I still feel Shadow Tag and other trapping is more important.
By facing my teams with Gengarite (Shadow Tag), I decided to consider Shadow Tag is suspect-worthy.
Here, I explained what traits make people think Shadow Tag is banworthy or not. But I recently concluded that there is no perfect way to deal with this ability.
We can run U-turns on every 'mons!
I don't even know how this makes sense. Let's say we have your precious Fur Coat Zygarde-C which Imposter-proofs your own Primal Groudon and MMX. After taking some damage, and you decide that you need to press Milk Drink.... and I can only imagine your face when opposing Gengar switches into that. Now your Zygarde-C is encored, hears Perish Song, and dies after 3 turns, and you will lose because either you cannot dare to pull out Pdon and MMX to kill stuff fearing Imposter after you lost improofing Zygarde-C, or because you end up pulling out aforementioned wallbreakers out of impatience over the course of long match and Imposter switches in afterwards.
This makes lose-lose situation, your wall, over the course of the match, will take damage from entry hazards, U-turns, and other stuff, and when you decide you have to heal them, you risk losing your wall forever. If you are too scared of Gengar and decide to spam U-turn, your wall will eventually faint. (assuming your wall lacks Magic Bounce)
Also, some sets I have seen carries Baneful Bunker or Toxic, and this means almost anyone trapped will get out alive poisoned even if they have U-turn.
Regenvest 'mons are unaffected?
Uh, no, they are. Some day, you might wanna get rid of Stealth Rock in your side, and at some point, you will press Rapin Spin with your RegenVest Solgaleo, Defog with your Zygarde-C... and if Gengar switches in... I will not repeat what happens, since I mentioned the consequence above.
Offensive presence leaves Gengar with nothing to do!
I thought so initially, but this is not true.
So 90+% of Gengar variants that use Mega Evolution I've seen uses Illusion. And it can do so many things:
* Ice Beam on Rayquaza
* Sludge Wave on Audino
* Trapping support 'mons without switching moves
* Baiting Trick or Switcheroo and eliminate the user if successful
I posted
this replay and barely anyone gave an interest. (Opposing side is me)
I was happy until turn 58, thinking that I successfully crippled the wall that was bothering me the most.
My team had offensive presence for the whole time, the the game itself was filled with so many mind games, and by simply not switching out after using Switcheroo, I am punished by losing one of the most important cores in my team. Also, at the last turn of Perish Song countdown, Audino switched back in and got its Safety Goggles back, and made the 5 turns a nightmare for me.
My Primal Groudon is down, but since Slowbro on their side is down, I do not have much concerns about it.
Now I successfully brought Kyu-W into Audino, and I realized this is
the perfect example of lose-lose situations caused by Shadow Tag.
Given that my Kyu-W is Specs Refrigerate set, their Gyarados is RegenVest...
Lets see what can happen here:
* Audino:
1. Take a Boomburst and die but I doubt Funbot will let that happen.
2. Predicting Secret Sword will happen, switch into Gengar but it is risky af. Common sense won't make this happen either.
3. Predicting Secret Sword will happen, it can stay in and proceed to pivot into Gengar.
* Zygarde-C:
1. Kyu-W revealed Draco Meteor / Boomburst (Refrigerate), can't even come in.
* Gengar:
1. Fraility means if it takes Draco Meteor or Boomburst, it will die.
* Gyarados:
1. Switch in to take Boomburst or Draco Meteor, pivot out, and gain momentum.
2. If switched into Secret Sword, there is a chance of OHKO (which means my crit next turn was lucky, but I assume I was rewarded with my prediction)
3.
Even if Gyarados dies to Secret Sword, Gengar can proceed to switch in and remove Kyu-W with Perish Song.
So the best choice for Funbot is switching into Gyarados, and if the outcome is evaluated:
1. Boomburst: walled.
2. Draco Meteor: ''
3. Secret Sword: risking OHKO but Gengar can take care of it.
This is lose-lose situation; if I am too scared, I keep getting walled by Gyarados every time I switch my Kyu-W in. If I decide to make prediction, Kyu-W dies afterwards to Gengar.
I seriously doubt that this replay is the only specific case where Gengar is viable against offensive archetype of teams. Now Gengar puts opponent under even more pressure than Imposters do in team preview.
Shadow Tag forces players to not only prepare, but to play mind games every single time they are about to press any status move or Normal-type attacks. It doesn't make the metagame less competitive, but it strictly inhibits players' activity in the game due to Shadow Tag + Encore + Perish Song. This trait makes Shadow Tag advance from discussion-worthy to suspect-worthy ability in my opinion.
Edit:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-571127175
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-571127175
See? My Audino can't even press recovery because of that stupid Shadow Tag.http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7balancedhackmons-571127175