How this Pokemon Ruined Competitive Play

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Gen 10 will introduce a Pokemon with an ability that will negate any and all damage. It will be the immovable object to Urshifu's unstoppable force.

They really need to nerf the Unseen Fist ability, not only does it hit through Protect and Screens, it even hits through video screens

Urshifu in competitive is like that one friend who plays Monopoly too seriously. Suddenly, it's not just a game, it's war

Something I want that might be good is a change to Detect. Instead of functioning like Protect, Detect should guarantee a miss. This, alongside wider distribution, could effectively allow some counterplay against Unseen Fist. Plus, it would have counterplay itself, as sure-hit moves like aerial ace will hit regardless.

It is a real shame they got rid of Lucky Chant in the generation where it could have been a legitimate tech option.

Never forget Wolfey’s first reaction to Urshifu was “I hope this thing’s not legal”

Fun Fact: In Diamond & Pearl, No Guard had "reverse accuracy" against a Pokémon using Protect, causing the move's initial miss chance to be a chance to bypass it. A move with 80% accuracy would have a 20% chance to hit through Protect, 90% accuracy would hit 10% of the time, etc. Platinum fixed this though, so it was definitely unintended.

"Hold my beer while me and Urshifu win a regional to demonstrate."

Oh no, Urshifu punched through my phone screen.

I feel like Unseen Fist taking a nerf could be the easiest answer. If moves did half damage, maybe even down to quarter damage, Protect might still feel worth clicking

Another problem is Urshifu is just bulky enough to be problematic. With the right EV’s, it can live common super effective moves like Rillaboom Grassy Glide, Flutter Mane Thunder bolt, and Iron Hands Wild Charge after an intimidate.

Something funny I found out that if Urshifu holds a Punching Glove, it’s ability becomes worthless since all physical moves don’t make contact when the item is held. Yeah it has a boost for punching moves, but it can’t hit through protect anymore.

I think an interesting way to nerf Unseen Fist is to add recoil when hitting through Protect, almost like it has put so much effort into breaking Protect that it hurts

I think the fact its signature move always crits is a real silent killer as well, cuz it doesn’t even matter if you have raised defenses, so only burn slows down

3:33 Actually, future sight was the first instance of a move ignoring protect, which would be followed by doom desire, feint, shadow force, and phantom force.

To give a slightly better analogy than having something like two moves in a row in chess: Imagine your queen could "go around" vertically or laterally adjacent enemy pawns with a knight move when applicable. Ofc this would be busted, hence why "Queen jumps on her horse in front of the pawns" will be available as a DLC for 30$.

That point about strength is really interesting. Yeah sure you're not the strongest, but if you can literally cheat the system or ignore the glue that holds it together and get away with it AND receive 0 draw backs for it AND are still very strong, you kinda hold the game in your hands. It's like if the 10th best basketball player got to just run with the ball like a football player. There are better options and possible counterplay but the game now centralizes around them.

5:07 So right here, as soon as Urshifu opened it's eyes, I got an ad with someone busting through a wall Perfect metaphor for what's to come

For anyone who doesn't know, the correct terminology for this sort of effect Urshifu has of the metagame is called format warping . Urshifu is probably one of the biggest format warpers VGC has seen outside of restricted formats. A format warper doesn't necessarily need to be the strongest, but it denies certain core gameplay mechanics to an extent that every team needs to account for it. A similar issue is present in 6v6 singles this gen with Gholdengo, who isn't necessarily the strongest pokemon in terms of power, but has a similar format warping behavior by making it near unviable to remove entry hazards from the field.