Survey Results
Bit late on getting this out because I'm a lazy asshole but better than never, right? Anyways we got 18 responses which isn't bad, so I'll go ahead and dive into them.
With an average score of 7.22 out of 10, it seems that the metagame is generally being enjoyed, which is a good sign.
For some reason smogon didn't want me to upload the chart for how balanced the metagame was but it ended up with an average score of 6.5 out of 10, while a smidge low, shows that the metagame is generally seen as balanced with maybe a few broken elements. Now for the potentially broken threats:
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[ATTACH type="full" width="600px" alt="Forms response chart. Question title: Roaring Moon: On a scale of 1 to 5, one being completely unnecessary and five being completely necessary, how important do you find it to take tiering action against this Pokémon?
. Number of responses: 18 responses."]649558[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH type="full" width="600px" alt="Forms response chart. Question title: Regenerator: On a scale of 1 to 5, one being completely unnecessary and five being completely necessary, how important do you find it to take tiering action against this ability?
. Number of responses: 18 responses."]649564[/ATTACH]
Regenerator and Gholdengo garnered the highest average scores, with both coincidentally sitting at an average rating of 2.77, while everything else had an average rating around and under 2.5.
When it comes to the query as to other potential tiering actions the only thing that was brought up multiple times which was the idea of ability clause, which leads me perfectly into the next thing I need to talk about.
The council is not considering any form of ability clause. We believe that ability clause would only serve to make the metagame more homogenous and bland. First of all, as has been pointed out very long ago by KaenSoul, you first must make a case as to why ability clause should be implemented instead of banning regenerator, which is very unlikely to happen. 2AC is also horribly arbitrary and frankly doesn't matter in 90% of cases as you rarely use more than 2 Regens per team. Additionally people have given so many conflicting reasons for implementing ability clause: it makes things boring, it makes stall broken, it makes stall unviable, etc. This seems like there isn't actually a problem with the current situation because there is no unified view on what would justify ability clause, which aligns with my personal experience.
It is NOT our job to make every playstyle viable. A playstyle can suck in a balanced metagame and that is okay. We are not going to take action just because stall is struggling.
edit: I’m gonna cry
Survey results still aren't showing btw
Glory
I think that's a fair point and I agree that it's up to me make the argument for changing the status quo. I'm glad you and the council responded so quickly, thanks for that! Clear & constructive communication from the council is always good to see.
If I were to make the argument for ability clause over regenerator than it would be that regenerator itself is healthy. If regenerator is banned then we will be worse off for it, but limiting the number of users per team opens up for more diversity. How can the metagame be
less homogenous and bland when most teams carry atleast two regenerator users? How many teams are some variation of: regen core, corviknight, physical wallbreaker, special wallbreaker and speed controll? And again, ability clause has been implemented in other OMs for similar reasons, as far as I know, so there's certainly precendence.
Regenerator by itself is healthy for the metagame and gives pokemon without recovery a chance of being viable. Regenerator also great at countering the increased offensive presence that tinted lens, tough claws and adaptability etc when teambuilding. If I understand you correctly then it is the councils intentions to conduct policy with the goal of
avoid a homogenous and bland metagame. If that's the case then I believe you should consider implementing a 1AC on the basis that it would make for a more diverse metagame, not the other way around.
I think anyone asking for Ability Clause has to give a reason to do that instead of banning Regen, because I havent seen anyone complaining about any other ability being used multiple times, we shouldn't nerf every single ability in the game only because one is annoying, I don't think action is "needed" on regen, but with how often you see complains about it, then banning it may be the best option.
And this should also apply to other tiers with AC, but whatever.
I assume this is the post by
KaenSoul you're referencing, as it's on topic and in this thread. I agree with Kaen that the only relevant ability targeted by ability clause is, currently, regenerator. It's not often that I see people running multiple pokemon with adaptability, tough claws or tinted lens - although there are multiple viable fusions for all three. A possible reason for this is that if you're running multiple wallbreakers then you will probably want to limit the overlap of counters that they share between them. If you're running two physical wallbreakers with tough claws then you'll struggle when faced with a fusion with fluffy, so mixing them up by running adapt/tinted/sheer force/guts etc. They're still fufilling the same role on your team as a wallbreaker, but it's disadvantageous to use the same abilities.
There's also the fact that your options for fusings with strong abilities are far more limited than with regenerator. There's two tough claw users, three tinted lens users (with decent stats) and a couple of adaptability users. If we're talking BST then there's no tough claw users with a BST above 500, three adaptability users with BST > 500 and only two tinted lens users above 500 BST. In comparison you have a wide array of options for both offensive and defensive regenerator fusions. Offensively you can use
or
fused with either
or
. Defensively you can choose between
,
,
and
. These defensive fusions aren't slouches either, each of them have atleast one offensive stat > 100. It's very easy to find competitively viable fusions for each and every one of them.
I would also add that with regenerator receiving the most votes in the survey (tied with Gholdengo, but I don't have an opinion on him), I think it's worth considering tiering action. However again, and I want to stress this, I don't think regenerator should be banned. I think it makes for far more interesting teambuilding when regenerator is available. The problem arises when you can slap regenerator on almost anything and find great success.
Anyways, to talk about something else I managed to peak the ladder yesterday using a Suicune set to great success!
archaludon (Suicune) @ Leftovers
Ability: Stamina
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD / 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Bold / Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rest/Substitute
- Sleep Talk/Protect/Ice beam
- Calm Mind
- Scald
I'm sure most of you are familiar with crocune and how annoying it can be to take down. I first ran a deoxys-defence set with pressure to PP stall, but Archaludon fusing has worked wonders for me as well. Substitute + Protect is usually enough to keep it healthy throughout the game, while also countering status and scouting for trick/knock off/status/choice locked moves. With Sub + Protect I ran max speed, as it already has a lot of bulk and being fast is more helpful with substitute. With 252 HP EVs it can setup substitutes infront of Blissey/Chansey with Stoss. I recently switched to a rest-talk set, but whether its better than sub + protect remains to be seen.
Here's a replay of it beating a mono-grass sun team.
, assault vest 
, but there's plenty of options in 
etc. I don't think the specific offenders are all that important. If you ban one of them then I'm sure others will rise to take their place soon enough.
, defensive playstyles become nearly unviable. Regenerator cores make playing against stall a trivial excercise. You can stay healthy while slowly chipping away HP and recovery PP. Eventually you will get lucky with rng or you've weakened your opponent enough for your wallbreakers to finish them off. 
, 
,