TRIAGE SUSPECT TEST
WHY:
For some background, the subject of how to deal with Triage has undergone several phases of community discussion leading up to this point. We've debated (and resolved) the matter of whether a Belly Drum ban is feasible, Triage as a topic has come up on multiple surveys (and recently received decent support for a potential suspect test), and multiple Pokemon are banned at least partially due to the effectiveness of their Triage sets (Hariyama, Ursaluna, Iron Hands, Magearna even). With so much discourse on how to deal with Triage, the council has held a few quickban voting slates and usually settled on inaction with votes like 3-3-1 and 3-4. Since the council can't seem to reach a clear consensus, it's time for the community to play its role in deciding things!
Functionally, Triage is a very straightforward ability. It's most commonly used with Draining Kiss and Drain Punch, and more recently also works with Bitter Blade and Matcha Gatcha. By far, the biggest benefit of Triage is enabling users like Enamorus-T, Kommo-o, and Ceruledge to make up for middling/mediocre Speed and punish foes faster than themselves while retaining as much bulk as possible; when your main attack has +3 priority, you can afford more defensive investment in HP than usual. This can warp the plane of Speed tiers by denying fast threats like Roaring Moon and Chien-Pao from effectively using their Speed to revenge kill, and the HP-draining nature of Triage-boosted attacks means users can often heal themselves just enough to avoid a 2- or 3HKO.
Counterplay to Triage typically consists of packing resists or protection to Fairy, Fighting, and Fire (nobody is usually worried about Grass-type Triage, although Giga Drain Gengar and Matcha Gatcha Sinistea are usable). Offensively, Choice Scarf Psychic Surge Azelf is a staple that's strong enough to threaten most Triage users and also pivot into teammates that can utilize the protection to score a KO, such as the previously mentioned Roaring Moon. Ghost-types like Ceruledge, Gengar, and Hisuian Zoroark are powerful threats that also happen to resist certain Triage-boosted attacks. Defensively, Unaware users like Scream Tail and Deoxys-D are able to sit on the field and marinate against non-Ceruledge Triage users.
How (Suspect Details):
During a Suspect test, each player must climb the ladder until they've acquired the GXE necessary to participate in the voting. Primarily, everyone that participates needs to make an alt account following these guidelines:
- Every game must be played on the official Pokemon Showdown! site and on a new account (creation date no earlier than today, Friday, December 29th) with "AAATR "--for example, I could create one called "AAATRevenant" to ladder with. Having the prefix at the beginning of your alt name is mandatory, AKA not in the middle (e.g. The AAATR Man) and not at the end (e.g. The AAATR).
- To qualify for voting, your alt must meet the required GXE and games played threshold; it starts at 78% GXE at 25 games, down to 75% GXE at 40+ games.
- Triage will be allowed on the ladder during the suspect.
- The suspect test will end on Monday, January 15th at 10:00pm GMT -5
- When posting proof of meeting reqs, feel free to use this thread as a means to disseminate topical opinions regarding whether or not Triage should be banned (Optional).
- It is mandatory to provide proof of ownership of the alt account as well. (Post a picture of your reqs with your smogon name featured)
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