Tuthur
haha
This thread is mostly about Basculin and Pikachu. Both species share the specificity of having two forms that share the same typing and stats but with one being able to evolve, while the other is not. The fully evolved form (Pikachu-Caps and Basculin-B/R) are tiered as FE Pokemon and start in OU, while the other ones start untiered (Pikachu and Basculin-W).
It has been determined by past threads (1 2) that typing and stats are objective metrics that allow to separate forms. These rules are already sufficient to tier separately other instances of FE and NFE forms in Corsola, Mr. Mime, and Linoone, and every other form I can think of. They are also the reasons why Pokemon with different abilities and/or movepools such as Squawkabilly, Meowstic, and Toxtricity are tiered together. The cosmetic and lore aspects have never been reasons to tier Pokemon separately.
In my opinion, the access to a new item isn't objective enough to warrant both forms to be tiered separately. This falls in the same line as Meowstic Male's access to Prankster making it much better than Meowstic Female as a Screen setter, or only one of the Toxtricity form learning Shift Gear. Considering them as different forms would open the door at tiering movesets, which is something undesirable. I would argue this is the same about Basculin and Pikachu, Pikachu being a quite interesting example as it never made use of Eviolite and carve its niche around its access to event moves that Pikachu Cap don't have access to like Extreme Speed and Surf. I do also believe the current policy could cause some problem in some hypothetical future. The Pokemon Company has been releasing a lot of exclusive items for the past generations like Mega Stones, Z Crystals, and Booster Energy. Under the hypothesis of The Pokemon Company releasing an item that only works for event variants of a species, would they be tiered separately? If yes, is it different from Extreme Speed + Sacred Fire Entei in earlier generations? If no, is it different from Basculin-W's access to Eviolite?
My point is that the access to an item is similar to the access to a certain move and/or ability, and quite different from having different stats and typing. The formers are a group of options available to the form, while the laters are inherent caracteristics of it. Every Basculin set is going to have a 70/92/65/80/55/98 stats spread and a pure Water-typing, just like both Blaze and Speed Boost Blaziken have a 80/120/70/110/70/80 stats spread and a dual Fire-Fighting typing. However, you can't have Galarian Zapdos with an Electric-Flying typing and a 90/90/85/125/90/100 stat spread. This what makes Zapdos forms objectively different, while Basculin forms aren't more different than two different sets of the same Pokemon.
It has been determined by past threads (1 2) that typing and stats are objective metrics that allow to separate forms. These rules are already sufficient to tier separately other instances of FE and NFE forms in Corsola, Mr. Mime, and Linoone, and every other form I can think of. They are also the reasons why Pokemon with different abilities and/or movepools such as Squawkabilly, Meowstic, and Toxtricity are tiered together. The cosmetic and lore aspects have never been reasons to tier Pokemon separately.
In my opinion, the access to a new item isn't objective enough to warrant both forms to be tiered separately. This falls in the same line as Meowstic Male's access to Prankster making it much better than Meowstic Female as a Screen setter, or only one of the Toxtricity form learning Shift Gear. Considering them as different forms would open the door at tiering movesets, which is something undesirable. I would argue this is the same about Basculin and Pikachu, Pikachu being a quite interesting example as it never made use of Eviolite and carve its niche around its access to event moves that Pikachu Cap don't have access to like Extreme Speed and Surf. I do also believe the current policy could cause some problem in some hypothetical future. The Pokemon Company has been releasing a lot of exclusive items for the past generations like Mega Stones, Z Crystals, and Booster Energy. Under the hypothesis of The Pokemon Company releasing an item that only works for event variants of a species, would they be tiered separately? If yes, is it different from Extreme Speed + Sacred Fire Entei in earlier generations? If no, is it different from Basculin-W's access to Eviolite?
My point is that the access to an item is similar to the access to a certain move and/or ability, and quite different from having different stats and typing. The formers are a group of options available to the form, while the laters are inherent caracteristics of it. Every Basculin set is going to have a 70/92/65/80/55/98 stats spread and a pure Water-typing, just like both Blaze and Speed Boost Blaziken have a 80/120/70/110/70/80 stats spread and a dual Fire-Fighting typing. However, you can't have Galarian Zapdos with an Electric-Flying typing and a 90/90/85/125/90/100 stat spread. This what makes Zapdos forms objectively different, while Basculin forms aren't more different than two different sets of the same Pokemon.