AJ.
Genesect is the quintessential tactical Pokemon that can suit multiple playing styles. It is not "broken", and it really don't "counter" many Pokemon in the strict sense of the word, but its movepool and enough unpredictability in its viable movesets, even if its item is known, to pose a credible threat to most Pokemon.
Genesect's efficacy highly dependent on the context -- the current team composition of its user and opponent's, Genesect's remaining health, and residual damage. A well played prediction can "halt" Genesect's momentum. Even allowing a Pokemon to die on a predicted U-Turn may be the best option. Alternatively, a risk-averse player may decide to reserve it to ensure its efficacy as a revenge killer in the middle-late game by keeping it safe from hazard damage or other forms or residual damage. but this forfeits any potential momentum it can generate or kills on high-value targets. There is no prescribed way to play against a Genesect or use a Genesect; that's why it is the epitome of a tactical Pokemon. Certainly, spamming U-Turn is not the prescribed way to play it. Genesect is not really simple to use and any argue that is generates "free momentum" in most cases in this meta is rather risible.
You should also know that Rocky Helmet gives you a passive way of playing mind games with Genesect's user and deters liberal U-Turn use. Certainly Genesect's user would want to protect it from residual damage. Also Stall has superior means and tactics to control hazards.
I could surmise why you do not like Genesect. Here is the an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry of Anatoly Karpov:
Genesect forces you to play a tactical game when it is out, regardless of how you construct a stall team before the match. It can easily generate that "beautiful tactical blow" by forcing a Pokemon exchange. Stall teams generally do not like tactical exchanges because stall thrives on the positional pressure generated by its cores to resist offensive assaults. A tactical offensive player could then exploit whatever hole that has been punched (such as loss of a resistance/immunity, hazard removal, cleric support, special sponge) by that beautiful tactical blow. After the blow has been dealt, the game will be simplified, although not necessarily in the favor of the Genesect user.
If Pokemon had a 200 turn mandatory draw rule. You would probably have a lot of satisfaction from the draws due to the turn limit.
I mean, I hate drawing and losing equally. Especially since if I get to 200 turns, I'm almost certain it's my win. But, genesect is annoying to me in the fact that it is like a common housefly in your bedroom while you try to sleep: You can't really catch it, it never seems to go away on its own (whereas pokemon like Talonflame tend to just die against heatran and recoil) and if you did catch it, you've probably wasted three hours of sleep doing so. To me, it has a calling card this gen as being annoyingly easy to use in any situation. Broken? No. But I don't think being 'broke' is the only reason to ban something.
The issue in gen 5 was that for every turn, it had the possibility to drag a pokemon down as it left the field again. This time around, he still does have that threat... we only added a few pokemon to OU this time around with any ability to take hits, and he realistically GAINED more power since the last time we saw him in OU (aka shift gear/espeed). He isn't a complete offensive monster anymore, but there is no denying his own dominance. Yes, he is largely focusing on OHKOing targets or turning out, and to OHKO he generally does need to hit SE boosted. None of this, however, is hard for him to accomplish, seeing as he always gets a bonus to the target's weakest side.
Now, I guess I should detail why exactly I see genesect as uncompetitive.
As a stall player, I rely on three things going into every match.
1. My team's ability to function in the metagame. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I must have answers to every common threat.
2. My ability to not only immediately identify the opponent's sets, but his endgame
3. Prediction. A great deal of people say stall gets repetitive late game. I try to avoid this and skip switch cycles to gain steps (aka long term I can actually have momentum as a staller)
Now, for whatever team I make, handling something like Rotom-w/Genesect/Scizor is NOT hard in concept. They rarely, if ever, bother team builders... And unfortunately some people just overlook them terribly bad. However, I have a dedicated counter for genesect. As stated, I can also almost immediately tell you band/scarf (obv shift gears, irrelevant) after the first hit. I can generally figure out an expert belt here, too. Red gene doesn't do enough damage on turn, it isn't scarfed...
However, I simply CANNOT predict a move made after I make a move. Well, I can. I bring in heatran to counter Genesect, I know he's bringing in a water/earth/fight user. Generally rotom-w, which really pisses me off because then it's back to chansey (or eventually just take the hit, he can do 40-48% with hydro pump...). The damage he causes is irrelevant to me. Obviously I have bulk to take him on heatran, he can't hit me for SE. But the ease of which my opponent gets to bypass such a crucial part of the competitive nature of the game is very unfair. A "get out of jail free" card, if you will.
His range that he threatens out is nearly unlimited. Ergo, what he can gain momentum against is the same. Lando-t only gains momentum on anything that is afraid of edgequake. Rotom only gets anything afraid of his stabs (and a burn). Genesect can get things fearing ice/electric/fire/bug/steel/occasionally grass. To give you an idea, in OU, here is what fears noting commonly found on genesect:
Charizard X/Y both eat more than 50% damage but can OHKO back if in.
Conkeldurr w/AV: Banded iron head only does 50% to AV conk (However, Noge did show me psychic Gene would do 90%)
Infernape *only* takes 62% min from CB Iron head, does OHKO w/flare blitz... Might kill itself doing so.
Heatran, obviously.
And this was really only looking Iron head + 3 Special attacks (elec/fire/ice). Overpredict a uturn and lose a pokemon. He uturns and you switch, he gets initiative. The only way it can be REMOTELY negative is if he predicts you to stay in when you switch out and he's choice locked/doesn't outspeed the in. This advantage, where two of three options turn advantageous immediately and one is not necessarily disadvantageous (situational what it actually is) is why he is so uncompetitive. My opponent does not need to take and necessary precautions against almost ALL of OU with a fantastic defensive typing that only fears one type.
I personally refer to believe there is anything strategic/tactical about genesect.
