Implemented Trap Pass in GSC PU

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BeeOrSomething

BeeOrSomething

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Trap Pass from Ariados is generally considered a wholly negative part of the tier and arguably too strong. It hasn't showed up much, but when it has it generally completely warped a game in favor of the Ariados user. The main issue with Ariados is that it's impossible to OHKO let alone easy to even 2HKO for most Pokemon and counterplay is extremely limited/specific (Whirlwind Veno, Whirlwind Golbat, Roar Rhyhorn, and very little else), easily being able to pass once if not twice a game. Ariados can also tech for Roar Rhyhorn with Giga Drain or for Venomoth/Golbat with Psychic, and running Whirlwind on Venomoth or Roar on Rhyhorn makes them largely worse Pokemon. I believe trap pass at bare minimum encourages blatant matchup fishing for massive reward and at worst is just straight up completely overpowered.

I am proposing in this thread that we ban trap pass from GSC PU. This thread is mostly for a formality to funnel into a vote since old gens cannot conduct quick bans, but I would still like to hear from people about it.

Some replays from GSC PU Open II:

Zben vs Vani
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2pu-2123142913-o44eflnzdeyxja5idg4ue35whun39oqpw
Zben's Ariados allowed him to very easily eliminate Vani's Murkrow with his Noctowl, doing all of making an effortless trade of some of Ariados's health (which it later recovered with Mint + Rest) for an entire Pokemon, removing Vani's ability to later Haze away Noctowl's boosts, and freeing up Zben's Gastly to go wild late game without having to deal with Murkrow.

Zben vs Aurist
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen2pu-768337
Zben's Ariados baited in Noctowl and allowed him to safely pp stall Noctowl with his Curse Hitmontop, removing a threat to his team and barely losing anything on Ariados or Hitmontop (still full health with plenty of Curse and High Jump Kick PP). Shortly afterwards, Zben again brought in Ariados and trapped Venomoth with his Noctowl, with it still being fairly healthy and having gotten away with 2 extremely positive trades for only a little more than half of Ariados's HP and almost nothing else.

Zben vs SANKE CARP
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2pu-2130489187-pfxlz6grni4cf1m1c6cz2rj13y7hujxpw
Zben drew in Cubone with Ariados and passed to Noctowl, which effortlessly set up 6 Curses on the very common Eq/Bslam/Rest/Talk Cubone and would have instantly won the game if not for SANKE having a hidden (and very unlikely given his team) Gastly to stop it.

SANKE CARP vs BigFatMantis
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com//smogtours-gen2pu-770932
Here, BFM brought a BP team fully focused on getting Ariados and/or Eevee in and executing a chain to quickly get control in his hands and take over the game. However, he essentially instantly lost because SANKE had Whirlwind Venomoth.

I encourage a trap pass ban over an Ariados ban because Ariados still has things it can do without it, namely passing Agility. Ariados itself with trap pass is also not inherently the problem, it is trap pass. I'm quite sure that if you wanted to use trap pass Spinarak you could absolutely get away with it to similar success, if maybe a little dampened, to Ariados trap pass.

Tagging relevant GSC PU players: Estarossa Aurist zben SANKE CARP DAWNBUSTER LpZ MrSoup BloodAce vani DiannieRatson BigFatMantis Alice Kazumi
 
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I support a Trap Pass ban - I think it's quite silly really, and hinders creative expression in a tier full of fun things you can try. Basically, unless you have Whirlwind Venomoth, Trap Pass is going to be near impossible to stop from taking control of the game.

I don't support any other bans though, on BP or Ariados or anything else. I think the tier is very fun with everything it offers, and just Trap Pass is dumb.
 
I completely support a Trap Pass ban in GSC PU. Matchups in the tier are very tight requiring you to put a lot of thought and strategy into keeping things healthy for handling important threats later. Spider Web Pass can at any point in a game exploit a mon for having any losing 1v1 matchups in the entire tier and guarantee a faint in most cases, throwing aspects of the overall team mu out of the window. There is minimal counterplay available for this, phazing mons not named Venomoth have highly exploitable 1v1s, Veno itself has a lot to fit before it runs Whirlwind, Ariados is also a decent mon itself that finds many opportunities to pass with its defensive profile and reasonable threat, so it's not like running Spikes where you're running a highly exploitable mon to pull off your strat. BP itself is somewhat problematic but that is something still to be explored after we rid the tier of this most broken element.
 
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