My thoughts on what’s controversial and broken and what’s flying under the radar.
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Iron Bundle: Beyond broken. Godly speed tier, unboosted. Free boosts. Hydro + Freeze Dry slices through this meta. Nothing can switch into it besides Sylveon, which is quite good, and then unviable shit like the two pink blobs, who it can still already with via Taunt/Encore, and random stuff like Cyrogonal and random AV boys, or otherwise Defensive Tera on something bulky like Clodsire. Slowking or Amoongus. I’ve seen very little talk of the utter bullshit it can pull on rain or snow teams, either giving a free boost to Hydro Pump or making it virtually immune to priority with the defense boost. Where’s the debate here? Quick ban, please.
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Palafin: Less broken than Bad Santa, but still very, very hard to beat from both a defensive and offensive perspective. Defensive checks *checks notes, disregards Tera* there’s the Slowtwins. And funnily enough, it’s kinda food for Azurmarril to bop it with Play Rough. But that’s about it.
Toxpaex and WA Clodsire and Amoongus falter to any of Taunt, Sub and/or Zen Headbutt. Dragons - Ice Punch. Offense? Jet Punch will cleave through frail boys. I am less likely to support a quick ban here, but a suspect test will undoubtedly find it broken regardless. So I guess you could do a sus test on the dolphin in good faith to queltch all the bitching, but in all fairness, just save the time and quick ban the Florida Man and move on.
If it’s not broken now it def will be without Iron Bundle, as that is its best offensive check outside Chlorophyll mons and sun.
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Roaring Moon: The reason this is so strong is that it’s probably the best user of Tera in the meta, given its stats, Booster Energy, Sun compatibility and most importantly movepool. I think the biggest issue for moms who like to Tera is if they need to dedicate a move slot to Tera Blast for coverage they wouldn’t normally have, then that slot is useless if they do not Tera.
Moonman does not have that issue - Iron Head and Acrobatics are moves it would like to have anyway, as they complement its normal STABs. This thing doesn’t need Tera Blast, except for Fire, but you’re likely going to see that run with Sun, so it’s at least more predictable in theory. In practice it’s still boosted Fire STAB in sun + Dragon, good luck with that shit with no Heatran.
In general priority checks it, but if you guess that Tera type wrong - whoopsie daisy it’s GG! Still, analyzing the team at preview really does help predict what you think it’s going to turn into, but this guy is undoubtedly the king of 50/50s. Unlike the first two, I would say there is decent offensively and defensive counterplay. Ultimately, I would strongly support a suspect test, because it can do a lot of bullshit.
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Tera, in general: It has been argued how Terastilization favors offense and to be fair that’s true, but come on. Defensive teams are struggling in this meta in general. Look at these over powered Paradox freaks. There’s the bigger issue for stall and balance.
Defensive Tera plays can be utterly gutteral too. Have you ever used a Fire Type Breloom to beat Volcorona 1v1 with Rock Tomb? Because I have. Is it fun having Spore with a fire move to beat grass types trying to absorb it? You better believe it. That’s the type of creative team building and skillful plays Tera enables. I feel like it needs to be explored way more. What about running Fairy Ice Body Avualug in snow for the ultimate physical wall, or Dark type Slowking, for a really friggin sturdy ghost + dark check. We stand at the edge of an unexplored frontier! Frankly it is astonishing the cowardice that sees that and goes, nah, this mechanic favors offense. Let’s ban it so we can have the same-ish meta as the last 3 gens.
This is a cool mechanic that merits limitless exploration and innovation, both offensively and defensively. Does it create 50/50? Why yes it does. Welcome to competitive Pokémon, it’s always been that way. Tera is not immediately overbearing like the garbage mechanic Dynamaxing was, and it can work defensively as well as offensively. I do not support a suspect. If you’re complaining defense is struggling, ban the offensive juggernauts running this meta, and then we’ll talk.
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Shed Tail: We’re actually seeing some counter play here, and I’m enjoying the dance. Infiltrator Dragapult (who will get even more common after a Bundle ban), sound move users like Skeleridge, Sylveon, Unaware mons, phasing + hazard stack, and just generally outspeeding and hitting Cylizar. I’ve yet to see Orthworm do much work at all. All in all, it’s a good playstyle, not inherently broken as there’s counterplay. I’d support a suspect test at least.
Chien-Pao: Maybe it’s just me, but I simply have never struggled against this thing. I find I always have ample counter play to it. It’ll doubtedly do better in this meta if these broke ass water types get the boot. Suspect test someday perhaps. Not now.
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And now, my hottest take:
Espathra: You know how Demon Mew is good against noobs but also kinda sucks in general? Yeah, Espathra is like that but actually kinda good.
The set is Speed Boost, Calm Mind, Protect, Stored Power/Lumina Crash, Lum Berry and your choice of either Tera Fairy with Dazzling Gleam or Tera Fighting + Tera Blast to vex Sucker Punch.
It’s definitely overshadowed by the Paradox mons and Palafin, but The Quickster is no joke. It effortlessly acquires Speed Boosts with Protect letting it blitz through offense, while also powering up Stored Power, and with Calm Mind it is essentially getting Quiver Dances off. SP is better with screens and Shed Tail support as you can accrue more boosted, but Lumina Crash is a really dope move for quicker power that drops the opponent’s Sp Def by 2, so nothing is living another hit. Either way, it effortlessly breaks through Unaware mons, specifically with a Lum Berry so it can take a Toxic from Clodsire as it boosts or Twave from Blissey.
It falls to priority but still, it trivializes fat. If we’re aiming to make fat viable, this birds gotta go. Not the biggest broken threat here but still, I think it will need a suspect.