Huzzah for Manaphy ban!
What's the point in creating items with abilities such as Huge power, wonder guard etc, then banning them?
Ubers version.
This is nuts.
MAGIC GUARD VOLCARONA! STAB E-Speed Dragonite is unbanned
That's ALWAYS broken
Anyway I feel like this meta being too broken for me
... no? Not really? There's tons of ways to check or even counter it, and here Aerilate Dragonite can't
possibly be carrying Weakness Policy or Lum Berry or... whatever else might make it extra-threatening. (Choice Band is one I saw in AAA, for instance) Yeah, it gets Multiscale on top of Aerilate, and that's a nuisance, but it's actually a lot
less threatening than, say, Almost Any Ability Dragonite running Aerilate, because eating the item slot to get Aerilate makes it a
lot more predictable/counterable.
Porygon-Z has a hard time being justified imo, I always find myself sacking it because the metagame favours offence - where Porygon-Z struggles to switch in and outspeed. And even then I usually just pivot into something. Very rarely does it get multiple free switch ins through out the game, contrary to something like Manaphy.
I think Specially Defensive Unaware Umbreon is the only substantial, reliable check to it, and even then it's limited to Wishtecting. On the plus side, it has Pursuit. On the minus side, its Pursuit is a 4HKO (99.9% of the time)
when Porygon-Z is switching.
Everything else is one Nasty Plot away from a OHKO, basically. It can also just run Agility instead to help it sweep offense, relying on its raw firepower to break stall and stall's lack of firepower to accept the occasional hit. Since it's a Special attacker, stuff like Prankster Burn isn't hugely helpful.
Dnite struggles against four of the most common mons in the tier, Heatran, Ferrothorn, Rotom-w/h or Landorus-Therian. How annoying these pokemon can be really hurts Dragonite's matchup versus balance - and it's honestly been falling in visbility since day one. It was suspect worthy, then S, then A+ and now it hovers around a+ and a.
I basically agree with this and would only add that
tons of things laugh at it. Unaware Slowbro is completely beyond Aerilate Dragonite's ability to break, for example.
Heck, even Draco Meteor isn't enough to punch through.
0- SpA Dragonite Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro: 153-180 (38.8 - 45.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Meanwhile most other sets it might run are done better by other Pokemon -No Guard is basically Bad Tornadus-Therian, for instance.
And Clefable is good, but Heatran is such a good counter that it's hard to really sweep.
Heatran can't actually do much to it except Roar it out, and if it's Magic Guard+Magic Bounce, unless Heatran is running Mold Breaker it's basically just setup fodder for Clefable. Eventually Clefable will be able to Stored Power it to death in one hit.
On the other hand Clefable hasn't really been a problem in my experience regardless. Magic Guard+Unaware is cool and all, but plenty of things have overwhelming firepower without need for boosting, and its statline is sufficiently lackluster they tend to break it, even without Mold Breaker being invoked. I've been focused on stall and
still found it pretty underwhelming of a foe -though admittedly for some bizarre reason most Clefable I encounter aren't running Stored Power, which is mindboggling.
