My unpopular opinion: Master strikers are garbage in the long run, Master supports will be the real Master pair powercreep
I have seem a lot of the discussion over if Steven is bad, or if the Master units are not powerful enough to be considered Master units (compared mostly to Kyogre because groundoun has his limitations).
So far all master pairs have been suffering from the same problem: region options limitations making them forced in determined compositions or inherit certain weaknesses, the only one that seems to evade this is Kyogre and this is not because Kyogre itself is extremely OP mega broken, it is because his best partner is a booster from his region flag, is a special attacker, a rain setter AND is also incredibly broken by itself, May and Swampert, who also has, good stats, multipliers, defenses and speed in rain btw.
So, what all you mostly want in Lilie, Steven and N is good synergy and nothing else. If you compare Groundon to Kyogre, their differences and wekanesses revolve to 2 things, the existence of a rain setter in hoenn and that Groundon did not get a physical fire move to benefit from his own ability, instead he got Solarbeam... Leon while still nice basically loses his passive if he uses a sun setter or is limited to subpar same region people.
This would not happen if the Master fair is a support unit, supports in this game have survived for quite a long time, Alakazam, Samurott, even starmie, has survived 2 years of power creep and even the newer ones seem like sidegrades to the older ones, and in some cases they even fail to beat the older ones (Rip Rachel and umbreon), they would be able to work with the strikers of their region no matter the type and some would let non-damage Techs to be useful, like ponyta. This is my reasoning why in the long run Master fair strikers might not be the best bet, because in the end of it all Master fair supports will be the ones to run the show.
There is a high probability that eventually we will get a region locked Master fair + a free Type locked free Master unit, like N and Entei for example, but this is quite the gamble and there is no guarantee we will not get units that without the Master abilities are better than the Master fair units in those elements for when that happens, so if you are going to pull for any of the units in the coming banner for meta reasons, consider that they might as well be useful only for the next few months and that they might not see a proper partner like Swampert or Entei or that the Master ability boost might not even be as exploited as for example the free ones or that Master fair supports released in the future will be the ones you will squad build around and not your strikers like we do right now...
Posted Aug 27, 2021, 11:52 PM UTC
I believe the dev are totally aware of how broken a Master Support can be, so they either nerf them (BP master) or just don't make one (at least for now).
Also "garbage" feels a bit going too far.
They have lower rates, are marginally better and their main selling gimmick is in danger with a gate of powercreep that is the obvious big next step when DENA needs to milk us. SS Leon and Lear seem as a better investment than the anniversary units. N is the only one that will have a longer live span, but Lilie is already being haunted by Allister, who was in the trailers and has a Dynamax Gengar. Steven is barely better than the already existent options. And N while good is dependent on a set up (sun) that nullifies his Master Ability, yes he is not garbage but is not like Fire needs him or anything.