Okay so I really love this metagame, but it's complete shit right now because of fucking tweedle dee (Regice) and tweedle dum (Vigoroth) still being present in the tier. Between the two of them, they make creative team building almost impossible at this point, just because every "good" FU team is more cookie cutter than early XY OU stall; Regice check / Vigoroth stop / hazard remover / possibly another check to regice or vigoroth, and then possibly a vigoroth or Regice of your own. It's an incredibly unhealthy metagame at the moment and so many Pokemon/playstyles are made unviable because of these dominant forces. I guess I'll spend the rest of this post explaining why these Pokemon are ruining the meta, seeing as how I have nothing better to do atm.
Exhibit A:
Regice was, and always will be the ice king of FU. Even if it gets banned, FU will never be able to fill in the gigantic holes it has left while its been here. I bet, no, I GUARANTEE the meta will be almost unrecognizable with Regice's departure. That's just influential this Pokemon is.
For example, every single special attacker in this tier that isn't named Simisear is automatically considered a liability if your opponent is packing a Regice. Think about, what special attacker can actually reliably beat this thing? The only thing FU has is Life Orb Nasty Plot Simisear, which doesn't even come close to OHKOing it with Fire Blast after Stealth Rock, and on top of that, it's easily 2HKOed by Thunderbolt. So if rocks are up on your side of the field and Simisear uses a Life Orb Fire Blast against a relatively healthy Regice, it's going to be left with barely above 20% after all that damage is added up, meaning it can't even switch in again. Fantastic. Then you have sweepers like Butterfree, Swoobat, Simisage, Simipour, and Misdreavus which are almost pointless to use because they can't sweep as along as this thing is around. For example I remember how much of a fucking beast NP Misdreavus was at the beginning of this meta. Even though the meta has adapted a lot in general since then, Regice's ability to completely wall that set to hell and back keeps players from wanting to use it. Frogadier has the capability of being a fantastic offensive Pokemon in the current meta, but why use it if it can't help you beat Regice? In order to beat Regice, you need to hit it physically. Machoke is by far the best offensive answer to Regice because of its insane bulk and relatively good power. It's also a great Pokemon in general, so it's not hard to fit it on most offensive or balanced teams. The main problem with Machoke is that it has no recovery outside of Rest, which means that you have to play very carefully around Regice in order to preserve it, and if the opponent happens to have a good switch into Machoke, than it's going to get worn down VERY easily. The same goes for the equally has viable Metang, however unless it's running max SpD it's almost 2HKOed by a Life Orb Focus Blast.
So basically we have one special attacker that can kind of beat Regice, and a select few unreliable physical attackers that are all easy to wear down and wall with the help of teammates. The offensive RestTalk set is not only incredibly bulky, but also hard to switch into because of its 100 base SpA and boltbeam coverage. The Rock Polish sets with Focus Blast beat a few more Pokemon that would normally check it (Lairon, Gigalith, Scraggy) and on top of that it finds a billion opportunities to set up a Rock Polish because all it has to do is come in for free on a special attacker, and offensive teams have very little they can do to stop it.
All in all Regice should be banned (not suspected, but banned) because it heavily hinders team building, it makes 80% of FU's special attackers almost unviable, and it requires you to pack an unnecessary amount of checks to it in order to succeed. You know it's bad when a Pokemon is a really good answer to itself lol. Please god no more Regice vs Regice end matchups.
Exhibit B
Vigoroth @ Eviolite
Ability: Vital Spirit
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Bulk Up
- Taunt
- Return
- Slack Off
While Regice may be the king of FU, it's safe to say that Vigoroth is FU Jesus. Jokes aside though, Regice is broken, but Vigoroth is just plain ridiculous. Never have I seen a Pokemon single handedly turn a tier into a cesspool of shit. Even with Regice in the tier, FU was still playable. Once this thing was discovered, the tier pretty much went full retard and now every team is dedicated to either beating Vigoroth or sweeping with Vigoroth. The set listed above has the capability of 6-0 every team archetype in FU against with very little effort. All you have to do is Taunt the occasional phazer/status user, spam Bulk Up, Slack Off when needed, win. And it's not that simple to check Vigoroth either. The monkeys are doing only about 60ish percent with a Life Orb Focus Blast, and other really powerful special attackers such as Regice, Seviper, and Specs Electabuzz can just be stalled out of Life Orb recoil/PP. And then you have hard counters like Metang and Lairon, which find themselves being complete set up bait. Even if its Eviolite is Knocked off, its still able to tank hits like a champ and set up in your face. The ONLY way to beat Vigoroth is to either set up with your own Vigoroth first, or use a Ghost-type such as Gourgeist-S, Lampent, or Misdreavus, as they are immune to its only attacking move. However, only a fool would pass up on the opportunity to pair Vig with Scarf Krokorok, which just so happens to carry a move called Pursuit, therefore removing your one and only saving grace.
I'll leave this here:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pu-172639096
And yes, I have played a few matches with these mother fuckers banned, and I must say it's one of my favorite metas I think I've ever played. There's just so much diversity, creativity, and interesting strategies that can be exploited in this tier, however as long as Vigoroth and Regice are in this tier, it will forever be comparable to an RBY Ubers meta where every match is just you trying to beat the opposing Mewtwo, except in this case its Vigoroth and Regice.