Honestly checking at how Giratina-O plays out in general, and how it has been in the limbo state for quite a while, I kinda think this suspect is one of the most intresting ones OU has done in a while.
Gira-O is so verstile that it can work in nearly all team types, yet it still has distinct weaknesses such as its item slot and its typing making it weak to multiple threats in OU.
This suspect is bit like kyubi, a strong mon with big BST that seems scary, but yet, when you really look into it, it kinda isn't as scary as it seems.
Giratina-O might be bulky and has nice stats, but they really do not touch the extremes that many other mons do, Gira-O is just... Verstile. It CAN do many roles, its very solid, but due of its many faults, it has issues doing very specilized roles.
So honestly, I kinda hope Gira-O ends up being OU cause it would be a big boon to balanced teams, while still being useful in other team archeotypes aswell.
Only thing that worries me is that Gira-O might be bit too verstile and become overcentralizing due of its ability to fit in too well, but that is still hard to say this early on.
That's pretty my two cents on this.
Okay, first off, its item slot isn't that big of a weakness. It's a free Draco Plate
and Spooky Plate that can never be Knocked Off, and Knock Off will therefore never get a power increase against Giratina, nerfing the most common Dark type attack right from the start. Sure, it misses Lefties a little bit, but it can get on fine without them.
"It's typing makes it weak to multiple threats in OU."
Oh, really? Let's review Mr. Hothead's excellent post on the subject.
Let me go through all of these "common" weaknesses:
Ice: Used on some Electrics as a Hidden Power (ooh so intimidating) and few viable mons are both Ice type and good. The only 2 i can think of is Mamo and Weavile. Also Icy wind lol.
Dark: Knock Off, arguably the most common Dark type move, is not as strong due to Griseous orb being "un knock off able" and Bisharp cant switch into Giratina most of the time because it fears Aura Sphere or a sub.
Fairy: well its a dragon i would suppose its weak to fairies. honestly this isnt a big shocker. Lets also remember that there are only like 5 viable fairies and most are Megas, forcing you to pick a mega based on a Fairy, therefore increasing overcentralization. (Also Shadow Ball aint nothing to fuck with) I mean, using Clef is fine, but it really stops momentum for HO and hates Iron tail.
Dragon: Sure, dragons. Too bad none of the dragons can switch into this thing (besides Malt obv) and such.
Ghost: Theres literally one ghost type in this meta and its Gengar (oops forgot msab). I really dont know any other common and viable mon that runs a ghost type move viably.
Seriously, the weakness argument is bullshit, however there are some good points for pro unban.
This thing is a fucking wall that checks so much shit. This is like 3 walls combined in one.
Srn's list described how fucking ridiculous it is. I'm overall mixed tho. We do need a lando I check, but at the cost of having a rather unfair offensive tank?
Thank you for that excellent post Mr. Hothead.
On paper, Giratina's weak to a ton of stuff. In practice, it's weak to Mega Altaria, Mega Diancie, Clefable, Gengar, Mega Sableye, and Gliscor, as noted above. Yeah, technically speaking that's multiple threat. And as I'm sure you know, Mega Sableye, Clefable, and Gliscor are some of the best Hyper Offense Pokemon in the tier, due their natural offensive abil- no wait, they're common on
BALANCED AND DEFENSIVE TEAMS. The very team archetypes that Giratina's reintroduction is supposed to diminish. Mega Altaria is common on balance as well. So, basically, Mega Diancie and Gengar are offense's answers to Giratina. Two of the most common Pokemon on offensive teams right now. I'm sorry, where's this big change up we're being promised?
And Giratina is NOTHING like Kyurem-B. Kyurem-B is allowed in OU because its stats are distributed so that its one monster attack stat has almost nothing good to use it with, and unlike Giratina, there actually ARE a shitload of common things that can counter it. Plus, it has one possible role: Wallbreaker. And you'll notice, it's STILL pretty high on the viability list right now, because it's still pretty damn good at that one role. Giratina, on the other hand? Well, it may not have quite as high offfensive or defensive stats as some other specialists in those areas, but the stats that it does have are good enough, and unlike Kyurem-B, absolutely none of them are useless, because it has a huge movepool that make it capable of pulling off pretty much any type of set near perfectly. Mixed Attacker, Special Attacker, SubCM sweeper, Offensive Tank, RestTalk, Mixed Wall...it took me about five seconds to come up with a list of six possible roles Giratina can excel at. Not just be good at.
Excel at. You argue that its many flaws prevent it from doing that, but right now, I'm not seeing a whole lot of flaws. Giratina's BST may seem scary at first, but once you actually sit down and analyze the actual distribution of those stats, when combined with its other attributes, you'll realize that it's not scary;
it's downright terrifying.
Not to mention that whether a Pokemon doesn't have as good stats as a specialist in that area is not a great argument for it not being broken anyway.By that logic, Arceus should be just fine in OU because for each of its stats, there's at least one common OU Pokemon that has a higher base value in that stat than Arceus does. You can't just look at the numbers, you have to look at the complete picture. No one wants Arceus anywhere near OU, and for very good reason.
Also, it's funny that you note in your post that Giratina will be a huge boon to Balanced teams, since one of the explicit reasons for this suspect test to begin with is that people are getting tired of seeing the same balanced teams over and over again. And if you think it's gonna be overcentralizing, why are you arguing in favor of it to begin with. Even if it's
not broken (I'm pretty sure it is, but let's just pretend for the moment that it isn't), isn't sheer versatility making it nearly impossible to adequately prepare for all of its options the exact reason why Greninja was banned? Why unban something that is almost certainly going to be worse?