Not sure I really agree with touching Tera Blast. Unlike defensive Tera which synergizes with your offensive tools, i.e Tera Flying Gambit go brr, Tera Blast is dependent on the risk/reward ratio, because it is a useless slot until you Tera, but normal offensive/defensive Tera never leaves you with dead slots.
For it to truly break a Pokemon, it has the break that ratio to the point where it being a dead slot most of the time doesn’t matter when it can easily 6-0 a team without a specific check. i.e Espathra and Eleki. Most of the top pokemon that were banned didn’t need Tera Blast to do so. Sneasler simply rocked CC/Gunk/Lash Out to hit everything. Magearna had SP + Dkiss along with all the coverage it would need anyways. Chien-Pao didn’t need Tera Blast when Tera Dark Crunch 2HKOd nearly everything anyways.
The only mon rn you could argue is broken because of Tera Blast is Volcarona who has near perfect coverage with either Tera Ground or Dragon. The rest do not need Tera Blast to be broken, nor is the risk/reward ratio skewed enough to make them broken with Tera Blast.
Serperior doesn’t even run Tera Blast that much these days because Sub-Seed + Defensive Tera is more consistent and less Tera reliant anyways. Enamorus doesn’t hit hard enough to break with Stellar Tera Blast, and Scarf Stellar keeps its weakness to SR. Iron Moth is the closest thing to Volcarona, but it is still not breaking through certain checks such as Ting-Lu. Gambit does run Tera Fairy Blast occasionally, but Gambit could still mow through some of its checks in several other ways. DD Kyu sets would be much worse without Tera Blast, but its other sets are the reason it was suspected in January. You might see some niche picks run Tera Blast, but nothing game breaking. The Tera Flying Blast CB Ttar example that was brought up. Um, I don’t think a slow wallbreaker with Tera Blast is anything to write home about. Plus a Tera Flying Ttar is now weak to rocks and is taking sand chip.
The issues with framing Tera Blast as an issue is most of the problematic elements in the tier are not caused by it.
There's a common thread with both these takes on Tera blast and it's that the argument boils down to "Tera blast is not THE issue with the tier" - let's expand on this statement. The phrasing, "the issue in the tier," implies that there is one singular problem in the tier that removing will fix all problems. This is of course a ridiculous assertion, but for some reason it's the logic being applied to a Tera blast ban here. "Single-handedly fixes the tier" has never been the criteria for a ban before - why is this the requirement for action against Tera blast? Tera blast single handedly allows every Pokémon to be a lure to every Pokémon, this has been the case since launch, sure it contributes to the tier, which is to say it makes setup sweepers extremely cracked because they can use a 3rd stab of whatever type they want. Would removing Tera blast make gen 9 ou a perfect beautiful tier? Maybe not. Would it make it better? Probably. I think it's best to start there rather than cast the idea aside for no good reason. If you had a gun with no bullets, would you turn down a bullet for not being silver?I agree with 658Greninja, but would like to extend this to all the bans/suspects we've seen over the generation.
The ones who didn't need Tera Blast:
Flutter Mane: Fairy ghost is already perfect coverage for almost all your needs. Never saw any (serious) Tera Blast sets.
Last Respects and Shed Tail + their respective moves: Basculegion, Houndstone, Cyclizar, and Orthworm never ran Tera Blast because they had far more clearly broken moves to use instead.
Iron Bundle: Similarly to Flutter Mane, already had the perfect coverage in Freeze Dry + Water STAB. Would often Tera into it's own type for more power anyways.
Palafin: Already had pretty good coverage and didn't need to supplement it with Tera Blast. Would rather have the slot for Flip Turn (on Banded sets) or Taunt (on Bulk Up sets).
Annihilape: Once again, another case of perfect coverage.
Chi Yu: Too busy spamming its STABs to blow up everything.
Chien Pao: Good coverage with STABs + Sacred Sword, no reason to run Tera Blast.
Espathra: Already had Dazzling Gleam to hit Dark-type mons that would threaten to stop it's Stored Power sweep, and it didn't really need anything else when Stored Power would already heavily chunk resists.
Walking Wake: Good enough STABs to muscle through most mons through sheer power alone, and would struggle to fit Tera Blast on its sets.
Magearna: One of it's many sets might've had a reason to run Tera Blast, but the vast majority of them didn't need to.
Zamazenta Crowned: While it couldn't always pack all the coverage it needed, Iron Defense Body Press sets were still strong enough to not require coverage in Tera Blast.
Urshifu Rapid-Strike: Once again, good STABs with a large enough movepool to hit most resists, with Swords Dance to sometimes force its way through checks anyways.
Zamazenta Hero: Same story as Zamazenta Crowned, just worse.
Baxcalibur: Yet another case of good enough coverage with STABs + one extra, this time being Earthquake.
Ogerpon Hearthflame: Could only same type Tera.
Roaring Moon: Hits everything it needs with coverage, and would often just Tera Flying to boost its Acrobatics anyways.
Gliscor: Was too busy setting spikes to bother attacking with Tera Blast.
Ursaluna Bloodmoon: It has a 140 bp STAB move and Ground STAB to hit most resists, as well as Body Press to jump any poor Blisseys trying to handle it.
Sneasler: Same as Roaring Moon, but weaker and faster.
Terapagos: Had Tera Blast, but better.
Sleep: ???
Archaludon: Already has perfect coverage with Electro Shot + Body Press, and no reason to run Tera Blast beyond it.
The ones who did "need" Tera Blast:
Volcarona: The first mon who truly needed Tera Blast to become broken. Tera Blast allowed it to patch up the missing holes in its coverage, turning Volcarona into a dangerous matchup moth who could choose from a wide variety of sets and Tera types to sweep.
Regileki: "Hey what if we gave the mon balanced by having a horrible movepool the perfect coverage". Unsurprisingly, Tera Blast was 100% the thing that pushed it over the edge.
Kingambit: While Tera Fairy Tera Blast sets can be potent, as Greninja stated, its non Tera Blast sets are just as strong, if not stronger, and more common as well.
Kyurem: The most potent set was its special Specs set, and while Dragon Dance sets might've preferred to run Tera Blast, you could also make a very fair argument that Earth Power/Freeze Dry would be better in that slot to hit key checks, without losing any of its potency. Earth Power can hit Archaludon without boosting it to insane levels of defense, while Freeze Dry blew up Dondozo.
So out of all the bans/suspects in this generation, we have had 20 (21 if we count Houndstone, and 22 if we count the moves) bans that weren't related to Tera Blast, and 4 that were. Of the four, only 2 can be argued to be directly a fault of Tera Blast.
Meanwhile, what mons in OU even run Tera Blast nowadays?
Gambit and Volc were both already covered in the list above, so I'm not going to go over them again.
Enamorus and Serperior are the two clear picks, but can you really say either of them are broken, or made broken by Tera Blast?
Dragapult? Dragon Dance sets aren't very common nor that good, and sometimes people just run Phantom Force instead.
Raging Bolt? Similarly to Gambit, Tera Fairy Tera Blast can be strong, but Thunderbolt is just as reliable if not better, and Weather Ball sets are free, better Tera Blast anyways.
Tera Blast was never the issue for the vast majority of this generation, and I see no reason to look into it now.
Last edited: