In an era where several Pokemon have immunities to status conditions and can heal themselves just by switching out, where we have a box legendary from LAST GENERATION that can 1v1 ALL physical attackers in the tier and most special attackers, we are going after a bulky mixed attacker from 10 years ago that only rose to prominence in the past generation. This is where Gen 9 OU is at now.
Whenever I see someone malding about Kyurem, the first thing that I always ask is, “Do you have a Ground type on your team?” Why? Because that’s the group that Kyurem threatens the most. Ground types are by far the most dominant that they have ever been in the history of OU. Although Landorus-Therian’s dominance is not as strong as in Gen 8, several new Ground threats like Great Tusk, Iron Treads, Ting-Lu, and Clodsire have been wreaking havoc, in addition to the miserable sack of shit that we refer to as Gl*scor. Ground-type coverage is more present than ever, with Enamorus, Garganacl, Glimmora, and others, including Kyurem, making use of it. Tera Ground is one of the premier Tera types. With Weavile and Meowscarada nearly guaranteed to fall to UU next shift, Kyurem is the only relevant Ice type in the tier, and the only relevant form of Ice type coverage is Darkrai’s Ice Beam. Kyurem is vital for keeping all of these threats in check, and several more, such as the bulky Water types of the tier. Now, one can easily argue that such Pokemon can be banned as well, and that’s not incorrect. However, this is only true in certain cases. Mons like Gl-scor or Ogerpon-W could certainly be banned afterwards, but who’s going to argue that Landorus-Therian or Great Tusk should be banned? This highlights another reason why I feel Kyurem is healthy for the metagame: it stops bans from snowballing (no pun intended). If Kyurem goes, who's next? If the subsequent mons go, which are next? Do we really want to live in a metagame where we have a new suspect test every month? Alright, that's enough ranting about Ground types.
I do not believe that Kyurem restricts teambuilding very much. A common argument by Kyurem's opposition is that no team can handle every Kyurem set. There is certainly an argument to be made for this, but what these people fail to realize is that there is no Kyurem set that can handle every team, and moreover, that every Kyurem set not only has its unique weaknesses, but also has shared weaknesses among very set. For the sake of brevity, I will only go after their shared weaknesses, but I do want to touch on one in particular a bit more than the others, and that is the SubProc set that the linked video states can only be beaten by "a Blissey or a Tera Ice special wall". This is not true at all, because it has the same shared weaknesses as the other sets. So, what are they?
If you are overly concerned about "Kyurem Proofing" your team, you really only need one or two of these things.
Knock Off: Fast or bulky Knock Off users can cripple or outright defeat Kyurem, as it cannot take a Knock Off followed by a supereffective attack. Items are also extremely important to how Kyurem functions, HDB removal means it can only switch in once or twice more at best, Loaded Dice removal kills its already shaky consistency, Specs removal will decrease its damage output significantly, and Leftovers removal limits how many times it can substitute.
Priority: Loaded Dice sets in particular fear priority moves as they negate Scale Shot boosts, and priority will force mindgames with status moves regardless of the set.
Hazards: Lack of hazard damage will immediately give away that it's a HDB set, and all other sets take massive damage from hazards. Getting hazards up before Kyurem comes in will severely discourage its presence, and getting them up while it's in will force it to stay in or risk punishment.
Status, Coverage, and Phazing: This is simply obvious.
These are all common things that every good team can should have and can easily fit, far from the exaggerations that people make.
Furthermore, Kyurem is shaky defensively and offensively. Mixed sets cannot reliably break without support, SubProc is heavily reliant on predictions, much like Gl*scor and the other cowards who use the move Protect, and Specs sets can be walled. The argument that it restricts teambuilding seems to mostly come from people who simply do not take threats similar to Kyurem seriously. Anything that's weak to Kyurem is threatened by several other things like Great Tusk and Darkrai that have coverage similar to Kyurem, but it can also be threatened back out by the same checks to Pokemon like that. Even Pokemon weak to Kyurem can threaten it out with their coverage.
I do not feel that Kyurem is as difficult to work around as other banned threats, especially since its set variety is also beginning to plateau. Aside from niche options such as Flash Cannon, Tera Electric, or physical HDB sets, there is not that much that Kyurem can do anymore, as its defensive and offensive profile is not as overly dominant. Special and physical variants are limited by their methods of attack, while mixed sets are limited by their EVs, and the infamous SubProc set has only two attacks to pick from, and can be walled just like a Specs set, contrary to what some people would have you believe. All of these, as stated before, are limited by Kyurem's typing, which makes it reliant on Tera. As a final example of why I do not consider Kyurem to be too dominant, I will bring up the Gouging Faceplate ban. There is an entire decade's worth of time between their debuts, and Kyurem lacks the qualities that made Gouging Faceplate so oppressive. For starters, Kyurem is defensively mediocre, while Gouging Faceplate has a better typing and more optimized stat spread. Thus, Gouging Faceplate is not as Tera reliant, and Tera broke it by allowing it to flip matchups. Kyurem cannot flip matchups as easily because all of its most popular Tera options have weaknesses shared with its same typing or weaknesses to another common type. Meanwhile, mixed sets have to choose between having a defensive stat be hindered by Nature, and it does not have access to Booster Energy or sun boosts. Snow boosts do not save it from SE attacks thanks to its crippling weaknesses. It is telling that bulky attacker Kyurem variants have not arisen like with Gouging Faceplate, because it lacks the consistency and defensive capability that made it such a problem. What is also telling is the lack of Choice Band sets despite Kyurem’s access to the same attacking options, as there are much better Choice Band users that have better speed and typing to match it. Kyurem being handicapped to Loaded Dice illustrates, at least in my opinion, why it isn’t too difficult to check, because it lacks the consistency and staying power that would be expected of a Choice Band user. Specs sets do not suggest otherwise, as they rely on matchup fishing to be successful.
All in all, I personally do not feel that Kyurem is banworthy. I personally do not feel that I have very much trouble with taking it down, nor do I feel like my own use of it is too consistent or powerful. I will conclude by reiterating that Kyurem’s position in the metagame is an important one, checking several Ground and Water threats, some of which would be oppressive without its presence and others which would not be as oppressive but increase in dominance even more. It provides a mixed attacker that OU is quite lacking in, without being too consistent or dominant. Banning it will set a dangerous precedent that will lead to more bans by kicking the can down the road and allowing threats such as Gl*scor and others to restrict team building in the same way that Kyurem is accused of doing.
So now I ask you, do you want to live in a metagame where we have a new suspect test every month? And I also ask you, do you have a Ground type on your team?
I will be voting DNB, and you should too.
