Project GS Cup Preliminary Thread

[Arcticblast]

~ ~ ~

We'll get a nice and proper metagame thread up and running soon, but first we have some housekeeping to do.​

GS Cup is the colloquial name for a format where players are allowed to run two "restricted" Pokemon - meaning Pokemon that would otherwise be banned from the format. A lot of people enjoyed the recent Friendly Series tournament for the format, so we'd like to make it a permanent feature in the community. However, before we do that, there are a few things that need to be addressed:

• The official legality rules for the format
• Format oversight
• The format's official name

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The most important part is the first one: what should our official legality and restricted list look like? For the Friendly Series tournament, I wanted primarily to make a list that wouldn't be bad, so I offered a few ban options and restricted every other Pokemon currently tiered as DUber. I think it made for a great tournament, but I think long term it can use some improvement. We have the option of unrestricting some Pokemon and maintaining some bans. Here are the options I believe we can look into:

Restricted list options:

• Restrict all Pokemon currently tiered as DUber with no changes. This is the absolute simplest ruleset, which I believe has its merit; if it's not legal in DOU, you only get two.
• Restrict all DUber Pokemon that were not suspect tested or quickbanned. Under this option, the following Pokemon would be unrestricted: Annihilape, Basculegion, Deoxys-Attack, Flutter Mane, Kyurem-Black, Tatsugiri, Terapagos, and both formes of Urshifu.
• Restrict Kyurem-Black and Terapagos and unrestrict the rest, or make some other list. Any list will take a bit longer to figure out, but I think this will be the most popular overall.

Ban list options:

• Ban nothing. Self-explanatory.
• Ban all DUber mythical Pokemon. This would be the banlist for the Friendly Series tournament: Arceus, Darkrai, Deoxys-Attack, and Magearna. (Technically Dark Void was banned over Darkrai.)
• Ban Arceus and/or Magearna. I don't think anyone will complain about Deoxys-A and Darkrai in the format (heck, even Dark Void might be fine in a format with Miraidon), but these two Pokemon are a bit of a risk.

Personally, my top two preferences are restrict all DUbers and ban nothing or use the following list:
Banned: Arceus (and all formes)
Restricted: Calyrex-Ice, Calyrex-Shadow, Darkrai, Dialga, Dialga-O, Eternatus, Giratina, Giratina-O, Groudon, Ho-oh, Koraidon, Kyogre, Kyurem-Black, Kyurem-White, Lugia, Magearna, Mewtwo, Miraidon, Necrozma-Dawn, Necrozma-Dusk, Palkia, Palkia-O, Rayquaza, Reshiram, Solgaleo, Terapagos, Zacian, Zacian-C, Zamazenta, Zamazenta-C, Zekrom
Unrestricted: Annihilape, Basculegion, Deoxys-A, Flutter Mane, Tatsugiri, Urshifu-Rapid, Urshifu-Single

opinions

I'm worried that Arceus, even as a restricted Pokemon, will simply be too strong for the format. Swords Dance Arceus-Normal ("Ekiller") is already one of the biggest threats in DUbers, where no Pokemon are restricted, and in an environment where teams are slightly weaker, I believe it will force players into itself, Caly-S, or Zama-C far too often, and it can even get around the latter with Tera Ghost. While I'm less concerned about other Arceus formes being too powerful, I'm worried that they will push out some lesser restricted Pokemon like Dialga-O, Lunala, or Palkia.

Kyurem-B is just a slightly cleaner restriction than unrestriction; I think it'd be odd to have Kyurem-White restricted and not Kyurem-Black.

Magearna I believe can be allowed as a restricted Pokemon. While it is still incredibly powerful in DUbers, it still requires a reasonable amount of build-around, and when it costs a restricted slot it presents a higher opportunity cost than several other restricted Pokemon. I also think it competes for the role of "high-reward setup sweeper" with Terapagos. I am somewhat concerned about Level 1 Smeargle teams, which see play on the DUbers ladder and already include multiple unrestricted Pokemon like Indeedee and Ursaluna.

Speaking of Terapagos, we've seen it succeed in VGC and in the Friendly Series. We know how good the turtle is. Restrict it.

I do not think Annihilape, Flutter Mane, Deoxys-A, Tatsugiri, or Urshifu meet the power level bar set by the other restricted Pokemon. While these Pokemon (or their fishy friends) are undeniably powerful, I think they just aren't as good as even some of the lower tier restricteds. Flutter and Urshifu in particular can be useful in keeping Pokemon like Caly-S, Eternatus, Koraidon, and Zamazenta in check. As another note, I believe that Tatsugiri and Urshifu should share a legality status (restricted or unrestricted); if we restrict Urshifu but unrestrict Tatsugiri, Dondozo strategies might actually be overbearing.

I'm not currently sure on Basculegion, but I'm leaning towards restricting it. Basculegion hasn't seen a ton of success in DUbers, and while the power level of GS Cup is certainly lower, it's easier to fit some of the "traditional" checks to it on teams now, such as Incineroar, Rillaboom, and Raging Bolt. Scarf Basc also just doesn't outrun Zacian-C or Caly-S, meaning it's less likely to run the more expected set and may be forced to run less consistent sets or require specific partners like Kyogre. However, it's still incredibly powerful.

There are currently no unrestricted Pokemon that I believe should be banned or restricted. Go ahead and use your base Kyurem, base Necrozma, Hoopa-Unbound, and Pecharunt.

There are two final things to discuss: Shadow Tag and Dark Void. I personally am leaning towards simply allowing both and restricting Darkrai; this is a powerful format where players can do powerful things, and multiple restricted Pokemon exist that can answer both of these things. Please leave your input below.

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I think that this format should be mostly untouched once we decide on our banned & restricted list, but I don't want to completely reject the idea of tiering or otherwise addressing issues in the format. This thread seeks to establish a proper starting point, but if we get it wrong, we should be able to fix any mistakes. I'd also like to ensure we can get format resources built, including sample teams and viability rankings. Therefore, I'd like to establish a council, for lack of a better word. This isn't really a point of discussion so much as a call for help; if you're interested, let me or another forum mod know and we'll put together a dedicated group.

---

The last thing I'd like to quickly address is the format name. "GS Cup" is a pretty classic name, but it's confused a couple people who thought we were playing gen 2 DOU (which we've done, but that's neither here nor there). I'd like to officially propose renaming the format to Restricted Doubles Ubers. "RDUbers" is a pretty crummy abbreviation though, so please (PLEASE) leave some suggestions below.

Please use this thread to discuss the above topics, primarily the banned & restricted list. After enough discussion has been held, we'll evaluate the posts in this thread and proceed as necessary.

 

[LuBiStar20]

I would have to agree about most things you said. In my opinion, I would like to see the following Pokemon (That are in DUbers) unrestricted:
Urshifu (both forms), Tatsugiri, Annihilape, & Flutter Mane. The only other option, Kyurem-Black, just seems like it would be to centralizing and be on almost every team. I currently have no strong thoughts about Basculegion. The only Pokemon I think should stay banned is Deoxys-A. I just personally find it extremely uncompetitive. I agree on your point of Magearna & Dakrai being allowed into the format, and taking up a restricted slot. They aren't so strong that they will overtake the meta, and if we need to, we can ban them!

Arceus might be fine if we just ban Specifically normal Arceus. I know that might be too complicated or fall under a weird Smogon ruling, but I would be down for that. I don't think the other Arceus forms would cause that much of a Problem, as I think Miraidon, Calyrex-Shadow, and Zamazenta are better than most of them. If we allow Arceus, it allows for some very creative building as well. I would love to see how people impliment specific Arceus into their team. Another option is to just allow Normal Arceus, but force it to take up two restricted slots.

As for the name, I agree that Restricted Doubles Ubers is fitting. We might even be able to push a ladder for the format (Like in OM of the month, probably our best shot for being such a new format.) For a fitting image to have in the thread (Like this one), I think we could have two common restricted Pokemon (Like Kyogre and Zacian-Crowned, chosen because it is the most popular pair with the highest winrate), and then four other common support mons, Like Incineroar, Rillaboom, Raging Bolt, and Archaludon. Alternatively, we can simply choose a team that won in the finals or semifinals of the tournament. This isn't really important, but I feel like it should be mentioned at least once if we want to make this a real, awesome format (Which I KNOW it's going to be!)

Thank you Arcticblast you are the best

 

[big pichu]

I'm a little conflicted on the first one. On the other hand, tying our list to the DOU list seems like it could be convenient, but might restrict our options. On the other hand, dropping restricteds seems like it could make future processes easier as we wouldn't need to worry about unban processes as much. However, I think with the options we have, there's relatively few Pokemon that are in contention, and we've played a tournament in the current format, so I don't think we need to worry too much about that. That being said, the easiest way to handle this is probably by hashing it out and making an initial list, since that'll give us a better view of where people stand on the metagame right now for any future action, and discussing it now will make any future discussions faster, even if it takes longer now.

However, I don't think we can drop every Pokemon. (I'll be bolding mons that I think should remain banned and italicizing mons that I think we can drop.)
The most obvious case is Terapagos. Terapagos is already a good restricted mon, we absolutely cannot drop this lol.
Flutter Mane is definitely a Pokemon that I'd want to see unrestricted, I think it would genuinely be convenient to have a big Fairy type in the unrestricted slot, and it's something we can look at later if we need to.
Urshifu is definitely something we could look to drop as well, I think it's mostly fine. I think we only let this drop if flutter mane drops.
Keep Deoxys-A restricted, Deo-A feels like it fits a big attacker mode similar to other restricteds, and it's it seems fairly uncompetitive as an unrestricted. The numbers on this guy are definitely up there with the other restricteds, and it has enough options that it feels like it'd be forcing in the same way other restricted mons are, and it doesn't really feel like it would fit in with the unrestricteds, especially since in game we're already dealing with some of the restricted mons.
Tatsugiri is something I think I'd want to look at. I can see tentatively dropping it, but I'm not entirely sure. It's still got some of the same issues as the rest of the restricteds, and it's something I can see in both places. Admittedly, I'm leaning towards keeping it restricted, but a significant part of that is that the format is very fun as it is right now, and Tatsugiri feels like it could have a somewhat outsized impact on the tier.
Annihilape probably can't build up Rage Fist as much in this format, and it's on the slower side. Drop it.
Basculegion is one that I'm not sure on. I'm a little wary of it since Kyogre makes setting rain easier, and rain is already very good at supporting Zamazenta and Zacian. I can see it being a little too swingy in this format, but I don't have a strong opinion.

As for the next part, I think that I want to keep Arceus and Magearna banned. They're incredibly strong Pokemon and I think it's OK to have them banned for right now. Arceus seems strong enough to consistently eat one of the slots, and Magearna just seems like it's a little too good into some of the other restricteds and possibly maybe too much to handle, for the reasons Arctic said above. I think overall, I think I'd rather deal with dropping restricteds right now rather than deal with the big boys.

Next, legalize Shadow Tag fuck it. It'll be fine. Dark Void can fuck off but I'm OK with Darkrai in Restricted as an alternative.
But really truly and honestly Dark Void can fuck off.

As for the name, I like Restricted DUbers as a name a lot, it's short and gets to what it is pretty fast. We can call it RDU if we want. Here's a list of names:
DOU+2
Twobers
DUbers Limited
DOU Xtreme Edition
Ultimate DOU

That being said I can't think of a name that really gets the soul of this format, and I'm sure someone else can come up with something that works better idk

EDIT: I changed my views, lock this tier to DOU, either as it is now or as it always is. We can deal with stuff later if we need to. Made a separate post with more info.

 

[Schister]

It's late so I'll be brief with my thoughts. I am all for curating a banlist of pokemon, seeing as this format is based more on DOU rules than any other format, so quickbanning/unbanning mons should be where we start the slate at the beginning of the metagame just like with current-gen DOU formats. I'll be using VGC and experience from playing and especially watching the tournament to justify my points here, especially with a certain pokemon I feel very strongly about.

Unban. There is no harm in letting this guy play setup in this format and has some great and unique utility in scarf sets that see decent success in Regulation G where final gambit is massively successful at providing a good blanket option at eliminating restricteds, great for teambuilding options.
Unban. This pokemon not only has to cope with rillaboom and incineroar being even more centralizing than ever but also Miraidon terrain now while competing with Shadow rider as an expanding force user without offering too much on its own over the horse. The metagame in the tournament was very positional and bulk-oriented with games often lasting upwards of 20 turns and I don't think Deoxys has the longevity to dismantle teams so quickly in a format like that.
Allow as Restricted. As long as quickbans are on the table I do not mind testing this one out. I think the format has a lot of tools in play that allow teams to flexibly deal with threats, and Shadow-rider counterplay in principle should largely overlap with magearna counterplay here. Mage also just offers a few unique options no other restricted can that i would like to explore before writing it off entirely.
+ Keep Restricted. I have seen these two idiots win games while classified as a restricted pokemon and I do not thing they offer enough benefits in the builder to justify freeing them compared to the potential cost.
Unban. If Reg G is any decent indicator flutter should be perfectly fine in this format and will find a healthy place in the metagame on teams wanting a fairy attacker. Probably the pokemon I am most adamant on freeing.
Unban. Playing natdex has tempered my feelings towards this pokemon, an abundance of bolt rilla and incin as well as shadow rider simply outspeeding the scarf set and basc's general gameplan of sacrificing teammates to power up LR being counter-intuitive to how I feel the format is played most effectively, this guy should be fine and a welcome addition on some teams looking for a water type.
Lol no.
I'm not convinced it would be worth running even as an unrestricted mon but my vote is to keep it restricted anyways
Shadow tag: Free shadow tag.
No Opinion

Under no circumstance do I ever want to see this pokemon hit this metagame. Single-strike could possibly be freed and be fine but I truly believe that freeing rapid-strike urshifu would irreparably damage the metagame and over-centralize the builder to an absurd degree. VGC Reg G has shown the core of urshifu, rillaboom/amoongus and incineroar to be absolutely suffocating in terms of centralization, with the water bear in recent weeks reaching 50% use rate on in game ladder and similarly high usage in tours as the season has progressed. It provides a perfect juxtaposition to the other two slots in this type core with the offensive pressure it provides and calls into serious question why one would bother running literally anything else. One of the greatest strengths of this format thusfar I have felt is that it has pushed players to fill out teams with unique and varied structures that aim to solve specific issues for their restricted pokemon and having this core fully uninhibited will reduce incentive for anyone to continue building said team structures. Urshifu is so absurd in reg G that it often overtakes Incineroar in usage in tours and on ladder with a kit that is far more deconstructive than anything else to the rest of the metagame.

Stats like these are a clear warning to me that this pokemon is simply too powerful as an unrestricted which, combined with its quite frankly obnoxious gameplay that drives formats to become more offensively inclined to deal with it tells me that it SHOULD NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE be allowed into this format. The centralization, overall power creep, and hyper-offensive inclined gameplay will take a format that most people responded to quite positively and warp it into something that I'm sure many will enjoy far less. Please do not free this pokemon and consider what it's greater impact on teambuilding will be given the precedent it has set in other similar formats.

 

[Genesis77]

Under no circumstance do I ever want to see this pokemon hit this metagame.

counterpoint -> free the bears; It'd be funny

In all seriousness I personally believe that almost nothing should change as far as what are restricted and what are banned

edit: wtf i clicked on post reply accidentally and it posted even though i didnt let go of m1 this is so sad
anyway I actually have two exceptions I'd like to talk about.


Shadow tag: banned -> unbanned

I'm one of a few people who think that shadow tag is actually quite interactive and makes for exciting end/midgames depending on how you choose to use it. It's very interactive in how you have to pick what you trap and how you take advantage, and how your opponent has to choose what is on the field, available to be trapped, and what's is pivoting in and out to maybe catch a gothitelle switch in. And this is in a restricted format that can allow for shenanigans while still being balanced because the higher power level punishes you for bringing gothitelle more if you fail to make proper use of the unique board state it creates.


Annihilape: restricted -> unbanned

Annihilape's broken screens set up set isn't broken in a restricted format, and it's bulk, typing, and access to a high powered final gambit means that bulk up and scarf sets alike will have many interactions with restricteds that will be really cool. For instance:
- If you choose to pair it with caly-s you gain a pokemon that breaks key mons and punishes incin and snarl, however you add a second ghost type that makes you weaker to faster paced teams
- a coaching caly-i team can potentially out-trade a bulk up set, but will take huge damage to a SFG set - However counterplay for the SFG set such as saccing another mon to gambit or protecting to get chip with your second mon can be capitalised on by a bulk up set
Both of these are not worthwhile if annihilape is a restricted mon, which removes what i believe could be a positive influence on the metagame

free stag in SV!

 

[Smudge]

I'll be brief here: leave the format as-is, many people enjoyed the format a ton and it's not wise to mess with that. Unrestricting many of these spikes the power level of the format really significantly, and the slower pace of this tier was what I found most enjoyable - it also seemed like a common sentiment among others as well.

Not having mythicals gives this tier a different identity in comparison to DOU/DUbers, and maintaining the "DOU legal or not" line is a good way to avoid unecessary conflict/subjectivity over the banlist. To be clear, I also think Shadow Tag should stay banned, it's uncompetitive.

 

[Charlotte]

I don't think you should judge urshifu in a two-uber metagame by it's prevalence in regG, a single uber format.
In swsh official doubles, urshifu had very high usage during the single restricted formats and then completely fell off the face of the earth when double restricted formats started. There's similarly observable affects across the dex have happened when comparing vgc 2015 to 2016, and 2018 to 2019u, non-restricted mons that are primarily damage focused fall off when the teams damage output is shifted to being focused on the two restricted mons.
What we don't know is how much 4v4 affects that compared to 6v6, I think damage focus on a non-res holds a little more value in 6v6, but not enough so for me to believe urshifu would be problematic inherently.

editing in more thoughts:
I think using the current duber list is the simplest to understand from a strictly DOU pov. But that the VGC style "all box legends etc" is also still very simple. I also don't think that most of the mons banned from DOU are as broken in this style of format as the things that lead to them being broken in DOU aren't being accentuated. So it'd be completely fine to give them a chance and decide later.

re:mythicals, Magearna (as res), Deo-a, Darkrai are all w/e, low impact mons I don't really care about. Arceus however, would be difficult to ignore. I can see it really diluting the restricted pool and making things less interesting. Which is just conjecture of course, but it is the least exciting aspect of the entire prospect of this as a format.

 

[big pichu]

I'll be brief here: leave the format as-is, many people enjoyed the format a ton and it's not wise to mess with that. Unrestricting many of these spikes the power level of the format really significantly, and the slower pace of this tier was what I found most enjoyable - it also seemed like a common sentiment among others as well.

Not having mythicals gives this tier a different identity in comparison to DOU/DUbers, and maintaining the "DOU legal or not" line is a good way to avoid unecessary conflict/subjectivity over the banlist. To be clear, I also think Shadow Tag should stay banned, it's uncompetitive.

Honestly, as much as I want to free Flutter Mane, this is a pretty good point and I think its definitely shifted how I view some of these. The tier was extremely enjoyable during the tour and I don't want to futz with it too much. Looking at this post and Schister's post wrt Urshifu, I think I'm convinced to leave things as is or keep changes minimal.
I've seen discussion about unbanning Flutter Mane and I think it would be really good to have a solid Fairy type like Flut in the meta, I don't want to futz too much with dropping the stronger restricteds.
Maybe Ape can drop since I feel like thats the one with the most clear reasoning for me wrt not being a problem, and I want to look at Flutter Mane as an option later, but overall I'm increasingly wary of drops in general rn.

EDIT: Locking to DOU is simplest now that I think about it. The tier is in excellent shape and I don't want to change anything. We can look at options if any meta development happens down the line but making the unrestricted pool have big strong guys feels like it goes against the spirit of the thing. I like having weaker Restricteds since weak restricted mons provide a different way to express skill, and I don't really have any issues with the tier as is, so I do not wanna change things drastically for the sake of it right now. I fell in love with the tier as presented in tourney and now that I am looking back on it, I should have trusted the tier that I fell in love in, not expected it to change.

No changes for now is my official stance.

 

[Mr.GX]

For now, I feel it would be better to keep the locked to DOU, and allow restricteds. The banned Pokemon can cause upsets and have been proven to be strong in their own right, and should stay locked into DUbers. We can start from "Double Restricted", and try suspecting depending on how the format progresses. Current DOU feels quite stable to run this.

I think Shadow Tag should stay banned. The ability itself feels inherently unhealthy to the game. As for Dark Void, it is currently limited to Darkrai, which would take a Restricted slot to run. Not banning Dark Void seems fine for now. It can be suspected later if it turns out to be an issue. Darkrai is heavily powercrept after all, and Miraidon exists.

 

[zee]

It makes the most sense for everyone to keep the restricted Pokemon list to those marked DUber. Working out bans and unbans for specific Pokemon just to give them more usage seems like an unnecessary hoop to jump through - Ubers formats by nature are always going to have a lot of competition for slots, is it really that different if it's base form Calyrex or Mewtwo or Flutter Mane? I don't think so. GS Cup is an official name dating all the way back to HGSS, but if we have to have an easier name I'm fine with Restricted Doubles Ubers.

I think banning DUber mythicals works best in the spirit of GS Cup, but honestly I'm fine with a blanket Arceus ban and restricting the other options. I do think just banning mythicals saves you from the Darkrai v Dark Void debate, but I don't think the non-Arceus mythicals are so good that they warp the format.

Edit: Keep Shadow Tag legal, it'll be fine I promise.

 

[bagel]

I think keeping the restricted list to DUbers is fine; it gives the tier a clear identity compared to similar VGC formats and is a very simple solution that keeps the tier approachable to newcomers. I think it would take a long process to fairly judge whether certain individual mons 'should' be allowed or not. Its cool that the tier can kinda just work from the get go for the most part. (I do personally think there are plenty of current DUbers that would probably be fine as unrestricted but I kinda don't care, I just don't see the goal of a tier like this as finding a perfectly balanced metagame where all mons have equal opportunity or something, the entire conciet is that there is an imbalance.)

Regarding mythicals I am 100% on the side unbanning all but Arceus (both restricteds and unrestricteds). I don't see any reason for us to be held to Pokemon's official classification when all other Smogon DOU formats allow mythicals, and its another thing that would give the format a unique identity.

I think unbanning Shadow Tag is fine. I think Dark Void can be free as well because it means someone has to run Darkrai as a restricted which seems bad. Dark Void is cringe and should probably be banned in DOU than Darkrai wouldn't be a restricted but its not so whatever not really a problem for this tier imo.

Either of GS Cup DOU or RDubers is fine, I personally lean towards Restricted Doubles Ubers because we have rule differences and GS Cup might be a scene as a bit of false advertising. But people are gonna call it GS Cup and ask for GS Cup games so its whatever. I think having "Restricted Doubles Ubers (GS Cup DOU)" on tournament signup threads and stuff seems clear to me.

Obviously if stuff is clearly too broken or unfun we can always just fix later!

 

[qsns]

- Duber = restricted gives the tier a strong identity and means we don't have to tier restricteds vs. non restricteds. Keeps the tier in a Guaranteed Fun state since the tournament was enjoyable
- Banning Arceus is fine for format diversity
- Magearna is fine to allow restricted, Shadow Tag can be freed
- Dark Void is definitely terrible if it's restricted but very cringe and I don't see upside to allowing it

 

[Sunrose]

I would like the format to stay the same. It's still brand new and seeing the metagame develop over time as players start innovating new stuff is always exciting to see. There were already a lot of cool teams and ideas being shown during the tour.
The tour was really fun and I'm looking forward to seeing how this format turns out in a year!

 

[Pengu]

I think most of this should be kept the same, but here's what I'm thinking:

BAN
Dark Void
Personally, this just removes the skill aspect of the game. Smeargle had it removed for a reason, and it honestly feels unhealthy for the metagame.

RESTRICT

This Pokemon, personally, feels too strong and fast to allow players run around with it freely, hitting possibly the whole metagame super hard and fast without wasting a restricted Pokemon slot. Now, I am the rope for this one, because the other argument is that it is way too frail and sometimes exploitable (with priority) to be a restricted Pokemon. I think this is a decision for the professionals, but yeah.

UNRESTRICT

I know this is very controversial, but this Pokemon just doesn't feel like a restricted Pokemon in any sense. With a Dark Void ban, this Pokemon will be fine in the metagame, especially with Urshifu around. This Pokemon also gets severely slowed via Fake Out and gets hit hard by priority, and its power just doesn't feel like enough to justify for that. That's my input though.

KEEP SHADOW TAG LEGAL
It'll all be fine, don't worry :3

As for a format name, something like Double Restrict DUbers (DR DUbers) works nicely (look at this professional format, it's a doctor!).

 

[Arcticblast]

I'd like to thank everybody who posted their thoughts in this thread, as well as everyone who discussed the future of the format on Discord.

Going forward, this format's official name will be Restricted Doubles Ubers (or RDU for short).

Based on discussion here and on Discord, we've decided that no Pokemon currently tiered DUbers will be unrestricted. This makes the ruleset much simpler to read and maintain. Any Pokemon that are banned from DOU later will be restricted to keep this rule intact.

The official format council will be bagel, Charlotte, Smudge, zee, and myself. While Char and zee didn't play in the Friendly Series tournament, they have a wealth of experience with both DUbers and VGC's restricted formats. Our first act has been to vote on whether specific metagame elements stay or go.

Arceus: 5-0 - Arceus is banned from RDU
Magearna: 2-3 - Magearna is restricted in RDU
Darkrai OR Dark Void: 3-2 - see below
Deoxys-A: 1-4 - Deoxys-A is restricted in RDU
Shadow Tag: 1-4 - Shadow Tag is permitted in RDU

We also ran one extra poll, and I'll keep it simple: Darkrai will be restricted and Dark Void will be banned. This vote was unanimous. Keep in mind that none of these decisions are final. While this is an Uber format, and broken things are allowed to be broken, we can still remove things if they are truly too powerful. Magearna in particularly will be closely watched due to its history with Doubles formats past.

Expect the official metagame thread shortly. We are currently picking out a few sample teams (with additional help from Schister), but viability rankings will come a bit later because of the additions of Magearna, Deo-A, and Darkrai. We are also planning on running a lot of roomtours (like a LOT of roomtours) for people to play with these additions. More details will come later.