It’s time to post my nominations.
This is going to be quite a wall of text, I think.
Doryuuzu
:
Let’s begin with 604 speed in sandstorm. This thing is the fastest Pokemon
in the OU Metagame if you have a Sandstorm running, and if you want to
outspeed it, you need a Choice Scarf on a Pokemon that has a Speed stat
of at least 404; only Electrode, Ninjask, Agirudaa and Deoxys can even
reach that number, and if we’re honest, we know that every single one of
them except for maybe Deoxys-Speed is useless with a Choice Scarf.
Therefore, you cannot rely on outspeeding the mole if you want to get rid of it.
This brings us to the next point: Priority revenge killing. Yes, I know that
Doryuuzu is weak to Mach Punch and Vacuum Wave, but calculations have
already been run on that. The only 2 Pokemon that have a chance to
revenge kill Doryuuzu with a priority move are Choice Band Azumarill and
Life Orb Technician Breloom. The latter is not yet released; the former is
one of the easiest Pokemon to predict in the game and is something I don’t
want to be forced to use just to counter one specific threat.
Oh, prediction! People say that Doryuuzu is easy to predict. While that
might be true, by no means does that mean he’s easier to play against.
Doryuuzus movepool is indeed limited, but he has everything he needs:
STAB Earthquake, which some consider the second or third best attacking
move in the game, Rock Slide for coverage and a flinch chance that might
bite you in the ass when you don’t expect it, Swords Dance to boost his
135 (!) base attack… Options for the last move are Metal Claw for a
secondary STAB and a chance to raise Attack even further, X-Scissor for
coverage and Return for another move with more than 100 base power. Oh,
and don’t forget Rapid Spin!
The last point that must not be overlooked is his secondary Steel-typing.
Doryuuzu is immune to both Thunder Wave and Toxic and has a 4x
resistance to Stealth Rock; not to mention all the other defensive benefits
that the Steel type has to offer.
Conclusion: Doryuuzu completely rolls over Heavy Offense teams, he only
needs a tiny bit of support to rampage through Semi-Offensive and
Balance-Teams, and he can muscle his way through Stall as well, thanks to
Swords Dance and his immunity to one of stalls main damage sources:
Toxic. With a Baloon, he doesn’t even get damaged by Spikes.
Considering all of these facts, my opinion on Doryuuzu is that it should be
banned to Ubers.
Shaymin-S
:
Oh boy. STAB Seed Flare with 120 base power and an 80% chance to lower
the targets Special Defense by 2 stages? That move alone pushes this
Pokemon towards the Uber line, but his 127 base Speed combined with a
STAB Air Slash, which has a 60% flinch rate, the fact that he can Leech
Seed- and Substitute-stall his counters, and his ability to carry either Earth
Power or a Hidden Power that severely damages all of his common
switch-ins is what throws him way over said Uber line.
Shaymin-S is easy to use and centralizes the game in a way that makes it less fun to play; and that is not what we want.
Darkrai
:
The new Sleep mechanics is what Darkrai probably enjoys the most this
generation. His Dark Void, which is without a doubt the second best sleep
move in the game, can already put one of Darkrais counters out of
commission, in most cases for the rest of the match. This fact alone forces
you, in a way, to use either a Pokemon that is immune to Sleep, or a very
good Sleep Absorber.
Speaking of what you can run in order to counter or get rid of Darkrai: Dark
Pulse and Focus Blast already give very close to perfect coverage. Please,
don’t tell me Focus Blast is unreliable; it might have 70% accuracy, but still,
it has 120 base power and more often than not results in a dead
Tyranitar / Heatran / whatever resists Dark Pulse. And if you really don’t
want to use Focus Blast: Darkrai also has access to Ice Beam, Thunderbolt,
Taunt, and a few other options that are useful. Oh, and let’s not forget
Nightmare, which kills any Pokemon that is asleep in 3 turns, combined with
Darkrais Bad Dreams ability. On one last little note, he also is able to learn
Trick.
But putting your counters for him to sleep is not the only thing Darkrai can
do: He might also set up with Nasty Plot (or the “traditional” Calm Mind)
and proceed to sweep your team afterwards. The ease Darkrai can do this
with is a sign for the fact that he still is too much to handle for the
standard OU Metagame.
Deoxys
:
4 forms, 14 arms. Approximately 56 useable movesets.
Seriously, the 2 offensive forms have already been discussed here, so I’ll
put the Speed form and the Defense form under the magnifying glass.
Deoxys-Speed might not be such an immediate offensive threat, but what
makes playing against him a pain is the fact that he simply is the best
possible lead. He has everything that a good lead needs, which is why he
will always be way too centralizing in Gen V if he stays in OU; and
centralization makes a game less fun to play, facing the same things over
and over again makes the experience boring.
Team preview is worth mentioning here: If you notice that the opponent
has something that might actually be able to stop your Deoxys-Lead from
doing its job, you can simply use something else in the lead spot and use
Deoxys later.
Speaking of using him later, Deoxys-Speed also has quite a few other
options he could annoy or even sweep your team with. He can go physical,
special or mixed, and is one of the best revenge killers around. And when
you think you’re prepared for the offensive sets, a defensive set which
some consider “gimmicky” can roll over you under the right circumstances,
which are relatively easy to set up.
Okay, the Defense form is our next stop: While some players say that he is
underwhelming at what he does, he has characteristics that are comparable
to offensive sweepers: If he sets up, he becomes extremely dangerous.
What I mean by that becomes clear when you take a closer look at his
defensive movepool: This thing gets Cosmic Power, Recover, and Toxic. It
doesn’t stop here, but those are, in my opinion, Deo-D’s main selling points.
This Pokemon virtually has no things that can really hurt him once it gets
one or two Cosmic Powers under its belt, because it can still Recover off
the damage you dealt to it. Oh, you want to Toxic him? Magic Coat says
no.
Those characteristics fit the portrait of a defensive Uber quite well, if the
“old” portrait of an Uber still applies.
Shadow Tag:
Short one. The ability destroys one of the main concepts of competitive Pokemon.
The Encore-Nerf people have been talking about is not really that big of a
deal, since it still gives you at least one free turn, which is all you need to
make your opponents Pokemon faint.
Shadow Tag Shanderaa and Gochiruzeru take this ability to a whole new
level once they’re released, since they can use it to set up on a Pokemon
without it being able to escape.
Switching and, to a lesser extend in Gen V, countering has always been a
core element of playing Pokemon in a competitive manner, and this ability
completely undermines that.
Inconsistent:
I’d like to quote a post from smogon user
Xing at this point:
“This ability is absolutely broken. I was down to 1-6 with Glalie (!!) remaining.
I used protect to get a +2 Evasion and swept. “
This, my friends, is what sums it all up. We need to get rid of this asap.
Manaphy
:
In Manaphy, we have a Pokemon that can set up its own Special Attack to
+6 in just two turns. While that on its own already is dangerous, Manaphy
can use Rest, which, in the Rain, heals it completely without any drawbacks
whatsoever.
Some players have been mentioning how easy it is to revenge kill Manaphy.
The word
easy is, first and foremost, an exaggeration in this case, and
while it might still be semi-easy to take out a Tail Glow Manaphy with a
strong Thunderbold / Thunder / Leaf Storm / Power Whip, keep in mind that
Manaphy can also run a defensive set, heavily investing in its Bulk!
Suddenly, your revenge killer only deals 50-85% and has to take a Surf
boosted by Rain and STAB and possibly one or two Calm Mind boosts – and
the fact that Manaphy might still be able to use Rest on the next Pokemon
you send out against it.
Politoed and Manaphy have already become greatest friends in this
generation, probably for a good reason. Politoed brings the Rain that
Manaphy needs oh so much in order to be such a monster.
The decision whether Manaphy or Politoed should feel the force of the Ban
hammer is a very hard one – but for now, I’d say we should bring Manaphy
back to Ubers and give Rain a second chance. The other Rain sweepers can
be addressed later, in Suspect Testing Round 2, because unlike Manaphy,
they all have counters that don’t need to be over-specialized in order to be
effective in the metagame.
(Just a little side note you can feel free to ignore, setting up Toxic Spikes really messes
up Rain-based teams!)
Snow Cloak / Sand Veil:
Suicune used Ice Beam!
But it missed!
The foes Garchomp used….
…and that’s the last thing my team remembered.
I’m sorry for Garchomp if banning his only ability means that he has to stay
in Ubers until he is available in the Dream World, but in my opinion, it’s
necessary. The same thing goes for Froslass, even though her stats make
her less of a problem than Garchomp.
These two abilities bring an undesirable and unnecessary luck factor to the
table of competitive Pokemon, and they technically even violate Evasion
Clause, given the right circumstances. For that reason, we should keep
them out of Standard OU.
Latias
:
Ouch, having Latias in OU brings back bad memories of Gen IV. While Latias
cannot be described as an absolute offensive terror (even though she can
run sets that turn her into one), my problem with her was not that he is
difficult to counter or too strong on the offensive side. What bothered me
is the fact that she centralized the game around herself. People complained
about every team looking too similar to the previous one they faced, and
that was the case. DD Mence kicks your ass when he sets up -> Use Scarf
Latias. Opponent might have Scarf Latias as well -> Use Tyranitar.
Opponent might have Tyranitar as well -> Use Scizor, who can also revenge
kill Salamence and Latias. Oh, I need a Bullet Punch Resistance! Use
Metagross / another Steel type with a handy Dragon Resistance. Hm, the
lead slot is still not taken… <Insert random suicide-SR-Lead>.
The banning of Latias broke that vicious circle, and after Salamence was
send to the rough fields of Ubers as well, the fog of centralization lifted.
And there, my fellow smogonites, you have the reason why I want to see
Latias being sent back to where she began her journey.
If you read that paragraph, you can also figure out my opinion on Latios as
well.
Oh, and a little footnote on those two: smogon was always against the
“How many restrictions do we have to make to an Uber Pokemon until it is
useable in OU”-thing, but that’s exactly what happened to Latias last Gen.
The Lati twins and Soul Dew belong together like our lungs and Oxygen,
they’re not meant to be forced to work without it.
Conclusion:
We have
around 250 competitively useable Pokemon in Gen V, and the OU
metagame already starts centralizing around… let’s say 20. Something is
wrong here.
Phew, that makes 4 pages in a Word-Document.
Merry Christmas.
