Sorry for the long delay, but survey results are finally here, with 15 people responding as well as some news at the bottom!
Average Enjoyability: 7.2/10
This is a fairly decent result, showing general favourability towards how people enjoy the meta at the moment.
Average Competitiveness Rating: 6.46/10
A noticeable shift lower in comparison to the enjoyability of the meta. While not awful, it does signify a bit of dissatisfaction towards how people perceive the competitiveness of the meta but is still fairly enjoyable, most likely partly due to the chaotic meta and other issues which I will discuss later.
Average Rating: 3.2/5
A middling rating, only slightly above the middle of 3, indicating mixed feelings overall towards the competitiveness of both Fire-types, with a somewhat even spread of results in all categories.
Average Rating: 2.86/5
Still a somewhat middling rating, but more skewed towards a negative perception. We can see a general skew towards the lower ratings indicating general dissatisfaction with Z-Moves, though also a noticeable group of high ratings as well indicating some polarisation. While not so low to force any action, Z-Moves will be kept an eye on and potential action is possible in the future.
Average Rating: 3.6/5
A fairly positively skewed rating, while not that far off the middle, indicates that most people perceive Ceruledge to be fairly healthy or not too unhealthy as of now.
Average Rating: 3.06/5
Right on the middle rating, with a very large concentration of scores indicating a large consensus of GaG's mixed effect on the meta. While the score is not as low enough to push any action forward a close eye will be kept on GaG still.
Average Rating: 3.8/5
A fairly high score, and a large skew towards a positive view of 2AC, with a small group of low ratings. Most likely there will not be action on changing 2AC to 1AC for the forseeable future.
Short Answer Responses:
Lugia: Lugia is an interesting mon to consider, but still generally poses the same issues that gatekeep out of SVAAA. Its immense bulk helps it faciliate very bulky setup sets with Curse/Calm Mind and a variety of abilities that can flip matchups on the spot and prove most likely a detriment to the meta. I'm not completely opposed to freeing it but it's not too likely.
Toxic Debris: Toxic Debris is a fairly strong ability, but lacks little proof as to its strength as of yet. While it is banned in SVAAA, it was through a fairly contentious suspect and the far expanded Defog distribution and 2AC along with the fact that TDebris is just harder to fit in makes it as of now more manageable with only spotted usage in NDAAA seasonal. Still a worthy ability to keep an eye on however and the presence of GaG could make it worse.
Enamorus: Currently kept out for its mixed SFLO prowess as a breaker in SVAAA, nothing much changes from SV to Natdex. Most RegenVesters still crumple and Ferrothorn can be smacked around with Superpower/Mystical Fire or plain tinted. While there is a fair case for it given its frailty and speed that allows flexibility in dealing with it for more offensive teams, the current state of the meta makes me doubt it would contribute to a healthy degree with enough offensive options to go around.
Blacephalon: A similar situation to Enamorus. A strong breaker, though mainly for its ability spam MGLO Mind Blown and STAB SBalls everywhere, with Knock and HP coverage for the rest. It isn't too fast and is fairly frail, its limiting presence for defensive cores is not something ideal. Fire-types are strong as-is and Blace would add more variance to this pool to deal with, the majority of Fire immunities (Corv, Ferro, Zapdos) not appreciating STAB SBall and Knock while resists like Swamp/Garchomp can be sniped with HP coverage. Checks certainly do exist like Bliss/RegenVest Mana but it isn't hard for Blace to push through even those with limited support, tech or play while other cores suffer.
Archeops (2): Without the limitation of its ability, Archeops can more fully abuse its optimised stats to great effect with 140/112/110 statspread paired up with STAB Head Smash and MGLO proving a very potent pairing that already makes it a hard pill to swallow and free. Rock resists aren't too uncommon with Ferrothorn, Gholdengo, Great Tusk, Garchomp as popular mons however Archeops boasts sizeable coverage to easily hit these mons. Heat-Wave can smack around Ferro, Gholdengo and annoy GTusk while also blowing up Fluffy checks. Knock Off/EQ serve as extra respectable coverage to annoy WBB variant of Steels mentioned. HP Ice can blow up Garchomp and dissuade GTusk (and even defensive Gliscor lol), and STAB Dual Wingbeat can do respectable damage outside of Gholdengo, even retaining U-turn to keep up momentum as a midground. Even lacking the rocks weakness of the prior mention I could hardly see Archeops being a healthy presence.
Alakazam-Mega: An interesting mon, in comparison to its normal variant of Alakazam they equate to roughly similar or even a bit lesser power given Alakazam can run LO and has only really one shot with Psyterrain but the Mega retains a far greater speed tier that lets it outrun the entire unboosted meta outside of rare Deoxys-S. While not the worst mon to deal with defensively, Alakazam is still quite strong and a far higher speed tier to let it more opportunities and harder to rkill isn't the most appealing thing to free. I'm not that opposed to it but it did receive strong opposition last survey, so I'll leave it at a maybe.
Xurkitree: Without Hadron Engine banned, Xurkitree sees little to chance of ever being freed. While there was a comparison to Regieleki made in the answer, this is a bad comparison. Regieleki lacks any coverage at all while Xurkitree makes ample usage of HP, Dazzling Gleam and EBall to hit Grounds and Dragons sufficiently. Xurkitree is also signficantly stronger with Tail Glow and 173 base SpA that let it basically OHKO everything ever while Eleki still flops into stuff like RegenVest Dragons/Ferro excluding Grounds existing. Even without Hadron I'm a bit hesistant given Tail Glow is dumb.. but with Hadron there's no chance.
Blastoise-Mega: Smash MBlastoise seems pretty obnoxious... Maybe it could be ok but the power difference is significant between regular Blastoise and MBlastoise and all it is an annoying sweeper. Not gonna rule it out but not exactly a priority to free.
Stakeout: Nah.
Hadron Engine: Maybe. I don't think it's presence as of now is too bad, but with 3 mons banned in large part due to it, there is some justification though those 3 mons do have exceptional traits that also contribute to their brokenness and I'm not sure if they'd be ok even without it. For its current state, there are an abundance of resists like Ferrothorn, RegenVest Dragons/Swamp and Grounds in general, with abusers like Heliolisk/Thundurus/Rotom all somewhat limited in terms of their fragility/speed and can lack coverage at times but it certainly isn't the most healthy thing around with its raw power undeniable into some teams.
Dragonite (2): A contentious presence, Dragonite is the only mon to get two mentions of a ban in the survey without much surprise. Aerilate Extreme Speed paired with its high ATK and fine bulk lets it serve as a potent revenge-killer and strong sweeper especially against those not prepared properly. Several checks exist to limit Dragonite such as Fluffy Corviknights, Gliscor (Toxic), Mandibuzz, Gholdengo, Psychic Surge and more niche checks stretching out but Dragonite boasts powerful coverage to make checking it very precarious. Fire Punch/Flamethrower/Thunderbolt/Earthquake/Ice Spinner are all options that make it dangerous, especially when paired with Z-Moves. Still, it cannot have all these moves at the same time along with other moves like DDance/Roost and can still be played around with resists, so it has been bearable enough and hasn't had too much of a showing yet. A watchful eye will be kept on Dragonite, still.
Well-Baked Body: Fine. People who complain about it are bad. Fire-types have plentiful coverage and +2 Def is at most an annoyance and not something you should be losing to.
Archaludon: Fine. Offensive PSea sets gets easily walled by X RegenVest/Blissey or stuff like VA Corv, other sets don't matter.
Mawile-Mega: Maybe not okay. MMawile is already fairly strong with Huge Power alone but with Intrepid Sword and an SD to +3 it becomes quite nuclear. Revenging it quite difficult as +3 can do pretty ludicrous stuff like OHKO'ing Heatran with Sucker Punch. Corv is fairly exploitable without IDBP and stuff like defensive Gliscor cant OHKO it with EQ. It still retains some checks like PrankPex, defensive Mew, some Fluffy/Unaware checks and can still be revenged with stuff like CB Fightings and PsySurge Azelf somewhat common. Could potentially see action.
Victini: A somewhat controversial mon, Victini has mostly settled in as a fine mon. Its strength is undeniable with V-Create but immunities and resists are abundant with other strong Fire-types within the meta. While it does have fine coverage, it cannot have all the coverage it needs for WBB Ferro, Gholdengo, Zapdos, Garchomp and the others and suffers from a lackluster speed, typing and rocks weakness that make it hard to manuever. Like Dragonite, but without the ESpeed or setup/bulk to compensate. It can be a matchup fishy, but has mostly settled as a risky option that is hard to manuever but can be used for big payoff (or flop lol) with little showing for it being broken outright.
Volcarona: While an annoying matchup fish, Volcarona's numerous weaknesses have let it settle as mostly bearable. While Z-Moves being reintroduced do make it a bit more annoying, its numerous checks like Regen Dragons, Dragonite, WBB sets like Gholdengo/Corv still mostly remain firm while having to deal with its fragility, speed and rocks weakness (or lower power with MGLO/Boots) that let it be outplayed rather fairly.
Metagross-Mega: As of now, there is little reason to seek any action against MMeta. While a bit strong, popular walls like Corviknight and Mew handle it fairly fine. It has 4MSS issues as it wants a variety of coverage like Psychic STAB, EQ, IPunch, TPunch as well as a boosting move and Sub. It's hardly the mostly threatening mon and has not a good showcase, with middling speed and annoying weaknesses to Ground and Fire that make it not that hard to revenge.
Overall, there wasn't a definitive point of contention singled out in the survey, with at most only a slightly below average rating for Z-Moves. Short answer also didn't have much overlap, with various offensive threats mentioned as potentially overbearing. While there are a few specific threats considered for action (MMawile, Hadron Engine, Dragonite, Gouging/MChar) overall the amount of offensive options can be a bit limiting. As such more overarching action is planned with Z-Moves being looked at for its enabling of many threats, with the lowest score on the survey, a potential suspect for when ladder is next up. For now, however, something else has been voted on...
Light Clay has been banned from National Dex Almost Any Ability!
Talking about overarching action... Light Clay offense while not insanely popular is also pretty dumb. Given the amount of strong offensive options, when bolstered with double bulk it can really not be fun. It's shown itself to be more than capable of attaining good results (see NDAAA SSNL) and its popularity is not necessarily indicative of its true strength given lack of a solid meta and games to go around with. With the sheer amount of offensive options running around, and contention around what should go in terms of individual mons, banning Light Clay is not a solution but hopefully does help a bit overall when dealing with these monster threats in the future as until hopefully other action can be taken.
Average Enjoyability: 7.2/10
This is a fairly decent result, showing general favourability towards how people enjoy the meta at the moment.
Average Competitiveness Rating: 6.46/10
A noticeable shift lower in comparison to the enjoyability of the meta. While not awful, it does signify a bit of dissatisfaction towards how people perceive the competitiveness of the meta but is still fairly enjoyable, most likely partly due to the chaotic meta and other issues which I will discuss later.
Average Rating: 3.2/5
A middling rating, only slightly above the middle of 3, indicating mixed feelings overall towards the competitiveness of both Fire-types, with a somewhat even spread of results in all categories.
Average Rating: 2.86/5
Still a somewhat middling rating, but more skewed towards a negative perception. We can see a general skew towards the lower ratings indicating general dissatisfaction with Z-Moves, though also a noticeable group of high ratings as well indicating some polarisation. While not so low to force any action, Z-Moves will be kept an eye on and potential action is possible in the future.
Average Rating: 3.6/5
A fairly positively skewed rating, while not that far off the middle, indicates that most people perceive Ceruledge to be fairly healthy or not too unhealthy as of now.
Average Rating: 3.06/5
Right on the middle rating, with a very large concentration of scores indicating a large consensus of GaG's mixed effect on the meta. While the score is not as low enough to push any action forward a close eye will be kept on GaG still.
Average Rating: 3.8/5
A fairly high score, and a large skew towards a positive view of 2AC, with a small group of low ratings. Most likely there will not be action on changing 2AC to 1AC for the forseeable future.
Short Answer Responses:
Lugia: Lugia is an interesting mon to consider, but still generally poses the same issues that gatekeep out of SVAAA. Its immense bulk helps it faciliate very bulky setup sets with Curse/Calm Mind and a variety of abilities that can flip matchups on the spot and prove most likely a detriment to the meta. I'm not completely opposed to freeing it but it's not too likely.Toxic Debris: Toxic Debris is a fairly strong ability, but lacks little proof as to its strength as of yet. While it is banned in SVAAA, it was through a fairly contentious suspect and the far expanded Defog distribution and 2AC along with the fact that TDebris is just harder to fit in makes it as of now more manageable with only spotted usage in NDAAA seasonal. Still a worthy ability to keep an eye on however and the presence of GaG could make it worse.Enamorus: Currently kept out for its mixed SFLO prowess as a breaker in SVAAA, nothing much changes from SV to Natdex. Most RegenVesters still crumple and Ferrothorn can be smacked around with Superpower/Mystical Fire or plain tinted. While there is a fair case for it given its frailty and speed that allows flexibility in dealing with it for more offensive teams, the current state of the meta makes me doubt it would contribute to a healthy degree with enough offensive options to go around.Blacephalon: A similar situation to Enamorus. A strong breaker, though mainly for its ability spam MGLO Mind Blown and STAB SBalls everywhere, with Knock and HP coverage for the rest. It isn't too fast and is fairly frail, its limiting presence for defensive cores is not something ideal. Fire-types are strong as-is and Blace would add more variance to this pool to deal with, the majority of Fire immunities (Corv, Ferro, Zapdos) not appreciating STAB SBall and Knock while resists like Swamp/Garchomp can be sniped with HP coverage. Checks certainly do exist like Bliss/RegenVest Mana but it isn't hard for Blace to push through even those with limited support, tech or play while other cores suffer.Archeops (2): Without the limitation of its ability, Archeops can more fully abuse its optimised stats to great effect with 140/112/110 statspread paired up with STAB Head Smash and MGLO proving a very potent pairing that already makes it a hard pill to swallow and free. Rock resists aren't too uncommon with Ferrothorn, Gholdengo, Great Tusk, Garchomp as popular mons however Archeops boasts sizeable coverage to easily hit these mons. Heat-Wave can smack around Ferro, Gholdengo and annoy GTusk while also blowing up Fluffy checks. Knock Off/EQ serve as extra respectable coverage to annoy WBB variant of Steels mentioned. HP Ice can blow up Garchomp and dissuade GTusk (and even defensive Gliscor lol), and STAB Dual Wingbeat can do respectable damage outside of Gholdengo, even retaining U-turn to keep up momentum as a midground. Even lacking the rocks weakness of the prior mention I could hardly see Archeops being a healthy presence.Alakazam-Mega: An interesting mon, in comparison to its normal variant of Alakazam they equate to roughly similar or even a bit lesser power given Alakazam can run LO and has only really one shot with Psyterrain but the Mega retains a far greater speed tier that lets it outrun the entire unboosted meta outside of rare Deoxys-S. While not the worst mon to deal with defensively, Alakazam is still quite strong and a far higher speed tier to let it more opportunities and harder to rkill isn't the most appealing thing to free. I'm not that opposed to it but it did receive strong opposition last survey, so I'll leave it at a maybe.Xurkitree: Without Hadron Engine banned, Xurkitree sees little to chance of ever being freed. While there was a comparison to Regieleki made in the answer, this is a bad comparison. Regieleki lacks any coverage at all while Xurkitree makes ample usage of HP, Dazzling Gleam and EBall to hit Grounds and Dragons sufficiently. Xurkitree is also signficantly stronger with Tail Glow and 173 base SpA that let it basically OHKO everything ever while Eleki still flops into stuff like RegenVest Dragons/Ferro excluding Grounds existing. Even without Hadron I'm a bit hesistant given Tail Glow is dumb.. but with Hadron there's no chance.Blastoise-Mega: Smash MBlastoise seems pretty obnoxious... Maybe it could be ok but the power difference is significant between regular Blastoise and MBlastoise and all it is an annoying sweeper. Not gonna rule it out but not exactly a priority to free.Stakeout: Nah. Hadron Engine: Maybe. I don't think it's presence as of now is too bad, but with 3 mons banned in large part due to it, there is some justification though those 3 mons do have exceptional traits that also contribute to their brokenness and I'm not sure if they'd be ok even without it. For its current state, there are an abundance of resists like Ferrothorn, RegenVest Dragons/Swamp and Grounds in general, with abusers like Heliolisk/Thundurus/Rotom all somewhat limited in terms of their fragility/speed and can lack coverage at times but it certainly isn't the most healthy thing around with its raw power undeniable into some teams.Dragonite (2): A contentious presence, Dragonite is the only mon to get two mentions of a ban in the survey without much surprise. Aerilate Extreme Speed paired with its high ATK and fine bulk lets it serve as a potent revenge-killer and strong sweeper especially against those not prepared properly. Several checks exist to limit Dragonite such as Fluffy Corviknights, Gliscor (Toxic), Mandibuzz, Gholdengo, Psychic Surge and more niche checks stretching out but Dragonite boasts powerful coverage to make checking it very precarious. Fire Punch/Flamethrower/Thunderbolt/Earthquake/Ice Spinner are all options that make it dangerous, especially when paired with Z-Moves. Still, it cannot have all these moves at the same time along with other moves like DDance/Roost and can still be played around with resists, so it has been bearable enough and hasn't had too much of a showing yet. A watchful eye will be kept on Dragonite, still.Well-Baked Body: Fine. People who complain about it are bad. Fire-types have plentiful coverage and +2 Def is at most an annoyance and not something you should be losing to.Archaludon: Fine. Offensive PSea sets gets easily walled by X RegenVest/Blissey or stuff like VA Corv, other sets don't matter.Mawile-Mega: Maybe not okay. MMawile is already fairly strong with Huge Power alone but with Intrepid Sword and an SD to +3 it becomes quite nuclear. Revenging it quite difficult as +3 can do pretty ludicrous stuff like OHKO'ing Heatran with Sucker Punch. Corv is fairly exploitable without IDBP and stuff like defensive Gliscor cant OHKO it with EQ. It still retains some checks like PrankPex, defensive Mew, some Fluffy/Unaware checks and can still be revenged with stuff like CB Fightings and PsySurge Azelf somewhat common. Could potentially see action.Victini: A somewhat controversial mon, Victini has mostly settled in as a fine mon. Its strength is undeniable with V-Create but immunities and resists are abundant with other strong Fire-types within the meta. While it does have fine coverage, it cannot have all the coverage it needs for WBB Ferro, Gholdengo, Zapdos, Garchomp and the others and suffers from a lackluster speed, typing and rocks weakness that make it hard to manuever. Like Dragonite, but without the ESpeed or setup/bulk to compensate. It can be a matchup fishy, but has mostly settled as a risky option that is hard to manuever but can be used for big payoff (or flop lol) with little showing for it being broken outright.Volcarona: While an annoying matchup fish, Volcarona's numerous weaknesses have let it settle as mostly bearable. While Z-Moves being reintroduced do make it a bit more annoying, its numerous checks like Regen Dragons, Dragonite, WBB sets like Gholdengo/Corv still mostly remain firm while having to deal with its fragility, speed and rocks weakness (or lower power with MGLO/Boots) that let it be outplayed rather fairly.Metagross-Mega: As of now, there is little reason to seek any action against MMeta. While a bit strong, popular walls like Corviknight and Mew handle it fairly fine. It has 4MSS issues as it wants a variety of coverage like Psychic STAB, EQ, IPunch, TPunch as well as a boosting move and Sub. It's hardly the mostly threatening mon and has not a good showcase, with middling speed and annoying weaknesses to Ground and Fire that make it not that hard to revenge.Overall, there wasn't a definitive point of contention singled out in the survey, with at most only a slightly below average rating for Z-Moves. Short answer also didn't have much overlap, with various offensive threats mentioned as potentially overbearing. While there are a few specific threats considered for action (MMawile, Hadron Engine, Dragonite, Gouging/MChar) overall the amount of offensive options can be a bit limiting. As such more overarching action is planned with Z-Moves being looked at for its enabling of many threats, with the lowest score on the survey, a potential suspect for when ladder is next up. For now, however, something else has been voted on...
Light Clay has been banned from National Dex Almost Any Ability!
Talking about overarching action... Light Clay offense while not insanely popular is also pretty dumb. Given the amount of strong offensive options, when bolstered with double bulk it can really not be fun. It's shown itself to be more than capable of attaining good results (see NDAAA SSNL) and its popularity is not necessarily indicative of its true strength given lack of a solid meta and games to go around with. With the sheer amount of offensive options running around, and contention around what should go in terms of individual mons, banning Light Clay is not a solution but hopefully does help a bit overall when dealing with these monster threats in the future as until hopefully other action can be taken.
Z-moves are very strong offensively and any team that's too passive will be in trouble quite often. This would be a good thing if they weren't slightly too dumb. Some mons like Pao and Boulder are already banned solely because of z-moves, and abusers like Ghold, Gouging and Rmoon are concerning as well. The thing is they're also part of the appeal of Naaatdex so I'm frankly not sure how to go about this. I'd also like to see the meta evolve more cause there's still too much passive balance for how likely you are to get steamrolled by a well backed-up Z-move user. If I want consistency rn I'd rather build BO/offense, maybe even HO (webs or hazards) rather than balance.
*
- Desolate Land
- Pursuit
- Zamazenta has been a topic of discussion for quite a while, it was banned very early on due to perceptions based on its strength as a box-art and in the previous generation, however due to the meta stabilising and it being tested in SVAAA to not be as overwhelming it has become more clear that Zamazenta would not be as strong as once perceived to be. While adding another offensive threat to the mix is not ideal at this time, with 2AC and the abundance of extra Fighting-type checks such as Tapu Fini, Gliscor, Mew and Tapu Koko we decided to vote on it and thus Zamazenta has been unbanned. Z-Moves do add a bit of concern however with the lack of great boosting moves for them the threat is not of too much concern, as the meta and tour progresses we will however be keeping a close eye on its performance on the tour and the effect it has on the meta.
/ 
--> At least Tier 4 lol
(who hasn't transformed), 
