Since Fearow became a Duck Hunt character, we used our NES Zappers to send it to hell. With this, I made a list of predictions that I sent to the Discord but forgot to post here so now it's yapping time.
MUCH BETTER
These are the single biggest winners of the Fearow ban, as they'll all carry on Fearow's role. Furret has the most to do, with Trick and actual coverage helping it a lot, along with its lack of a Stealth Rock weakness. Pidgeot and Unfezant have more stats, however. Unfezant will be excellent in late games, boasting a higher attack than Fearow, but its lack of a good Flying STAB or coverage will likely hold it back significantly as it'll struggle to break Grasses and Rocks in the early and mid game. Pidgeot mitigates this issue by having the incredible Brave Bird, but has much weaker stats overall. It's hard to predict how much of an impact these three will have, but I predict that all of them will be rising to SU, whenever our next shifts happen, as they all boast unique niches.
Gloom is perhaps the other biggest winner here, no longer having to deal with an omnipresent physical attacker that can KO it with the right prediction. Because of this, Gloom will be much harder to break, and the meta will revolve itself even more around breaking it.
If Gloom gets better, so does Budew, and Spikes are going to rise like crazy as a result.
Fearow's ban will be a universal buff to sweepers, but it will most staggeringly buff Leavanny and Plusle, two Pokemon which heavily rely on their speed to sweep. Chatot is by far the least viable of the the three, but it fulfills a similar niche. It was almost unusable before, but now becomes a decent side pick for certain teams I think.
BETTER
While not gaining as much as other Normals, Lopunny and Stantler are still very notable winners of this ban. Both of which have the niches of being fast, so not having to compete with Fearow is huge for them. Lopunny will probably become the most used Normal as a result of its utility options. Stantler, meanwhile, will become incredible for poking holes with its coverage, a niche that becomes much more valuable without Fearow.
Not having to fear Flying moves as much universally makes every Grass type better, even the more fringe ones like Servine. Carnivine is perhaps the most interesting one to me. Its only niche is being Spikes immune, and that's only going to become more relevant. Otherwise, I think the biggest winners are the remaining Grasses. I loved using Grotle last tour, and its niche is going to be way more solid now. Bellossom will have a lot more room to try new sets as well.
Now that it doesn't fear U-Turn like the god damn plague, Lunatone can function as a really solid defensive Pokemon. This is maintaining the fact that it still has really good offensive and utility sets. The set variety and stats I think will make Lunatone by far the best Rock now.
Not having to fear Drill peck will make the Ghosts so much better. Gastly will probably see the biggest rise when Lopunny will likely be so common. Lampent is also an enormous winner, however, when it has more chances to switch in, and has a more overtly strong offensive game. Both love seeing Grasses becoming more common. The bulkier Ghosts, meanwhile, will likely improve less due to their passivity, but their place in the metagame is still worth mentioning.
Bulky Normals similarly get better, although a lot of that will depend on how common Unfezant becomes. The biggest winner of these is for sure Dunsparce since it'll now have more freedom in its defensive spreads. Unlike Lickitung, having instant recovery will help against the rise of Spikes. Increased Spikes usage will also help Noctowl and Togetic distinguish themselves more. Togetic has been recognized for having potential before, while Noctowl could finally see some real use as a Whirlwind shuffler.
Pignite loves Grasses and Normals getting better, and it will continue to do what it always has to an even stronger degree.
This feels hard to categorize, but the rise of Gloom and decreased Normal competition are both huge for Girafarig.
Gorvyle will become a better sweeper, but will still live in Leavanny's shadow for the most part.
Seviper is yet another sweeper who improves, but because of its more middling speed tier and access to Sucker Punch, I don't think it improves by a ton.
The better Gloom gets, the better Swalot gets. It's to a lesser extent than Budew, but still very much apparent.
SAME
I'll only covering mons that I put in the "same but yap" category to justify why I don't think they'll be going anywhere.
Luxray did technically get worse since it's not gonna be spammed as one of the best Fearow checks, but that also frees it to run other sets. Either way, it's still gonna be the best mon in the tier.
I already found these three to be extremely overrated as Fearow checks, so I really don't think the meta got better for them when every Normal has a means of hitting them for decent damage. If not that, they have U-Turn.
Surprisingly, I don't think Lileep improves. Every Normal has some way of hitting it for super effective damage unfortunately.
Magcargo is a trade-off case for me. On one hand, Fearow was the only Normal outside of Lopunny that it was even okay against. On the other hand, the increased use of Grasses is pretty nice for it.
Unlike other bulky Normals, I don't think Kecleon and Lickitung will improve. For Kecleon, it's as simple as it being a special wall who's not very effected by this ban. Meanwhile, Lickitung loves gaining more spread flexibility like Dunsparce, but it's gonna hate Spikes being on the rise.
These were some of the most common revenge killers for Fearow, but they're both so good that I don't think losing this role will make them any better or worse.
To end off this list is a bunch of physical walls that I think will stay roughly the same. Chimecho and Hypno were already great and will continue to be. Vullaby will dislike having to deal with things like Encore Lopunny more often, but will enjoy the increased Grass usage. The Ground types will enjoy the flexibility of not having to switch into such a strong breaker, but increased Spikes usage won't make this a massive upside for them.
WORSE
Corsola is the biggest loser of this ban, and I guess Kabuto is too lmao. Corsola's main niche was beating Fearow, and its matchups against every other Normal are really questionable. The fact that Grasses are better now absolutely sucks for it too. I think it'll round out to being about as good as every other Rock. Kabuto is unusable now btw lmao.
Dribur takes a steep decline I think. It's good at spinning Rocks for Fearow, but it no longer has a Fearow to facilitate. Not only that, but it's also terrible at spinning against Budew, which is going to really suck for it. The rise of Grasses is only going to make its solid offensive game feel meak compared to what it used to achieve.
Beedrill feels like even more of a meme now that Gloom and Budew are only going to be more omnipresent.
MUCH BETTER
These are the single biggest winners of the Fearow ban, as they'll all carry on Fearow's role. Furret has the most to do, with Trick and actual coverage helping it a lot, along with its lack of a Stealth Rock weakness. Pidgeot and Unfezant have more stats, however. Unfezant will be excellent in late games, boasting a higher attack than Fearow, but its lack of a good Flying STAB or coverage will likely hold it back significantly as it'll struggle to break Grasses and Rocks in the early and mid game. Pidgeot mitigates this issue by having the incredible Brave Bird, but has much weaker stats overall. It's hard to predict how much of an impact these three will have, but I predict that all of them will be rising to SU, whenever our next shifts happen, as they all boast unique niches.
Gloom is perhaps the other biggest winner here, no longer having to deal with an omnipresent physical attacker that can KO it with the right prediction. Because of this, Gloom will be much harder to break, and the meta will revolve itself even more around breaking it.
If Gloom gets better, so does Budew, and Spikes are going to rise like crazy as a result.
Fearow's ban will be a universal buff to sweepers, but it will most staggeringly buff Leavanny and Plusle, two Pokemon which heavily rely on their speed to sweep. Chatot is by far the least viable of the the three, but it fulfills a similar niche. It was almost unusable before, but now becomes a decent side pick for certain teams I think.
BETTER
While not gaining as much as other Normals, Lopunny and Stantler are still very notable winners of this ban. Both of which have the niches of being fast, so not having to compete with Fearow is huge for them. Lopunny will probably become the most used Normal as a result of its utility options. Stantler, meanwhile, will become incredible for poking holes with its coverage, a niche that becomes much more valuable without Fearow.
Not having to fear Flying moves as much universally makes every Grass type better, even the more fringe ones like Servine. Carnivine is perhaps the most interesting one to me. Its only niche is being Spikes immune, and that's only going to become more relevant. Otherwise, I think the biggest winners are the remaining Grasses. I loved using Grotle last tour, and its niche is going to be way more solid now. Bellossom will have a lot more room to try new sets as well.
Now that it doesn't fear U-Turn like the god damn plague, Lunatone can function as a really solid defensive Pokemon. This is maintaining the fact that it still has really good offensive and utility sets. The set variety and stats I think will make Lunatone by far the best Rock now.
Not having to fear Drill peck will make the Ghosts so much better. Gastly will probably see the biggest rise when Lopunny will likely be so common. Lampent is also an enormous winner, however, when it has more chances to switch in, and has a more overtly strong offensive game. Both love seeing Grasses becoming more common. The bulkier Ghosts, meanwhile, will likely improve less due to their passivity, but their place in the metagame is still worth mentioning.
Bulky Normals similarly get better, although a lot of that will depend on how common Unfezant becomes. The biggest winner of these is for sure Dunsparce since it'll now have more freedom in its defensive spreads. Unlike Lickitung, having instant recovery will help against the rise of Spikes. Increased Spikes usage will also help Noctowl and Togetic distinguish themselves more. Togetic has been recognized for having potential before, while Noctowl could finally see some real use as a Whirlwind shuffler.
Pignite loves Grasses and Normals getting better, and it will continue to do what it always has to an even stronger degree.
This feels hard to categorize, but the rise of Gloom and decreased Normal competition are both huge for Girafarig.
Gorvyle will become a better sweeper, but will still live in Leavanny's shadow for the most part.
Seviper is yet another sweeper who improves, but because of its more middling speed tier and access to Sucker Punch, I don't think it improves by a ton.
The better Gloom gets, the better Swalot gets. It's to a lesser extent than Budew, but still very much apparent.
SAME
I'll only covering mons that I put in the "same but yap" category to justify why I don't think they'll be going anywhere.
Luxray did technically get worse since it's not gonna be spammed as one of the best Fearow checks, but that also frees it to run other sets. Either way, it's still gonna be the best mon in the tier.
I already found these three to be extremely overrated as Fearow checks, so I really don't think the meta got better for them when every Normal has a means of hitting them for decent damage. If not that, they have U-Turn.
Surprisingly, I don't think Lileep improves. Every Normal has some way of hitting it for super effective damage unfortunately.
Magcargo is a trade-off case for me. On one hand, Fearow was the only Normal outside of Lopunny that it was even okay against. On the other hand, the increased use of Grasses is pretty nice for it.
Unlike other bulky Normals, I don't think Kecleon and Lickitung will improve. For Kecleon, it's as simple as it being a special wall who's not very effected by this ban. Meanwhile, Lickitung loves gaining more spread flexibility like Dunsparce, but it's gonna hate Spikes being on the rise.
These were some of the most common revenge killers for Fearow, but they're both so good that I don't think losing this role will make them any better or worse.
To end off this list is a bunch of physical walls that I think will stay roughly the same. Chimecho and Hypno were already great and will continue to be. Vullaby will dislike having to deal with things like Encore Lopunny more often, but will enjoy the increased Grass usage. The Ground types will enjoy the flexibility of not having to switch into such a strong breaker, but increased Spikes usage won't make this a massive upside for them.
WORSE
Corsola is the biggest loser of this ban, and I guess Kabuto is too lmao. Corsola's main niche was beating Fearow, and its matchups against every other Normal are really questionable. The fact that Grasses are better now absolutely sucks for it too. I think it'll round out to being about as good as every other Rock. Kabuto is unusable now btw lmao.
Dribur takes a steep decline I think. It's good at spinning Rocks for Fearow, but it no longer has a Fearow to facilitate. Not only that, but it's also terrible at spinning against Budew, which is going to really suck for it. The rise of Grasses is only going to make its solid offensive game feel meak compared to what it used to achieve.
Beedrill feels like even more of a meme now that Gloom and Budew are only going to be more omnipresent.