Wow, been a while. Didn't even get the noti of the suspect results until a few days ago. So, let's talk about it. Gambit's ban and what may change from it. I also haven't talked much about the weather rocks (aside from heat) being banned.
First, these two decisions make the meta so much less unhealthy imo. Evasion abilities aren't as much of an issue, but I would still consider them obe rue to the RNG, even if better than before.
Kingdra isn't nearly as much of an issue because needing to set up a Focus Energy multiple times and get out after rain ends each time makes it much harder for Kingdra users. Went from potentially banworthy to inconsistent just because having three less turns to abuse weather makes it to where one can actually play around Kingdra the vast majority of the time. Turns are everything (no longer the Salamence theorem), and losing three is huge.
I'm sure everyone knows how broken Gambit is already. Busted in OU as is, but now, for an example, as it switches in on your Dragapult and takes a Shadow Ball, it gets a SpDef drop, but doesn't need to take a turn to set up Swords Dance anymore. It went from something already on the fringe of brokenness to unquestionably broken.
However, there are some pokemon that do become more of an issue with Gambit being gone (doesn't mean Gambit should come back btw. Broken checks broken is never good).
Firstly, the obvious example as the other suspected mon, Yanmega. There's still an abundance of priority in the meta, especially with Azu being one of the best, but also Dragonite ESpeed, Scizor BP, Ceruledge Sneak, the occasional Valiant Vacuum Wave if Yanmega has used tera, Bolt Thunderclap, Rilla Glide if Yanmega has used tera, Hisuirott's Aqua Jet and Sucker Punch, occasional Hisuinine ESpeed, Lokix Sucker and Impression, Weavile Shard, and the aforementioned Azu Jet. Still, losing one of the less inconsistent checks does suck. However, losing even just the one soft check can make it so much more terrifying. Keep on the watchlist since it's still legal.
Next, Cosmic Clef. Gambit often forced Clef to immediately burn tera, is immune to Stored Power, made it to where Clef only has 8 Charge Beam uses if it is running Beam instead of Moonblast. Of course, not a guaranteed counter, but Cosmic Clef doesn't have any true counters aside from other specially bulky Unaware users, which is really just tera dark Clod and Clef itself.
Lastly, let's talk about Ursaring. Close Combat was always one of it's most common coverage moves, mostly for Gambit, but now it isn't nearly as required. There are few mons that don't take a hefty chunk from Facade and Crunch already, which will often free up Ursa to use double dance sets with SD and Trailblaze, making it even more threatening. Ursa has a similar thing to Yanmega where it does have priority and faster mons keeping it in check, but with Ursa being less required to run CC and allowed to run double dance more, that may help Ursa just delete a lot of the faster mons that don't run prio more often.
Honestly, I'm really happy with the suspect results. Yanmega has more time to see if it really is banworthy, and Gambit was an obvious one to yeet out of here, but also gives us some future perspective on what the meta may look like now.
First, these two decisions make the meta so much less unhealthy imo. Evasion abilities aren't as much of an issue, but I would still consider them obe rue to the RNG, even if better than before.
Kingdra isn't nearly as much of an issue because needing to set up a Focus Energy multiple times and get out after rain ends each time makes it much harder for Kingdra users. Went from potentially banworthy to inconsistent just because having three less turns to abuse weather makes it to where one can actually play around Kingdra the vast majority of the time. Turns are everything (no longer the Salamence theorem), and losing three is huge.
I'm sure everyone knows how broken Gambit is already. Busted in OU as is, but now, for an example, as it switches in on your Dragapult and takes a Shadow Ball, it gets a SpDef drop, but doesn't need to take a turn to set up Swords Dance anymore. It went from something already on the fringe of brokenness to unquestionably broken.
However, there are some pokemon that do become more of an issue with Gambit being gone (doesn't mean Gambit should come back btw. Broken checks broken is never good).
Firstly, the obvious example as the other suspected mon, Yanmega. There's still an abundance of priority in the meta, especially with Azu being one of the best, but also Dragonite ESpeed, Scizor BP, Ceruledge Sneak, the occasional Valiant Vacuum Wave if Yanmega has used tera, Bolt Thunderclap, Rilla Glide if Yanmega has used tera, Hisuirott's Aqua Jet and Sucker Punch, occasional Hisuinine ESpeed, Lokix Sucker and Impression, Weavile Shard, and the aforementioned Azu Jet. Still, losing one of the less inconsistent checks does suck. However, losing even just the one soft check can make it so much more terrifying. Keep on the watchlist since it's still legal.
Next, Cosmic Clef. Gambit often forced Clef to immediately burn tera, is immune to Stored Power, made it to where Clef only has 8 Charge Beam uses if it is running Beam instead of Moonblast. Of course, not a guaranteed counter, but Cosmic Clef doesn't have any true counters aside from other specially bulky Unaware users, which is really just tera dark Clod and Clef itself.
Lastly, let's talk about Ursaring. Close Combat was always one of it's most common coverage moves, mostly for Gambit, but now it isn't nearly as required. There are few mons that don't take a hefty chunk from Facade and Crunch already, which will often free up Ursa to use double dance sets with SD and Trailblaze, making it even more threatening. Ursa has a similar thing to Yanmega where it does have priority and faster mons keeping it in check, but with Ursa being less required to run CC and allowed to run double dance more, that may help Ursa just delete a lot of the faster mons that don't run prio more often.
Honestly, I'm really happy with the suspect results. Yanmega has more time to see if it really is banworthy, and Gambit was an obvious one to yeet out of here, but also gives us some future perspective on what the meta may look like now.