I feel that the main criteria that should be used when determining a Pokemon’s tier are its offensive, defensive, and support capabilities. It is fairly evident that a Pokemon’s power is related to all three of these. This can be seen in the Smogondex, with nearly every set on every Pokemon focusing mainly on one of these roles. A Pokemon is uber when, under normal battle conditions, a Pokemon can sweep, wall and stall, or often allow another Pokemon to sweep with ease against a major chunk of the metagame with little effort.
The offensive and defensive characteristics are fairly straightforward so I’d like to concentrate on the support characteristic. When most people choose a support Pokemon, it’s designed to last. Latios can’t take hits as well as his sister and since she has the same support options and then some (with the exception of Memento) with higher defenses, we would’ve likely seen her voted uber. Even with Recover and Roost, Latios will not stay around as long as his sister and is the inferior support option in the “staying power” respect. Regardless, Latios’ support capabilities were put to the test. The dual screen set with Memento became the best option, allowing users to safely bring in their sweeper on a Pokemon with -2 in both attacking stats and both screens in play. After this, it was a matter of Rock Polishing, Swords Dancing, Taunting (if necessary), and passing to a recipient (usually Life Orb Metagross). While a Pokemon with dual screens and +2 in Spd and Att would make a formidable opponent, it is far from foolproof. To start off against Latios, many Pokemon render it nearly useless. Scizor can do massive amounts of damage with STAB Technician Bullet Punch and Technician Pursuit. An Ice Shard from the likes of Mamoswine or a Weavile Night Slash/Ice Punch will do massive amounts of damage. There are many more counters if Latios isn’t running the screens necessary to immediately reduce the damage that it will take. When Latios first comes into play, there are a few main options. Fast Taunters prevent Latios from using anything but the likely one Dragon attack that he has. Sleep attacks can put him out of commission if he isn’t using a Lum Berry. Encore has found its place in the UU metagame, it could also be used to put an immediate stop to a dual screen Latios. While Latios is still in play or even once Gliscor has been switched in, Brick Break will leave the opponent with a couple of wasted turns. Swampert can break the screens and down Gliscor with a 4x effective Ice attack or a STAB Water attack if you fear Yache berry. To make it even easier, the opponent will likely Taunt you on the turn you break their screens, for fear of Roar. This allows you the extra turn needed to score the KO on the next turn. Even if they do somehow manage to pass speed AND attack, they’re going to be facing a STAB EQ without any screens to soften the blows and the LO BP recipient isn’t going to last much longer after that. Other suitable Brick Breakers include Salamence, Dragonite, Rhyperior, Gliscor, Machamp, Weavile (again!), and why not even Gengar or Snorlax? Even lacking any of those options, a surprise Roarer that Gliscor will BP against to avoid damage (think Vaporeon and maybe Zapdos) will be able to roar out the sweeper as it receives the BP. Finally, brute force can work as well. Rain Dance teams simply don’t even care about this set up and sweep every portion of it with ease. Pokemon such as Mamoswine can force Gliscor to BP early with Blizzard and upon predicting the BP, EQ the sweeper as it switches in. Just making sure you hit the sweeper as it comes in is often good enough. If you use some crafty switching after that, you can often force him to KO himself through Life Orb recoil and lose maybe only one Pokemon in the process. Those are the most prominent options and they are plenty enough.
The offensive capabilities weren’t overwhelming. Specs sets are easily stopped by common special walls such as Blissey and Cresselia. Steel types are extremely common and are more than capable of coming in and resisting whatever Dragon type attacks that Latios has to throw at them. As I said in my first general counters to Latios in the support capability paragraph, there are many Pokemon who can simply pick Latios off after predicting its attack and switching in (Scizor, Tyranitar, Metagross, other Pursuit users with decent defenses). When it comes to Calm Minding sets, those are a bit tougher to stop. However, status attacks usually do them in (TWave and Toxic mainly) and they are in constant fear of STAB Bullet Punch from Scizor, Extremespeed from Lucario, Scarfed SE attacks, and Ice Shard, to name a few. On the physical side, Latios is mainly a weaker version of Salamence, who himself is easily handled. His wide range of counters (most already mentioned in my voting submission) almost all apply to Latios.
Finally the defensive characteristic could likely be compared to that Latias as I did for the support characteristic. Latias is much more bulky and she did not prove to be uber on the defensive side of things. Latios in no way would be able to outdo Latias in the defense department. Again, he is in constant fear of STAB priority attacks and Pursuit. There are many better options out there with which to take hits. Latios is in no way even close to being uber due to its defenses.
Since Latios clearly does not meet any of the characteristics of an uber Pokemon, it will likely not be voted uber. I’ve seen it in play, I’ve adapted to how it operates, I’ve tried it out for myself, and I’m not that impressed. Latios has more than his fair share of counters and is not able to, under normal battle conditions, sweep, wall and stall, or often allow another Pokemon to sweep with ease against a major chunk of the metagame with little effort.
