That would explain his bad Woger takes lmao, but yeah I think the draco drop is managable for a few reasons. Its actually still quite strong after a boost, and many offensive structures struggle to deal with specs shadow ball spam lategame, especially with tera ghost. Honestly I'd say the HO matchup is one of specs pult's best matchups, so long as you are careful about your choice locks.
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Metagame SV OU Metagame Discussion v4
- Thread starter TPP
- Start date
I don't have much experience but I think hazards are a good part of the meta, and one of the main things distinguishing it from VGC (please tell me if this is wrong/nonsensical) because I don't hear much about hazards there. I like hyper offense teams a lot, hazards are a big part of that. I also think that Rapid Spin is perfectly fair, as it's legitimate counterplay; you need to anticipate it because it's common.
Full snow team, with veil support, and it's just unbreakable on the physical side - the problem is, so are many other bulky mons with veil support.
145 Attack looks promising, but you're shackled to an 85 BP, 90% accuracy STAB move in Icicle Crash. Strong coverage? Close Combat is good, but undermines the fantastic natural bulk that tries to compensate for mono-Ice typing, and...that's it for really good moves. High Horsepower isn't bad, but it's worse than Earthquake, and neither Double Edge/Thrash nor Outrage are hitting much of value.
Give this bad boy Glacial Lance and Earthquake and it'd have a niche on Trick Room teams. Give it properly good coverage and run it with AV on a snow team and laugh as 100/130/110 bulk doesn't even care about the poor typing. As it is, the move pool is just too barren to make it work.
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Stops Corviknight from being too splashable and (with Air Balloon variants) makes it harder for the elephants to mash R*pid Sp*n into Headlong/EQ which thus forces fat players to actually think in order to remove hazards. This in turn has contributed to the development of a more diverse meta game with options such as Knock + Defog Scizor and Geezing. I dislike dealing with both of those things but I’d rather see people get creative than just flip the fucking bird at me every time. Ghold is also just fine special attacker and status spreader.
And yes, you heard me right, I do think that there is such a thing as hazard removal being too splashable.
I don't really agree with the idea that hazard removal would somehow run rampant with gholdengo gone (especially given how easy setting hazards is in the first place). However, I have come to really appreciate Gholdengo's versatility when blocking other status moves aside from just defog. Blocking random stuff like TWave, Encore, Trick, Taunt, etc is just nice for being able to scout with recover without being punished. The main thing for me though is the immunity to roar/whirlwind, a trait which only two other ou-viable mons (dogi and hatt, neither of which are particularly threatening setup sweepers) possess. In particular, on grassy terrain teams I've found it very useful as a way to avoid getting grassy seeds and booster energies randomly popped early on, especially since with enough terrain turns Ghold fully sets up on and beats Ting Lu.
I highly doubt Gholdengo is ever going anywhere. I also highly doubt hazard removal is ever being touched.
this was a Gastrodon jumpscare ngl
thats my goat fr
speaking of
, has anyone experimented with it at all recently? I've actually tried it quite a bit, and it feels solid with its ability to pivot into and softcheck a lot of things like 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, and even deny flip turn from the dreaded 
, all while possessing the always valuable utility of spikes, but I can't seem to find the right supporting core to pair it with. What mons do people find synergize well with ?Gastrodon @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Storm Drain
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Ice Beam
- Earthquake
- Spikes
- Recover
This is my favorite set, but there is room for a bit of experimentation, such as running leftovers over boots or sludge bomb to annoy
switch ins and potentially fish for poison. I do think spdef is the way to go in the current meta tho.
To be honest I have never really felt that Gholdengo was broken. Even back in the pre home meta where it was technically at its strongest, I never thought Gholdengo was particularly hard to deal with. I have never really used it to often but when I have it just feels decent. However, one thing I have noticed is that there is one set that I believe is better than all of the other sets in this meta and that is scarf. I have never been a fan of air balloon sets because it is almost an instant loss to Great Tusk and other ground types since they typically carry coverage to be able to pop the balloon and then destroy Gholdengo. What is the point of blocking hazard removal if the best hazard remover in the game (Great Tusk) can just outspeed it, destroy it, and then be on its way? What makes scarf so good is that it is now faster than Great Tusk and pretty much all of these other ground types so you can hit them with powerful attacks. For example, offensive utility Tusk has an approximately 81% chance to get ohkoed from full and that doesn't even take into account damage from hazards if you aren't running heavy duty boots on it. Once you get past the many ground types you can really start to appreciate just how useful Gholdengo is all around with nothing else really being able to threaten it in the same way while also having the ability to remove hazards. Corviknight usually switches out immediately and if Galarian-Weezing doesn't defog before Gholdengo switches in it immediately has to switch out in fear of make it rain (which is why I don't like G-Weezing very much). This isn't even to mention the cherry on top being trick just in case you see a setup pokemon trying to do its thing. You arguably don't even need trick as most times Gholdengo is so threatening on its own that losing the added speed hurts it a lot of times. Choice locking isn't even really a huge deal since you will usually be switching out after one turn anyway. I personally think scarf Gholdengo alone is what catapults this pokemon to either A+ or S- depending on how you feel about hazards, and I honestly would argue that Gholdengo is actually quite healthy in this metagame as without it, hazard stack likely wouldn't work as well as it does and the metagame would be a lot more offensively oriented than it already is. What do you guys think about scarf Gholdengo though?
Heavy-Duty boots have a much worse effect on how the game plays than Gholdengo ever would. It was a pipedream that they would enable otherwise low-tier bug or fire types.; 
and especially 
are eyesores.
The "hazard problem" this gen has always been the dichotomy between the efficacy of a few setters and knock-off pokemon, and on the relative safety of teams that load up on boots. Despite gholdengo, hazard removal options are still incredible this generation; they are just not at the level of thoughtlessness of gen 8 corviknight. I think it is always bad to have low opportunity cost passive pokemon/plays available. When hazard pressure is taken out of the equation, raw breaking power (or 150-turn battles) is the only way to make progress.
I think it would be a big mistake to stifle offense teams further that would otherwise suppress these breakers. Boots aren't "broken" but their ubiquity outside of HO teams is no bueno.
Reintroducing
and maaayybe 
would be worthwhile experiments to promote more diverse item usage for fat and maybe make some room for HO again that isn't mega fish like Sun or TR are. (unfortunately the rest of rain totally hoses the non-fat matchups that arch is weak to, so prob too much)
and especially are eyesores.The "hazard problem" this gen has always been the dichotomy between the efficacy of a few setters and knock-off pokemon, and on the relative safety of teams that load up on boots. Despite gholdengo, hazard removal options are still incredible this generation; they are just not at the level of thoughtlessness of gen 8 corviknight. I think it is always bad to have low opportunity cost passive pokemon/plays available. When hazard pressure is taken out of the equation, raw breaking power (or 150-turn battles) is the only way to make progress.
I think it would be a big mistake to stifle offense teams further that would otherwise suppress these breakers. Boots aren't "broken" but their ubiquity outside of HO teams is no bueno.
Reintroducing
and maaayybe would be worthwhile experiments to promote more diverse item usage for fat and maybe make some room for HO again that isn't mega fish like Sun or TR are. (unfortunately the rest of rain totally hoses the non-fat matchups that arch is weak to, so prob too much)
Reintroducing
Beside the fact that boots are far from some slapped-on-every-pokemon item like you for some reason believe, they’re also nowhere near problematic or any kind of issue. Nore are they some get out of jail card with no drawback. They provide a relief from hazard pressure at the cost of another helpful item, like leftovers or rocky helmet, or a damage boosting item.
And the rest here… suggesting reintroducing any of these three mons is just… what? These Pokémon don’t promote different item usage, they just restrict team building greatly (and for some of them that’s being nice). Annihilape all but completely invalidates fat teams and many balance teams by way of its BU+Taunt set, and Archaludon is way too efficient of a trade artist that has very few checks at all (and brings nothing of value outside of rain and in fact is mediocre outside that style). Roaring Moon is maybe the least broken of these but it still pushes obnoxious restraints on building and is too volatile a set up threat.
Also complaining about Moltres is lol
We aren’t going down the Heavy-Duty Boots rabbit hole again.
They aren’t being banned. At best (and this is being generous), you can argue a small handful of Pokemon have ever been enabled to be banworthy due to Boots existing. This clearly doesn’t reach the threshold needed for action on a non-Pokemon component of the game.
You can dislike it, but that does not make it banworthy in the slightest.
They aren’t being banned. At best (and this is being generous), you can argue a small handful of Pokemon have ever been enabled to be banworthy due to Boots existing. This clearly doesn’t reach the threshold needed for action on a non-Pokemon component of the game.
You can dislike it, but that does not make it banworthy in the slightest.
You see I was almost on board with the talk about Boots vs Ghold as influences and the game length being elongated by the hazard ignorance (not as an issue but a talk about how things were developing, sure) until the proposed "solution" was to unban some of the most oppressive breakers the tier has dealt with this gen. Archaludon is a [3 for one specil], Roaring Moon is the King's Chariot because it cannot be stopped, and Annihilape can just decide Your Taking Too Long and start doling out 150+ BP STAB if you're not running a team style that consistently threatens to OHKO it neutrally. I don't even see how these guys promote item diversity for Fat Teams because it makes them even MORE dependent on Boots to shrug off hazard and preserve the 1-2 things they have as stopgaps to that output.
I'm also biased towards Memento usage as it feels like a very interesting way to generate momentum for one of several win-cons, not dissimilar to other Slow Pivots. Memento capitalizing on Gastrodon's potential Recovery and Spike setting synergizes with luring in offensive rather than passive checks/exploiters that are crippled much harder by the drops on top of the switch initiative, particularly stuff that might try to Tera out of a hit like Fairy/Normal Dnite or Fairy/Dark Kingambit, threatening the effective revenge killer much less at 0/-1 from a would-be free boost turn
One thing potentially worth consideration on my mind is Clear Smog or Memento, though not sure where to fit it. Gastrodon is potential set-up fodder for some dangerous sweepers like SD Oger-W, Kingambit (0/0 can take two EQs after 1 Spike and even most of the time after 2), DD Kyurem (Subtect mercs but even scouted it can exploit you), and DNite with Neutral Tera.thats my goat fr
speaking of
Gastrodon @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Storm Drain
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Ice Beam
- Earthquake
- Spikes
- Recover
This is my favorite set, but there is room for a bit of experimentation, such as running leftovers over boots or sludge bomb to annoy
I'm also biased towards Memento usage as it feels like a very interesting way to generate momentum for one of several win-cons, not dissimilar to other Slow Pivots. Memento capitalizing on Gastrodon's potential Recovery and Spike setting synergizes with luring in offensive rather than passive checks/exploiters that are crippled much harder by the drops on top of the switch initiative, particularly stuff that might try to Tera out of a hit like Fairy/Normal Dnite or Fairy/Dark Kingambit, threatening the effective revenge killer much less at 0/-1 from a would-be free boost turn
My first instinct would be Sap Sipper Goodra-H (I don't know where to find the little sprites) because it can eat grass type attacks, and even without it the 4x resistance is pretty good. And to pair with the two... I don't know. I don't play much OU.
Yea this gen does have some solid anti-hazard mons ig. 
and 
probably are the two best spinners we have ever seen, 
and 
are pretty great as well to help combat hazards on more offensive structs, and 
is a solid, reliable option on fatter builds for anti-hazard duties. Some of the lower tier shitters like 
, 
, 
, and 
also do have some unique qualities that can make them worth considering for the role on various structures ig.
I am thinking that some of the lower tier mons could also do the job, but its tough to find the right batch that have all the qualities to make hazard removal work. Too many of them feel too slow and exploitable to be worth the hassle. Offensive
is the one guy I've tried, and credit where its due, it has been able to delete , 
, and the other spinblockers fairly well, but its MU into 
is dubious, and I find it leaves holes to physical attackers that are difficult to plug (think 
, 
, , 
, 
, etc.) so its more of a for fun gimmick. I do have a few other ideas for guys that could work as fun removers, but IDK how to build them well.
Noivern @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Dark / Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Dark Pulse / Flamethrower
- Hurricane / Draco Meteor
This should be paired with a better Ghold answer, but Tera Fire Flamethrower or Dark Pulse can hit Ghold for over 60%, with other options like Taunt being avalible to outright prevent entry hazards from being setup in the first place (though you don't have the slots to run that).
Blastoise @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Torrent
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Modest Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Surf
- Rapid Spin
- Shell Smash
Can setup vs the more passive hazard setters and land an emergency spin later while breaking. Evs let it outspeed scarf ghold while not even getting 2HKOed by max Special Attack Shadow Ball. Water dark is also generally solid breaking coverage, though it may just be more productive to use this pokemon as a sweeper / breaker than this hybrid role.
Tornadus-Therian @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SpD / 192 Spe
Tera Type: Steel
Timid Nature
- Bleakwind Storm
- Knock Off
- Taunt
- U-turn
This set is meant to prevent hazards from ever being setup in the first place rather than removing them. Taunt Torn-T is very reliable against most of the entry hazard setters if positioned well, and can keep doing it over and over and over again thanks to Regen. This set is very difficult for fat to handle in general.
An issue I have with other spinners / foggers is that even if they are able to beat or they are too slow to land the spin against their teammates (even in cases where the aformentioned Pokemon aren't present) while also lacking general utility outside of hazard clearing compared to / .
and probably are the two best spinners we have ever seen, and are pretty great as well to help combat hazards on more offensive structs, and is a solid, reliable option on fatter builds for anti-hazard duties. Some of the lower tier shitters like , , , and also do have some unique qualities that can make them worth considering for the role on various structures ig. I am thinking that some of the lower tier mons could also do the job, but its tough to find the right batch that have all the qualities to make hazard removal work. Too many of them feel too slow and exploitable to be worth the hassle. Offensive
is the one guy I've tried, and credit where its due, it has been able to delete , , and the other spinblockers fairly well, but its MU into is dubious, and I find it leaves holes to physical attackers that are difficult to plug (think , , , , , etc.) so its more of a for fun gimmick. I do have a few other ideas for guys that could work as fun removers, but IDK how to build them well. Noivern @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Dark / Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Dark Pulse / Flamethrower
- Hurricane / Draco Meteor
This should be paired with a better Ghold answer, but Tera Fire Flamethrower or Dark Pulse can hit Ghold for over 60%, with other options like Taunt being avalible to outright prevent entry hazards from being setup in the first place (though you don't have the slots to run that).
Blastoise @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Torrent
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Modest Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Surf
- Rapid Spin
- Shell Smash
Can setup vs the more passive hazard setters and land an emergency spin later while breaking. Evs let it outspeed scarf ghold while not even getting 2HKOed by max Special Attack Shadow Ball. Water dark is also generally solid breaking coverage, though it may just be more productive to use this pokemon as a sweeper / breaker than this hybrid role.
Tornadus-Therian @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SpD / 192 Spe
Tera Type: Steel
Timid Nature
- Bleakwind Storm
- Knock Off
- Taunt
- U-turn
This set is meant to prevent hazards from ever being setup in the first place rather than removing them. Taunt Torn-T is very reliable against most of the entry hazard setters if positioned well, and can keep doing it over and over and over again thanks to Regen. This set is very difficult for fat to handle in general.
An issue I have with other spinners / foggers is that even if they are able to beat
or they are too slow to land the spin against their teammates (even in cases where the aformentioned Pokemon aren't present) while also lacking general utility outside of hazard clearing compared to / .Ok maybe I could understand reintroducing Roaring Moon as I don't think it is broken but reintroducing Annihilape and Archaludon is way too insane. Both Rage Fist and Electro Shot are insanely broken moves (especially on these pokemon) and it would be ridiculously dumb to reintroduce these pokemon into the metagame since they would literally destroy everything.Reintroducing
Edit:
The problem with this thing is that scarf Gholdengo is faster and 2hkos it.
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ok so i'm not going to cover the part about boots and ho since other people have already done that but i'm just gonna break down for you why this wouldn't work:Reintroducing
- personal opinions on roaring moon aside, it's the most recent thing that got banned. i don't think it's ever happened that a thing got banned via suspect and then the next tiering action was testing that same thing down. of course the fact that there's no precedent doesn't actually prevent it from happening, but consider that only around 30% of people wanted it to stay in the tier. if the same number of people voted, that percentage would need to double for it to be freed via suspect. i highly doubt that's happened, based on the simple fact that the only people i've seen calling for a moon unban were dnb in the first place. so even if you do believe roaring moon would be balanced or improve the tier if freed (it wouldn't), there are logistical hurdles to why it can't happen
- archaludon might be healthy without electro shot, but policy has (unfortunately) been updated to explicitly not allow for things like this. it's demonstrably ridiculous with the move. the arch/skewda/peli core was virtually impossible to address in builder and only slightly less difficult to play around, and i don't see any indication that it would be easier to deal with nowadays. even you yourself acknowledge that it would probably be too much
- annihilape does not "promote more diverse item usage for fat". it makes fat unviable as a playstyle altogether. there are vanishingly few ways to get around bulk+taunt on fat balance and literally none on stall. this is not a good or healthy thing for the meta
and speaking of things that aren't actually in the tier, does anyone have any early predictions for who's likely to rise next shift? heatran? torn-t? rillaboom again? are these guys going to stick around till next shift or are they just a flash in the pan?
My hope, my (probably unrealistic) dream even, is Bisharp. A good ol Defiant menace that can be manouvered into a lategame Intimidate, set up with Swords Dance, and sweep whats left of the Opponent's team, kinda like its evolution Kingambit except Bisharp can run Eviolite.
My reality, however, is to bet on something like Garchomp or Scizor.
It would be great if ape shutdown teams like that. fat balance is not good teambuilding and promotes passive gameplay. This is a bad thing in my opinion. stall is cool and already has many ways to break it. the people here write like bulky offense isn't the best way to play with the current set of pokemon by a mile.
also, mr finchinator, I never wanted to ban boots; as mentioned, I am interested in doing something that will stop the "ban the next best tera sweeper" cascade that the tier has been on for 2 years.
anyway. I think OU is fun and major changes are not needed, but I don't appreciate how the tone of this forum only considers centralizing offensive threats when there are absolutely heinous defensive pokemon in the tier like
:alomamola: to name a few
also, mr finchinator, I never wanted to ban boots; as mentioned, I am interested in doing something that will stop the "ban the next best tera sweeper" cascade that the tier has been on for 2 years.
anyway. I think OU is fun and major changes are not needed, but I don't appreciate how the tone of this forum only considers centralizing offensive threats when there are absolutely heinous defensive pokemon in the tier like
:alomamola: to name a few
Roaring Moon was so strong that it'd DD twice and remove every single one of these barring maybe DEF invested Tinglu from existence. The amount offensive threats still outweight the defensive ones, with select ones like Zama also functioning as a defensive and offensive cornerstone at once that also eats these for breakfast unless you defensively Tera.I don't appreciate how the tone of this forum only considers centralizing offensive threats when there are absolutely heinous defensive pokemon in the tier like
The reason Offensive mons are in question is because many of them, due to Tera, or TB, or just plain ol' Powercreep, effectively roll over half the tier. I'd never accept uglier Entei back into the Meta simply due to the fact it'd DD also twice and proceed to also pick and choose its counters harder than Moon did due to superior bulk.
This comes off as you hating or having something against fat balance rather than there being anything wrong with the style tbh. It’s meant to be a slow paced style that plays a long game. There’s many tools in the tier to break them and good skill and tactics to punish overt passivity or safe plays.
but I don't appreciate how the tone of this forum only considers centralizing offensive threats when there are absolutely heinous defensive pokemon in the tier like
None of these are “absolutely heinious”. They help anchor bulkier teams and keep them functioning well, with great reliability and providing stability. There is ample counterplay to all of them.
It’s a lot harder for a defensive pokemon to be overbearing compared to offensive threats, that’s why they’re so often the target of action.
I do want to add a bit to the Gholdengo dicussion, mainly in an attempt to refocus it a bit. Cause something I've noticed not just in these form or from any one person specifically but in conversations about Gholdengo for the entirety of gen 9. So much of the attention and emphasis is placed on good as gold and its hazzard removal denial, but not much attention is given to what I actually feel makes this Pokémon so strong. The everything else.
I dont want it to seem like I'm sleeping on good as gold when I say this but its Soo obviously neglegable in comparison to the real reasons you should want a Gholdengo on your team. That being that it's an offensive bruiser, that's hard to take down while also being Incredibly hard to take hits from in return.
Its ability is cute. Blocks twave spam, stops encore from being a counterplay option. But let's be real in practice good as gold only feel oppressive when bullying Corvinite. I dont even like to give it much credit as a spin blocker because the main Mons youd want to spin block have your number by now. Tusk and Tread users have played these games before. There gonna knock or or ice spinner to EQ every time. Its a fake 50/50 that risk sacking such a good Mon.
I want to focus things on all of Ghold's more prominent strength's. Its perfect statline. The way its bulk is just good enough on both sides to take any strong non supereffective hit at least once. The way its speed is just good enough to get the jump on the vast majority of defense Mons even uninvested. The way Gholds coverage can make soo many offensive Synergy combos that dont even rely on terablast at all.
Speaking to Gholdengo's offensive potential a bit more. Like people know its really good but they dont really give it that glaze it actually deserves. Like this sound blasphemous until you actually stop and think about it but actually legit find Gholdengo harder to answer defensively in the builder than say a wall breaker like Wellspring. Maybe I'm just not theory crafting enough but I dont actually think Ghold has a hard counter in the traditional sense, just checks with varrying amounts of longterm reliability. I feel like people spamming Tinglu on all their teams does a lot to coverup how limited the pool of Ghold checks actually is. All of its checks can be muscled through with the right offensive build like metal coat, life orb, spec etc. However even without an offensive build, bulky gholds can still spam shadow ball/make it rain into its checks. Swap out out come back in later, rinse repeat and by the 4th one your tinglu or spdef heatran is gone. This problem is emphasized by the fact that gholds already limited checks tend to not have the reliable healing necessary to go the distance with it and its very easy for the Ghold user to casually outlast its checks.
To wrap this up. I dont believe ghold is ban worthy, I think the bar for that is a bit higher then being uwallable given the ideal set for the match up. However if I were to argue foe Ghold being an unhealthy presence in the meta like some do. I would come at if from this angle rather then its role as a hazard stack enabler. I think its about time we stop scapegoating ghold for hazards dominance thus gen, we do oversell that aspect of the Pokemon quite a bit.
I dont want it to seem like I'm sleeping on good as gold when I say this but its Soo obviously neglegable in comparison to the real reasons you should want a Gholdengo on your team. That being that it's an offensive bruiser, that's hard to take down while also being Incredibly hard to take hits from in return.
Its ability is cute. Blocks twave spam, stops encore from being a counterplay option. But let's be real in practice good as gold only feel oppressive when bullying Corvinite. I dont even like to give it much credit as a spin blocker because the main Mons youd want to spin block have your number by now. Tusk and Tread users have played these games before. There gonna knock or or ice spinner to EQ every time. Its a fake 50/50 that risk sacking such a good Mon.
I want to focus things on all of Ghold's more prominent strength's. Its perfect statline. The way its bulk is just good enough on both sides to take any strong non supereffective hit at least once. The way its speed is just good enough to get the jump on the vast majority of defense Mons even uninvested. The way Gholds coverage can make soo many offensive Synergy combos that dont even rely on terablast at all.
Speaking to Gholdengo's offensive potential a bit more. Like people know its really good but they dont really give it that glaze it actually deserves. Like this sound blasphemous until you actually stop and think about it but actually legit find Gholdengo harder to answer defensively in the builder than say a wall breaker like Wellspring. Maybe I'm just not theory crafting enough but I dont actually think Ghold has a hard counter in the traditional sense, just checks with varrying amounts of longterm reliability. I feel like people spamming Tinglu on all their teams does a lot to coverup how limited the pool of Ghold checks actually is. All of its checks can be muscled through with the right offensive build like metal coat, life orb, spec etc. However even without an offensive build, bulky gholds can still spam shadow ball/make it rain into its checks. Swap out out come back in later, rinse repeat and by the 4th one your tinglu or spdef heatran is gone. This problem is emphasized by the fact that gholds already limited checks tend to not have the reliable healing necessary to go the distance with it and its very easy for the Ghold user to casually outlast its checks.
To wrap this up. I dont believe ghold is ban worthy, I think the bar for that is a bit higher then being uwallable given the ideal set for the match up. However if I were to argue foe Ghold being an unhealthy presence in the meta like some do. I would come at if from this angle rather then its role as a hazard stack enabler. I think its about time we stop scapegoating ghold for hazards dominance thus gen, we do oversell that aspect of the Pokemon quite a bit.
This is an excellent post and the best argument for why arguing about Gholdengo's excellent offensive capability perhaps being too good is a better avenue by which those who want to ban Gholdengo should center their arguments. Good As Gold can complement your arguments on why it's very hard to deny Gholdengo progress, but it shouldn't be the main focus.
For me, when I build I prep for Gholdengo much harder than I do for Ogerpon-Wellspring since Ghold doesn't have long-term answers as you say, and I find Ghold to be the #1 limiting factor of a balance team's viability, and Storm Zone himself has made this argument about Gholdengo being a bigger limiter to balance than Wellspring, which I wholly agree with. SZ doesn't believe Ghold is banworthy though, which I have to clarify.
Ting-Lu, which is what's most commonly used to check Gholdengo, is often outlasted by Gholdengo given how much damage a +2 MIR does to Lu before it's phased out/has its Balloon popped. IMO, Gholdengo's a bigger factor than Ogerpon-Wellspring in why outoffensing your opponent's the name of the game this gen with the combination of Gholdengo's offensive potency as well as the disruptive nature of Good As Gold being the reason for this.
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Which is why I prefer using scarf so I don't immediately die the turn after I switch in (if they ice spinner at least).
Don't forget the fact that it has 133 SPECIAL ATTACK AND STEEL GHOST TYPING! This thing is stupidly strong, and both of these traits make the 120 bp Make It Rain hit so much harder.
Anyway, I wanted to highlight a comparison I recently thought about. Gholdengo kind of reminds me of a souped-up version of the DPP Rotom Appliances. Back in DPP, Rotom had a very similiar role to Gholdengo as it was a pokemon that could easily keep hazards on the field. Not only is its best set also scarf, but it is even almost the same speed as Gholdengo. It has a similar role to Gholdengo where it is able easily scare off hazard removal with a powerful stab combo coming off of a (at the time) respectable special attacking stat. I bring all this up because once you look at Gholdengo through that lens all of those things that many people believe make it broken actually make it quite healthy for the metagame (in my opinion). Gholdengo is the first pokemon to be able to block hazard removal this effectively since DPP Rotom as until it came into existence no pokemon before or after DPP Rotom was introduced (including itself since its type got changed the next gen) was able to keep hazards up as well as it did back in the day. That is all I really have to say but I hope this shows why Gholdengo (though sometimes annoying) is actually kind of a healthy presence in the metagame as it adds an extra layer of nuance that hasn't really been seen since 2010 (which is the year Black and White came out).
Gholdengo didn't really have a similar role to the Rotom appliances as the Rotom appliances weren't breakers who could only be outoffensed. Yeah, they also served as spinblockers, but that's the end of any similarities they had. Gholdengo has a much bigger impact on the meta than they did given how much bigger of a threat it is in every way compared to the Rotom appliances in their respective tiers.