I would like to start by saying i havent voiced my opinion in this thread yet because i know that there are many intelligent players that give unique perspectives that will make you see things in a different light, everyone that has posted here has brought intelligent and unique perspectives to the table and many valid factors coming into play that accurately describes why they feel the way that they do.
I would like to start by directly addressing the perspective "it is against tiering policy to suspect or ban a move unless we find multiple broken users of said move" essentially a complex ban rule, implying that suspecting tera blast goes against this is just wrong, you can love or hate tiering policy all you want, even i had problems with it, but tera blast does NOT violate tiering policy, we have multiple pokemon throughout the generation that were broken by tera blast, examples are regieleki, volcarona, roaring moon, kingambit and most of all dragonite, people tend to argue against this by stating pokemon like volcarona and roaring moon were broken before tera blast was used on them, not realising that the metas that they were broken in wasnt as developed and stable as the meta is today, now this is not the thread for me to list why i believe that these pokemon are no longer broken / was never broken without tera blast, if you wish to challenge my opinion on any of these pokemon i listed here, i will gladly give you my reasons in private, just message me on discord, my tag is stormzone.
Now, i would like to state that both
Nat
and
Niko have stated extremely valid opinions, Nat said that nintendo airdrops and bulldozes new tiers into VGC often, Niko said that a tier should never go more than a year untouched, both along the same lines of tiering action can always be implemented and is necessary/healthy for a metagame to develop and grow, i strongly agree with both of you, and what i stated in my previous post after OLT cycle 1, is that its not fair to force players to learn a new meta while a tournament is active/ongoing, this does NOT mean i don't support tiering action, this just means that the tiering action should take place in between tours, NOT during them. I would like to further echo Nat's sentiment that i am not happy with this meta either, and there is alot room for improvement, lets not use the narrative that "a metagame is sacred 4 years into it so we should not do anything else" , even sacred things have room for improvement, the meta is in the most stable spot its been since the gen started but that does not mean we can't make it more stable.
Now, we must look at effective options to improve the metagame, we must not act on a list of pokemon that become problematic because of an issue that is becoming more and more visible/noticeable, we must target the issue that is causing said pokemon to be pushed over the line, i can think of two main issues right now, tera blast, and light clay, both enablers of an unhealthy metagame, but since this thread is meant to focus on tera blast, i will strictly focus on tera blast for now, if you wish to discuss light clay for me, message me on discord my tag is stormzone as i stated above. Now, it wasnt until later in the gen that tera blast was rising as the main issue in the tier, after moon was freed in dlc2, it didnt feel broken at all, it was only until people started using tera blast fairy on it, that it started raising concerns among the qualified playerbase, every other moon set did not have a winrate as close to the fairyblast set, nor were they broken, every other moon set barring tera blast had lots and lots of viable counterplay, that pointed the meta in a healthy direction, stuff like weavile, sticky barb clefable, more notably scizor, which by the way also checks kyurem, again if you wish to argue that moon or any of these pokemon that i am about to list was still broken without tera blast, just message me on my discord and i will discuss my opinion, i am trying to be as transparent as possible to this community which is why i am leaving my discord open to any and everybody, now lets move on to the other threat that tera blast broke, volcarona, tera blast broke this pokemon, its the fear of ground blast, ice blast, fairy blast, and even dragon blast/water blast/tera rock terablast, added more variance to this pokemon that it should've, but what does volc to to dragonite/heatran/chomp/physical or twave pult if it cant tera blast them, so much defensive counter play, and meta trends exist today that limit volcarona, like overqwil and rain in general, dnite structures, ceruledge, etc. The obvious threat is eleki, this tier has so many ground types that if it cant use ice coverage its rendered useless into all if not most grounds, and it provides a spinner that threatens gholdengo, which has become a semi issue in the absence of moon/volc especially on terrain with the spdef sets, this is a healthy addition because the meta is centered around hazards and removing them and adding another spinner can only bring improvement to this metagame. Now that i've covered the ones that are no longer ou, let me cover the ones that are, dragonite, without the fear of tera blast flying/fairy/ghost, this pokemon would be an extremely healthy presence in this metagame because it limits many other threats, provides good utility, and now it has less variance in its sets which now make it manageable. Kingambit, which in my opinion is one of the dumbest pokemon ive ever seen enter a generation, but, somewhat, the meta has adapted to it, until it started running tera blast fairy, the main checks to it such as zama/tusk fold or are atleast forced to tera to revenge this set, now i understand that kingambit has alot of set variance even without tera blast, but it gatekeeps so much in this metagame that acting upon it would cause a meta to descend into chaos, it gives me the vibe of GSC lax, or Sun/Moon magearna, we know its strong but its keeping many others from being broken, and of course, it would be a bad idea to act on ALL these just because we dislike kingambit. Another example which in my opinion is my favorite one is kyurem, tera blast ground/electric/fire, i will admit, is hard to prepare for or see coming when you are fearing such powerful special sets like sub tect and specs which occasionally packs glowking support, but i see that as a tera blast issue. And lastly, as
mcribs mentioned, tera blast also affects lower tiers, mons like gyarados and blastoise forced to join a BL in-between tier and leave their respective tiers just because of this move.
Weighing all these factors, and the fact that the move tera blast has added so much variance to this tier, it is not adding anything positive to the tier, to me if something is both unhealthy + not useful for the overall growth of a tier, it is time to start acting upon it, yes, variance is good, to those who wish to have a metagame where u dont have to guess sets or u dont want to get caught off guard, even with a full ban of tera, that is never going to happen, every pokemon has different sets and you will never be safe going up against a creative teambuilder, no matter who you think you are, every team can innovate sets even without tera. So with this in mind, i would like to see action on tera blast, this move has become increasingly unhealthy for far too long and has been hindering the growth and development of this tier especially recently, but the reason i brought up variance is because the reason i want it gone is not the variance it brings but the fact that it doesnt bring anything positive to the tier, yes, variance is good, but if it is negatively affecting the tier (i.e. breaking pokemon that would be crucial for metagame development, and pokemon that are healthy presences overall) while simultaneously adding nothing positive to the tier, its time to take action. To summarize, i want tera blast gone because:
1. It is negatively affecting the tier
2. It brings nothing positive to the tier
To conclude this post, i am adding direct support for the action of tera blast, the only regret i have, is not making a post during the last few tera blast threads that have happened in the past, and voicing my public opinion and displeasure for tera blast, and that is because at the time of those threads, i was dealing with alot of upsetting and stressful things irl, and only came to PS to relieve stress by texting with some good friends in stallcord, laddering, and teambuilding, which all simultaneously make me happy, i was not in the mental space nor did i have the mental capacity to provide a solid post with lots of thought put into it, but now, as i am in a better place both mentally and irl, i am able to provide my proper opinion + insight on the direction of this tier. Now, this post was meant to go up Sunday, but after receiving the sad news of our friend's passing in this community, i was heavily mourning, and it delayed this post + many other things that was meant to happen on that day, but now, as ive had time to recollect my thoughts, i am able to post today, thats all i have to say for now, have a good one.
