Since when we are judging tering decisions based on older gens???What is the relevance?
What generally useful means?Politoed is generally useful since he sets and abuses one of the standart battle conditions:drizzle!So i don't really get your point...Drizzle is a common and integral part of 5th gen ou so i don't get the 'outside of weather part'.Weather is the standart so we don't have to take into account what happens outside of it...Of 'course drizzle is an amazing ability but since when do we ban amazing abilites?
You seem heavily intent on simply replying to people's posts "tit for tat" without actually addressing the points made within them. Nowhere did I imply a pokemon should be tiered based on past success.
Had you read my post, you would have seen that I noted Tyranitar's adaptability to a variety of metagame shifts (as evidenced by its success in this gen and the past 2) as an indicator of its general status as a top-tier pokemon. In other words, it isn't number 1 as a sand starter alone. It is number 1 because it breaks walls, it breaks stall, it can outspeed and check faster threats, it checkmates certain other threats, and it provides considerable team support (not all at once, mind you).
Politoed being dragged from the depths of NU to a spot within the Top 15 shows just how effective Drizzle really is. Yes, singular changes can make or break a pokemon. Bullet Punch Scizor was cited, for example. It's hard to put into words, but that was a change that only Scizor directly benefited from and other pokemon really wouldn't have benefitted as much from it.
With the case of Drizzle, ANYTHING that received it would be where Politoed is now - just as people were keen on using Drought Vulpix in UU, I'm sure people would gladly use Drizzle Whiscash or Drizzle Lumineon if they were the ones to receive the ability. Drizzle is THAT good.
It matters 'cause variety will be severly limited!And because drizzle is not a broken ability nor politoed is a broken pokes in ou...
The variety case is getting old. What "new" threats does Drizzle bring around that wouldn't otherwise be seen on a regular basis? Tornadus didn't even make the OU cut based on May statistics. Toxicroak is the only one other than Politoed itself that shows up with any consistency. Some other pokemon would likely rise to fill Tornadus spot, Manaphy would take Politoed's place, and some random could take Toxicroak's position. This is, of course, operating under the false assumption that OU will look exactly the same - Drizzle Threats + New Threats. So really, the point is entirely moot. OU will, however, keep those 53 pokemon. That I'm fairly certain of.
Meanwhile, Drizzle allows Thundurus to straight up KO SpD Jirachi at +2 rather than getting paralyzed in the process of failing to kill it with thunderbolt (this one is shaky because Thundurus is BL Uber).
LO CM Latios is suddenly able to OHKO SpD Scizor with +1 Surf.
CM Virizion can now set up on Balloon Heatran, and in rare cases LO Heatran.
Specs Rotom-W 2HKOs on-site Ferrothorn with Hydro Pump. That same standard
Ferrothorn survives Naive DDMence's LO Fire Blast with a good third of its health remaining.
LO Starmie hits consistently harder and faster than Specs Latios while suffering no drawbacks. That's not even taking into consideration the boosts that a non-nerfed Drizzle provides to the Swift Swimmers. And Specs Politoed itself is keeping opposing weather starters at bay since the 3 that matter are all swiftly 2HKOd while lacking the ability to outspeed and KO Toed in return or, in Ninetales' case, simply KO.
An impressive list of calcs/facts is irrelevant if other such conditions can do the same, but such is not the case.
Sand is not nearly as impactful as Drizzle is in assisting its sweepers, as the residual damage will take a few turns to add up and is negated by Leftovers. Excadrill is powerful by virtue of a +2 boosting attack, and even then keep in mind that Jolly Balloon Excadrill's (which for some reason is the most common) +2 Earthquake is only stronger than LO Starmie's Rain Hydro Pump by 4%, a difference that Starmie covers because it can attack immediately rather than after a 1-turn boost. And it has room for recovery. Landorus must choose between power and speed, and if it tries to do both it will be walled by prominent pokemon in the metagame (Gliscor, Skarmory, Hippowdon).
As for Drought, the pokemon that are boosted still have difficulty breaking past their checks, and still tend to be slower or weaker than their Drizzle counterparts. Sawsbuck is not getting past Skarmory sun or no, while Venusaur will always suffer from coverage issues. Other users of Chlorophyll have their advantages, but they don't have a STAB boost to mitigate their generally average attacking stats. Darmanitan and Victini have crazy powerful STABs under the sun, but their speed is average at best regarding the metagame meaning that sweeps are only supported once their counters have been removed, which they won't often do on their own. Slowbro, for example, will wall Adamant Scarf Darmanitan even in the sun, though it admittedly falls to a CB Sun Sheer Force Flare Blitz. Volcarona, arguably sun's best abuser, has coverage issues if it decides to run the bulky route (Jellicent, Terrakion, Gyarados), and succeeds largely due to a move that simultaneously boosts its three best stats. Drought is good, yes, but far more manageable because of these reasons.
Second, the abusers of sun that receive the STAB boost risk allowing the #1 pokemon to not only switch in and wall their attack and threaten them, but also to change the weather in the process. Sure they can predict and use a coverage move, but I don't see Politoed, Starmie, or Rotom-W being forced to use anything other than Hydro Pump to severely wound their checks.
In other words, the benefits to Drizzle far outweigh the negatives of Drizzle and the benefits of using other weather. "Change the weather" is not a valid response because, quite frankly, it requires you to have 1 of 3 other pokemon. And I can always change it back.
Only problem is with +1 you only have 352 speed which means thundurs trolls you to hell with Focus Blast. But hey it wrecks a good portion of the metagame.
Actually, max speed Jolly outruns the genies by 1 point, so if it trolls you with anything it's Prankster T-Wave. Also HJK > Drain Punch for the immediate power, it helps against the likes of Rotom-W and slightly weakened Scizor (both of which can really weaken you). But then I also use Shed Skin > Moxie so I usually can rack up multiple DDs on Jellicent, Ferrothorn and that ilk, while you would gain boosts by KOs.
