The first round of quickbans has ended, and the results, in number of ban votes out of twelve, are:
Volcarona - 12
Staraptor - 6
Togekiss - 11
Altaranite - 12
Diancite - 12
Galladite - 5
Klefki - 10
Suicune - 2
Lopunnite - 5
Zygarde - 2
And since the minimum number of ban votes required to send a Pokemon to the BL waiting list is 6, this mean's we'll be temporarily saying goodbye to Volcarona, Staraptor, Togekiss, Mega Altaria, Mega Diance, and Klefki. Interesting how everyone was clamoring for Klefki to be unbanned, and once it was, it got sent right back to BL, no?
Here's some basic reasoning behind these bans:
Volcarona is easily among the most threatening setup sweepers in the game, being exceedingly difficult to stop due to Quiver Dance boosting all of its Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed at the same time, making even revenge killing it very difficult. It finds setup opportunities almost every game due to its great set of resistances which include Fighting-, and Steel-, two very common types to be Choice-locked into in UU. Its Base Speed is also high enough that only two of the common Choice Scarf users in the tier can outspeed and revenge kill (Mienshao and Infernape) and even then, its not guaranteed since they need to rely on the inaccurate Stone Edge to do so. While you would think its 4x weakness to Stealth Rock severely hinders its sweeping potential, the fact of the matter is that hazard removal is extremely easy in UU, given the fact that the tier is home to two of the fastest Defog users in the game (Crobat and Aerodactyl) and literally all but one of the Rapid Spin users in the game, including Starmie and Mega Blastoise, which have nice synergy with Volcarona and are extremely effective at removing hazards.
Staraptor's sheer power is what makes it such a threat. Despite the fact that its main attacking moves come with a steep price of 1/3 recoil and its notable Stealth Rock weakness, Staraptor still tears holes into all kinds of teams. To give you an idea of its power, here's how much damage a resisted Brave Bird does to a Choice Scarf Jirachi coming from Jolly Choice Band Staraptor: 48.6 - 57.4%. This means that Jirachi can only come into that attack a single time before succumbing to it. Also, much like Volcarona, the Stealth Rock weakness is easily neutered in this tier, due to the fact that there are so many efficient ways of removing hazards here.
Togekiss is a Pokemon who has the perfect typing, ability, and stat combination to pretty much beat anything in the game 1 on 1, which is absolutely insane. Between its nice set of resistances, courtesy of its Fairy-typing, access to paralysis inducing moves (Thunder Wave and Body Slam), and Serene Grace to boost its main STAB attack's chance of flinching the opposing Pokemon to an absurd 60%, Togekiss is an absolute nightmare to face. The fact that it can boost its Special Attack to absurd levels with Nasty Plot is just the icing on the cake. These qualities alone disqualify any Pokemon slower than Togekiss as a check, since they run the risk of simply getting flinched to death, and given the fact that it can, and usually does, use its bulk to tank any hit from any Pokemon in order to paralyze them and make them slower, one comes to the conclusion that checking Togekiss is just too difficult in this tier.
Mega Altaria holds even more sweeping potential than Volcarona, possesses better typing than Togekiss, and is nearly as strong as Staraptor (jk Staraptor is WAY stronger, but still) due to its Pixilate boosted Return / Body Slam / Hyper Voice backed by 110 Attack / Special Attack. Mega Altaria also packs more than enough bulk to set up multiple Dragon Dances with its 75 / 110 / 105 Defenses and can run a variety of sets ranging from mono-attacking Dragon Dance to full Special Attacker, making it very dangerous to face on the first turn it comes out. However, don't confuse my words, this doesn't mean the threat has been neutered once the set is discovered, even knowing, for example, that you're facing a Dragon Dance Altaria with Roost, Return, and Earthquake, there's not much you can do to stop it, since even Pokemon that resist its Pixilate boosted Returns take a huge chuck of damage from it and can rarely actually do much damage in return.
Mega Diancie is an absolute terror. Between its twin 160 attacking stats, its above average 110 Speed, Magic Bounce to deflect any attempt to stop it from setting up, access to both STAB Moonblast and Diamond Storm, and excellent coverage in the form of Earth Power, Mega Diancie has proven to be absurdly difficult for UU to handle. It can run Calm Mind to plow through defensive teams with ease or Rock Polish to decimate offensive teams. It can even forego a boosting move and simply run Hidden Power Fire as coverage to get past its only decent check--Bronzong. There's really not much more I can add here; if you've faced a Mega Diancie, you know what it can do.
Klefki's case if one I find kind of amusing. Back when we banned Klefki the first time around, people complained a whole lot because no one really saw how it could be broken. Then we decided to unban it when ORAS was released and just a single short week later, people could not stop complaining about how absolutely ridiculous its support capabilities are. Between its ability Prankster, which gives all non-damaging moves +1 priority, and access to Spikes, Reflect, Light Screen, Thunder Wave, Magnet Rise, and Magic Coat, Klefki is one of the few Pokemon in the game that never fail to do its job. Its most dangerous set is, at least in my opinion, Thunder Wave, Light Screen, Reflect, and a filler move, while holding a Light Clay. This allows Klefki to both aid in setting up any of the wide array of dangerous setup sweepers that reside in UU (try and stop Cloyster from setting up two Shell Smashes behind Screens, I dare you) and also mitigate the risk or running heavy offense with insurance against most sweepers due to priority Thunder Wave. There's also a few people, myself included, who believe access to prankster Thunder Wave promotes bad and careless playing, which is a small part of the reason Klefki is getting the boot again.
Just remember, here in UU, bans are never permanent, and all of these Pokemon will have a chance at coming back into UU after the council re-tests their capabilities individually (assuming they don't move to OU first, of course). Finally, there will only be one more round of bans before we begin retesting suspects back into the tier, until then enjoy a more balanced tier!