Case Study: Aegislash

Introduction

"This is fu--ing stupid." My friend had been texting me about a recent change in the OU tier. "They fu--ing banned him from OU," he wrote. "I'm so done with Smogon right now."
What he was talking about was the banning of Aegislash. Although not all players, my friend included, participated in the suspect test, it was a hot issue debated among many Smogoners—and rightly so, because the decision significantly changed the OU metagame. My friend was a part of the group who felt that Aegislash belonged in OU and that it was not threatening enough to require a ban. In the end, though, Aegislash moved to Ubers, and the OU landscape was permanently altered, much to their dismay, despite not taking part in that suspect test themselves. Whether this decision was right or not is still controversial. I'm not going to take a side and advocate for or against it; instead, I'm just here to share what led to the banning, what both sides argued, and what resulted from it.

Who's That Pokémon?

In case you don't know, Aegislash is a Steel / Ghost Pokémon—no other species has this unique typing. Of the 18 types, only two damage Aegislash neutrally (Water and Electric), while four are super effective against it (Fire, Ground, Ghost, and Dark). Also, Aegislash is resistant to nine types (Psychic, Dragon, Grass, Bug, Ice, Steel, Rock, Flying, and Fairy) and has three immunities (Normal, Fighting, and Poison). Another peculiarity of Aegislash is its ability, Stance Change, which allows it to change between its two formes—Shield Forme and Blade Forme—depending on the move selected. Using the move King's Shield will cause Aegislash to change into its Shield Forme, while using a damaging move will cause Aegislash to change back into its Blade Forme. As their names suggest, Shield Forme Aegislash has high defensive stats and low offensive stats, while Blade Forme Aegislash has high offensive stats and low defensive stats. Here are the exact base stats:

Shield Forme
60 / 50 / 150 / 50 / 150 / 60

Blade Forme
60 / 150 / 50 / 150 / 50 / 60

According to Bulbapedia, "Blade Forme Aegislash is tied with Dialga for the highest base Special Attack stat of all Steel-types, and is tied with Mega Scizor for the highest base Attack stat of all Steel-types." Along with that, "Shield Forme Aegislash has the highest base Special Defense stat of all Ghost-types, is tied with Doublade for the highest base Defense stat of all Ghost-types, and is tied with Registeel and Probopass for the highest base Special Defense of all Steel-types."

Perhaps the most unique—and most infamous—facet of Aegislash is the move King's Shield. Only Aegislash can learn it, and the move operates in a similar manner to Protect. One important difference, however, is that King's Shield does not protect the user from status moves, such as Will-O-Wisp, but as an offset to this disadvantage, if a Pokémon uses a contact move against an Aegislash that used King's Shield that turn, the attacking Pokémon's Attack stat will decrease by two stages.

"Ban it! Ban it with fire!"

According to the user Valentine, this was one of the reasons a ban was proposed. Aegislash could "constantly force 50/50s with King's Shield." Physical attackers that chose to attack at the wrong time would pay dearly, meaning a battle against Aegislash could sometimes turn into a battle of chance. The opponent would have to predict when it would use King's Shield, and Aegislash's trainer would have to guess what the opponent's prediction was in order to surprise him/her. Along with that, people argued that this Pokémon was too centralizing—it performed well against a variety of opponents due to its versatility. Aegislash's incredible defensive typing, alongside several of its stats, depending on its forme, being on par with those of Mega-Evolved and legendary Pokémon, made it an extremely strong force on the battlefield. For that reason, when building their teams, people had to think about how to defeat this potent Pokémon. They would be forced to carry checks in their party just to counter Aegislash. Some felt that this oversimplified the metagame, making it stale and less exciting. Banning Aegislash, they contested, would be beneficial for everyone since it would remove all of these hindrances.

"No! Stahp!"

"While all of these points had some truth in them, they weren't enough to make Aegislash broken, at least in my eyes," said the former OverUsed Moderator alexwolf. In an interview, he expressed his sentiments at the time of the suspect test. Commenting on the belief that Aegislash was too versatile, alexwolf stated,
"Even though Aegislash could indeed be useful against every matchup, it couldn't do this with a single set. Wallbreaking sets were great against stall teams, but were very easy to deal with for offensive teams and often didn't even get a kill against them, while also being unable to check the Pokémon you would expect Aegislash to reliably, due to the lack of HP investment and Life Orb recoil. SubToxic and three attacks + King's Shield sets were great against offensive teams no doubt, but both balanced and stall teams had several hard checks and counters they could run to make Aegislash a non-threat, such as Foul Play Amoonguss, Mandibuzz, specially defensive Hippowdon, specially defensive Gliscor, Assault Vest Tornadus-T, and many others, though those are the only ones that could check both of Aegislash's bulky sets. As for the Swords Dance set, it had similar problems with the mixed set, as it had limited survivability, and was also checked by many faster Pokémon that could take a +2 Shadow Sneak and hit with a super effective STAB attack, such as from Landorus-T, Diggersby, Garchomp, Mega Charizard Y, and Bisharp."

Although he conceded that teams needed to carry checks against Aegislash, alexwolf told me that "this applies to every single dominant Pokémon in OU, with Aegislash not even being the hardest of them to deal with." This was because "Ground, Fire, and Dark were also some of the best offensive move types in OU, which meant that many teams could end up with multiple checks without even specifically accounting for Aegislash."

In addition to the argument that Aegislash reduced variety in the OU metagame, alexwolf answered,
"...[W]hile Aegislash makes some Pokémon unviable, it also makes other Pokémon and playstyles viable by keeping in check big threats to them. For example, stall was more viable in the pre-Aegislash ban metagame, because Pokémon such as Mega Heracross and Mega Gardevoir weren't nearly as common as they were after Aegislash's ban, Pokémon that were huge threats to stall teams. The same is true for any team that relied on defensive cores to check offensive Pokémon, as many offensive Pokémon were limited by Aegislash's presence and couldn't run the ideal movesets to break through certain defensive cores. Terrakion, Lucario, and Mega Pinsir needed Earthquake, Mega Gardevoir needed Shadow Ball, Mega Scizor needed Knock Off, etc, making all of those Pokémon easier to check defensively. So, even though Aegislash was limiting many Pokémon, those Pokémon were mostly frail offensive Pokémon used on offensive teams, which was a benefit for defensive teams. Aegislash was keeping the OU metagame in a balance by virtue of keeping every playstyle equally viable (more or less), a good sign of a healthy metagame."

"In general, the arguments I heard from the pro-ban group were either really subjective or really [ignorant]," said my friend, who wishes to remain anonymous. "Yes, Aegislash has some pretty good stats," he continued, "but beating it is very much possible. Aegislash is nothing like Swagger. King's Shield uses as much probability as Protect, with the added vulnerability to moves such as Taunt. Taunt especially can easily shut down King's Shield and check Aegislash while still being useful in other matchups." According to opponents of the ban, Aegislash had many limitations that kept it balanced.

The End...Or is it?

It was close, but the decision was in favor of the ban. "Almost no old team could deal with all three of the new popular Megas: Gardevoir, Heracross, and Medicham," said Valentine. This was not a problem, however, because, as always, the metagame shifted and adapted. It accommodated for the ban and changed into something new and different.

The New World

The metagame "has become more fast-paced," said alexwolf, but "there is no denying it has also become more diverse." Expressing his opinion about the post-Aegislash metagame, he told me,
"In hindsight, I downplayed a lot [of] Aegislash's limiting effects in OU, especially to defensive Pokémon, as a lot of otherwise great defensive or utility Pokémon, such as Celebi, Jirachi, Doublade, Starmie, Tentacruel, Mega Aerodactyl, and Cobalion, were really mediocre, bad, or downright unusable with Aegislash in OU. With the absence of Aegislash, there are more options to get rid of hazards, and thankfully, every offensive Pokémon that got better after Aegislash's ban is perfectly balanced in the metagame, which happened partially because some of the checks and counters to dangerous wallbreakers weren't viable in the first place because of Aegislash, for example Jirachi, which counters Mega Gardevoir. Furthermore, even though the metagame became faster, it's not like offense became the dominant playstyle in OU, because new big threats to offense emerged after Aegislash's banning, such as SubSD Hawlucha, Mega Alakazam, Mega Aerodactyl, and Swords Dance Bug Bite Mega Scizor. So, with all those Pokémon enjoying their newfound viability, offense has a lot more threats to worry about, even though dismantling defensive teams is easier. On the other hand, balanced teams are better than ever, as they have the bulk to handle the dangerous and fast cleaners that offense hates, have the power to get past stall teams with powerful wallbreakers such as Mega Gardevoir and Mega Heracross, and in general can adapt to most situations, as long as a solid gameplan is formed when the game begins. In the end, even though I was against Aegislash's ban before, I enjoy the new metagame more than the one with Aegislash, so I am glad it's gone. The playstyle bias leaned a bit towards offense's favor, but with balanced and bulky offense teams being the dominant playstyles, I can't say I am complaining... and defensive teams are still pretty viable, as long as they are not incredibly passive."

"When talking about the post-Aegislash metagame, people always forget to mention Mega Mawile," said my friend. "It was banned in the same month as Aegislash." He argued, "Claiming that this 'diverse' metagame all resulted from getting rid of Aegislash is [wrong]. This metagame is what it is either because of some synergistic effect of both bans or the banning of Mawilite. Aegislash was not nearly 'broken' enough to lead to this new metagame by itself. I believe that if Aegislash was brought back into OU, it wouldn't be a ban-worthy threat, but I know the [OU Council] would never listen. It is very much possible that Mega Mawile was the real threat in OU, and Aegislash took an unnecessary fall."

Looking to the Future

"With all of these changes Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire brought to the metagame, it would be nice if Aegislash was retested and hopefully brought back," said my friend. "But I'm not ignorant. It's unlikely that they would give Aegislash a chance." Both alexwolf and Valentine gave a similar prediction. "I don't think Aegislash will be balanced in the ORAS metagame," said alexwolf. "Actually, I think it will be even better than it was in XY... it checks most of the new Mega Evolutions introduced, such as Mega Altaria, Mega Sceptile, Mega Diancie, Mega Gallade, Mega Latias, Mega Beedrill, and Mega Metagross. No new great checks or counters were introduced either, so I don't think that Aegislash will have any troubles dominating the ORAS metagame." Valentine said, "If I had to guess, I'd say it's going to remain Ubers for the duration of ORAS. While we did get a few new Pokémon to deal with it, like Mega Lopunny, it's still extremely versatile and uncompetitive." Although the release of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire changed the OU metagame, many feel that OU still could not handle the reintroduction of Aegislash. This may be disappointing to hear, but it is still possible for Aegislash to return to the OU tier in the future—possibly in Generation VII.

Conclusion

So... was the ban appropriate? Was it the right thing to do? I'll let you, the reader, decide. It's easy for subjective opinions and sentiments to get tangled with logic and reasoning, but I tried to give as many facts as I could find (though some subjectivity is still present). Regardless of whether Aegislash's ban is fair or not, it's important to realize that, sometimes, bans are necessary. The presence of something extremely powerful and centralizing can be stifling for the metagame. People should have access to a wide variety of options when building teams, and one strong Pokémon can prevent this. But, at the same time, just because a Pokémon is above-average doesn't automatically mean that it should be banned. It's important to be creative with teams and find ways to overcome these obstacles. When the going gets tough, outright banning isn't necessarily right. I know finding a balance for this is difficult, but working to understand the situation from a rational standpoint can be helpful.

And, as for Aegislash, it's important to note that every metagame has its pros and cons. Facts that support either the pre-ban or post-ban metagame are hard to find, but we have to try our best. We just need to be conscious of when our personal feelings get in the way of sensible thinking.

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