NJNP brings up excellent points on staleness and restrictiveness in the teambuilder only two weeks into a DLC metagame which has offered us numerous new options. I believe Kokoloko may be extreme right now, but see it as a viable alternative in the future to consecutive suspect tests. At the moment I believe we should still bide our time and see, at least for a few weeks. A maximum of maybe 4 Pokémon should be considered in a Kokoloko scenario, as we need to show restraint. I believe there are a few key metagame threats that should be worked on first whether through the Kokoloko method or otherwise:
These guys are by far the most restrictive in the builder right now if you ask me. In addition to the Meow buff and Skarm coming back, these three generally make teams trend towards that same-ish fat balance playstyle with Gking, Toxapex, and/or Ting-Lu alongside an iron defense or unaware physical check (usually Skarmory) to weather the storm of Roaring Moon and Volcarona's boosting and ability to beat most traditional counters with taunt and tera respectively. Those same cores help vs. Kyurem's ridiculous power using specs or even boots sets for that matter. The existence of these three alone invalidate most BO structures, which can't afford to run the bulky pivots they need alongside consistent answers for the three of them (via phazing, haze, resitances, iron defense etc.) whereas balance can more easily fit the aforementioned checks. I think Kyurem and Volc are slightly more heinous than Roaring Moon, which is more limited by priority, a greater reliance on terastallization, moveslot restrictions, etc.
Honestly, I have wanted tiering action on Ghold since day one of SV. It has had an extreme stranglehold on the metagame by its ability to not only defeat popular balance structures with ease, but of course restrict the hazard metagame. While many argue that its removal only free up Corviknight and maybe Mandibuzz to defog, you are still essentially doubling the amount of hazard removal we have in the tier, as all we currently rely on
,
, and maybe
. Hazards meta doesn't disappear with Ghold, but it certainly becomes more manageable. I put Ghold as a lower priority than Kyurem and Volc though, especially since balance right now does not always fit Gholdengo in, allowing for defog Corv to actually get some mileage.
These four, in my opinion, warrant more immediate action in order to ease up on the restrictiveness of the current metagame. Moving towards suspects after the fact, I also believe that
, and maybe Meowscarada represent problem children in the metagame. Serp beats common checks with the use of the incredibly strong stellar tera and glare, and Meow with axel is just incredibly splashable and difficult to answer defensively with its ability to knock off and subsequently u-turn on common answers. Again, we should consider the Kokoloko approach with caution considering the meta is still young and developing, but I can see it being helpful. Give it some time instead of rushing before SPL, a few weeks and tiering survey at least. If SPL happens and we see innovation, things could turn out to be better than they seem. If we see Meow fat every game that would confirm the poor current state of the meta.
These guys are by far the most restrictive in the builder right now if you ask me. In addition to the Meow buff and Skarm coming back, these three generally make teams trend towards that same-ish fat balance playstyle with Gking, Toxapex, and/or Ting-Lu alongside an iron defense or unaware physical check (usually Skarmory) to weather the storm of Roaring Moon and Volcarona's boosting and ability to beat most traditional counters with taunt and tera respectively. Those same cores help vs. Kyurem's ridiculous power using specs or even boots sets for that matter. The existence of these three alone invalidate most BO structures, which can't afford to run the bulky pivots they need alongside consistent answers for the three of them (via phazing, haze, resitances, iron defense etc.) whereas balance can more easily fit the aforementioned checks. I think Kyurem and Volc are slightly more heinous than Roaring Moon, which is more limited by priority, a greater reliance on terastallization, moveslot restrictions, etc.
Honestly, I have wanted tiering action on Ghold since day one of SV. It has had an extreme stranglehold on the metagame by its ability to not only defeat popular balance structures with ease, but of course restrict the hazard metagame. While many argue that its removal only free up Corviknight and maybe Mandibuzz to defog, you are still essentially doubling the amount of hazard removal we have in the tier, as all we currently rely on
These four, in my opinion, warrant more immediate action in order to ease up on the restrictiveness of the current metagame. Moving towards suspects after the fact, I also believe that
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