Could I take this time to acknowledge something? I wanna take a loop back to the OU usage stats.
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banned)
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banned)
Now look I know that I am not as "big brained" as some people, but I just want to point out the elephant in the room here. What you see above is (in order plus the current bans) the entire list of pokemon classified as OU via usage this month. And it just seems kinda dull. Like... I can't really explain it as once again, I don't have the skill of top players, but I can try.
As far back as gen 3, we got Camerupt in ADV OU. It has a genuine niche -- a good niche at that. It can switch-in to some of the most common pokemon like Zapdos and Gengar, has the very dangerous Explosion, and also has a great offensive typing and type combination. It even has a partial Ground types added perk of a sand immunity -- which is amazing for its viability. Another example more recent is 3 gens later in ORAS with Cofagrigus. Cofagrigus' niche in ORAS is that of a stopgap to some of the most threatening physical mons that make contact with their moves like Mega Medicham, Mega Lopunny and Azumarill by way of Mummy + Will-o-Wisp. It does have a niche and like Camerupt, seen tournament success. An even more recent example in this gen (albeit kinda linear) is Calm Mind Blissey. With the addition of Bloodmoon Ursaluna and Gholdengo among things like Manaphy and other generally offensive special attackers, Blissey is a sitting duck against them. Enter Calm Mind -- a way for Blissey to match and surpass the very idea of a special wall by becoming something unholy in terms of special defense. It's still stall, but Calm Mind is an interesting use of what Blissey has in order for it to do its job.
It's very clear that pokemon
could see play in a limited pokedex. It's very clear that something could pop up and flip the metagame upside down (like that AV Toxapex. Not op but still interesting). But as it stands right now and for the future, the metagame as it is isnt very diverse. That is how things work with metagames, you're right. But do you
really find it fun to have the same exact 20 pokemon in a team? I don't. Within the 36 pokemon that are OU now, there are obvious cores and outliers like Kingambit, Cinderace, Rillaboom + Sneasler and such. But the stranglehold of what currently is OU has deviated to a lack of potential to have an anti meta pick. Even in tournament play right now (this will change soon), you basically play the momentum game with 5 pokemon as one of them is guaranteed almost. It reaches a point of repetition and your own pure sanity to not think that this metagame is kinda stale. Just forget the upcoming DLC in a month -- there's something we can use at this moment right?
Of course there are outliers here and there at times, but none of them became official. I'm not trying to start another argument about what is and isn't viable
Im still dying on the Forretress hill but I hope someone or myself could hopefully find something with a valuable niche. Or an interesting metagame set development in response to the current meta at large. I can't speak for everyone and will probably start a debate, but I will try to find something of value in these desperate times :(