You're forgetting that while Crobat is excellent as a weather starter, it is by no means the best. Electrode is even better for Rain Dance, though it doesn't tend to survive long, between terrible defenses and Explosion. Its base 140 speed lets it beat most every other lead, even potentially some slow scarfers. It's been king of the rain dance biz much longer than Crobat, and really for good reason. Blowing up is easily the best way to get a sweeper into battle without taking damage, while U-turn risks unforeseen consequences.
As for Sunny Day, it doesn't have that same kind of "instant awesome SD setup" mon, but there are still some solid picks in stuff like Ambipom, Persian, Sceptile, etc. Crobat may be good at setting up weather, but it's not like weather goes away as soon as he leaves. It's a nich that must be filled, and Crobat happens to fill it well.
Bottom line, everything and its mother learns the Weather moves, and it's not all that out of the ordinary to be fast + weather.
Then it comes down to Taunt. Everyone's been talking about how "omg crobat picks up a guaranteed taunt", but why is that bad? There are some vicious setup mons around that Taunt helps keep in check, such as most CMers (not espeon but that's beside the point somewhat), some SDers, Curse Tanks, etc. Furthermore, Taunt really isn't that rare a move either. What it really comes down to is the fact that Crobat is a good Pokemon at what it does, and while it may possibly be the best, it's not like removing it is going to suddenly make these things disappear. It's nowhere near BL material, IMO. Sure, Crobat can make life suck for a number of teams, but that should be something that the metagame is allowed to adapt to rather than just blaming it on Crobat being a jerk and banning it.
From when I played, it was never a real issue to beat Crobat as a lead. With Froslass gone, Steelix could be pretty nice as a lead to scare away Crobat, as Gyro Ball does ridiculous amounts of damage to Crobat, and Earthquake is ever looming in case Crobat wants to get cute and Roost. Froslass was a bitch because no matter what, it was setting up one or two layers of spikes and then killing something. Crobat's *only* use as a lead is to Taunt and then... do something. It can set up weather, but that's not especially special. It can try and stall with Roost, but against a lot of tanks and stuff you want to taunt, that's kinda iffy. Hell, you could just run some kind of Scarfed Anti-lead and shut down Crobat that way. With Froslass out of the way, Crobat is a lot less useful. Crobat had a huge niche in being the only non-Electrode lead to actually be capable of beating Froslass, but if Froslass gets the boot (which I suspect and largely hope), its use as a non-weather lead may dwindle. It might get used a shitload, but we'd expect that of a good mon in the hands of players that want to win. But like Scizor in OU, usage + being good at something != broken.
As for Sunny Day, it doesn't have that same kind of "instant awesome SD setup" mon, but there are still some solid picks in stuff like Ambipom, Persian, Sceptile, etc. Crobat may be good at setting up weather, but it's not like weather goes away as soon as he leaves. It's a nich that must be filled, and Crobat happens to fill it well.
Bottom line, everything and its mother learns the Weather moves, and it's not all that out of the ordinary to be fast + weather.
Then it comes down to Taunt. Everyone's been talking about how "omg crobat picks up a guaranteed taunt", but why is that bad? There are some vicious setup mons around that Taunt helps keep in check, such as most CMers (not espeon but that's beside the point somewhat), some SDers, Curse Tanks, etc. Furthermore, Taunt really isn't that rare a move either. What it really comes down to is the fact that Crobat is a good Pokemon at what it does, and while it may possibly be the best, it's not like removing it is going to suddenly make these things disappear. It's nowhere near BL material, IMO. Sure, Crobat can make life suck for a number of teams, but that should be something that the metagame is allowed to adapt to rather than just blaming it on Crobat being a jerk and banning it.
From when I played, it was never a real issue to beat Crobat as a lead. With Froslass gone, Steelix could be pretty nice as a lead to scare away Crobat, as Gyro Ball does ridiculous amounts of damage to Crobat, and Earthquake is ever looming in case Crobat wants to get cute and Roost. Froslass was a bitch because no matter what, it was setting up one or two layers of spikes and then killing something. Crobat's *only* use as a lead is to Taunt and then... do something. It can set up weather, but that's not especially special. It can try and stall with Roost, but against a lot of tanks and stuff you want to taunt, that's kinda iffy. Hell, you could just run some kind of Scarfed Anti-lead and shut down Crobat that way. With Froslass out of the way, Crobat is a lot less useful. Crobat had a huge niche in being the only non-Electrode lead to actually be capable of beating Froslass, but if Froslass gets the boot (which I suspect and largely hope), its use as a non-weather lead may dwindle. It might get used a shitload, but we'd expect that of a good mon in the hands of players that want to win. But like Scizor in OU, usage + being good at something != broken.
