NP: Shared Power Stage 1
U-Rite
Hey everyone! Pardon the inactivity in the past week. In order to make up for it, I have decided to conduct the first
suspect test for the tier after it has developed to a semi-stable state. In this suspect test,
2 Pokemon will be looked at in this suspect test, and those are the following:
Even after the Simple ban,
Mega Gyarados has proven itself to be an insane metagame threat. Mold Breaker allows Gyarados to ignore defensive counterplay in the form of Multiscale and Unaware while also ignoring immunities such as Water Absorb and Levitate. Furthermore, Mega Gyarados being a Dark type means that Prankster does not affect it and counterplay in the form of Prankster Thunder Wave and Will-O-Wisp is nonexistent. Mega Gyarados provides Moxie and Intimidate before Mega Evolving, further strengthening its impact on the metagame. While Mold Breaker cannot be shared, it’s evident that Mega Gyarados still poses an incredible threat to an offensively biased metagame. It’s ability to receive abilities such as Adaptability, Tough Claws, Beast Boost, and Magic Bounce makes it threatening on its own, and the fact that it cannot share its post Mega ability should not be used as an anti-ban argument.
Blaziken (and it’s Mega Evolution) both possess the ability Speed Boost, which, while they cannot be shared, can allow them to be inherently dominating in an inherently offensive metagame. Blaziken still has all of the problems that made it Uber back in the day, except here in Shared Power it does not have to worry about any kind of passive damage from Stealth Rock, Flare Blitz, or Life Orb thanks to Magic Guard. Blaziken’s insane offensive coverage still persists, and defensive counterplay to Blaziken is hard to come by. It’s very easy for Blaziken to win games if the opponent allows it to get up a single Swords Dance. However, a few things have to be noted. Blaziken’s main form of STAB is invalidated by Heatran teams as they all carry a useful Fire immunity. Blaziken also sometimes lacks the power to KO threats behind a Multiscale and tends to get walled by things such as Dragonite without HP Ice. Blaziken cannot be used on Contrary teams due to Speed Boost clashing with the ability. This means that Blaziken cannot take advantage of Beast Boost and Moxie and Intimidate teams will not usually struggle with Blaziken teams. For these reasons I believe that a suspect test for this Pokemon is appropriate in the current Shared Power metagame.
How do I vote?
Since we don’t have a ladder on Pokemon Showdown, voting will take place in this thread with no laddering requirement. Voters will vote on
either Blaziken, Mega Gyarados, or both. Also, when you vote, you
have to write a
reasoning for your voting. Your reasoning can be brief, but has to make sense. No “don’t ban gyara bc it beats stall and stall is bad” or anything like that. Failure to follow this means your vote will not count.
Why not just wait until OMotM?
A few reasons. I want our hopeful OMotM to have as balanced of a ladder as possible. Getting OMotM is also not a guaranteed thing. Another reason is that this suspect test will spark some more community involvement in time for the February voting.
You may not cast your votes yet. The suspect test will commence as soon as urkerab unbans Blaziken and Blazikenite from Shared Power on ROM. Also requesting that he posts in this thread when he does it in order to signify the start of the suspect test.