Hello, PR!
Smogon has a tier system. The tier system is pretty good approximation of ordering by power:
OU, UU, RU, NU
While there are a few exceptions, this roughly approximates a list of Pokémon ordered by how powerful their best set is, from the most powerful to the least powerful.
Note that we clarify "best set", because a Garchomp with nothing but Confide is clearly not at an OU level of power. Also note that by "powerful", we don't just mean "good at 1v1" but also "good at supporting a team" or "good at sweeping when given the right support".
And then we have banlists, which are Pokémon so powerful they make a tier unfun, but not powerful enough to get >1/60 usage in the next tier up.
Ubers, OU, BL, UU, BL2, RU, BL3, NU
This is still roughly approximately a list of Pokémon from the most powerful to the least powerful. Below NU, we can optinally add "NFE" (which, to be exact, means "NFE and <1/60 usage in NU), which is the group of Pokémon we generally don't give Smogon analyses for, to further sort them.
Every Pokémon is in exactly one of these tiers (no more, no less), so given any two Pokémon, either they're in the same tier, or one of them is in a higher tier than the other (in case you care, in math we call this a strict weak order, and the tiers themselves are totally ordered equivalence classes).
We also have four metagames based on these tiers: OU, UU, RU, NU. Because of the tier system, it's very straightforward to describe the rules of these metagames:
- In all four metagames, we have Species Clause, Sleep Clause, OHKO Clause, Evasion Moves Clause, Evasion Abilities Clause, and Moody Clause. These make up the Standard ruleset.
- In every metagame, any Pokémon in a higher tier than the metagame's name is banned.
- Oh, and every tier has a few other miscellaneous bans.
It's that third rule: "Oh, and every tier has a few other miscellaneous bans" that I dislike, since these bans, especially since I think it would be more straightforward for everyone involved to move the corresponding Pokémon to the next BL tier.
In other words, I believe that as much of a tier's banlist should be visible from the tier list as possible, and banning things like Kangaskhanite or Drought undermines the tier system.
Take Drought. Under our Standard ruleset, Ninetales's best set is roughly BL-level.
But Ninetales isn't BL. Under our current tier system, Ninetales will end up NU.
Disadvantage: The tier system no longer orders Pokémon by their best set under the Standard clauses. This has a lot of side effects: What if UU decides to unban Drought? Instead of NU availability depending on just Pokémon straddling the line between RU and NU usage, it also depends on Pokémon straddling the line between Ubers and OU, between BL and UU, and all that.
Advantage: NU gets to use some Ninetales sets but not others, but it might later lose the ability to use any Ninetales set, depending on the whims of the UU council? Why is this an advantage? Our Confide Garchomp is a set that isn't broken in NU either, would it be an advantage to legalize it?
Discuss.
=== FAQ SECTION ===
Q: But Zarel, there are a lot of really cool Pokémon that we want to use in OU, like Latios and Gengar. We don't want to lose them just because GF gave them an overpowered item!
A: Let's address Soul Dew and mega stones separately.
As for Soul Dew: Ubers already uses a different set of clauses than OU and lower. We can add Soul Dew Clause to the set of Standard clauses for OU and below.
As for mega stones: I'm going to suggest something radical: What if we tier Pokémon with mega stones differently from Pokémon without mega stones? So Mega Gengar would be tiered differently from Gengar, Mega Kangaskhan would be tiered differently from Kangaskhan.
If we do it this way, Gardevoir's availability in NU doesn't depend on whether or not Mega Gardevoir ends up in BL or UU or OU, etc, but we still don't lose non-megas if we ban megas. These bans would still be reflected in the tier list, and we'd avoid a lot of the problems that come with banning items.
Q: What about lower-tier bans like SmashPass, which isn't specific to one/two Pokémon?
A: Then we begrudgingly ban it as a clause, since there isn't a better option. But if there is a better option, such as for Drought, why not take it?
Smogon has a tier system. The tier system is pretty good approximation of ordering by power:
OU, UU, RU, NU
While there are a few exceptions, this roughly approximates a list of Pokémon ordered by how powerful their best set is, from the most powerful to the least powerful.
Note that we clarify "best set", because a Garchomp with nothing but Confide is clearly not at an OU level of power. Also note that by "powerful", we don't just mean "good at 1v1" but also "good at supporting a team" or "good at sweeping when given the right support".
And then we have banlists, which are Pokémon so powerful they make a tier unfun, but not powerful enough to get >1/60 usage in the next tier up.
Ubers, OU, BL, UU, BL2, RU, BL3, NU
This is still roughly approximately a list of Pokémon from the most powerful to the least powerful. Below NU, we can optinally add "NFE" (which, to be exact, means "NFE and <1/60 usage in NU), which is the group of Pokémon we generally don't give Smogon analyses for, to further sort them.
Every Pokémon is in exactly one of these tiers (no more, no less), so given any two Pokémon, either they're in the same tier, or one of them is in a higher tier than the other (in case you care, in math we call this a strict weak order, and the tiers themselves are totally ordered equivalence classes).
We also have four metagames based on these tiers: OU, UU, RU, NU. Because of the tier system, it's very straightforward to describe the rules of these metagames:
- In all four metagames, we have Species Clause, Sleep Clause, OHKO Clause, Evasion Moves Clause, Evasion Abilities Clause, and Moody Clause. These make up the Standard ruleset.
- In every metagame, any Pokémon in a higher tier than the metagame's name is banned.
- Oh, and every tier has a few other miscellaneous bans.
It's that third rule: "Oh, and every tier has a few other miscellaneous bans" that I dislike, since these bans, especially since I think it would be more straightforward for everyone involved to move the corresponding Pokémon to the next BL tier.
In other words, I believe that as much of a tier's banlist should be visible from the tier list as possible, and banning things like Kangaskhanite or Drought undermines the tier system.
Take Drought. Under our Standard ruleset, Ninetales's best set is roughly BL-level.
But Ninetales isn't BL. Under our current tier system, Ninetales will end up NU.
Disadvantage: The tier system no longer orders Pokémon by their best set under the Standard clauses. This has a lot of side effects: What if UU decides to unban Drought? Instead of NU availability depending on just Pokémon straddling the line between RU and NU usage, it also depends on Pokémon straddling the line between Ubers and OU, between BL and UU, and all that.
Advantage: NU gets to use some Ninetales sets but not others, but it might later lose the ability to use any Ninetales set, depending on the whims of the UU council? Why is this an advantage? Our Confide Garchomp is a set that isn't broken in NU either, would it be an advantage to legalize it?
Discuss.
=== FAQ SECTION ===
Q: But Zarel, there are a lot of really cool Pokémon that we want to use in OU, like Latios and Gengar. We don't want to lose them just because GF gave them an overpowered item!
A: Let's address Soul Dew and mega stones separately.
As for Soul Dew: Ubers already uses a different set of clauses than OU and lower. We can add Soul Dew Clause to the set of Standard clauses for OU and below.
As for mega stones: I'm going to suggest something radical: What if we tier Pokémon with mega stones differently from Pokémon without mega stones? So Mega Gengar would be tiered differently from Gengar, Mega Kangaskhan would be tiered differently from Kangaskhan.
If we do it this way, Gardevoir's availability in NU doesn't depend on whether or not Mega Gardevoir ends up in BL or UU or OU, etc, but we still don't lose non-megas if we ban megas. These bans would still be reflected in the tier list, and we'd avoid a lot of the problems that come with banning items.
Q: What about lower-tier bans like SmashPass, which isn't specific to one/two Pokémon?
A: Then we begrudgingly ban it as a clause, since there isn't a better option. But if there is a better option, such as for Drought, why not take it?
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