I've come to a descision. I am pro-ban for Drizzle.
Some people are saying banning Drizzle would kill the playstyle. Maybe that's exactly what needs to happen. When it becomes clear that one playstyle is superior to every other, that makes it ban-worthy. Especially when we are able to take it out in one fell swoop (by banning Politoed). Here are the predicted counter arguements and my responses:
I have precedence on my side here.
During early BW, when HO was powerful with Deo-S, did we ban Terrakion/Scarfty/Dragonite/Scizor, or Deo-S? When dealing with a bee problem, do you fight bees off that are swarming around you, or you do destroy the hive? Rain's nature makes otherwise average pokemon so much more difficult to deal with, and already good pokemon beyond the limit (Seriously, Hurricane's low accuracy without Rain? Tell that to Moltres.)
Then ban Sun too.
In DPPt, Garchomp leaving makes the Lati@s so much harder to revenge kill? We don't keep Garchomp in for the sole purpose of countering the Lati@s, we ban the Lati@s! Two broken things does not a balanced metagame make. It's simply a metagame with two broken things that don't belong.
That was during BW1. The metagame has changed. This arguement has no merit. If the metagame stay static, then retests are purposeless.
This has to be the most insulting, condescending arguement I've ever seen. Seriously, we've tried to nerf rain on multiple ocasions (Manaphy, SS, Torn-T, Thund-I) and Rain is still superior to every other playstyle.
How I define superior:
There are exactly two factors in my mind for a superior team type.
- The team type is incredibly dangerous when played to its fullest.
- The team type is incredibly easy to play to its fullest.
There are more ways to define superior (versatility, overall match-ups versus other teams/threats), but for the sake of this arguement, I'm only considering just these two (for now). Rain is very easy to build (Slap on Ferro to cover dragons and hazard, Tenta to beat fighting and fire types and spin, and you already have two important roles and tons of prominent threats covered). Versus weatherless, which needs a Dragon type counter (unable to use one of the best two, Ferro, due to being Solar bait), a rain counter (similar to the Dragon example, great ones like Toxicroak and several Water types like Gyrados flounder versus Sun, so the actual pool is pretty much Latias, Celebi, Dragonite, Jellicient). Then, I need a sun counter (two if I don't use Heatran, as I'll need to cover both Fire spam and Growth sweepers). Then, I need a fighting type check. If I choose Latias or Celebi in previous steps, I may be fine. Except that relying on one pokemon to check two very powerful forces is unreliable, so I personally would add another check to be safe. Then, other stragglers like Rachi, Breloom, Mamoswine, Scizor, etc.
A good deal of Rain's team building simply falls into place naturally, while weatherless's doesn't.
Rain simply needs to cover a few prominent threats and be able to win the weather war (which, unlike Sun, very rarely requires them to use a team slot or two for the whole purpose).
Weatherless needs to be able to cover 3 powerful weather conditions, and prominent threats. It also has to avoid using 'mons weak to certain weather to cover this stuff. Great counters (Like Toxicroak and Kingdra to Rain) are rendered useless against other conditions. This is without counting utility roles like a hazard setter, or a spinner. Weatherless in general forces you to use a ton of work just to stand a chance, while Rain pretty much falls into place like a five year old's puzzle. A metagame with Rain simply doesn't encourage creativity due to Rain (and, to a lesser extent, Sun) making tons of pokemon liabilities.
In conclusion; Rain (and weather in general) makes a fair number of pokemon either weaker or outright liabilities due to their effects, while very few pokemon are more viable as a result.