Alright, it was nowhere near as difficult as I expected, but I whipped up a type chart detailing the changes I'd make for a what-if Gen VII metagame. It's based on
Bulbapedia's design, but I took a more minimalist / non-site-integrated approach. And, despite the fact that it's all squares, it's surprisingly small while still understandable.
Let me know if I've made any mistakes.
Key
A
white indent indicates neutral damage. Multiplier: 1.0x
A red indent indicates resisted or not very effective damage. Multiplier: 0.5x
A green indent indicates super-effective damage. Multiplier: 2.0x
A black indent indicates an immunity. Multiplier: 0x
Squares in the grid with a pale teal background rather than a grey one indicate
changes to the pre-existing type chart.
A full list of changes are as follows:
New Types
- Rock and Ground removed to form a singular Earth type.
- Earth offense: 0x Flying, 0.5x Bug / Grass / Ice, 2x Poison / Fire / Electric / Sound
- Earth defense: 0x Electric, 0.5x Normal / Flying / Poison / Fire, 2x Water / Grass / Ice
- Sound type, rooted in sonic attacks and musical capability, introduced.
- Sound offense: 0.5x Bug / Grass / Dark / Sound / Ice, 2x Steel / Water / Electric
- Sound defense: 0.5x Steel / Electric / Sound, 2x Earth / Grass / Ice
- Sound moves also bypass Substitutes in a similar fashion to Infiltrator, as an added unique dynamic.
Existing Types
- Bug now resists Poison.
Poison already resists Bug.
- Ice given resistance to Dragon and Water.
Notes
For simplicity's sake, an instance where two different types resist one another defensively can be referred to as a
reciprocated resistance. Bug / Poison and Ice / Water have been granted reciprocated resistances.
The key objectives of this theoretical update would be to grant Ice a major defensive buff, give Bug a minor defensive buff, and give Water and Electric minor nerfs.
To add some depth to the type changes, it's important to note that Earth takes more cues from Ground than Rock; as a result, Flying is given one less weakness, making Ice and Electric all the more important; and with Electric retaining a
Ground Earth weakness
and a new Sound weakness, Ice can be moved to a relative forefront, offensively speaking.
The resistances to Dragon, Sound, Water, Earth, and losing the Rock weakness also mean that Ice has the potential to become a substantial new defensive typing, meaning the plethora of defensive ice-types available (such as Lapras, Regice and Avalugg) may see more widespread usage.
Bug, likewise, loses a Rock weakness and gains a resistance to Poison and Sound.
Electric is weakened to an extent thanks to a new Sound weakness and the Earth consolidation means that certain Rock types from the past may now possess an Electricity immunity; this can be somewhat circumvented per Pokemon, though. For example, Electrode can have Soundproof, meaning it would only have its original weakness of Earth.
Water is given an offensive nerf in a roundabout fashion: the lack of the (now admittedly uncommon) Rock / Ground typing means that several Pokemon will lose their 4x weakness to Water. Water also can't hit Ice-types for neutral damage, and Pokemon with reciprocated resist typings (Bug / Poison and Water / Ice, for example Scolipede and Lapras, respectively) gain new, unique resistances to both their own types.
Grass is a much more mixed bag; while it also loses an edge over Rock / Ground types, it's been given an additional resistance and strength against the Sound type, in reference to the old study that plants grow more quickly when exposed to music.
Steel is also a mixed bag; it retains its plethora of resistances, but loses its Rock resistance and its Ground weakness, gaining a Sound weakness in its place. Steel will likely remain in a powerful position, both offensively and defensively, as the rising prevalence of Fairy and Ice-types give it a powerful opportunity as a counter. Amusingly, even with all the new type consolidations, Bug's resistance to Sound means that Scizor
still only has a lone weakness.
Retypings
I won't go into absolute specifics on this, but the Earth consolidation is pretty straightforward; Rock / Ground types become pure Earth, while Pokemon with only one Rock or Ground typing would still become Earth, with variations depending on their secondary typings (for example Steelix becoming Steel / Earth).
Sound, on the other hand, has all sorts of potential. The Electrode line could become Electric / Sound, the Altaria line could become Dragon / Sound as could the Noivern line, though Noivern could easily become a Sound / Flying line as well. The Wigglytuff line would probably become Sound / Fairy. The Exploud line would likely become pure Sound. Chatot could become Sound / Flying. Meloetta's singing could grant it a position as the technical first Sound legendary. The Pyroar line could possibly become Fire / Sound due to the whole roaring thing, but that's debatable. Two near-guaranteed lines would be the Kricketune line, which would become Bug / Sound, and the Chimecho line, which would become Psychic / Sound.
Mega Gallade, when introduced, could probably be Fighting / Sound. Game Freak
did make HarmoKnight, after all.
New Pokemon
Sonic attacks and weaponized music offer a ton of potential options, for example more "instruments of war" like Kricketune. One I can think of off the top of my head would be a big, tanky Steel / Sound pipe organ turtle monster along the lines of Gigalith.
New Attacks
Sound also has a lot of potential for new moves, for example a move exclusive to the Scrafty line called Beatbox, which functions as a halfway-inverse Dragon Dance; it increases the user's Speed, and lowers the foe's Attack. We also already have a minor list of
Sound-based attacks, such as Roar and Boomburst.
