Metagame NP ZU Stage 13: Tongue Twister - Oricorio-Sensu banned #13

[Tuthur]

​

Rotom-Mow is very reminiscent of a previously banned Pokémon in Hisuian Electrode. This encouraged a majority of council members to initially want to quickban Rotom-Mow, but not enough to reach the two third threshold. They both are Electric-Grass special attackers that can easily threaten Volt Switch immunities, such as Lanturn, Palossand, and Sandaconda, with their super effective STAB Leaf Storm. However, the comparison stops their stat distributions make them play quite differently. One of Hisuian Electrode's biggest asset was its blazing Speed tier, letting it even outrun Choice Scarf users like Passimian and establishing itself as the ultimate offensive pivot and revenge killer, that would be extremely hard to wear down as it didn't need to give up on Heavy-Duty Boots for a Choice Scarf. On the other hand, Rotom-Mow is much stronger and bulkier, and has a deeper movepool, featuring Nasty Plot, Trick, Pain Split, and Will-O-Wisp, making it much less predictable.

These traits allow Rotom-Mow to perform in multiple roles. Its Choice Scarf set works quite similarly to Hisuian Electrode's offensive pivot set, as it outspeeds the whole unboosted tier as well as slower Choice Scarf users like Passimian and Qwilfish. While it still gets damaged by Stealth Rock, its great bulk coupled with Levitate means it is not getting worn down easily either, and although it can't switch moves, it can also cripple bulkier checks such as Snorlax with Trick. Rotom-Mow can also run a Nasty Plot set that can break through special walls like Porygon2 after a couple boosts and use Tera Blast Poison and Fire to flip the type chart, letting it avoid getting revenge killed by faster foes like Sneasel formes, Choice Scarf Passimian, and Charizard, while nailing Grass-types that resist its STAB combination.

On the flip side, Rotom-Mow's only average Speed tier prevents it from really working like Hisuian Electrode. Without using a Choice Scarf, it gets outsped by key threats such as Sneasel formes, Charizard, and Choice Scarf users that can easily revenge kill it, while with a Choice Scarf, it is much more prediction reliant and can be more easily punished. This means Rotom-Mow has a much harder time getting back momentum against more offensive teams than Hisuian Electrode, and plays quite differently. As for Nasty Plot sets, they are not much different from Mesprit ones, which can be a threat for bulkier teams, but can usually be traded with and revenge killed. Grass-types that resist Rotom-Mow's STAB combination are also very common, with Rotom-Mow itself to start, but also great Pokémon such as Virizion, Shaymin, Brute Bonnet, Dipplin, Whimsicott, Alolan Exeggutor, and Arboliva, that Rotom will struggle a lot to break without forcing the opponent to tera and use Tera Blast. Rotom-Mow also can't fit all its incredible options in one moveset, meaning it is unable to run all of Leaf Storm, Volt Switch, Tera Blast, Discharge, Nasty Plot, and Pain Split on one set.

NOTE: THIS TEST WILL BE USING A NEW SUSPECT PROCESS!

The instructions to participate in this test are as follows:

• Create a new account on PS. You do not have to follow any specific naming convention, but your suspect account must have never played a game in ZU before this suspect test went up or you will not receive valid requirements (resetting W/L does not count for this - the account you use must never have played ZU before the test, full stop.)
• At any point on your new account, use the command /linksmogon on Pokemon Showdown! You will receive instructions on what to do once you run this command.
• Double check that you're listed as a voter here! If you aren't listed as a voter despite having valid reqs, please contact myself, wooper, or a member of staff.
• If you have any questions about this new process, feel free to PM me or post here!

The requirement to vote in this suspect test is a COIL value of 2920. For reference, the B-value for this suspect will be 4. The suspect test will go on for about 14 days, lasting until Wednesday, January 22nd at 4:08 pm GMT-4 and then we will put up the voting thread in the Blind Voting subforum.

This thread will be open to allow all users to share their thoughts on this suspect test and discuss with one another their thoughts. Should you have any questions about the suspect test, feel free to message me or anyone else on the ZU council. Keep in mind that our suspect tests are decided by the community; anyone who achieves voting requisites is allowed to vote. The outcome is up to you. Happy posting and laddering!

Avoid posting one-liners or posts that do not contribute to any discussion. They will be deleted.

 

[wooper]

how bad is our hazard removal actually?
the recent departure of hecidueye and cramorant to pu have made our options for hazard removal worse for sure, but i want to discuss what we've got left! mons are listed alphabetically, and anything not included i dont think is viable as a hazard removal or in the tier as a whole

defog

im actually really enjoying lurantis currently! its base grass-type is great for resisting the stab attacks from all the rotom-mow and floatzel running around in the tier.


im sure this does just okay if youre running a physdef set, but i wouldnt recommend it personally


i think gurdurr might have some merit as a remover, specifically because the other fighting-types removers in the tier (the hitmonbrothers) are spinblocked by ghost-types. however, you similarly still lose the 1v1 against palossand because you cant run defog alongside bulk up with drain, knock, and mach punch. another downside is that you cant shouldnt run boots like you can on other mons because of your eviolite

rapid spin

actually a great spinner imo! 127 base attack is nothing to scoff at, and even body press off of base 184 def is going to hurt. can handle most ghost-types that attempt to spinblock, but does have to worry about will-o-wisp on most. has recover for longevity too so you can spin long-term


i do not like this mon, it's just too passive. can work in the right scenario though: get off a speedy spin, or tank a special hit easily and spin. recover is nice as previously mentioned, and levitate is neat as a remover if you lose your boots on a spikestack team. i just would rather use cuno as a spdef ice-type


chan isnt top-tier but it can get the job done. nice mix of offense and bulk, iron fist-boosted drain punch attempts to keep you healthy and you have a stronger-than-normal mach punch too, and knock is great on any mon. mesprit being s-rank is scary for it frankly, so it needs to be wary


one of the stronger hazard removal options in the tier as an offensive spinner. sd + spin is scary and acts as a pseudo double dance, limber is a great ability, and you can break past ghost-types with knock. being faster with jolly max speed than non-scarf mesprit is also a bonus that its brothers cannot attest to


the newest hitmonbrother to join the zu foray, i think top is underrated. it's definitely a downgrade to lee, but ive found success with offensive sets running spin; i dont think bulky or defensive is the way to go here. notably lacks knock and sd unlike its brothers, but technician-boosted triple axel hurt and help wear down spinblockers


i wanna test out morpeko more, it's deceptively strong and also just lots of fun with hunger switch shenanigans. im not discounting it as an option just yet


hate this mon. ive talked about it on discord before, but despite its fantastic role compression with rocks or spikes, knock, and spin, it just falls flat in my experiences. you want the passive longevity of lefties, but then youre weak to hazards. you want boots to be able to spin better, but then you lack any sort of recovery. rocky helmet is not good.


been seeing this pop up more lately, and it's very similar to slash i feel. has lots of options available to it--spikes, t spikes, toxic, knock, strong stab attacks--and eject pack shenanigans can be fun, but im never impressed by its performance, frankly. its terrible ability doesnt help it either. jack of all trades, master of none.

honorable mentions
sometimes it prevents hazards well and other times it does nothing in a game. eject pack on sun is nifty, thats all
tidy up is funny

also check out this detailed post by LettuceLeaf07 on the same topic!

how do you all feel about these mons? have you had success with any mons not listed here? for the mons i dislike, how are you running them successfully?

on rotom mow
on the council's recent qb slate, i initially voted ban as i felt that mowtom was helectrode 2.0, but changed to dnb after i was convinced that its lower speed and lack of coverage without committing to tera blast. its ability to bypass electric immune mons makes it a volt switching nightmare, but im finding that grass-types just got better with its presence since they resist the dual stab. they can still get pivoted on and then youre in the back again, so that becomes an issue, but ive not been overwhelmed by it in practice. scarf sets are notably faster than other common scarfers like mesprit and passimian, but then youre choice locked and that sucks when your electric stab is blocked by immunities and your grass stab gets weaker with each click. np sets are managable in my experience as long as you have checks that are faster, like scarf mons, charizard, and sneasel. i dont think mowtom is gamebreaking currently but i understand the constraint in the builder (ive opted for tera grass on quite a few mons as of late) and the calls for it to go

where have you landed on mowtom? is it too much for the tier, mowing down its checks too easily, or is it fine to stay?

 

[DD Joe]

I think it's alright tbh. It can snowball if you let it but its speed tier isn't great and grass/electric isn't that good offensively.

Getting scarf tricked can be annoying but is very predictable. We've got lots of pretty viable mons in the tier who straight up wall it, Arboliva, Exeggutor Alola, Whimsicott, Shaymin, Snorlax, Hitmontop etc etc.

I don't think it's broken at all. Not gonna go too deep into it but almost certainly voting DNB. The Meta is great recently! :D

 

[Quackborg]

I think it's alright tbh. It can snowball if you let it but its speed tier isn't great and grass/electric isn't that good offensively.

Getting scarf tricked can be annoying but is very predictable. We've got lots of pretty viable mons in the tier who straight up wall it, Arboliva, Exeggutor Alola, Whimsicott, Shaymin, Snorlax, Hitmontop etc etc.

I don't think it's broken at all. Not gonna go too deep into it but almost certainly voting DNB. The Meta is great recently! :D

i mean idt you can realistically count top in there, and lax probably counts but might be iffy

 

[Havocknight]

- team I used for reqs. I usually don't share publically but I'm not gonna touch SV for a while so whatever

Rotom-Mow isn't broken. Yet it still unhealthy for the tier and I believe it should be banned to make the tier more enjoyable. Let me elaborate.

Why is Rotom-Mow not broken?
Rotom forms in general have middling base stats (520) and an okay base Speed of 86, which are not amazing by themselves, especially considering this metagame has a relatively high power level, with the likes of Virizion and Oricorio present. Thus, with these mediocre stats, Rotom forms are usually carried by the combination of Typing, Ability, and Support moves.
Here is the first con of Rotom-Mow: its typing is bad. Everyone knows that Grass is poor defensively, so I won't elaborate on this. But now comes the important part: offensively, Grass isn't particularly great either. In the current SV ZU metagame, it's even worse. Due to the lack of Ground-types in the metagame, Rotom-Mow can't get as many free turns as it would in a metagame with more Ground-types. This makes running setup sets such as Substitute + Nasty Plot harder than it already would be for a Pokémon with poor defensive typing and a mid Speed tier in a tier with more Ground-types present.
And that's not all: there are many good Grass-types that resist both of Rotom-Mow's STABs, and most of them can hit it and deal significant damage, while it cannot do much in return (unless it's using a gimmicky Tera Blast, in which case you're just running a terahog and literally anything could run that). Examples include Abomasnow, Virizion, and Brute Bonnet.
The offensive Fires-types we have in the metagame are also faster than Rotom-Mow, most notably Charizard and Typhlosion, which you could say: OK! i'm running it with Choice Scarf. But then being Choice-locked in a tier with all the previously mentioned Grass-types that will exploit the lock on their own way (Abomasnow setting up veil, Virizion SD, Bonnett Subs, etc.) is not enjoyable.
This concludes on why I think Rotom-Mow isn't broken, though there is probably more points that hold it as mediocre.

Why am I pro-ban even though I think it's not broken sustained by the points above?
Short answer: Because something doesn't need to be obligatorily broken to be unhealthy in a metagame.

We've reached a point where people are either using VoltTurn cores like Floatzel + Rotom or exploiting those cores with styles such as Snow teams, which saw surprising success in Round 1 of Circuit Playoffs. This generally shows how unhealthy the tier currently is. Even considering all the cons I mentioned earlier for Rotom-Mow, it can be tough to handle alongside Floatzel since they have good synergy and both allow a breaker to come in (e.g., Specs Typhlosion, Fighting-types). This leads to a metagame centered around countering those pivots and/or using them alongside a breaker, making the tier repetitive and unenjoyable for most players i've asked and for myself.

Hoping to see more posts about this because the state of the tier right now is questionable and so are some arguments i've been catching.

 

[Tuthur]

I got reqs yesterday, and while ladder experience didn't provide much on Rotom-Mow, friendlies I played to prepare for circuit, as well as actual circuit games, let me make for a more solid opinion than when I voted on quickban.

So as I expected, Rotom-Mow is actually far from the oppressing killing machine that people believed it to be. The Nasty Plot set everyone was fearing has yet to do something; with the only time it did something in circuit being when Lice brought fastest Pokémon Rotom-Mow and got his Tera Dragon Glastrier paralyzed + crit by Discharge into full para. This set didn't even have Volt Switch which was what most people complain about Rotom-Mow. The Choice Scarf set is great and took Passimian's spot as a premier Choice Scarf user, and it is indeed a great Volt Switch machine, but I don't believe it's that broken. Leaf Storm's Special Attack drop makes it quite easy to take advantage of, which wasn't as easy with Electrode Hisui and its access to Taunt; while the Electric moves usually need quite a lot of cheap damage to revenge kill.

Rotom-Mow seems like the scapegoat for people's disliking of the current metagame, which is quite understandable as the metagame used to be quite good pre-shifts. However, let me break down why it's not the case.

• Dudunsparce leaving really pushed forward more offensive structures. Dudunsparce was the single best Pokémon for defensive teams with its ability to force the opponent into making defensive plays by fear of getting an import Pokémon paralyzed and its ability to phaze out powerful setup sweepers.
• Cramorant and Decidueye-Hisui mean that it's impossible to afford removal without going for fringer options like Lurantis or bulky Braviary, or more offensive options like Hitmonlee and Morpeko that don't quite fit into balanced teams. Cramorant was also great at deterring setup with Gulp Missile, while Decideye's Triple Arrow made it quite hard to setup on it.
• The consequences of these three Pokemon leaving is that we got an influx of more offensive teams. Balance lost its best tool to beat offense; so offense got better, it is as simple as that.

Banning Rotom-Mow won't fix ZU's Electric immunities being completely ass into our Electric-types; Vikavolt, Magneton, and Jolteon have proven to be very good Pokemon that completely destroy Sandaconda and Palossand, while Porygon2 is only able to deal with most Jolteon (and as we've seen Sub Calm Mind Jolteon turns it into setup fodder). The only Electric immunity that beats the above is Lanturn, which still struggles into Sub CM Jolteon and Vikavolt.

Making Lanturn a more viable option on balance by banning Rotom-Mow, is most likely not going to change ZU's core issue with dealing with hyper offense. The Hattrem structures that had already emerged during Dudunsparce area, have been improved and explored; Aurora Veil Beartic and all the Oricorio Sensu variants being super hard to answer isn't a consequence of Rotom-Mow's presence in the tier. If anything, the suspect test has convinced me these playstyles are far too potent, get far too many auto-win matchups, and usually still require good plays to be defeated if you are prepared for them.

My opinion is that Rotom-Mow should be let free. The metagame being bad because of it is a stretch, and it is quite obvious there are far more problematic cheese Pokemon in the tier, that should get the boot first to help balance teams better answer VoltTurn.

tldr: Do not ban Rotom-Mow, and let's address Oricorio-Sensu and the other HO stapples when the suspect test concludes.

 

[LettuceLeaf07]

I'm probably not gonna get reqs because I'm lazy and feel like a terrible builder when I lose to cosmic power chimecho with a Morpeko, but we'll see if I try again. If I had reqs though, I'd probably vote DNB on Mowtom.

If we're looking at Floatzel + Mowtom VoltTurn cores as problematic, I don't think Mowtom is the problematic one. I could probably list at least 10 different grass types and then Porygon2 and Mesprit as things that can eat a Volt Switch without folding to Leaf Storm. There are a lot less things that want to eat a Floatzel Flip Turn that don't mind the Ice Spinner. /ds has 18 water resistances that aren't weak to ice, but 30 mons that resist both grass and electric. Of those, maybe 6 of the water resists are viable and about 13.5 of the grass resists are viable, and arguably more since bellossom is miles more viable than dewgong. The only mon that is in both lists is Abomasnow (lol).

On top of that, Mowtom is infinitely more exploitable than Floatzel is. If it's choiced and it launches a leaf storm into your grass resist, you probably take like 20 and have a free turn to do whatever. If it volt switches, you can take 5 more of those, and you probably have a check to the fire type they are bringing in. If Mowtom isn't choiced, then you can kill it with your choiced mon eventually, since everything that runs a choice item (typhlosion, floatzel, passimian, i ran out of ideas, grafaiai, either sneasel if you ignore the choiced part) outspeeds and has super-effective coverage for Mowtom.

The majority of builds I've tried in this meta have leaned balance, where I tried Poliwrath of all things as a Floatzel check. Poliwrath is not good. Poliwrath is probably why I don't have reqs lol. Despite that, I haven't had to bend over backward to counter Mowtom like I have for Floatzel. Mowtom checks fit onto teams, like P2 or any grass type. Floatzel checks are hoping they aren't scarf and that your scarf mon is cooler.

I think that Tuthur's post puts into words why this meta feels a bit weird, and I completely agree with it. I'm not sure how I feel about Sensu because it's so inconsistent and I try to avoid using it, as it's either missing a 30% chance with hurricane/air slash and losing or 6-0'ing the opposing team.

And I also don't hate the meta rn. I'm having fun with Morpeko VoltTurn even though I sack peko under the pretense that it has defensive utility. Despite my balance woes, it would clearly be better if I didn't (have to) run Poliwrath. I'm glad nobody is picking up hazstack seriously since I'm not sure how I'd counter it, and I'm overjoyed that there are only like 2 things that turns P2 into fodder.

 

[Michael Jordan]

Since the shifts there has been a large influx of HO "cheesy" strategies such as Hail or Grassy Terrain that people have been using. I think everyone can agree that when the most common teams used are gimmicky, it is a sign that the metagame isn't in a healthy place. But I do believe that the rise of these strategies isn't due to them being overpowered, but more due to balance being unviable due to a certain breaker which is further enabled by Rotom-M. Beartic is clearly the flavour of the month, veil is cool but only 5 turns from a mon that cant pivot out isn't going to be very consistent. The quiver dance users are the only HO staples I think can be considered broken.


This is the real problem in SV ZU, it's just not visible because everyone is spamming HO teams which don't care about Charizard. Recently, 2 of Charizard's answers have left the tier in Cramorant and Dudunsparce. Cramorant didn't mind getting burned, was immune to hazards and has reliable recovery. Dudunsparce doesn't appreciate the burn, but is able to reliably come in and recover off the damage Zard did to it. It also had the flexibility to be immune to hazards or to use leftovers for passive recovery. With those mons gone, the remaining Zard checks are as follows:







All of these are quite exploitable and it isn't hard for Charizard to outlast them or for their weaknesses to be used to give the opponent an opening. P2 is hazards weak and doesn't appreciate being burned. Regirock hates being burned, is also hazards weak and it isn't hard to chip it into scorching sands into tera ground scorching sands range. Naclstack is weak to hazards, and similar to regirock isn't hard to chip into sands +tera ground sands. Lanturn is a more consistent answer but considering its an electric immunity which gets blown up by Rotom-M it isn't exactly viable atm. Snorlax is an answer which also doesn't like getting burned, and its recovery makes it extremely exploitable.

Alongside most of these mons being exploitable, a lot of them are hazards weak and with hazard control being worst it's much easier to overwhelm them.

Then we introduce one of the best volt switching pivots into the tier which takes Zard to the next level. Rotom-M.

Volt switch is made balanced by the fact that there are immunities which block it. Flip turn/U-turn is made balanced by the fact it makes contact, and can cause your own pokemon to be chipped down by Rocky helmet. Volt switch on a mon which has the ability to blow up electric immunities makes it very free to get some chip and keep momentum. Rotom-M can still beat electric immunities while not being forced to be choiced locked. This means the only consistent safe switch ins which resist both stabs are grass types, and electrics which weird secondary typings like magneton and vikavolt. Except these mons all still get volt switched on, and invite in the fearsome Charizard, allowing it to break more. The only pokemon which can resists Rotom-M's stabs, and doesn't invite Charizard in is Virizion, which is a mon that fits perfectly on HO. The rest of its switch ins invite Charizard to further break down their team. Charizard previously had similar synergy with mons like Jolteon and Floatzel but these mons don't pivot as freely. Floatzel gets chipped by helmet and hazards, and Jolteon either has to be specs, which makes it prediction reliant where the wrong prediction gives the opponent momentum, or Boots which is quite weak and is unable to blow up electric immunities. Even specs can't blow through Lanturn and Porygon2. Mowtom is able to cripple both of these with Trick, making life even easier for Charizard.

You may think other fires may take the place of Charizard when it rises and be just as threatening. They wont. Typhlosion also benefits from high level volturn but requires way more team support. Specs and Scarf sets need rocks cleared whereas boots zard doesn't care. In theory typhlosion could start running boots, but the lack of secondary stab makes it so a lot more pokemon are able to check boots typhlosion compared to charizard. Mons like Poliwrath will can rise in usage knowing the best fire type isn't going to blow you up with its secondary stab, making it way more manageable.

TLDR; Rotom-M isn't broken, HO isn't even broken aside from the Oricorios. DNB Mowtom, ban zard, ban oricorio and save the meta!

Teams I used to get Reqs:
One Veil HO and a Zard Mowtom, fitting.


This is the build that started to make me think maybe Oricorio is broken. It's bulk seems bad but its actually able to set up on things you wouldn't expect it to even without tera, such as Regirock. Tera Grass on jolteon to be able to beat out Scarf Floatzels, and Leech Seed is a cool tech on Abomasnow which allows you to more freely pivot knowing you'll get some recovery back.


Broken VoltTurn + Zard. Regi + Lurantis + Mesprit kinda cover most of the tier.

 

[Tizio]

Just finished making reqs after a soul crushing defeat at literally 2919 coil which costed me some more dreadful time but whatever, i also think the meta isn't really great rn, but while Rotom-m surely thrives in this new environment, he isn't the one who caused it by any means.

They say you don't truly understand the value of something until it's gone, and such is the case with Decidueye and Cramorant, whose departure completely shifted the balance of the tier. Those 2 lovely birbs weren't just the best defoggers in ZU, but they also worked as great physical and special sponges respectively, and unlike most other walls and hazards removers we're left with, they could boast offensive pressure even when they were 100% bulk invested thanks to the brokeness of Revelation Arrows and Gulp Surf. That's why mons they could check like Perrserker and Clawitzer are now enjoying their demise and started getting more usage.

Rotom-m is strong and it fits well in this HO-centric volturn spamming meta, but that's about it, it doesn't break anything with that speed and that bulk is almost wasted on 50 base hp, and having only leaf storm as his only grass stab is limiting and exploitable in both the choicer and the NP sets, and while electric-grass coverage may be cool to hit ground types or lanturn it is also easily stopped by other grasses or by the few dragons we got, making tera a requirement if you want to actually sweep something. But at the end of the day there's only one point to be made: banning Rotom-m would do absolutely nothing for the tier, it would just slightly weaken some archetypes and even there it could be decently replaced by other mons, i dare to say that even banning Jolteon would be more impactful.

 

[sinnabyss]

made reqs at the cost of my sanity, so i wanna give my thoughts on mowtom and the current state of the meta.
Suspect A:

The subject of the suspect, mowtom. The main gripe with this guy is its unblockable Volt Switch, as it scares out our ground types, as well as Lanturn. Jolteon isnt particularly afraid of Leaf Storm, but doesnt appreciate losing more than half of its HP. Trick with a choice item cripples general walls like Porygon2 and Lurantis. Its nigh-unstopable pivoting also lets it enable powerful breakers like Charizard and Floatzel. These three already make a powerful volturn +breaker core. It also has a wide utility movepool, with options like Wisp, Trick, NP, Pain Split, and probably more stuff I forgot about. Its kinda reminiscent of Hisuian Electrode, but it has much more set variety.

However, mowtom does have plenty of flaws. Unlike Helectrode, it has to run a Choice Scarf to outspeed most of the metagame, meaning it can get quite prediction reliant and cant run somethihg else like boots. NP sets are far too slow and are very similar to NP Mesprit, which has fallen off lately in the face of a much more offensive meta. Between laddering and a few friendlies, ive never really felt like im struggling to handle mowtom, with so many grass-types like Whimsi, Viriz, Lurantis and hell even itself being excellentl counters. Even when using it it could feel like dead weight against very offensive structures. As for bringing in broken threats, the problem lies moreso in the broken mons themselves. Even if mowtom leaves, there are still a bajillion other pivots that enable things like Charizard, Floatzel, Oricorio-Sensu. As tuthur said Mowtom feels like a scapegoat for the more underlying problems of the tier atm.

Exhibit B:

Mowtoms partner in crime, Floatzel has been gaining a lot of traction lately, especially after the banning of Bruxish and two splashable checks in Hecidueye and Cramorant leaving. Like mowtom, Floatzel is a momentum machine, spamming flip turn all game until its time to clean up. Unlike mowtom however, Floatzel has an excellent natural speed tier, as well as a great attack stat. This lets it run Choice Band effectively, even having powerful priority with Aqua Jet, while Scarf sets can afford to run Adamant without losing out on anything besides scarf Grafaiai, which is mid anyways. There are only two viable Pokemon that can stop Flip Turn, Water Absorb Lanturn, which is a rarer set that doesnt fit on every team, and Poliwrath, which is mediocre and even harder to fit on teams. Qwilfish can indeed check it, even punishing it with Rocky Helmet, but defensive qwil is easily worn down and gives up momentum against Floatzels electric type teammates. I honestly think this mon is super egregious at the moment and forces specific counterplay to deal with it, straining teambuilding more than ever.

Exhibit C:

The matchup bird itself, this mon will either do 40% and die or 6-0 a team, no inbetween. We've all felt how horrifiying this mon is if you give it even a single free turn. It doesnt help that tera + revdance lets it basicly pick and choose what it wants to beat. Even its supposed "answers" like Porygon2 and Glastrier can be sniped by stuff like Tera Steel + Taunt or Tera Fighting Revdance. Theres also other factors like Grassy Seed on terrain teams making it deceptively bulky, and don't even get me started on air slash. While it isnt insanely broken, its definitely incredibly unhealthy and pushes balanced teams even more to the wayside than they already are.

Exhibit D:

Perhaps a bit of a hot take (haha) but another problematic mon right now, at least in my opinion, is Charzard. This Pokemon has, like, 3 viable checks. Regirock, which is very easy to wear down with stuff like Wisp, Roar + Hazards, Scorching Sands, or just brute force over a long game. Lanturn, which gets 3hkod by uninvested EQ, and Porygon2, which us hard to fit on teams and can be worn down by roar + hazards. Other nicher checks like Naclstack and Snorlax have plenty of their own problems. Cram was one of its best checks, but now it's gone. The only saving grace is the fact that it does contribute a lot to the tier. Its excellent on bulky offense and offense teams, checking stuff like Passinian, Typhlosion, Whimsicott, etc. It undeniably is quite broken, but weirdly feels somewhat healthy right now. However it does, again, make more balanced teams feel worse to play. It is the least concerning mon right now but it should be looked at after the other mons on this list.

 

[Isaiah]

Time to vote! Voting will remain open until Sunday, Jan 26 @ 10pm GMT -4.

Voting link: https://www.smogon.com/tools/suspects/view/69

SPHZ
Tizio
fish anemometer
evend101
Michael Jordan
sinnabyss
Joshua 12343
kyuss
Tuthur
DD Joe
OranBerryBlissey10
estra
BloodAce
sleid
5Dots
Shadow079
yo cho

 

[Isaiah]

Since this does not meet the 50%+1 requirement, Rotom-Mow will remain unbanned!

 

[Tuthur]

Despite Rotom-Mow staying in the tier, it is clear from the discussions on the forum and discord that most users are still unhappy with the state of the tier. A Pokémon that many people have raised complains about is Oricorio-Sensu; with Dragon Tail Dudunsparce not being longer available in the tier, Oricorio-Sensu has been able to experiment with many more tera types. The bulky tera Steel mono attacker set that terrorizes etern in NU is doing the same thing in ZU, with its ability to shut down checks like Curse Snorlax, Regirock, and Trace Porygon2. But it also has access to other potent tera-types like Ghost that lets it still beat Regirock, while getting enough power to OHKO popular offensive checks like Charizard and Rotom-Mow that could disrupt it with Dragon Tail and Trick, respectively. Tera Fighting gives it coverage for Porygon2, Sneasel, Snorlax, and Regirock. Tera Ground gives it a Thunder Wave immunity and coverage for Regirock. There is just too much Oricorio can do with different tera-types and spreads; and unless you run very niche Pokemon like Naclstack and Eelektross that struggle to find a niche in most serious teams, you're going to be weak to multiple Oricorio sets.

As a result, the ZU council unanimously agreed to quickban Oricorio-Sensu from ZU!​

Also expect a suspect test soon on a common Rotom-Mow partner. Stay tuned!