Let's see, nominations.
Inconsistent: In out of the many battles I faced Inconsistent, I was only outright swept by it twice, and usually was able to beat the inconsistent user without losing any pokemon. While I don't believe it to be the most powerful strategy, I do feel that it is broken for being non-conducive to competitive play. While the Inconsistent user is on the field, it completely controls the flow of battle. Really, answers like Haze, PHazing or boost ignoring attacks are almost laughable measures that only partly scrap away from Inconsistent's influence on the flow of battle. The ability to control the game, and completely take the game out of the opponent's hands (and to a degree out of the user's hands as well), completely takes away from the competition-based-on-decision-making fundamental basis of competitive Pokemon. It essentially reduces the game of Pokemon to a dice roll. The ability to both A) Remove control of the game from the players and B) introduce a high degree of luck factors makes this like the problems associated with 4th Generation Wobbuffet and OHKO moves combined. I just do not see why this should be allowed in a game meant to be competitive.
Darkrai: Very accurate Sleep attached to 125 speed really is extremely hard to deal with, but the problem is compounded by Darkrai's ability to defeat almost all the many otherwise powerful counter-sleep measures available. The most pertinent of these is Magic Mirror. Espeon and Xatu especially are extremely capable at countering Breloom, and even enemies such as Venusaur, Roserade and other plant type users of Spore/Sleep Powder. These same pokemon, especially breloom, have a very difficult time with Toxic Orb Gliscor should it get the chance to active its orb before they come in. Espeon and Xatu are of course at Darkrai's mercy, since no Darkrai will put itself to sleep with Team Preview thrown in the mix. Gliscor has a great deal of trouble dealing with repeated Dark Pulses, especially when a smart Darkrai player will be able to pull off a Substitute or Nasty Plot as Gliscor protects. Furthermore, Ice Beam became more and more popular on Darkrai as the meta developed, making Gliscor and Breloom even shakier as Darkrai checks. Darkrai is not only a near-broken user of sleep, he's also perfectly positioned to defeat the best sleep checking pokemon, making even checking this beast a serious challenge. The new sleep functions make its Dark Void even more lethal.
Shaymin-S: At first I wanted to be a real supporter of Shaymin-S in the metagame--its capacity to abuse the Grass STAB that is otherwise very cumbersome in the OU metagame dominated by pokemon who resist Grass, was to me a welcome addition. However, as the game moved on, it became more and more apparent that Shaymin-S is a pokemon out of control. Most of its best checks are scarfed Steel types that (a) are hit for super effective damage by Earth Power, (b) have a very hard time doing any sort of memorable damage to the next switch in (c) are screwed in a metagame with Nattorei, Magnezone and Wobbuffet. Meanwhile, Shaymin-S can run around the metagame outspeeding almost everything and having the freedom and leisure to throw out its powerful attacks or seed/subbing strategy at will. Bottom-line: Shaymin-S will almost always hurt the enemy far more than its checks could hope to hurt shaymin's own team.
Latios: Latios is actually in a very similar boat to Shaymin-S. Thanks to its typing and ability, it had a very easy time finding opportunities to switch in and deal out huge amounts of damage. While these opportunities were far fewer than Shaymin-S' and it wasn't going to be sweeping whole teams, the damage output was of a whole different class. Latios was more than capable of half-destroying a steel type with Specs Draco Meteor each time it came in, so that the next time it would full destroy the steel type, ridding the enemy of critical defensive resources and freeing up all sorts of potential sweeps. Aside from Blissey, who always had to worry about Trick or even Psycho Shock, there really was nothing you could switch into an incoming Latios because the pokemon that "resisted" its attacks were nearly blown away by Draco Meteor and were completely blown away by Surf / HP Fire. Let me just say that this metagame is far more vulnerable to Latios than last Gen's OU. The prevalence of Toxic-Orb Gliscor, Nattorei, Balloon Dory and any number of new powerful setup threats has made trying ScarfTyranitar or CB Scizor just to take out Latios much greater potential liabilities than they were last generation. In a metagame without Darkrai, Latios would be even more recluse. The power gap between it and Latias, and the speed gap between it and Sazandora, are really to big to ignore.
Manaphy: I can understand those players who would rather see Politoed or Drizzle banned, but frankly I want Rain to stay in this metagame if possible. I believe Rain has made the game much more multi-dimensional than the 4th Generation metagame's continuous sand. I have always been bothered by our limitation to pointing out negatives in broken, without being able to discuss the positives. I believe Drizzle Politoed to be a positive influence on the shape and dynammic of OU play, and would like to see how it plays without Manaphy. That said, Manaphy in the rain is a serious problem. Due to its lack of common weaknesses, excellent defensive stats and speed, Manaphy is a tremendously powerful setup platform, and +3 SpA with immunity to status-- even without HydroRest that is a threat that is far too overpowered. Manaphy almost requires that Nattorei be on almost every team, because the offensive combination of Water / Ice / Grass puts everything else at its mercy. Even Nattorei has a hard time standing up to Manaphy's rain boosted Tail Glow boosted attacks, especially should it be forced to carry Shed Shell lest it be eliminated by Magnezone (a fairly competent partner for Manaphy on a rain team from battles I've played). Manaphy's combination of power, bulk and speed makes it an arguably far more lethal sweeper in 5th Gen than Yache Chomp was in 4th Gen. In a metagame without Shaymin-S, it is completely unacceptable.
Doryuuzu: I honestly do not believe this pokemon should be a highly controversial nomination. It completely changes the speed dynamic of OU. While rain may be powerful, Tyranitar and Hippo's superiority as individual pokemon (as well as the very specialized build of rain teams) will always leave sand as the "default" weather (as many non-rain teams will pack TTar/Hippo just to keep rain at bay). In the sand, Dory is broken-- it completely destroys the balance of speed in the game. Being able to outrun every single commonly scarfed pokemon is ridiculous, but being able to switch attacks, use Swords Dance and setup behind a 1 turn immunity to your biggest weakness really take it over the top. Keep in mind that with Balloon, Doryuuzu resists Stealth Rock, is immune to Sand, Spikes, Toxic Spikes and Thunderwave. Remember how good Flygon was last generation simply for possessing those same resilient qualities? Well, here we have a Flygon capable of outrunning every scarf pokemon, switch between attacks at will, and Swords Dance from 135 base attack while possessing steel-type resistances and defensive stats almost on par with Machamp. Did I miss the memo where something like this suddenly became acceptable? Also, while it should definitely be considered independently as well, should Drizzle be banned, Doryuuzu should be instantly banned alongside it.
Deoxys-A: Let me start by saying that I have almost never lost a single pokemon to Deoxys-A that I was not intending to sacrifice. Because of its frailty, people tend to play extremely predictably with Deo-A, letting you bring in a scarf user to finish it with relative safety. That said-- this is only because people are playing predictably. In other words, the better at predicting and risk-taking players get (with experience) the more lethal Deoxys-A will become. I noted as I played that even as I beat Deoxys, had the player known what I was going to do and predicted accurately (not hard with Team Preview, they just lacked the balls to risk-take) I could have easily been out half a team. To me, that is not acceptable. Just because the players are not currently good enough to make it broken, doesn't mean it isn't broken. What playing Deo-A taught me was that should player be willing to gamble and play ballsy, the game would be dropped to a crapshoot of 50-50 predictions based on whether or not you would switch or attack. To me, too many of these 50-50 prediction wars are not healthy for the meta, since prediction wars are not much better than dice rolls when it comes to luck. Therefore, I would like to say that Deo-A is not only potentially overpowered, but also non-conducive to consistent competitive play.
Wobbuffet: Essentially losing the freedom to check enemies with Scarf Users is a real problem, and I would say that pokemon like Latios, Darkrai and Shaymin-S would all have been much easier to handle if they were not often paired with Wobbuffet. Even with them gone though, pokemon like Latias, Terrakion and Garchomp will still become needlessly difficult to check simply because of the inability to freely use scarf users. The fact that you can "throw in Wobb to kill scarfers" of almost any variety is to me, broken beyond something like Magnezone, where a player has to sacrifice a team slot to take out a very select group of targets.
Inconsistent: In out of the many battles I faced Inconsistent, I was only outright swept by it twice, and usually was able to beat the inconsistent user without losing any pokemon. While I don't believe it to be the most powerful strategy, I do feel that it is broken for being non-conducive to competitive play. While the Inconsistent user is on the field, it completely controls the flow of battle. Really, answers like Haze, PHazing or boost ignoring attacks are almost laughable measures that only partly scrap away from Inconsistent's influence on the flow of battle. The ability to control the game, and completely take the game out of the opponent's hands (and to a degree out of the user's hands as well), completely takes away from the competition-based-on-decision-making fundamental basis of competitive Pokemon. It essentially reduces the game of Pokemon to a dice roll. The ability to both A) Remove control of the game from the players and B) introduce a high degree of luck factors makes this like the problems associated with 4th Generation Wobbuffet and OHKO moves combined. I just do not see why this should be allowed in a game meant to be competitive.
Darkrai: Very accurate Sleep attached to 125 speed really is extremely hard to deal with, but the problem is compounded by Darkrai's ability to defeat almost all the many otherwise powerful counter-sleep measures available. The most pertinent of these is Magic Mirror. Espeon and Xatu especially are extremely capable at countering Breloom, and even enemies such as Venusaur, Roserade and other plant type users of Spore/Sleep Powder. These same pokemon, especially breloom, have a very difficult time with Toxic Orb Gliscor should it get the chance to active its orb before they come in. Espeon and Xatu are of course at Darkrai's mercy, since no Darkrai will put itself to sleep with Team Preview thrown in the mix. Gliscor has a great deal of trouble dealing with repeated Dark Pulses, especially when a smart Darkrai player will be able to pull off a Substitute or Nasty Plot as Gliscor protects. Furthermore, Ice Beam became more and more popular on Darkrai as the meta developed, making Gliscor and Breloom even shakier as Darkrai checks. Darkrai is not only a near-broken user of sleep, he's also perfectly positioned to defeat the best sleep checking pokemon, making even checking this beast a serious challenge. The new sleep functions make its Dark Void even more lethal.
Shaymin-S: At first I wanted to be a real supporter of Shaymin-S in the metagame--its capacity to abuse the Grass STAB that is otherwise very cumbersome in the OU metagame dominated by pokemon who resist Grass, was to me a welcome addition. However, as the game moved on, it became more and more apparent that Shaymin-S is a pokemon out of control. Most of its best checks are scarfed Steel types that (a) are hit for super effective damage by Earth Power, (b) have a very hard time doing any sort of memorable damage to the next switch in (c) are screwed in a metagame with Nattorei, Magnezone and Wobbuffet. Meanwhile, Shaymin-S can run around the metagame outspeeding almost everything and having the freedom and leisure to throw out its powerful attacks or seed/subbing strategy at will. Bottom-line: Shaymin-S will almost always hurt the enemy far more than its checks could hope to hurt shaymin's own team.
Latios: Latios is actually in a very similar boat to Shaymin-S. Thanks to its typing and ability, it had a very easy time finding opportunities to switch in and deal out huge amounts of damage. While these opportunities were far fewer than Shaymin-S' and it wasn't going to be sweeping whole teams, the damage output was of a whole different class. Latios was more than capable of half-destroying a steel type with Specs Draco Meteor each time it came in, so that the next time it would full destroy the steel type, ridding the enemy of critical defensive resources and freeing up all sorts of potential sweeps. Aside from Blissey, who always had to worry about Trick or even Psycho Shock, there really was nothing you could switch into an incoming Latios because the pokemon that "resisted" its attacks were nearly blown away by Draco Meteor and were completely blown away by Surf / HP Fire. Let me just say that this metagame is far more vulnerable to Latios than last Gen's OU. The prevalence of Toxic-Orb Gliscor, Nattorei, Balloon Dory and any number of new powerful setup threats has made trying ScarfTyranitar or CB Scizor just to take out Latios much greater potential liabilities than they were last generation. In a metagame without Darkrai, Latios would be even more recluse. The power gap between it and Latias, and the speed gap between it and Sazandora, are really to big to ignore.
Manaphy: I can understand those players who would rather see Politoed or Drizzle banned, but frankly I want Rain to stay in this metagame if possible. I believe Rain has made the game much more multi-dimensional than the 4th Generation metagame's continuous sand. I have always been bothered by our limitation to pointing out negatives in broken, without being able to discuss the positives. I believe Drizzle Politoed to be a positive influence on the shape and dynammic of OU play, and would like to see how it plays without Manaphy. That said, Manaphy in the rain is a serious problem. Due to its lack of common weaknesses, excellent defensive stats and speed, Manaphy is a tremendously powerful setup platform, and +3 SpA with immunity to status-- even without HydroRest that is a threat that is far too overpowered. Manaphy almost requires that Nattorei be on almost every team, because the offensive combination of Water / Ice / Grass puts everything else at its mercy. Even Nattorei has a hard time standing up to Manaphy's rain boosted Tail Glow boosted attacks, especially should it be forced to carry Shed Shell lest it be eliminated by Magnezone (a fairly competent partner for Manaphy on a rain team from battles I've played). Manaphy's combination of power, bulk and speed makes it an arguably far more lethal sweeper in 5th Gen than Yache Chomp was in 4th Gen. In a metagame without Shaymin-S, it is completely unacceptable.
Doryuuzu: I honestly do not believe this pokemon should be a highly controversial nomination. It completely changes the speed dynamic of OU. While rain may be powerful, Tyranitar and Hippo's superiority as individual pokemon (as well as the very specialized build of rain teams) will always leave sand as the "default" weather (as many non-rain teams will pack TTar/Hippo just to keep rain at bay). In the sand, Dory is broken-- it completely destroys the balance of speed in the game. Being able to outrun every single commonly scarfed pokemon is ridiculous, but being able to switch attacks, use Swords Dance and setup behind a 1 turn immunity to your biggest weakness really take it over the top. Keep in mind that with Balloon, Doryuuzu resists Stealth Rock, is immune to Sand, Spikes, Toxic Spikes and Thunderwave. Remember how good Flygon was last generation simply for possessing those same resilient qualities? Well, here we have a Flygon capable of outrunning every scarf pokemon, switch between attacks at will, and Swords Dance from 135 base attack while possessing steel-type resistances and defensive stats almost on par with Machamp. Did I miss the memo where something like this suddenly became acceptable? Also, while it should definitely be considered independently as well, should Drizzle be banned, Doryuuzu should be instantly banned alongside it.
Deoxys-A: Let me start by saying that I have almost never lost a single pokemon to Deoxys-A that I was not intending to sacrifice. Because of its frailty, people tend to play extremely predictably with Deo-A, letting you bring in a scarf user to finish it with relative safety. That said-- this is only because people are playing predictably. In other words, the better at predicting and risk-taking players get (with experience) the more lethal Deoxys-A will become. I noted as I played that even as I beat Deoxys, had the player known what I was going to do and predicted accurately (not hard with Team Preview, they just lacked the balls to risk-take) I could have easily been out half a team. To me, that is not acceptable. Just because the players are not currently good enough to make it broken, doesn't mean it isn't broken. What playing Deo-A taught me was that should player be willing to gamble and play ballsy, the game would be dropped to a crapshoot of 50-50 predictions based on whether or not you would switch or attack. To me, too many of these 50-50 prediction wars are not healthy for the meta, since prediction wars are not much better than dice rolls when it comes to luck. Therefore, I would like to say that Deo-A is not only potentially overpowered, but also non-conducive to consistent competitive play.
Wobbuffet: Essentially losing the freedom to check enemies with Scarf Users is a real problem, and I would say that pokemon like Latios, Darkrai and Shaymin-S would all have been much easier to handle if they were not often paired with Wobbuffet. Even with them gone though, pokemon like Latias, Terrakion and Garchomp will still become needlessly difficult to check simply because of the inability to freely use scarf users. The fact that you can "throw in Wobb to kill scarfers" of almost any variety is to me, broken beyond something like Magnezone, where a player has to sacrifice a team slot to take out a very select group of targets.
