Alice pressed against the wall
So she can see the door
In case the laughing strangers crawl and
Crush the petals on the floor
Alice in her party dress
Suspect Reasoning - written by eragon
Shadow Tag has a long infamous history in competitive doubles, whether it be Mega Gengar in generations 6 and 7 or Gothitelle in every generation after it was released with the ability in generation 5. Shadow Tag’s ability to trap both opponents on the field and prevent switches has immense potential in Doubles, allowing teammates to more definitively capitalize on favorable positions and convert small positional advantages into game-defining win conditions. Mega Gengar has had a controversial history throughout its existence, remaining legal in XY and being banned in SM DOU and Natdex. Gothitelle was a relatively constant but generally accepted presence across DOU tiers until Generation 8, when its entire evolutionarily line received access to Fake Out, a powerful tool that completely upended the traditional constraints on the way the pokemon functioned. Shadow Tag was quickbanned shortly after the release of Generation 8’s second DLC in October 2020, and remained banned following a suspect test a few months later in 2021. A few years later, Shadow Tag was banned almost immediately after the release of Scarlet and Violet as the Gothitelle line retained access to Fake Out and were deemed far too oppressive for the tier to handle. However, when National Dex Doubles was created in early 2023, Shadow Tag was freed for the start of the format alongside every other Pokemon/Ability that had ever been legal in any DOU format.
Shadow Tag immediately made a splash in Natdex with Mega Gengar, whose high stats and access to new tools like Encore quickly proved to be far too much for the format to handle. Mega Gengar was the first Pokemon banned from Natdex, being unanimously quickbanned at the end of April 2023. However, Shadow Tag itself remained on the Gothitelle line as only Mega Gengar itself had been shown to be an issue. Gothitelle maintained a consistent albeit generally minimal presence for over a year, making great use of its access to Shadow Tag in conjunction with other tools like Fake Out and Z-Trick Room plus Hypnosis. However, Gothitelle and Shadow Tag typically avoided scrutiny due to the other powerful Pokemon like Urshifu-Rapid, Mega Metagross, Zygarde, and others that attracted more attention thanks to their more direct game-ending potential. That being said, Shadow Tag was almost always considered to be on the table for tiering action and was often present on tiering surveys during this time.
However, with the removal of many of the other elements that were more overtly broken than Gothitelle and Shadow Tag, the two came to become much more prominent topics of discussion in the last few months. Gothitelle’s (and its entire evolutionary line’s) toolkit is extremely deep, affording it great flexibility on a variety of team compositions. Gothitelle has seen success on almost every archetype present in natdex, ranging from Sun to Rain to Sand to even the more recent Electric Terrain compositions. Fake Out is one of the primary points of contention, although Z Trick Room is another set that has repeatedly drawn ire. As such, many active players and observers have expressed frustration with the legality of Shadow Tag.
Despite this Shadow Tag is not without some counterplay. Ghost types like Flutter Mane and Marshadow cannot be trapped and can threaten Gothitelle for massive damage, while strong pivots like Rillaboom and Incineroar can escape the trapping and still reposition in the face of Gothitelle. Further, Gothitelle’s bulk, while decent, can still be reasonably overcome thanks to the extremely high power level of the tier. Players can attempt to pin down and remove Gothitelle before it gets a chance to take over a game or enable its teammates. However, it can still be difficult to be fully prepared for Gothitelle thanks to the variety of options in its movepool and its ability to be paired with many of the other strong Pokemon legal in Natdex.
Regardless, on the most recent tiering survey, Gothitelle ranked particularly high with a score of 2.45/5, finishing second behind only Stakataka’s 2.66/5. While the council anticipated that tiering action would be needed for both elements, the council chose to suspect test Stakataka first, thanks in large part to Stakataka having a slightly higher score and having had a longer time in the spotlight. While neither Shadow Tag’s or Stakataka’s survey scores may seem particularly high at a glance, it is worth noting that Stakataka was banned with over 75% of the suspect vote, suggesting that tiering surveys may be slightly underrepresenting dissatisfaction with certain parts of the metagame. With Shadow Tag’s survey score being only just behind Stakataka and Gothitelle itself already leaving a huge mark on the first few weeks of the ongoing Doubles Derby III (a teamtour with two natdex doubles slots), the council thinks the time is right for a Shadow Tag suspect. The council is choosing to suspect Shadow Tag rather than Gothitelle due to precedent and the fact that many of Gothitelle’s dominant traits can be replicated by its preevolutions, as shown in previous DOU formats (and Shadow Tag itself has always been the topic shown on surveys and in discussion, rather than Gothitelle).
As usual, 60% of the vote must be in favor to ban Shadow Tag.
NOTE: THIS TEST WILL BE USING THE NEW SUSPECT PROCESS!
The instructions to participate in this test are as follows:
- Create a new account on PS. You do not have to follow any specific naming convention, but your suspect account must have never played a game in Natdex DOU before this suspect test went up or you will not receive valid requirements (resetting W/L does not count for this - the account you use must never have played DOU before the test, full stop.)
- At any point on your new account, use the command /linksmogon on Pokemon Showdown! You will receive instructions on what to do once you run this command.
- Double check that you're listed as a voter here! If you aren't listed as a voter despite having valid reqs, please contact myself, sealoo, or Runo, or a member of staff.
- If you have any questions about this new process, feel free to PM Smudge , big pichu, or eragon - or post here!
The suspect laddering period is now underway and the deadline for getting requirements is Sunday, April 6th 6:00 PM Pacific Time (GMT-7).
Shadow Tag will be legal during this suspect.
Suspect Test Ladder Rules:
- Laddering with an account that impersonates, mocks, or insults another Smogon user or breaks Pokemon Showdown! rules may be disqualified from voting and infracted. Moderator discretion will be applied here. If there is any doubt or hesitance when making the alt, just pick another name. There are infinite possibilities and we have had trouble for this repeatedly. If you wish to participate in the suspect, you should be able to exhibit decent enough judgement here. We will not be lenient.
- We will be using the regular National Dex Doubles ladder for this suspect test. We will not be creating a new Suspect Ladder. At the beginning of every battle, there will be an announcement denoting the ongoing suspect with a link to this thread.
- The element being tested, Shadow Tag, will be allowed on the ladder.
- Any form of voting manipulation will result in swift and severe punishment. You are more than welcome to state your argument to as many people as you so please, but do not use any kind of underhanded tactics to get a result you desire. Bribery, blackmail, or any other type of tactic used to sway votes will be handled and sanctioned.
- Do not attempt to cheat the ladder. We will know if you did not actually achieve voting requisites, so don't do it. Harsh sanctions will be applied.
- No unhelpful one liners nor uninformed posts;
- No discussion on other potential suspects -- if you wish to discuss another Pokemon, we encourage you to do so in the metagame discussion thread, but this thread is strictly to discuss if Shadow Tag is banworthy or not - not other elements of the metagame;
- No discussion on the suspect process -- this includes testing Shadow Tag vs other potential suspects;
- Do not use the argument of broken checking broken. Should your argument rest on your opinion that banning the Pokemon or mechanic being tested in this suspect test will make a Pokemon or mechanic broken, overpowered, and/or uncompetitive; don't. If something needs to be banned because of the result this suspect, then so be it.
- You are required to make respectful posts; Do not flame, belittle, or be disrespectful to users in this thread. While not everyone will read this post in its entirety nor will everyone have an informed opinion, please be sure not to be disrespectful. If there's an issue, bring it up to a moderator.
- Failure to follow these simple guidelines will result in your post being deleted and infracted without any prior warning.
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