Hello all,
The OU Council has voted to ban Kyurem-Black and Zygarde from OU effective immediately.
Kyurem was back-in-Black for the release of Crown Tundra, coming off being quick banned promptly after it being released with Pokemon Home earlier this year. Kyurem-Black was already one of the strongest Pokemon in the game with a scary 170 base attack, but it also gained access to Dragon Dance and Icicle Spear, making it one of the best sweepers in the recent OU history. Icicle Spear gave Kyurem-Black the famous BoltBeam combination, which meant that it was only walled by a small handful of Pokemon as is. Combine this with access to Heavy Duty Boots and superb 125-100-90 bulk and you get more than enough setup opportunities, making Kyurem-Black an unstoppable force for unprepared teams.
Preparing for Kyurem-Black is not particularly easy either; the tier’s premier physical sweeper only has a small handful of reliable checks and counters. With the ability to run Dragon Dance and the aforementioned BoltBeam coverage alongside Substitute, to prevent status affliction, or Roost, to increase longevity of the already durable Kyurem-Black, it is no surprise that many games end with it sweeping. With this set, Kyurem-Black’s main defensive checks are going to be Melmetal, Buzzwole, Magearna, Magnezone, and some more fringe Steel types such as Cobalion or Jirachi. On occasion, you may see Earth Power or even Dual Wingbeat in the last slot of Kyurem-Black to try and invalidate these forms of counterplay, but these tend to be sporadically used.
Regardless of what move Kyurem-Black is running in the last slot, for a Pokemon that punishes unprepared teams so well with an unmatched combination of physical strength and all-around bulk, it should be no surprise that Kyurem-Black has quickly become one of the premier Pokemon in SS OU once again. When it was previously banned, the metagame was yet to develop, but now that the post-DLC 2 metagame has developed a bit, Kyurem-Black’s place still appears to be at the top, with very few reliable options defeating it. On top of the aforementioned defensive checks, it is true that the rare faster Choice Scarf user can also take care of it if it only has 1 Dragon Dance up, but not many of these are common and it is oftentimes possible for Kyurem-Black to get multiple Dragon Dances up when facing bulkier teams.
Finally, Kyurem-Black is also an absolute behemoth on hyper offensive teams, taking advantage of support from Screens or synergistic win conditions helping chip down Pokemon that would otherwise check it. These specific exploits with Kyurem-Black prove too challenging for many opposing teams to handle regardless of their original counterplay to Kyurem-Black. Additionally, in the recent OU tiering survey, Kyurem-Black received a clear majority of support among all responders and specifically responders with experience on both the higher ladder and tournaments to be banned from the metagame. We will be sure to have a more detailed post outlining the results of the survey in the near future, too.
Given how potent an offensive presence Kyurem-Black is and how limited the metagame is in ways to keep it in-check, Kyurem-Black will be banned from OU effective immediately.
Zygarde has been one of the most fearsome threats ever since the release of Crown Tundra. Despite a 4x weakness to Ice type moves, Zygarde has made up for this with so many different positive characteristics. For starters, it has access to Thousand Arrows, which functions as one of the most easy to spam attacks in the game; the fact that it only needs one attacking move means that the other three can be just about anything Zygarde needs to function. Additionally, Zygarde has superb natural bulk, being able to withstand some strong neutral attacks comfortably, presenting many set-up and attacking possibilities that more fragile Pokemon would lack.
Perhaps what makes Zygarde such a distinguished presence in the current metagame is the fact that it can take advantage of these moveset openings and the great natural bulk with a great movepool. Set-up moves like Coil and Dragon dance let it function as a win condition, status moves like the infamous Glare and Toxic let it handpick its own counterplay, and other offensive moves like Extreme Speed and Scale Shot give it a wider array of attacking options for specific scenarios. Zygarde can also function on a variety of team archetypes, being a superb win condition or breaker on balance while not losing a step fitting on to more offensive teams as a dedicated win condition with the right support, too.
The most noteworthy application of Zygarde is the specially defensive Glare + Coil variant, which has been making waves in the metagame since day 1. This set is menacing as it is challenging to kill, especially without super effective or boosted attacks, which can be limited with the lack of Hidden Power in particular, but also it is able to snowball out of control with just a little bit of timely Glare paralysis luck. While it is true that there are some reliable answers such as Buzzwole, Tangrowth, Quagsire, and Zarude, the fact of the matter is that not many others can consistently handle this Zygarde set despite it being a practical defensive and offensive presence to fit on to teams. This alone can be seen as restrictive, but it is just the tip of the iceberg for Zygarde. On the bulky end, it can also run a boosting set with Toxic as the status move of choice, which is capable of severely crippling some of the aforementioned would-be counterplay.
Offensively, Choice Band Zygarde takes advantage of the spammability of Thousand Arrows especially well by using it as a foolproof way to break through opposition. While a slew of bulky Pokemon are capable of withstanding multiple Choice Band Thousand Arrows such as Tangrowth, Buzzwole, Rillaboom, Slowbro, and Zarude, not many of these Pokemon appreciate the common partners to Zygarde’s Choice Band set like Future Sight + Teleport or Toxic Spikes. In addition, Zygarde still has the option to run strong Dragon STAB to break through some Grass types or more durable walls and Extreme Speed to take out faster threats. If you elect to forgo Choice Band, you can also go with an all-out win condition with Dragon Dance, which works especially well on hyper offense with the support of synergistic win conditions or Screens.
With everything considered, Zygarde is capable of being checked by a small handful of defensive presences, but this is still a very limited pool of Pokemon and nothing whatsoever can account for the versatile range of sets Zygarde can run as a whole. While iIt is limited to just four moves, one item, and 510 EVs like any other Pokemon, but Thousand Arrows grants so much versatility within those confines that Zygarde can take advantage of to an unprecedented extent. It oftentimes warps how we construct our teams and what we do in order to be safe against it because of that, having a seemingly overbearing impact on how we approach the metagame. The recent playerbase tiering survey also reflected a widespread belief that Zygarde should be the subject of a ban, with a clear majority of both the overall responders and specific responders who achieved strong results on the ladder or in tournaments both reflecting this in their responses -- more on this will be posted later this week.
Given how limited Zygarde’s counterplay is and how effective various, complimentary variants of Zygarde can be without much resistance faced in the metagame, Zygarde will be banned from OU effective immediately.
Tagging Marty and Kris to make this change on PS when they can; thanks!
---
A sidenote: I’d like to note that we will be sharing some results from the playerbase survey in the coming days. We are just waiting for a few more results to be posted and we will be posting a similar report to that of last survey. Be sure to let us know if you have any questions in the meantime and thanks to everyone who responded to the survey -- we already have over 3000 responses!
The OU Council has voted to ban Kyurem-Black and Zygarde from OU effective immediately.
Kyurem was back-in-Black for the release of Crown Tundra, coming off being quick banned promptly after it being released with Pokemon Home earlier this year. Kyurem-Black was already one of the strongest Pokemon in the game with a scary 170 base attack, but it also gained access to Dragon Dance and Icicle Spear, making it one of the best sweepers in the recent OU history. Icicle Spear gave Kyurem-Black the famous BoltBeam combination, which meant that it was only walled by a small handful of Pokemon as is. Combine this with access to Heavy Duty Boots and superb 125-100-90 bulk and you get more than enough setup opportunities, making Kyurem-Black an unstoppable force for unprepared teams.
Preparing for Kyurem-Black is not particularly easy either; the tier’s premier physical sweeper only has a small handful of reliable checks and counters. With the ability to run Dragon Dance and the aforementioned BoltBeam coverage alongside Substitute, to prevent status affliction, or Roost, to increase longevity of the already durable Kyurem-Black, it is no surprise that many games end with it sweeping. With this set, Kyurem-Black’s main defensive checks are going to be Melmetal, Buzzwole, Magearna, Magnezone, and some more fringe Steel types such as Cobalion or Jirachi. On occasion, you may see Earth Power or even Dual Wingbeat in the last slot of Kyurem-Black to try and invalidate these forms of counterplay, but these tend to be sporadically used.
Regardless of what move Kyurem-Black is running in the last slot, for a Pokemon that punishes unprepared teams so well with an unmatched combination of physical strength and all-around bulk, it should be no surprise that Kyurem-Black has quickly become one of the premier Pokemon in SS OU once again. When it was previously banned, the metagame was yet to develop, but now that the post-DLC 2 metagame has developed a bit, Kyurem-Black’s place still appears to be at the top, with very few reliable options defeating it. On top of the aforementioned defensive checks, it is true that the rare faster Choice Scarf user can also take care of it if it only has 1 Dragon Dance up, but not many of these are common and it is oftentimes possible for Kyurem-Black to get multiple Dragon Dances up when facing bulkier teams.
Finally, Kyurem-Black is also an absolute behemoth on hyper offensive teams, taking advantage of support from Screens or synergistic win conditions helping chip down Pokemon that would otherwise check it. These specific exploits with Kyurem-Black prove too challenging for many opposing teams to handle regardless of their original counterplay to Kyurem-Black. Additionally, in the recent OU tiering survey, Kyurem-Black received a clear majority of support among all responders and specifically responders with experience on both the higher ladder and tournaments to be banned from the metagame. We will be sure to have a more detailed post outlining the results of the survey in the near future, too.
Given how potent an offensive presence Kyurem-Black is and how limited the metagame is in ways to keep it in-check, Kyurem-Black will be banned from OU effective immediately.
Zygarde has been one of the most fearsome threats ever since the release of Crown Tundra. Despite a 4x weakness to Ice type moves, Zygarde has made up for this with so many different positive characteristics. For starters, it has access to Thousand Arrows, which functions as one of the most easy to spam attacks in the game; the fact that it only needs one attacking move means that the other three can be just about anything Zygarde needs to function. Additionally, Zygarde has superb natural bulk, being able to withstand some strong neutral attacks comfortably, presenting many set-up and attacking possibilities that more fragile Pokemon would lack.
Perhaps what makes Zygarde such a distinguished presence in the current metagame is the fact that it can take advantage of these moveset openings and the great natural bulk with a great movepool. Set-up moves like Coil and Dragon dance let it function as a win condition, status moves like the infamous Glare and Toxic let it handpick its own counterplay, and other offensive moves like Extreme Speed and Scale Shot give it a wider array of attacking options for specific scenarios. Zygarde can also function on a variety of team archetypes, being a superb win condition or breaker on balance while not losing a step fitting on to more offensive teams as a dedicated win condition with the right support, too.
The most noteworthy application of Zygarde is the specially defensive Glare + Coil variant, which has been making waves in the metagame since day 1. This set is menacing as it is challenging to kill, especially without super effective or boosted attacks, which can be limited with the lack of Hidden Power in particular, but also it is able to snowball out of control with just a little bit of timely Glare paralysis luck. While it is true that there are some reliable answers such as Buzzwole, Tangrowth, Quagsire, and Zarude, the fact of the matter is that not many others can consistently handle this Zygarde set despite it being a practical defensive and offensive presence to fit on to teams. This alone can be seen as restrictive, but it is just the tip of the iceberg for Zygarde. On the bulky end, it can also run a boosting set with Toxic as the status move of choice, which is capable of severely crippling some of the aforementioned would-be counterplay.
Offensively, Choice Band Zygarde takes advantage of the spammability of Thousand Arrows especially well by using it as a foolproof way to break through opposition. While a slew of bulky Pokemon are capable of withstanding multiple Choice Band Thousand Arrows such as Tangrowth, Buzzwole, Rillaboom, Slowbro, and Zarude, not many of these Pokemon appreciate the common partners to Zygarde’s Choice Band set like Future Sight + Teleport or Toxic Spikes. In addition, Zygarde still has the option to run strong Dragon STAB to break through some Grass types or more durable walls and Extreme Speed to take out faster threats. If you elect to forgo Choice Band, you can also go with an all-out win condition with Dragon Dance, which works especially well on hyper offense with the support of synergistic win conditions or Screens.
With everything considered, Zygarde is capable of being checked by a small handful of defensive presences, but this is still a very limited pool of Pokemon and nothing whatsoever can account for the versatile range of sets Zygarde can run as a whole. While iIt is limited to just four moves, one item, and 510 EVs like any other Pokemon, but Thousand Arrows grants so much versatility within those confines that Zygarde can take advantage of to an unprecedented extent. It oftentimes warps how we construct our teams and what we do in order to be safe against it because of that, having a seemingly overbearing impact on how we approach the metagame. The recent playerbase tiering survey also reflected a widespread belief that Zygarde should be the subject of a ban, with a clear majority of both the overall responders and specific responders who achieved strong results on the ladder or in tournaments both reflecting this in their responses -- more on this will be posted later this week.
Given how limited Zygarde’s counterplay is and how effective various, complimentary variants of Zygarde can be without much resistance faced in the metagame, Zygarde will be banned from OU effective immediately.
Tagging Marty and Kris to make this change on PS when they can; thanks!
---
A sidenote: I’d like to note that we will be sharing some results from the playerbase survey in the coming days. We are just waiting for a few more results to be posted and we will be posting a similar report to that of last survey. Be sure to let us know if you have any questions in the meantime and thanks to everyone who responded to the survey -- we already have over 3000 responses!
