Below you can find each council member's thoughts- some of them were long, fair warning! My apologies for the mediocre formatting, I usually try to make it look a bit nicer but I'm feeling a little bit ill and figure it's fine enough as is.
Kommo-o: Ban. I don't think any one set for Kommo-o is broken - in fact they're a bit underwhelming individually - but the combination of everything it can do forces an unreasonable level of prep that I find super undesirable for the tier. It makes HO games extremely difficult to play when you don't know what you actually need to save to beat it.
Pelipper: Do not ban. Rain is just not particularly good right now and has too many difficult matchups against great Pokemon (Rotom-W, Azumarill, Volcanion, Scarf Meow) for me to consider it overwhelming.
Iron Hands: Do not ban. I tested this thing as much as I could and it just fuckin sucked man idk. It wasn't able to pull the heroics everyone was telling me about, it didn't hit very hard even after a boost and I'd just get Wisped or Toxiced and that was that. There was no coverage combo I could use that didn't feel like dead weight into something I ran into, and its typing defensively isn't particularly great rn. Kind of a Tera hog for not even that much reward. Really easy DNB for now, we'll see how it goes if it stays in the tier though.
Garchomp: Do not ban. It has cooled down significantly from day 1 and is just proving to be a good Pokemon, not anything too crazy. I like what it brings to the tier. Scale Shot can get out of hand sometimes, but I don't think it's unreasonable to deal with.
Garganacl: Do not ban. I've already talked about this here. I'll be interested to see how Garg progresses in the tier, I do think it has the potential to be stupid later on as people optimise its Tera types and structures but for now I'm not seeing it.
Ceruledge: Do not ban. I don't really think Ceruledge is necessarily healthy but I have seen it literally once in my 75 games and it wasn't impressive. I can't in good faith vote ban on it without seeing it more.
Heatran: Just hasn't been anything too stellar yet. It will likely get better with these incoming bans, but I want to see that happen before I vote ban on it - it's clearly not broken right now.
Pelipper: Do not ban. Rain is just not particularly good right now and has too many difficult matchups against great Pokemon (Rotom-W, Azumarill, Volcanion, Scarf Meow) for me to consider it overwhelming.
Iron Hands: Do not ban. I tested this thing as much as I could and it just fuckin sucked man idk. It wasn't able to pull the heroics everyone was telling me about, it didn't hit very hard even after a boost and I'd just get Wisped or Toxiced and that was that. There was no coverage combo I could use that didn't feel like dead weight into something I ran into, and its typing defensively isn't particularly great rn. Kind of a Tera hog for not even that much reward. Really easy DNB for now, we'll see how it goes if it stays in the tier though.
Garchomp: Do not ban. It has cooled down significantly from day 1 and is just proving to be a good Pokemon, not anything too crazy. I like what it brings to the tier. Scale Shot can get out of hand sometimes, but I don't think it's unreasonable to deal with.
Garganacl: Do not ban. I've already talked about this here. I'll be interested to see how Garg progresses in the tier, I do think it has the potential to be stupid later on as people optimise its Tera types and structures but for now I'm not seeing it.
Ceruledge: Do not ban. I don't really think Ceruledge is necessarily healthy but I have seen it literally once in my 75 games and it wasn't impressive. I can't in good faith vote ban on it without seeing it more.
Heatran: Just hasn't been anything too stellar yet. It will likely get better with these incoming bans, but I want to see that happen before I vote ban on it - it's clearly not broken right now.
Ceruledge - Ban: Ceruledge has continued to be a huge threat for me on HO teams, decent bulk (even better if on Screens) alongside Weak Armor and the ability to flex its 3rd move with amazing coverage has put in a ton of work for me. The drops haven’t really helped much for it; Poltergeist can still nuke pretty much everything, it matches up well against things like Normal Fire Fighting coverage Kommo-o, Rain has a good matchup against it but this can be counteracted with something like Tera Grass, and so on. I don’t think it really brings any positives to the tier.
Garchomp - Ban: Garchomp is the second most problematic mon for me so far. It feels very similar to Ceruledge but fits on even more teams and doesn’t always require Screens support plus has more set flexibility. I don’t have much to say for this one.
Garganacl - Ban: Although at first I was DNB on this one, having used BO/Balance for some games it is just incredibly annoying and feels restraining for the tier, might just be harder to see with all the HO going around. Tera Fairy/Ghost walls a lot and can be eternal at times, a little more speculative of a ban than I’d usually want but I don’t think it’s healthy now or will be long term.
Heatran - DNB: Felt like a very good mon on the team I had with Garganacl, but it hasn’t felt overwhelming from my experience. Maybe once the HO train dies down a bit it’ll be better, but with the Dragon-types and Rain being pretty popular, it feels fine right now.
Iron Hands - DNB: I was on the fence about this one but again, the prevalence of things like Garchomp, Ceruledge on the HO I used, and it hitting surprisingly soft against Screens has made it feel not as bad as I originally thought.
Kommo-o - Ban: The most clear cut for me, all I used was Clang + Boom + Flame + Aura and it had very limited counters, very hard to revenge kill, especially behind Screens. I don’t think it’s healthy in the slightest.
Pelipper - DNB: Rain feels good but not overwhelming good. Screens matches up surprisingly well against it and it still feels hit or miss sometimes even against things like Rotom-Wash + Meow + Torn BO. If Screens die a bit and we see a shift towards BO more then it could be better, but it’s either underexplored or just balanced and doesn’t feel like an autowin or very favorable mu every time.
Garchomp - Ban: Garchomp is the second most problematic mon for me so far. It feels very similar to Ceruledge but fits on even more teams and doesn’t always require Screens support plus has more set flexibility. I don’t have much to say for this one.
Garganacl - Ban: Although at first I was DNB on this one, having used BO/Balance for some games it is just incredibly annoying and feels restraining for the tier, might just be harder to see with all the HO going around. Tera Fairy/Ghost walls a lot and can be eternal at times, a little more speculative of a ban than I’d usually want but I don’t think it’s healthy now or will be long term.
Heatran - DNB: Felt like a very good mon on the team I had with Garganacl, but it hasn’t felt overwhelming from my experience. Maybe once the HO train dies down a bit it’ll be better, but with the Dragon-types and Rain being pretty popular, it feels fine right now.
Iron Hands - DNB: I was on the fence about this one but again, the prevalence of things like Garchomp, Ceruledge on the HO I used, and it hitting surprisingly soft against Screens has made it feel not as bad as I originally thought.
Kommo-o - Ban: The most clear cut for me, all I used was Clang + Boom + Flame + Aura and it had very limited counters, very hard to revenge kill, especially behind Screens. I don’t think it’s healthy in the slightest.
Pelipper - DNB: Rain feels good but not overwhelming good. Screens matches up surprisingly well against it and it still feels hit or miss sometimes even against things like Rotom-Wash + Meow + Torn BO. If Screens die a bit and we see a shift towards BO more then it could be better, but it’s either underexplored or just balanced and doesn’t feel like an autowin or very favorable mu every time.
You can find Misa's thoughs here.
Ceruledge - BAN - Unfortunately nothing has really changed for Ceruledge with the shifts. Its STAB moves on top of Close Combat are obscenely strong. Choice Band has felt worse with the shifts but it does not really matter much with how reliable the Swords Dance set has been.
Garchomp -BAN - This Pokemon has easily felt the most oppressive for me when laddering the past week. It hasn't really needed much versatility set-wise but I'll miss the spikes defensive variants should it go. Swords Dance on top of Scale Shot just hits too hard and can steamroll fast.
Garganacl - DNB - I was really on the fence about this but Lily's posts ultimately convinced me to give this thing another chance. We have a good amount of offensive Pokemon and eating up a Tera is pretty notable.
Heatran - BAN - This other defensive mon however feels much more difficult to deal with. Its typing surpasses pure Rock with ease and it can wear down the tier without much effort. It can be pretty flexible with its sets and I think we're best off not having it.
Iron Hands - DNB - UU getting so many OU mons at once can make the appropriate power level hard to judge when not pulling off outright sweeps. It's easy to want to just compare it to like Conkeldurr but its bulk and ability to boost and trade right after makes it way scarier than Conkeldurr in UU or even Melmetal in OU last gen. That being said, I think the Tera dynamics make it potentially fine to stay for similar reasoning to Garganacl where it'll either be not too too difficult to pressure or just eating up a Tera early. UU's power level can rise without becoming totally unplayable.
Kommo-o - BAN - I think the set versatility is too much for the tier to handle currently. I think the power of individual sets has been overblown a bit, but the mon is still rather busted as a whole.
Pelipper - DNB - Rain builds should not be dismissed but they are not scary enough to justify axing Pelipper for me. Granted we'd still have Politoed but yeah. Plenty of the new toys alone can punish Rain really hard right now such as Belly Drum Azumarill and Iron Defense Garganacl.
Garchomp -BAN - This Pokemon has easily felt the most oppressive for me when laddering the past week. It hasn't really needed much versatility set-wise but I'll miss the spikes defensive variants should it go. Swords Dance on top of Scale Shot just hits too hard and can steamroll fast.
Garganacl - DNB - I was really on the fence about this but Lily's posts ultimately convinced me to give this thing another chance. We have a good amount of offensive Pokemon and eating up a Tera is pretty notable.
Heatran - BAN - This other defensive mon however feels much more difficult to deal with. Its typing surpasses pure Rock with ease and it can wear down the tier without much effort. It can be pretty flexible with its sets and I think we're best off not having it.
Iron Hands - DNB - UU getting so many OU mons at once can make the appropriate power level hard to judge when not pulling off outright sweeps. It's easy to want to just compare it to like Conkeldurr but its bulk and ability to boost and trade right after makes it way scarier than Conkeldurr in UU or even Melmetal in OU last gen. That being said, I think the Tera dynamics make it potentially fine to stay for similar reasoning to Garganacl where it'll either be not too too difficult to pressure or just eating up a Tera early. UU's power level can rise without becoming totally unplayable.
Kommo-o - BAN - I think the set versatility is too much for the tier to handle currently. I think the power of individual sets has been overblown a bit, but the mon is still rather busted as a whole.
Pelipper - DNB - Rain builds should not be dismissed but they are not scary enough to justify axing Pelipper for me. Granted we'd still have Politoed but yeah. Plenty of the new toys alone can punish Rain really hard right now such as Belly Drum Azumarill and Iron Defense Garganacl.
Ceruledge – Ban, Doing very similar things it was doing before shifts, and the tools we got don’t really help beat it. Even things like Mandibuzz which would seem like a hard counter can still get 1v1’d by tera fairy Ceruledge. The focus sash sets on HO teams in particular are a nightmare to play vs.
Garchomp – Ban, SD sets have too few things that actually deal with it, and it often forces a tera from things like gweezing or rotom just to not outright lose to the mon. can get past almost all of the things one would see as counters with tera fire or steel, and even things that should hard counter it like mandibuzz can get overwhelmed quickly.
Garganacl – Ban, Unless you are using very specific sets like covert cloak Sinistcha, which still gets hit by every hazard, garg can overwhelm almost everything long term. Even things like covert cloak gastrodon or amoonguss can get beaten in 1v1 scenarios by iron def garg unless they are using both the aforementioned item and clear smog. Overall garganacl just has too few options to consistently deal with it, and even has the capabilities to outlast those handful of mons through hazards.
Heatran – Do Not Ban, Assuming garchomp leaves, which was one of heatran’s best checks, this mon will be a bit scarier. However, I think with the combination of having to invest tera to hit waters, having a shabby speed stat, and needing to rely on magma storm to get the most out of it’s offensive presence, heatran is pretty manageable.
Iron Hands – Ban, Somehow still feels broken even after all these shifts. Being able to shrug off basically any neutral hit lets it cleave through cores with ease with the combination of SD + drain punch. Substitute also lets it punish some of the fatter options right now like garg/alo/amoong, and with a variety of viable teras to choose from it can feel impossible to kill sometimes with the amount of healing it gets back.
Kommo-o – Ban, Pretty clear ban as it’s set diversity is insane for anybody to reasonably handle. If you had to !showset kommo every game, then it’d be fine, but it has about ~4 reliable sets that can all be pretty game ending if you get the initial turns wrong. Things like clang soul, dragon dance, specs, and even iron defense can all be devasting if given free turns, and all of these sets demand different pokemon to be kept in check.
Pelipper – Abstain (Genuinely just don’t have an opinion on it)
Garchomp – Ban, SD sets have too few things that actually deal with it, and it often forces a tera from things like gweezing or rotom just to not outright lose to the mon. can get past almost all of the things one would see as counters with tera fire or steel, and even things that should hard counter it like mandibuzz can get overwhelmed quickly.
Garganacl – Ban, Unless you are using very specific sets like covert cloak Sinistcha, which still gets hit by every hazard, garg can overwhelm almost everything long term. Even things like covert cloak gastrodon or amoonguss can get beaten in 1v1 scenarios by iron def garg unless they are using both the aforementioned item and clear smog. Overall garganacl just has too few options to consistently deal with it, and even has the capabilities to outlast those handful of mons through hazards.
Heatran – Do Not Ban, Assuming garchomp leaves, which was one of heatran’s best checks, this mon will be a bit scarier. However, I think with the combination of having to invest tera to hit waters, having a shabby speed stat, and needing to rely on magma storm to get the most out of it’s offensive presence, heatran is pretty manageable.
Iron Hands – Ban, Somehow still feels broken even after all these shifts. Being able to shrug off basically any neutral hit lets it cleave through cores with ease with the combination of SD + drain punch. Substitute also lets it punish some of the fatter options right now like garg/alo/amoong, and with a variety of viable teras to choose from it can feel impossible to kill sometimes with the amount of healing it gets back.
Kommo-o – Ban, Pretty clear ban as it’s set diversity is insane for anybody to reasonably handle. If you had to !showset kommo every game, then it’d be fine, but it has about ~4 reliable sets that can all be pretty game ending if you get the initial turns wrong. Things like clang soul, dragon dance, specs, and even iron defense can all be devasting if given free turns, and all of these sets demand different pokemon to be kept in check.
Pelipper – Abstain (Genuinely just don’t have an opinion on it)
Kommo-o: Ban. Kommo-o didn't feel as braindead and unbeatable as I thought it would be, but it's flexability and offensive capabilities are way too much for the tier. Answers do exist to an extent but it's about whether or not they can beat the set they're facing, middle grounds pmuch always rely on tera and needlessly to say that's not okay. The reason why I said it's not as unbeatable as I thought it would be is mostly due to difficulty in finding a setup the mon actually wants to take and us having a free strong +1 revengekillers/prios, but those are still insane requirements to put in place, and first point falls short when considering that the mon will go 1x1 at worst.
Ceruledge: Ban. Nothing really changed for Ceruledge with the only exception being that they're forced into jolly to outspeed scarf Meowscarada. Extremely unhealthy in the builder with very limited and not so splashable counterplay, brings a lot of unhealthy dynamics to the games, HO has still 0 issues in being able to play with a clean field without a hard commitment from the opponent's side.
Garchomp: Ban. Non existent counterplay, statchecks the entire tier thanks to decent bulk paired with insane offensive capabilities + great speed, and finally it's also insanely flexible which is something every single DNB argument I've seen are ignoring. I think we've only seen the surface of what this mon could really do and it already felt like way too much.
Iron Hands: Ban. Iron Hands is still way too bulky, powerful and flexible to belong in UU, pretty much wins every trade and definitive counterplay is pretty much still just Scream Tail, although grass pot is decently consistent too. Offensively checking the mon is not very possible and the 2 best offensive checks in Garchomp and Kommo-o are also broken themselves.
Garganacl: Ban. Extremely unhealthy presence for the tier and it's not just about Salt Cure, ID Press is also really hard to beat and I personally felt like you need to go out of your way a fair bit to do so, which in combination with Salt Cure and Purifying Salt is just unreasonable. Counterplay being as limited as it is means that the only other route is denying it opportunities to setup, which is also near impossible and requires elements that I don't think should be allowed in the tier either.
Heatran: Ban. No counterplay outside of specifically Garchomp and Kommo-o, it didn't bright as much as the other guys because it did have a rough time against HO (granted it still claimed one before dying and munched a lot of strong hits), but it absolutely murdered everything else and the restrictions it put on teambuilding are really unreasonable. I believe it'd be a waste to give it more time than this, this thing is a monster capable of beating everything you throw it's way with minimal support.
Pelipper: DNB. Rain felt very borderline but I felt like that was mostly due to the extremely offensive nature of the tier, once we'll have a little bit of breathing room in the builder I believe it'll be alright, with things like Slowking, Azumarill, Rotom-Wash rising up again and being a huge nuisance for the archetype. I'll still be keeping an eye on it though.
Ceruledge: Ban. Nothing really changed for Ceruledge with the only exception being that they're forced into jolly to outspeed scarf Meowscarada. Extremely unhealthy in the builder with very limited and not so splashable counterplay, brings a lot of unhealthy dynamics to the games, HO has still 0 issues in being able to play with a clean field without a hard commitment from the opponent's side.
Garchomp: Ban. Non existent counterplay, statchecks the entire tier thanks to decent bulk paired with insane offensive capabilities + great speed, and finally it's also insanely flexible which is something every single DNB argument I've seen are ignoring. I think we've only seen the surface of what this mon could really do and it already felt like way too much.
Iron Hands: Ban. Iron Hands is still way too bulky, powerful and flexible to belong in UU, pretty much wins every trade and definitive counterplay is pretty much still just Scream Tail, although grass pot is decently consistent too. Offensively checking the mon is not very possible and the 2 best offensive checks in Garchomp and Kommo-o are also broken themselves.
Garganacl: Ban. Extremely unhealthy presence for the tier and it's not just about Salt Cure, ID Press is also really hard to beat and I personally felt like you need to go out of your way a fair bit to do so, which in combination with Salt Cure and Purifying Salt is just unreasonable. Counterplay being as limited as it is means that the only other route is denying it opportunities to setup, which is also near impossible and requires elements that I don't think should be allowed in the tier either.
Heatran: Ban. No counterplay outside of specifically Garchomp and Kommo-o, it didn't bright as much as the other guys because it did have a rough time against HO (granted it still claimed one before dying and munched a lot of strong hits), but it absolutely murdered everything else and the restrictions it put on teambuilding are really unreasonable. I believe it'd be a waste to give it more time than this, this thing is a monster capable of beating everything you throw it's way with minimal support.
Pelipper: DNB. Rain felt very borderline but I felt like that was mostly due to the extremely offensive nature of the tier, once we'll have a little bit of breathing room in the builder I believe it'll be alright, with things like Slowking, Azumarill, Rotom-Wash rising up again and being a huge nuisance for the archetype. I'll still be keeping an eye on it though.
Ceruledge: Ban. My vote is basically the same reasoning as last time, perfect coverage + a high power STAB in one of the most spammable attacking types in the game + the other STAB healing HP and creating dumb Focus Sash interactions is just too much. Blocking every Rapid Spin option is very restricting, and with new hazard setters like Garchomp, Sandy Shocks, and Meowscarada allowed in the tier, Ceruledge has little trouble getting chip damage on the few things that can eat its attacks into range of KOes. We haven’t gotten much from the DLC that can handle it. Mandibuzz loses if the Focus Sash is intact and it switches in on Ceruledge clicking SD, not to mention Ceruledge can own Mandibuzz with common tera types in Fairy and Fighting, while Aqua Jet users like Azumarill and Crawdaunt can’t reliably pick off Ceruledge if it’s at a high enough health and has Terastallized. Ceruledge sets up on walls like Alomomola and Choice Scarf Meowscarada can’t outspeed it if Weak Armor has been activated and it has a Jolly nature. Tera Garg works to a degree but there’s really nothing else that can handle Ceruledge. Overall, Ceruledge has very little reliable counterplay and offers a very unhealthy dynamic in the metagame as an extremely dangerous sweeper that can punish a wrong move into a full on sweep and makes hazard HO an overwhelming strategy due to its matchup against Rapid Spin users. As such, I voted to ban Ceruledge.
Garchomp: Do not Ban. Oh boy. This was an insanely difficult decision to make and I bounced between Ban, Abstain, and Do not Ban a LOT in my decision process. However, this unsure feeling to ban Garchomp is why I ultimately chose to vote Do not Ban since I don’t really think I should vote to quick ban something I’m not very confident warrants such severe immediate action. Garchomp is good. Very good. Top 3 in the metagame for sure and I’m sure it’s the best Pokémon in the tier for many players out there. Garchomp isn’t really broken by set versatility but rather the sheer potency of Swords Dance + Scale Shot. I would ultimately understand if it was banned by the votes of the other members. However, there’s a notable flaw that keeps SD from being very broken to me in the fact that it has clicked Tera more often than I would like and how Tera, particularly Tera Steel since that’s the main one, is a double-edged sword. Garchomp has some checks in Mandibuzz, Gweezing, Rotom-Wash, Enamorus, Sinistcha, Weavile, and Meowscarada, but it can flip the script on many by going with Tera Steel and resisting their hits. However, by clicking tera, other Pokémon become checks to it. Hippowdon and Chesnaught, two solid defensive options, can now hit Garchomp super effectively and drop it after a Scale Shot as they previously could not due to Garchomp’s bulk. Ground, Fire, and Fighting-type attacks nail Garchomp hard and throwing in reactive Tera in the mix means Garchomp suddenly isn’t as insane as before. Plus it pretty much has to run Loaded Dice with Scale Shot to be effective which means no Leftovers and no passive recovery.
This was also said by someone I don’t remember but I agree that Garchomp will not always get the chance to click both SD and Scale Shot freely before being forced out. To reiterate, Garchomp is extremely good and I 100% understand any ban sentiment, but with how controversial it currently is I can’t really vote to ban it especially when DnB reasoning exists. I don’t fully agree with all rationale to keep it but Garchomp is just something that should be kept around a little longer before getting the boot or not. Do not Ban.
Garganacl: Do not Ban. I think there’s a lot of room to explore Garg’s effect on the metagame before jumping the gun to ban it and I don’t think it’s asserted itself as so broken to warrant immediate removal from the metagame. Garg is largely a tera hog, and tera hogs have always struggled to become truly overbearing, but they can still be very good of course. Think of Wo-Chien and Skeledirge in the pre-home and home metagame respectively; both are excellent walls and have been brought up as banworthy before, but ultimately being forced to use a flexible game changing option on a single Pokémon will backfire a fair bit and these Pokémon still can end up being covered by other Pokémon even if it’s not their original check. I see this as a possibility with Garg, where options like Taunt, Encore, Regenerator Pokémon, Covert Cloak, and powerful breakers all are ways to overwhelm Garg and keep it from being insane. The main Tera options are Tera Fairy and Tera Dragon, but both can be broken past by many potential options in the meta. It takes time to really determine the optimal Tera Types and strategies for Garg and I believe that only with more time and developments in UUSD will allow us to determine whether Garg is broken or just a very good Pokémon. It could very well be done for next week, but for now I cannot ban Gargancl and chose to vote Do not Ban.
Heatran: Do not Ban. To me, Heatran is just a very good Pokémon rather than a banworthy one. I think it wants a mix of both power/speed and bulk but it can’t have either and there’s a lot of outs to it even if Magma Storm is annoying to switch into. Offensive Water- and Fighting-Types are very common in the metagame which give Heatran problems, while bulky Water-types and Ground-types have also shown great prevalence as ways to handle Heatran. Typing is a bit awkward too. Other flaws include the fact that a lack of recovery kinda stings and using Air Balloon means no Leftovers which gets Heatran more worn down. Lastly, I am not a believer in Tera Blast Grass and think it opens you up to so many threats to where it’s balanced out by being a slow Grass-type even if it gets past counterplay like Rotom-Wash, Slowking, and Gastrodon. It didn’t work for Volcanion and it didn’t work for Heatran. Hard to see this being broken and an easy Do not Ban from me as of now.
Iron Hands: Do not Ban. Like Garchomp this was a close vote for me. Iron Hands is probably banworthy and I really would not be surprised for us to ban it in a week but for now I just can’t see it as so overbearing to get rid of asap. Iron Hands is always portrayed as an unkillable tank, which is pretty true, but one thing I’ve felt was overestimated was the set versatility it really has, particularly the Tera type flexibility. It’s way too early in the meta to really identify what tera types are most optimal and how many viable options it can run, as my experiences has been that hands somewhat has to fish the right matchup with its current tera type to really outright win games. Tera Fire isn’t really positively viewed due to the presence of Rotom-Wash and many Ground-types in the meta, Tera Grass on such a slow Pokémon is not perfect and opens you up a lot defensively, Tera Flying gives up your Ground weakness but makes you rocks weak and vulnerable to Electric-types, and Tera Fairy now deals with increased Poison-types like Amoonguss, Okidogi, and Munkidori. Iron Hands also is pretty vulnerable with its base typing and I’ve found myself having to commit to tera a lot of the time to sweep which still didn’t always end up successfully. Iron Hands is very strong but it’s also unexplored and judging from many posters saying they haven’t seen much of it I’m not alone in thinking this. In similar vein to Garchomp, I wouldn’t mind it being gone as of writing this reasoning and understand the rationale, but I also think my apprehension to voting to quick ban Iron Hands shows that a Quick Ban is too early and thus I voted Do not Ban to give Iron Hands more time.
Kommo-o: Ban. Very very easy ban. The set versatility is too much on already threatening sets. Both SD and Clangorous Soul already require a good amount of counterplay
but accounting for both in addition to other sets is just too much to have in the metagame. Soundproof is so good btw winning the mirror match and having Tera Normal Soul sets blank Skeledirge is heat. Ultimately this Mon has been talked about by like every UU player so I won’t repeat reasoning everyone knows but unique typing, great bulk, flexible tera options, and potent set versatility all make Kommo-o an overwhelming presence that warps the meta around hyper offense and restricts the builder to where the meta greatly improves from its ban. Good riddance, Ban.
Pelipper: Do not Ban. To be clear, I believe rain isn’t really seen as a problem within the council but rather we just wanted to monitor it and hear input on it. It’s definitely something that may or may not end up under future inspection. Like Gargancl I think it’s a Pokémon (archetype in this case ig) that needs more time before deciding whether it’s a problematic presence in the metagame, although to a much lesser extent. From my experiences, Rain is pretty good but nothing insane so far, I think taking a HO route with a lead (usually Iron Treads) + Pelipper + 4 Pokémon is best rather than having a BO route where you’re spread thin on a few synergistic options that don’t really handle the rain being used against you in the case of Tornadus-T and offensive water types. There’s a good amount of options that are more nonstandard yet better than the basic swift swim waters that spam Wave Crash and Flip Turn in my experience; Golduck, Ludicolo, and Overqwil are very good options that are arguably the best tools for the archetype by threatening bulky Waters with their Grass- and Dark-type coverage. There’s just a lot of room for exploration among the community on how to best optimize the archetype and banning Pelipper now would be premature. Also the reason Pelipper is under inspection rather than Drizzle is because Politoed sucks as it can’t pivot and lacks recovery and just a bunch of other benefits Pelipper has. Still, I think it’s simply too early to ban rain with counterplay like Alomomola, Gastrodon, Azumarill, Slowking, Amoonguss, Salamence, Volcanion, Tornadus, Rotom-Wash, Hisuian Goodra, Chesnaught, Tera Dragon Garg, Tera Dragon Hippo, and Sinistcha all being good options in the metagame and there being room to adopt rain counterplay with more egregious threats being banned. I wrote way too much on this but basically Do not Ban.
Garchomp: Do not Ban. Oh boy. This was an insanely difficult decision to make and I bounced between Ban, Abstain, and Do not Ban a LOT in my decision process. However, this unsure feeling to ban Garchomp is why I ultimately chose to vote Do not Ban since I don’t really think I should vote to quick ban something I’m not very confident warrants such severe immediate action. Garchomp is good. Very good. Top 3 in the metagame for sure and I’m sure it’s the best Pokémon in the tier for many players out there. Garchomp isn’t really broken by set versatility but rather the sheer potency of Swords Dance + Scale Shot. I would ultimately understand if it was banned by the votes of the other members. However, there’s a notable flaw that keeps SD from being very broken to me in the fact that it has clicked Tera more often than I would like and how Tera, particularly Tera Steel since that’s the main one, is a double-edged sword. Garchomp has some checks in Mandibuzz, Gweezing, Rotom-Wash, Enamorus, Sinistcha, Weavile, and Meowscarada, but it can flip the script on many by going with Tera Steel and resisting their hits. However, by clicking tera, other Pokémon become checks to it. Hippowdon and Chesnaught, two solid defensive options, can now hit Garchomp super effectively and drop it after a Scale Shot as they previously could not due to Garchomp’s bulk. Ground, Fire, and Fighting-type attacks nail Garchomp hard and throwing in reactive Tera in the mix means Garchomp suddenly isn’t as insane as before. Plus it pretty much has to run Loaded Dice with Scale Shot to be effective which means no Leftovers and no passive recovery.
This was also said by someone I don’t remember but I agree that Garchomp will not always get the chance to click both SD and Scale Shot freely before being forced out. To reiterate, Garchomp is extremely good and I 100% understand any ban sentiment, but with how controversial it currently is I can’t really vote to ban it especially when DnB reasoning exists. I don’t fully agree with all rationale to keep it but Garchomp is just something that should be kept around a little longer before getting the boot or not. Do not Ban.
Garganacl: Do not Ban. I think there’s a lot of room to explore Garg’s effect on the metagame before jumping the gun to ban it and I don’t think it’s asserted itself as so broken to warrant immediate removal from the metagame. Garg is largely a tera hog, and tera hogs have always struggled to become truly overbearing, but they can still be very good of course. Think of Wo-Chien and Skeledirge in the pre-home and home metagame respectively; both are excellent walls and have been brought up as banworthy before, but ultimately being forced to use a flexible game changing option on a single Pokémon will backfire a fair bit and these Pokémon still can end up being covered by other Pokémon even if it’s not their original check. I see this as a possibility with Garg, where options like Taunt, Encore, Regenerator Pokémon, Covert Cloak, and powerful breakers all are ways to overwhelm Garg and keep it from being insane. The main Tera options are Tera Fairy and Tera Dragon, but both can be broken past by many potential options in the meta. It takes time to really determine the optimal Tera Types and strategies for Garg and I believe that only with more time and developments in UUSD will allow us to determine whether Garg is broken or just a very good Pokémon. It could very well be done for next week, but for now I cannot ban Gargancl and chose to vote Do not Ban.
Heatran: Do not Ban. To me, Heatran is just a very good Pokémon rather than a banworthy one. I think it wants a mix of both power/speed and bulk but it can’t have either and there’s a lot of outs to it even if Magma Storm is annoying to switch into. Offensive Water- and Fighting-Types are very common in the metagame which give Heatran problems, while bulky Water-types and Ground-types have also shown great prevalence as ways to handle Heatran. Typing is a bit awkward too. Other flaws include the fact that a lack of recovery kinda stings and using Air Balloon means no Leftovers which gets Heatran more worn down. Lastly, I am not a believer in Tera Blast Grass and think it opens you up to so many threats to where it’s balanced out by being a slow Grass-type even if it gets past counterplay like Rotom-Wash, Slowking, and Gastrodon. It didn’t work for Volcanion and it didn’t work for Heatran. Hard to see this being broken and an easy Do not Ban from me as of now.
Iron Hands: Do not Ban. Like Garchomp this was a close vote for me. Iron Hands is probably banworthy and I really would not be surprised for us to ban it in a week but for now I just can’t see it as so overbearing to get rid of asap. Iron Hands is always portrayed as an unkillable tank, which is pretty true, but one thing I’ve felt was overestimated was the set versatility it really has, particularly the Tera type flexibility. It’s way too early in the meta to really identify what tera types are most optimal and how many viable options it can run, as my experiences has been that hands somewhat has to fish the right matchup with its current tera type to really outright win games. Tera Fire isn’t really positively viewed due to the presence of Rotom-Wash and many Ground-types in the meta, Tera Grass on such a slow Pokémon is not perfect and opens you up a lot defensively, Tera Flying gives up your Ground weakness but makes you rocks weak and vulnerable to Electric-types, and Tera Fairy now deals with increased Poison-types like Amoonguss, Okidogi, and Munkidori. Iron Hands also is pretty vulnerable with its base typing and I’ve found myself having to commit to tera a lot of the time to sweep which still didn’t always end up successfully. Iron Hands is very strong but it’s also unexplored and judging from many posters saying they haven’t seen much of it I’m not alone in thinking this. In similar vein to Garchomp, I wouldn’t mind it being gone as of writing this reasoning and understand the rationale, but I also think my apprehension to voting to quick ban Iron Hands shows that a Quick Ban is too early and thus I voted Do not Ban to give Iron Hands more time.
Kommo-o: Ban. Very very easy ban. The set versatility is too much on already threatening sets. Both SD and Clangorous Soul already require a good amount of counterplay
but accounting for both in addition to other sets is just too much to have in the metagame. Soundproof is so good btw winning the mirror match and having Tera Normal Soul sets blank Skeledirge is heat. Ultimately this Mon has been talked about by like every UU player so I won’t repeat reasoning everyone knows but unique typing, great bulk, flexible tera options, and potent set versatility all make Kommo-o an overwhelming presence that warps the meta around hyper offense and restricts the builder to where the meta greatly improves from its ban. Good riddance, Ban.
Pelipper: Do not Ban. To be clear, I believe rain isn’t really seen as a problem within the council but rather we just wanted to monitor it and hear input on it. It’s definitely something that may or may not end up under future inspection. Like Gargancl I think it’s a Pokémon (archetype in this case ig) that needs more time before deciding whether it’s a problematic presence in the metagame, although to a much lesser extent. From my experiences, Rain is pretty good but nothing insane so far, I think taking a HO route with a lead (usually Iron Treads) + Pelipper + 4 Pokémon is best rather than having a BO route where you’re spread thin on a few synergistic options that don’t really handle the rain being used against you in the case of Tornadus-T and offensive water types. There’s a good amount of options that are more nonstandard yet better than the basic swift swim waters that spam Wave Crash and Flip Turn in my experience; Golduck, Ludicolo, and Overqwil are very good options that are arguably the best tools for the archetype by threatening bulky Waters with their Grass- and Dark-type coverage. There’s just a lot of room for exploration among the community on how to best optimize the archetype and banning Pelipper now would be premature. Also the reason Pelipper is under inspection rather than Drizzle is because Politoed sucks as it can’t pivot and lacks recovery and just a bunch of other benefits Pelipper has. Still, I think it’s simply too early to ban rain with counterplay like Alomomola, Gastrodon, Azumarill, Slowking, Amoonguss, Salamence, Volcanion, Tornadus, Rotom-Wash, Hisuian Goodra, Chesnaught, Tera Dragon Garg, Tera Dragon Hippo, and Sinistcha all being good options in the metagame and there being room to adopt rain counterplay with more egregious threats being banned. I wrote way too much on this but basically Do not Ban.
Heatran : DNB
I do not believe Heatran is an issue in the current metagame. Even tho it might become too much in a near future if some of its checks were to be banned, I must take the current metagame to judge. Heatran is pretty healthy in my opinion since it offers great utility by being a good check to things such as Scizor or Tornadus-T (which kinda have to run Focus Blast now in order to bypass it). There is a ton of effective Ground-types at the moment and they deter Heatran really well imo. I also really like the fact that Heatran is a great trapper and an annoying Pokémon to deal with for passive shits without being too braindead. I think Tera Grass variants are ok but suffer the fact that Grass-type isn't a great defensive typing (even with an immunity to Fire-type thanks to Flash Fire). I know some people have complained about it, but I definitively can't resolve myself to vote ban on it.
Pelliper : BAN
Pelipper is an odd one. Of course, the Pokémon isn't an issue on its own but it enables offensive threats in Rain teams to be so effective. My issue with Rain teams as I mentionned in my last post is the fact that we currently have too many effective abusers. Unlike what EviGaro said, I strongly believe the issue is the fact that you can't adapt entirely to Rain teams and it's not Thundurus-T fault at all but the fact that Swift Swims users are so different from one to another. Wave Crash abusers such as Basculegion or Floatzel can be checked by things such as Alomomola or Amoonguss thanks to Regenerator and their bulk (even more if they're holding a Rocky Helmet) and even Rotom-Wash can be effective thanks to it's decent bulk, typing and access to Volt Switch / Will-O-Wisp. However, those Pokémon struggles vs other Swift Swims users such as Golduck, Ludicolo or Basculegion-F. Even Overqwil is a great option since its typing is really key to check Grass-types such as Ogerpon or Meowscarada while being able to pressure typical answers to Rain teams. All in all, I feel like Rain teams are too effective and they restrain the teambuilding a shit ton which isn't a thing I like and something to take into account when banning a thing from the tier. For those reasons, I believe Pelipper should go.
Kommo-O : BAN
I'll be brief on that one : versatility. Kommo-o can basically do what you want it to do. It has so many viable sets and I feel like a lot of them are nasty to deal with since checks/counters are not the same at all from a variant to another. At team preview, you can't really tell what kind of Kommo-o you're facing and I believe that's an issue because it's a Pokémon which can catch you out of guard super easily. If you're expecting a special variant of it and it's a physical setup one, you're fucked because you sent the wrong answer. Kommo-o can even run underrated set like I do with Clangerous Soul + Substitute and while this isn't as effective as other variants, it will always work thanks to the effect of surprise. Clangerous Soul special variants are also insanely threatening since they have a really limited pool of checks : basically Unaware user such as Skeledirge and Clodsire or bulky Pokémon with good typing such as Heatran if Kommo-o doesn't run Aura Sphere or Jirachi if it doens't run Flamethrower. This Pokémon is a pain in the ass to handle and I don't think it's a positive presence for the tier (which sucks because I think it could be great if it doesn't had that much versatility).
Garganacl : BAN
I'm baffled to see I'm not on the majority side on that one but god damn what an awful Pokémon to deal with. The fact that so many people are calling it "ok" just because you can use Covert Cloak on things such as Alomomola, Sinistcha or Amoonguss kinda shows the issue of that Pokémon. You need to run a suboptimal item on some Pokémon just to not get fucked by Salt Cure (what a cringe move for real). In any other universe where Garganacl wouldn't be in UU you would not run this item on defensive Pokémon (outside of really dedicated niche I feel like) and would prefer something such as Heavy-Duty Boots, Leftovers or Rocky Helmet. Curse / Iron Defense Garganacl, alongside Salt Cure is an underrated slow setup monster which can mess so many defensive cores and archetypes with ease, it's disgusting. It's also an insane user of the Terastallization. You can run so many different Tera types effectively on that Pokémon, it's quite insane (Water, Fairy, Dragon, Ghost.. like bruh).
Garchomp : BAN
Garchomp is way too effective as a setup sweeper and its pool of check/counters is really limited. Actually, I think it doesn't have a real answer in the tier due to Terastallization. Both Tera Fire and Tera Steel allow it to bypass its most solid checks aka Levitate Galar-Weezing and Tera Fairy/Steel Rotom-Wash. I feel like it's always a guessing game with this Pokémon and it can snowball out of control so quickly. It's not a sweeper which will 6-0 your team but it will always remove or dent many Pokémon on the opposing side which will allow its teammates to clean the board. It's bulky, it has a great typing and it's fast and powerful, it's an almost perfect Pokémon to me and I feel like it's too much for the tier.
Iron Hands : BAN
Third time's the charm isn't it ? Right..? Well not really, Iron Hands still does what it was doing when it was in the tier the first two times, take hits and retaliate with those big fists. Even tho the metagame isn't kind to it with much more powercreep and Ground-types all over the tier, I still believe Iron Hands is insane and able to trade vs so many threats. Sub variants are still nasty and really enjoys the fact that we have so many common defensive Pokémon such as Alomomola, Amoonguss or Garganacl. On the other..hand (badum tssssss) Swords Dance + 3 attacks sets are really great thanks to Iron Hands great coverage. The decline of Scream Tail allows it to run Ice Punch and nuke Amoonguss and Ground-type after a SD with ease. I've seen a resurgence of the OG Sub SD Tera Ghost Tera Blast set too and those are still effective and dangerous. Overall, I feel like this Pokémon will always be too great just because it's fat as fuck and able to smack back most of the Pokémon which would like to weaken it. This Pokémon forces out so many Pokémon just because it can 1v1 them, it's not fair imo and for this reason, I feel like it should go back to its real home aka the UUBL.
Ceruledge : BAN
I voted DNB 2 weeks ago and I feel like I'm still on that train. Ceruledge is a major threat and it will often be able to get some KOs now that it has Poltergeist but I still feel like it's pretty MU dependant and can struggle vs staples such as Alomomola or Mandibuzz. We have so many effective Entry Hazards setters right now which makes Sash variants quite tough to use since it's not that easy to keep those EH out of your field. And without an active Focus Sash, there is so many threats that can mess with Ceruledge, even defensive ones. Garganacl kinda owns it thanks to its ability, great typing and good use of defensive Tera so yeah, I feel like the metagame isn't kinder to it so I don't see how I could vote ban on it while I wasn't sure it was banworthy during the previous metagame.
I do not believe Heatran is an issue in the current metagame. Even tho it might become too much in a near future if some of its checks were to be banned, I must take the current metagame to judge. Heatran is pretty healthy in my opinion since it offers great utility by being a good check to things such as Scizor or Tornadus-T (which kinda have to run Focus Blast now in order to bypass it). There is a ton of effective Ground-types at the moment and they deter Heatran really well imo. I also really like the fact that Heatran is a great trapper and an annoying Pokémon to deal with for passive shits without being too braindead. I think Tera Grass variants are ok but suffer the fact that Grass-type isn't a great defensive typing (even with an immunity to Fire-type thanks to Flash Fire). I know some people have complained about it, but I definitively can't resolve myself to vote ban on it.
Pelliper : BAN
Pelipper is an odd one. Of course, the Pokémon isn't an issue on its own but it enables offensive threats in Rain teams to be so effective. My issue with Rain teams as I mentionned in my last post is the fact that we currently have too many effective abusers. Unlike what EviGaro said, I strongly believe the issue is the fact that you can't adapt entirely to Rain teams and it's not Thundurus-T fault at all but the fact that Swift Swims users are so different from one to another. Wave Crash abusers such as Basculegion or Floatzel can be checked by things such as Alomomola or Amoonguss thanks to Regenerator and their bulk (even more if they're holding a Rocky Helmet) and even Rotom-Wash can be effective thanks to it's decent bulk, typing and access to Volt Switch / Will-O-Wisp. However, those Pokémon struggles vs other Swift Swims users such as Golduck, Ludicolo or Basculegion-F. Even Overqwil is a great option since its typing is really key to check Grass-types such as Ogerpon or Meowscarada while being able to pressure typical answers to Rain teams. All in all, I feel like Rain teams are too effective and they restrain the teambuilding a shit ton which isn't a thing I like and something to take into account when banning a thing from the tier. For those reasons, I believe Pelipper should go.
Kommo-O : BAN
I'll be brief on that one : versatility. Kommo-o can basically do what you want it to do. It has so many viable sets and I feel like a lot of them are nasty to deal with since checks/counters are not the same at all from a variant to another. At team preview, you can't really tell what kind of Kommo-o you're facing and I believe that's an issue because it's a Pokémon which can catch you out of guard super easily. If you're expecting a special variant of it and it's a physical setup one, you're fucked because you sent the wrong answer. Kommo-o can even run underrated set like I do with Clangerous Soul + Substitute and while this isn't as effective as other variants, it will always work thanks to the effect of surprise. Clangerous Soul special variants are also insanely threatening since they have a really limited pool of checks : basically Unaware user such as Skeledirge and Clodsire or bulky Pokémon with good typing such as Heatran if Kommo-o doesn't run Aura Sphere or Jirachi if it doens't run Flamethrower. This Pokémon is a pain in the ass to handle and I don't think it's a positive presence for the tier (which sucks because I think it could be great if it doesn't had that much versatility).
Garganacl : BAN
I'm baffled to see I'm not on the majority side on that one but god damn what an awful Pokémon to deal with. The fact that so many people are calling it "ok" just because you can use Covert Cloak on things such as Alomomola, Sinistcha or Amoonguss kinda shows the issue of that Pokémon. You need to run a suboptimal item on some Pokémon just to not get fucked by Salt Cure (what a cringe move for real). In any other universe where Garganacl wouldn't be in UU you would not run this item on defensive Pokémon (outside of really dedicated niche I feel like) and would prefer something such as Heavy-Duty Boots, Leftovers or Rocky Helmet. Curse / Iron Defense Garganacl, alongside Salt Cure is an underrated slow setup monster which can mess so many defensive cores and archetypes with ease, it's disgusting. It's also an insane user of the Terastallization. You can run so many different Tera types effectively on that Pokémon, it's quite insane (Water, Fairy, Dragon, Ghost.. like bruh).
Garchomp : BAN
Garchomp is way too effective as a setup sweeper and its pool of check/counters is really limited. Actually, I think it doesn't have a real answer in the tier due to Terastallization. Both Tera Fire and Tera Steel allow it to bypass its most solid checks aka Levitate Galar-Weezing and Tera Fairy/Steel Rotom-Wash. I feel like it's always a guessing game with this Pokémon and it can snowball out of control so quickly. It's not a sweeper which will 6-0 your team but it will always remove or dent many Pokémon on the opposing side which will allow its teammates to clean the board. It's bulky, it has a great typing and it's fast and powerful, it's an almost perfect Pokémon to me and I feel like it's too much for the tier.
Iron Hands : BAN
Third time's the charm isn't it ? Right..? Well not really, Iron Hands still does what it was doing when it was in the tier the first two times, take hits and retaliate with those big fists. Even tho the metagame isn't kind to it with much more powercreep and Ground-types all over the tier, I still believe Iron Hands is insane and able to trade vs so many threats. Sub variants are still nasty and really enjoys the fact that we have so many common defensive Pokémon such as Alomomola, Amoonguss or Garganacl. On the other..hand (badum tssssss) Swords Dance + 3 attacks sets are really great thanks to Iron Hands great coverage. The decline of Scream Tail allows it to run Ice Punch and nuke Amoonguss and Ground-type after a SD with ease. I've seen a resurgence of the OG Sub SD Tera Ghost Tera Blast set too and those are still effective and dangerous. Overall, I feel like this Pokémon will always be too great just because it's fat as fuck and able to smack back most of the Pokémon which would like to weaken it. This Pokémon forces out so many Pokémon just because it can 1v1 them, it's not fair imo and for this reason, I feel like it should go back to its real home aka the UUBL.
Ceruledge : BAN
I voted DNB 2 weeks ago and I feel like I'm still on that train. Ceruledge is a major threat and it will often be able to get some KOs now that it has Poltergeist but I still feel like it's pretty MU dependant and can struggle vs staples such as Alomomola or Mandibuzz. We have so many effective Entry Hazards setters right now which makes Sash variants quite tough to use since it's not that easy to keep those EH out of your field. And without an active Focus Sash, there is so many threats that can mess with Ceruledge, even defensive ones. Garganacl kinda owns it thanks to its ability, great typing and good use of defensive Tera so yeah, I feel like the metagame isn't kinder to it so I don't see how I could vote ban on it while I wasn't sure it was banworthy during the previous metagame.
Ceruledge - Ban, too many good sets and Weak Armor along with its ability to spinblock makes it really strong. It can easily 1v1 Pokemon like Alomomola that you think would be able to stop it.
Garchomp - Ban, it has 4+ strong sets in SD Loaded Dice variations, Mixed LO variations, Hazard setter TankChomp variations, as well as some other unexplored options. I think this pokemon is very oppressive to play against as scale shot with loaded dice is extremely difficult to wall along with its other coverage options and Tera.
Garganacl - Ban, this Pokemon is only going to get more ridiculous as the tier stabilizes and has already shown its dominance in the week it has been allowed so far in SCL. It may be a bit Tera-reliant to win games, but that tera is so strong and has such little drawback that it does not really matter. This Pokemon also has a multitude of potential sets, including Curse EQ, Rocks + Protect, ID + Body Press that make it extremely hard to defeat.
Heatran - No Ban, I think my position on this Pokemon may change after some of the bans go through and the meta develops, but currently with the amount of strong, fast ground types like Iron Treads and Garchomp, fighting types like Kommo-o, Waters like rain sweepers and Basculegion, as well as decent defensive answers with strong waters with reliable recovery, this Pokemon needs extensive support + Tera to sweep teams by itself. It is a great non-passive steel type rocker with great stats and a lot of upside, but the meta has not been kind to it as a threat, but I suspect this will change in the coming iterations of the meta.
Iron Hands - Ban, I think this Pokemon is also extremely oppressive in the builder, forcing you to run multiple counterplay options to deal with the multiple sets that Hands can run. Booster Energy SD + 3 atks, Sub SD Lefties, SD Lefties, and even Assault Vest sets all have use and are extremely difficult to kill due to its high bulk. You can pick and choose which of its "counters" that you want to beat with its moveset and Tera-type, which I believe makes it too strong for the current meta.
Kommo-o - Ban, it has stupid sets like SD Scale Shot + Loaded Dice and access to ClangSoul + Throat Spray, or bulkier ClangSoul + lefties sets that make it extremely stupid to deal with. Not to mention it can run defensive sets and rocker support sets, as well as Choice sets like Specs potentially. This Pokemon is too difficult to deal with defensively in my opinion.
Pelipper - No Ban, Rain is strong but it hasn't been broken in my opinion, but I think it's definitely something to keep an eye on. Pokemon like Torn-t and good water resists in the tier help contain those teams.
Garchomp - Ban, it has 4+ strong sets in SD Loaded Dice variations, Mixed LO variations, Hazard setter TankChomp variations, as well as some other unexplored options. I think this pokemon is very oppressive to play against as scale shot with loaded dice is extremely difficult to wall along with its other coverage options and Tera.
Garganacl - Ban, this Pokemon is only going to get more ridiculous as the tier stabilizes and has already shown its dominance in the week it has been allowed so far in SCL. It may be a bit Tera-reliant to win games, but that tera is so strong and has such little drawback that it does not really matter. This Pokemon also has a multitude of potential sets, including Curse EQ, Rocks + Protect, ID + Body Press that make it extremely hard to defeat.
Heatran - No Ban, I think my position on this Pokemon may change after some of the bans go through and the meta develops, but currently with the amount of strong, fast ground types like Iron Treads and Garchomp, fighting types like Kommo-o, Waters like rain sweepers and Basculegion, as well as decent defensive answers with strong waters with reliable recovery, this Pokemon needs extensive support + Tera to sweep teams by itself. It is a great non-passive steel type rocker with great stats and a lot of upside, but the meta has not been kind to it as a threat, but I suspect this will change in the coming iterations of the meta.
Iron Hands - Ban, I think this Pokemon is also extremely oppressive in the builder, forcing you to run multiple counterplay options to deal with the multiple sets that Hands can run. Booster Energy SD + 3 atks, Sub SD Lefties, SD Lefties, and even Assault Vest sets all have use and are extremely difficult to kill due to its high bulk. You can pick and choose which of its "counters" that you want to beat with its moveset and Tera-type, which I believe makes it too strong for the current meta.
Kommo-o - Ban, it has stupid sets like SD Scale Shot + Loaded Dice and access to ClangSoul + Throat Spray, or bulkier ClangSoul + lefties sets that make it extremely stupid to deal with. Not to mention it can run defensive sets and rocker support sets, as well as Choice sets like Specs potentially. This Pokemon is too difficult to deal with defensively in my opinion.
Pelipper - No Ban, Rain is strong but it hasn't been broken in my opinion, but I think it's definitely something to keep an eye on. Pokemon like Torn-t and good water resists in the tier help contain those teams.
Sage chose to abstain from this vote.
Ceruledge - do not ban
While I do believe that Ceruledge became a much more dangerous threat with the dlc granting it Poltergeist, the current drops and state of the metagame has, in my opinion, greatly expanded the scope of the viable counterplay that you can reasonably add to a team; Mandibuzz, Hippowdon, and Alomomola (not counting Garganacl since I'm voting to ban it) are easy to add to balance and even slower bulky offenses, faster paced teams usually add several naturally faster threats that keep it at bay and even commonly have outs to via strong priority users like Azumarill and Lokix. While in theory it can also abuse tera and screens to flip its bad matchups, I would argue that the issue lies with Light Clay and tera itself since these issues are not exclusive to Ceruledge, and I haven't seen any crazy results that would indicate this individual pokemon is overbearing in the current UU meta.
Garchomp - ban
I don't have much to add here that probably already hasn't been discussed at length already, Chomp's Swords Dance + Scale Shot sets are way too overbearing for the current meta. Garchomp is a MUCH more well rounded pokemon than most other threats in the tier, with a godlike typing and comparitively titanic bulk compared to most of our other fast offensive threats. Unlike Ceruledge also on the chopping block, it has proven to have instant game-ending potential in practice without its opponent coming equipped with extremely specific counterplay such as tera Fairy Rotom-Wash, which can still be beaten with its flexible moveslot options like tera Steel Iron Head or tera Fire to block burns. Loaded Dice, while certainly not the required item for its most dangerous sets, also turn Scale Shot from an unreliable gamble of a stab option that is basically only needed to boost speed to a minumum of 100 base power STAB move with negligible drawbacks. In addition, it has a pretty deep movepool that can prove decent at blasting through answers to the traditional answers to SD sets with options like Life Orb Draco Meteor and Fire Blast, as well as access to Stealth Rock and Spikes if you need to fit those into a team somehow. Many pokemon that can check it via committing tera are forced to do so with Fairy or Steel (with levitate) to deny it boosting with Scale Shot, to keep its speed in check while it still factoring in the capability of it bowling over anything short of Quagsire with the correct tera option of its own. Overall, Chomp is currently the most oppressive presence in the tier by far and constricts building to what I feel is an unhealthy degree enough to warrant an easy ban for the time being.
Garganacl: ban
Garganacl is essentially the polar opposite of the issue Garchomp presents to the UU meta at this moment; while it's unreasonably difficult to prevent the latter from overrunning a game and winning quickly, Garg is extremely difficult to stop from grinding the game down to a snails pace and has a very easy time slowly working its way through its counterplay. Salt Cure, while not exactly the sole reason I believe Garg to be too much for UU, is an obnoxious move that all but guarantees progress into opposing teams, forcing switches to reset the constant chip damage, and also even encourages the use of the otherwise suboptimal item choice in Covert Cloak. This basically permanently puts any structure with reliance on a defensive backbone on the backfoot and forced into conservative plays to try to mitigate this constant pressure. This would all be annoying at best if Garg didn't come in with an automatic immunity to all status thanks to its ability, on top of a handy built-in Ghost resistance. This makes it, in my opinion, too difficult to challenge in a war of attrition without utilizing specific strategies from a small amount of options (not every balance team should have to be spike stack with phazers and/or Covert Cloak). Since Garganacl is also a defensive booster with Curse or Iron Defense + Body Press, it also makes it pretty tough to power through with offense once it gets going, and it can also matchup fish via tera to invalidate certain mons like Azu and Conk that could otherwise try to quickly overwhelm it, requiring teams to be secure against it by having both pre- and post-tera counterplay that can worn down pretty quickly. See Hariyana's game against Eternal Spirit from this week of SCL if you wanna see this type of interaction happen. I don't think this kind of dynamic is healthy for UU at the moment, and think we'd be better off letting it go to UUBL for now.
Heatran - do not ban
While I do think being in a timeline where Heatran is UU feels wrong, I haven't seen much proof to understand how it can be overbearing. Heatran seems to be doing its usual thing of being a reasonably threatening glue mon that's always excellent at what it does, but has pretty common offensive weaknesses and isn't too hard to deal with defensively, especially now that it lost Toxic in the generational shift. I would love to hear about some meta-breaking way to use Heatran that I've been missing out on seeing, but for now it just doesn't seem like it's been too much to handle.
Iron Hands - abstain
I thought it would be appropriate to give this mon another shot in the tier so I voted to unban it with shifts. Maybe it's just been new toy syndrome with the giant number of new pokemon in uu, but I've barely seen any of this thing since it was freed. Though I don't think I have enough of an informed opinion to feel confident about voting one way or the other, I have paid enough attention to hear some of the outcry against this mon, so I think it'd be best to keep a close eye on how it develops in the next few weeks.
Kommo-o - ban
Kommo-o needs to go for the exact same reason it did last gen; its setup sets are still on the cusp of being overbearing on their own, but on top of the unpredictability of what exactly its running at preview makes it very tough to handle and easy to be caught off guard and lose crucial pieces for the rest of the game. With tera on top of its three excellent defensive abilities, it can pretty consistently find one, sometimes several, setup opportunities per game. Once it does, your opponent is forced to guess your coverage as the combination of 3 moves it can run alongside Clangorous Soul/ Dragon Dance or 2 with Scale Shot + Swords Dance can blow through much of our the decent counterplay the tier has. Much like Garganacl, it too can abuse tera to set up checkmate positions where it can force its way through an endgame or force specific counterplay to give its other teammates opportunity.
Pelipper - do not ban
Another case where I just haven't seen proof that the pokemon (or archetype in this case) has been particularly crazy. Rain is definitely strong in concept against the current offensive onslaught that is UU at the moment, but the individual pieces have mostly been alright to deal with overall; Tornadus was definitely borderline busted before drops but has been much more manageable overall after the meta shifts, and the Swift Swim users for the most part have a pretty shallow depth of play outside of clicking Wave Crash, which also puts them on a fast-ticking timer with recoil, hazards, status, etc. into anything with decent to good water resists. If it does develop into more of an issue in the coming months though, Pelipper would probably be the ideal target rather than Drizzle itself as having to rely on Politoed instead would be a pretty significant nerf.
While I do believe that Ceruledge became a much more dangerous threat with the dlc granting it Poltergeist, the current drops and state of the metagame has, in my opinion, greatly expanded the scope of the viable counterplay that you can reasonably add to a team; Mandibuzz, Hippowdon, and Alomomola (not counting Garganacl since I'm voting to ban it) are easy to add to balance and even slower bulky offenses, faster paced teams usually add several naturally faster threats that keep it at bay and even commonly have outs to via strong priority users like Azumarill and Lokix. While in theory it can also abuse tera and screens to flip its bad matchups, I would argue that the issue lies with Light Clay and tera itself since these issues are not exclusive to Ceruledge, and I haven't seen any crazy results that would indicate this individual pokemon is overbearing in the current UU meta.
Garchomp - ban
I don't have much to add here that probably already hasn't been discussed at length already, Chomp's Swords Dance + Scale Shot sets are way too overbearing for the current meta. Garchomp is a MUCH more well rounded pokemon than most other threats in the tier, with a godlike typing and comparitively titanic bulk compared to most of our other fast offensive threats. Unlike Ceruledge also on the chopping block, it has proven to have instant game-ending potential in practice without its opponent coming equipped with extremely specific counterplay such as tera Fairy Rotom-Wash, which can still be beaten with its flexible moveslot options like tera Steel Iron Head or tera Fire to block burns. Loaded Dice, while certainly not the required item for its most dangerous sets, also turn Scale Shot from an unreliable gamble of a stab option that is basically only needed to boost speed to a minumum of 100 base power STAB move with negligible drawbacks. In addition, it has a pretty deep movepool that can prove decent at blasting through answers to the traditional answers to SD sets with options like Life Orb Draco Meteor and Fire Blast, as well as access to Stealth Rock and Spikes if you need to fit those into a team somehow. Many pokemon that can check it via committing tera are forced to do so with Fairy or Steel (with levitate) to deny it boosting with Scale Shot, to keep its speed in check while it still factoring in the capability of it bowling over anything short of Quagsire with the correct tera option of its own. Overall, Chomp is currently the most oppressive presence in the tier by far and constricts building to what I feel is an unhealthy degree enough to warrant an easy ban for the time being.
Garganacl: ban
Garganacl is essentially the polar opposite of the issue Garchomp presents to the UU meta at this moment; while it's unreasonably difficult to prevent the latter from overrunning a game and winning quickly, Garg is extremely difficult to stop from grinding the game down to a snails pace and has a very easy time slowly working its way through its counterplay. Salt Cure, while not exactly the sole reason I believe Garg to be too much for UU, is an obnoxious move that all but guarantees progress into opposing teams, forcing switches to reset the constant chip damage, and also even encourages the use of the otherwise suboptimal item choice in Covert Cloak. This basically permanently puts any structure with reliance on a defensive backbone on the backfoot and forced into conservative plays to try to mitigate this constant pressure. This would all be annoying at best if Garg didn't come in with an automatic immunity to all status thanks to its ability, on top of a handy built-in Ghost resistance. This makes it, in my opinion, too difficult to challenge in a war of attrition without utilizing specific strategies from a small amount of options (not every balance team should have to be spike stack with phazers and/or Covert Cloak). Since Garganacl is also a defensive booster with Curse or Iron Defense + Body Press, it also makes it pretty tough to power through with offense once it gets going, and it can also matchup fish via tera to invalidate certain mons like Azu and Conk that could otherwise try to quickly overwhelm it, requiring teams to be secure against it by having both pre- and post-tera counterplay that can worn down pretty quickly. See Hariyana's game against Eternal Spirit from this week of SCL if you wanna see this type of interaction happen. I don't think this kind of dynamic is healthy for UU at the moment, and think we'd be better off letting it go to UUBL for now.
Heatran - do not ban
While I do think being in a timeline where Heatran is UU feels wrong, I haven't seen much proof to understand how it can be overbearing. Heatran seems to be doing its usual thing of being a reasonably threatening glue mon that's always excellent at what it does, but has pretty common offensive weaknesses and isn't too hard to deal with defensively, especially now that it lost Toxic in the generational shift. I would love to hear about some meta-breaking way to use Heatran that I've been missing out on seeing, but for now it just doesn't seem like it's been too much to handle.
Iron Hands - abstain
I thought it would be appropriate to give this mon another shot in the tier so I voted to unban it with shifts. Maybe it's just been new toy syndrome with the giant number of new pokemon in uu, but I've barely seen any of this thing since it was freed. Though I don't think I have enough of an informed opinion to feel confident about voting one way or the other, I have paid enough attention to hear some of the outcry against this mon, so I think it'd be best to keep a close eye on how it develops in the next few weeks.
Kommo-o - ban
Kommo-o needs to go for the exact same reason it did last gen; its setup sets are still on the cusp of being overbearing on their own, but on top of the unpredictability of what exactly its running at preview makes it very tough to handle and easy to be caught off guard and lose crucial pieces for the rest of the game. With tera on top of its three excellent defensive abilities, it can pretty consistently find one, sometimes several, setup opportunities per game. Once it does, your opponent is forced to guess your coverage as the combination of 3 moves it can run alongside Clangorous Soul/ Dragon Dance or 2 with Scale Shot + Swords Dance can blow through much of our the decent counterplay the tier has. Much like Garganacl, it too can abuse tera to set up checkmate positions where it can force its way through an endgame or force specific counterplay to give its other teammates opportunity.
Pelipper - do not ban
Another case where I just haven't seen proof that the pokemon (or archetype in this case) has been particularly crazy. Rain is definitely strong in concept against the current offensive onslaught that is UU at the moment, but the individual pieces have mostly been alright to deal with overall; Tornadus was definitely borderline busted before drops but has been much more manageable overall after the meta shifts, and the Swift Swim users for the most part have a pretty shallow depth of play outside of clicking Wave Crash, which also puts them on a fast-ticking timer with recoil, hazards, status, etc. into anything with decent to good water resists. If it does develop into more of an issue in the coming months though, Pelipper would probably be the ideal target rather than Drizzle itself as having to rely on Politoed instead would be a pretty significant nerf.
Ceruledge: Ban. Not much has changed for me, I still find it really restrictive to account for both when building and playing. I would like to refer to my previous reasoning for this one.
Garchomp: Ban. It's stats are too strong, can run a lot of sets but truly hazards set is faily balanced the issue lies in sd 3a IMO, its very easy to get your setup started with its great bulk and defensive typing and it can now terastalise in a steel or fire type to get rid of ice+fairy weakness depending on its last moveslot. the only real counter is mandibuzz but its always very close to being in range of a +2 scale shot if garchomp is equipped ith loaded dice, or ston edge, which does exist. garchomp can break through its main counters with a terastalise+coverage combination faily easily, though it is still possible to stop it if you act quickly enough it requires an unhealthy amount of preparation and it puts too much strain on building imo.
Garganacl: Ban. I'd say it's similar to garchomp altough it operates a completely different role. when I say that I mean its stats are too strong for me, combine that with an ability that makes you immune to any status (and halves ghost types attacks, which while not super common is still a plus) and salt cure which might very well be the most restrictive move we've had a pokemon run in uu this gen. I saw people argue forcing terastalisation and beating garg is faily easy, I do not agree, garga actually wants to terastalise most games and has very little opportunity costs doing so. fairy is the main typing, so it would be a natural response to counter-attack with a steel type, now this, for me, is the main problem that pushes garganacl over the edge, salt cure triggers a 25% health damage instead of 12% if your pokemon is a steel (or water) type, it's not hard at all for garg to cripple down its answers, as running cloak can also be a big limiting factors on other pokemon, which makes toxic spikes a great supporting tool for it. other teras such as ghost exist, being however more team specific, nonetheless those can still run away with the game fairly easily as well.
Heatran: Ban. Was on the fence about this, I do find it incredibly restricting as of now unless I run a few specific pokemon, all of those (kommo-o, garchomp, garganacl) I am voting ban on. Even with their presence I'm still not certain it's balanced, running a cohesive balance/bo, which are the most common styles of play, thats not on the verge of losing to heatran can be quite challenging, garganacl is technically an answer because of the salt cure interaction, but heatran can adapt with moves such as taunt and flash cannon, as well as terastalising in response to reduce the damage over time, though that opens up more possibilities and I found heatran not to be a terastalisation recipient as often as I thought anyway.
Iron Hands: Ban. Would-be means of counterplay are too slow against a well-built hands team unless you run multiple counters, which is an incredibly tall task. youc cannot just knock and hope it somehow dies as hands deals with damage trades like nothing else we have, rotom-wash (who is not a long term answer whatsoever) and weezing are the closest things we have to counter, hippowdon does not instantly lose but it can only phase it out. simply knocking iron hands isnt going to work as it will provide it with too many free turns to snowball, not to mention it can run a wide variety of different movepools that completely change its dynamics as well as counterplay required, sd 3a who would be countered by weezing but it can also run sub to avoid getting statused, iron defense garganacl might be able to beat it but not if it's also the tera ghost tera blast set, list of adaptations goes on with diffenrent tera types and coverage, as well with the ways you can beat it. not broken on the same level as others like kommo but still too much for the tier imo.
Kommo-o: Ban. This, with garganacl, takes it for the top2 broken spot. Kommo-o's unhealthyness does not only lie in it's stats and access to clangorous soul, but also in the wide variety of sets it can run, some examples are: clangorous soul special, clangorous soul/dd physical, sub sd, choice specs. Not all of them might be broken on their own, besides clangorous soul, but all the possibilities combined with the fact you may very well be unaware at teams preview of what set you're going to run into just does nothing but promote uncertainty both in the builder and in-game, which is never healthy.
Pelipper: Dnb. I don't have a lot to say about this one, I think rain is: currently very mid. I think we have a lot of answers and terastalisation offers a new tool to deal with that too, HO runs sweepers like azumarill that even out the mu if not make it now in favor of the offense user outright. none of the rain sweeper has seemed particularly threatening to me, with the exception of overqwil who is a really cool meta adaptation but obviously not broken nor able to push the archetype to broken levels.
Garchomp: Ban. It's stats are too strong, can run a lot of sets but truly hazards set is faily balanced the issue lies in sd 3a IMO, its very easy to get your setup started with its great bulk and defensive typing and it can now terastalise in a steel or fire type to get rid of ice+fairy weakness depending on its last moveslot. the only real counter is mandibuzz but its always very close to being in range of a +2 scale shot if garchomp is equipped ith loaded dice, or ston edge, which does exist. garchomp can break through its main counters with a terastalise+coverage combination faily easily, though it is still possible to stop it if you act quickly enough it requires an unhealthy amount of preparation and it puts too much strain on building imo.
Garganacl: Ban. I'd say it's similar to garchomp altough it operates a completely different role. when I say that I mean its stats are too strong for me, combine that with an ability that makes you immune to any status (and halves ghost types attacks, which while not super common is still a plus) and salt cure which might very well be the most restrictive move we've had a pokemon run in uu this gen. I saw people argue forcing terastalisation and beating garg is faily easy, I do not agree, garga actually wants to terastalise most games and has very little opportunity costs doing so. fairy is the main typing, so it would be a natural response to counter-attack with a steel type, now this, for me, is the main problem that pushes garganacl over the edge, salt cure triggers a 25% health damage instead of 12% if your pokemon is a steel (or water) type, it's not hard at all for garg to cripple down its answers, as running cloak can also be a big limiting factors on other pokemon, which makes toxic spikes a great supporting tool for it. other teras such as ghost exist, being however more team specific, nonetheless those can still run away with the game fairly easily as well.
Heatran: Ban. Was on the fence about this, I do find it incredibly restricting as of now unless I run a few specific pokemon, all of those (kommo-o, garchomp, garganacl) I am voting ban on. Even with their presence I'm still not certain it's balanced, running a cohesive balance/bo, which are the most common styles of play, thats not on the verge of losing to heatran can be quite challenging, garganacl is technically an answer because of the salt cure interaction, but heatran can adapt with moves such as taunt and flash cannon, as well as terastalising in response to reduce the damage over time, though that opens up more possibilities and I found heatran not to be a terastalisation recipient as often as I thought anyway.
Iron Hands: Ban. Would-be means of counterplay are too slow against a well-built hands team unless you run multiple counters, which is an incredibly tall task. youc cannot just knock and hope it somehow dies as hands deals with damage trades like nothing else we have, rotom-wash (who is not a long term answer whatsoever) and weezing are the closest things we have to counter, hippowdon does not instantly lose but it can only phase it out. simply knocking iron hands isnt going to work as it will provide it with too many free turns to snowball, not to mention it can run a wide variety of different movepools that completely change its dynamics as well as counterplay required, sd 3a who would be countered by weezing but it can also run sub to avoid getting statused, iron defense garganacl might be able to beat it but not if it's also the tera ghost tera blast set, list of adaptations goes on with diffenrent tera types and coverage, as well with the ways you can beat it. not broken on the same level as others like kommo but still too much for the tier imo.
Kommo-o: Ban. This, with garganacl, takes it for the top2 broken spot. Kommo-o's unhealthyness does not only lie in it's stats and access to clangorous soul, but also in the wide variety of sets it can run, some examples are: clangorous soul special, clangorous soul/dd physical, sub sd, choice specs. Not all of them might be broken on their own, besides clangorous soul, but all the possibilities combined with the fact you may very well be unaware at teams preview of what set you're going to run into just does nothing but promote uncertainty both in the builder and in-game, which is never healthy.
Pelipper: Dnb. I don't have a lot to say about this one, I think rain is: currently very mid. I think we have a lot of answers and terastalisation offers a new tool to deal with that too, HO runs sweepers like azumarill that even out the mu if not make it now in favor of the offense user outright. none of the rain sweeper has seemed particularly threatening to me, with the exception of overqwil who is a really cool meta adaptation but obviously not broken nor able to push the archetype to broken levels.
Ceruledge - DNB - voted DNB prior and it feels worse than before imo, still very strong for sure but I think simply putting Ceru on a HO doesn’t feel as free and easy as it did the last time it was voted on
Garchomp - BAN - but I am interested in seeing this mon in the nearish future, right now it basically guarantees extreme tera shenanigans every game and it is a massive pain, similar to Kommo-o this mon brings positive things to the tier as well with its unique typing, access to both hazards, and strong coverage/decent speed tier… but checking sd tera sets reliably is a toss up at best, and would like the tier to be slightly more equipped or adjusted to it before wanting it to become a mainstay
Garganacl - DNB - Interested to see how the tier develops with this thing in it, open to it being broken or overwhelmingly annoying for sure, but feel like more time with it in a tier less chaotic could be productive as it is interesting and so far I haven’t felt like it’s impossible to work around or anything
Heatran - DNB- I haven’t felt is broken at all and has a lot of valuable utility for the tier, is definitely very strong though
Iron Hands - Abstain - I don’t have as much experience with this mon right now in this current meta, my personal experience so far is that it’s been good but not banworthy, but i have seen a lot of opinions that conflict this
Kommo-o - BAN - encourages extremely low quality games and building, similarly to prior gens, it has genuine good things to bring to the tier that i thoroughly enjoy, however that is completely overshadowed by all the pure ass it brings via set guessing and screen spamming.
Pelipper - DNB - rain is strong but broken feels like a strong statement for sure, I don’t particularly foresee rain becoming necessarily broken in the future either as the tier develops, cheese rn in general is very enticing but i feel like i need a bigger and more dominant sample size w rain to sit here and say it’s ban worthy
Garchomp - BAN - but I am interested in seeing this mon in the nearish future, right now it basically guarantees extreme tera shenanigans every game and it is a massive pain, similar to Kommo-o this mon brings positive things to the tier as well with its unique typing, access to both hazards, and strong coverage/decent speed tier… but checking sd tera sets reliably is a toss up at best, and would like the tier to be slightly more equipped or adjusted to it before wanting it to become a mainstay
Garganacl - DNB - Interested to see how the tier develops with this thing in it, open to it being broken or overwhelmingly annoying for sure, but feel like more time with it in a tier less chaotic could be productive as it is interesting and so far I haven’t felt like it’s impossible to work around or anything
Heatran - DNB- I haven’t felt is broken at all and has a lot of valuable utility for the tier, is definitely very strong though
Iron Hands - Abstain - I don’t have as much experience with this mon right now in this current meta, my personal experience so far is that it’s been good but not banworthy, but i have seen a lot of opinions that conflict this
Kommo-o - BAN - encourages extremely low quality games and building, similarly to prior gens, it has genuine good things to bring to the tier that i thoroughly enjoy, however that is completely overshadowed by all the pure ass it brings via set guessing and screen spamming.
Pelipper - DNB - rain is strong but broken feels like a strong statement for sure, I don’t particularly foresee rain becoming necessarily broken in the future either as the tier develops, cheese rn in general is very enticing but i feel like i need a bigger and more dominant sample size w rain to sit here and say it’s ban worthy
As always if you have any questions feel free to shoot me a DM.