wanna make a post on slowbro, im pro ban on this mon personally and idt theres been enough prob ban arguments, so im making an argument xd
first thing i wanna talk about is overcentralization, as i def feel thats the primary ban slowbro argument. i def feel the builds we see rn are generally p similar, usually brolix xatu type builds, and that def reflects in snake, as seen in the usage stats. stepping outside of just using standard stuff can honestly be v hard in this meta i feel and building w more creative stuff can honestly be a pain, altho it is def doable dont get me wrong. i def feel slowbros a huge factor for this, the pink dude walls an absolutely insane amount of stuff and outside of rockers, i dont really feel we say anything that actually gets stopped by slowbro; hitmonlee being the prime example of this, a mon that really should be fantastic but like its bad, and bro is the primary reason for that (theres other factors but bro is def the main one). also, i def think cm bros a major think u have to think abt in building, while not as big as say, heliolisk, there r def teams i build where i just realize my bro check loses to x bro set, ie vap losing to block, scept getting bopped by av, etc. teams need to be able to put good pressure on bro, bc it just cant be chipped down the same as most defensive mons due to reliable recovery and regen, which is why i feel slowbro has this effect that unless a pokemon is a rocker like rhydon and steelix are or has uturn like pass. i feel that like, bros oppurtunity cost is 0, but the reward from it is mad high, which is why it can be so easily slapped on a team. in terms of a meta after bro, i think we could see a rise in pokemon like aero and lee that were previously held back so much, some more diversity in team composition and structures, and i def think it could give room for some more creative building..
other thing i wanna talk about is simply bros effect in actual practice. now, idt theres ever gonna be a mu where bro is straight up useless, bc even if it isnt doing much offensively, its still got insane defensive utility, and is still gonna be a great switchin to pass, rhydon, delphox to an extent, etc. bro also has some mad versatility; cm z move (z future sight, z bug) is prob bros most consistent and effective set and is a scary ass sweeper that is honestly one of the best and most splashable wincons in the tier and can also sorta punch holes and shit in the early game, cm block isnt something id use personally and more of a cteam thing i feel, but it can be crazy in some mus and def invalidates some bro checks like vap and audino, av, while alot of ppl have started hating on it i feel, is always a threat, makes bro a better switchin to things like magmortar and diancie, and is just a great semi-breaker, and the classic defensive tox set is still reasonably good and v reliable. i think my problem w all these sets is that theyre all dealt w in diff manners, offensive checks like whims, scept and lisk are great vs the block and tox set, but are vunerable to z moves like z future sight, and fire blast, defensive checks like audino and vap are great vs av and fairly good vs tox and cm z move altho they do have things to fear from them, but if u face block, youre fucked. the only real reliable checks end up being like bu scrafty, sd null which is kinda bad, av king altho that cant do that much back besides dtail, and to an extent av bro. and with all that, slowbro still has great defensive utility, and regen and scald which are dumb lol.
the last point i wanna touch upon goes back to what i was saying about overcentrilization and the builds in this tier being somewhat stale, and thats whether slowbros actually the problem w the tier, which i feel is a sentiment alot of ppl have, and to an extent, i agree. idt theres an argument to be made that slowbro is the single most threatening pokemon in the builder, bc its not, roar, lisk and ice cream are all w/o a doubt harder threats to prep for. also like, slowbros role as a fighting check and shit is def healthy, and while an argument could be made that phys def jelli and slowking could sorta fill that void w/o slowbro, theyre def not as effective. i think alot of ppl think lisk is more suspect worthy as well, and i can def see the reason for it bc that mons just mad good, volting out on everything and bopping all the elec immunes, but at the same time, i feel like slowbro is more problematic just bc of how it prevents so many mons from being good, can have some good breaking potential while cm sets are great sweepers, whereas lisk i feel is more one dimensional, albeit prob better at that role than slowbro is at any role. i do honestly feel like a slowbro test has been a long time coming and while now feels as if its a weird time to test it, i def think the council was right to look at slowbro.
also just wanna include some snake replays to help demonstrate my points:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7nu-393987 kush vs hantuski, here bro can switchin to pass consistenly and bopped vap w z future sight, def the game that put this set on the map
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7nu-404845 rozes vs hantuski, rozes is reliant on blastoise to beat bro but hes block so bro basically just wins lol
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7nu-396340 kush vs nintendi, bro didnt put in too much work here but like, this replay still shows regen being dumb lol
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7nu-398068 waters vs rodri, slowbro couldnt put in too much work in this mu bc rodri straight up got 6-0d by scept, but like if he didnt get bopped by scept so hard, slowbro prob wouldve put in some mad work
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7nu-394659 lax vs flcl, lax's slowbro is basically just a huge annoyance for flcl this game
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7nu-392747 hootie vs waters, both slowbros here put in alot of work
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7nu-393406 rw vs elodin, again, rws slowbro put in some big work
one thing i also wanna note here after watching thru these snake games is how a lot of mons run toxic, primarily for slowbro, think vap, lix, steelvally, xatu.
so ye sry if this felt a bit rambly, tried to keep this p structured but its hard lol, ty to anyone who read all through it, and go ban slowbro