Like DrPumpkinz said, Arena Trap and Shadow Tag were banned in their entirety because their trapping capabilities were deemed uncompetitive and unhealthy for the metagame. Huge/Pure Power is strong but not uncompetitive so there's no reason to ban the ability entirely, even if a broken Pokémon gets it.
To my knowledge, moody was banned because it can raise your evasion. As for protean, pure/huge power, and tinted lens, these abilities are not broken in standard play, the reason they are banned in AAA (tinted lens isn't btw) is because ANY Pokemon can run the ability. The mons that get pure/huge power are balanced, and no I don't think anyone is "waiting for pure power pokemon to come out" so it can be banned.
well, you lack Earth Power, so opposing Heatran would probably do the trick.
Hello, Tapu Fini and other fat waters will do the trick here, as they are bulky enough to switch into this heatran set especially. Toxapex, Tapu Fini and as Finchinator mentioned above, opposing Heatran due to the lack of E-Power.
Is Diglett trapping important targets really a good argument? What differentiates it from Magnezone, who also traps other important targets? Diglett can only reliably trap Heatran, Tyranitar, Excadrill without sand, Magearna without speed boost or Shuca, Magnezone not behind sub, and the very uncommon Muk-A and Nidoking (I'm assuming Diglett is either Sash or Z as it can't OHKO any Pokémon not x4 weak to it without 2 EQs or a Z-EQ and gets OHKOed in return). I could understand why Dugtrio left as it could trap every ground-weak Pokémon slower than it plus Chansey, Lele, Medicham and Hoopa and Kyurem with the right set, which is only made easier with Eject Button. On the other hand, Diglett fails to outspeed Diancie and Victini (without enough speed drops). Chansey is also too bulky to trap. It also can't kill Hoopa unless it's -1. SpDef Toxapex OHKOs with Scald and has regenerator, or can just Recover on the turn of the Z-Move until it's at a decent help to OHKO with Scald. Mawile has to play mind games on Z-sets with sub, but if it gets the prediction right, it OHKOs Diglett. Same for Jirachi with Protect. Plus, Diglett can only come aftering sacking a Pokémon and becomes useless after taking out the Pokémon, essentially making you lose two Pokémon just to kill (or have a chance to kill) one crucial Pokémon. There's also Eject Button, but again you could only reliably trap 5 OU Pokémon while having to preserve your Eject Button. Trapinch and other weaker Shadow Tag users has its own fair share of strenghts that allows it to trap some Pokémon Diglett can't, but also loses out to others.To my knowledge, moody was banned because it can raise your evasion. As for protean, pure/huge power, and tinted lens, these abilities are not broken in standard play, the reason they are banned in AAA (tinted lens isn't btw) is because ANY Pokemon can run the ability. The mons that get pure/huge power are balanced, and no I don't think anyone is "waiting for pure power pokemon to come out" so it can be banned.
The community is pretty split on the subject of arena trap and shadow tag. People in support of banning the abilities have historically said that the only counter play to trapping abilities is running a team is not weak to them (which in turn constricts team building) and that when you are trapped you literally cannot do anything.
The BW OU community is debating shadow tag literally at this current moment here and here and as you can tell it can get quite heated and people have wildly different opinions (some say Gothitelle is terrible, others say she is too good).
To try and answer why diglett, gothita etc are banned when shadow tag/arena trap is banned, and not just the main users. (someone please correct me if I'm wrong because I'm not incredibly knowledgeable on this topic) I believe it has to do with something called complex banning, so if Shadow Tag is banned on June 24th Gothitelle, Gothorita, Gothita, and Wobbuffet would be banned, even though the pre evos are hardly ever used, and wobbuffet is extremely niche and rare. Hopefully I answered your question Tacotaco , its a very complex topic tbh. One last thing, like DrPumpkinz said, when Dugtrio was originally banned, Diglett was used and still trapped important targets, not just in SM, but also in BW, so eventually the ability as a whole was banned.
Nothing is mandatory in SM OU, you just have to decide whether or not you need certain things depending on the team structure.
As you can see, even a measly diglett can easily put in a lot of work against major threats. Dugtrio and diglett were a lot of times used on sun teams, you could easily lure heatran with Forretress, volt switch out into diglett, and thats bye bye heatran. Diglett can also use toxic against mons it would normally not be able to touch like Hippowdon (the best weather setter to deal with diglett).
I disagree that Magnet pull has many parallels with the other trapping abilities, yes they are similar in concept, but arena trap and shadow tag are so so so much better (hence why they are banned in so many generations).
Diglett traps every pokemon except ghosts and flying/levitaters, and can do some sort of damage/ toxic them, alongside ohkoing the previously mentioned top tier pokemon.
This argument is not good.
No teams was weak to Dugtrio. A lot of teams was weak to a core with Dugtrio, like CharY-Dugtrio or Stall+Dugtrio.
Something that I haven't seen mentioned yet about the trapping ability discussion is its more than just trapping key targets.
Stall is coming I was referencing gen 5 OU, not gen 7, a lot of what I said was about gen 5. Chople berry tyranitar is hardly used in gen 7, i thought this was pretty obvious that I was referencing gen 5. Chople is one of the best items for ttar in gen 5, the fact that he loses out on that or another item is pretty damn big, so I think my argument is pretty good.
Obviously your not able to just slap a dugtrio on any team, thats not how really any pokemon works. In a previous post I had mentioned Forretress on BW sun teams luring in heatran, the volting out for dugtrio or diglett to come in, that would be an example of a good core in (BW only ofc). It should be pretty obvious that teams are weak to a core with dug, not just dug alone, I probably worded my post badly, apologies. I agree, dug on stall was busted lol.
Personally would use Moltres. Both are weak to rocks anyway so I’m assuming your hazard control is under control so it’s a non factor. Dual EQ immunity along with the fact it’s a special mon which can drop some nukes is great. Fires fero for breakfast. I’m personally a fan of suicune/gliscor because that way you have good bulk but with potential set up as well. Tran and LandoT also have a field day with it. Lots of way of dealing with it but yes, moltres > gliscor
Are you saying I should use Moltres and Gliscor, or Moltres and Avalugg? Because you're saying "moltres > gliscor", which means moltres is better than gliscor (and I should therefore use moltres instead of gliscor). But you also said that double ground immunity is nice, implying I should use both.
Oops I meant moltres + Gliscor > my bad. Okay in that case are you running Defog on gliscor? Because that 4x SR is going to cripple moltres and honestly at that point in OU I’d end up running Heatran
Yes, defog on Gliscor and Moltres (or rapid spin on Avalugg if I pass on Moltres).
