*NOTE: LONG POST AHEAD*
I don't really see Tyranitar as a suspect. O.k, fine it has been dominant for 3 Gens in a row, so was Gengar ffs. Its still no reason to start up a ban on it. Ignoring the fact that it keeps a few key threats in check I just don't see how it is broken. Its not the same as Reuniclus which has much more specialised counters, Tyranitar has easily exploitable weaknesses and (judging from the usage statistics) many teams have a fair few pokemon that can crush it. Tyranitar does not really sweep teams and im not really seeing any logical arguments as to why it deserves suspect status.
Granted, thanks to Excadrill and an influx of fighters increasing the number of Gliscor in the Tyranitar now runs Ice Beam and Fire Blast a bit more which makes finding a "counter" for it slightly more difficult but seriously, its very checkable.
Shrang (sorry to call you out but) I am appalled at your reasons for declaring it a suspect. "Oh dear it took my +4 Celebis Giga Drain its too specially bulky lets ban it". Big Whoop. I can name many other examples of pokemo nthat can take special attacks quite well (Latias, Blissey and Virizion being just 2 examples), are you going to start trying to ban those as well??? Not to mention "oh this pokemon takes special attacks too well" is fucking shocking logic for a ban.
You argue that it provides support but what kind? MixTar functions as a LURE to defeat common switchs to Tyranitar. FFS its a Lure and the set is only experiencing such high usage due to the increase of shit that was COUNTERING Tyranitar. Should HP Ice Excadrill be banned because it removes Gliscor from the game which might open you up to a SD Landorus sweep?
The ONLY case I can see for a T-Tar ban is because it creates sandstorm in which case its a different issue entirely. Seriously can somebody actually provide a solid reason for trying to start a ban on Tyranitar besides the "it creates Sandstorm, reason"?
Alright, fine. If you want me to actually provide reasons, I'll go ahead and do it. I was just throwing it out there just before just to gauge what other people may think. No need to get so touchy =P.
So, let's start with a comparison of Tyranitar with another Pokemon who is obviously Uber:
Ho-Oh. Aside from obvious differences, these two Pokemon can play somewhat similar roles, and that those are that of special tanks that can hit really hard. With the Sandstorm boost, a 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe Adamant (not that anyone runs that spread, but I'm just using this to highlight an example), Tyranitar's stats are
404 HP / 403 Atk / 256 Def / 203 SpA / 354 SpD / 159 Spe. Using a very similar spread (248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe Adamant for the odd HP number, which is standard in Ubers, give or take some speed), Ho-Oh gets
415 HP / 394 Atk / 216 Def / 230 SpA / 344 SpD / 218 Spe. We will ignore SpA in our comparisons for obvious reasons. Looking at the stat spreads alone, the only real stat that Ho-Oh has an advantage in is Speed, and with minimal investment, we know that she won't be outspeeding anything significant any time soon anyway. We can see that Tyranitar not only takes hits better (from both sides of the spectrum), but also hits harder (apart from Brave Bird) than our Uber friend.
So what makes Ho-Oh better than Tyranitar? Well, it has (arguably) better STABs and resistances, a broken-ass move in Sacred Fire and reliable recovery. Okay, but Tyranitar has no crippling 4x weakness to Stealth Rock (which almost completely cancels out reliable recovery) and a trapping move in Pursuit (which I will bring up in more detail in a minute). Both fit the "special tank" very well, Ho-Oh can take bullshit like +4 Dark Pulse from Darkrai, while Tyranitar can take stuff like +1 Aura Sphere (4x WEAK) from Mewtwo and both OHKO in return.
About the "other special sponges", standard Calm Blissey takes 54.60% - 64.72% from an 897 SpA using a super-effective STAB Base 75 Power attack. Latias takes 127.08% - 150.00% using a 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe Timid spread (Speed is needed otherwise Latias isn't that useful). The difference is that Blissey usually can't do much back to the opponent, Latias is OHKOed, while Tyranitar can take the attack and OHKO in return (in Celebi's case)
Now, onto why I think Tyranitar fits the old "Support Characteristic". The best card in its deck is obviously Pursuit. While most people already know how good it is, I believe on Tyranitar it is too good. With Pursuit, it can easily wipe *insert slightly frail or Dark-weak special attacker that can't use a Fighting attack* off the map in a pinch while taking virtually nothing from the opponent's attack. Here's a list of very viable Pursuit susceptible Pokemon that can't do much to Tyranitar, next to them a list of sweepers/attackers that can easily thrive with their removal:
* - Depends on circumstances
Psychics:
-Latias (Virizion, Garchomp, Rotom-A, Suicune, Infernape, Terakion*, Mienshao, Ninetales, Celebi, Mew*, Kyurem*, Lilligant, Nidoking, Jolteon*, etc)
-Latios (See Latias)
-Celebi (debatable) (Breloom, Suicune, *sigh* you get my point)
-Slowbro (Wobb support needed, so I guess you can argue against Wobb here)
-Xatu
-Deoxys-D/S
-Espeon
-Victini (debatable)
-Reuniclus (Wobb support usually needed, too)
-Starmie (debatable)
Ghosts:
-Gengar (debatable)
-Dusclops (Again, may need Wobb support)
-Jellicent (Fast Tyranitars put Jellicent in a very awkward position)
-Chandelure
General special attackers and other Pokemon that can be Pursuited for the hell of it:
-Ninetales (debatable)
-Politoed (Scarf/Specs caught in the wrong move)
-Abomasnow (debatable)
-Jolteon
-Raikou
-Blissey
-Zapdos
Okay, I'm quite sure there are probably more Pokemon that get completely dicked by Pursuit, but I think you get my point. As you can see, say you remove your opponent's Latias, you already have a whole list of Pokemon that can sweep in their absence. Tyranitar is creating (and reasonably consistently, too) a condition for which another Pokemon can much more easily sweep from. If you remove their spin-blocker, well, if they're playing stall, they're virtually finished (unless you have no spinner or your spinner has died, I guess). If you successfully Pursuit Blissey (which isn't that hard, I've actually done it quite a lot of times), you have punched a huge hole in their special wall, in which something like NP Thundurus can easily come in and sweep.
So, up to now, I haven't even talked about Tyranitar bringing Sandstorm. While true, Sandstorm is not a big issue with Tyranitar setting it up, the problem is that with Tyranitar, Sand is so easy to keep up. It handily beats Ninetales (I mean hell, even with Will-O-Wisp Ninetales is losing most of the time), can Pursuit it only the way out to make sure it doesn't come back either. If you catch something like Specs/Scarf Politoed on Ice Beam or something like that (which you can bait into), you got yourself a near-dead Politoed. Even defensive sets need to watch out, unless you get a burn with Scald, Politoed isn't going to like taking on Tyranitar either. Abomasnow lacking Focus Punch are usually beaten quite handily, too. With those out of the way, sand teams will usually godstomp the opposing team. Another thing to note is that Sun/Rain/Hail can often share weaknesses with its weather inducer (although Rain is starting to steer away from that). While yes, Tyranitar also shares weaknesses, it can often get away with it simply on how fucking bulky it is (Water weakness? WTF is that?), great example is the +4 Celebi example I used (Grass weakness? WTF is that?).
One thing that was quite interesting last gen was Manaphy's banning. One big argument was that with ScarfTar support, it ripped through teams. However, this posed another question that was actually a very valid point and went unanswered: Should Manaphy be Uber for the Offensive Characteristic, or should Tyranitar be Uber for the Support Characteristic?
I'll probably think of more later, but that should be enough for you to think about.
