ban this sh*t right now.
One thing I feel is that i think is really strong even without light clay boosted veil or without screens in general, too, a metagame with no screens and stored power poison-latias is way less manageable than a metagame with screens abusers and noI'm just popping in to say that it is insane how many people misspell Ninetales
Like you see the word so much, and yet people still misspell it.
This is like going to a store every day and then still not knowing how to spell its name.
I'll say either ban Light Clay or do nothing. I am a proponent of the ideology that Light Clay/Screens can only be worth it in a metagame with broken Pokemon, and it is usually best to see what people find worthy to spend an entire extra (mostly mid/low) slot just to support it.
Magcargo mentioned DLC1 type teams, and one thing someone may realize is that the moment the brokens were banned in that meta, Light Clay immediately was out of the picture. Light Clay is harder to balance the lower power you go. But UU is definitely extremely powerful right now. That is not to say it's an exact match, but that I do not believe Ninetales/Light Clay to be a problem in absence of gigantic Tera shenanigans or the plethora of pretty nutty setup sweepers right now.
In short: Keep Light Clay for now and see what people find worthy to spend an entire extra slot to support, and then if the obvious brokens being banned does not show progress in slowing screens down, then it can be a more serious conversation IMO.
If you think that this is backwards, keep in mind I simply do not consider a Light Clay Screens team to be inherently advantageous. With Grimmsnarl having to run two moves, an item and several turns to get your team setup going in preparation for more turns to setup, is not inherently broken IMO, or advantageous to more conventional strategies of just playing a more BO playstyle. And I don't think running an Ice-Type without boots that has to manually switch out is broken either, honestly.
But what I can see more immediately being broken is a metagame with Tera + setup moves galore and high stat spreads. AV is just the icing on the top to these crazy good wincons, making it worth it IMO. And I believe this to be true for any conventional high-power metagame.
Oger has access to Trailblaze to boost its speed but I don't think anyone runs it. The opportunity cost of trading sheer power of Power Whip or utility of Horn Leech or coverage is just so highcornerstone hasn’t felt too bad so far either despite being very dangerous in large part due to the double sided typing, lack of items like boots (cuts off the sturdy problem decently outside of lead too) and manageable speed tier without any access to speed boosting. A slower metagame afain may make this feel more pressing though for me.
Look this thing is just the same as last time, its a bit easier to prevent a weak armor proc but from what ive seen of it doesnt really matter when it just runs shadow sneak to be faster than things anyways. ESPECIALLY since sneak is super effective on 2 of our new special attackers and . I think its more deserving of a ban than blaziken atm, as it feels a lot better at just beating teams down with stabs, as its fire stabs doesnt have recoil (and heals it which makes it worse). And the prio makes it harder to revenge and less reliant on speed boosts. Overall hate this guy.
BAN
Being honest, this is just a complete negative, i understand that that alone isnt usually enough for a qb, but i do think there are mons that are fine without it but not with it now.
One such example is , who normally posses a solid amount of offensive counterplay to beat down into a range where it can easily be revenged, such as and . All of which can threaten it well enough to stop it from sweeping teams.
However, WITH veil, well... most of them dont
252 SpA Soul Dew Latios Draco Meteor vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Manaphy: 255-301 (74.7 - 88.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Soul Dew Latios Draco Meteor vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Manaphy through Light Screen: 127-150 (37.2 - 43.9%) -- 100% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Sandy Shocks Volt Switch vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Manaphy: 218-258 (63.9 - 75.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Sandy Shocks Volt Switch vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Manaphy through Light Screen: 109-129 (31.9 - 37.8%) -- 0.2% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Ogerpon, can still force it out pretty well... until mana teras, which is a different thing partially but it doesnt have to tera to a resist specifically with screens up, which is rough
252 Atk Ogerpon Ivy Cudgel vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Manaphy: 308-366 (90.3 - 107.3%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Ogerpon Ivy Cudgel vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Manaphy through Reflect: 154-183 (45.1 - 53.6%) -- 1.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Ogerpon Ivy Cudgel vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Tera Fairy Manaphy through Reflect: 77-91 (22.5 - 26.6%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery
There are likely other examples of stuff like this, but i think the tier is better off banning light clay just to prevent more things that are usually fine from needing to get banned.