Hello!
With the first roomtour of Cycle 2 beginning tomorrow at 3 PM EST, we had to just get one more thing into place before we can start.
As I mentioned earlier, someone proposed in the survey that Moves and Items should cost more points to ban as they have an extremely powerful effect, more so than Pokemon bans. After some discussions with others on the Banhammers Discord, we've made a decision!
For Cycle 2:
- Banning a Pokemon will cost 1 point, like last time
- Banning a Move or Ability will cost 2 points
- Banning an Item will cost 3 points
- If you only gained a single point from the tournament (i.e. If you lost your one game in a single elimination bracket but you did finish the game), you are allowed to ban something that normally costs 2 points.
This new system does a couple of things, keeping the sheer number of bans down for easier teambuilding, adds more strategy to banning things, incentivizes getting far in tournaments so you're able to ban more things while keeping the gap between those who always lose early and those who always go far smaller, and more. I'm very interested to see how this system pans out over the course of Cycle 2, so I hope you'll join us for it!
As mentioned earlier, Cycle 2 begins tomorrow at 3 PM EST! As nothing's been banned yet, this tournament will be played using normal SV OU rules and it will be played on the main Pokemon Showdown server in the Pet Mods room! The Pet Mods room isn't public, so you either need to click the link in the last sentence or go on Showdown, go to the plus button where the chatroom are shown, scroll to the bottom, click "Join other room" and type "petmods". See you there!
With the first roomtour of Cycle 2 beginning tomorrow at 3 PM EST, we had to just get one more thing into place before we can start.
As I mentioned earlier, someone proposed in the survey that Moves and Items should cost more points to ban as they have an extremely powerful effect, more so than Pokemon bans. After some discussions with others on the Banhammers Discord, we've made a decision!
For Cycle 2:
- Banning a Pokemon will cost 1 point, like last time
- Banning a Move or Ability will cost 2 points
- Banning an Item will cost 3 points
- If you only gained a single point from the tournament (i.e. If you lost your one game in a single elimination bracket but you did finish the game), you are allowed to ban something that normally costs 2 points.
This new system does a couple of things, keeping the sheer number of bans down for easier teambuilding, adds more strategy to banning things, incentivizes getting far in tournaments so you're able to ban more things while keeping the gap between those who always lose early and those who always go far smaller, and more. I'm very interested to see how this system pans out over the course of Cycle 2, so I hope you'll join us for it!
As mentioned earlier, Cycle 2 begins tomorrow at 3 PM EST! As nothing's been banned yet, this tournament will be played using normal SV OU rules and it will be played on the main Pokemon Showdown server in the Pet Mods room! The Pet Mods room isn't public, so you either need to click the link in the last sentence or go on Showdown, go to the plus button where the chatroom are shown, scroll to the bottom, click "Join other room" and type "petmods". See you there!
With Choice Band still around and not having to worry about hazards anymore, HArcanine jumps out as a premier wallbreaking option. Banded Head Smash was already extremely hard to switch in to, but it's even harder now when you can't consistently pressure it with hazards or temporarily wall it with the likes of Great Tusk or Hippowdon. Plus, it's the best ESpeed user left with Dragonite gone and Lucario not being able to use Swords Dance
A mon I've gotten a ton of use out of in the last couple weeks, Kilowattrel in finally in an environment where it can be the premier Electric pivot it wants to be. It's still a bit weak (especially with Hurricane banned0, but getting to freely run Life Orb helps a bit, it has a pretty much unmatched Speed tier with the lack of Dragapult or Zamazenta (with the best Pokemon that's faster than it being Hisuian Electrode, which Volt Absorb Kilo walls, or maybe Barraskewda) and still gets to use Volt Switch. Plus, it can maybe kinda-sorta fill Zapdos' defensive niche since it can use Roost. Should be a great mon to throw on any offensive or balance team
Glimmora didn't lose much aside from hazards and Choice Specs/Scarf, which means that it still has Toxic Debris. With all hazard-setting moves banned, the only way to set hazards is through Glimmora's Toxic Debris, automatically giving it a niche. But even without that, Glimmora is still a bona fide OU mon that barely got nerfed, should be a great mon. 
Another mon I've used a lot, losing Regenerator sucks and makes it die a lot faster, but aside from that it's still a great wall and pivot. Probably the best Poison-type not named Glimmora. Similarly, regular Slowking should also be pretty good as a bulky Water pivot as well.
I've abused this core for the last few weeks and it somehow dodged a ban each time, but with Drought and Drizzle gone and not having to worry about hazards anymore allowing Cetitan to run Life Orb or Choice Band, Cetitan becomes an actual threat in Snow, even with Belly Drum banned. Plus, with screens being dead as a playstyle, if you want to run screens, Veil Abomasnow is still okay at that. 
I consider this in the weaker of the weather cores, though maybe I'm biased, but Sand can also thrive here with Great Tusk and Landorus gone. 
Garchomp did lose a lot of its best tools in Swords Dance, Rocks, and Spikes, but with basically every other good Ground-type gone or nerfed to oblivion, Garchomp is once again the best Ground-type around, and by a pretty large margin too. When your next best bets are Recover-less Gastrodon, Krookodile, Sandaconda, Palossand, and Mudsdale, you should expect to see Garchomp a lot.
While not too many, there are a good number of already good Pokemon that either managed to come out unscathed or only had one of their many options removed, so these should remain viable. Skeledirge only got buffed with hazards being gone and losing nothing, Basculegion is still Basculegion, just without rain usually, Hatterene only lost Trick Room, and Zarude and Rillaboom only lost U-Turn and Swords Dance, and even Maushold kept basically everything aside from U-Turn and Taunt.
