As the thread title states, welcome to the first USUM Monotype council tiering decision. Ever since Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, the council has been considering past tiering decisions. While discussion primarily focused on our quickbans from early Sun and Moon, we felt it'd be better to revisit more recent tiering first, as their effects on the metagame were more current.
Why Review Magearna?
Per requests to review old decisions, we had already been debating Magearna's ban. Magearna had always been a controversial Pokemon ever since it was released. The council was very reluctant to even suspect it in spite of nearly six months of discussion and requests. This was partially because we felt the community simply hadn't explored all of the options available to them at the time. Throughout the early tiering process of SM Monotype, parts of the community were convinced the council was intentionally not banning Steel-type Pokemon that their teams were weak to, notably Kartana and Mega Metagross. This sentiment bled into Magearna, and while we had believed in "mustn't be too hasty", it was difficult to continue to refuse at least suspecting it to properly gauge whether it was legal.
Rereading the discussions held in the SM Metagame discussion and the Magearna suspect threads, though, we came to the conclusion that many votes were biased when cast. Most voters had already gone into the suspect with their minds made up. This was a red flag to us, as in our tiering philosophy, the second rule is: Do not favor any one type. This goes the other way as well, and we should not tier to specifically hinder any one type either. Considering that Steel had once been a top type with Magearna and has since tumbled down to barely even mid tier, it was clear that the community's grudge against the Steel type had affected their votes. However, users who earn the right to vote in a suspect may vote in any way they wish. As a result, the council chose not to overrule the decision without further consideration.
Instead, to ensure the tier is as balanced as possible, the council decided to formally review the community's suspect decision to ban Magearna.
Why Unban Magearna?
Last year, when Magearna had been banned, USUM had not been released. With its release, though, it's clear Magearna is not at all overpowered anymore. Consider what came with USUM: Fire Punch Alolan Muk, Fire Punch Alolan Golem, Sticky Web Fairy, Sticky Web Water, and Stakataka. These Pokemon all make it very easy to punish teams for trying to use Magearna, as the new Fire Punch users all deal significant damage to Assault Vest Magearna. Sticky Web usage on Fairy and Water can make prevent the supposedly strong Shift Gear set from sweeping, and Sticky Web also makes Trick Room Magearna less appealing to Fairy teams. Speaking of Trick Room, Stakataka is even slower than Magearna and easily takes advantage of Trick Room Magearna trying to sweep its team after KOing it with Earthquake. That makes seven types that are more capable than ever of checking Magearna.
For Steel teams, this means that Magearna is not nearly as threatening as it had been before USUM dropped. Magearna doesn't really fit on the new Steel teams that are used in the metagame. With Celesteela / Skarmory, Heatran, Mega Scizor, and Excadrill being absolutely necessary along with a Poison check, there just isn't much room for a sweeper that is so easily checked in the current metagame. Just like how Stakataka was overhyped but has since disappeared from most Steel teams, we feel that Magearna was severely overhyped. As previously discussed, its AV, TR, and Shift Gear sets are much easier to check than they already were.
On the matter of Fairy teams, we feel they are also unlikely to be able to abuse Magearna. Fairy is a type that is extremely weak to Fire-type attacks, with the use of Klefki and Tapu Bulu on all viable teams. Adding a third Fire-weak Pokemon is a risky decision in a metagame where powerful Fire-type Pokemon such as Mega Charizard Y, Blacephalon, Victini, and Heatran are so common, not even to mention how every team carries powerful Fire-type coverage anyway. The other problem for Fairy is that Magearna simply doesn't build into the team properly. Sticky Web reduces the opposing team's Speed, making using Trick Room Magearna risky, as more of the opponent's Pokemon will be slower than it. Magearna also doesn't even help it beat common anti-Fairy threats. Mega Scizor is still capable of OHKOing it with +4 Bullet Punch, Volcarona easily sets up Quiver Dance on it, and it's so easily trapped by Dugtrio. Because Magearna wouldn't be broken on either Steel or Fairy teams, unbanning it in total was the final decision.
Why Not Resuspect?
Overturning a prior public suspect is certainly not common, but the council came to the conclusion that a resuspect would not properly address the problems that had arisen in the first suspect. Because people are unlikely to want to unban a Steel-type, we feared a do not unban vote would be the probable result. Part of the problem is that it would require a 60% vote to unban, unlike normally the mere 40% to keep a Pokemon unbanned. If we ran the public suspect and the vote ended in not unbanning it, immediately overturning that suspect vote is not something we feel is ethical, as it undermines the foundation of the suspect process and the trust the council is given. However, overturning a public suspect from over two-thirds of a year ago with multiple metagame shifts is a different story. Just like we justifiably overturned two Hoopa-U do not ban votes with proper reasoning, we feel this is more than enough reasoning to quick unban Magearna.
Looking to the future, we will of course still be hosting public suspects for most tiering decisions. The council reserved the right to use quickbans in the tiering philosophy, and with them come quick unbans. With a unanimous vote, we are exercising that right in order to bring Magearna back into the metagame. We may consider another suspect test to ban Magearna, but such a suspect will require the traditional 60% vote to ban, as the status quo is now that it is legal in Monotype.
So, feel free to use this thread to discuss this decision. This thread is not for tiering philosophy discussion. Tagging The Immortal and Kris to implement. Thank you!