WOOOOOOOOOOO
This was well-deserved. Imagine being so broken that Storm Zone thinks you should go.
(I.e the guy who defended Archaludon and Chien-Pao in the past)
I believe this is the step in the right direction regardless of what you think is the more broken mon.
Winners
View attachment 628442
Enam and Val are the obvious ones, being checked by Volc. Volcarona getting deported also means they can be slot in more often on HO (not that Val needed help or anything.
Grassy Glide stonks go up, plus Heatran or G-Fire can be run in place of Volc as the bulky Ghold check.
Ghold was already great in the metagame, but Volc was a near hard counter to Ghold. With it gone, Ghold is most likely to get better. Can’t say its a good or bad thing rn.
Kyurem is another great mon, especially with Balance teams being incredible rn. Though Volc was a fake check (Specs Draco trucks it and Kyu techs Rock Slide), it still appreciates not having it in the tier as it makes clicking Ice Beam and Freeze Dry easier. It won’t be broken though.
Crown and also Scizor are underrated mons that benefit from the Volc ban. Plus they both check Kyurem which will be in higher demand.
Losers
Tbh, I don’t think there are any actual losers of the ban. Those that “lost” either don’t mind the ban like Stall or was already going downhill like Skeledirge. The mons that were cited as Volc checks like Glowking, Prima, Dnite and Ting-Lu actually improve. Remember that these mons also check other shit, so without Volc chipping them down or killing them with Tera, they have more breathing room to fulfill their roles.
With Volc gone, is there anything I consider broken?
Nothing atm, though I will keep an eye on SD View attachment 628455.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2111729756?p2
This is a mid ladder replay, but here Gliscor gets every kill and survives a Tera Ghost Hex cause of the SpD investment, and proceeding to heal up back to full since Pinkacross’ ToTw has several free entries for Gliscor. Even with the Skarmory, the team eventually falls to the Tera Normal SD Facade. The replay also demonstrates why Skarmory sucks.
Something about Gliscor shredding through even well-built teams like that seems off, but we’ll see in a couple weeks.