They can't ignore us together...flying through florescent weather
So what exactly has changed since the last suspect that warrants another look at the buzzard? In the former metagame of the previous year, Vullaby was a jack-of-all-trades Pokemon. It covered several options on a team, including, but not limited to; fast revenge killer, defog support, Physical wallbreaker, and Knock Off user. Additionally, the meteoric re-rise of the Nasty Plot sets became synonymous with another aspect of Vullaby—Special sweeper. It became overpowering to the multitude of offensive threats. That being said, Vullaby was determined, in an extremely close vote, to be not banworthy at the time. Do Not Ban voters were varied in their reasons for their vote, some of the reasons cited were the multitude of soft checks to Vullaby. Some made that the advent of Special Attackers, particularly the fast ones, have been relatively unexplored and would severely damper Vullaby's impact on the metagame. Others claimed that Vullaby was easily revenge-killed by the likes of the priority users of the tier.
The special attackers of the tier in particular is a good starting point for how the meta has shifted. While Staryu has seemed to take a very slight dip in usage, there is a considerable rise in usage of the Psychic-types of the tier. Ponyta-Galar and Abra have become mainstays of the metagame for their ability to dish out large amounts of damages with their Psychic STABs and Fairy-type coverage. While these mons trade with Vullaby about evenly, with a slight advantage to the Psychics, their impact on the rest of the metagame has become more noticeable. Pawniard tends to be one of the safer picks into Psychic types, as it is able to throw Sucker Punches and is immune to the STAB moves, making it difficult for them to just spam the most damaging move in their arsenal. Ferroseed is one of the safest picks against Abra, in particular, not really fearing anything that Abra throws out while Abra is forced out by the incoming Knock Off or Thunder Wave.
Another fast Special Attacker to invade the tier is Porygon. While already one of the top Pokemon of the past year, the Choice Scarf sets have become extremely popular. Giving a potential Special Attack boost with Download, Porygon becomes incredibly difficult to handle as it immediately outspeeds the entire unboosted metagame and has a boost to deal extremely high damage. As one of the primary examples of development to beat Vullaby, this has proven to be detrimental to Vullaby counters throughout the metagame. Onix is severely threatened by the likes of Porygon, as an Ice Beam from a Scarf Porygon is too risky to throw Onix into. One correct prediction from your opponent immediately puts you on the back-foot—and removes your best Vullaby answer. This has also lead to a rise of the aforementioned Steel-types. Ferroseed and Pawniard become some of the most important Pokemon to take on Porygon, becoming the de facto Stealth Rock users of many teams.
With the rise of Grookey as one of the metagame's strongest Physical attackers and priority users, a few notable changes have been developed to better equip teams to handle the starter monkey in the form of role compression. Poison-types have become almost mandatory in handling Grookey. While Spritzee, a notable check to both Fighting-types and Vullaby, having a track record of forcing both out, is now a momentum sink who loses to Grookey. As a result, you can run Foongus to handle not only Grookey, but it can cover as your Fighting-check as well with its longevity in Regenerator. Koffing is another example of a Poison-type who should do well against Vullaby; it has a strong Thunderbolt and can absorb hits with its strong Defense stat, all while spreading burns with Will-O-Wisp. While Koffing does all of these things, it also shuts down common priority users, as Grookey and Timburr are completely sponged by him. Even Ground-type pokemon like Trapinch lose the only reason to use them through Neutralizing Gas, and while Onix can do some significant damage to it, coming into a burn is a risk that is often not worth taking. Additionally, the three strongest Poison-types support Vullaby amazingly. Foongus spreads sleep which could potentially give Nasty Plot Vullaby a set-up, Mareanie spreads Knock Off, giving Vullaby a chance to clean multiple Pokemon, and Koffing spreading burns makes it significantly easier to gain a speed boost with Weak Armor. The various soft checks and priority users of the metagame are completely shut down by what has become the one of the most common types of Little Cup, who also support Vullaby extremely well.
As a result of some of these changes, Vullaby has become more of an offensive threat and less of an unpredictable force. While many players were able to discern which Vullaby set you would be facing from the teambuilder, that natural skill and inherent ability which rewarded the better player has been diminished drastically. Most Vullaby sets tend to be the mixed set, opting for Heat Wave in the 3rd slot of Vullaby's moveset. While some might see this as an advantage to the development of the metagame, Vullaby still retains its extreme diversity in the 4th moveslot, as it is able to run just about all of the old moves that it was able to on the previous sets. Heat Wave is extremely threatening for the previously mentioned Pawniard and Ferroseed; turning them from reputable answers into low-grade soft checks for a particular set of Vullaby which has become much more uncommon. Vullaby also has no trouble ripping through Fighting-types as usual, with Endure completely shutting down Mienfoo ability to revenge kill it. Vullaby also does not fear the Poison-types of the tier, as they are easily ripped through due to their underwhelming speed stats and because of how much chip damage they generally take. Occasionally, a team's best option is to simply trade Vullaby, so the rest of the team could potentially win a matchup.
All-in-all, the council has decided that Vullaby is worth a re-suspect, and I highly urge everyone who has a particular opinion on the metagame to get out there and vote.
The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 78 with at least 50 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 78 GXE, down to a minimum of 30 games at a GXE of 82. As always, needing more than 50 games to reach 78 GXE is fine.
| GXE | minimum games |
| 78 | 50 |
| 78.2 | 49 |
| 78.4 | 48 |
| 78.6 | 47 |
| 78.8 | 46 |
| 79 | 45 |
| 79.2 | 44 |
| 79.4 | 43 |
| 79.6 | 42 |
| 79.8 | 41 |
| 80 | 40 |
| 80.2 | 39 |
| 80.4 | 38 |
| 80.6 | 37 |
| 80.8 | 36 |
| 81 | 35 |
| 81.2 | 34 |
| 81.4 | 33 |
| 81.6 | 32 |
| 81.8 | 31 |
| 82 | 30 |
For this suspect test, we will be using the regular LC ladder, so you must create a new account that begins with LCABY to qualify. When you have reached the requirements, click here to post your proof. Vullaby will be legal on the ladder until the suspect is over. The suspect period will end on Sunday, July 11th, at 11:59 PM EST.
When posting in this thread, please keep in mind these rules:
1. No one-liners or uninformed posts.
2. No discussion on other potential suspects or the suspect process.
3. Be respectful.
Your post will be deleted and possibly infracted if you fail to follow them.
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