Drought / Auto-Sun has been significantly controversial within the SV NU metagame for the majority of the time it has been playable. In 2023 both the NU Council and NU community alike agreed that the playstyle was far too strong for the tier, and as a result we banned Drought via a council slate. However, we were quickly made to revert this ban in favour of banning Vulpix, as it was the only Drought user available to us at that point in time. Fast forward to 2024 and we now have access to Ninetales, a far superior Drought setter that has quickly cemented Sun as one of the deadliest playstyles in the tier once more. Sun has a myriad of potential abusers to pick from, notably including; Venusaur, Scovillain, Brute Bonnet, Charizard, Chandelure, Typhlosion-Hisui, Shiftry, and Leafeon. Our most recent NU Survey shows that an overwhelming majority of NU players participating in NUPL believe that Sun is too consistently effective and lacking enough counterplay to the point of being overpowered.
At first, members of the community speculated that Venusaur alone might be what pushes sun over the edge, however we have seen a variety of games throughought the past month or two showcasing Sun sweeps with Pokemon such as Scovillain and Lilligant which would otherwise have little to no viability in the tier without Drought. It is also often brought up that something like Victreebel, which is in all accounts an inferior Venusaur, would be able to replace it's role on Sun teams quite easily while maintaining a similarly devestating level of power to break through the tier. Heat Rock was also discussed as a possible option, however we would rather avoid an item ban if possible, and while Drought is broken on everything that gets it in NU, Heat Rock is not broken on every Sun setter in NU, thus we feel that Drought is a much more logical choice to take action on. Furthermore, while Ninetales obviously outclasses Vulpix in every way, they functionally remain the same in their role as Drought setters. Although Ninetales can exert offensive pressure on it's own, it usually only comes out onto the field a couple of times per match to set up Sun, before switching out or clicking Healing Wish to bring a sweeper back onto the field. Vulpix has also already proven to be more than viable enough to enable Sun as a broken playstyle just a few months prior, and has only stopped being used because of Ninetales falling to NU in a recent tier shift.
With all that said, the NU Council believes that once again, the simplest and most effective course of action to address this issue is banning Drought from SV NU. Now that we have more than one Drought setter in the tier, a Drought ban would fall in line with prior tiering policy and be the safest way to ensure that the tier is able to quickly move onto other pressing matters. Therefore the NU Council intends on voting on Drought this weekend to coincide with Round 2 of NU Open and Week 3 of NUPL.
At first, members of the community speculated that Venusaur alone might be what pushes sun over the edge, however we have seen a variety of games throughought the past month or two showcasing Sun sweeps with Pokemon such as Scovillain and Lilligant which would otherwise have little to no viability in the tier without Drought. It is also often brought up that something like Victreebel, which is in all accounts an inferior Venusaur, would be able to replace it's role on Sun teams quite easily while maintaining a similarly devestating level of power to break through the tier. Heat Rock was also discussed as a possible option, however we would rather avoid an item ban if possible, and while Drought is broken on everything that gets it in NU, Heat Rock is not broken on every Sun setter in NU, thus we feel that Drought is a much more logical choice to take action on. Furthermore, while Ninetales obviously outclasses Vulpix in every way, they functionally remain the same in their role as Drought setters. Although Ninetales can exert offensive pressure on it's own, it usually only comes out onto the field a couple of times per match to set up Sun, before switching out or clicking Healing Wish to bring a sweeper back onto the field. Vulpix has also already proven to be more than viable enough to enable Sun as a broken playstyle just a few months prior, and has only stopped being used because of Ninetales falling to NU in a recent tier shift.
With all that said, the NU Council believes that once again, the simplest and most effective course of action to address this issue is banning Drought from SV NU. Now that we have more than one Drought setter in the tier, a Drought ban would fall in line with prior tiering policy and be the safest way to ensure that the tier is able to quickly move onto other pressing matters. Therefore the NU Council intends on voting on Drought this weekend to coincide with Round 2 of NU Open and Week 3 of NUPL.
