certainly didnt expect to see this so soon after the last suspect but couldnt be happier about it, ive been calling for an aegi suspect for a minute. aegislash is essentially the most centralizing mon in the whole meta. ou revolves around this thing. if you dont believe me, go pick some random team from spl, wcop or some shit and you'll almost always find multiple ways to kill this thing. its the main reason countless mons run knock off for coverage such as CB/ass vest azu, mega scizor, conk, the soon to be departed deo-s, thundurus (also for latis)..its the reason greninja carries dark pulse, gardevoir shadow ball, almost single handedly brought mandibuzz up from NU to OU, its the reason that countless psychics have fallen from grace in OU like jirachi, metagross, slowbro, mew, alakazam, etc. the effects that ghost has had on multiple metas is pretty ridiculous.
BUT aegislash doesnt appear initially as broken as, say, deoxys or lucario because aegislash doesnt sweep teams, doesnt clean up teams. what it does is fill the role of the ultimate tank, able to switch in on countless mons and dish out huge damage. its a defensive pivot switch which also threatens just about any switch in that isnt a dark type. it has the ability to match any offensive mon you'll find on a standard HO team for power, but also has 50/150/150 defenses. thats why aegi is the standard HO glue for teambuilding, because it tanks hits without the need to sack a mon and keeps the offensive pressure up. no other pokemon does this even half as well in ou. some other pivots and tanks which you might see on offensive teams, such as heatran or clefable, have to sacrifice that power to invest in defense. aegislash does not.
if you want to count the number of things in this tier that are powerful enough to reliably OHKO a full health aegislash, ill give them to you:
-landorus-i
-bisharp
-zard x/y (X has to worry about KS on flare blitz, and Y outside of sun isnt guaranteed ohko)
-LO adamant excadrill
after that, theres stuff like max attack landorus-t (almost non-existant), adamant mega chomp, and max attack mega mawile (like a 10% chance to ohko w knock off) which are either uncommon or unreliable ohkos. so, thats 4 reliable ohkos and some other random shit. how many of the mons i just listed can switch into a standard aegi shadow ball? one, and that one is ohkoed by sacred sword. the fact is that offensive teams just cannot ever afford to give this mon free switch ins, and it gets a huge number of switch in oppurtunities. theyre basically forced to run one if not two of these mons to handle aegi, because otherwise it will get a kill everytime.
on top of all this aegi is difficult to wear down, since most sets run kings shield + leftovers which means aegi can easily gain 12% of its health back whenever, and unlike heatran which uses protect for the same purpose, it can actually hurt the opponent as it protects. if aegi opts to run LO instead of lefties, its becomes even more ridiculous to switch into, and if it runs max speed (which is becoming more popular lately) it can even surprise adamant bisharps and then proceed to wreck the rest of your offensive team.
tldr, aegi is broken because it is the ultimate tank, excels in both its defensive and offensive capabilities like no other mon, and centralizes the entire metagame. if you're running offense, theres usually no reason not to run aegi, and every single team bar none has to be prepared for aegislash, or be prepared to lose. peace
BUT aegislash doesnt appear initially as broken as, say, deoxys or lucario because aegislash doesnt sweep teams, doesnt clean up teams. what it does is fill the role of the ultimate tank, able to switch in on countless mons and dish out huge damage. its a defensive pivot switch which also threatens just about any switch in that isnt a dark type. it has the ability to match any offensive mon you'll find on a standard HO team for power, but also has 50/150/150 defenses. thats why aegi is the standard HO glue for teambuilding, because it tanks hits without the need to sack a mon and keeps the offensive pressure up. no other pokemon does this even half as well in ou. some other pivots and tanks which you might see on offensive teams, such as heatran or clefable, have to sacrifice that power to invest in defense. aegislash does not.
if you want to count the number of things in this tier that are powerful enough to reliably OHKO a full health aegislash, ill give them to you:
-landorus-i
-bisharp
-zard x/y (X has to worry about KS on flare blitz, and Y outside of sun isnt guaranteed ohko)
-LO adamant excadrill
after that, theres stuff like max attack landorus-t (almost non-existant), adamant mega chomp, and max attack mega mawile (like a 10% chance to ohko w knock off) which are either uncommon or unreliable ohkos. so, thats 4 reliable ohkos and some other random shit. how many of the mons i just listed can switch into a standard aegi shadow ball? one, and that one is ohkoed by sacred sword. the fact is that offensive teams just cannot ever afford to give this mon free switch ins, and it gets a huge number of switch in oppurtunities. theyre basically forced to run one if not two of these mons to handle aegi, because otherwise it will get a kill everytime.
on top of all this aegi is difficult to wear down, since most sets run kings shield + leftovers which means aegi can easily gain 12% of its health back whenever, and unlike heatran which uses protect for the same purpose, it can actually hurt the opponent as it protects. if aegi opts to run LO instead of lefties, its becomes even more ridiculous to switch into, and if it runs max speed (which is becoming more popular lately) it can even surprise adamant bisharps and then proceed to wreck the rest of your offensive team.
tldr, aegi is broken because it is the ultimate tank, excels in both its defensive and offensive capabilities like no other mon, and centralizes the entire metagame. if you're running offense, theres usually no reason not to run aegi, and every single team bar none has to be prepared for aegislash, or be prepared to lose. peace