Pokemon’s turn-based combat can be best described as an inch wide and a mile deep. Its rock-paper-scissors style is easy to understand, but below the murky surface lies an entirely different game. Moves that may seem useless at first glance take on a different meaning in a competitive setting, where complicated stat spreads are tweaked ever-so-slightly to maximize a Pokemon’s efficiency and a constantly evolving meta-game makes it hard to nail down which strategies are viable and which aren’t. Toss in over 1,000 unique monsters that can be trained in hundreds of thousands of different ways, and you’re left with arguably the most impenetrable competitive video game scene of all time.
