On September 13th, the first DLC of SV came out, releasing a slew of new Pokemon such as Ogerpon-Hearthflame! The Overused metagame changed drastically overnight with these changes and, over a week later, we are still feeling the many coinciding ripple effects of this release.
Alongside new Pokemon came moves -- both new and old, some old Pokemon, and more, which led to Baxcalibur getting banned thanks to new toys like Scale Shot, Aurora Veil Ninetales-Alola support, and the revised pace of the metagame. Many people supported this ban, which was reflected in the survey response that gave Baxcalibur more support than any other Pokemon in the history of our tiering surveys.
Another Pokemon mentioned in this survey was
Ogerpon-Hearthflame , who saw a spike in support from qualified responders that excelled on the ladder or in tournaments. However, we did not want to rush to any conclusions, so we dropped another survey a few days after the Baxcalibur ban to do the following:
Ogerpon-Hearthflame
Given this, Ogerpon-Hearthflame is banned from SV OU with a 7-2 margin. This is effective immediately Kris Marty -- thank you so much.
Ogerpon-Hearthflame instantly became one of the powerhouses in our metagame. It has every tool imagineable a potent breaker could need, making it very hard to counter. While it is true revenge killing was possible, especially if it lacked Trailblaze, you need sufficient defensive counterplay on top of offensive counterplay to be a balanced presence in a metagame. In addition, vulnerabilities like a Stealth Rock weakness are minimized by only needing to enter on few occasions to make an impact.
Ogerpon-Hearthflame lacked sufficient defensive counterplay within the metagame. The Fire-Grass STABs with Mold Breaker make Ogerpon-Hearthflame very good as is, oftentimes being capable of hitting everything with these two STABs and coverage options like Play Rough or Knock Off. 120 attack is strong, too, but not enough to push something over the top necessarily. However, Swords Dance and good speed go a long way here. All of these things could very likely be reasoned with if not for the Tera Ogerpon-Hearthflame specific characteristics like the Hearthflame Mask giving it an unprecedented boost in attacking prowess thanks to Embody Aspect coupled with Ivy Cudgel multiplying in power between STAB, Terastallization, and attack boosts to become unreasonably strong. Playing around this defensively is hardly possible and this is not conducive with a metagame that allows for many archetypes to be viable and consistent. While we may try Ogerpon-Hearthflame again after the next DLC, it is best for it to be banned from the metagame now as we hope to approach a more stable environment!
We are likely to proceed with a suspect on another Pokemon in the coming days. This is still being discussed and information will be presented as it becomes readily available. Have a nice weekend.
Alongside new Pokemon came moves -- both new and old, some old Pokemon, and more, which led to Baxcalibur getting banned thanks to new toys like Scale Shot, Aurora Veil Ninetales-Alola support, and the revised pace of the metagame. Many people supported this ban, which was reflected in the survey response that gave Baxcalibur more support than any other Pokemon in the history of our tiering surveys.
Another Pokemon mentioned in this survey was
Ogerpon-Hearthflame , who saw a spike in support from qualified responders that excelled on the ladder or in tournaments. However, we did not want to rush to any conclusions, so we dropped another survey a few days after the Baxcalibur ban to do the following:- Acquire up-to-date information on an evolving metagame rather than rely on outdated data
- Increase the sample of data we had to analyze overall to get people's opinions twice rather than just once in case things changed or people did not respond initially
- Avoid any judgements being passed prematurely in the aftermath of lots of backlash surrounding the Volcarona
Ogerpon-Hearthflame | Finchinator | Ruft | ausma | ima | Lily | mind gaming | NJNP | Star | TPP | xavgb |
| Ban | Do not ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Do not ban | Ban | Ban | Ban |
Given this, Ogerpon-Hearthflame is banned from SV OU with a 7-2 margin. This is effective immediately Kris Marty -- thank you so much.
Ogerpon-Hearthflame instantly became one of the powerhouses in our metagame. It has every tool imagineable a potent breaker could need, making it very hard to counter. While it is true revenge killing was possible, especially if it lacked Trailblaze, you need sufficient defensive counterplay on top of offensive counterplay to be a balanced presence in a metagame. In addition, vulnerabilities like a Stealth Rock weakness are minimized by only needing to enter on few occasions to make an impact.
Ogerpon-Hearthflame lacked sufficient defensive counterplay within the metagame. The Fire-Grass STABs with Mold Breaker make Ogerpon-Hearthflame very good as is, oftentimes being capable of hitting everything with these two STABs and coverage options like Play Rough or Knock Off. 120 attack is strong, too, but not enough to push something over the top necessarily. However, Swords Dance and good speed go a long way here. All of these things could very likely be reasoned with if not for the Tera Ogerpon-Hearthflame specific characteristics like the Hearthflame Mask giving it an unprecedented boost in attacking prowess thanks to Embody Aspect coupled with Ivy Cudgel multiplying in power between STAB, Terastallization, and attack boosts to become unreasonably strong. Playing around this defensively is hardly possible and this is not conducive with a metagame that allows for many archetypes to be viable and consistent. While we may try Ogerpon-Hearthflame again after the next DLC, it is best for it to be banned from the metagame now as we hope to approach a more stable environment!
We are likely to proceed with a suspect on another Pokemon in the coming days. This is still being discussed and information will be presented as it becomes readily available. Have a nice weekend.