Official Metagame Updates and Discussion Thread.

[DoubleJG3288]

Oh, and Shadow tag Chandelure was officially banned in PO.

This was something I expected to see. Very glad to see this.

[MudkipsAreAwesome]

Talking about Blaziken, he OHKO-ed a Jellicent with BLAZE KICK after swords dance in PO.

[artbomber_97]

Guys, sorry I couldn't update this since I lost my connection for a few weeks. And thanks to those who updated this for me.

A ban in Chandelure, in my opinion, is just a matter of time. It totally overcentralized the metagame, and the OU tier became unbalanced because of it.

And Smogon created the UU tier, they are deciding the cutoff method I think.

Also, there's a Scraggy LC vote going on in Pokemon Online. Vote if you feel like it.

[jesusfreak94]

Quick question: Why did Vulpix get the boot from LC/UU on PO? I mean, Hippo and Snover are still both there, and Sand Rush is almost equivalent to Chlorophyll. I may understand LC, but UU? It's almost a waste of a slot for Permanent Sun. I mean guys, it's Vulpix: Not like he's got the best stats in the world.

I've heard of a few reasons why Vulpix might be banned.

First off, Cholophyll users are much more prominent in UU than Sand Rush users. Sand Rush has just Stoutland and Sandslash, neither of which are all that threatening. Chlorophyll has a few more prominent users, namely Venasaur, Tangrowth, and Sawsbuck. There's also CBVictini, whose V-Create hits the tier like a H-Bomb on steriods. Solar Power Charizard also does a good job of tearing stuff up.

Vulpix does kind of suck to take up a team slot, but permaSun really does a number on UU.

[d0nut]

Apparently PO has decided to go the route of banning broken weather sweepers rather than using complex bans or banning weather itself... This will make them much different from Smogon. It isn't officially banned yet, but Kingdra is being tested, and will most likely be Uber.

[kaiser soze]

Apparently PO has decided to go the route of banning broken weather sweepers rather than using complex bans or banning weather itself... This will make them much different from Smogon. It isn't officially banned yet, but Kingdra is being tested, and will most likely be Uber.

I can say from my experience on random matchups that swift swim kingdra is a huge b!i#%^ since it outspeeds all the other dragons

[Blue Harvest]

I love how people say Smogon is ban happy when the only thing banned this gen that wasn't last gen is Blaziken. Not to mention they unbanned a ton of stuff.

I'm curious to see where Garchomp ends up. Its the only suspect that has a good chance of being banned.

[d0nut]

^Agreed.

I think people will have realized that Deo-S and Latios probably aren't broken so it wouldn't suprise me if they got voted OU this next round.

[PoignantLyrics]

After people figured out Sp.Def Jirachi was a hard counter to Latios, the calls for it to be banned began to die down quite a bit. I hope to god Garchomp gets banned though. SubSD just introduces too much of a luck factor, and the ease with which it can set up and retain it's Sub is stupid, especially considering after one SD, there's not much Garchomp won't be beating one on one. Not to mention, some of the harder counters (Skarmory) can be screwed over by a untimely Whirlwind miss.

[d0nut]

News on Smogon's UU.

Drought: 30 Bans, 1 Do Not Ban (96.77% Ban)
Shell Smash + Baton Pass: 18 Bans, 10 Do Not Bans, 3 Abstains (64.29% Ban)

Drought is gone, but Shell Passing is going to be legal for one more round...Should easily be banned next time though.

[Dattebayo]

But Droughtales is in OU, and Pokemon from OU are banned from UU battles, so I don't see the point of that poll.

[Blue Harvest]

Vulpix is UU.

Edit: Well BL now.

[d0nut]

But Droughtales is in OU, and Pokemon from OU are banned from UU battles, so I don't see the point of that poll.

Its called Vulpix. It also has Drought, and allows things like Lilligant, Charizard, Exeggutor, Victini, Sawsbuck, Arcanine, etc, to break the metagame.

[Dattebayo]

Its called Vulpix. It also has Drought, and allows things like Lilligant, Charizard, Exeggutor, Victini, Sawsbuck, Arcanine, etc, to break the metagame.

Okay, so who's going to be the new Sunny Day user?

[RifleAvenger]

Okay, so who's going to be the new Sunny Day user?

"Pokemon X" @ Heat Rock is, unless this ban is for sunny day as whole, not just permasun, which would be unfortunate IMO.

Even though Kyurem is going to be obviously booted to BL too, hail is going to jump in use now. Unless A-snow and snover get the boot too...

[Zenotwapal]

Smogon's just d**king around now.

I STILL don't see why they just ban Dream World abilities all together. Its a pain in the ass to deal with some of these and some are extremely broken. (like Speed Boost Blaziken and Shadow Tag Chandelure)
It is beyond me why they just don't ban them already... but you know I have no control over any of this so

[d0nut]

I doubt Sun will even remain a top tier playstyle without the easy to set up Drought. Rain abusers are probably better anyway, so if anything Rain would see a rise in usage, especially since it looks like Tornadus may be dropping down when they release another tier list in a couple of months. And yea, rifle is probably right about Hail being used the most of all weathers down there since without Sun it can more easily dominate. Sand just doesn't have enough abusers in UU, even with Hippopotas.

[XxragdollxX]

Since no one else has said it, i might as well say that Smogon has created the rarely used tier due to the large number of pokemon in UU

[d0nut]

Yea, and I'm sure NU will be made from the lesser used pokes in RU. Not sure exactly what they will be doing with RU (such as maybe making a banlist for it,) but so far most people think its retarded. My main concern is that very few people will bother to play it since the userbases only get smaller as you go down the tiers, and the userbase for NU last gen was close to non-existant, so RU might be the same, and as for NU when it is made, only a handful of people will play that also.

Edit: Results are in for UU pokemon votes.

Victini: 18 Ban, 11 Do Not Ban, 2 Abstain (62% Ban)
Kyurem: 31 Ban , 0 Do Not Ban, 0 Abstain (100% Ban)
Chansey: 15 Ban, 15 Do Not Ban, 1 Abstain (50% Do Not Ban)
Staraptor: 17 Ban, 11 Do Not Ban, 3 Abstain (60% Ban)
Mew: 18 Ban, 11 Do Not Ban, 2 Abstain (62% Ban)
Wobbuffet: 14 Ban, 15 Do Not Ban, 2 Abstain (51% Do Not Ban)

Kyurem is gone. No surprise there. Victini, Staraptor, and Mew are around for one more test, though will most likely be gone next time. Chansey and Wobb narrowly escape simple majority so they are staying.

[RifleAvenger]

Yea, and I'm sure NU will be made from the lesser used pokes in RU. Not sure exactly what they will be doing with RU (such as maybe making a banlist for it,) but so far most people think its retarded. My main concern is that very few people will bother to play it since the userbases only get smaller as you go down the tiers, and the userbase for NU last gen was close to non-existant, so RU might be the same, and as for NU when it is made, only a handful of people will play that also.

Edit: Results are in for UU pokemon votes.

Victini: 18 Ban, 11 Do Not Ban, 2 Abstain (62% Ban)
Kyurem: 31 Ban , 0 Do Not Ban, 0 Abstain (100% Ban)
Chansey: 15 Ban, 15 Do Not Ban, 1 Abstain (50% Do Not Ban)
Staraptor: 17 Ban, 11 Do Not Ban, 3 Abstain (60% Ban)
Mew: 18 Ban, 11 Do Not Ban, 2 Abstain (62% Ban)
Wobbuffet: 14 Ban, 15 Do Not Ban, 2 Abstain (51% Do Not Ban)

Kyurem is gone. No surprise there. Victini, Staraptor, and Mew are around for one more test, though will most likely be gone next time. Chansey and Wobb narrowly escape simple majority so they are staying.

I always thought that "RU" would wind up being a ban-list from NU, not it's own tier :/ . I'm not so sure it's necessary as an entity utterly separate from NU, what purpose does it really serve? NU is kind of a basin for everything not at least UU to settle into, we really didn't need another tier except maybe to create a stable "NU metagame" (which smogon will never be able to get around to doing).

Yeah, I wish I had a picture of someone using a Gravity Hammer on Halo, and photo-shopped Kyurem into it, because that thing just got BANHAMMERED, and rightfully so. Mew and Victini possibly going BL doesn't surprise me either. I'm suspicious of anything with shadow tag, so the narrow escape for wobbuffett saddens me a little. No opinion on Starraptor, I've only seen one this generation so far. It was BL last gen though, and it's still probably one of the best Normal/Flying types around (unlike the **** that is Unpheasant...)