Cutiefly has been quickbanned from SS LC.
This is an unprecedented situation because of the timing of the quickban. Quickbans normally take place immediately following major metagame changes, such as the release of Pokemon Home. Cutiefly has been available to use throughout the lifespan of SS LC but had received significant changes from Home; namely, it gained access to previously restricted moves such as Roost.
Upon the release of Home, Vulpix and Drifloon were quickbanned immediately. Following that, Vulpix-Alola was suspected and subsequently banned. Since then, the LC Council has determined that the next Pokemon to be looked at must be Cutiefly and Rufflet. However, there is a pressing need to handle these suspects quickly; our largest community tournament, LCPL, is set to begin within a few weeks, and there is not enough time to run two suspect tests.
It is the general opinion of the council that Cutiefly is broken, and that it has been overlooked since the Vulpix-Alola vote. After a lot of discussion, the council as a whole agreed that we would look into the possibility of quickbanning Cutiefly. Following our quickbanning procedure, council member Shrug made a post calling for thoughts on the potential quickban a week ago.
After consulting with tiering admins and receiving an overwhelmingly positive response from the open call to the community to share their thoughts on the matter, we have determined that our best option at this time is to move forward with the Cutiefly quickban. Thus, Cutiefly is now quickbanned.
It is important to note that these are exceptional circumstances, and the decision was made with virtually unanimous consent from council members and the general public alike. We do not expect to make similar decisions frequently, if at all.
Tagging The Immortal to make changes to ladder. Thank you, as always.
Here are the thoughts of each council member (to be edited in as I receive them):
This is an unprecedented situation because of the timing of the quickban. Quickbans normally take place immediately following major metagame changes, such as the release of Pokemon Home. Cutiefly has been available to use throughout the lifespan of SS LC but had received significant changes from Home; namely, it gained access to previously restricted moves such as Roost.
Upon the release of Home, Vulpix and Drifloon were quickbanned immediately. Following that, Vulpix-Alola was suspected and subsequently banned. Since then, the LC Council has determined that the next Pokemon to be looked at must be Cutiefly and Rufflet. However, there is a pressing need to handle these suspects quickly; our largest community tournament, LCPL, is set to begin within a few weeks, and there is not enough time to run two suspect tests.
It is the general opinion of the council that Cutiefly is broken, and that it has been overlooked since the Vulpix-Alola vote. After a lot of discussion, the council as a whole agreed that we would look into the possibility of quickbanning Cutiefly. Following our quickbanning procedure, council member Shrug made a post calling for thoughts on the potential quickban a week ago.
After consulting with tiering admins and receiving an overwhelmingly positive response from the open call to the community to share their thoughts on the matter, we have determined that our best option at this time is to move forward with the Cutiefly quickban. Thus, Cutiefly is now quickbanned.
It is important to note that these are exceptional circumstances, and the decision was made with virtually unanimous consent from council members and the general public alike. We do not expect to make similar decisions frequently, if at all.
Tagging The Immortal to make changes to ladder. Thank you, as always.
Here are the thoughts of each council member (to be edited in as I receive them):
While I still don’t believe any one of its sets are blatantly broken by themselves, all of cutiefly’s attributes put together creates a blatantly broken Pokemon. We already know fairy is a fantastic offensive typing, and having it out speed most of the meta while firing off moonblasts is already tough enough to handle. Add to that fact Quiver Dance and you make this fast af fairy mon unrevengable, more powerful, and bulkier. You can’t even fish for poisons by spamming sludge bomb, something that should theoretically be one of your best outs. Still, this is all just highlighting cuties offensive capabilities when it can be argued that it’s best and most dominant set is the support it provides with webs. It’s essentially a perfect setter. It beats the most premier defoggers in the tier, it’s fast enough to set them up with ease, has a typing that’s fairly easy to get in, uturn to provide momentum and obviously the offensive ability to apply pressure itself. Cutie does it’s jobs way too cleanly and easily to be conducive to a healthy metagame.
It's pretty easy to see how Cutiefly became a dominant and centralizing force in the LC metagame. Cutiefly has the ability to run a variety of sets including suicide webs, offensive quiver dance, bulky quiver dance, life orb, screens, scarf, or even a combination of the previously mentioned sets. Cutiefly's offensive presence makes it difficult to deal with defensively, as the list of pokemon that take +1 moonblasts or psychics is limited to Ferroseed, Ponyta, and some less viable pokemon like Honedge and Munchlax. Cutiefly is also difficult to deal with offensively, sitting at 19 speed and being able to manipulate speed either through quiver dance or sticky web, allowing it to outspeed everything relevant in the meta after 1 turn of being on the field, meaning revenging Cutiefly is near impossible. Lastly, Cutiefly has a variety of ways to support teammates, such as sticky web, reflect/light screen, stun spore, and trick. Cutiefly is at the point where it is able to fulfill so many roles that there's basically no reason not to run it and the usage of Cutiefly and Ferroseed, its most prominent answer, reflects that fact. Cutiefly's exerts too much of an impact on the LC meta in an unhealthy way, which is why I voted to ban Cutiefly.
Over the course of the generation, one of the main goals of the council was to keep the ban list light and expand on it as needed. Cutiefly, a mon that was previously banned in the past was given a chance to thrive in the metagame. And for a couple of months before Home came out, it was quite manageable in the tier. When Cutiefly received its old moves, it went from a one-dimensional fighting check with support options to a multi-tooled offensive and defensive threat. The options that it could utilize, including Quiver Dancing, Screen setting, Sticky Web setting, and fast pivoting made it far too versatile of an option for any team to pass on.
Cutiefly is undoubtedly the most overcentralizing mon in the metagame due to its enormous degree of versatility. Its most prominent sets are its supportive ones, most importantly Webs but also possibly Screens and Sunny Day, all of which it is able to set with massively more ease than its competition due to its typing, speed tier, and the offensive presence to pressure Defog users. Cutiefly is also one of the tier's strongest sweepers if it chooses to run Quiver Dance, whether with a traditional offensive 2 attack set or with a bulky Quiver Dance + Roost set. Each variant of Cutiefly has to be answered to relatively differently; Ferroseed and Munchlax can check Cutiefly but don't deter its supportive options. Cutiefly is far more threatening than comparably splashable mons and more splashable than comparably threatening mons, pushing it above the rest of the metagame enough to warrant a ban.
I think its pretty clear that Cutiefly is broken. The most overwhelming aspect of Cutiefly I see is the reliability it has setting up webs throughout games, result of its amazing speed + typing that allows it to beat the most common hazard removers in the tier (vulla and timb), which warps the meta real badly. This is aggravated by the various QD sets it can run, making Ferroseed or Ponyta (which can be trapped) almost mandatory if you want to have a consistent check to it. Overall, the unpredictability of Cutiefly and the insane support it provides with Webs or the less explored Screens set pushes it over the edge in the LC metagame.
Cutiefly has been a top-tier threat since the beginning of SS LC, and the addition of Roost to its movepool has only strengthened its hold over the metagame. It is one of the fastest Pokemon available, only outrun by Diglett. Its typing is outstanding, resisting two of the most common priority moves (Sucker Punch, Mach Punch) and offering plenty of opportunities to switch in.
Combined with its speed and typing, the diversity in its movepool makes it incredibly flexible; it can serve as a Sticky Web pivot with U-turn, as a bulky Quiver Dance user with Eviolite and Roost, as a Life Orb wallbreaker with Psychic and Bug Buzz, as a screen setter with Light Clay and Reflect/Light Screen, and even as a serviceable Defogger with Heavy Duty Boots and U-turn. Cutiefly is dominant to the point that it has become a necessity on any competitive team; there is a Cutiefly set for every given team archetype, and they all must be handled differently.
Cutiefly is head and shoulders above the next best Pokemon available in LC, and its versatility pushes it over the edge.
Combined with its speed and typing, the diversity in its movepool makes it incredibly flexible; it can serve as a Sticky Web pivot with U-turn, as a bulky Quiver Dance user with Eviolite and Roost, as a Life Orb wallbreaker with Psychic and Bug Buzz, as a screen setter with Light Clay and Reflect/Light Screen, and even as a serviceable Defogger with Heavy Duty Boots and U-turn. Cutiefly is dominant to the point that it has become a necessity on any competitive team; there is a Cutiefly set for every given team archetype, and they all must be handled differently.
Cutiefly is head and shoulders above the next best Pokemon available in LC, and its versatility pushes it over the edge.
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The main problem with Cutiefly is its access to Sticky Web. With a great speed tier, it's able to set webs very reliably, and its offensive presence is strong enough to pressure the two best hazard removers, making webs difficult to remove. Combine this with Cutiefly's versatility, which stems from its brilliant movepool that not only gives the pivot set a range of effective filler moves to choose from but also allows Cutiefly to run different sets entirely, like QD Roost or screens, and it becomes indisputably too much for the metagame.
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Cutiefly has a myriad of dangerous sets it can run, from Quiver Dance sweeper, LO offense, dual screens setter, and full-on support with some combination of Sticky Webs, Switcheroo, and Stun Spore. These sets are very flexible; for example, Quiver Dance sets can run substitute to get around Stealth Rocks and Thunder-Wave Ferroseed, or Charm to get around Stealth Rocks and Iron Head Ferroseed. As such, Cutiefly is very difficult to play around, since sets are hard to scout and they all require different ways of getting around them. Furthermore, whereas Cutiefly pre-home could at least be worn down throughout the course of a match, with the addition of Roost to its movepool it now has incredible staying power and can ensure webs being up throughout the entire match. Because of Cutiefly’s sheer versatility and staggering support options, I believe Cutiefly deserves to be banned from the LC metagame.
Cutiefly is without doubt the best mon in the meta, and is overcentralising to an unhealthy degree. Due to it's strong typing, which notably gives it resistance to the two most common priority moves (Timburr's Mach Punch and Pawniard's Sucker Punch), excellent speed tier (only slower than Diglett which it can offset with Webs) and extreme versatility in number of sets it can run, there is little reason not to run Cutiefly on any given team. It of course has access to Sticky Webs, turning an unhealthy number of games into a webs mirror, and this in conjunction with the fact it can run so many viable sets makes it a problem for the meta. It can run a bulky evio roost pivot set, an offensive LO set with Psychic and Bug Buzz, Light Clay screens, and then all of the aforementioned can also be run with Quiver Dance. For these reasons, I think Cutiefly is clearly deserving of a quickban.
Cutiefly is unequivocally broken. With its good typing, movepool, speed, and most importantly its access to Sticky Web, Cutiefly finds itself a staple on almost every lc team. QDfly is already well known an extremely threatening corebreaker as it can boost past even supposed checks like Mareanie. But what really puts it far over the edge for me is the ridiculous amount of support that Cutiefly provides with its undeniable Sticky Web. Cutiefly is able to reliably set up and keep up Sticky Web throughout the game while simultaneously possessing very few actual checks. Most games devolve into Sticky Web vs Sticky Web matchups with very few sources of recourse. Very few checks, its versatility and access to Quiver Dance, and its meta defining use of Sticky Web make this a very easy ban vote, and something that deserves a quick ban.
on the merits, cutiefly is extremely broken. the fast special attacking pivot set puts extreme pressure on opposing teams, its 19 speed giving it ample opportunity to fire off moonblasts or uturn to gain momentum while wearing down its few checks. this set can also set webs, nullifying one of its own most important checks (diglett) while removing the possibility of speedchecking medium-speed heavy hitters on the cutie user's team. the most common hazard removers (timburr and vullaby) cannot come in and eat a moonblast, making clearing a multi-stage and (in part because of the pressure exerted by the webs and cutiefly itself) often prohibitively difficult or costly process; bulky dedicated webs sets make removal nigh impossible while retaining much of cutiefly's attacking value. thus far ive neglected the the most immediately apparent example of cutiefly's unplayablity, the qd roost moonblast fourthmove set. it sets up with relative ease on a large portion of the metagame, including on necessary softchecks (mareiene) to the attacking pivots. the forth move either broadens the slate of mons cutie can set up on (substitute, charm) or reduces its need to do so in the first place (bug buzz, psychic). other sets (lo in particular) are usually worse but can be the most problematic for any given team, esp given the often taped-together nature of most cutiefly response plans.
if you dont believe me, look at the last few weeks of spl, or think seriously about your own building and playing. nearly every game had a cutiefly of some sort, determining the set of which occupied a good portion of early game resources in many matches. perhaps more importantly, each team had to pick from the dedicated set of cutiefly checks, a slim set among whom there are few seriously viable mons and fewer easily exploitable by combinations involving cutiefly itself. honedge resists its STABS and coverage, but it doesnt hit hard enough to be viable; munchlax eats moonblasts and shrugs off even boosted psychics, but is a target for knock offs; ponyta can stop a setup, but catch a uturn and it gets picked off for free. basically the two best checks to this are ferro and pawn, with an honorable mention for ponyta and mudbray. this is why every serious spl team in the later weeks included these mons in some combination. that these combinations were an explicit anti-cutie measure is something you'll have to believe, i guess, but i think everyone can see it: cutie is the most dangerous mon in many ladder games, tests etc. confide, recently returned to the lc room, told me after a friendly that he was rusty because he "couldnt build a team without cutiefly"; i responded that his read on the meta was exactly right.
if you dont believe me, look at the last few weeks of spl, or think seriously about your own building and playing. nearly every game had a cutiefly of some sort, determining the set of which occupied a good portion of early game resources in many matches. perhaps more importantly, each team had to pick from the dedicated set of cutiefly checks, a slim set among whom there are few seriously viable mons and fewer easily exploitable by combinations involving cutiefly itself. honedge resists its STABS and coverage, but it doesnt hit hard enough to be viable; munchlax eats moonblasts and shrugs off even boosted psychics, but is a target for knock offs; ponyta can stop a setup, but catch a uturn and it gets picked off for free. basically the two best checks to this are ferro and pawn, with an honorable mention for ponyta and mudbray. this is why every serious spl team in the later weeks included these mons in some combination. that these combinations were an explicit anti-cutie measure is something you'll have to believe, i guess, but i think everyone can see it: cutie is the most dangerous mon in many ladder games, tests etc. confide, recently returned to the lc room, told me after a friendly that he was rusty because he "couldnt build a team without cutiefly"; i responded that his read on the meta was exactly right.
Cutiefly is one of the most versatile and commonly used mons in LC. The QD Roost set has seen a recent surge and essentially mandates Iron Head Ferroseed or physical Mareanie to truly be safe against it. This in addition to the ridiculous support Cutiefly provides with its access to Sticky Web (while also beating the most common removal in the tier) make it an overwhelming threat. There are very few checks Cutiefly cannot get around and it warps the meta completely around it. Access to Webs, Screens, QD and now Roost has pushed Cutiefly over the edge in my opinion. The staying power in addition to its unpredictable nature, sweeping potential, and incredible support make Cutiefly easily the most broken mon in LC and worthy of a quick ban.
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