Hello fellow forum users! It's been almost a week since the UU drops have been implemented, and according to Phantom on the previous page, another voting slate will be taking soon. I wanted to use this opportunity to talk about potentially problematic threats in the current metagame, as both the UU drops and the RUBL unbans shook up the tier quite a lot, to the point where the tier is mildly foreign compared to only a week ago. I also wanted to check up on the non-problematic unbans and drops, since almost all of them are viable in some way, shape, or form
The threats
I really like Sharpedo. In fact, I love all Speed Boost mons, whether it's Blazkien up in Ubers or Ninjask all the way down in the lower tiers, so it truly does pain me to say that Sharpedo is simply too much for the tier. On paper, Water/Dark is only resisted by opposing Sharpedos (which it can run CC for), Virizion (gets hit by Psychic Fangs), Whimsicott (Poison Jab), and Dry Skin Toxicroak (PFangs), which means Sharpedo has an easy time tearing through offensive threats and severely denting most defensive mons that don't resist one of its STABs. The ability Speed Boost means that every turn Sharpedo is on the field (barring switches into it), it becomes harder and harder to revenge kill, eventually outspeeding all of its offensive checks just by staying in. Combine this with a naturally high Attack stat, access to two spammable STABs in Liquidation and Crunch, and a myriad of physical coverage moves to choose from, and we have quite the threatening mon.
But what exactly makes it broken? Surely it has some form of defensive or offensive counterplay. And there is, but these can be easily worked around. Like I stated earlier, offensively not much can outspeed an Adamant Sharpedo at +1, let alone at +2, which leaves the only other forms of revenge killing Focus Sash mons (unless you have Kadabra, these get broken by hazards, which are on almost every team), staying in and taking a hit while hopefully living and hitting back (generally not viable since most bulky attackers get OHKOed by a STAB or coverage option), and priority moves. The last one seems like a viable option, if not for one mon that was recently unbanned: Indeedee-F. Its ability Psychic Surge not only boosts the power of Psychic moves used by grounded mons by 1.3x but also
negates all priority moves targeted at the opponent for both sides. This means, with Psychic Surge up, Sharpedo can effectively become unkillable due to outspeeding all offensive mons and being unable to be hit by priority. Defensively, as I said before, not much resists both STABs and a coverage move, but some naturally bulky mons can survive a switch in and either cripple it or kill it. Unfortunately, most of these defensive mons such as Gastrodon hate being statused, so all it takes is a well-timed Toxic from, say, Salazzle to pretty much render it inert, even with a recovery option.
Overall, there just isn't much that can deal with Sharpedo. It has a limited pool of check, can easily get to a point where you simply can't revenge kill it, and what looks like solid answers on paper can be crippled or dealt with by its teammates with minimal effort. Also, I see special sets on some Sharpedos that bypass its standard checks, but I don't think these are nearly as viable because of its lower Special Attack stat and lack of PFangs to hit things like Virizion.
Dragon STAB has always been a big deal in the tier, ever since Drampa rose from NU to RU and possibly even before that when Goodra was banned. So it's no surprise to me that Goodra and Dragalge are quite problematic. Goodra does the same thing it did pre-ban: use the threat of Specs Draco, a good Speed tier, and solid bulk + defensive typing to force switches and either hit something with Specs Draco or pressure the resist with a coverage move (Fire Blast and Sludge Wave perfectly cover both of these resists). Not to mention that due to the sheer threat of Specs, it can run a bunch of other (albeit slightly less viable) sets, ranging from AV to Band to mixed LO, to prey on the unpredictability factor.
Dragalge, meanwhile, trades the bulk and solid speed tier of Goodra for even more power (thanks to Adaptability), a Poison STAB, and Flip Turn. Although Dragalge is much more one-dimensional, it excels in that one dimension by clicking Specs boosted STAB moves that even resists have a hard time taking. Fairy types, which were previously an okay but volatile check to Specs Goodra, are now scared off by the threat of Sludge Wave, which leaves the only check to Dragalge as Steel types...which it gets Focus Blast for and Flip Turn to switch out of. You see the problem here? These two mons just have a too easy time using their STAB moves or scaring the opponent into doing something stupid, whether it be with the massive movepool and unpredictability of Goodra, or the sheer power and ability to pivot out of checks that Dragalge has. These two are simply too much for the tier right now and I think they should be banned.
Despite the power level of the tier raising due to the sheer amount of drops we got, do any of them check either the physical or the special sets that got it banned in the first place? I'm not even looking for something that checks both, but something that at least checks one of them. After experimenting, I've found the answer to be...not enough. Arcanine seems like a good check to the physical set with Intimidate and grass resistance, but only Physically Defensive sets can avoid the 2HKO from a -1 Virizion using Stone Edge and the OHKO from a +1 Stone Edge, meaning it no longer becomes a check once Virizion sets up. Golisopod looks good offensively with a STAB First Impression able to severely dent Virizion, but it also can't switch into either the physical or special set, as both Air Slash and Stone Edge have a good chance of activating Emergency Exit and sending it back out again. The only new mon that can reliably check Virizion is Scarf Gardevoir offensively, but it still suffers from the problem of being unable to switch into either set (unless it predicts a Fighting-type move). This isn't even going into the mixed sets, which have even fewer checks. Virizion is a mon I hope is banned because of the reasons it was before: great coverage, great speed tier, great special bulk, and a lack of checks.
The non-ban worthy threats
I'm probably in the minority here, but it's extremely underwhelming. Still a very good mon, but nowhere near broken like a lot of people were saying when it first dropped. For one, it's very hard to fit onto more defensive teams because of the prevalence of hazards, specifically Stealth Rocks, leaving it unable to use the better defensive typings of the metagame without giving away that it's Zoroark (unless you run HDB, but the difference in power between that and LO is noticeable), leaving it to be used on offensive teams, where the NP set directly competes with Salazzle because of the latter's better speed tier and STAB combination. The SD set is the better one from my experience, but even that one suffers from Fighting-types, not being able to hit them outside of Aerial Ace and easily OHKOed by a STAB move by any of them. Maybe I'm underrating it a bit, or maybe it will become broken after the council bans some more things, but for now, I think it's fine.
I have fallen in love with ze pod here, and I think I know why. On paper, it shouldn't work. In a meta with tons of special attackers, it has a mediocre Special Defense stat. In a meta with lots of bulky wallbreakers, it's speed tier is worse than all of them. And in a meta where bulky Waters run rampant, it fails to threaten them. But thanks to STAB First Impression, great physical bulk, and a high Attack stat combined with being able to abuse Boots, it has become one of my favorite mons to use in the meta, right behind SubToxic Salazzle and DD Scrafty. I feel that a HDB 4 attacks in the vein of Centiskorch is the premier set right now, although Spikes can easily fit on there if your team needs a hazards slot. First Impression because it's a powerful priority move, Leech Life to give it some recovery and a good STAB, Liquidation for another spammable STAB, and Aqua Jet to catch revenge killers that switch into First Impression thinking everything is fine (like Braviary). I can't wait to innovate more with this mon as the meta progresses.
I put these both together because they both have similar roles (special wallbreaker) and goals (spam STAB moves for profit), but how they achieve these goals are done much differently. Exploud is much more one-dimensional and boasts immediate power, along with a reduced number of checks compared to Drampa due to Scrappy and basically a 210 BP move in Boomburst and is faster, outspeeding the base 60's fully invested, while Drampa is much slower and more flexible, with the ability to run a CM Roost set with Chople or Roseli, and better bulk thanks to its defense typing, and an extra Dragon STAB to nuke everything that isn't a Steel-type when combined with Hyper Voice. As for which one is better...it depends on what team you're building. Both do well in the balance matchup (although Drampa struggles with Porygon2 occasionally), but I feel that Drampa is better on bulky offense and Trick Room teams while Exploud is better on balance and hyper offense teams. This isn't to say that you should strictly use Drampa on bulky offense teams, nor should you only use Exploud on balance teams. In fact, I find that these two make a solid offensive core. I'm just stating my opinion on these two.
The other threats
These are the other drops/unbans that happened, but I don't care enough about them to write a full paragraph, so lightning round! Arcanine is a cool and flexible Fire type that can offer some needed role compression to team, Araquanid does the exact same thing it did last gen and in UU this gen (except with Boots), Bronzong is a nice defensive non-Rock type Rocks setter that isn't passive as it looks, Copperjah will probably run Banded sets again, Escavalier is threatening to teams without Fire types but almost harmless to teams with them, Gardevoir looks like a top tier threat with CM and Scarf sets, Gigalith I haven't faced much in this meta but it's pretty annoying, Lycanroc is almost exclusively going to be on teams with Gigalith to use Sand Rush but can function without thanks to a great speed tier and power, Klefki I can already tell is going to be annoying as piss to deal with, Mantine is back and combined with Milotic adds more bulky Waters in a tier that can't get enough of them, Rhyperior is already making its presence known and single-handily making Rhydon go back to NU, Seismitoad is directly competing with Gastrodon for the Water-Ground role on teams but has the niche of Poison Touch and Rocks to set it apart, Snorlax is back and I still hate VileLax cores, Steelix is back and still good, and Umbreon is a great defensive mon with bulk, recovery, and abilty to stave off Toxic with the threat of Synchronize.
As for the RUBL unbans, Barraskewda got Flip Turn but still has trouble beating bulky Waters, Indeedee-F is going to be another top tier Psychic and will pick up where pre-DLC Indeedee-M left off, Inteleon hates the fact that not one, but two bulky Water dropped as it got unbanned, Linoone is going to abuse Screens again but not Veil since Ninetales is back, and speaking of the fox I feel that sun teams will come back into fashion, albeit neutered a bit, and finally, I have no idea what Sigilyph will want to run since it has quite a few viable sets, but it's probably fine.
Please let them drop to NU already
For one reason or another, I simply can't see these mons as RU material. Yes, they have their niches (Comfey as a CM user, Clawitzer as a Specs user with a pivot, etc), but they're either outclassed at their roles or the meta just isn't kind to them. A good example is Slowbro-Galar. It's a cool mon, and it gets two good abilities in Regenerator and Quick Draw, but it has no way of abusing the former defensively thanks to a defensive typing with common Dark and Ground weaknesses, has to use an item slot to abuse the latter properly, and it's STILL walled by the Steels that dropped which resist Psychic and are immune to Poison. An immunity to Toxic is neat and Flamethrower helps it breaks through Steels, but I still find that Slowbro-Galar is too inconsistent and generally outclassed by either other Psychic types or other Poison types.
Overall, I really enjoyed the drops and unbans, even if some ended up being broken like Sharpedo. I'm currently enjoying the current metagame much more than the July one, as a lot of the drops properly shook up the tier in a good way.
tl;dr
Ban Sharpedo, Goodra, Dragalge, and Virizion
Everything else is fine
I like the drops as a whole
