Apologies for derailing this current discussion about tiering philosophy with Abilities and Forms, but I'd like to bring up a ban that I believe that was incredibly dependent on the current state of the metagame at the time.
Tornadus-Therian
I'll divide my thoughts about this Pokemon into three sections and explain why I think that it desperately deserves a retest in the current National Dex metagame.
The main point of this post was to bring attention to Torn and spark discussion about it, so what do you guys think? Should Torn be retested or not? And if so, would you vote to keep it banned or unban it?


I'll divide my thoughts about this Pokemon into three sections and explain why I think that it desperately deserves a retest in the current National Dex metagame.
Tornadus's quickban was carried out to due to the prevalence and "splashability of it's bulky Defog set" and the "strength of it's offensive sets". Additionally, it was cited that Tornadus-Therian's access to Regenerator and Knock Off allowed it to force progress throughout the match. It was also able to adapt to metagame trends thanks to Z-moves and techs like Heat Wave and Focus Blast. I don't think these reasonings are still sound in the current state of the metagame, as there are several key metagame changes that have considerably weakened the punishing effects of Tornadus-Therian's kit. For one, the same defensive cores cited in Tornadus-Therian's ban reasoning are not staples in balance and bulky offense builds anymore. Secondly, the existence of both Mega Stones and Z-moves mean that Tornadus is not guaranteed to remove an opponent's item. Megas like Tyranitar, Latias, Mawile, Diancie, and Scizor, and prominent Z-move users like Heatran, Garchomp, and Magnezone are all able to stave off the effects of Knock Off. The rise of Weavile and Tapu Koko also gives Tornadus-Therian trouble, as Weavile can force constant 50/50s with Triple Axel and Pursuit and Tapu Koko outspeeds and threatens an OHKO on Torn, as well as having the defensive typing to switch into Torn with impunity. Of course, Tornadus-Therian has the means to punish these checks depending on the set, but that cannot be the main reason why we should keep it banned as various other Pokemon like Kartana and Diancie share this same attribute. Tornadus sacrifices accounting for other threats by focusing its moveslot to lure some of it's checks, as well as passing up on utility. Additionally, it was also stated that Tornadus-Therian was a key enabler in creating opportunities for Pokemon like Darm-G and Urshifu-S. These Pokemon do not exist in the metagame anymore, so I fail to see how this reasoning would apply to the current state of the metagame. Additionally, the Pokemon listed were broken in their own right. It's arguably unfair that Tornadus-Therian was not assessed at a later date to see if it's adverse effects on the metagame would diminish to a point where it could be deemed as a healthy addition to the metagame.
A potential retest was already acknowledged by the Council in the Council Minutes thread.
The main focus of our discussions these past few weeks has been on the bans that happened a little while ago now, and specifically on which Pokemon of the 5 banned ones should be the first subject of a retest. The two Pokemon that were brought up as a potential first retest were Ash Greninja and Tornadus-Therian. For Tornadus-T, we generally acknowledge that it would be extremely good in the current metagame, but our belief is that with some of its best checks in Zapdos and Toxapex being extremely common currently, it would not be hard to fit answers to Tornadus-T onto teams. On top of this, other checks to Tornadus-T are also more common now than they were prior to the bans, Pokemon like Magearna and Mega Tyranitar for example. Of course all of these Pokemon can be overwhelmed by the correct Tornadus-T set, however, it does have to pick and choose which checks it can beat and compromise its performance against everything else if it wants to beat these Pokemon. All of this leads us to believe that of all the Pokemon that could be retested first, Tornadus-T does appear to us to be the potentially least problematic.
It was also noted that Tornadus-T solves a lot of problems in the metagame, most notably the lack of strong removal options in the metagame. While unbanning something to address issues in the metagame is generally not how smogon does tiering, we do believe that Tornadus-T would bring more positives than negatives to the metagame should it be unbanned and its for this reasons we unanimously thought Tornadus-T should be the first Pokemon to be retested.
Tornadus-Therian hasn't been retested for over a year, so I think it's around the appropriate time to conduct one since the metagame has recently just settled from the Blaziken suspect.Pokemon that have been bought up for this are the remaining Pokemon from the council bans after DLC1, specifically Tornadus-T and Urshifu-S, as well as other options such as Blaziken and Zamazenta-C.
A strong anti-unban argument is Tornadus-Therian's newfound access to Nasty Plot. This can potentially push Tornadus over the edge by virtue of it's Z-move sets, allowing it to blow past traditional checks after +2. It's access to Regenerator gives it unrivaled longevity for a wallbreaker of that caliber, which could very well prove to be too much for the metagame. I still think Tornadus-Therian should be given a fair retest however, as it could solve a decent amount of issues in the metagame, as it would offer the metagame a Defogger on the same level as Corviknight. It would offer a splashable check to Landorus-Therian, Kartana, Lopunny, Rillaboom, Tapu Bulu, etc.
The main point of this post was to bring attention to Torn and spark discussion about it, so what do you guys think? Should Torn be retested or not? And if so, would you vote to keep it banned or unban it?