I'm getting a feeling we may have quite a few Suspects this round, though I don't think all, or even half of them will actually be voted BL. I've finally gotten to experiment a little with a few of the newish Pokemon, so a few comments!
First of all, Gallade is a monster. Once you get a Swords Dance, almost nothing will avoid taking massive damage. Your best bet is probably Weezing, since not many Gallades will have Psycho Cut considering the threat of Spiritomb, but Weezing is so offensively challenged that it is rather a sitting duck for the rest of Gallade's team, in my opinion. In fact, more often than not I find that Weezing and Spiritomb are dead or weak by the time Gallade even comes in (usually in a desperate attempt to stop Honchkrow). I'd be pretty surprised if Gallade manages to survive the permanent BL tag.
I haven't tried using Froslass yet, but considering how badly Froslass has done against me and what the metagame looks like right now, I don't think I'll use it all that much. With all the Ambipom and Spiritomb in UU right now, Froslass can't get up that second layer of Spikes before she dies, so using her just isn't worth it, in my opinion. As things are, I have a hard time seeing Froslass even being named a Suspect again.
Rhyperior is like God's (or possibly X-Act's) gift to UU! It's strong, durable, a great user of Stealth Rock, and the perfect answer to those Swellows, Arcanines, etc. At the same time, it's not so fast or so durable that it's impossible to kill, so I really don't get all the "Rhyperior to BL!" talk. If anything, it reminds me of a slightly more durable, significantly stronger Donphan, but without the priority or Rapid Spin. It's also nice having a more or less reliable switch-in to Honchkrow....
Speaking of Honchkrow, I completely underestimated how big an addition Brave Bird is to Honchkrow's repertoire. Honchkrow OHKOs so many Pokemon now that it's pretty amazing, and particularly taking down a lot of the Pokemon that would otherwise give Gallade problems. Granted, Rhyperior does make a big difference in facing Honchkrow, since it is a reliable switchin, but Honchkrow is still very, very strong. I voted Honchkrow UU the first time it came up, since I have perceived it as sortof the "Salamence of UU", but I'm really starting to thing now that with Brave Bird it's just a little too much to handle, even as relatively slow as it is.
Oh dear, Raikou....where to begin discussing Raikou? On the one hand, Raikou's speed and power are pretty amazing. On the other, I feel that most teams are hardly even trying to stop Raikou. Specially defensive Registeel with Earthquake does stop Raikou cold without using Chansey, so I'm pretty curious to see how things develop with Raikou. I still haven't really made up my own mind whether Raikou deserves to be BL or UU, and I've been using it a lot.
I've found Alakazam to be very disappointing, the way it's been hyped to me! At least until the wave of Spiritomb dies down, I always come away feeling that the slot would be better used on something else. Having a counter is one thing, but Spiritomb counters 'Kazam so badly it's ridiculous, and Spiritomb is incredibly common at the moment (for good reason!).
Speaking of Spiritomb, lately I've enjoyed using a Pokemon I traditionally have avoided: Arcanine. With all the WoWs being thrown around by Spiritomb, I thought it might help to try it out (though I'm usually more of a Nasty Plot Houndoom guy). I've been trying out an offensive set with max attack (i.e. Adamant) and Life Orb using Flare Blitz, Extremespeed, Toxic and Morning Sun. I usually Toxic first move in, to catch incoming bulky waters and Rhyperior. I've long since come to the conclusion that HP Grass doesn't do enough to Milotic to be worth it, and the extra survivability of Morning Sun really helps a lot.
One last thought....."playing defensively" seems to be harder than ever. I'm not talking so much about full stall as trying to play the "balanced" style that UU has seemed to evolve into in the last few months. Milotic is still great and Spiritomb is really useful right now, but they need to account for so many different threats that they can get really badly hurt early in the game, leaving another threat clear to sweep. This is especially true with Honchkrow around to open holes up for Gallade, etc.
