Warning: Inexperienced Reuniclus summary coming up.
Okay, I'll admit that I haven't had much of a chance to play the metagame due to a lack of consistent net access right now, but all of those campaigning for Reuniclus' ban seem to be missing a key thing right now.
Let me just try to summarise what I've read of the argument here:
For the Ban:
- Magic Guard preventing status/entry hazards
-> Doesn't prevent all status, just burn/poison
-> Doesn't stop your other Pokemon from taking entry hazard damage
- Shuts down full stall
-> So do many other Pokemon that can boost/heal (e.g. RestTalk sets)
Against the Ban:
- There are obviously several big counters to Reuniclus
-> Specialised counters means overcentralisation
--> The counters aren't specific to Reuniclus, they just fill that role as well
--> So did many other Pokemon in Gen4 OU (e.g. Scizor -> Heatran)
-> Some counter-moves (e.g. Encore/Pursuit) aren't available easily
--> The main Pursuiters (Scizor/Tar/Metagross) are good regardless and Encorers are able to switch in and Encore faster (or at least survive a hit on a misprediction)
- Suffers from 'Moveset Syndrome' - can't get all the moves it needs for coverage
Note that nothing on this list ends in favour of a ban. I'd like to see some counter-arguments for those points, ideally.
Personally, I think prediction should be considered, but only misprediction. It's one thing to say "The Reuniclus can predict the attack and switch/heal" - that's sometimes a lot easier said than done - but one misprediction against that Pokemon shouldn't be the end of everything. So, to all those for/against the ban, do you think mispredicting the Reuniclus attack/set ONCE is going to lead to a loss for your team?
The main thing, though, is the 'overcentralisation' point. Gen4 Scizor was a HUGE threat in OU, and pretty much forced the metagame towards Fire attacks & Steel resists, as has already been said. So the metagame shifted and created something that was still balanced but took a lot of careful consideration to work in. That is what Reuniclus does - Taunt is not specific to him and shuts him down quite well (assuming he's unboosted/a TR variant.) It also allows full stall to have a better chance against him by preventing Recover. Roar does a good job of shutting down the CM sets early on, which still gives SR damage to the new Pokemon (if nothing else), and Unaware manages the same thing at any time in the match. Spiritomb is another nice thing for stall to have against him, and is another Pokemon that still has its uses past Reuniclus (albeit much more limited). Finally, the other top threats all counter Reuniclus' different sets - it's just a question of knowing what set you're against. As such, I find it impossible to see Reuniclus as broken; it's just a nice answer to the current metagame that is still quite easily countered (and could force a slight shift in meta, for all that I can't see it being that good.)
As a point, I want to ask all of you campaigning to ban Reuniclus: assume you're against a team of lead/Tyranitar/Scizor/Lati@s/filler/filler and SR is up. If it's a CM Reuniclus, where do you get a chance to set up? If it's a TR Reuniclus, do you have a way around all of the opposing trio?
And, far more importantly, would you see the opposing team as being bad if Reuniclus was not in the metagame?
Just to finish this up, I'm going to list, off the top of my head, some very obvious counters to Reuniclus, regardless of set, that can at least force it out and gain some momentum and SR damage:
- Fast Taunters (Whimsicott, Gliscor, Aerodactyl and Deoxys come to mind)
- Tyranitar/Scizor/Lati@s (as mentioned earlier, depends on the opposing set)
- Spiritomb
- SpDefensive healers (Vaporeon/Jellicent were mentioned?)
- HaxRachi (if nothing else, stops it coming in w/o TR already in place)
- Pursuit
- Mold Breaker/something to change its ability
That's... a pretty wide variety of counters there. I wouldn't call that overcentralising.