Agreed. Especially for Hisuian Zoroark. With its superior type combination, it'd be even more of a mindgame player than Unovan Zoroark would be. I think it's best that they did give us team preview, allowing us to play much more tactically.
I've seen some people go as far as saying that team preview ruins the whole point of Zoroark, but i would argue that it actually enhances Zoroark's potential. Simply seeing Zoroark on the enemy team can instil doubt about what Pokemon you send in, or what moves you use. "Is that actually a fighting type, or is it a Zoroark baiting a Psychic move?" My personal favourite is to have Zoroark and Shedinja on the same team. The mind games are beautiful.
Back in gen 5 I had an in-game team of Pokémon that weren't EV trained that worked extraordinarily well in Battle Spot Doubles because of team preview. While I can't remember what the last Pokémon was I do know that the 3 key players being Zoroark, Infernape, and Alakazam alongside Physical Sceptile, and Excadrill. The in-game meta at the time was to disguise Zoroark as Infernape because of the former's immunity to Psychic moves and because Special ape ran a very similar moveset. My team preview order: Zoroark Alakazam Other Other Other Infernape The order I selected them in: Infernape and Zoroark Other Other Other Alakazam It was glorious.
My favorite format without team preview is actually random battles. Since there's not necessarily a cohesive team structure in every team, it doesn't really matter what you opponent has in the back. The format is all about adapting to the unpredictable, both on your team and you opponent's, and I think having team preview would kinda ruin that.
Unfortunately because of that lack of control, boost sweepers are really annoying because of they set up, you might just not have a way to counter them, and the only chance you had was to keep them from setting up, or you lose. It's tricky
I agree but since there's no team cohesion a bad lead match-up can single-handedly boost or shutdown your momentum. I wish choosing lead was at least an option.
@@Rose-ez7yn There was power creep in gen 4, but the greatest power creep honestly starts after gen 5, and gen 5 was pretty bad too because of the number of mons that got busted hidden abilities
Personally I think no preview in 4 is what kept the meta so fluid. Ev spreads and 1:1 answers to specific pokemon wasnt so obvious, you might not want to commit to your answer to X in case they still have Y in the back. Although that being said, dragon dance Gyrados as a hidden 6th was a game ender. I can see the argument for more consistency sake, but I think the options and creativity it enables supersedes that
I don't think it should have team preview, but it's the first Gen where issues with No team preview started to arise I think There are benefits to it too as you said
I think it's important to help Garchomp, who finds himself in a precarious position, to find a new job opportunity. Otherwise, it's likely that the past paradox form of Gholdengo, Old Money, will use his limitless financial resources to turn him into his asset.
For an unscripted flow of knowledge, that was insanely well worded and structured. I feel I learned something new about team preview from a perspective I haven't seen before. I'd normally think that team preview is a feature spawned solely because of Zoroark, but it seems to me it's a much more weighted decision. Thanks for the video.
Personally what I like the most about DPP OU (at least in regard to team preview) is that its the generation where “dedicated leads” are at their peak. Not only is the lead meta very in depth on its own, the lead alone shows a lot about the team they’re using. Most leads that set up rocks are on offensive teams (with some exceptions like Hippowdon), and leads that don’t set rocks will always have a bulky rock setter in the back (such as Heatran, Clefable, or Blissey). Fast Taunt leads like Azelf, Aero, and Scarf Breloom (which doesn’t use Taunt but gets the same effect with Spore) are usually put on teams without a Rapid Spin user, and usually have Pokemon like Gyarados, Dragonite, and Infernape that appreciate rocks not being on the field Even the leads that do the most things are either easy to prepare for, are countered by other leads (Aerodactyl shuts down Azelf for example), or some combination thereof. No one lead is gonna end the game on the spot either; some anti-leads can, but that’s usually due to those teams being weak to said mon anyways This is also *just* talking about the lead metagame, but the aspect of piecing together your opponents team is pretty similar to how it is in ADV OU
Funny thing is Gen 4 did have team preview in Pokemon Battle Revolution (Wii), which was pretty much the first iteration of anything resembling the Battle Spot formats (bring 6 pick 3 singles, or bring 6 pick 4 doubles) and their team preview also showed if something had a held item. I found it confusing that it was a big deal in gen 5 when the concept had been in practice for a while by that point. Also used in Stadium1 and 2, not sure about Colosseum or XD but I'd imagine so.
Bring 6 pick 3 actually existed even before Stadium was even a thing. All officially sanctioned competitions in Japan used this format right from the beginning. They also had their own clauses, but they were kind of strange, like sleep clause was you could sleep up to 2 pokemon iirc. Very interesting stuff. Example: ruclips.net/video/NP9FLGm5mrs/видео.html&ab_channel=%E6%98%94%E3%81%AF%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%82%A8%E3%83%AA
Bring 6 pick 3 is significantly older actually, this was the official ruleset for Japanese gen 1 tournaments way back when. I think they would have also used team preview to make the pick 3 determination.
@@lucaslennan3356 it's possible. The meta was significantly less optimized then though, I don't think they understood the Tauros/Snorlax/Chansey core the same way we do now (although all were probably common picks)
I find team preview to make it a little harder to play because of how it essentially removes the lead metagame. I find having a single lead pokemon made it easier to have a game plan. I already know from the getgo what my first few turns should look like. I know what my opponent wants to do from their lead. Now I have to think about how any of my 6 pokes match up against any of their 6 pokes, it makes it much more complicated
@@Pudcup well he’s the only other ‘mon alongside them in the UUBL considering Ceruledge left. The Mach pokemon will help with speedy deliveries and speedy fund raising
I think this sounds like a very promising business venture. Chomp can use his skills as a banker to ensure the profitability of the novelty food establishment
It's funny because like everyone else, I always use zoroark as an argument against not having team preview + gen 4 having many scenarios where a single unaccounted pokemon could win a game and I always get people saying, "you're right, but I would be 100% down for that because I live for the chaos."
True. But to me, it feels like it's there as a balance. You can't use it to get a cheap win anymore. You'll need to set up its own win properly, either by sending it out after a Pokémon fainted or from a Teleport assist.
FEAR strats are jank though, and I say that as someone who got 1850 in gen 6 AG with a Mega-Ray and 5 Klefki's all with Swagger, Foul play, Substitute and either T-wave or Double Team... It was probably the most degenerate warcrime in the history of Pokemon but it worked ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Gen 5 onwards team preview is needed. And not only for zoroark specifically but also cause of power creep, higher number of pokemon, all new kind of abilities. Gen 1-4 experience is enhanced by no team preview for the opposite, lower power level, gen 1-2 not having abilities and having max EVs in every stat in particular.
Since I started watching Jimothy’s videos, I’ve been playing a lot more Gen 3 OU, and the fact that there is no Team Preview was very welcome. It’s cool for both teams to be a mystery not just for the opponent’s, but also any spectators.
I think a Tera preview would alsobhave a pretty big impact on team structure. Knowing a Kingambit is running Flying ahead of time means you can preserve specific mons able to burn it later knowing it can't dodge it with Tera Fire. That is VERY impactful.
I think in a perfect world there wouldn't be a team preview, but competitive pokemon is just so ridiculously imbalanced and power levels shot through the roof a decade ago and have now gone into the stratosphere. In light of this, I view team preview as an unfortunate necessity, and there are many other issues in the competitive scene that would have to be addressed for that to change
I wholeheartedly agree. I don’t play competitive, but I’ve noticed that now more than ever there are so many pokemon that are immediately threatening. Before you only had to worry if gave that pokemon a turn for them to be threatening. I know that since I run pokemon that I like, I run into this problem quite a bit, but from what I understand players who play competitively still run into pokemon that are threatening because they hit the field.
I wonder what a meta game with only partial team preview would look like. If you could only see half the team, you'd have to try to figure out the rest of the foes team from the three you see. When choosing a lead, you could try to conserve information and lead with one of the revealed pokemon even when it's not the best lead, or you could give away one of your hidden pokemon in exchange for a better match up at the start. You could even try to deceive your opponent with the revealed pokemon to make them think you're running an entirely different type of team.
Or maybe usage stats in the tier could decide whether a pokemon must be revealed at the start. That way, more niche pokemon get a distinct advantage over the more powerful mons, and if any pokemon ends up becoming too strong without team preview, they'd rise up in the tier until they lose their preview advantage.
I remember 4th gen's lead matchup wars. They were a nightmare because every single game was decided by a coin flip. If the coin landed tails, your opponent got up rocks and sometimes a KO. Too many games started off badly because of an Azelf speed tie. Teams could be built to work around this, but is was extremely restrictive to team building. Not to mention how many games could end just by hiding a Gyarados or whatever until late game and losing because you simply weren't able to beat something you didn't even know existed. Now with team preview there's still lead matchup but you can switch your Pokemon around to handle it better. You also get more info on turn 0 leading more informed game plans and skill-based play. I love team preview and hope it never goes away.
I very much did not like team preview when it first showed up, but you convinced me that it definitely was not as bad as I thought it was. Since I didn't play a lot of competitive matches, I never got to see how well those higher power pokemon could create a checkmate without previews. Thinking about just a surprise Terrakion through your framing pretty much shows me that team preview was better for 5th gen and beyond.
It made my favorite Pokémon, Golisopod, even harder to use when I tried to do random online battles on the 3DS in Ultra Moon. I just wanna use the big scary bug. :(
non team preview is much more fun to watch, especially in adv revival hearing “they have a miltank” or “theres a butterfree on the field” is so hype when you’re like 15 turns into what seeks to be just a run of the mill game
Team preview makes the game more accessible to new players but retains skill expression. Rather than the skill being about predicting your opponent’s Pokemon due to common team structures, the skill is about predicting your opponent’s switches based on knowing their whole team. Moreover, lead matchups are more skill-based since you get to choose your lead per matchup rather than designate one team member a priori. Overall, I like team preview better than no preview.
Honestly yeah I think it was a mistake. *Figuring out which Pokemon your opponent had yet to reveal was an extremely powerful skill to have.* I was also a huge fan of dedicated leads/anti-leads especially in gen 4, Azelf/Aerodactyl and Machamp/Metagross being good examples of each. It made teams feel more cohesive and well-structured imo.
Agreed. Takes away scouting skill and outplays, makes predictions easier, it just makes the game easier. The flat benefit is that it makes games shorter as usually you can pick whose team wins just by looking at the two teams in preview.
“makes you feel smart honestly” is so real dude. like i would be lying if i said 80% of the joy from predicting didnt come from feeling like albert einstein defining relativity
I absolutely love team preview, as there's a whole other battle step before the battle where you gauge your opponent and find win and lose conditions. Especially true when you don't bring your full team. I don't like going in blind.
I liked the game without team preview. I found it was very fun to have a lead pokémon and to scout my opponent. But you're totally right, power creep makes it unviable to not know. I've always loved gen 4-5 the most, but following you, I start to agree gen 3 has the best combination of mechanics and power. I just miss some of my favorite pokémon there, like gliscor and mamoswine.
Team Preview has always been around, gen 5 was just the first one to put it in the main games directly. In case you've forgotten, all official events pre-Platinum were fought on that generation's 3D game, and Stadium 1 and 2, Colosseum, XD, and Battle Revolution all had mandatory undisablable team preview. Team preview not existing before gen 5 is entirely untrue.
It's interesting how VGC players mostly seem to prefer the open team sheet format. Personally, I prefer team preview, but closed team sheet. I think some level of information gathering in bo3 marches is much more exciting as a viewer. No team preview in VGC makes game 1 a dice roll.
Pokemon Stadium introduced team preview and the bring 6 pick 3 of battle stadium single was already in place back in 1997 or 1998. I'm pretty certain than tournaments before VGC were intended to be ran in Stadium, Colosseum or Battle Revolution.
This is crazy, not that long ago I was talking about how I like Showdown Random Battles because its the only way to play using modern mons without team preview
I run Zoroark, Shedinja and Xatu as a core for gen 5 OU, and I would be nigh unstoppable without team preview. TTars constantly fall to Zoroarks Low Kick when baited in by disguising Zoro as Sheddy, and they're far more hesitant to stack hazards when Zoro is disguised as Magic Bounce Xatu, meaning the odds that I get a safe Swords Dance or Nasty Plot off without consequence is very high.
as someone whose favorite and most played old gen is gen 4, i do think that nostalgia is a significant reason why i (and i'd hazard to guess many others) love this generation so much. but also, on a less subjective level, i do think that the lack of team preview makes gen 4 a really fun laddering tier. the surprise factor makes it so that you can get a lot more done with off-meta picks that you might not bring in a tournament environment. and on the other side of that coin, it makes losing to random cheese less frustrating if you're just laddering. that said, i know the gen 4 council has worked hard to remove as many of the unfair cheese elements as possible, so i don't want to say that's the only value the generation has. but i do think, from the perspective of a more casual player, that it's a significant factor in my enjoyment of it.
I think team preview came at just the right time when it was needed most. Gen 5 marked a massive spike in power levels, plus there was just so many more pokemon to contend with that you can't just deduce team structures from just 2 or 3 pokemon anymore. In that context team preview has been good for the metagame, though I like the deductive and surprise elements of older gens. It's always fun to see a left field pick suddenly turn a matchup on its head, and that just can't happen anymore with team preview. I can understand Gen4 OU being quite polarizing in that aspect, with a whole ass lead metagame and it can feel like each player is just trying to establish dominance and play their own game rather than counterplay the opponent.
The funny thing is that there were formats with team preview as a thing since Gen 1. The Pokemon Stadium games had them and a "show 6 and use 3" structure. You may have covered this but if you didn't now you know
The physical/special split for sure, it should have been that way since gen 2 - well, it should have ALWAYS been that way, but gen 1 code was held together with duct-tape, frayed shoelaces and prayer. Thankyou Confuciusyahwehvishnujesusallah for gen 1's functionality 🙏🏻
Zoroark. I mean for the games not showdown. Because getting Zoroark in pokemon black/white without using pokemon bank, online trades, hacks, or pokemon b2 and w2 is annoying. I have to use a an egg glitch to get celebi in hg/ss because the only way to get zoroark in black and white is by getting celibi or shiny dog trio mons through events which are not time based but inperson and 1 time only. It bothers me so much.
I think one way you could look at the influence of team preview on later gens is by looking at Magearna. Because playing against a Magearna is like playing against someone who has 1 of their team slots blocked out and invisible. You can tell that they have a Magearna, but is it shift gear shuca? is it a bulky AV volt pivot? Or will it CM up on your Toxapex and Z-Electric it into the sun? You can’t tell for sure, so it can sweep out of nowhere. I think Maggy is an illustration of what the newer Pokémon would have been like with bigger stats and without team preview - and that’s exactly why it was banned in its generation.
Wish team previews didn’t exist. It would be more fun. Piecing it together throughout the match was what made Gen 1 so fun for all of my friends and I.
I feel like this exact problem is happening in gen 9 with Terra. You have so many high power threats with amazing movepools and the surprise factor to run away with the game. A Terra reveal feels similar to what no team preview gen 5 would have been.
From experience in random battles, it’s very easy to mistime a gimmick’s activation, which typically leads to players saving their tera for the end or using it immediately when pressed But setup movesets will always screw people over in tandem with them like Agility & Swords Dance
I thought the same on team preview aspect in DPP once I begun playing it, but after playing for some years I would have to disagree with you nowadays. But it would be cool to play DPP with team preview since leads are annoying af. If you're ever going to play DPP OU again, I'll say that figuring out the mons behind the preview comes down to first few mons and then having "prior" universal building rules the good player uses. E.g most teams will always include double steel in their team, which could help you figure out the playstyle they're going for. The rule doesn't apply to HO, rain and some full on offense tho the double steel exist in those playstyles. There's tons of pattern such as flying mon or mons weak to rocks most likely run a Spin mon unless it's very offensive. E.g zapdos x starmie. Breloom also vibe checks team to handle against in the preview so many runs two or more against it. Will say it took me so long to learn these, so for any new beginners it would be hard af.
I've been doing whatever the current rando format is for years, where I've become mediumly okay and I've always been quite bad at structured team formats. Started doing some Gen 3 structured while watching your tournament coverage and I'm the same amount of mediumly okay at Gen 3. I think the lack of team preview is what does it for me. I don't have to instantly recognize the meta builds and wincons because half the game is scouting for info just like I'd do in randos. It also makes my off meta stupid nonsense more useful because they don't know I've got something weird in the back.
I think it's important to mention that at least in VGC it has gone beyond team preview and now it uses an open team sheets format and saying that's a game changer would be a big understatement. Idk if they decided on this because of the lack of a battle box for tournaments so people won't cheat between rounds, but with tera existing I think it is a phenomenal addition so games are less cheesy and more skillful but at the cost of team variety.
It'd be really cool if showdown had a custom format for newer generations without team preview, just to see how itd go down. Or at that even some older mechanics like defence cutting explosion or gen 1 recharge moves.
Not entirely related to the topic, but it's really interesting how Blissey was super common in Gen 4 simply because it was what worked in Gen 3, and it wasn't until people started using Clefable in later gens for people to re-evaluate that it also worked better in DPP.
I don’t know if it’s been made already, but I think it’d be sick if there was an Gen 9 OU metagame on Showdown where there was no team preview. Hisuian Zoroark would be used like hell probably.
I'm hosting a $3500+ Gen 3 OU Tournament. Check out the commentary here:
www.youtube.com/@jimothygaming/videos
Oh sweet we get $3500+ if we enter a tournament!
That's too expensive for me, can't pay 3500.
Unrelated but I personally find it weird Smogon never has similar Regulation restrictions preventing legendaries from entering the early meta
Crazy how this mechanic single-handedly prevented Zoroark from potentially being Uber or even AG. This is insane
Zoroark moment.
Agreed. Especially for Hisuian Zoroark. With its superior type combination, it'd be even more of a mindgame player than Unovan Zoroark would be. I think it's best that they did give us team preview, allowing us to play much more tactically.
Don't forget what it did to Wobuffet and Perish Traps in general too.
I've seen some people go as far as saying that team preview ruins the whole point of Zoroark, but i would argue that it actually enhances Zoroark's potential. Simply seeing Zoroark on the enemy team can instil doubt about what Pokemon you send in, or what moves you use. "Is that actually a fighting type, or is it a Zoroark baiting a Psychic move?"
My personal favourite is to have Zoroark and Shedinja on the same team. The mind games are beautiful.
Back in gen 5 I had an in-game team of Pokémon that weren't EV trained that worked extraordinarily well in Battle Spot Doubles because of team preview.
While I can't remember what the last Pokémon was I do know that the 3 key players being Zoroark, Infernape, and Alakazam alongside Physical Sceptile, and Excadrill.
The in-game meta at the time was to disguise Zoroark as Infernape because of the former's immunity to Psychic moves and because Special ape ran a very similar moveset.
My team preview order:
Zoroark
Alakazam
Other
Other
Other
Infernape
The order I selected them in:
Infernape and Zoroark
Other
Other
Other
Alakazam
It was glorious.
My favorite format without team preview is actually random battles. Since there's not necessarily a cohesive team structure in every team, it doesn't really matter what you opponent has in the back. The format is all about adapting to the unpredictable, both on your team and you opponent's, and I think having team preview would kinda ruin that.
Unfortunately because of that lack of control, boost sweepers are really annoying because of they set up, you might just not have a way to counter them, and the only chance you had was to keep them from setting up, or you lose. It's tricky
If only you could pick a lead
A solid second after gen 3 imo
@@TheTwilightKnight_YTShell Smash turn 1, with zero priority to counter it. Fun.
I agree but since there's no team cohesion a bad lead match-up can single-handedly boost or shutdown your momentum. I wish choosing lead was at least an option.
my favorite part of team preview is when both me and my opponent dont care and lead lando to click rocks and knock off
The gen8 handshake
or the classic rotom-w toxic exchange
real
maybe even toxic if you’re feeling ballsy
I like gen 6-7 Lando exchange rocks then see who wins the hp-ice wars
If power creep didn't sky rocket starting gen 5 then I would say yes imagine gen 9 without team preview and something like kingamit existing
As someone who plays Ubers regularly, imagine a Last Resorts Pokémon without team preview.
powercreep was probably greater in gen 4 but sure
@@deathpigeon2I’m assuming you mean Last Respects, Last Resort is not a meta move as far as I’m aware (maybe Ubers is just really weird)
@@thequagiestsire Yes. Last Respects.
@@Rose-ez7yn There was power creep in gen 4, but the greatest power creep honestly starts after gen 5, and gen 5 was pretty bad too because of the number of mons that got busted hidden abilities
Personally I think no preview in 4 is what kept the meta so fluid. Ev spreads and 1:1 answers to specific pokemon wasnt so obvious, you might not want to commit to your answer to X in case they still have Y in the back. Although that being said, dragon dance Gyrados as a hidden 6th was a game ender. I can see the argument for more consistency sake, but I think the options and creativity it enables supersedes that
I don't think it should have team preview, but it's the first Gen where issues with No team preview started to arise I think
There are benefits to it too as you said
@@jimothycool Yeh for sure I agree. Red flags that would have gotten out of control post gen 5
Team preview was a mechanic introduced in the generation 5 pokemon titles.
Yes. Yes it was.
That completely changed how the game was played
Prior to generation 5 in multiplayer battles, the Pokémon on your team and the Pokémon on your enemies team were hidden from each other.
Yes exactly damien! Here have a good point for your correct guess!
Rather than being able to choose what Pokémon you’d be able to lead with at the start of the game
I think it's important to help Garchomp, who finds himself in a precarious position, to find a new job opportunity. Otherwise, it's likely that the past paradox form of Gholdengo, Old Money, will use his limitless financial resources to turn him into his asset.
Yes the Golden Surfer is a threat
For an unscripted flow of knowledge, that was insanely well worded and structured.
I feel I learned something new about team preview from a perspective I haven't seen before. I'd normally think that team preview is a feature spawned solely because of Zoroark, but it seems to me it's a much more weighted decision.
Thanks for the video.
Personally what I like the most about DPP OU (at least in regard to team preview) is that its the generation where “dedicated leads” are at their peak. Not only is the lead meta very in depth on its own, the lead alone shows a lot about the team they’re using. Most leads that set up rocks are on offensive teams (with some exceptions like Hippowdon), and leads that don’t set rocks will always have a bulky rock setter in the back (such as Heatran, Clefable, or Blissey). Fast Taunt leads like Azelf, Aero, and Scarf Breloom (which doesn’t use Taunt but gets the same effect with Spore) are usually put on teams without a Rapid Spin user, and usually have Pokemon like Gyarados, Dragonite, and Infernape that appreciate rocks not being on the field
Even the leads that do the most things are either easy to prepare for, are countered by other leads (Aerodactyl shuts down Azelf for example), or some combination thereof. No one lead is gonna end the game on the spot either; some anti-leads can, but that’s usually due to those teams being weak to said mon anyways
This is also *just* talking about the lead metagame, but the aspect of piecing together your opponents team is pretty similar to how it is in ADV OU
Funny thing is Gen 4 did have team preview in Pokemon Battle Revolution (Wii), which was pretty much the first iteration of anything resembling the Battle Spot formats (bring 6 pick 3 singles, or bring 6 pick 4 doubles) and their team preview also showed if something had a held item. I found it confusing that it was a big deal in gen 5 when the concept had been in practice for a while by that point. Also used in Stadium1 and 2, not sure about Colosseum or XD but I'd imagine so.
Bring 6 pick 3 actually existed even before Stadium was even a thing. All officially sanctioned competitions in Japan used this format right from the beginning. They also had their own clauses, but they were kind of strange, like sleep clause was you could sleep up to 2 pokemon iirc. Very interesting stuff.
Example: ruclips.net/video/NP9FLGm5mrs/видео.html&ab_channel=%E6%98%94%E3%81%AF%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%82%A8%E3%83%AA
good point!
Bring 6 pick 3 is significantly older actually, this was the official ruleset for Japanese gen 1 tournaments way back when. I think they would have also used team preview to make the pick 3 determination.
@@MitchforkI remember hearing that they would just always pick the same 3 because it didn't matter.
@@lucaslennan3356 it's possible. The meta was significantly less optimized then though, I don't think they understood the Tauros/Snorlax/Chansey core the same way we do now (although all were probably common picks)
I remember the real first team preview, back on pokemon Stadium, when you had to hide your button pushes from your siblings.
A 20 minute analysis video across all the generations. This is insane
Jimothy started taking lessons from BKC
@@MegaStunfiskandHat a BKC video covering every generation would be 2 hours minimum
I find team preview to make it a little harder to play because of how it essentially removes the lead metagame. I find having a single lead pokemon made it easier to have a game plan. I already know from the getgo what my first few turns should look like. I know what my opponent wants to do from their lead.
Now I have to think about how any of my 6 pokes match up against any of their 6 pokes, it makes it much more complicated
Hey Jim. Since the ‘chomp is in UUBL with Garg and Kommo do you think they might create a takeout shop called Salt ‘n’ Shake?
Where does Chomp fit in this " Business"?
@@Pudcup well he’s the only other ‘mon alongside them in the UUBL considering Ceruledge left.
The Mach pokemon will help with speedy deliveries and speedy fund raising
I think this sounds like a very promising business venture. Chomp can use his skills as a banker to ensure the profitability of the novelty food establishment
It's funny because like everyone else, I always use zoroark as an argument against not having team preview + gen 4 having many scenarios where a single unaccounted pokemon could win a game and I always get people saying, "you're right, but I would be 100% down for that because I live for the chaos."
Its like Mario Kart where overcoming adversity is a skill yet the gameplay is still very chaotic.
Crazy how much impact this mechanic had in competitive pokemon. This is insane
We need a preview of goldengo investments' business deals and any Iron Mugulius shenanigans.
Team preview makes level 1 FEAR strats so much worse cus its so obvious from the preview
True. But to me, it feels like it's there as a balance. You can't use it to get a cheap win anymore. You'll need to set up its own win properly, either by sending it out after a Pokémon fainted or from a Teleport assist.
FEAR strats are jank though, and I say that as someone who got 1850 in gen 6 AG with a Mega-Ray and 5 Klefki's all with Swagger, Foul play, Substitute and either T-wave or Double Team... It was probably the most degenerate warcrime in the history of Pokemon but it worked ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Making cheese strategies less viable is a good thing
There are too many Pokémon I think for it to work anymore, it would just feel insanely random
Gen 5 onwards team preview is needed. And not only for zoroark specifically but also cause of power creep, higher number of pokemon, all new kind of abilities. Gen 1-4 experience is enhanced by no team preview for the opposite, lower power level, gen 1-2 not having abilities and having max EVs in every stat in particular.
Since I started watching Jimothy’s videos, I’ve been playing a lot more Gen 3 OU, and the fact that there is no Team Preview was very welcome. It’s cool for both teams to be a mystery not just for the opponent’s, but also any spectators.
I rlly like ADV OU with team preview. Really helps magneton and dugtrio with being a surprise and being so efficient as trappers
Thank you for giving me a good video during my crappy crap time (:
Toilet moment
Big shid moment
Hot take: Team Preview should have dynamic options (Especially on cartridge) (Things like Hide Form, Reveal Tera, or just turning it off)
I think a Tera preview would alsobhave a pretty big impact on team structure. Knowing a Kingambit is running Flying ahead of time means you can preserve specific mons able to burn it later knowing it can't dodge it with Tera Fire. That is VERY impactful.
I think in a perfect world there wouldn't be a team preview, but competitive pokemon is just so ridiculously imbalanced and power levels shot through the roof a decade ago and have now gone into the stratosphere. In light of this, I view team preview as an unfortunate necessity, and there are many other issues in the competitive scene that would have to be addressed for that to change
I wholeheartedly agree. I don’t play competitive, but I’ve noticed that now more than ever there are so many pokemon that are immediately threatening. Before you only had to worry if gave that pokemon a turn for them to be threatening. I know that since I run pokemon that I like, I run into this problem quite a bit, but from what I understand players who play competitively still run into pokemon that are threatening because they hit the field.
The Jimbo and BKC idea is awesome!
good video style! very nice to see a learned scholar discuss his takes on the generations
I wonder what a meta game with only partial team preview would look like. If you could only see half the team, you'd have to try to figure out the rest of the foes team from the three you see. When choosing a lead, you could try to conserve information and lead with one of the revealed pokemon even when it's not the best lead, or you could give away one of your hidden pokemon in exchange for a better match up at the start. You could even try to deceive your opponent with the revealed pokemon to make them think you're running an entirely different type of team.
Or maybe usage stats in the tier could decide whether a pokemon must be revealed at the start. That way, more niche pokemon get a distinct advantage over the more powerful mons, and if any pokemon ends up becoming too strong without team preview, they'd rise up in the tier until they lose their preview advantage.
"Insane this is."
-yoda
BKC and JimothyCool Collab yes PLZ! Let's Hope Iron Mugulis doesn't storm into their chat when it happens
this guy’s good at Pokémon videos. One of my favorites. I appreciate his uninstrusive editing style a lot
Don't you just love when you're casually watching a Showdown video and it's from this dude's POV at 1:10?
I remember 4th gen's lead matchup wars. They were a nightmare because every single game was decided by a coin flip. If the coin landed tails, your opponent got up rocks and sometimes a KO. Too many games started off badly because of an Azelf speed tie. Teams could be built to work around this, but is was extremely restrictive to team building. Not to mention how many games could end just by hiding a Gyarados or whatever until late game and losing because you simply weren't able to beat something you didn't even know existed.
Now with team preview there's still lead matchup but you can switch your Pokemon around to handle it better. You also get more info on turn 0 leading more informed game plans and skill-based play. I love team preview and hope it never goes away.
I love your video style. So well informed
Garchomp is OUtraged about his fall from the banking circles of OU, we need to find Chomp a new Career.
Great content, would love to see more of it, as well as a redemption arc for you in Gen 4 OU
Nothing is broken more than shedinja in sandstorm
team preview was introduced in 1997 for the Nintendo Cup, and was included in every home console release starting with Stadium
I very much did not like team preview when it first showed up, but you convinced me that it definitely was not as bad as I thought it was. Since I didn't play a lot of competitive matches, I never got to see how well those higher power pokemon could create a checkmate without previews.
Thinking about just a surprise Terrakion through your framing pretty much shows me that team preview was better for 5th gen and beyond.
It made my favorite Pokémon, Golisopod, even harder to use when I tried to do random online battles on the 3DS in Ultra Moon. I just wanna use the big scary bug. :(
I tried a bug only challange in sword and shield. Oh my god it was hell
11:19 he struggled so much with that pronunciation 😂😂
In Australia we actually talk just like everyone else when others aren't listening. The accent is completely fake, and it can be hard to maintain.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who noticed this LOL
non team preview is much more fun to watch, especially in adv revival
hearing “they have a miltank” or “theres a butterfree on the field” is so hype when you’re like 15 turns into what seeks to be just a run of the mill game
I think this is one of my favorite videos of yours. Very good work.
I totally agree. They modern game would be completely unplayable without team preview (I mean, just hiding terra makes gen9 crazy random)
Both team preview and the former modify strategies in different ways, I love both tbh.
Magic Bounce would be incredibly toxic if there was no team preview
This video is very cool, thanks Jim!
The little pause before saying Medicham was great.
"Oh, snorlax is kinda middling in gen 2, only 50% winrate, it is really avarage... 100% usage?!?!?!"
Team preview makes the game more accessible to new players but retains skill expression. Rather than the skill being about predicting your opponent’s Pokemon due to common team structures, the skill is about predicting your opponent’s switches based on knowing their whole team. Moreover, lead matchups are more skill-based since you get to choose your lead per matchup rather than designate one team member a priori. Overall, I like team preview better than no preview.
Tobias probably had a Zoroark on his team too. And we would have never known.
We should add tera type to the teamviewer, that would be sane.
This is sane.
Sane indeeed
Honestly yeah I think it was a mistake. *Figuring out which Pokemon your opponent had yet to reveal was an extremely powerful skill to have.*
I was also a huge fan of dedicated leads/anti-leads especially in gen 4, Azelf/Aerodactyl and Machamp/Metagross being good examples of each. It made teams feel more cohesive and well-structured imo.
Agreed. Takes away scouting skill and outplays, makes predictions easier, it just makes the game easier. The flat benefit is that it makes games shorter as usually you can pick whose team wins just by looking at the two teams in preview.
“makes you feel smart honestly” is so real dude. like i would be lying if i said 80% of the joy from predicting didnt come from feeling like albert einstein defining relativity
I absolutely love team preview, as there's a whole other battle step before the battle where you gauge your opponent and find win and lose conditions. Especially true when you don't bring your full team. I don't like going in blind.
I liked the game without team preview. I found it was very fun to have a lead pokémon and to scout my opponent. But you're totally right, power creep makes it unviable to not know. I've always loved gen 4-5 the most, but following you, I start to agree gen 3 has the best combination of mechanics and power. I just miss some of my favorite pokémon there, like gliscor and mamoswine.
Great vid, would love to see you and BKC collab maybe someday
Perfect topic for a Jimbo vid
Players if Zoroark was introduced before team preview be like "This is insane"
Team Preview has always been around, gen 5 was just the first one to put it in the main games directly. In case you've forgotten, all official events pre-Platinum were fought on that generation's 3D game, and Stadium 1 and 2, Colosseum, XD, and Battle Revolution all had mandatory undisablable team preview. Team preview not existing before gen 5 is entirely untrue.
Cheers.
God can you imagine Pokémon without team preview, it’s like imaging pokemon without iron mugulus.
It's like how old open world games had a low render distance to make the world feel bigger than it really was.
Next we need move set preview
It's interesting how VGC players mostly seem to prefer the open team sheet format.
Personally, I prefer team preview, but closed team sheet.
I think some level of information gathering in bo3 marches is much more exciting as a viewer.
No team preview in VGC makes game 1 a dice roll.
Pokemon Stadium introduced team preview and the bring 6 pick 3 of battle stadium single was already in place back in 1997 or 1998. I'm pretty certain than tournaments before VGC were intended to be ran in Stadium, Colosseum or Battle Revolution.
a vid interviewing bkc like you did with blunder and talking about old gens could be a cool way to talk about why does he like gen 4
This is crazy, not that long ago I was talking about how I like Showdown Random Battles because its the only way to play using modern mons without team preview
I run Zoroark, Shedinja and Xatu as a core for gen 5 OU, and I would be nigh unstoppable without team preview. TTars constantly fall to Zoroarks Low Kick when baited in by disguising Zoro as Sheddy, and they're far more hesitant to stack hazards when Zoro is disguised as Magic Bounce Xatu, meaning the odds that I get a safe Swords Dance or Nasty Plot off without consequence is very high.
as someone whose favorite and most played old gen is gen 4, i do think that nostalgia is a significant reason why i (and i'd hazard to guess many others) love this generation so much.
but also, on a less subjective level, i do think that the lack of team preview makes gen 4 a really fun laddering tier. the surprise factor makes it so that you can get a lot more done with off-meta picks that you might not bring in a tournament environment. and on the other side of that coin, it makes losing to random cheese less frustrating if you're just laddering.
that said, i know the gen 4 council has worked hard to remove as many of the unfair cheese elements as possible, so i don't want to say that's the only value the generation has. but i do think, from the perspective of a more casual player, that it's a significant factor in my enjoyment of it.
I think team preview came at just the right time when it was needed most. Gen 5 marked a massive spike in power levels, plus there was just so many more pokemon to contend with that you can't just deduce team structures from just 2 or 3 pokemon anymore. In that context team preview has been good for the metagame, though I like the deductive and surprise elements of older gens. It's always fun to see a left field pick suddenly turn a matchup on its head, and that just can't happen anymore with team preview. I can understand Gen4 OU being quite polarizing in that aspect, with a whole ass lead metagame and it can feel like each player is just trying to establish dominance and play their own game rather than counterplay the opponent.
i like team preview for VGC format. you can choose which 4 of your 6 pokemon will be best against your opponent, and which pair you want to lead wit.
vgc would be a clown fiesta without it
So true. Clown fiesta gangnam style moment for sure.
Would very much look forward to BKC and you chat about gen 3 and 4, which are my two favourite of the bunch 🙌
That moment Jimothy had to correct himself and say medicham, it took a lot from him
The funny thing is that there were formats with team preview as a thing since Gen 1.
The Pokemon Stadium games had them and a "show 6 and use 3" structure.
You may have covered this but if you didn't now you know
Technically team preview existed as early as Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2 though.
Jimothy's points still stand.
If you could add one move/pokemon/iten to gen 3 what would it be? Is there anything from later gens you feel is missing?
Landorus therian
The physical/special split for sure, it should have been that way since gen 2 - well, it should have ALWAYS been that way, but gen 1 code was held together with duct-tape, frayed shoelaces and prayer. Thankyou Confuciusyahwehvishnujesusallah for gen 1's functionality 🙏🏻
Zoroark. I mean for the games not showdown. Because getting Zoroark in pokemon black/white without using pokemon bank, online trades, hacks, or pokemon b2 and w2 is annoying. I have to use a an egg glitch to get celebi in hg/ss because the only way to get zoroark in black and white is by getting celibi or shiny dog trio mons through events which are not time based but inperson and 1 time only. It bothers me so much.
I could hear the pain in his voice when he said medicham
“Team Preview was introduced in Gen 5.”
everyone forgets about the old console titles… (Stadium/Colosseum/XD/Battle Revolution)
Honestly I find it funny that it was introduced in the same generation as a Pokemon whose whole gimmick was pretending to be another Pokemon.
I think one way you could look at the influence of team preview on later gens is by looking at Magearna. Because playing against a Magearna is like playing against someone who has 1 of their team slots blocked out and invisible. You can tell that they have a Magearna, but is it shift gear shuca? is it a bulky AV volt pivot? Or will it CM up on your Toxapex and Z-Electric it into the sun? You can’t tell for sure, so it can sweep out of nowhere. I think Maggy is an illustration of what the newer Pokémon would have been like with bigger stats and without team preview - and that’s exactly why it was banned in its generation.
I love how you can see the exact moment Jim has to actively correct himself in real time with Medicham’s pronunciation
Wish team previews didn’t exist. It would be more fun. Piecing it together throughout the match was what made Gen 1 so fun for all of my friends and I.
this motherfucker got me coming back again and again cuz of fucking iron mugulis lore
hope to see garchomp get a new career
I hope Garchomp has a shot at getting his job back, you could say a scale shot. (Please laugh at my terrible joke)
Ok but what if I breathe slightly harder instead
I think team preview is great (in modern generations), with zoroark not being as good being mostly the only downside.
The introduction of Team Preview is potentially the worst thing Iron Mugulis has done.
I feel like this exact problem is happening in gen 9 with Terra. You have so many high power threats with amazing movepools and the surprise factor to run away with the game. A Terra reveal feels similar to what no team preview gen 5 would have been.
From experience in random battles, it’s very easy to mistime a gimmick’s activation, which typically leads to players saving their tera for the end or using it immediately when pressed
But setup movesets will always screw people over in tandem with them like Agility & Swords Dance
I really agree that each generation should have its own feel.
pokémasters going for the rock move on an earthquake user predicting the flying swap 🤝 Neil Degrasse Tyson and the entire astrophysics community
I thought the same on team preview aspect in DPP once I begun playing it, but after playing for some years I would have to disagree with you nowadays. But it would be cool to play DPP with team preview since leads are annoying af.
If you're ever going to play DPP OU again, I'll say that figuring out the mons behind the preview comes down to first few mons and then having "prior" universal building rules the good player uses.
E.g most teams will always include double steel in their team, which could help you figure out the playstyle they're going for. The rule doesn't apply to HO, rain and some full on offense tho the double steel exist in those playstyles.
There's tons of pattern such as flying mon or mons weak to rocks most likely run a Spin mon unless it's very offensive. E.g zapdos x starmie.
Breloom also vibe checks team to handle against in the preview so many runs two or more against it.
Will say it took me so long to learn these, so for any new beginners it would be hard af.
I think deep down, Zoroark is glad there’s team preview cuz he knows if team preview didn’t exist, neither would he
I've been doing whatever the current rando format is for years, where I've become mediumly okay and I've always been quite bad at structured team formats. Started doing some Gen 3 structured while watching your tournament coverage and I'm the same amount of mediumly okay at Gen 3. I think the lack of team preview is what does it for me. I don't have to instantly recognize the meta builds and wincons because half the game is scouting for info just like I'd do in randos. It also makes my off meta stupid nonsense more useful because they don't know I've got something weird in the back.
I think it's important to mention that at least in VGC it has gone beyond team preview and now it uses an open team sheets format and saying that's a game changer would be a big understatement. Idk if they decided on this because of the lack of a battle box for tournaments so people won't cheat between rounds, but with tera existing I think it is a phenomenal addition so games are less cheesy and more skillful but at the cost of team variety.
It'd be really cool if showdown had a custom format for newer generations without team preview, just to see how itd go down.
Or at that even some older mechanics like defence cutting explosion or gen 1 recharge moves.
Not entirely related to the topic, but it's really interesting how Blissey was super common in Gen 4 simply because it was what worked in Gen 3, and it wasn't until people started using Clefable in later gens for people to re-evaluate that it also worked better in DPP.
I don’t know if it’s been made already, but I think it’d be sick if there was an Gen 9 OU metagame on Showdown where there was no team preview.
Hisuian Zoroark would be used like hell probably.
excellent content. this is insane.
These are my favorite kinds of videos.