Who Actually Broke the Legendary Format?

A while ago, there were 2 continental legendaries in Rinchicyon and Glyptoceras. Rinchicyon was pretty decent, but poor Glyptoceras was not. However, people were waiting on the final continental legendary: the Struthiomimus hybrid. When it finally came, it was overshadowed by Troodaboa, Albertospinos, and the insane Ankylos Lux. But then the first legendary format came around, and people realized how big this thing was. It would slowly eat away at a team. Creatures like Enteloceros and Megalotops couldn't handle something like this. Your best bet was Ankylomoloch, however Fukuimimus could always run away to something else like Megistocurus and damage the Ankylomoloch. Fukuimimus was unstoppable. And worst of all was the mirror. The infinite battle. Basically have fun spending the next quarter hour wasting your time on a singular battle. It was not a fun time. Something needed to change, and that's what Ludia did.

What made Fukuimimus so good? Well, when you look at the kit, it is very defensive. It lacks armor, but it has a large hp stat with 2 heals. Shelter heals x2 while Remedy heals x1.5. It also has a counter that slightly increases its damage when hit. While this may sound good when paired with its only damage multiplier group cunning rampage, it is even better when paired with all of its healing moves. So it can basically cycle heal heal rampage heal heal rampage over and over again. Its strike was the least used move in its kit, but it was still very good. Cleansing strike made it so you could do damage if you didn't need to heal while also removing any other possible negative effects. Its kit also paired well with its swap in distraction, allowing it to basically be pinned for just one turn. And to top it all off, you cannot leave out the resistances. It had immunity to distraction and critical reduction, which is pretty good for something rocking 1250 attack and a 15% critical hit chance. But it also boasted 50% speed and stun resistance. This may not sound like a lot, but the stun resistance is always good to have. As for the deceleration resistance, it is one of the few cases where this resistance percentage works on something that lacks a slowing move of its own. Thanks to shelter, Fukuimimus would still sit at a good 127 speed, outspeeding Ankylodactylus. And its final resistance was 75% pin resistance, allowing it to almost freely run away from popular threats at the time like Megistocurus. All this rolled into one creature made what was probably the most impactful legendary creature ever.

The next release to impact the legendary format was Ankylodactylus. Unfortunately, this did nothing for Fukuimimus. It was distraction immune, probably to try and prevent it from swapping in turn 1. However, as long as it doesn't get a rampage crit, Fukuimimus still can swap in and win. Things really didn't change until the 2.15 patch. This is when we got first introduced to the first true counter: Thylaconyx. Thylaconyx was the one true counter, but despite being a better creature, a Fukuimimus was just far more valuable because of its ability to constantly heal over and over again. And despite Thylaconyx countering Fukuimimus, if it took any sort of damage or if that 15% critical hit chance on Fukuimimus really decided to activate, it could still go down. Thylaconyx did really help though, as creatures like Megistocurus or Mammotherium could use their resilient impacts to deal enough damage so that a swap from Thylaconyx could take it down. Tarbognathus was also released in this patch, and it could do something about a low hp Fukuimimus or a Fukuimimus trying to swap out, but it was helpless on the field with it. Something else needed to happen. Thylaconyx was good, but this wasn't enough. And since Thylaconyx was also handling other tanks like Ankylomoloch, it was spread a bit thin.And boy did that something come.

Midway through 2.15, a new legendary arrived on the scene: Rexy. Now, this was the first legendary that could 100% kill Fukuimimus. And finally, balance was restored....except that it wasn't. While Fukuimimus would slowly eat away at teams, Rexy would steamroll them. And on top of that, there were a few creatures that Rexy really could not handle. Creatures like Scorpios Rex, Ankylodactylus, and Diplovenator could all somewhat square up to Rexy, but they all lacked a way to keep her pinned down. And what better creature to run away to than Fukuimimus? Yep, Rexy's new best friend was that familiar face that everyone hated to see. Thylaconyx could square up to Rexy, but Fukuimimus could swap in and wear it down for Rexy to return and just win. I remember that format and it sucked bigtime because if you didn't draw Rexy but had a few Rexy counters, a simple Fukuimimus swap lost you the game.

For a long time, Rexy still ruled over the legendary format. However there was one small issue that made it so Fukuimimus could still reign supreme: a simple restriction. You see, as a nonhybrid, there was a good chance that Rexy would be barred from competing in a specific format. So, in order to combat this, Ludia introduced quite a few creatures to try and fix the problem. The 2 that best did this were the legendaries introduced right after Thylaconyx and Rexy: Lystrosuchus and Dreadactylus. While Dreadactylus seems to have been designed more for Rexy, it could also use that counter and its decent multipliers to take down Fukuimimus or at least get it in range for either Thylaconyx or Lystrosuchus. Lystrosuchus also had some tools up its sleeve, like resilient rampage with a good attack stat and stunning impact and run, which had a decent shot of stunning Fukuimimus second as usually it was faster thanks to shelter. So, did these guys fix the problem in the hybrid only format? No. Fukuimimus was not as good as it was before Rexy and company, but it was still on top of the meta. Once again, something needed to happen. Segnoraptor was tried as it could maybe break through with distracting triple strike with ferocity, but it never really stuck. Ludia also buffed Tragodistis, but this made things even worse because now Fukuimimus had two chances to create an infinite matchup with. Things began to look up with the legendary tank enlightenment as not one, not two, but THREE legendary tanks got some massive love. Nodopatotitan got more bulk and a healing move, Gigaspikasaur got far more offense with distraction resistance and a good counter, and Dsungaia was now distraction immune. Why was all of this done? probably to give us more Fukuimimus answers. The problem was that it didn't fully work either. Then later on, Pyrosuchus also came along with a 75% shield and distraction resistance to maybe try and stop Fukuimimus, but that still changed nothing. However, the sun was setting on the Fukuimimus empire. And with the rise of a new dawn, came the end of Fukuimimus.

When 2.20 rolled around, there were a few creatures that stood out.You had both Atrociraptor uniques as well as Geminideus. However, there were two legendaries released that also caught the eyes of the playerbase. First up was Panthera Blytheae, who was hailed as the 100% Rexy counter. However, while it probably was true that this was its intended purpose, it also could demolish Fukuimimus at a moment's notice as well. However, there was another legendary that could do just as good of a job, if not better. While Panthera Blytheae could take no damage from Fukuimimus, that was only when evasive hunt was ready. It couldn't really swap in that safely on it in fear of a rampage. Spinoceratops however didn't mind Fukuimimus's rampage at all. Spinoceratops was super tanky, and had a deadly 1-2 combination of lethal wound to rending takedown. And because it was slower than Fukuimimus, the bleed couldn't be cleansed by shelter. Remedy was a bit of an issue, but Spinoceratops also had heavy strike, allowing it to bypass dodge and remove speed increase and damage reduction, perfect for Fukuimimus. And if Fukuimimus wanted to run away, it would have to risk on escape obstruction. And while at first it didn't work right, brace allowed Spinoceratops to brush off a boosted cunning rampage, the only real form of output Fukuimimus had. The first format with Spinoceratops legal rolled around, and Fukuimimus felt...mediocre. Yes it was still solid, but it actually didn't feel like a top 5 legendary first the first time. It had finally died. And to make sure it was really not coming back, Alloraptor was given a swap with 1700 attack while having an on escape strike as well. Panthera had no escape as well as a berserk move that has both priority and bypasses dodge while also being faster than Fukuimimus, thus beating out its own priority. In order to beat new creatures like Rexy and Spinoceratops, the meta adapted and Fukuimimus was no more.

So, how did Fukuimimus break the meta despite not being in it anymore? Well, it lead to the "big 4" as I like to call them. Thylaconyx, the weakest member, was the first one designed to try and stop this menace. And when that didn't work, Rexy was introduced to really put the kibosh on Fukuimimus, but it adapted. However, she still didn't change legendary hybrid only. Thylaconyx couldn't do the job alone, so Spinoceratops was introduced and Panthera Blytheae was added as a bonus to beat out this creature. This was Ludia's way of phasing it out. Like back in early 2.15, if Thylaconyx went down, you were basically screwed. So Ludia was like "Here is something else for you." But when the hybrid only restriction went up and now Tragodistis vs Fukuimimus was also an issue, Ludia compensated with Spinoceratops. "Here is another creature that you can use to stop this spamming staller". And Panthera Blytheae was more of an answer to Rexy, but was also designed with precision probably so that it could take down Fukuimimus no problem at all. Basically all of these creatures took Fukuimimus into account. These are also the same 4 creatures that completely ruin the legendary format. And who was the start of the powercreep overdrive? It was none other than Fukuimimus itself.

Thank you all for reading. I hope that the legendary powercreep really slows down and takes a few steps back, because that format is just no fun when everyone runs the same 7 with the last option being a very select few. Be sure to check out our other articles coming soon (as I got quite a few in the works as I'm writing this). Stay tuned and happy playing!