Why Terastal is the BEST Pokemon mechanic ever 

It’s definitely a great mechanic you can be as simple or complex with it as you want. You can use the same type for a stronger stab, to cover your weakness, or even just a never seen before tera combo. Especially since it’s 18 types the s/v meta game can go on for years after and have a new meta with over 7,200+ tera combos.

It might be the most balanced but I think Megas will forever remain the coolest. Also my problem with Tera is that it's a bit too easy to get cheesed in like Bo1 formats.

I'm actually quite sad Tera will probably be gone next gen, if there's any gimmick I've wanted to stay, it's this

I like that tera not only makes a pokemon stronger, a lot of the time it adds new weaknesses. There is nearly 0 downside to dynamax aside from the opportunity cost of only using it once so you could just click a 150 bp move and win without thinking too much. When you tera, your matchups will change and that will almost always make you weak to something you weren't before. You have to be in a good position before using it, so it requires more skill and has built-in counterplay. In competitive play it can create a guessing game which isn't ideal, but I think over the 3 years we'll be playing this gen we'll figure out how to play around it.

One other plus: it makes team-building more interesting, by letting you customize each Pokémon’s Tera Type. And since anyone can Tera, you have to consider the best use-case for each Pokémon, even if they are less likely to use it in most battles One other minus: the process of changing Tera types is a tedious grind, unlike all the other gimmicks which were fully usable without much effort

Thank you for the dark mode! Loving the high level content, would love to see some more games played once ladder is up!

We got the best of both words with this game. Paradox Pokémon are basically megas aesthetically while terastal is the most balanced and fun mechanic. We’ll get different paradox weather and terrains in the dlc.

Nailed it, I loved Megas, I wish they'd bring those back cuz they were so cool but I think it'd be quite a lot to make new ones to keep up. Tera feels like they hit the sweet spot

(Joking) I really liked the Gen 1 gimmick of Special Attack and Special Defense being the same. It really added to the utility of some pokemon, like offensive Chansey. My second favorite is Gen 3's gimmick of having to buy other games to get the pokemon you already had in Gens 1 and 2. Really made you treasure them more. But my all time favorite gimmick is Gen 4's epicly plodding pace. Truly the only gimmick worthy of such a legendary game.

Thank you for making it dark this time, tried watching one of your other vids earlier, but got flashbanged so hard xD

I'll admit, this look is an improvement.

I'm still deciding on whether or not I'm a fan of this mechanic. Pokemon being defined to specific type made it simpler to cover for specific attributes like Spore users or Trick Room setters. But now they can swap and completely reverse a match up. It's become evident to me that you either need to read the Tera or have the tools to play reactively or independent of type. Reading the tera I find is rather volatile and I think isn't very competitive and playing reactively is difficult due to the power boosts. The new items have helped a little but it feels like there is just no way around these problems. Redirection and Set up is really tough to deal with especially with the type which spread moves are bound to. Haze is about the best way to limit this strategy but the users are rather limitted in many ways.

I’m calling it now. Scarlet/Violet are going to be the Smash Melee of competitive Pokémon.

Can we imagine a world with Megas + Tera Typing? Like you could choose one or the other per game. Would be wild!

Dynamax will always have my heart because while it was legal in ou stunfisk turned into a low key god

Terastallization is so so sick. Love the content so cool seeing you back!

100% improvement with the dark mode bud. I like to have RU-vid on a second screen and the bright white was just too much even in the smaller player.

Megas could have been the best is they knew who to give them to and how to hold back a bit.

Form change is Ritual. Mega Evo is Fusion. Z Move is Synchro. DMax is XYZ. Terastal is Link.

I don’t know if megas can be considered gimmicks. Z-moves were in Alola. Dynamax was in Galar. Megas have been to Kanto, Hoenn, Kalos, and Alola, as well as basically every single spin-off in gen 6-7 and even some in gen 8. Support has trailed off over time and they may never come back in any meaningful way, but for a time clearly megas weren’t meant to be a gimmick.

Torkoal with a fire Tera crystal looks amazing!

I adore the dark mode; it’s so good for my visual disability. Thank you so much!

Hope you keep making videos ray. You've become my favorite vgc content creator along side cybertron and wolfe

The downside is the length of the animation during a tera raid

Agreed on this take. Tera doesnt feel necessary to win if you have a good matchup but definitely gives you play to come from behind which I love as a mechanic. Feels very intuitive and simple to make any mon monotype defensively yet with 18type possibilities and keeping original stab, theres so much flexibility.

The Tera hats are really funny on certain pokemon. Mimikyu (broken) is really wonky, and I've seen pokemon where the hat isn't even attached to the pokemon (I think it was bramblegast?)

i've been loving the terastal mechanic, even tho i've mostly been playing singles this tine around since the stuff that made it boring for me (endless toxapex stalls) aren't that strong/dominant anymore. It makes team building and the overall game more dynamic, i love how its so good for both defense, offense of both, and its pretty hard to use. Having every pokemon be able to use it is great, it gives you more opportunities to use it in game changing scenarios, but it also makes it harder to choose the right time to use it. As a fan of types that have historically been pretty bad like grass, bug or ice, i also love it can make them a lot more viable. It easily my favorite gimmick, it actually makes the game more interesting and dynamic without power creeping everything and forcing you to only use a couple of teams (talking about singles here were dynamax wasn't that well balanced).

Bring back mega’s. Nothing beats watching your pokemon evolve again. Tera is cool but i dont care for the gem look

Tera provides an actual mental game. The most fun I had in sword and shield VGC was the format where maxing was banned. Because it meant the team's actually had to think about speed control outside of just max and click flying attack and win game. Because it doesn't use an item you're not as restricted on how and where you can use it the same way that you were with mega and z moves. And the mental game that emerges from having to choose between offensive or defensive Tera or even just bluffing it. It's a mechanic that adds complexity to the game and makes being a better player make a difference.

Oh my. I almost thought this was a Wolfey thumbnail.

This man forgot about the coassic XerneasTwinkle Tackle when he said Z-Move aesthetic was good.

It would have been awesome if some Pokemon change form when they Terastilize to a specific type, example Charizard to a Dragon, and gains a new ability or something, I feel that would help with the asthetic.

I’m starting to think of the gimmicks less as gimmicks, and more the signature generational mechanic. Going forward I’m going to start to expect a new generation-specific mechanic each new generation. If TPC/GF stopped the generational signature mechanic then they would’ve been gimmicks, like Triple Battles and Aerial Battles or whatever they called it in Gen 6

I still say megas were the best mechanic by far. There were some that were overpowered yes but most did not fall into that category. And if they kept introducing new megas each gen they could have given megas to more pokemon. Obviously not every mon should get a mega tho since certain mon would probably be crazy overpowered if they did all get them as we saw with groudon or rayquaza.

Gems were the second best gimmick behind Tera.

This video has a crazy lack of flash bangs 9.5/10

Mega evolution, z-moves, dynamax, and terastal all fall under the Pokémon category known as "phenomena."

If z-moves were only for status moves, I would have liked it much more

Terra looks bad, I agree about that, funny though how you mention the one I actually like, too. (Steel) That one is actually kinda neat/funny, but yeah. I personally want to get Megas back, maybe not all of them, but some and some new ones. Mega Corviknight and Mega Dragapult were things I wanted ever since Sw/Sh released, as far as the new games are concerned, maybe Mega Baxcalibur or even a Mega for Ceruledge and Armarouge. 1 Mega and 1 Terra that can not be the Terra would be pretty cool. And lets be honest, if Rayquaza ever wants to viable again, it needs its Mega Evolution, at least Rayquaza should get it. Mega Ray would not even be OP with Miraidon and Zacian around in a restricted format. Damn, now that I mentioned it, I really want Mega Ceruledge, goes to show how getting rid of Megas was a mistake. They have unlimited potential with new Pokemon as possible Mega candidates every gen and besides the change of BST, for some Pokemon getting a new ability is really cool. Ceruledge with a little bit more Speed and Attack plus possibly a different ability, that guy becomes powerful. Just give it the newly nerfed version of Intrepid Sword once it goes Mega, that would be pretty strong and highly suitable without being overly OP.

100% agree that Tera is the best so far. Dynamax left such a sour taste in my mouth with the power creep it produced. very glad that we're taking a step back, and giving utility and smart play the emphasis, rather than *MY POKEMON IS A GOD FOR 3 TURNS ALL SHALL PERISH*

All I want is z splash

I hope someday they will make another coliseum type game for the switch with all Pokémon and gimmicks. I have no idea how they will balance the different gimmicks since some are just better than others.

My one negative I would add is accessibility. Aside from Dynamax soup you could always access whatever gimmick you wanted very easily. Getting 50 Shards takes a significant amount of IGT and for a full team you could need to do it 6 times per team just for a new meta to be found and out you go again looking for 50 tera shards Other Dynamax positive was Zac,Zam and Eter could not use it could you imagine dynamax zacian....

One of the negatives I can think of could possibly be it’s variability. Sure there are certain Tera types that are better and more often used than others, but changing typing to something you aren’t expecting really can change the outcome and tempo of a game, making it a little volatile.

I'd like tera to be a staple of the franchise and from then on maybe rotate the other ones with tera. Let's say, gen 10 has tera and megas, gen 11 has tera a z, and I guess dmax has to be kept, but it should be revised to not be as broken.

I'd give half the Pokedex so that every other final evolution had a changed form upon terastalization. These crystal crowns... There's no comparison to alternate forms.

I would like to see Tera return. Basically everybody hated Dynamax. And while most people enjoyed Mega Evolution it was clunky it was only on a handful of Pokemon and it had significant balance problems. But if the Pokemon company wanted to continue that into a sustained mechanic they could fix some of those problems. But I think that tera has the potential to stick around if they are willing to let it

They just look so goofy with the weird out of place hats.

Terra doesn't feel like the best mechanic to me it just feels super random. A Pokemon's identity is tied to their stats, abilities, moves, and type. Currently some of the best Pokemon in the game are Dragons, specifically because they aren't staying dragons and are instead swapping to steel. They keep all of their Dragon STAB damage, and when fairies come in to counter the dragon just hits the tera button and now is able to respond with STAB steel attacks. Terra removes a core pillar of identity from any given Pokemon. It also doesn't help that just about anything can be any type and so launching an attack becomes a total coin flip. I'm astonished anyone could feel like terra typing is balanced but hate ally switch so much since they both result in swingy turns and 50/50 situations.

I liked dynamax in formats without restricted pokemon

I think people are over-blowing how unpredictable Tera is. A pokemon will either turn into one of its STABS or turn into something that will remove its weaknesses. For example, a Normal type will either stay Normal, or go Ghost, Fairy, or Flying. Someone won’t just put a random Tera on their mon if it doesn’t help them. And if they do they wasted a Tera for no gain.

I like the dynamax system, definitely better than megas and z moves. Dynamax and terastal are cool concepts.

Megas where amazing the pool was just limited to what was good. Tropius rock tera with wide guard shuts down 50% of meta

Totally agree with Tera being the best. I think it looks really cool if tge hats werent there. Dynamax really needed 2 main changes: the base power of the moves shouldn't have been increased that much. Secondly, fighting and flying should have been switched. When using fighting the power wasn't buffed much. All this did was make mons like incineroar even better. As with flying, max airstream should not only have the power not increased, but probably decreased. What this did was make it almost mandatory to have a mon being able to have max airstream a mandatory part of every team. And some game super snow bally since one team is constantly buffing speed at all times Otherwise I felt that dynamax added a lot of depth to the game due to adding much more options available on each turn, or at least it had the potential to.

Gen 6 singles waa literally Mega Metagross and scarf magnezone spam, followed by Mega Sableye spam. Plus medicham mawile amd lopunny were CRAZY! (Lopunny especially in gen 7 gets the scrappy buff, Triple axle, uturn, CC) megas werent the wave, as much as it pains me to say, not every mon got a mega either, so as much as i loved the idea, im glad we moved on and.... evolved 🤣

Dynamax was almost a really good mechanic. The biggest issue with it (to me) was that max airstream was too powerful of a move. Clicking it was pretty much never a bad move, well maybe against trick room. And then max quake/steelspike also felt too good to pass by in most of the teams. Maybe these moves should've made with a lower powerlevel like max. 100pwr for airstream anf max. 120pwr for quake/steelspike. Otherwise dynamax was way better competively than megas or z-moves. It was more intuative and it gave more options mid battle.

i wish they just turned crystal and didn’t have the stupid hats. and there can be like a flashing symbol like when pokémon mega evolved to show the type. also the type should show in the menu to check stat changes and stuff

I think Mega's are my favourite gimmick. Really it's just a in battle forme change. although a lot of them were overpowered and overshadowed others. I didn't find the mechanic itself to be unfair or random. I'd like to see them come back sometime only more tamed and perhaps some new ideas along with it.

NileRed if NileRed was a poketuber

You're wrong. The best gimmick is still Mega Evolution. From a technical standpoint, sure, but what we all love the most is Megas.

I would say they have 4 decent gimmicks now they should rotate them gen 10 do the return of mega evolution and add new ones that we wanted but never got

Dark mode is great

Megas and Terastal are the best.

👍 for dark mode!

Mawile and lopunny deserved an evo

tbh I don't like terra at all as it is such a unpredictable mechanic that can turn matches and in all honesty doesn't make many underused mons better when considering there are plenty of mons already good in spite of a bad typing and even in the case of mons with already good typing the ability to live a hit is often going to outweigh the reward of using an under utilized mon that is going to restrict you from using it to make already strong mons stronger unless you leave it as is and have it be dead weight to a degree. either way it turns out it's at least not dynamax so that's good imo

Dark mode W

Megas will always be the coolest, because they actually gave us a ton of new mons, but Tera is fs the most balanced. Gmax could’ve been cool if they were just new megas. Being big ruined it tho.

So Ray, i'm curious. Genuinely. Will you play the game again? Funnily enough wolfey said in one of his videos a couple months back that you would never play competitively again(but continue to troll to everyone that you might). At this point i'm wondering if you will ever just burst back onto the scene out of spite for everyone that believes you wont. 🤣

I agree I hated dynamax although dyna was definitely the flashiest imo

I actually like the tara aesthetic. The hats are like 5/10, but I HATED dynamax, idk. I just didn't love the game of chicken every game.

Would gems be considered a gimmick?

Another negative is having to watch the cutscene every time you terastalize.

The one aspect I will put against terastallization though is that its soooort of random. In a lot of cases there are 2 or 3 types a pokemon can terastallize into, and there is no real way of knowing what type the opponent has chosen. This can lead to situations that feel a lot like blindly guessing and hoping the opponent doesnt have a certain terra type in some cases, rather than a skillfull prediction. Aside from that though, i absolutely love the mechanic

Dont down play z moves man shit like z stockpile was actually really cool just the attack ones were lame the status z moves had some cool shit

The aesthetic of the Tera mechanic is really disappointing. The shiny crystal form looks decent but the stupid giant crown rarely looks good and more annoyingly, with the fixed location of the battle stadium camera they often obscure the battlefield

Can we all agree to just forget that Sword/Shield ever happened?

I agree it's made it more fun than ever, I hated gigantamax since every game turned into the same shit over and over

I think terastilization made the game more random and less predictable, for the better or for the worse

Can you fake out a Tera Pokémon? besides ghost obviously

Nah, being able to shutdown counterplay brought about from typing isn’t healthy, along with everything being able to gain Adaptability on top of their existing abilities is busted. The ability to change ones defensive typing makes finding consistent counterplay to Pokemon an impossibility. “Ahh, you have a electric type to take on my dragon dance Gyarados? Idiot! My Gyarados is ground type! Enjoy😊” can’t wait for Galar Darm to run around with a Choice Scarf, Gorilla Tactics, Adaptability, and a ground typing to spam Earthquake, or a Fighting typing to spam Brick Break. Even Power-Up Punch becomes 60BP due to stab, give it a Choice Band and you’ve 225% the power on turn one, and increase your attack by an extra 50% each turn 👀 Darm straight away will have an attack stat of 936 from the get go, and just 1 will have an attack stat (if my maths is right) of… 2,028 attack. A 60BP attack of that damage CRUSHES anything that doesn’t quad resist it. Looking at Gen 8, on turn 1, it can OHKO Heatran, Spdef Blissey, Terrakion, Hitmonlee, Excadrill, Mega-Tyranitar, and had a chance to OHKO Cloyster, Dialga, Guzzlord, def Blissey, Regieleki, Snorlax.. at +1, it OHKO’s Mega-Sceptile, Mega- Blaziken, Grimmsnarl, Emboar, Raikou.. +2? Camerupt, Breloom, Seismitoad, Kingdra, Melmetal, Umbreon, Keldeo, Gastrodon, Primal Kyogre, Rillaboom, Rotom Wash, Steelix, Yveltal, and Garchomp. At this stage, it’s a OHKO against 50% of mon, a 2HKO on 25%, 3HKO on 8%, and only a handful can wall it. Crobat is 4HKO, Lando-T also, Dragonite. 5HKO are Togekiss, Slowbro-mega, Lugia, and Weezing Galar is an 8HKO. This is Just at +2, at +3 they all drop from 1 less hit, Weezing Galar drops by 2. At +6, it 3HKO’s Weezing Galar, 2 shots Dragonite, 3 shots Mega Slowbro and Unaware Quagsire, with the only counter being Lugia at 7 hits. Would love to try that 😅

Man this was clear just from its announcement! Wild to me how people slept on this lol

Megas are still cooler. Terastal is alright but it's fairly non-sensical.

go back to light mode if real

Normally making a mechanic generic is a terrible choice and only buffs the pokemon at the top, because why use the weaker mons if the stronger mons benefit from it much more. Pokemon is thankfully a game where there can be outliers in that argument, but they can still be outdone by it. Tera is a unique situation showing pokemon learned from the absolute mistake that is Dynamaxing. Just because something is generically powerful doesn't mean it is healthy or good for the game. The mechanic itself needs to be balanced enough too and Tera really showcases how to correctly do a generic mechanic.

yes dark mode is better

Maybe, but those crystal hats are kinda ugly.

Maybe in best of 3, but in best of 1 it's probably the 2nd worst mechanic. It's just gimmick the mechanic and almost nearly impossible to counter play unless they are dumb.

Wrong! Megas are 100% the best. Teras might be the easiest and most easily implemented and balanced.

unpopular (or popular i don't know) opinion, they should bring back some of the megas every generation, it doesn't have to be much, like 4 or 5, it was thematically the most fitting mechanic, just make so it can't overlap with the new mechanic in the game, and focus on bringing the weaker megas. I mean, there are some characters who would probably have travelled to kalos, the scarlet professor could have a mega aerodactly for example

So if something is overpowered because you're at a disadvantage if you don't use it then how is terastallization not overpowered? It's probably easier to deal with tera pokemon in doubles but there's no way you win without it. And in singles it's in much the same situation as dynamax.

I really dislike mega evolutions. I know I'm in the minority but it really felt like a bad mechanic. Other then the negatives you mentioned: - it was given to a few weak pokemon, but it was also given to several broken pokemon making them way too powerful - I find several of the design just really bad. I really dislike mega-salamence, mega-garchomp, mega-blastoise and many others - Many pokemon that were given a mega really needed an evolution (mawile and absol mainly). Now they wont get them for sure

I think Mega Evolution was the best mechanic but just horribly executed. Like who thought it was a good idea to give Mega Gengar shadow tag or the primals and mega ray in general were just ridiculous. There were a handful of just dumb mega evolutions (and the primals Im lumping in) but if they just thought for a second or 2 instead of doing what they did it would have been a much better mechanic. I do like as well how obvious who the mega on their team is. Mawile is obviously a mega if its on someones team. Whereas with Tera, maybe its a skill issue, but sometimes Ill just go for an attack and the opponent will tera into the most random type that they usually tend to have just gotten in a raid den and its hard to predict bc any pokemon can become any type. Still better than Dynamax by a mile tho 😂

Megas in my opinion are the best. Still wishing we could mega 😅

I think that they have been searching for the most balanced gimmick to make it stick. This may be the 1

Dark mode is much better, thank you! Also, just wanted to say this here, not related to the content but this is the first game that i wont buy.. its SUPER clunky, laggy, buggy... its just too sad to see where we are going with pkn..

Best new mechanic or not, it's still ugly af

Just here to drop a NO ITS NOT

I love the concept and mechanics but like the hat... it looks so stupid...

Tera has two major problems honestly, Dragonite and Torkoal, or spread moves and priority. Both are extremely matchup fishy. Spread moves are extremely braindead to use and requires you to invest in bulk on your resists. Priority mons are incredibly strong and somewhat necessitates a priority blocker in most teams. Spread move abusers: Torkoal, Gholdengo, Chi-Yu Priority abusers: Dragonite, Palafin Currently it's just these mons, so you can potentially cover for all of them in one team, but imagine having like Kyogre and Xerneas on top of that. This kinda defeats the purpose of making underused pokemon good, when they get sniped by extreme speed from Dragonite from full.