For the first time since the beginning of the generation, it can easily be argued that the RU metagame is in a place of relative stability. Last shift did change things in part with the departure of Rotom-Mow, but after that fallout the tier has been fairly consistently in a similar place it has been in since the chaotic drops of a few months back. Therefore, for the time being we're allowed to relax a bit on the Council votes, take a bit more time and open the voting process to the community at large! Because, even if the metagame is considerable more stable, it is by no means perfect, and concerns have been raised on a few things.
The RU Council has thus decided to begin this phase of the generation with Sigilyph. Sigilyph was unbanned along various other things as Isle of Armor hit RU, and was deemed fine to stay in the tier. A few weeks later, it even dropped to NU, puzzling many as it was still a pretty potent force in the tier. Regardless, that its mass usage doesn't seem that high hasn't really convinced people that it's not a serious question mark on the health of the metagame. In the metagame thread, Expulso made a fairly long post about the issues Sigilyph presents, and Juno followed up in the VR thread. Going over a few points, Sigilyph is generally concerning to people due to how diversified it is, and just how many of those sets are really efficient in the context of the metagame: Flame Orb heavily cripples most of what would be considered safe switchins, think of Gigalith for example, by forcing the burn on them and later on capitalizing on their lack of offensive presence to muscle past them with a CM set. Life Orb sets are more straightforward, but are very good at pressuring teams lacking that bulky water or dark type... which then are struggling pretty badly vs trick sets, be it Scarf, Barb or Toxic Orb, opening them up to Sigilyph's teammates while allowing it to move past a supposed answer very easily. One thing that is a bit of a main stay though in all the sets is just how good it is for Sigilyph to be able to hold an item. This might seem weird to say, but in a tier where boots are such a significant mainstay on every team. Sigilyph's ability to ignore all hazards via ability and mess teams up with its item just adds a little more to it that might arguably push it over the edge.
However, Sigilyph is not without issues, otherwise it would have been voted on a long time ago. Despite its ability to carry a boosting item with no drawbacks, Sigilyph lacks a bit of oomph overall. Its speed tier is very good, its coverage is very good, and its bulk more than decent, but it's almost always lacking a bit of something to truly be that massive force that shapes the metagame around a specific issue. While it does have a lot of adaptability, that also can work against it though, what if it's the wrong set vs a team and it costs the player massively? Flame Orb, while immensely annoying to some counterplay, lacks immediate presence and boosts very slowly, while also being almost forced to fit Air Slash as its only stab if it doesn't want to eventually lose to darks, which it still can if it takes a bad knock. Life Orb is very powerful and all, but fairly limited to two moves if you want to fit Roost and CM / Defog, all immensely valuable, which then leads to hard choices with regards to what moves you want to run. Other trick sets can be supremely annoying vs the dedicated answer, but on the same token can allow other mons to check it better since it's going to lack that boosting move / coverage / recovery to be truly problematic as a team breaker.
Short summary, but the floor is now yours: Is Sigilyph too much for the RarelyUsed tier? We'll copy the sliding requirements from other tiers for this, thanks Hogg for the quote here from their most recent suspect: "The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 80 with at least 50 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 80 GXE, down to a minimum of 30 games at a GXE of 84. As always, needing more than 50 games to reach 80 GXE is fine."
| GXE | minimum games |
| 80 | 50 |
| 80.2 | 49 |
| 80.4 | 48 |
| 80.6 | 47 |
| 80.8 | 46 |
| 81 | 45 |
| 81.2 | 44 |
| 81.4 | 43 |
| 81.6 | 42 |
| 81.8 | 41 |
| 82 | 40 |
| 82.2 | 39 |
| 82.4 | 38 |
| 82.6 | 37 |
| 82.8 | 36 |
| 83 | 35 |
| 83.2 | 34 |
| 83.4 | 33 |
| 83.6 | 32 |
| 83.8 | 31 |
| 84 | 30 |
Other ladder informations:
- There will be no suspect ladder. Instead we will use the normal RU ladder which will remain open for the duration of the test. A message will pop up at the beginning of ladder games to indicate that the suspect is going on (Tagging Marty to implement, thank you!). Anyone who wishes to participate in this suspect test will use a newly-made alt with a suspect-specific tag to indicate that you are trying to achieve reqs. The requirements for this suspect test are the following:
- All games must be played on the Pokemon Showdown! RU ladder on a new alt with the following format: "RU3S (nickname)" For example, RU3S Evidith or RU3S Sunbroke.
- Do NOT impersonate other people in your ladder alt, do NOT use any usernames which are offensive, flame-baiting, or targeting specific users, and do NOT use usernames which could be interpreted as breaking any of the username rules on Pokemon Showdown! Failure to abide to this will result in you being barred from voting in this suspect, and potential infractions.
The suspect test will last for 10 days, ending on Monday, October 5th at 23:59 EDT.
/!\ NOTICE /!\ RU will not be tolerating any form of voting manipulation. Any attempt to manipulate votes can result in an infraction, loss of eligibility to vote in the current test, and loss of the Tiering Contributor badge. While we won't necessarily enforce super strict punishment, this won't be tolerated and will be handled accordingly. Voting manipulation can simply be described as attempting to get people to vote a way on the test in inappropriate manners. Bribing with teams to vote a certain way, directly messaging people to vote a certain way, publicly announcing "vote this way" all fall under voting manipulation. For more query feel free to PM me or phantom.
(excuse this pls)
also is great in offensive teams, having the boost in speed in rapid Spin is nice and flip turn to pivot around
