This won't be the full post about my darkrai opinion but i would like to atleast discuss my stance on it.
But before i really get into why i think darkrai is alright, i would like to state that:
1. Having a set to beat all its counters respectively isnt a valid reason to ban a pokemon in this generation if your stance is pro tera, because i could name a zama,gambit, raging. bolt, and even a meowscarada set that defeats all its counters, there is no 1 darkrai set that covers ALL checks/counterplay.
2. It has a million sets (so people claim) so it magically has to have the right set to cripple your team.
3. Guessing and scouting sets have been a strategy since the gen came out, darkrai is not the only one.
Alright now onto my darkrai stance:
Lets break it down in every style since we have to cater for all playstyles:-
Stall: stall leads with a protect gliscor usually, has a blissey, and a clod, and has niche answers like rest ting lu sometimes, unaware clef with tera, play rough av spdef alo, if gliscor protects it auto scouts the darkrai set, the argument that it could be trick, is invalidated by the fact that other things could also trick and cripple stall, has to have knock off to stand a chance vs unaware clod or blissey and still it loses, and stall has fog talon, some stalls pack garganacl, which salt cure it and tera(because garg is tera dependent), then swap to the unaware mon, now its useless, galar weezing comes in on it and damn near kills it unless it teras, and when it teras, then tera burned, big drawback for the darkrai user.
Bulky offense: Primarina checks it, darkrai does not kill with sludge bomb, it has to essentially be in vs another mon thats weak to sludge bomb and click plot on the switch to deal with prim, and even then prim might tera and ohko with torrent surf. Primarina lives every other darkrai hit + unboosted sludge bomb. Raging bolt checks it with priority thunderclap, especially specs, which btw, darkrai also cant come in on. Dragonite tera normal espeed revenges it, forces tera into a usual gambit sucker revenge, scizor can bp it, rillaboom glides it. Oh and btw, glowking can cripple it with a twave or toxic, tera into living the second hit and chilly for free, or if its av itll sludge for a large chunk of hp, only for darkrai to be picked off. Sd tera gliscor checks it, scarf lando, garg salt cure + spdef dozo with curse, zamazenta owns it (has 30% usage) i state zama after all these so people could see the above counterplay and not think that zamazenta is the only counterplay, remember the argument that some of these cant switch in are invalidated by the fact that people miss: darkrai cannot switch into any of these either, and the game will go to who has the better positioning which is the better player in that particular game. ursaluna under trick room absolutely destroys darkrai, ive used multiple variants of trick room on the ladder recently and all have peaked #1, the biggest struggle was protect spam and gliscor, and ursaluna slams that anyway, darkrai was a non issue for every single variant of these trick room teams especially the eject pack hoopa variant. Niche picks: hisuian goodra which has tested really well on the ladder, walls multiple stuff like wake, enamorus, knocks gking, takes on wellspring if physdef, beats moth which is huge, beats glimmora, dtails out setup, alolan muk which is amazing in every matchup that doesnt have gliscor, but that is nullified by the fact we can pair it with a strong gliscor check like waterpon. And muk serves as a great tspike absorber + ghost resist with good matchup into gholdengo and valiant especially.
Balance: glowking again cripples it, darkrai cant switch into glowking without fear of being crippled, galar weezing, mirror coat spdef alomomola, tspikes, clef checks it or atleast chips it down to a very low hp, clod beats it, hazards are everywhere so its forced to run boots which doesnt hit as hard, zamazenta , if skarm is in vs it and ur skarm can take a pulse + roost on a mon it walls in the back that u need it for, like ting lu, skarm can press kill it or force tera, niche picks: alola muk and goodra hisui also, milotic with haze and scald and can click mirror coat if darkrai teras, which also beats dengo, primarina, and raging bolt/kyurem if u tera steel and click mirror coat, also takes on iron moth and cm valiant, blissey again, tera + cm cress beats it with only a +spdef nature and max hp, can still go max def with +spdef and wall its other setup fodder like tusk and zama, and clod if u tera. Hatterene checks it if ur in, and if its on semi trickroom, it wins alongside luna. Tinkaton is really good in this meta vs all HO, not just darkrai, its great vs BO aswell, and decent vs stall with the right set, so u cant say its an unusual mon to check a broken, flawed argument when its good vs a huge chunk of the metagame.
Hyper offense: moon checks it, lives beam easily, dnite espeeds it, gambit suckers, rillaboom glides, lucha owns it, zama owns it, booster valiant with cm owns it and even owns the scarf variant after a cm with vacuum wave , booster boulder owns it (cuz u have a good chance to live scarf darkpulse which is hilarious), booster raging bolt owns it, kyurem checks it, with specs, focus blast doesnt kill, dd sets also check it for this reason, dd gouging beats it, a terad wellspring owns it, pult heavily threatens it, gambit with tera also threatens it, any tera sweeper actually, niche picks: booster hands, booster scream tail or reg scream tail w tera, booster speed tusk etc.
You cannot use the argument that: Ye but most of these mons dont directly switch into a specific darkrai set, first of all, let me reiterate that this argument is invalid due to the sole fact that EVERY pokemon in this metagame, and EVERY breaker in past ou metagames, can tailor make its set to beat every single counter and check individually, as long as tera is a thing, there is no hard counter to any offensive breaker, whatever gets banned still breaks the game even without tera for example, ridiculous stuff like chi yu, chien pao, bax, bloodmoon etc, with the exception of volcarona, regieleki, and maybe espathra, nothing was banned solely due to tera. Also, im straying off topic, back to darkrai, so darkrai has to magically be the right set all the time to beat all of these, and it does not have fun coming in on these either, so yes, they may not be able switch into darkrai, but it cannot switch into them either, and theres not a huge amount of pokemon that give darkrai free entry, you cant name more than 15 common mons that give darkrai free entry.
And people like to say i dont vote ban on stuff, i was pro ban on chi yu, baxcalibur, bloodmoon, annihilape, archaludon(finch honestly u can go delete the post if u like cuz i trolled for the entire post and i didnt even vote on arch), i made TWO ban posts for gouging and was pro ban, it STILL stayed, and people adapted nicely, i voted ban on the most recent suspect, which was volcarona, its whatever breaks that ceiling of the game, theres conditions that need to be met, yes volc was broken , it wasnt the same as gouging, volc had everything gouging had, except volc was faster and had a MUCH better speed tier, had flame body, and its boosting move also boosted spdef.
I will follow up on my stances this gen in the "current state of SV OU" thread, and talk about a larger topic that needs to be addressed there, but this is my stance on darkrai, also guys like boltingblazie, srn or even you finch sometimes, i would usually disagree with some stances you take, but id never haha react it, if i didnt consider arguing your stances, i wouldnt be arguing any stance here, your stances are not ignored, i wont haha react you, or even quote you, just try to see it from my perspective: most bans an ou tier has ever had, almost none of them are defensive mons says alot, i will explain more in the post i will make in that other thread.
If anybody wants to discuss 1 on 1, heres my discord: stormzone
Add me there.
Thats about all i have to say, pce.
