K played a bunch on the ladder and now I think I have solidified my opinion.
I'm really disappointed in people so far. I see all this blind hate for Aegislash and I really don't understand where it's coming from. Aegislash is straight up not broken. Not under any of the "characteristics" or any other definitions of broken I've seen here. And if a mon isn't broken, we have no reason to ban it, and if there is no reason to have something banned, it should be unbanned. So let's go through the different accusations of brokenness.
Well, that's your opinion. On paper, an effective 720 BST Pokemon with arguably the best defensive type in the game while still being great offensively, STAB priority if it needs, drawback-free fighting coverage, an admittedly situational, but arguably better version of protect and the ability to wall huge portions of OU is pretty good, you go into detail so let's see.[/quote]
Offensively:
I think most people should agree that Aegislash should not be considered broken in the offensive sense. I myself argued that Aegi was traditionally broken last time we tested it, but I simply disagree with myself now. Aegislash, in order to hit as hard as people claim it does, must run either Life Orb or Spooky Plate/Spell Tag. This does give it more offensive presence, but doing so sacrifices the main purpose of using Aegislash: its bulk and typing. Leftovers Aegislash, while formidable, is much less threatening that some of the other metagame defining threats. Take a look at this:
252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 176 SpD Mega Scizor: 135-160 (39.3 - 46.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Keldeo Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 176 SpD Mega Scizor: 226-267 (65.8 - 77.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Thundurus Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Arceus-Bug: 123-145 (32.2 - 38%) -- 96.3% chance to 3HKO
252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Arceus-Bug: 136-162 (35.6 - 42.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Arceus-Bug: 130-154 (34.1 - 40.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
It's really not that different from all the other big attackers in the tier. While also being much more prone to revenge killing due to its slow speed. I can't tell you how often I would come in, get a hit off, they switch to their check, and I would be forced out again. And there are MANY checks to Aegislash. Are there full counters? Probably not, though Taunt Mandibuzz and bulky Mega Scizor come very close. But there aren't any counters to plenty of mons, so I don't really buy that argument. As for checks, there's both Zard X and Y, Mega Scizor, Regular Scizor, Mega Gyarados, regular Gyarados, Chesnaught, Hippo, Gliscor, Heat Wave Tornadus, Jolly Bisharp (aka the one everyone uses lol), ScarfTar, ChopleTar, Mega Lopunny, Heatran (both offensive and defensive), Hydreigon, Conkeldurr, Mandibuzz, Landorus, Suicune, Mega Houndoom, and others. PLEASE NOTE THAT THAT LIST INCLUDES OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE CHECKS MEANING THAT NOT ALL CAN SWITCH IN ON EVERY MOVE AEGI HAS. Even still, these mons can all beat Aegi one on one. So please don't go telling me Aegi forces you to run some obscure shit to beat it. Some of the most common pokemon beat Aegislash.
OK, firstly with the calcs, of course a Choice Specs Pokemon with a 110 Base Power move is going to hit a lot harder than an unboosted 80 Base Power attack, while Aegislash is guaranteed to land its moves (34% chance to miss 1 out of 2 Hydro Pumps). Aegislash's Special Attack is actually higher than Keldeo's. I understand your point in that Aegislash can't hold a Choice item but it makes up for that in sheer versatility and it can also run positive Attack/Special Attack natures. It hits harder than Mega Metagross, which came that close to getting banned because it's too powerful, and that's without Life Orb or Spooky Plate.
OK, your list of checks is not perfect, I won't go through every calc but I will give special mention to Lopunny as Lopunny vs Aegi is such a risky setting, almost pure 50/50 with high stakes on both ends, and Chesnaught which can literally only Leech Seed and maybe Spiky Shield, is beaten senseless by SubToxic and can't do much regardless of the set
Aegi does have checks, but don't forget that even if the user wants to sac Aegi many you listed are crippled by KS as a last ditch effort. Basically none in your list are switchins, most are revenge killers and all switchins are beaten by specific moves (Hippo is straight up 2HKOed by Life Orb/Spooky Plate Shadow Ball) You did say that "THIS LIST INCLUDES OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE CHECKS MEANING THAT NOT ALL CAN SWITCH IN ON EVERY MOVE AEGI HAS," I'm not breaking that rule I'm just simply pointing out that even though you're saying that is has plenty of checks, it still doesn't have many switchins at all, and must be revenge killed quite a lot.
Defensively:
This fits in pretty well with the last paragraph. But there are plenty of ways to deal with Aegislash defensively. It has no reliable recovery outside of Lefties, which makes its fairly easy to wear down. I guess I'll dedicate this section to the supposedly anti meta God that is Sub Toxic. Even back when Aegi was around before, I didn't like that set myself. It lures in Hippo sure, but all it does is Toxic it and then get forced out. It's utter bait for anything with Sub, and every Dark type loves the free switch it gives, namely Bisharp and Mega Gyarados. It can't even really beat Mandi, since Taunt shuts it down 100%, meaning it also straight up loses to Gliscor (though every Aegi set does too). You really don't gain much by using it and lose a ton in return. So I'm not really sure why this set has people jizzing over it.
OK, firstly, Head Smash deals with Mandibuzz quite effectively.
Now, to be honest you don't talk about its defensive capabilities really, you're just saying the SubToxic set isn't that good.
But I will say that 60/150/150 Defenses plus, as I said, one of the best Defensive typings in the game (debatable, true, but it's really freaking good), a reliable way to drop a lot of physical attackers' Attack and the ability to live just about any one attack if it needs to means it's one of the best defensive Pokemon that isn't a wall you could ever get.
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 322-382 (99.3 - 117.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
I mean, it has a chance to live Landorus' Super Effective STAB Earth Power. Not saying at all that Aegi should stay in on this, just displaying how bulky it is.
Support:
Oh this one I love. "Landorus is broken so let's ban Aegislash!" What a joke. People come and say we don't unban broken things to check broken things, and then go right back saying that Aegi might not be broken itself but it makes stuff like Lando and Zard Y and Keldeo sweep more easily (how it does this any more so than Scarf Tar Ill never understand but alright). How about we look at it like this instead: Aegi pursuits Psychic types for Lando and Keldeo to sweep, so let's ban Landorus and Keldeo, not Aegislash, whose role could easily be replaced by Ttar or Bisharp. Why ban Aegislash, which is on a similar power level to other offensive threats, simply because other, more powerful threats can sweep ?_?
The argument that Aegi can let those Pokemon sweep is, I'll admit, not the most potent argument, but the fact that it's something you can just slap onto a team and it stops just about every threat to a specific Pokemon dead in its tracks while having mobility of choice over something like Scarftar, potential recovery over most Bisharp and Scarftar again, the fact that it doesn't force itself into Pursuit or any move and become setup fodder, and so on, gives it a definite edge over those, imo.
Again, you definitely wouldn't ban something just for this reason, but the fact that it can do this on top of a lot of other things compounds it a bit.
Centralization:
This is the only thing I think makes sense to keep Aegi banned for. If it has a negative pull on the meta, and you prefer the match-up fest we have right now, then that's your opinion.
Unfortunately, I don't even really think Aegi is as centralizing as it used to be. I laddered with two teams. One was a Zard Y + Reuniclus team, and the other was a Mega Scizor team that used Aegislash. The fact that I was able to use Reuniclus at all immediately disproves the "Aegi makes psychics unviable" argument. It's straight up not true. Aegi is just as much a threat to Reun as Sableye and Mega Zor are to it. You work around them. You pair it with mons that handle those things (like I did with Zard Y .-.) and you use whatever you want. No one wants Aegi because it makes Psychics unviable. They want it because it's an easy mon to use if you are weak to those things, and then players can use their FUCKING SKILL to play around Aegi or the opponent's core they will inevitably be using to get around it if they have a Zam or Reun or whatever. But in no way does Aegi being around mean you can't use Reuniclus or Hawlucha or Serperior (this actually beats Aegi if it switches in on Leaf Storm LOL).
Aegi is like a black hole in OU and everything needs to be able to deal with it. You will almost never see Superpower Azumarill anymore, all have Knock Off, Earthquake is almost guaranteed on MegaGross, so on and so on. You can still use Pokemon that are walled by Aegi in OU, true, but god are they hard to use. I can't find a good reference for this as the only XY viability ranking thread that has Aegi in it was the original one (Char Y was S rank, wasn't the most accurate rankings) but Hawlucha wasn't even ranked in that which sort of shows Aegi's pull on the meta.
I agree that nothing will be unwallable and that you should just pack a check to whatever it is you need, but when all our old sets are being walled and we need new coverage (example, Altaria basically needs EQ now), it's a bit too far. M-Altaria, Azumarill, Celebi, Conkeldurr, M-Gardevoir, Jirachi, Kyubes, Lati@s, M-Metagross, Raikou, M-Scizor, Slowbro, M-Venusaur, M-Alakazam, M-Heracross, M-Pinsir, Terrakion, Tornadus-T are all the things just from OU and BL that have one of their moveslots virtually predetermined just because of the existence of one Pokemon is too far imo. Of course, a lot of these can only actually touch Aegi on the switch, so they're limited even when they do warp their movesets for it. Then there's Breloom, Chansey, Starmie, M-Medicham, Hawlucha, Staraptor that could probably drop 3 ranks each in the viability at least.
The pull this thing has on the meta is disastrous. I always thought that ORAS OU wasn't as matchup based as everyone said, but that's my opinion and, even assuming I'm wrong, one Pokemon having this level of influence over an entire meta just can't be healthy, at least the way I see it.
But the main thing I want to say is that if Aegi isn't broken in the traditional sence, don't keep it banned. If it makes Lando sweep, ban fucking Lando. Yes there are many mons that need to leave the meta, but those mons should leave, not prevent us from unbanning Aegislash, which does not break the tier. It's just a good mon that is easy to use. There's nothing wrong with that. Don't let your distaste for other Pokemon cloud your judgment when it comes to Aegislash.
Unban it, it's overdue.
I'm of the opinion that Aegi itself is broken. I've looked from both angles, I've thought about it for a long time. Something with the ability to have a set for literally every single Pokemon that exists (OK, maybe an exaggeration, but I don't know. At least everything that I can think of is beaten by one set given a free attack) is broken as can be in my eyes.