Fairy Pokemon: Are they really that strong?

Hey there! I am the second author of this blog and it was tough picking a topic to blog about but here it goes! Ever since the early spoiler of Sylveon, the new "Eeveelution" for Pokemon X and Y, we speculated as to what type it was. I personally hated the Pokemon so I never really cared about what type it was, but everyone on the internet was trying to figure this out. They speculated that it could be a flying type, a ghost type and even a new type: Fairy. Well, eventually Pokemon confirmed the brand new Fairy type during its June 11th press conference at E3. Now that Pokemon X and Y has been out for 3 days, and the pokedex has been updated with 36 new (and old) Fairy type Pokemon!

Here is some information about this new type:

1. Fairy type Pokemon have a huge advantage over Dragon types, doing 2x damage to them while taking 0 damage from them. Wow!
2. Fairy type Pokemon are weak to Poison type and Steel type Pokemon, doing 0.5 damage to them while taking 2x damage from them. Ouch!
3. Fairy types Pokemon are effective against Fighting type and Dark type Pokemon, doing 2x damage to them while taking 0.5 damage from them.

With that being said, Fairy type Pokemon will be a terror to anyone that extensively uses Dragon types in their team. But, are they in anyway useful against other Pokemon? Lets take me for example. As of Pokemon Black 2 my Pokemon team was centered on tanky, fast and powerful Pokemon. They are also all level 100. The only Pokemon that would have trouble with a Fairy type Pokemon in my team would be Scrafty, being a Fighting/Dark type Pokemon, but even Scrafty could take one out before fainting, mainly due to half of the Fairy type moves having low damage and the base speed of most of the Fairy type Pokemon being very slow. Even if they hit Scrafty first, putting a Focus Sash on him would allow me to take it out with a Head Smash, resulting in both being KO'ed. Other than Scrafty, neither of my main party are really effected by this new Fairy type. A possible exception would be Flygon, but his speed outmatches the majority of the 36 Fairy type Pokemon. Out of the 36, Arceus and Whimsicott and possibly Xerneas have the base speed to match Flygon at level 100. Out of his 4 moves, only 2 are Dragon type. The others are Crunch and Earth Power. Earth Power would be the move to use due to Dark type moves being not very effective (unless it were a Fairy/Psychic Pokemon). Since most Fairy type Pokemon are not also Flying type, this move is still effective, especially if they are Fairy/Electric, Fairy/Steel, Fairy/Rock or just plain Fairy (which a majority of them are). So the only Fairy type Pokemon that pose a threat to Flygon are Whimsicott and a high level Arceus.

So, do I think Fairy type Pokemon are too strong? No. They can be easily countered with speed and exploiting their secondary types. Do they ruin competitive play? Possibly, considering how strategies will have to be changed to take in account that your opponent will have 1 or multiple Fairy types in their team.  Some popular Dragon type Pokemon will probably be swapped out for lesser used Dragons (Flygon) or less risky non-Dragon Fairy type counters (Ferrothorn for example). Since I don't play competitively, Fairy types will not be a problem for me. I explained how even Pokemon that are completely overpowered by Fairy types can still take them out and how speed and secondary types are the key to defeating most of the Fairy types. I'm no Pokemon expert and these are just my opinions, so if you have anything to add to this go ahead!