Voltorb is a pretty interesting case, as the reason it should be banned (and yes, to cut to the chase I think it should be) isn’t as in-your-face as something like Scraggy or Snivy, but if you dig a little deeper it quickly becomes apparent hiw malignant of an effect it has both in the builder and in the game itself, the culmination of both factors making the tier a lot worse.
In the builder, the current “meta” team consists of:
Mienfoo
Vullaby
Mienfoo Switch-in
Vullaby Switch-in:
Voltorb-Hisui
And the one free slot, which almost always ends up being a ground-type
but can also be some other offensive tool
Obviously you can deviate from this, such as swapping Voltorb for a Torchic instead, or Mudbray as a dubious Vull counter, but clearly this is is the structure that most teams fall into, cookie cutter gonna cookie cut, but as a result the obvious issue here is how restrictive and honestly kinda bland building is with the holy trinity of Mienfoo, Vullaby and Voltorb co-existing. Other SV metas haven’t been like this, and pre-vull SS wasn’t like this either, the overload of tier defining threats on every team makes the builder suffocating.
The other major issue here is that, if you don’t have Foongus, the only pokemon that can really handle Voltorb is U-Turn Mienfoo. The problem is that worst case scenario, Voltorb hits a Volt Switch on the switch (what a tongue twister) into something like Stunky or Gothita, and even if they don’t, due to Voltorb’s uncontested speed, it can just use a STAB as Foo comes in and then Volt Switch out again, out damaging Regenerator, and contributing to the boring pivotfest slop meta that Hacker described earlier. Even if you do have Foongus, that Pokemon has the same issue, just being a major momentum sink and liability vs Vullaby if you get Volt Switched on.
It’s part of a greater issue where Voltorb basically prevents or greatly disrupts the ability to identify and make skilful midgrounds, admittedly in conjunction with other pokemon. Voltorb is so fast and it’s STAB combination so deadly, that if it ever pivots in against say, a Mudbray, then they can either stay in on Giga Drain and lose, switch to Mienfoo on Volt Switch and lose to scarf Goth, or switch to their own Voltorb and lose to your own Mienfoo clicking U-turn for free momentum. There is literally no compromising play there, they just have to guess by either clicking Earthquake on Volt Switch or going into Mienfoo and praying for Giga Drain. This type of 50/50 guessing is nothing new, wallbreakers have been making you flip a coin in Pokemon forever, but typically most wallbreakers, like Mega Medicham or Hoopa-U are held back by being relatively slow and being momentum sinks, neither of which are obviously true about Voltorb, it has all the wallbreaker strengths and none of the weaknesses.
The only technical compromise is like Wattrel, but let’s be honest when we say that Pokemon is very mid (though still kinda underrated tbf), almost entirely kept in employment by Voltorb, loses most of its value when rocks go up and loses to many Voltorb Teras anyway. Speaking of Tera, Voltorb easily has the most tera diversity of any notable LC mon, with Fire and Psychic being very common, Ice getting better as Toed gets more popular (as the goat predicted), and other types like Electric, Rock and Fairy all having seen tournament usage off the top of my head. More understated though is how Voltorb’s presence restricts the Tera choices many other pokemon have, with notable examples being Dragon on Mienfoo and Foongus and Electric on Vullaby. This restricted freedom eliminates many of the power and utility Tera has as a mechanic, and has some terrible effects we can see in metagames past and present: For example, something like Mienfoo being unable to run Tera Water was a major cause of the (now mostly died out) ban Shellder movement we saw recently, as the tools needed to handle both Voltorb and Shellder were for the most part entirely distinct.
Apart from these pseudo-compulsory teras, the other major counterplay developed for Voltorb is hazards, which certainly in theory do limit Voltorb’s ability to pivot, especially if it turns into a Fire-type. This is likely why we’ve seen spikestack strategies largely engulf the meta as of late. However, between Voltorb’s respectable bulk and Giga Drain, it has surprising resilience, and the total lack of spin blockers in the tier (some formerly viable ones like Drifloon having been invalidated in large part by Voltorb itself) makes removing these hazards extremely easy for the Voltorb user, as most hazard setters don’t have the resilience or sustainability to get em up multiple times in one game (the closest being Tink, which is probably why it has risen as the premier Rocker/Vull Counter as of late along with threatening Ice Hammer).
To prove that I’m not just making shit up, we can look at the first week of SCL, the highest echelon of the tier and one I’ve obviously been following from the inside for years now.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9lc-790538
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9lc-790840
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9lc-790231
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9lc-790094
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9lc-790264
In most, though not all of these games, we see Voltorb generally being one of the last Pokemon to go down on its teams, and almost always playing an extreme pivotal (pun not intended) role in endgames as the Pokemon receving Tera in a majority of games. When it is enabled by Toedscool especially, a pivot Pokemon like this, which you would expect to die somewhat quickly in a spikestack meta, is staying alive to influence endgames extremely consistently, indicating its longevity. These aren’t even the best games to showcase it’s late game influence either, just random replays I grabbed; everyone reading this has almost surely seen, performed and experienced countless reverse sweep comebacks with Voltorb-Hisui, it’s one of the main things this Pokemon is known for doing.
This by the way, is not even mentioning the obviously degenerate parts of Voltorb, such as Static and Speed ties, whether it be trying to lose Volt Switch ties or win Tera Blast ties. The Pokemon is just too versatile and good at everything at the expense of a diverse and enjoyable metagame to be worth keeping around in my opinion.
This concludes the newest iteration of the Drifting LC Thought Leader manifesto. Please direct all questions to my secretary
Hacker.
(PS: I was right about Toedscool all along)
