The Official Glyx
Banned deucer.
While RNG is an ever-present aspect of the 1v1 metagame, concerns have been brought up after a recent wave of people spamming the 1v1 ladder with these items and cheesing games, much to the dismay of everyone doing their best to qualify for the ongoing Ladder Tournament. In particular, fast Pokemon with Bright Powder that can use Substitute multiple times in order to compound their odds at dodging at least once and instantly win the game as a result, like Whimsicott/Cottonee, Roserade, Jirachi, etc all became problematic thanks to their abuse of Bright Powder. While the ability to compound your odds at getting a dodge with these Pokemon and Substitute is particularly egregious, there are also concerns over how these RNG items aren't something you can necessarily prepare for in the same way as you might use an Air Slash or Iron Head resisted Pokemon in order to deal with Togekiss or Jirachi; it's easy to prepare for these kinds of Pokemon since these RNG factors are limited exclusively to these Pokemon and players already know that their best sets generally rely on these factors, while in contrast it's difficult to prepare for the items due to how anything can use them, and simultaneously nothing uses these items as their preferred choice, making it generally impossible to tell whether or not someone may have these items. This is a problem worsened by the nature of the 1v1 metagame in particular, since players are locked into their choice of Pokemon after picking at Team Preview, which means there is much less opportunity to scout items, nor are players able to simply switch to a Pokemon that doesn't need to worry about missing.
With that said, the 1v1 Metagame Council has voted on what to do with the most particularly glaring RNG-centric items:
B = Ban DNB = Do Not Ban A = Abstain | Rosa | smely socks | Here Comes Team Charm! | Waylaid | Crucify | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bright Powder / Lax Incense | B | B | B | B | B | 5/5 = B |
Focus Band | B | B | B | B | B | 5/5 = B |
Quick Claw | B | B | B | B | B | 5/5 = B |
King's Rock / Razor Fang | B | DNB | A | DNB | DNB | 1/4 = DNB |
With this vote, Bright Powder, Lax Incense, Focus Band, and Quick Claw have all been banned.
Tagging Kris to implement.
King's Rock and Razor Fang in particular shall stay in the tier, with DNB voters citing Fling strategies as being worthwhile enough to preserve.
Given that this was an issue that came up particularly through the 1v1 ladder and the nature of how people are quickly able to burn through several games in a short amount of time, as opposed to the much greater focus on each individual game that each tournament series provides, it is hard to tell whether or not these items are something that would be as impactful for the older generations of 1v1, which can only be played through tournaments. With these notions in mind, these bans will not be inherited to them. The corresponding councils for each old generation can decide for themselves whether or not these items should stay.