Well, at first I was thinking breloom was the issue, and the only pokemon that Legit made sneasel broke, because it didn't only give +90 in atk w/a fighting typing. As mentioned already, having access to spore and having a pretty decent speed tier puts a lot of pressure on opposing teams from the get-go(I use it as a lead usually).
But then I figured, yesterday on rom, I was testing other technicians pokemons with sneasel. Experimenting if banning breloom will solve the problem. sin(pi), as mentioned, Other dark types with beat up could possibly simply replace it. Which is very true, but the difference is majority of them aren't fast enough to abuse beat up the way sneasel does. While also running spore+Sword Dance ? Except maybe murkrow, 126 ain't too bad I suppose, it could possibly abuse spore+Sd+beat up but I never tried so please don't quote me lol.
But anyways, my "Experiment" was testing hitmontop, Cinccino, Ambipom, and finally Kricketune, all in combination with sneasel. From what I've seen so far, possibly two of these pokes are legit Replacements if breloom gets ban and arguably just as good(but not really imo) and with little cost as well.
The two pokes I'm referring to, are.....
Sneasel ===> Hitmontop: Stats:70/155/115/35/150/150 Abilities:Intimidate/Technician/Steadfast Type:Dark/Ice Weight: 55 kg (80 BP)
I'll start off with hitmontop, because I seriously have my doubts with the next poke I'm going to mention. 70/115/150 Defense w/155/150 offense shouldn't be overlooked so quickly, I certainly didn't even think this would be "good" or even "threaten" when I took my first glance lol. Now obviously it can't use spore to "bypass" some of its counters I.E fairy types, but what it does have over breloom, is actual BULK. This allows it to run Something other than focus sash, something like, say, Razor Fang O_O
Hitmontop (Sneasel) @ Razor Fang / Choice Band / Never-melt-Ice / Black Glasses
Ability: Technician / Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance / Poison Jab
- Beat Up
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard / Sucker punch / Knock Off / High-jump kick / Filler
Okay, this obviously has a bit of a 4mss-problem, but bare with me please. I listed Intimidate because it actually does helps with setting up swords dance much easier oppose to technician, if you choose that route. Yes, beat up can still be used effectively with or without technician, or at least on hitmontop. With technician and STAB beat up reaches 202bp depending on your team, right? Now, factoring out technician, again, depending on your team, It reaches 135bp factoring only stab. That's still usable imho, and considering razor fang can be used alongside it with an above average attack stat still and an even better speed tier and usable bulk? This may cause issues too, as I was able to flinchhax the bot's SpritzeexMilotic hp down enough so icicle crash can ko it, and proceed to sweep, almost everytime depending on who sneasel faced beforehand. And before you say, "What if it doesn't flinch?" Well, let's just say, if you manage to keep sneasel at full hp......
0 SpA Spritzee Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Sneasel: 210-248 (74.7 - 88.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Sneasel Icicle Crash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Spritzee: 202-238 (39.6 - 46.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
This is all assuming if you get sds off beforehand and if you managed to keep sneasel at full hp. Not 100% reliable but noteworthy, no? Now, dark/Ice is easily solved by mach punch right? Well, if breloom is banned from being used, who do we look to for revenge killing other than running scarf? Offensively speaking, we'll only have like, uhhh.....well, i don't know atm. But I know we'll be more limited on viable mach punch abusers. Let alone, TECHNICIAN+Mach punch+Stab to go along with it.
Sneasel ===> Cinccino: Stats:75/140/75/60/95/155 Abilities:Cute Charm/Technician/Skill Link Type:Dark/Ice Weight: 29.7 kg (60 BP)
This is where I have my doubts. I won't go into too much detail about cinccino, It's not broken in particular, but it is the fastest beat up abuser you could possibly abuse. But at the cost of absolutely needing sds or CB to be threaten to anything.
So I think, Banning Sneasel might stop some of the bleeding. As I, IMHO, think the other beat up abusers are much more manageable. Except maybe murkrow.
Edit: +2 252 Atk Never-Melt Ice Sneasel Icicle Crash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Spritzee: 243-286 (47.6 - 56%) -- 81.6% chance to 2HKO
Edit 2: sorry, for some reason I thought breloomxSneasel was slower than Hitmontop :/