Pokémon Sun & Moon Special Battle is One-on-One

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Ever felt like having 3 or 4 Pokémon on a team in official battles (singles and doubles, respectively) felt too crowded? Wanted things a little more… personal? Well Season 4’s Special Battle ruleset may be just up your alley. Although both trainers will register teams of 6 Pokémon, only one will be brought into battle for a head-to-head fight against the opposing trainer.

In this Rating Battle season’s Special format, Trainers will create a team of six Pokémon from the National Pokédex, excluding Mythical Pokémon and some Legendary Pokémon. You can use Poké Transporter to bring Pokémon into Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon from previous games. Then, when the battle starts, each Trainer will select only one Pokémon to battle with. You’ll be allowed to use items, but Mega Stones, Z-Crystals, Focus Sashes, and Eviolite will not be allowed. The battles will have a five-minute match time, a 60-second Pokémon preview, and 15-second turn times. Expect speedy battles and plenty of surprises when each Trainer’s Pokémon hits the battlefield! See the Special Format Regulations for details.

This may be a great time to bring in your favorite Pokémon and fight as one a la Ash & Pikachu. Season 4 will run from May 16 at 00:00 UTC until July 17, 2017, at 23:59 UTC.

I also have to say I’m loving these Special Battles, they add a fun new dynamic to online play 🙂

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820 thoughts on “Pokémon Sun & Moon Special Battle is One-on-One”

  2. So what is everyone’s most forgettable Mega Evolution?
    Mine would have to be Mega Steelix. I absolutely love Steelix, but its mega is something I tend to forget its a thing.

    Reply

    • Disclaimer: Forgettable and bad aren’t the same thing.

      I agree though, M. Steelix is pretty forgettable.

      That said, I’m going to say either M. Tyranitar, M. Manectric or M. Houndoom.

      Reply

          • It’s meh. As much as I think retconning all the pink things to be fairy was a bit obvious, I think Audino would fair better if they’d retconned it as pure Fairy or Normal/Fairy instead of just giving it a mega.
            That and Mawile shouldn’t have been Fairy.

        • No el deleto grande yet
          what can we possibly do to make Mega Steelix less……failing
          what if we just dumped all 100 points of Mega Evolution into its defenses and min maxed its Sp atk

          HP: 75
          Attack: 85
          Defense: 300 (+100)
          Sp.Atk: 10 (-45)
          Sp.Def: 110 (+ 45)
          Speed: 30

          and as for Sand Force we give it either filter or levitate

          Reply

          • Then it would be absolutely fucking stupid, do you not know what balance is?

          • it still has the right to exist i mean what is the worst thing this can do aside from not getting scratched physically
            there’s still special attackers
            a extremely limited movepool
            and numerous weaknesses

          • The issue is more that they only made a very limited number, so usage of that limited number of Pokemon skyrocketed.

          • well then why even bother letting pokemon have it
            the ones that work get nothing but good stuff while the others are worse off with their megas

          • Well, they arent giving every pokemon a mega. This isnt a perfect world not everything is even and fair. Even n games things WILL have an advantage,

          • Yeah but minmaxing? Minmaxing is how shit like Pheramosa and Deoxys happen.

          • But it’s fucking Beedrill, that’s the difference
            Beedrill was shit to begin with and literally needed it
            They could balance Steelix a little better and it would be fine, it doesn’t need minmaxing

          • its basically the poor man’s Mega Aggron at least it got the right stuff…..
            a justifiable rock type drop and getting filter

            what did Steelix get? Sand Force and that is horrible for it

          • Mega Aggron isn’t even that good either fyi

            Just give it another ability and boom, fixed

          • like what if i crack down and give it filter or solid rock its just a clone…..
            my only other option could be like…………….Intimidate, Levitate, Sand Rush

          • Heatproof my friend. You realize that can work right? It lets it switch in on fires?
            And maybe it is meant to have low spedef

          • well duh otherwise it can’t be killed but Heatproof isn’t all bad i’m more concerned about water honestly

          • Heatproof is great
            Yeaaaah it’s not getting a water damage reducing ability, that doesn’t really work for a steel snake

          • Minimax exists because it’s a mathematicallly sound strategy according to those crazy zero-sum game theorists. If they’d applied it from the start then everything would be more balanced.

            I tend to apply it to EVs and IVs.

          • Yeah but here’s the issue
            IT wasn’t from the start, so that means things that are minmaxed end up being stupid broken

    • Hmmm thats a tough choice I honestly need seperate lists for favorite design wise and competitive wise, but I have to say my all time favorite mega has to be Mega Sceptile. That cool tail, the cool turn around pose. Even though Grass Dragon isnt the best for defensives, but it still provides nice coverage.

      Reply

        • OOOOOOHHHH. Lol Myb Well thats easy. Mega Sharpedo is easily the most forgettable (and my least favorite) mega. It’s just so lame, and they could have done its stats much better.

          Reply

          • Wait wait wait hold the phone
            Play UU and tell me it’s forgetable
            Literally psychic fangs happened

          • Ah you see theres your youre wrong. I dont play UU therefore I dont battle it therefore its the most forgettable to me.

          • Oh, than that’s understandable…..
            Until you remember how badass it looks!

          • Mehhhh doesnt look that cool to me. TBH XY megas> ORAS megas.
            ORAS megas for some reason dont have the same charm to them.

          • You’re forgetting a certain two megas in Oras that looked greaaatt

          • now its even more of a threat,
            i mean unless i’m packing Breloom i can’t kill it

          • also what was the deal with the nose bones, i mean they don’t even appear in the game model

          • I know right. They appear for after it does its mega screech but then goes away. How pointless

  4. So I just thought of a question
    Do you prefer XY megas or ORAS megas?
    Personally (as stated below) XY megas have this spark in them that makes them all look so cool. ORAS doesnt really have that charm. Some of them are just so boring to me

    Reply

  6. Reminder that a good amount of competitive players actually believe that Tapu Bulu is a genuinely shit Pokemon

    Reply

  8. Someone on Twitter discovered that pokemon.com/hoshi redirects to the official site, and the significance of this is “hoshi” translates to “star” in English. Later they found out that any random string ending in the letter “i” redirects to the main site, but apparently before Sun and Moon were revealed, pokemon.com/niji (niji = rainbow) also redirected to the site. Probably false hopes here but :/

    Reply

  13. I feel like I could stay awake the whole night. Maybe I should, I only fear for how I will feel tomorrow.

    Reply

    • I’ve pulled an all nighter once or twice. Never felt god afterwards. They weren’t even for anything in particular. I’d say go to bed at a reasonable time and wake up refreshed lol

      Reply

    • Depends. Sometimes I do some of my best work late at night when there’s less distractions. There’s always side effects though.

      Reply

  17. Curtsy of Seraph or the aardvark pervert
    behold the majesty and wonder of a Bug/Fire type that isn’t Volcarona
    its Scrapphire and scarab solar deity pokemon
    be amazed of its shiny blue shell that soaks up sunlight and converts it to blue flames
    kudos to you Seraph you depraved lunatic
    huhzahs are in order
    it evolves into the powerful Blaazealous a pharaoh angle dung beetle man, it creates balls of fire that get bigger and bigger as it fights equipped with its signature ability Superheated which heavily reduces oncoming water damage (even nullifying it in sunlight)
    as i said before huzahs are in order woo hoo….

    Reply

      • its just water moves no big woop, still gots to worry about flying and rock
        i mean Water Bubble is pretty op

        Reply

          • its essentially like Seaking having Lightning rod
            it still gets hurt by water moves and regardless water does less in sunlight
            its just its niche so relax

            but honestly how do you feel about the name blaazealous i couldn’t find any egyptum words that meshed well with it

          • i just may scrap it completely i mean i still have my Fire Scorpion
            Scorpyre and Scorchpion
            and my Bug/Ground Rhinoceros Beetle Dynoceros

          • i just really like Dynoceros
            a real rhino covered in a beetle’s shell, and a mighty forked horn
            just a natural tank and bruiser

  18. I don’t know guys, May 10 sounds like a really solid day to make a Direct announcement. I’m not sure why but I’m feeling this one. If not…no game this year?!?

    Reply

      • me too… they skipped 2015, breaking the chain of a release every year between 2009-2014… internationally.

        Reply

      • After that Eurogamer report I simply can’t see them skipping 2017. They got the NX rumors on the nose earlier in the year.

        Reply

        • I also don’t think they’ll skip this year. It seems unlikely they’d skip another year so soon. Like Joe Merrick said in that GameXplain video they haven’t skipped years like they would here since 2000. So it seems unlikely to me for this year to be nothing. lol

          Reply

          • I’ve counted and they didn’t skip internationally from Platinum to ORAS… not sure about JP releases though.

    • Is your third eye speaking to you? lol I also feel like tomorrow will be something good, but if not I don’t think that’s the end. I wouldn’t even be surprised if the direct came on Friday or something. I could even see a late night announcement. Very often announcements will be um….announced when it’s a reasonable time for Japan as obviously they need to appeal to Japanese fans as well.

      Reply

    • I think if not tomorrow or this “week” I say we might have miniscule hopes for a non-pokemon-traditional announcement at E3. If not anytime there, then there’s no chance…

      Reply

  19. Perhaps now is the time to remind y’all that we may not get a direct but may just get a new corocoro leak

    Magearna happened

    Reply

    • I don’t they’d have a game reveal in CoroCoro. That hasn’t happened since Platinum. Yes technically Magearna was in a way a game getting revealed, but it really wasn’t a full reveal. They’ve done that kind of reveal before like with Zoroark, but it’s unlikely they’d do a full reveal exclusively through CoroCoro

      Reply

      • So Pulseman’s dad made an AI he fell in love with and then digitized himself and they had a baby who is Pulseman who can go between the worlds due to his dual nature… his dad leaves cyberspace and turns evil due to being in cyberspace for too long and you have to stop him… I learned this from watching a protonjon stream…

        Reply

  21. Has anyone seen an interview with someone at nintendo where they asked on their opinion of Fangames, and if not… WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T THEY…

    Reply

      • ? I’m asking if someone has seen an interview with someone like Miyamoto, where the person interviewing them asked their opinion on fan games, so I can get an answer from Miyamoto and shit about whether the Dev’s or their Lawyers are the Assholes shutting down projects like Uranium and AM2R and Prism.

        Reply

      • I think Gokaiger is a good starting ground, it’s an anniversary series, and there tribute episodes for just about every series before it.The Power Rangers adaptation of it however… isn’t all that good.Granted, it’s trying to be like Mighty Morphin’, but it just isn’t for a number of reasons (I won’t go into them, but you can get a good gist of it from watching Linkara’s History Of Power Rangers on it.)

        Reply

  23. If the new games are SM remakes or sequels, then there is definitely a possibility that they will be available on the Switch. There’s been plenty of time to make small changes and port everything over. I’m just hoping we don’t get screwed over with R/G/B remakes or some side-series titles, that would just be disappointing :/

    Reply

      • There has been plenty of time if the Stars rumor is true as the rumor states that Stars was in production at the same time as SM only to be put on hold for the last few months of SM’s production so they could polish it. Thus they’d have a ton of Stars done and would only need to continue it’s production after SM’s production ended. So yes plenty of time lol

        Reply

        • *If* the rumour is true, and even then at a push.
          If not, 6 months wouldn’t be long enough.

          First Nintendo has to confirm the hardware they’ll be using.
          Then they have to write device drivers (can’t use the ones that come with the hardware because consoles have non-standard OSes).
          Then they have to adapt the libraries they use (custom drawing, file io, threading, plus 3rd party libraries like SDL etc).

          Then Gamefreak can start porting their engine, which means adapting it to work with the new screen resolution, ironing out all the bugs and inconsistencies (which also means a ton of testing), and only then can they begin writing the new game. Not forgetting that this time they’ll have to remove all traces of code for drawing parallax-based 3D, and any assembly code they might have been using for speedhax (since the Switch uses an x64 instead of ARM).

          Reply

          • Yes you are right about 6 months not being enough time…..but this whole thing has been about the idea that the next game would be a 3rd version for SM and the Stars rumor. So regardless of whether 6 months is enough time it’s irrelevant. The only ting we have to go on is the Stars rumor so that’s what people are talking about and basing their own theories on lol

          • Fam, Gamefreak has had access to the Switch hardware way before it was out. They’re a second party developer making Nintendo’s next system seller

          • If they hadn’t been working on SM, I’d say yeah, but the amount of work they’ve done for SM makes it highly implausible.

  24. The more I think about the more I think I’ll be disappointed if the next game is just a regular 3rd version for SM. After the past 7 year of GF saying they want to surprise their fans and have basically said they’re more or less done with 3rd versions it’d be pretty lame. I don’t mind going back to Alola as I love the region, but I want a new story. Everything seems to point to a game that would be more interesting than just a spiffed up version of SM. So them all of sudden just throwing a reg 3rd version at us all for the sake of giving us a game on the Switch seems lame. If they’re going to jump consoles half way through a gen then they need to make it worth while. I’d prolly buy a 3rd version for the Switch, but I’d feel better about spending the money on a game with a new story.

    Reply

      • I don’t think we’ll ever get a Prequel. Sure prequels can be good, but for a game like Pokemon it would kind of feel useless. There wouldn’t be any surprises and they wouldn’t be able to add any new forms as then we’d be left with the question of why said forms are not in later games (continuity wise)? Also why would they suddenly then be in future games (release wise)?

        Reply

        • Multiverse theory? it’s how they put megas in ORAS… and Gen 2 and 3 pokemon in FRLG, and Gen 3 and 4 pokemon in HGSS, and Gen 5 and 6 Pokemon in ORAS again.

          Reply

          • I detest it only when it gets convoluted as fuck… which is why I detest Comic Books.

          • I’m fine with all the earths in the Arrowverse… and I’m fine with all the Multiverse in Pokemon since it completely replaces the Canon instead of saying it still happened but in another Universe… Still on the fence about the TV Flashpoint though.

          • As do I. It has made things way more complicated than it needs to be. People need to just get over the fact that there isn’t a fully realized continuity and that the timeline is pretty loosey goosey.

          • well All I know is 2/4 are 3 years after 1/3/6 and B2W2 are 2 years after BW and 7 is 10 to 20 years after 1/3/6

          • That’s all you need to know. The point is that really when remakes come out those remakes basically take over continuity over the old games. You can still like the old games, but once a remake comes out the only games relevant anymore are those remakes and not the originals lol

          • Tbh I always just ran with the idea that the games were sequential and any changes to what Pokemon can be found in the reason are due to discovery of new regions leading to Pokemon being imported and let loose in the wild. For the most part it worked.

          • I mean……so your idea is that there are are regions as technologically advanced and they are only now being discovered by the other previous regions? If that works for you then godspeed lol

          • That’s how the anime runs it. It took 1,400+ years for America to be discovered, it’s not out of the impossible. It certainly makes more sense than ‘every game is a parallel universe’.

        • Prehistoric game, and in future games half the pokemon from the prehistoric game have become extinct and are only available through fossils.

          Reply

          • or it could just be a region that’s all little garden and fossil pokemon have survived to the present day.

          • I was thinking prehistoric more for the sake of being a prequel 😛
            A ‘little garden’ area in each new region would be a good solution though. Pokemon Jurassic Park.
            Or have the next game have a plot involving someone taking the reviving tech to the next level and releasing a ton of fossil Pokemon back into the wild. Less like Jurassic Park.

  25. I’m asking AGAIN if someone has seen an interview with someone like
    Miyamoto, where the person interviewing them has asked their opinion on fan
    games, so I can get an answer from Miyamoto and shit about whether the
    Dev’s or their Lawyers are the Assholes shutting down projects like
    Uranium and AM2R and Prism.

    Reply

    • It’s corporate Nintendo that’s the asshole. Many developers don’t mind if fan games are made (as long as they aren’t making a profit), but Nintendo seems to have a problems with even nonprofit games hitting the scene. Which IMO seems ludicrous as it puts up a wall between them and their current and potential customers.

      Reply

      • I share this stance but there as far as I know there is no record of Iwata(MHRIP), Miyamoto, Masuda, Anouma, or even Reggie having been asked about it, and it bothers me.

        Reply

        • Maybe, but at the same time unless specifically asked they aren’t going to talk about it. It goes with Nintendo’s weird don’t as don’t tell kind of policy. Nintendo is such a weird company compared to other gaming companies lol

          Reply

          • which is Why I’m wondering why it seems nobody HAS asked… because it seems like a hot question they would be asked… I’m going to have to presume it’s on the NDA to ask about.

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