Lavos
Banned deucer.
READ THE OP BEFORE YOU POST
and please note that in the above poll, you shouldn't be choosing options one or two in conjunction with option three, as that will skew the data.
while i was leafing through some old threads in this forum, i came across a pretty interesting topic that, in my opinion, really needs to be addressed and i'm surprised it hasn't been yet. the topic in question is the banning of blaziken and excadrill as a whole. now, before everyone starts getting really heated about these previous suspects, let me clarify - that's not what i'm referring to when i speak of these pokemon. rather, i'm referring to their alternate abilities (speed boost for blaziken, sand force / mold breaker for excadrill). these two pokemon were banned from the ou tier a while ago because of their broken abilities, speed boost and sand rush, respectively. however, both of these pokemon, as i pointed out, have different abilities. so, the big question is: why are these two pokemon still fully banned, when only a certain aspect of them that can be changed is actually deemed "broken"?
i think we can all agree that blaze blaziken, if unbanned, would not be a broken pokemon in the ou tier. excadrill is obviously the pokemon that would cause more controversy if unbanned, yet i feel it's still pretty clear that this thing is not broken. sand rush, which gave it blistering speed in sandstorm, combined with a solid movepool and great base attack is what led to excadrill's banning from the ou tier. without sand rush, it's a half-baked pokemon, not capable of doing nearly as much damage as it could in bw1 days. sand force and mold breaker are both pretty good abilities, and it's true that excadrill could make for a fearsome rapid spinner or all-out attacker, but since it doesn't have access to any speed-boosting moves such as rock polish or automize, it's never going to be a true sweeper. much like garchomp (whom we also partially unbanned, freeing rough skin but keeping sand veil under lock and key), excadrill would most likely be good in ou, but not fantastic - nowhere near uber status.
to me, it's clear what needs to be done. blaziken and excadrill should be conditionally unbanned from ou, allowing the use of blaze for blaziken and sand force / mold breaker for excadrill, but keeping the "broken" abilities uber. i realize that some people will say things along the lines of "but-this-ban-is-too-complex-we-must-remain-simplistic". to this, i ask you only to direct your attention to the "complex ban" of swift swim and drizzle. plus, as i stated earlier, we already allowed rough skin garchomp to be unbanned while keeping sand veil uber. this is the same idea: keep the uber abilities uber, but let people use the ou-or-below-level pokemon in ou.
thoughts? i would particularly enjoy hearing council members' opinions on this issue. (and yes, i realize we have more pressing matters on our hands like drizzle, but this honestly shouldn't take a super long time to deal with!)
and please note that in the above poll, you shouldn't be choosing options one or two in conjunction with option three, as that will skew the data.
while i was leafing through some old threads in this forum, i came across a pretty interesting topic that, in my opinion, really needs to be addressed and i'm surprised it hasn't been yet. the topic in question is the banning of blaziken and excadrill as a whole. now, before everyone starts getting really heated about these previous suspects, let me clarify - that's not what i'm referring to when i speak of these pokemon. rather, i'm referring to their alternate abilities (speed boost for blaziken, sand force / mold breaker for excadrill). these two pokemon were banned from the ou tier a while ago because of their broken abilities, speed boost and sand rush, respectively. however, both of these pokemon, as i pointed out, have different abilities. so, the big question is: why are these two pokemon still fully banned, when only a certain aspect of them that can be changed is actually deemed "broken"?
i think we can all agree that blaze blaziken, if unbanned, would not be a broken pokemon in the ou tier. excadrill is obviously the pokemon that would cause more controversy if unbanned, yet i feel it's still pretty clear that this thing is not broken. sand rush, which gave it blistering speed in sandstorm, combined with a solid movepool and great base attack is what led to excadrill's banning from the ou tier. without sand rush, it's a half-baked pokemon, not capable of doing nearly as much damage as it could in bw1 days. sand force and mold breaker are both pretty good abilities, and it's true that excadrill could make for a fearsome rapid spinner or all-out attacker, but since it doesn't have access to any speed-boosting moves such as rock polish or automize, it's never going to be a true sweeper. much like garchomp (whom we also partially unbanned, freeing rough skin but keeping sand veil under lock and key), excadrill would most likely be good in ou, but not fantastic - nowhere near uber status.
to me, it's clear what needs to be done. blaziken and excadrill should be conditionally unbanned from ou, allowing the use of blaze for blaziken and sand force / mold breaker for excadrill, but keeping the "broken" abilities uber. i realize that some people will say things along the lines of "but-this-ban-is-too-complex-we-must-remain-simplistic". to this, i ask you only to direct your attention to the "complex ban" of swift swim and drizzle. plus, as i stated earlier, we already allowed rough skin garchomp to be unbanned while keeping sand veil uber. this is the same idea: keep the uber abilities uber, but let people use the ou-or-below-level pokemon in ou.
thoughts? i would particularly enjoy hearing council members' opinions on this issue. (and yes, i realize we have more pressing matters on our hands like drizzle, but this honestly shouldn't take a super long time to deal with!)