I will be voting to
ban Urshifu-Rapid-Strike.
The biggest reason behind my decision is that there is
no reliable defensive counterplay. Others have brought up options such as Dragapult, Rillaboom, and Cresselia, but the first two get 2HKOd by the Choice Band set's STABs (Dragapult also dies to CB Ice Punch 7/8 of the time), while Cresselia literally does not exist in this tier (one use in DLT Playoffs). I don't know about you, but I don't consider Pokemon that get cleanly 2HKOd to be consistent switch-ins. It's also important to note that standard Rillaboom only has a 1/16 chance to kill Urshifu-R with Grassy Glide in Grassy Terrain, Dragapult needs to click Draco Meteor to OHKO Urshifu-R, and Zeraora only kills 1/8 of the time with Max Attack Plasma Fists. Tapu Fini and Amoonguss can in fact avoid the 2HKO, but these Pokemon get worn down very easily.
Tapu Fini gets invalided by 'Grass Spam' of Rillaboom + Kartana, which is further amplified by the common Electric-type (Zeraora or Zapdos) you see on these HO structures. Furthermore, Tapu Fini is not allowed to run a Calm Mind set since it will never get a chance to set-up, and gets chipped easily by the strong barrage of attacks from Urshifu-R, Zygarde, and Heatran.
In this DLT Playoffs
replay, Tapu Fini is already at 21% at the end of Turn 2 (partially due to a critical hit Volt Switch, but it would have been at ~40 and still unable to switch in again), forced to switch out, and dies when it comes back in Turn 6.
Here we see Tapu Fini never get a chance to hit the field against standard Z Strats HO since Yoda is always applying pressure with one of Rillaboom, Kartana, or Zeraora on the floor at all times. While Urshifu-R never hits the field for Yoda, it shows how
Tapu Fini cannot stop the onslaught of HO. Another example can be found
here, where Tapu Fini gets worn down and eventually KOed by Heatran and Zygarde, two Pokemon it's supposed to check, and paves the way for Urshifu-R to pin down a +2 +2 Kyurem-B through Protect to secure the win. Tapu Fini simply cannot check Zygarde, Heatran, and Urshifu-R at once, and this issue is only made worse by Rillaboom and Kartana. In this
replay, Urshifu-R is facing both Tapu Fini and Storm Drain Gastrodon, and yet still claims a free kill when it comes in on Turns 8 and 10. Once again, Tapu Fini is stretched thin, since it can't check both Psychic Spam and Urshifu-R at once.
Amoonguss does even less, as it makes zero progress against 2-3 Spore and Rage Powder immunities (depending on if Heatran is Safety Goggles) and even gets 2HKOd by Choice Band (and sometimes Life Orb) Ice Punch through Sitrus Berry, and takes 40-48% from Close Combat. Furthermore, running Amoonguss probably means you're running a variation of Necrozma, which does not match up well into Z Strats's HO because of Choice Band Zygarde, Rillaboom, Taunt Zeraora or Tailwind Zapdos, and Tailwind Kartana (
1,
2).
Here we have Urshifu-R against both Tapu Fini and Amoonguss, but it still ends up with three kills. In this
replay, Urshifu 2HKOs a Rage Powder-ing Amoonguss with Ice Punch through Sitrus Berry, and pick up three other kills, including two free ones when it comes in on Turns 6 and 9.
Tapu Fini and Amoonguss lose to Urshifu Offense.
This is all before mentioning the fact that
breaking Protect is insane. This is what sets Urshifu-R apart from other extremely hard hitters such as Galar Zapdos. Breaking Protect destroys all passive maneuvering, since you no longer can shield yourself and switch into one your checks. One notable example of how good Unseen First can be is found
here. On Turn 8, if Urshifu-R couldn't break Protect, Paraplegic can switch his Incineroar into Rillaboom and click Protect with Kyurem-B to stall out Tailwind and get Fake Out support on the field. Para would be in a pretty decent spot then, but his gameplan is invalidated by Urshifu-R. A similar situation can be found
here and
here.
Unseen Fist also takes away a lot of the risk when playing Urshifu-R. You no longer have to worry about attacking into a Protect and losing momentum as well as potentially getting KOed: Urshifu-R will almost always be 2HKOing whatever slot it's attacking. Additionally, guessing which STAB move it's clicking and praying you switch in your Rillaboom on the Surging Strikes or Dragapult on the Close Combat is pretty unreliable counterplay for obvious reason. Furthermore, the Urshifu-R player has two slots it can attack to help get around this 'problem'. Similar to people switching in their own Urshifu-S on the opponent's to take Choice Banded Wicked Blow, if you are relying on switching in your Dragapult to Close Combat when it gets 2HKOing by Surging Strikes and OHKOd by Ice Punch, it's safe to say that is not reliable counterplay.
Let's move on to Urshifu-R's
solid coverage moves in U-turn and Ice Punch. The biggest problem with pivoting in Doubles is you always run the risk of U-turning into a Protect, getting blocked, and dying. Pivot moves are very strong in Singles play because there's minimal risk, and a similar dynamic occurs with Unseen Fist in Doubles. Not only does U-turn do over half to fake swtch-in Rillaboom, but it lets you pivot out to a Pokemon with a better matchup and gain momentum and an edge in the positioning game. I think pivot moves are really underrated in Doubles, and Unseen Fist takes away all the risk in using them.
Choice Band Ice Punch OHKOs both Dragapult and Zygarde, making them even riskier switch-ins (Surging Strikes 2HKOs both already). You also 2HKO Amoonguss through Sitrus Berry, so that's not the safest of switch-ins either. Of course, clicking Ice Punch is riskier than Surging Strikes or Close Combat, but it's still a play your opponent has to respect and a risk you take every time you try to pivot in your Dragapult (again, it gets 2HKOd anyway).
I very much disagree with the fact that Urshifu-R needs lot of positioning to succeed, in fact, I would argue that
it's very easy to put Urshifu-R in a great position to win. Let's take a look at this
replay. Urshifu-R comes in after a Pokemon faints on Turn #5 and collects its first free kill. It also could have collected another by having Rillaboom click Fake Out on Amoonguss and Close Combating Porygon2. Anyways, Urshifu-R then comes in again on Rillaboom's U-turn on Turn #9 and picks once more.
Here we see Urshifu-R switch in on an Incineroar and a Kyurem-B, with the latter being Fake Outed by Zeraora. Urshifu and Zeraora is then able to dent Tapu Fini for 80% and all Urshifu-R takes in return is a Parting Shot. On Turn #8, Urshifu-R comes in on on a faint and claims its free kill. Lastly, on Turn #14, Urshfiu-R comes in via Rillaboom's U-turn and, you guessed it, claims its free kill.
Thanks to Fake Out and pivoting support (you are not even forced to run these, they are on every team), as well as even just coming in after a Pokemon faints, it is very easy to get Urshifu-R in a position where it literally claims its free kill. To be very clear, you don't have to "sack a mon" to get Urshifu-R in since it clearly has other ways. It's also able to switch in directly on Pokemon like Blastoise and Landorus-T, but nobody runs these anymore because they get owned by Urshifu-R and friends.
Now that we've established that Urshifu-R has no defensive counterplay and its very easy to position to pick up free kills, let's get to the next point: Urshifu-R has wrapped the metagame around itself and
made Offense the only usable playstyle. Shadowmonstr7 debuted Z Strats's HO team on April 3rd, it got spammed in DLT Playoffs from April 26th to May 23rd, continued being spammed in early rounds of Seasonals, and it's now June 4th and
no counterplay has been found. The metagame has adapted to Offense by... running Offense, since every other playstyle gets destroyed. I spammed Porygon2 Semiroom during my Winter Seasonal run, but even I realize it's unviable now due to the presence of Urshifu-R and friends. Porygon2 and Diancie get OHKOd by Close Combat and Surging Strikes, and the team itself can't pivot around all of Kartana, Urshifu-R, and Zygarde.
Nobody has found anything to stop Offense because nothing exists.
I also don't think it's fair to say "give the metagame more time to develop, people will figure it out" since it has been
two months and no answer has been found. Spectrier was "broken" during one week of Invitationals, and I completely agree that anyone who wanted to suspect it at the time was getting ahead of themselves. Eventually, we figured out how to beat it and the metagame changed in a healthy manner. However, two months is a lot longer than one week, so I think it's fair to say that as long as Urshifu-R is legal, the metagame will continue to be Hyper Offense spam. It's pretty fun that we have six sample teams, and like, 1.5 of them are useable right now.
Hyper Offense being the only viable playstyle is not healthy.
I think the seasonal set between Yoda and zee perfectly captures what the metagame has become.
Game 1 seems zee load up Kyurem-Black and Tapu Fini from LTPL and get destroyed by standard HO.
Game 2 is an Offense mirror match, with Regidrago (!) providing a big advantage. zee gets up Tailwind twice and Yoda can't do anything once they lose the momentum early on.
Game 3 is, yet again, and Offense mirror! This isn't because either player is boring or lazy, it's because theres no other playstyle worth using if you want to consistently win. zee grabs momentum with Tailwind on Turn 7 and the game is over, since there is no defensive counterplay for Yoda to use, and they won't get a chance to set their own Tailwind with the massive amount of pressure zee is putting on. Overall, we saw 5/6 HO teams (with the only non HO getting smacked), and both Games 2 and 3 depending on who could gain an advantage with Tailwind and win with their broken Pokemon first.
I also disagree with techs such as Latias, Buzzwhole, or Rocky Helmet (heh) are real metagame development. First off, while these Pokemon do match up well into Kartana / Urshifu-R / Zygarde and deserves to be ranked at the moment for it, they are unranked for a reason. For example, Latias looks like it probably folds into Porygon2 / Diancie / Volcanion, but it doesn't have to worry about that since Urshifu-R and co make all those Pokemon irrelevant. Furthermore, you're still running offense, just with a random UR mon teched on to help in the mirror. Latias is cute and all, but
being forced to run unranked Pokemon to get an edge in the offensive mirror matches is more of a sign of an unhealthy presence than metagame development.
Something else I need to touch on: not only does Urshifu-R have no defensive counterplay for itself, but it also
invalidates checks for its partners. Urshifu-R has made both common Intimidate users, Landorus-T and Incineroar, borderline unviable because they no longer affect the best physical attacker in the tier. This has greatly increased the viability of both Kartana and Zygarde (specifically the latter since Kartana can already crit through Intimidate, but now it rarely needs to worry about hitting at -1) and has helped made the combination of the three insanely broken. Hopefully by removing Urshifu-R, the tier can finally find some space to breathe and once again start thinking about being able to pivot around strong threats instead of loading up some combination of the ten best Pokemon and hoping you gain momentum first.
You should also read these good posts that help point to why Urshifu-R is broken:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8
Overall, Urshifu-R is the most oppressive force in Doubles. It has no defensive counterplay, and has forced the tier into a Hyper Offense frenzy since that's the only way you can beat Hyper Offense. I consider a tier where there is one style of play to be unhealthy, and myself and many others have pinpointed Urshifu-R to be the biggest reason why.
Ban Urshifu-Rapid-Strike.