With additional observations and general metagame changes noticed by the council since the latest seasonals, we have decided to suspect test Latios.
Suspect Reasoning
In a metagame largely identical to previous iterations, tier titan Latios has been one of the most consistently versatile and threatening offensive Pokemon for a while now. It has regularly demanded the utmost attention amongst its few defensive answers, the aforementioned dynamic being so impactful as to make its way onto our radars in previous iterations. However, despite recent changes, these points have shifted so overwhelmingly into its favor once more - with Latios having gained some seriously potent new tools in the Indigo Disk DLC, most notably Flip Turn and the buff to Luster Purge that the council has decided to put it up for attention in this suspect test once more.
Latios’s offensive arsenal remains largely straightforward despite this, yet with some noticeable differences between sets that only suffice to increase its propensity for breaking through teams. The most common variants typically opt for a combination of Life Orb, Soul Dew, and Latiosite with 3 Attacks + Roost, often to best abuse the momentum of Flip Turn after attacking, while sustaining itself across the many opportunities it gets at its disposal. The latter also emphasizes the importance of its defensive utility for such an offensively-minded threat; it’s immune to spikes; has a superb speed tier, being able to get the jump on notable threats such as Keldeo and Thundurus-T, which it resists; and has access to recovery which can allow it to outlast theoretical switch-ins, such as Ting-Lu and Slowking one on one.
Added here, Latios’s impressive offensive movepool and power between its two-move coverage in Draco Meteor + Luster Purge usually leaves it room to directly handpick several of its defensive checks. Aura Sphere allows it to more readily destroy unsuspecting Tyranitar (though Mega Sets are often EV’d to live one from full), Bisharp, and force more consistent damage onto Ting-Lu, whereas Mystical Fire incinerates most Aegislash, Scizor, and Celesteela in the long-run. It is even perfectly capable of abusing Z-Moves on its own, giving it more immediate power whilst negating the Special Attack drop from the commonly used Draco Meteor in Dragonium Z’s case, in addition to the downsides of recoil or choice-locking that come with previous options, sometimes using this in conjunction with Calm Mind to really push the luck of targets attempting to survive a hit from full otherwise. This marks it as a dangerous and flexible offensive presence whose capacity to destroy teams is not to be underestimated.
However, despite Latios’s fearsome attacking capabilities, we must also look at other features including several long-prevalent elements that could be argued to still be sufficient in today’s surroundings. Current metagame adaptations range from the use of Fairy-type pivots like specially defensive Clefable and Tapu Fini, to Pursuit users, to general specially defensive walls like Celesteela and Ting-Lu that can at the very least afford to scout said variants, or in other cases, place a dampener on the amount of profitable opportunities, which Latios itself is not so inherently strong to immediately pose a threat to under common battling circumstances. Additionally, Latios may also run into several moveset complications against teams with swaths of faster threats in Greninja, Mega Aerodactyl, and Scarfers like Enamorus to accompany many of the Pokemon above, which can make some of its defensive shortcomings far from unnoticeable. However, the mere threat of these options in conjunction with Latios’s natural power and attacking versatility still puts the reliability of such tactics into question.
Suspect Test Information
- Reading this is mandatory to participate in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 79 with at least 40 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 79 GXE, down to a minimum of 20 games at a GXE of 83. Also, needing more than 40 games to reach 79 GXE will suffice.
| GXE | minimum games |
| 79 | 40 |
| 79.2 | 39 |
| 79.4 | 38 |
| 79.6 | 37 |
| 79.8 | 36 |
| 80 | 35 |
| 80.2 | 34 |
| 80.4 | 33 |
| 80.6 | 32 |
| 80.8 | 31 |
| 81 | 30 |
| 81.2 | 29 |
| 81.4 | 28 |
| 81.6 | 27 |
| 81.8 | 26 |
| 82 | 25 |
| 82.2 | 24 |
| 82.4 | 23 |
| 82.6 | 22 |
| 82.8 | 21 |
| 83 | 20 |
- You must use a fresh account that begins with the given prefix for this suspect test. That prefix is NDUU9TIOS. For example, I could signup and qualify with the name NDUU9TIOS Arishem.
- You may not impersonate or mock another user with your account name. If there is any slight hesitation, you're probably better off picking a different name. We reserve the right to null your voting requisites if you are found impersonating or mocking another user with your account name. Moderator discretion will be applied.
- If you are found trying to manipulate voting requisites in any way, you will be met with a harsh infraction. Manipulating voting requisites ranges from faking your screenshot to asking another user to forfeit.
- The Pokemon that's being suspect tested, Latios, will be allowed on the National Dex UU ladder for the next two weeks so that we can properly assess its position in the metagame.
- Struggles to actually chip Latios outside of switching into attacks on most sets, which relegates it to being a damage sponge and/or opportunities to stack hazards, meaning Latios can afford to stay in and batter it as much as it likes, let alone be given momentum while doing so. Yes, Whirlwind in this scenario is a valid middle-ground to try and reverse momentum by drawing out the opponent’s losing matchups, but the chances of achieving this with the avenue of preventing Latios (with Spikes immune and its aforementioned switch-in opportunities) from making progress makes it far too inconsistent to be a sequence that is relied on.
- Definitely the most splashable and valuable Latios answer in the tier right now, and owing to its sheer versatility, is relied on by many teams to do far more as suggested. It also wants to set hazards, trade items against defensive options such as Clefable and Tangrowth 1v1, and occasionally, focus on setting Sand in the mid-game. Suffice to say, this take, while valid, also hinges on terms that are far from reliable when trying to deal with the most prevalent Latios sets in most cases.
- Almost always does the deed of pivoting in at least once, but risks Mystical Fire (prevents Shadow Ball from KOing back regardless of Aegislash’s spread in return), Sneak on traditional sets will also fail to go anywhere near OHKOing Latios so…
I'm neutral for this one, any of the two possible results is fine for me, but I would most likely choose BAN 
). With the way things are and how they're going, progress is being made extremely slowly and somewhat inefficiently with some errors here and there, the way everything here started with the Latios suspect that was planned ended up being kind of controversial due to Thundurus-T becoming a lot more opressive and with how people have been spamming the hell out of Celesteela, Ting-Lu and others in order to keep up with things really hinders building and play.
