Hello all, the NU Council has voted to ban Mienshao from NU and suspect Cresselia effective immediately.
Mienshao has been on the councils radar since the start of January with the end of Quick Bans as it quickly rose to prominence in the tier. Its positive qualities are numerous and its downsides are few. While it first became popular due to its Choice Scarf set, people soon discovered how effective Life Orb sets could be. This set caused Mienshao to rise to prominence.
Life orb sets quickly became its most common, and in combination with regenerator they become almost impossible to chip down and deal with over the course of the game. Similar to the first mon we tested publicly, Sigilyph, Mienshao can brush off hazards, status, and most chip due to Regenerator keeping it healthy throughout the game. While items like Rocky Helmet or abilities like Rough Skin are usually strong deterrents for U-turn spammers, Mienshao is able to completely ignore it because it heals off the damage due to Regenerator. It also has all the other tools necessary for its dominance with Knock Off to remove items like Heavy Duty Boots from would be checks and counters and coverage including Poison Jab, Stone Edge, and even Blaze Kick to target other checks. While it is prediction reliant to some extent, the rise of Life Orb has diminished most of that, as its Speed Tier means that most Switch-ins that try to play around its coverage are slower anyway, and while it would be taking Life Orb chip usually while switching up moves, Regenerator allows it to heal that off and come back healthy as early as the next turn.
In terms of would-be checks and counters, Arcanine loses its boots to Knock Off and forces the team to keep Rocks off or eventually just lose to the momentum Mienshao generates. Vileplume is one of the more solid answers in the tier, as Effect Spore is the one of the viable ways to punish Mienshao's U-turn, but even then it has to watch out for coverage like Blaze Kick or Pokémon that can block Strength Sap. Talonflame falls in a similar boat as it can abuse Flame Body to punish Mienshao's contact moves, but if it does not trigger on the first Knock Off, Talonflame also has to watch out for Stealth Rock in the future. Mienshao can also predict the Talonflame switch and go for a quick and easy Stone Edge KO.
Additionally, Mienshao is also one of the more viable Choice Scarf users in the tier, and due to its high speed it can safely revenge kill the entire unboosted metagame, dealing with setup sweepers such as Salazzle, Flygon, Zoroark, and even opposing Mienshao. This set also makes fantastic use of Regenerator, as it can be a revenge killer that remains alive throughout the game, since it does not have to worry about Hazard Chip, or even chip from lighter attacks that it switches into, making it the perfect revenge killer.
Overall Mienshao has just been too much for NU. The responses in the NU Survey recently conducted demonstrated to us that a majority of the community agreed with action being taken against Mienshao, and as we also want to get to Cresselia, we decided to go down this route. Because Mienshao was ranked 4.17/5 (in terms of being overpowered) by the experienced players of the community, we decided to turn to a council vote instead of a public test. Mienshao has been on the council's radar for a while, and the tier could not adjust to it well enough. This ban also does not mean Mienshao is gone from the tier for good, as it can be re-tested in the future if we believe that it has the ability to be healthy in the metagame, and so that we can get the full public opinion and vote on it.
Mienshao has been on the councils radar since the start of January with the end of Quick Bans as it quickly rose to prominence in the tier. Its positive qualities are numerous and its downsides are few. While it first became popular due to its Choice Scarf set, people soon discovered how effective Life Orb sets could be. This set caused Mienshao to rise to prominence.
Life orb sets quickly became its most common, and in combination with regenerator they become almost impossible to chip down and deal with over the course of the game. Similar to the first mon we tested publicly, Sigilyph, Mienshao can brush off hazards, status, and most chip due to Regenerator keeping it healthy throughout the game. While items like Rocky Helmet or abilities like Rough Skin are usually strong deterrents for U-turn spammers, Mienshao is able to completely ignore it because it heals off the damage due to Regenerator. It also has all the other tools necessary for its dominance with Knock Off to remove items like Heavy Duty Boots from would be checks and counters and coverage including Poison Jab, Stone Edge, and even Blaze Kick to target other checks. While it is prediction reliant to some extent, the rise of Life Orb has diminished most of that, as its Speed Tier means that most Switch-ins that try to play around its coverage are slower anyway, and while it would be taking Life Orb chip usually while switching up moves, Regenerator allows it to heal that off and come back healthy as early as the next turn.
In terms of would-be checks and counters, Arcanine loses its boots to Knock Off and forces the team to keep Rocks off or eventually just lose to the momentum Mienshao generates. Vileplume is one of the more solid answers in the tier, as Effect Spore is the one of the viable ways to punish Mienshao's U-turn, but even then it has to watch out for coverage like Blaze Kick or Pokémon that can block Strength Sap. Talonflame falls in a similar boat as it can abuse Flame Body to punish Mienshao's contact moves, but if it does not trigger on the first Knock Off, Talonflame also has to watch out for Stealth Rock in the future. Mienshao can also predict the Talonflame switch and go for a quick and easy Stone Edge KO.
Additionally, Mienshao is also one of the more viable Choice Scarf users in the tier, and due to its high speed it can safely revenge kill the entire unboosted metagame, dealing with setup sweepers such as Salazzle, Flygon, Zoroark, and even opposing Mienshao. This set also makes fantastic use of Regenerator, as it can be a revenge killer that remains alive throughout the game, since it does not have to worry about Hazard Chip, or even chip from lighter attacks that it switches into, making it the perfect revenge killer.
Overall Mienshao has just been too much for NU. The responses in the NU Survey recently conducted demonstrated to us that a majority of the community agreed with action being taken against Mienshao, and as we also want to get to Cresselia, we decided to go down this route. Because Mienshao was ranked 4.17/5 (in terms of being overpowered) by the experienced players of the community, we decided to turn to a council vote instead of a public test. Mienshao has been on the council's radar for a while, and the tier could not adjust to it well enough. This ban also does not mean Mienshao is gone from the tier for good, as it can be re-tested in the future if we believe that it has the ability to be healthy in the metagame, and so that we can get the full public opinion and vote on it.
