locopoke
Banned deucer.
This issue of Stealth Rock has been brought up several times before in threads like these, but no conclusion was reached. With the release of a new generation and the recent threads on reevaluating Pokemon policy, I feel that this issue should be addressed once again as it never got the attention that it deserved.
Stealth Rock is easily the most game-breaking move in Pokemon, it's clear that the majority of Smogon agrees with this based on the results of this poll. It's unarguably the biggest change that Gen 4 brought to the table, as it substantially cut the amount of viable Pokemon down to size. It has absolutely no drawbacks and, unlike Spikes, damages every Pokemon in the game barring Magic Guard users. Because of it, Focus Sash and Sturdy become useless outside of the lead position and certain Pokemon are practically unusable because of the amount of Stealth Rock damage that they take.
While there are many negative impacts that Stealth Rock has on the metagame, one could also claim that it balances the metagame as well. Pokemon like Salamence, Gyarados, Shaymin-S and even Dragonite would be much more threatening if they didn't lose 25% of their health upon switching in. We also have to take into account the fact that while there are 155 new Pokemon in the game, less than 10 of them learn the move (due to it not being a TM anymore). Gen 5 also introduced Mischievous Heart, an ability that gives +1 priority to non-attacking moves. This means that there are some top notch Pokemon that can out speed and Taunt suicide leads before they get a chance to use Stealth Rock.
In short, there are pros and cons to having Stealth Rock in the metagame, but there are a good amount of people who think the metagame would improve without it. This amount is large enough that we should definitely consider testing it. Personally, I feel that the existance of any move, ability or Pokemon in our metagame that decreases the amount of usable Pokemon as much as Stealth Rock does should definitely be questioned. Much like the clauses, we didn't pay much attention to Stealth Rock in Gen 4, but this is a new Gen and it's the perfect time for us to rethink the way we play the game.
Stealth Rock is easily the most game-breaking move in Pokemon, it's clear that the majority of Smogon agrees with this based on the results of this poll. It's unarguably the biggest change that Gen 4 brought to the table, as it substantially cut the amount of viable Pokemon down to size. It has absolutely no drawbacks and, unlike Spikes, damages every Pokemon in the game barring Magic Guard users. Because of it, Focus Sash and Sturdy become useless outside of the lead position and certain Pokemon are practically unusable because of the amount of Stealth Rock damage that they take.
While there are many negative impacts that Stealth Rock has on the metagame, one could also claim that it balances the metagame as well. Pokemon like Salamence, Gyarados, Shaymin-S and even Dragonite would be much more threatening if they didn't lose 25% of their health upon switching in. We also have to take into account the fact that while there are 155 new Pokemon in the game, less than 10 of them learn the move (due to it not being a TM anymore). Gen 5 also introduced Mischievous Heart, an ability that gives +1 priority to non-attacking moves. This means that there are some top notch Pokemon that can out speed and Taunt suicide leads before they get a chance to use Stealth Rock.
In short, there are pros and cons to having Stealth Rock in the metagame, but there are a good amount of people who think the metagame would improve without it. This amount is large enough that we should definitely consider testing it. Personally, I feel that the existance of any move, ability or Pokemon in our metagame that decreases the amount of usable Pokemon as much as Stealth Rock does should definitely be questioned. Much like the clauses, we didn't pay much attention to Stealth Rock in Gen 4, but this is a new Gen and it's the perfect time for us to rethink the way we play the game.