There is a decent amount of discussion surrounding a lot of the new threats from pokemon HOME, and I kind of want to add in my 2 cents here. This is an opinion post and I'm sure many of you will find my opinions are bad, but there aint much I can do about that innit.
For some information on my perspective, I played monotype a lot about 3 to 4 generations ago and got invested a lot into this metagame following pokemon HOME. I mainly run Rock and Poison teams, which I know are far from the best types, but are just what I know and find fun.
I'll be rating 1 Pokemon from the pre-home meta, 7 of the pokemon that were voted on by the council and survived that vote, and two Hisuian Evolutions that seem to be brought up in discussion somewhat regularly.
I'll also be broadly using 3 categories to define my general opinion on the pokemon:
[Its Fine]: I consider this pokemon to not be problematic at all
[Watchlist]: Not sure, or may be prone to becoming problematic with other bans
[PLEASE BAN THIS]: I consider this pokemon to be problematic
Chien-Pao: [PLEASE BAN THIS]
Even with the power creep from HOME, Chien-Pao somehow stands out as a different beast entierly. This thing is truly monstrouous, and if it was not for its extremely poor defensive profile, would be unstoppable. Even then, if it gets a single free turn to use swords dance, in most scenarios its realistically GG's. Way too strong for the tier as it stands, and probably should have been banned before HOME.
Moltres-Galar: [Its Fine]
I'm still of the opinion that dark type teams would sell Moltres-Galar's organs to get Mandibuzz back. And flying has much better things to be doing than using this. Dont get me wrong, Moltres-Galar is strong, but it suffers from some crippling problems. Its not that bulky, and its not that fast, and that might as well be a death sentence in this metagame even if you can get to +3 reliably. And yeah you get to +3, and then you have: Dark and flying type attacks. And like ancient power, shadow ball & hyper voice. Like it has its place, and can definitely be very scary in the right situation, but I dont see this thing being ban worthy at all.
Hoopa-Unbound: [Watchlist]
As someone who played during the age of Hoopa-U's generation-long rampage through monotype, I'm not comfortable with this thing, but it does seem to be suffering severely from power creep. Or, people have just not figured out how to run it again, as Unbound is the kind of pokemon that takes a bit of nuance to really take advantage of it. Still, its definetly not a ban priority right now, and might be fine.
Landorus-Incarnate: [Watchlist]
Lando-Incarnate lost Gravity this generation, making its sweeping potential much less dangerous than before. However I think the bigger factor is speed creep: 101 speed just isint as good as it used to be. Still, this guy is on my watchlist and not "fine" for a reason: SheerFOrb is still truly disgustingly powerful. and having nasty plot on top of that is just vile.
Spectrier: [Watchlist]
I'll be completely honest, Spectrier is watchlist simply because I have not seen him enough, because he is a pure ghost type. And ghost teams traditionally have some large challenges in monotype. I can see why it could be overpowered or unhealthy for the metagame, but its hard to tell when by default your metagame presence is a lot less than 1/18th of all teams.
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike: [Its Fine]
Might be a hot take, and I may eat my words in the future, but Rapid-Strike has been fairly unimpressive in my mind, mainly for one big reason. I'm way more scared of Quaquaval. Like unless some of Rapid-Strike's coverage options give it a huge advantage, which it probably dosent, its stats are fairly comparable to Quaquaval. Both are extremely similar, so you should probably only choose one or the other. And Quaquaval is frikken- really really good, and I'd argue, at least with what I have seen so far, better than Rapid-Strike.
Urshifu-Single-Strike: [PLEASE BAN THIS]
Single strike on the other hand. Oh boy. Wicked blow has no right to be THIS strong. Single-Strike isint competing with anything else, and just deals way too much damage with very little counterplay. Its practically on par with Chien-Pao and way too strong for the current meta.
Zamazenta: [Watchlist]
Zamazenta is like. A pokemon that exists. It has really good stats. It has a "somewhat" usefull ability. Its got a lot of coverage options. And thats about it. Its somehow incredibly strong and incredibly pathetic at once. Being a single type in Monotype pretty much means you either need to be broken to see usage or bring some kind of unique utility to the table, because each team slot is another potential dual typing and therefore more resistances. Spectrier is kinda broken with its special moxie, speed, nasty plot, ect, but is stuck on one of the worst types in a power crept meta. Zamazenta is stuck on a mid type that frankly has better things to do if he cant completely break the meta. Zamazenta is either going to be banned or going to be in the bottom of the VR's, IMO.
Sneasler: [Its Fine]
(Yeah I am biast) Sneasler is quite the controversial figure recently, with a lot of discussion regarding the tiering policy and the move "Dire Claw". Now look, I personally think you should ban Dire Claw, but if you want to insist that the tiering policy just cant handle such a complicated task, I'm also of the opinion you shouldent ban Sneasler even if you dont ban Dire Claw. Because Sneasler actually like, kinda sucks at abusing just how degenerate of a move Dire Claw could be. 50% odds of inflicting one of 3 statuses are really poor odds, and if Sneasler is getting enough opportunities to make those odds reliable, either the opponent or sneasler is allready dead. If Sneasler had a poison type earthquake, you would run that practically every single time over dire claw, because 50% of the time you click the dire claw button its just a poison jab. And outside of Dire Claw, Sneasler is really good, but I dont think its oppressive. Dual typing is nice, but its dual stabs arent that synergistic. It dosent have that many coverage moves, and can get wittled down to a point where it dies to resisted priority moves.
Ursaluna: [Watchlist]
Ursaluna is terrifying, especially as someone who plays rock and poison. This thing is a true monster, and will just outright OHKO neutral hits on bulky pokemon. And in return, Ursaluna is extremely bulky itself, capable of taking hits very well. Furthermore, guts flame orb means you cant use status to cripple it. Ursaluna of course isint a "Perfect" pokemon, as you can still outspeed and make it die to attrition, eventually. But the big problem is that Ursaluna dosent exist in a Vacuum, it exists within a team, and Ursaluna benefits an absurd amount from support. Screens, Cyclizar shed tail on normal, and trick room cut down the few forms of counterplay this thing has. I know I'm biast because again, I mostly play two types which have a lot of difficulty dealing with ursaluna, which is why I put it on watchlist.
For some information on my perspective, I played monotype a lot about 3 to 4 generations ago and got invested a lot into this metagame following pokemon HOME. I mainly run Rock and Poison teams, which I know are far from the best types, but are just what I know and find fun.
I'll be rating 1 Pokemon from the pre-home meta, 7 of the pokemon that were voted on by the council and survived that vote, and two Hisuian Evolutions that seem to be brought up in discussion somewhat regularly.
I'll also be broadly using 3 categories to define my general opinion on the pokemon:
[Its Fine]: I consider this pokemon to not be problematic at all
[Watchlist]: Not sure, or may be prone to becoming problematic with other bans
[PLEASE BAN THIS]: I consider this pokemon to be problematic
Chien-Pao: [PLEASE BAN THIS]
Even with the power creep from HOME, Chien-Pao somehow stands out as a different beast entierly. This thing is truly monstrouous, and if it was not for its extremely poor defensive profile, would be unstoppable. Even then, if it gets a single free turn to use swords dance, in most scenarios its realistically GG's. Way too strong for the tier as it stands, and probably should have been banned before HOME.
Moltres-Galar: [Its Fine]
Hoopa-Unbound: [Watchlist]
As someone who played during the age of Hoopa-U's generation-long rampage through monotype, I'm not comfortable with this thing, but it does seem to be suffering severely from power creep. Or, people have just not figured out how to run it again, as Unbound is the kind of pokemon that takes a bit of nuance to really take advantage of it. Still, its definetly not a ban priority right now, and might be fine.
Landorus-Incarnate: [Watchlist]
Spectrier: [Watchlist]
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike: [Its Fine]
Urshifu-Single-Strike: [PLEASE BAN THIS]
Zamazenta: [Watchlist]
Sneasler: [Its Fine]
Ursaluna: [Watchlist]
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