I wanted to list something in this thread that made me step back a little bit when I first saw it. I first hypothesized that out of all the tiers, maybe except LC, Ubers would be the most offensively slanted tier. Yet according to
Antar's Stalliness Metrics, this is not the case, and Ubers is in fact the
least offensive of all tiers. In order from Most Offensive to Least Offensive, the list goes: LC, RU, NU, OU, UU, Ubers.
While I would like to get other people's opinions on why this would be so (I have a nasty cold and my brain ain't working so good right now), I tried to come up with a couple reasons about the disparity between the high-danger feeling each turn in Ubers, versus what the mathematics indicate.
-The stalliness metric does not account for type advantages and coverage moves. Ubers having access to wide arrays of moves (as well as the common Dragon type being SE against itself) makes super effective coverage more common in the tier. SE hits are what disfavor bulk while promoting resistances, and we saw this in metagames shifts as Chansey was dropped for Pokemon who have better resistances on the pivots.
-The stalliness metric does not account for the rain boost (and this extends to other weathers) that makes Kyogre and rain attackers so damn scary.
-The stalliness metric does not account for boosting options. It does not account for Extremekiller's SD boosts and what they allow it to do, or the +2 priority of its STAB that dominates would be scarfer checks. While Extremekiller is one of the most dangerous threats in the tier, it has flat 120 stats across the board, which give it a relatively inert stalliness rating.
-There are some fat ass walls in the tier, like Lugia, Ho-Oh, Ferrothorn, and Giratina-A, which I suppose lend to the tiers stally nature.
That being said, how does a tierwide "stally" bias tie into the clauses that will be tested?
OHKO:Looking at all tiers, it is most worthwhile to spam OHKO moves in Ubers. If it takes 2 hits on average to bring a Pokemon down in LC, while taking 5 hits on average to bring down an Ubers Leviathan, the opportunity cost of using an OHKO move decreases in Ubers, considering the average damage of each move is 20% as opposed to LC's 50%. From an offensive standpoint, you figure, I might as well use Sheer Cold because it is a 30 percent accuracy move, so I'll hit one out of three attacks, while it will take me five Surfs to take down that Dialga. Note that this logic applies only to Pokemon who have the bulkiness to stay alive for ( a statistical average) of three turns to land that OHKO move.
Summary: The addition of OHKO moves selects for bulky pokemon to use it, while negating the bulk of the pokemon that the move is being used against.
Evasion: This comes down to the question of whether it is better to give a Double Team boost to a defensive (Giratina-A) or offensive (Deoxys-A) pokemon. I would say that the stronger a mon is defensively, the more worthwhile it is to set up a Double Team, considering it would be able to reap the benefits of such a move in the long run. On the other hand, Deoxys-A does not have the bulk to risk a 75% chance of still being hit when it can do much more damage per turn throwing around Psycho Boosts and Superpowers.
Another analysis of Evasion boosts is that they completely eliminate all the benefits of being an "Offensive" Pokemon. Whether Deoxys-A has attacking stats of 180 or 350 is irrelevant if it cannot land its hits, and now its defenses are the sole measure of whether can survive in a fast paced metagame. Note that moves like Thunder and Aura Sphere allow a Pokemon's offensive bias to remain useful.
Summary: Evasion boosts select for Bulky Pokemon and those that have nothing better offensively to do, while punishing those who high massive offensive bias by negating their stats if they miss attacks.
Moody: Once again, I will bring up opportunity cost in the context of stalliness to talk about Moody. I will first lead off by saying that Moody Mons (Smeargle, Octillery, and Bibarel, among others) are weak defensively, and for a large part weak offensively. They would therefore have high stalliness numbers, which indicates that the opportunity cost of using an attacking move is diminished, rewarding Protecting and Subbing until a good amount of boosts are acquired. (Smeargle is an exception considering that it has good options in the form of Spore and Shell Smash, but it could be argued in the long run that Evasion boosts outweigh Smashpassing.
Summary:Moody boosts select for pokemon that have nothing better offensively to do. Offensive pokemon are better left utilizing their stats, and have tools in Thunder and Aura Sphere and lol Frost Breath to negate Moody Boosts.
Sleep Clause: This follows the same concept as my alternate analysis of Evasion Clause. When a Pokemon is asleep and cannot attack, its defensive stats become much more important indicators of its usefulness. For example, a sleeping Deoxys-A cannot act as much more than a one time fodder, while a sleeping Arceus Grass could act as a sponge against a poisoned Kyogre's Surfs. Once again, seeing as Ubers is the most "stally" tier by the numbers, having one (or many) mons put to sleep would be less problematic than in other tiers. Note that Sleep Talk, unreliable as it is, provides a pathway for Offensive Pokemon to regain the usefulness of their offensive bias.
Summary: The fear of being asleep necessitates that offensively biased Pokemon use Sleep Talk, lest their ability (like Drought) or bulk be the indicators of their effectiveness.
Species Clause: This one is confusing, but I think that the elimination of the Species Clause shifts the metagame away from stalliness. In a metagame where not many pokemon can truly say that they check or counter Extremekiller, imagine if you had to stand up against six Extremekillers. Every Pokemon that could not stand up to a +2 Extremekiller would be dead weight. With this type of logic, the reasoning of Stathakis's quote in Pocket's sig gains new meaning. If the inability to check a threat (even though you can stand up to many others) is easily exploited by your opponent running six of that threat, there is no reason to focus on a defensive and stall based approach to winning. Much more important would be to just blast your opponent into submission before they could set up.
Summary: Inability for Defensive threats to wall every mon becomes a liablity, selects for mons with offensive bias.
Well I hope that made sense, it took me an hour to write. Comments?