why he believes there will be a meta. But when I say meta, I do not think Let’s Go will replace ORAS as the definitive place for competitive battling. Good point!

So let’s get into abilities

Winners
In this case, there are not so many winners, but only Pokemon less affected than others.

1.	Attackers – can throw off attacks easier no certain abilities are missing. No contact abilities e.g. Poison Point, Flame body, Static. No absorbing abilities that give opponents a boost e.g. Water Absorb, Flash Fire, levitate etc. The biggest winners here are electric types – fewer Volt Switch immunities meaning Volt-Turn is more viable.
2.	 Not many more that actually benefit, so mega Gyarados comes off quite well – No need for Mold Breaker if no abilities anyway! And same can be said for Mega Zam – it can really benefit from Trace in some situations, but if no abilities to Trace it doesn’t lose out so much (normal zam does though!)
3.	No trapping abilities – good for walls, especially steel types. M-Gengar loses its ability, but might be a blessing in disguised as it might otherwise be banned!

Losers
Pretty much everything! Some specific examples of really badly affected

1.	Almost all other megas! Pidgeot misses Hurricanes, Beedrill much weaker, Venusaur gains 2 weaknesses, no Parental Bond Kanga... But most of all, Pinsir with no Aerilate and no flying attacks! It literally just gains more weaknesses! Would be better to stay bug…
2.	Weather – Zard Y & Ninetales can’t set sun, but not only that, no Swift Swim/Chlorophyll/Slush Rush means weather teams probably won’t exist! Really sad as this is a whole playstyle that is pooped on.
3.	Sturdy Pokemon like Onix & Golem can now esily be OHKOd by grass & water types without getting a hit off
4.	Specific offensive Pokemon losing power – Venomoth and Butterfree will miss Tinted Lens, but Quiver Dance will mean they are still very powerful. Nidos will be so much weaker with no Sheer Force…
5.	Multiscale Dragonite cannot set up half as easily, can no longer tank Ice type hits!
6.	Clefable is very sad story. 2 amazing abilities in Magic Guard and Unaware, both sorely missed (especially Unaware! It could wall p much everything as there are no choice items and set up would not work). Will still be a great defensive Pokemon due to typing, movepool & stats, but can’t play the powerful role that it is used to.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, so please let me know in the comments section if you think I’ve missed any important abilities that will also be missing from Let’s Go, as well as letting me know how you think no abilities will affect battling.

Thanks bye.

Intimidate Arcanine – Doburnman, Kingler Hypercutter - Clawesome
Levitate Weezing - Grumpnuts
Pressure Moltres – CheekyNandos
Ninetales – Kitsunapalm
Defiant Wigglytuff – Triggered

Poison Point Nidoqueen – Neyedoqueen
Flame Body magmar
Water Absorb Vaporeon – Mermaidoggo
Flareon – Floofeon
Volt Absorb Jolt – SthAboutMary, Electrode PSN Volt – FranC

Gyarados – Shrimpervious
Alakazam – Psycutlery
Magneton – Electrici3, Alolan Sandslash – Icychidna
Gengar – Ethereaver

Pidgeot – Smidgeot
Beedrill – Vespiking
Venusaur – Incognitoad
Kangaskhan – Child Labour
Pinsir – Spike Birb
Zard Y/Ninetales – Teostra/Kitsunapalm
Golduck – M’llardy
Alolan Sandslash – Icychidna

Onix - Snake’n’Bake
Golem - Pebball

Venomoth – LethalBuzzle
Butterfree – Frutterbee
Neyedoking
Dragonite – Deliveroo
Clefable - MoonPresence