Great League and Ultra League, Newly Remixed

The momentum for this has slipped away quite a bit, so before it slips away any further, it should be discussed. Late last month, I discussed the possible "remixing" of GBL formats beyond the standard leagues, two of which has gotten the treatment (Great and Ultra) in the current season. However, I didn't address those current treatments since I wasn't ready for that. The Ultra League Remix had just concluded a couple of days ago, and with that, I'm more or less ready discuss the two remixes of the two standard leagues in the current season.

An important point of the current remixes is that they are new. It is new for the Ultra League Remix nonetheless, but the Great League Remix is also new. The primary reason is that unlike the initial implementation of the remix treatment for the Great League, this remix treatment has more Pokémon that are excluded or banned: specifically, there are 20 species banned for each of the remixes. These represent the species most frequently used by Trainers of Ace rank or higher for each and the full lists can be seen on the official blog. Furthermore, the lists of banned species were predetermined at the start of the season instead of being determined mid-season as with the initial implementation. This new implementation therefore has a very radical change.

Nearly all of the Pokémon banned in the original Great League Remix were still banned, though now specific forms were targeted (specifically Alolan Marowak, Deoxys Defense, and Galarian Stunfisk). Raichu notably left the list, and 11 new species joined the rest. Not surprisingly, they include a few of the species that I had previously mentioned as popular and dominating, being Politoed, Medicham, Altaria, and Bastiodon. The new remix thus improves on the earlier remix by removing further possibilities of dominance by the species that the earlier remix didn't catch, which subsequently had become dominant.

Meanwhile, the new Ultra League Remix was rather weighty, in that it both started out with 20 species right off the bat and contains some really heavy Pokémon. Venusaur, Umbreon, Swampert, and Talonflame, which are out would be as dominant here as in Great League, are banned. Other banned heavy hitters include Charizard, Empoleon, Togekiss, and Escavalier. From the "Legendary and Mythical Club", Articuno, Registeel, Giratina Altered, Cresselia, and Melmetal are also barred from usage. While there are lots more heavy hitters than the ban list - which indeed became prominent afterward - the list presented a heavy but good challenge.

It is evident that there was the realization that only banning 10 species did not make too much of a dent in the meta, or the "mix" in the remix if one prefers. With 20 species banned for each league, the meta was sufficiently changed up somewhat, which I can attest with the Ultra League Remix and my difficulty in planning for it. One might have better luck if one were to have the counters for the original meta instead.

Variability was clearly intended with the expanded remix for the Great League and the all-new remix for the Ultra League. If Trainers were not being variable enough with the regular leagues, in the case of the Great League along with its original remix, the two remixes would force a greater variability of selected Pokémon for battle. With the variability, Trainers would have to take the momentum of battle among the viable species that weren't banned and power through others with similar compositions, even greater still this time.

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