I understand people are not all content with how prior tests on topics like Volcarona have been. I agree that old Gen tiering is a constant work-in-progress and each future test comes with more knowledge than every prior one. This projects well for whatever comes next, but can cast some doubt on yesteryear’s decisions. Thankfully, not everything is done in perpetuity and we can all prioritize what is best for the community rather than getting defensive about past decisions or offensive about our disagreements.
While I can say that the BW council does not have close to a consensus on any Pokemon right now, we did discuss things like Volcarona, Alakazam, and even Thundurus-T recently. I have already shared my opinions on each before, but I will take an opportunity to briefly provide them again.
Volcarona is infamous for being a fishy win condition, but without Gems I find it being needed to adapt a lot to improve the matchup spectrum a little, often coming with major sacrifices either towards its ability to be effective or towards entire team composition consistency. Stuff like LO Volcarona actually is refreshing and can flip certain scenarios against Ground types and Tyranitar, but also comes with a noteworthy drawback of taking LO damage. It’s a lot more possible to limit the amount of kills it gets and even cap it at 1 altogether with certain defensive stops or offensive teams with priority moves given this. I am curious to see how the set mix continues to shape out, but I don’t see it as broken right now. I actually find it a good part of the tier for once as it punishes lazy, repetitive structures from a while back while still coming with constraints in team support in its own.
Alakazam is interesting as I have never really viewed it as broken. LO has finally hit the level of popularity it deserves, but it’s not drawback free despite being stronger and more likely to fit 4 threatening attacks. Being able to grab an OHKO is pretty important here and you can virtually always tell damage from its first attack, too. I do acknowledge gripes about coverage roulette — Signal Beam into Celebi teams, Fire into Scizor teams, GK into Tar or EQ Seismi/Gastro, HP Ice into Gliscor, etc. can go a long way, but I also think being able to preserve resources is part of the game and can be seen as part of skillful play. Sometimes it’s too little too late and you gotta ask yourself if this is on prior moves that led you there or if you think it’s the Pokemon proving to be too much. I do not personally think Alakazam is disproportionately strong and wouldn’t ban it, but I see where others are coming from at least.
Thundurus-T, finally, to me is the closest to broken on paper, but the furthest from broken in practice. I actually think it can evolve even further set mix wise. Thunder Wave for Latios, for example, flips a ton of games and we hardly see it. Despite this, we have seen more people use NP, U-Turn, different attack combinations, etc. to flip some dynamics and this opened the floodgates. The main issue is that it’s SR weak and only has a pretty good speed tier, leaving it very easy to RK without using a choice scarf user. Being stuck to Rain for its best sets dampens things a to too as they don’t really give it the spacing or lanes Sand may present Alakazam, for instance. I think the tier keeps it in check naturally to a decent extent because of this.
While I can say that the BW council does not have close to a consensus on any Pokemon right now, we did discuss things like Volcarona, Alakazam, and even Thundurus-T recently. I have already shared my opinions on each before, but I will take an opportunity to briefly provide them again.
Volcarona is infamous for being a fishy win condition, but without Gems I find it being needed to adapt a lot to improve the matchup spectrum a little, often coming with major sacrifices either towards its ability to be effective or towards entire team composition consistency. Stuff like LO Volcarona actually is refreshing and can flip certain scenarios against Ground types and Tyranitar, but also comes with a noteworthy drawback of taking LO damage. It’s a lot more possible to limit the amount of kills it gets and even cap it at 1 altogether with certain defensive stops or offensive teams with priority moves given this. I am curious to see how the set mix continues to shape out, but I don’t see it as broken right now. I actually find it a good part of the tier for once as it punishes lazy, repetitive structures from a while back while still coming with constraints in team support in its own.
Alakazam is interesting as I have never really viewed it as broken. LO has finally hit the level of popularity it deserves, but it’s not drawback free despite being stronger and more likely to fit 4 threatening attacks. Being able to grab an OHKO is pretty important here and you can virtually always tell damage from its first attack, too. I do acknowledge gripes about coverage roulette — Signal Beam into Celebi teams, Fire into Scizor teams, GK into Tar or EQ Seismi/Gastro, HP Ice into Gliscor, etc. can go a long way, but I also think being able to preserve resources is part of the game and can be seen as part of skillful play. Sometimes it’s too little too late and you gotta ask yourself if this is on prior moves that led you there or if you think it’s the Pokemon proving to be too much. I do not personally think Alakazam is disproportionately strong and wouldn’t ban it, but I see where others are coming from at least.
Thundurus-T, finally, to me is the closest to broken on paper, but the furthest from broken in practice. I actually think it can evolve even further set mix wise. Thunder Wave for Latios, for example, flips a ton of games and we hardly see it. Despite this, we have seen more people use NP, U-Turn, different attack combinations, etc. to flip some dynamics and this opened the floodgates. The main issue is that it’s SR weak and only has a pretty good speed tier, leaving it very easy to RK without using a choice scarf user. Being stuck to Rain for its best sets dampens things a to too as they don’t really give it the spacing or lanes Sand may present Alakazam, for instance. I think the tier keeps it in check naturally to a decent extent because of this.
is a common 6 that on paper has a really poor Volcarona MU if it manages to get set-up. Yet players like Monai spams 6s like this week in and week out and never gets punished by Volcarona. Why is this? Because players like Monai decide to run sets to help the Volcarona MU even if he would rather do something else. This isn't like Cloyster era BW where I was shoe-horning in Earth Power Lando-T, either. These set choices here actually have wider utility:
