Announcement Free Bird - Torchic Suspect Test

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"'Cause I'm as free as a bird now, and this bird you cannot change"
:torchic: :torchic: :torchic:​

The LC Council has decided to suspect test Torchic.

On our most recent survey Torchic had an exceptional amount of people who wanted to see tiering action on it. Torchic has mainly been the cause for a lot of controversy lately because of how strong of a natural offensive type fire is in LC, with our options of fire resists being very limited. However, not even running some of the tiers best fire resists like Shellos means that you are out of danger. Due to the addition of Tera Blast in SV, Torchic is able to pick and choose its answers exceptionally well. Tera Blast Ground hits common fire resists like Chinchou and Glimmet while serving as a general good offensive type to click buttons with. Tera Blast Psychic hits Mienfoo and Mareanie, while Tera Blast Fairy hits Mienfoo, Vullaby, and any potential Tera Dragon users. Alongside the plentiful options Torchic has with Tera Blast, it isn’t hard to get on the field. With Foongus being on a very huge majority of teams, Mienfoo can commonly get in with U-Turn. The point being that SV has given Torchic the perfect toolkit for it to have the potential to blow past any of the mons that naturally would be giving it a hard time while not being hard to get in.

This being said, Torchic is not a flawless Pokémon and counterplay to it does exist. While fire resists options in this tier are limited, they do still exist. Chinchou and Glimmet can force Torchic to utilize Tera in order to damage them, while Shellos can tank two Tera Blasts with Tera after rocks. However, this does leave you vulnerable to Tera Grass Torchic. The aforementioned Tera Grass Torchic is vulnerable to being able to break past Tera Dragon, however that can require you to use your own Tera and Torchic could neutralize your counter play with Will-O-Wisp. Alternatively, you could bring a team that gives Torchic a hard time coming in. However, Torchic synergizes well with many common Pokémon in the tier like Mienfoo. Even the teams most prepared for Torchic can have a hard time dealing with it because as the game progresses and more stuff loses it’s resources, Torchic becomes even more dangerous. Torchic cannot beat everything, but the question is if the resources needed to reliable beat Torchic are reasonable.

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NOTE: THIS TEST WILL BE USING THE NEW SUSPECT PROCESS!

The instructions to participate in this test are as follows:
  • Create a new account on PS. You do not have to follow any specific naming convention, but your suspect account must have never played a game in LC before this suspect test went up or you will not receive valid requirements (resetting W/L does not count for this - the account you use must never have played LC before the test, full stop.)
  • At any point on your new account, use the command /linksmogon on Pokemon Showdown! You will receive instructions on what to do once you run this command.
  • Double check that you're listed as a voter here! If you aren't listed as a voter despite having valid reqs, please contact myself, ghost, tazz, or a staff member.
  • If you have any questions about this new process, feel free to PM me/tazz/ghost or post here!

NEW​
The requirement to vote in this suspect test is a COIL value of 2800

The period to get the suspect requirements will be Saturday,<t:1755363360:f> with voting for the suspect going up after. Have fun laddering!
 
In all seriousness:

:torchic:

I've played SV LC recently again for SV Pools and the key issue I've noticed about Torchic is Tera Blast in particular, and the sheer fact that people aren't able to predict the type it'll be (Psychic, Ground, or even Grass).

I do agree that Fire Blast hits a lot of the meta hard, but it does this at the cost of recoil damage and potential switch in to rocks, so I feel it's fully utilised as a late game cleaner. Overall, I agree with the test and it wouldn't surprise me if it gets banned, although I personally feel Tera Blast is the key issue (I understand Smogon doesn't do Complex Bans).

:shellder:
On a separate note, I wonder if the community also finds Shellder being a potential issue, with it being used a lot more frequently and the main checks being Tera Steel Foongus, Mareenie, and Tera Water Mudbray(?) as although it needs the opportunity to set up, it has enough bulk to do this and once boosted can demolish a lot of the meta itself.
 
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Scottie the Growlithe call-out kinda didn't mature too well, but I can do some stuff with that if needed.
 
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