I'm not too confident in actually posting in the thread at the moment, but I'll say this. My ladder squad, Hunter's Pack, packed a Special Aegi, and the team has me at 1300s after I put it down to help keep my points from a losing streak. Caladbolg (Special Aegi), while a good performer and good to have around, was doing no clinching whatsoever, that went more to Greninja and MegaChomp, the more powerhousey or verstile and ACTUALLY unpredictble types of mon, and was never in a situation where it was a win condition. In fact, many times it was beaten by another Aegi. Sure, Aegi could bust out a Sacred Sword on a Ferro, but it was gonna take lots of recoil (Iron Barbs? 1/8 is not to be laughed at with Aegi's glassy nature in Blade) And be left out in Blade Forme as Ferro is slower, giving Ferro an opportunity to pack Aegi away with EQ. Mega Chomp would just roast Ferro in one Fire Blast and be done with it, with no risk at all. And that's just one example. What I'm basically saying is, even from my relatively small and lower level experience, Aegi will not be clinching wins, will not be a win condition, and against other common mons like Ferrothorn, needs to one shot, but usually can't, leaving it wide open. THIS IS AEGI'S DOWNFALL. Having an Aegi on the field is reason to move second, meaning this is the perfect time for slower mons to hit like a truck on Aegi while it's in Blade Forme. Aegi's presence allows for the viability of Slower Pokémon by allowing them to exploit Blade Forme and bend it's blade into a plowshare. We want to make Pokémon get used more, so keep Aegi, which reverses the usual Speed Race, and allow slower mons to flourish in beating it up. Remember, it can only hide behind King's Shield for so long. Say you're in Doubles, and you have a Taunt using Prankster Sabeleye on the field, and a Conkeldurr. Taunt Aegi the first turn so that it can't use KS next turn, spend Conkeldurr's turn on the other opponent, then next turn, watch as Aegi is forced into Blade Forme, only to be Megaton Iron Fist Fire Punched into oblivion. I only bring up this doubles scenario as I'm unsure if Conkeldurr can use Taunt itself. If it can, even better, and its possible to do it in Singles. But regardless of that, all you have to do is be slightly slower than Aegi and pack EQ to not get boned by King's Shield and force Aegi to either switch or face imminent doom. IT IS LITERALLY THAT EASY.
I'm not kidding. If you run EQ, using it forces Aegi to either switch or face death by it.
But let me talk about something that will have to go to Übers with Aegi if Aegi goes: Technician Bullet Punch Scizor. If Aegi is toxic to OU as Smogon would like to say, this thing is Toxic left for a few turns, and that's talking from experience. A great attack stat, STAB, Priority, and a boosted base power from Technician? God forbid that sucker's taking an Expert Belt to your Fairies and Rock types, as they'll go down damn fast in that case. Even in the lower ladder, stuff like that is dangerous, and it makes having a Fire move and a decent attacking stat to go with it a win condition. Except its not banned because adding a Fire Move is easy and will likely happen with no extra effort or thought anyway. So why isn't that no-ban logic going to fly with Aegi, who has no Technician priority to abuse in the first place, and whose counter process is literally JUST AS EASY AS SCIZOR'S? Shadow Sneak Priority it does indeed have, but that is for picking off weakened opponents quickly, NOT doing massive amounts of damage like Scizor's Bullet Punch. Of course, if Aegi is banned, it will show a degradation in the overall common sense in Smogon in my mind and I will gladly abandon this sinking ship for Poké Battle.
As for who might shine if Aegi is banned:
I've heard a strong case for Starmie returning. Let me stop you genwunners before you bone yourselves: Greninja is better in every way. It's stats are just a little bit higher, meaning it hits harder and faster, and Protean is something Starmie wishes for every day so that it's Ice Beam could hit like a truck as Greninja's does. With Protean, you can have STAB Surf, HP Grass, Ice Beam, and U-Turn. Starmie can only get STAB on Surf out of all of that. It has better stats, better abilities, and a speed stat high enough to let it run from threats to its safety with U Turn. Greninja is better than Starmie, period. But like I said earlier, Aegi gives us a breath of fresh air from the Speed Race that isn't called Trick Room. Banning Aegi makes slow mons only shine against Trick Room, which is not common from my experience. I know you a roomers are yelling at me, but come fight me and I'll change my mind on that.
"But my Keldeo's Scald is a 3HKO! D:"
Number one, Scald is meant to fish for burns anyway. If you're trying to Hydro power your way through Aegi, you want plenty of force so as to deal good damage on shield forme and spirit out in Blade. Try Hydro Pump. Though why you're trying to wash Aegi away is beyond me, SE is the way to go.
Number Two, you're fighting it wrong in this instance anyway. The way to fight Aegi is to lure out Blade Forme and then smash it with physical SE, which, as I said, IS NOT HARD. This goes for ANY POKÉMON. Every Pokémon has a weak point. Jolteon's is it's low defense, for example. Is Blissey broken because my Special Megachomp's Draco Meteor is a 2 or 3HKO if we ignored the SpAtk drop? Admit it, you'd laugh me out of house and home here if I said that one, because Blissey walls special like a boss, but EQ terrifies it due to low defense. So why are we complaining about a move whose base power is average only scoring a 3HKO on a Pokémon that's meant to be fought physically anyway?
"It's too unpredictable!"
Too unpredictable my arse. It has a very low amount of sets, and it immediately shows it's entire hand as soon as it uses a move not named King's Shield. Aegi has no secrets once the King's Shield is gone. You'll know whether it's special or physical or what have you right off the bat. Besides, unpredictability is what Pokémon is all about, as it has been said several times in this thread. Are we going to force every mon to go one gear one speed one moveset? Let's relegate that to Magikarp and move on.
"It can run so many moves!"
So can many other Pokémon, but even then, NO. As I said, Aegi has about 4 viable sets. 16 slots for moves. Every set has zking's shield, minus four slots, make it 12, with one move registered. All sets, to my knowledge, run either Sacred Sword or swords Dance. 8 slots. 3 moves. The rest of the slots are taken up by Shadow Sneak/Ball/Claw or Flash Cannon or Iron head. No more slots, 8 moves. 8. Of course, you may have more, but this is what I see on Aegi when I fight it.
"It can run so many items!"
And so can my Empoleon, whether they're good on it or not, from Wacan
Berry to a Mystic Water! Items are no excuse to say a Pokémon is OP. You need to plan around what the opponent has. If they have a Shuca Berry for whatever reason, prepare anyway. Remember, Shuca is single use only. Maybe this will factor into your strat to put away Aegi. But most days, it's running Spooky Plate. Taunt/Knock Off sound good? Do it then, your new Mandibuzz is waiting. Speaking of, Mandibuzz can handle Aegi VERY well if played right. It's typing allows it to wall enough to force a switch or face death by Foul play or Knock Off, and can heal off whatever Aegi tries to throw at it with Roost.
Now you can either offer a listening ear or just take one look at my W/L and see its crappiness and ignore me. Price I pay for not alting every time I want to screw with another story mode team clone for the hell of it, or try a new serious team, all of which get to 1100 and then flop. But I can say this after all is said and done: I've used Aegi lots, and while he's good, he's no more broken than the first go to strat I had, Sitrus BellyJet, and many of the people I go to for comp advice will echo me in saying that Aegi deserves no ban. I'd post a link to the current discussion I'm in, but I don't know if that's allowed or not, as it isn't on Smogon. As for the people in said discussion, I know I've put a lot of what you said into this. Not taking credit, just a gratuitous manner of agreeing from personal experience, and saying a lot of what needs to be said and adding in the voices of a whole new realm of the ladder.
I'll end this way. If you don't believe me, my Showdown name is ArtemisTheHunter. You Smogon top dogs are welcome to fight me. No really, I'd enjoy it. Just don't let any spectators in, they annoy the hell out of me. Have fun beating the crap out of Caladbolg, the Special Aegi who isn't broken.
