So after getting voting reqs, I thought I'd post my thoughts on whether Aegislash should or shouldn't be unbanned from ubers and talk about both the OU and OU suspect metagame in general, since both are incredibly significant in the long, detailed post I'm about to make.
Contrary to a lot of players judging from the amazing as always Overused chatroom discussions and awesome, thoughtful posts in the past Mega Metagross suspect thread, I for one find ORAS OU to be perfectly fine at the moment. The ORAS OU tier has all the characteristics of a fun and healthy metagame: incredible playstyle diversity, which allows you to run pretty much any playstyle you want ranging from offense to stall and still be successful, good pokemon diversity, allowing you to pick which pokemon you want to utilize from the absurd number of options available, meaning you can also use pokemon that are typically found only in the lower tiers to some success, such as regular Kyurem, Dragalge, and Reuniclus, a constantly evolving metagame, as literally each week there is a certain pokemon or core that suddenly becomes popular which causes the metagame to adapt to it, and in general, ORAS OU is just a fun, stabilized tier.
Let me go over why I think ORAS OU is a perfectly fine tier (pre-suspect ladder, so without Aegislash). First, it is a constantly evolving metagame. New metagame shifts happen almost constantly because of a sudden rise in popularity of a certain pokemon, which causes everybody to either use this threat themselves or find ways to beat this threat, which is always a good thing. Because of this, you can create perhaps the most perfect team out there, and then two weeks from now, it won't be nearly as effective because the metagame in which it was once built with regards to has now changed. One example of this I can think about in the top of my head is the role of a bulky ground type. Previously, a few months ago, Landorus-T was by far the most popular bulky ground type people would fit on their teams, more specifically, the choice scarf set, which allowed it to revenge kill certain pokemon, scout, and act as a really good offense and defensive pivot all at the same time. As that faded away, people realized another Ground type that had a ton of potential, which was Swords Dance specially defensive Gliscor, due to the rising surge of the monstrosity known as Mega Sableye. It had natural healing, good longevity and bulk, and just destroyed most balanced teams once Keldeo was weakened. After the Gliscor craze died down, and we look at the metagame to how it was right before the suspect started, Garchomp has taken over as the #1 most used bulky ground type on the ladder, specifically its fat rocky helmet set, which allows it to tank an abundance of physical attacks while greatly damaging the opponent in the process as well. In the tour scene, Hippowdon is right up there with Garchomp in terms of usage because of its great bulk and instant recovery with Slack Off. Now, why is a constantly evolving metagame good? For one, it means the metagame isn't stale and boring. It also means that the metagame isn't centralized around a few centered pokemon, otherwise they would just limit any metagame shifts that would occur.
Another reason why I think ORAS OU is a fine tier is the incredible diversity in the tier. Quite literally, you can use any playstyle you want and still be successful. Stall, balance, and offense are all perfectly viable in the non-suspect metagame which allows for countless options. It's not like in BW2 where full stall was around no where to be seen because of the perfectly balanced pokemon Kyurem-b, or GSC OU, where the metagame in general is incredibly slow due to the obviously not broken or centralizing or warranting a suspect threat known as Snorlax. In addition to this playstyle diversity, there is also a pokemon diversity, meaning there are numerous lower tier pokemon you can use to good effect granted you give it good support. Good examples of these lower tier pokemon that can be used to great effectiveness I can think of the top of my head include Slowking, which can check many of the top threats of the metagame such as Metagross, Keldeo, and Landorus, and Dragalge, which has proven to be an incredibly solid bulky toxic spikes user as well as an extremely hard hitting pokemon vs slower teams.
In short, I think ORAS OU is fine how it is, and all the people bitching about how shitty it is due to matchup or other factors are either a) bandwagoning, or b) too lazy to build good teams that struggle vs some threats, and when they lose to said threats, they just use matchup as an excuse to why they lost. This is generation 6, not ADV; there's around 700+ pokemon in the game so ofc matchup is obviously a bigger factor compared to in previous gens, but you know what? This factor is only going to get bigger in future generations and theres not much we can do to remedy this problem. You don't like it, go play RBY or something where there's a Chansey/Alakazam in like 3/4ths of all teams and then call that "fun" and "balanced". What we can do, and what many of you don't seem to get, is how to play around these threats by building solid teams. Generation 6 is a generation in which teambuilding skills are incredibly important, because you have to think outside of the box to beat your opponent or to minimize the number of threats you're weak to. Certain teambuilders I can think of which exemplify this are craing, tesung, and style, all of which utilize unique pokemon and play countless styles so they know how to use pokemon to their maximum potential. This can also explain why many veterans of past generations fail to leave a mark in today's metagame.
Now, let's talk about what adding Aegislash does for this metagame and all the negative consequences it would add.
Aegislash, to put it bluntly, is extremely toxic for the metagame and will hinder the metagame from ever evolving or getting better. It makes the metagame horrible and unenjoyable to play at all for various reasons. For one, that amazing diversity I was talking about earlier that applied to ORAS OU is completely gone when you play or watch games from the suspect ladder. There is no diversity, everyone spams nearly the same team and the playstyle diversity is gone because offense is by far the most popular playstyle by a large margin; balance has experienced a significant decrease in terms of popularity and stall has become extremely rare. Aegislash prevents the metagame from ever growing because it dissuades the logic of creativity by making an abundance of otherwise perfectly viable and effective pokemon liabilities in the current metagame or quite frankly, just not good at all. In fact, Aegislash just makes many of the top threats even more powerful by making many of these top threats' checks and counters liabilities to have in the tier, and thus the ladder right now is pretty much filled with teams abusing these top threats while the rest of the pokemon see a tremendous decrease in usage.
Wanna know whats a good and potent core to use on the suspect ladder? It's *insert pokemon here* + Aegislash. You might think I may be exaggerating, but I'm really not. Let's look at some examples. Keldeo is one I've seen many talk about on this thread. Glancing at many of the more common counters/checks to Keldeo, you can name pokemon such as Celebi, Latias, Slowbro, Latios, Mega Venusaur, etc. The vast majority of Keldeo switch ins get destroyed by Aegislash, which prevents them from seeing much use because vs Aegislash, you pretty much never ever want to give it a free turn, because that often equates to a pokemon dead or crippled on your team since the amount of pokemon that counter all Aegislash sets is pretty much 0. In turn, all those shaky "checks" to Aegislash such as Hippowdon, Heatran, and Spdef Gliscor all get destroyed by Keldeo. Now that's just one example of a pokemon Aegislash supports tremendously, making Keldeo seem kind of broken on the suspect metagame. Other examples include Landorus and Kyurem-b (since Aegislash conveniently resists all of Kyurem-b's weaknesses). A pokemon that benefits the most with the introduction of Aegislash that I really want to talk about is Mega Lopunny.
Based on my thoughts of the current suspect metagame, and my gathering of thoughts of many other well respected battlers, the single most broken and devastating threat is Mega Lopunny. No other pokemon on the suspect ladder even comes close to the brokenness Lopunny achieves. Mega Metagross, whom many consider to be the best overall pokemon in regular OU, is no where near broken in this metagame. Not with Rocky Helmet Garchomp, Landorus, Sand Excadrill, and Sucker Punch Bisharp everywhere to stop it. Landorus, another pokemon whom many consider to be a top threat in regular OU, is still a threat, but struggles with the fast pace of offensive teams spammed everywhere on ladder where the majority of them can usually outspeed and KO Landorus. Mega Lopunny, on the other hand, thrives in this fast paced metagame because of its unresisted STAB combination allowing it to have two free slots, amazing speed allowing it to outspeed the vast majority of the metagame, its hard hitting attacks, and most importantly, one of the few mega physical attackers who can actually beat Aegislash. It excels at beating offense, which has become the most popular playstyle on the ladder where nothing on these types of teams usually have a switch in to it. Aegislash warps the metagame and makes the metagame adapt to it, not the other way around. This is why the most popular and effective teams at the moment usually consist of Landorus/Keldeo/Aegislash/Lopunny/Bisharp/filler. Obviously there are some other pokemon that are being used quite a lot too, such as Sand Rush Excadrill and Garchomp. Notice a trend? These pokemon that are the most popular and effective in this metagame can all beat Aegislash. If you have a pokemon that loses to Aegislash, it often means you give it a free turn and have to sac something in order to deal with it, which is obviously an issue when you look at just how many pokemon in the metagame Aegislash beats and makes almost unusable (i.e celebi & jirachi). Aegislash makes all of these offensive threats even harder to deal with. Lopunny was perfectly fine in regular OU, but because it shares perfect type synergy and offensive synergy with Aegislash, it has become the most broken thing out there. These offensive powerhouses pretty much made stall disappear on ladder and is making balance more and more rare overtime since these passive teams can't usually put up with the fast paced hard hitting metagame.
Now, I know some of you are probably going to say, "big deal, you like regular ORAS OU and hate the suspect ladder, but making the metagame unenjoyable to play isn't a reason to ban something", but no worries, I will explain why I believe Aegislash to be broken as well.
1. Aegislash is broken because of the severe and unhealthy metagame centralization it causes. It causes so many otherwise usable pokemon to see extremely low usage JUST because it exists in the tier, not even when your opponent is actually using it. This is why Celebi/Jirachi/Starmie were UU for the longest time in XY OU; because Aegislash prevented them from seeing much usage when it became pretty clear that all three of these are very good choices for the metagame once it was banned.
2. Aegislash is broken because of its sheer unpredictability and how effortlessly easy it is to slap it on a random team. If you have a certain role you want your sixth pokemon to be able to do, Aegislash will often be able to perform said role without much difficulty (i.e wall breaker, offensive pivot, etc). Let's not forget about how many ways there are to abuse Aegislash, which makes it have virtually 0 universal counters. People keep bringing shit up that they think "counter" Aegislash such as Mandibuzz and Hippowdon when they really don't at all. Mandibuzz really only beats the one and main Aegislash set, but it loses to almost all the others such as SD Head Smash, Sub Toxic, LO Flash Cannon.... Hippowdon also loses to Sub Toxic and LO Flash Cannon, which makes these Aegislash "checks" not very good checks at all. Pretty much the closest thing to a universal counter to Aegislash is Specially Defensive Gliscor, but remember when Spdef Gliscor actually walled Landorus but now Landorus beats it thanks to an amazing move called Hidden Power Ice? Aegislash can do the same thing, and if this catches on, just like Landorus, Gliscor won't be an Aegislash counter anymore.
3. Aegislash can be deemed broken under the Support characteristic because it supports and makes not just one, but a handful of threats becoming too good and near broken by themselves because of how easily it can form a core with other pokemon. It makes more sense to just ban Aegislash instead of the myraid of threats that can otherwise be deemed broken, such as Mega Lopunny, Keldeo, and Landorus, as stated previously. To that person before who said that if Landorus is broken in the suspect ladder we should ban Landorus and not Aegi, this would only apply if Landorus was the only pokemon in which Aegislash supports well, which clearly isn't true at all. That kind of thinking is definitely flawed logic.
Add that WITH the fact that Aegi makes ORAS OU an incredibly unfun tier, and it's easy to see why Aegislash should remain banned.
There's a bunch of people that are fighting to unban Aegislash from ubers by saying stuff like "Aegislash doesn't hit hard enough, it's not like Landorus which hits extremely hard, pls unban" or "Aegislash doesn't even wall shit like Mega Altaria & Mega Metagross lel they can just beat it w/ fire blast & eq!!!!" First off, assuming these statements are true, this still doesn't make Aegislash any less broken when you look at all the factors that I've pointed above. Now to address those people who made the dumb statement that Landorus hits harder than Aegislash, how are you seriously going to tell me that Aegislash "doesn't hit that hard" when it can literally OHKO-2HKO all relevant members of a stall team, or just all pokemon in the tier, with just ONE set (the LO attacker with four attacks)? I'd like you to use a stall team vs that variant of Aegislash and then say it doesn't hit hard enough when all your pokes literally get ohko-2hkoed by it. And to those people that say Aegislash is a horrible counter to some pokemon because they carry a move thats super effective vs it, yeah sure, Aegislash may not wall Metagross as well as Skarmory does, but at the same token, theres a bunch more pokemon switching in on Skarmory or some other obscure wall then Aegislash, which quite often KOes something on the switch. And no one even said Aegislash is supposed to be a counter to said pokemon, it's a check, it prevents these pokemon from spamming their main powerful STAB moves and then either threatens them with a KO or hits something extremely hard on the switch.
Aegislash is both broken and is incredibly unhealthy for the metagame and thus I believe it should remain banned in Ubers.
