X and Y shook up competitive play more than any generation before them: a new type, a new mechanic, Mega Evolution, and a long list of reworked rules. Here is what you need to know to understand the sixth-generation metagame and to build your own teams.
Super Training, the Destiny Knot and the IV judge made training accessible to everyone: it had never been so simple to prepare a competitive Pokémon. That is also why competitive play exploded in X and Y.
The 3DS online battles have been closed since April 2024, but everything that follows applies to the Battle Maison and to local battles with friends, and remains the foundation of competitive play today.
