Mega Steelix eh? So it's a mon with great defensive typing that allows it to check a great number of threats in the tier, very usable mixed defenses, and a strong enough offensive presence that allows it to punish foes to a far greater degree than is to be expected from a Pokemon with its calibre of bulk. Hmmm, what about it sounds familiar....
oh wait
Remember how Aegislash single-handedly neutered otherwise solid Pokemon (Terrakion, Starmie, MegaVoir, Hawlucha, Mega Hera, etc...), and played a huge role in warping the whole meta around itself? I feel a similiar sense of deja vu with Mega Steelix's presence in NU. Sure, Mega Steelix is nowhere near as versatile, but its bulk combined with its power meant that it can easily punish teams that run any Pokemon it can check / switch into; considering the number of Pokemon Mega Steelix can respond to, this can apply to almost any team and lead to a form of restrictive / unhealthy centralisation. I agreed with the Aegislash ban then, and I'm all for boosting Mega Steelix out now before the meta starts taking too drastic a shift.
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I get what
blarajan is going with when he said that there are so many powerful and effective top threats in NU that it can stunt and limit teambuilding to prepare for them, however I feel the issue is not as simple to describe as that, because it's not like NU hasn't faced its fair share of simultaneous overwhelming threats at once. Case in point: BW NU. No Stealth Rock means you can expect Charizard to tear you apart sooner or later (and even then that may not be enough to stop it), you need a fullstop to Musharna or there is no way one is breaking through its level of bulk, and then there are mons like Zangoose and Samurott that were a gamble just to defend against. Despite all the crazy amount of threats BW NU has, it never felt too restrictive to teambuilding
bar Jynx and Pede, with anything above the C Ranks (and even some in it) still being viable or decently effective even in high ladder play.
Even now, despite NU having even more threats than before, I felt like NU has actually gotten more diverse in terms of viable mons it can use, as opposed to blarajan had said (and similiar to what
PISTOLERO said). Sure, NU still has its top dog threats like Typh and Gatr and Lilligant and w/e one can care to name, but these threats manage to establish a rather dynamic balance with one another, with no particular threat seemingly overpowering for many playstyles at once as a result and thus allowing for more team variety. Except Mega Steelix, which kind of fucks up that dynamic what with its unbalanced proportion between bulk and power :P.
That said, I don't see any harm in suspect tests: if the threat turns out not to be too powerful, things can resume as normal, but if the threat turns out to be too strong, we're on our way to a more stable metagame.
Wolfenstein's suggestion of using the UU system, which is to allow only one suspect into the metagame at a time, could be effective in helping us to discern the true issue our metagame is having right now:
is it the number of threats that is putting the strain on teambuilding, or the threats themselves? Imagine a meta without Typh
and Gatr, only one of the two at a time. This can allow us to put hypothetical teambuilding trends into effect, and also highlight the 'dynamic balance between threats' I was referring to (which is how differently the meta would shape into to respond to a certain top dog threat when the others are absent). Although hopefully the suspect system would be implemented in such a way that it allows the community to have some say, since pretty much every quickban / suspect we've had so far involved little to no community input.
