Darkmalice
Level 3
This makes me think of these two threads in Policy Review regarding the emergence of a new and very effective playstyle where some of the playerbase requests to make a ban to address this playstyle. In particular, I feel this post is relevant from the 2nd thread.Now that the stag results are over with I think the next action that should very clearly be taken is suspecting Urshifu ASAP (like literally right now). I'll remind everyone's of Emilios post here since he does a good job of explaining why Urshifu should be looked at. The meta has clearly devolved since the survey was posted and is just a hyper offensive mess for the most part with no real way to make something defensive and Urshifu seems to be the main culprit. There is definitely enough concern of Urshifu being broken that it should be suspected and one of the big reasons it should be suspected ASAP is pretty simple, DOST. This pure offensive meta is pretty dumb and broken and now is the perfect time to potentially ban the cause before our biggest tournament ever starts. If DLT and how the current seasonal is going has showed anything it's that the meta is not evolving and that any small innovation there is, is still just hyper offensive stuff and a stagnant hyper offensive meta is not healthy, and definitely not the meta you want for DOST.
ORAS OU underwent unprecedented shifts during SPL. We witnessed new standards form and archetypes evolve at a rapid pace, especially for an old generation. I view this as a positive because the playerbase is active and willing to challenge previous norms with their own strategies. I believe that we are still many metagame shifts away from ORAS settling down as a result of this, too, which means controversial topics right now may not be similarly problematic down the road.
The OP brings up some legitimate grievances and I believe we should be discussing these things, but banning right now when the tier is still evolving and we are mid-STour seems like a knee jerk response to me personally. The metagame has potential to adapt or phase in/out specific Pokemon and strategies. You typically need a longer time and/or overwhelming support to get a ban in an older generation as is, but couple this with the fact that it’s harder to pinpoint the specific problem here, with some potential solutions being to ban items like Light Clay or moves like Sticky Web, and it gets even messier. If there was a larger sample size or a universally accepted solution, I think we would have an easier time acting on this.
I would think the appprorpaite line of action would be for the ORAS council to pinpoint if they deem anything problematic and then potentially conduct a vote after STour, but that’s up to them of course. Rushing would be a clear mistake, especially when not everyone sees this metagame as a bad thing.
The OP brings up some legitimate grievances and I believe we should be discussing these things, but banning right now when the tier is still evolving and we are mid-STour seems like a knee jerk response to me personally. The metagame has potential to adapt or phase in/out specific Pokemon and strategies. You typically need a longer time and/or overwhelming support to get a ban in an older generation as is, but couple this with the fact that it’s harder to pinpoint the specific problem here, with some potential solutions being to ban items like Light Clay or moves like Sticky Web, and it gets even messier. If there was a larger sample size or a universally accepted solution, I think we would have an easier time acting on this.
I would think the appprorpaite line of action would be for the ORAS council to pinpoint if they deem anything problematic and then potentially conduct a vote after STour, but that’s up to them of course. Rushing would be a clear mistake, especially when not everyone sees this metagame as a bad thing.
Z Strats team was introduced about 2 months ago. Before then, Urshifu(-R) was widely not considered a problem, with request to ban Urshifu increasing more in frequency from about a month ago. Since then, we had the Shadow Tag test, which slowed metagame development. I do feel we need more time to properly adapt and explore other methods for checking Urshifu and its associated Urshifu / Kartana / Zygarde combination, in particular for a Pokemon that was widely not considered broken for its 10 months in DOU prior to the Z Strats team. The current seasonal hasn't even finshed yet and may lead to the development of counterplay as it advances.
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