Hello all,
The OU Council has voted to ban Genesect and Naganadel from OU effective immediately.
The Pokemon notorious for starting out OU and getting banned immediately has returned for more of the same. This metagame is no different for Genesect; it has all the tools it needs to thrive. Genesect has multiple extremely effective sets, but Choice Band in particular is devastating. 120 Base Attack boosted by STAB, Band, and possibly Download make U-turn not only a safe option, but also a power offensive tool. With its coverage and speed, Genesect can force out a lot of the metagame and use U-turn to gain a positional advantage. In the threat-saturated metagame we have now, inviting in incredible Pokemon such as Landorus, Zygarde, and Pheromosa for free can be devastating. There are very few ways to safely punish a banded U-turn; answers are mostly limited to Rocky Helmet Toxapex, Static Zapdos, and Flame Body Moltres and Heatran. Genesect’s Extreme Speed has also never been more useful. In SS, incredibly fast Pokemon have become the norm, and needing something faster than a Choice Scarf is a necessity at times. Genesect’s CB Extreme Speed can easily revenge kill any offensive threat, notably Pokemon such as Blaziken, Naganadel, and Regieleki, all of which can laugh off any Choice Scarf Pokemon not named Ditto. Choice Band is an incredibly low risk, high reward set. There’s no downside to clicking U-turn at times, it’s incredibly powerful, can easily end up cleaning in the endgame, and even can switch into some big threats in the metagame, such as Kyurem-B, Magearna, and Glastrier.
Genesect can also run far more than just one set. Special sets can be incredibly devastating; at the cost of speed or the ability to fire off Choice Band boosted Extreme Speeds, Genesect can become virtually unwallable. Thanks to moves such as Techno Blast equipped with a Douse Drive, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, and so on, typical switches will find themselves devastated. Genesect has a vast array of moves to pick and choose from, making it incredibly difficult to wall the special variant, even if you know it’s special from preview. Douse Drive reveals itself at preview in this generation, but this does not help Heatran teams with Genesect, as knowing your Heatran will not be a good switch into Genesect does not help you find ways to beat it.
Genesect is also capable of running other sets, such as Choice Scarf and Shift Gear. With the fast-paced metagame we’re in today, Choice Scarf has many uses. Offenses will greatly struggle finding counters to Genesect, even if they know it’s Choice Scarf. Even more defensively oriented teams can struggle, as Genesect can ultimately still force things out and U-turn on the switch-ins to another Pokemon. Shift Gear can also be devastating, largely thanks to Download. Download allows Genesect to pick and choose what can come in on it; even Pokemon that are typically great at checking Genesect, such as Heatran and Toxapex, can be handled by gearing the Genesect towards them, and thus being able to clean up the endgame with the boosts.
Naganadel does not have the history that Genesect has, but its ban was far less contested than Genesect’s previous bans were. Naganadel, with Z-moves, was obscene. This generation, it lost the ability to fire off Z-moves, which not only weakens it, but also means it has to deal with the drop in power from electing to use Draco Meteor and potential Life Orb recoil. Even with the changes, Naganadel is still an incredible Pokemon. Beast Boost with its speed tier, alongside Nasty Plot, STABs, and access to Fire-type coverage does all it needs to be incredible. With Naganadel in the tier, you are presented with three options: 1) use SDef Heatran, 2) use Scarf Ditto, or 3) use Pokemon with astronomical special bulk. Without these three things, you’ll find yourself losing to NP Naganadel more often than not. Its STABs coupled with Fire-type moves is just too incredible; it is only walled by Heatran, thanks to Flash Fire. Otherwise, nothing would be able to shrug off its attacks well at all.
In addition, Nagandel is able to snowball out of control upon getting a kill; if the opponent elects to fodder something off to Naganadel or you can muscle past the Pokemon you are facing with Nagandel, then it will get a Speed boost thanks to Beast Boost. This can make it very challenging to revenge kill if you lack strong priority from something like Choice Band Genesect, which you cannot expect every team to have. This dynamic compresses both offensive and balance teams, forcing the usage of specific Pokemon like Heatran more often than not.
Moreover, Naganadel also gained access to Spikes, making it have a niche beyond just the single set that pushed it over the top. Spikes don’t break it, like NP does, but it provides another cool option that can chip all of the aforementioned methods of counterplay. Spikes provides Naganadel with a way to retain momentum, even if there’s a should-be hard wall, such as SDef Heatran or Blissey. Overall, Naganadel has proven itself to be checkable, but only by a very limited pool of Pokemon. Its offensive presence is too much for the Overused metagame to handle because of this.
Tagging Marty and The Immortal to make this change on PS when they can; thanks!
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These two Pokemon were deemed to be the most ban worthy and warrant swift action here, as both have been banned in under a week of release. There are many more Pokemon on the table, but we would like to give the metagame more time before we take action against them. For those curious, OU Council voted the following:
Genesect received 7 Ban votes and 1 Do Not Ban vote.
Naganadel received 8 Ban votes.
A sidenote: I’d like to share that we will be sending out a state of the metagame survey before too long, inquiring how players feel about the metagame and any changes they’d like to see. We wanted to wait for at least the first wave of bans from DLC prior to sending it out, as we originally intended to send out a survey on October 1st.
We’ll probably be seeing you all again soon
The OU Council has voted to ban Genesect and Naganadel from OU effective immediately.
The Pokemon notorious for starting out OU and getting banned immediately has returned for more of the same. This metagame is no different for Genesect; it has all the tools it needs to thrive. Genesect has multiple extremely effective sets, but Choice Band in particular is devastating. 120 Base Attack boosted by STAB, Band, and possibly Download make U-turn not only a safe option, but also a power offensive tool. With its coverage and speed, Genesect can force out a lot of the metagame and use U-turn to gain a positional advantage. In the threat-saturated metagame we have now, inviting in incredible Pokemon such as Landorus, Zygarde, and Pheromosa for free can be devastating. There are very few ways to safely punish a banded U-turn; answers are mostly limited to Rocky Helmet Toxapex, Static Zapdos, and Flame Body Moltres and Heatran. Genesect’s Extreme Speed has also never been more useful. In SS, incredibly fast Pokemon have become the norm, and needing something faster than a Choice Scarf is a necessity at times. Genesect’s CB Extreme Speed can easily revenge kill any offensive threat, notably Pokemon such as Blaziken, Naganadel, and Regieleki, all of which can laugh off any Choice Scarf Pokemon not named Ditto. Choice Band is an incredibly low risk, high reward set. There’s no downside to clicking U-turn at times, it’s incredibly powerful, can easily end up cleaning in the endgame, and even can switch into some big threats in the metagame, such as Kyurem-B, Magearna, and Glastrier.
Genesect can also run far more than just one set. Special sets can be incredibly devastating; at the cost of speed or the ability to fire off Choice Band boosted Extreme Speeds, Genesect can become virtually unwallable. Thanks to moves such as Techno Blast equipped with a Douse Drive, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, and so on, typical switches will find themselves devastated. Genesect has a vast array of moves to pick and choose from, making it incredibly difficult to wall the special variant, even if you know it’s special from preview. Douse Drive reveals itself at preview in this generation, but this does not help Heatran teams with Genesect, as knowing your Heatran will not be a good switch into Genesect does not help you find ways to beat it.
Genesect is also capable of running other sets, such as Choice Scarf and Shift Gear. With the fast-paced metagame we’re in today, Choice Scarf has many uses. Offenses will greatly struggle finding counters to Genesect, even if they know it’s Choice Scarf. Even more defensively oriented teams can struggle, as Genesect can ultimately still force things out and U-turn on the switch-ins to another Pokemon. Shift Gear can also be devastating, largely thanks to Download. Download allows Genesect to pick and choose what can come in on it; even Pokemon that are typically great at checking Genesect, such as Heatran and Toxapex, can be handled by gearing the Genesect towards them, and thus being able to clean up the endgame with the boosts.
Naganadel does not have the history that Genesect has, but its ban was far less contested than Genesect’s previous bans were. Naganadel, with Z-moves, was obscene. This generation, it lost the ability to fire off Z-moves, which not only weakens it, but also means it has to deal with the drop in power from electing to use Draco Meteor and potential Life Orb recoil. Even with the changes, Naganadel is still an incredible Pokemon. Beast Boost with its speed tier, alongside Nasty Plot, STABs, and access to Fire-type coverage does all it needs to be incredible. With Naganadel in the tier, you are presented with three options: 1) use SDef Heatran, 2) use Scarf Ditto, or 3) use Pokemon with astronomical special bulk. Without these three things, you’ll find yourself losing to NP Naganadel more often than not. Its STABs coupled with Fire-type moves is just too incredible; it is only walled by Heatran, thanks to Flash Fire. Otherwise, nothing would be able to shrug off its attacks well at all.
In addition, Nagandel is able to snowball out of control upon getting a kill; if the opponent elects to fodder something off to Naganadel or you can muscle past the Pokemon you are facing with Nagandel, then it will get a Speed boost thanks to Beast Boost. This can make it very challenging to revenge kill if you lack strong priority from something like Choice Band Genesect, which you cannot expect every team to have. This dynamic compresses both offensive and balance teams, forcing the usage of specific Pokemon like Heatran more often than not.
Moreover, Naganadel also gained access to Spikes, making it have a niche beyond just the single set that pushed it over the top. Spikes don’t break it, like NP does, but it provides another cool option that can chip all of the aforementioned methods of counterplay. Spikes provides Naganadel with a way to retain momentum, even if there’s a should-be hard wall, such as SDef Heatran or Blissey. Overall, Naganadel has proven itself to be checkable, but only by a very limited pool of Pokemon. Its offensive presence is too much for the Overused metagame to handle because of this.
Tagging Marty and The Immortal to make this change on PS when they can; thanks!
---
These two Pokemon were deemed to be the most ban worthy and warrant swift action here, as both have been banned in under a week of release. There are many more Pokemon on the table, but we would like to give the metagame more time before we take action against them. For those curious, OU Council voted the following:
Genesect received 7 Ban votes and 1 Do Not Ban vote.
Naganadel received 8 Ban votes.
A sidenote: I’d like to share that we will be sending out a state of the metagame survey before too long, inquiring how players feel about the metagame and any changes they’d like to see. We wanted to wait for at least the first wave of bans from DLC prior to sending it out, as we originally intended to send out a survey on October 1st.
We’ll probably be seeing you all again soon
: 0 ban, 8 do not ban
: 2 ban, 6 do not ban
: 4 ban, 4 do not ban
: 3 ban, 4 do not ban, 1 abstain
: 5 ban, 3 do not ban