Some stuff I wanted to talk about.
Simple seems more and more like a broken ability in this metagame. Unlike other potentially banworthy abilities like Contrary, there is no downside to using this ability. It’s bad enough that it doubles setup, but boosting the boosts from Moxie, Beast Boost, Soul-Heart, etc just pushes it over edge. It’s tough to argue that Unaware is enough to keep this ability in check when defensive teams aren’t in a good position right now. Even if Unaware was prevalent, this does not stop what’s Simple’s most problematic user: Mega Gyarados.
A lot of people have called for a full ban on Mold Breaker, but I do not agree with this. I think
Mega Gyarados is more of the problem since it can simply run through offensive and defensive teams alike thanks to Dragon Dance setup. Unlike Kyurem-Black, Gyarados can invalidate it’s Water STAB immunities thanks to Mold Breaker. Ignoring Multiscale also makes sweeping teams incredibly easier. Mold Breaker users like Excadrill are perfectly fine in the metagame. While I don’t think this should get banned if Simple gets banned, it’s definitely something to watch out for in the future anyway. I understand we just came off of an Aegislash unban, but I wanted to discuss another potential unban
for the future, as this one is a little harder to judge than Aegislash was (which, by the way, seems completely okay after testing it for a while.)
A
Darkrai unban has been a hot topic even in the realm of OU, but has not happened for a couple of reasons. In Shared Power, the meta puts much more weigh on every Pokemon’s ability slot in order to function in the metagame. However, Darkrai’s Bad Dreams is a relatively useless ability that also means that you’re playing with 1 less viable ability than your opponent. Another problem that Darkrai has is that it has a mediocre offensive and defensive typing with no actual way to patch up its weaknesses unlike Aegislash. Lastly, Darkrai finds it hard to OHKO anything even after a Nasty Plot thanks to the overwhelming presence of Multiscale teams. With all this being said, however, Darkrai is still a force to be reckoned with in the Shared Power meta as it still has fantastic coverage, an amazing Speed tier, and even access to fully accurate sleep moves thanks to No Guard teammates. It’s hard to say if Darkrai should ever see the light of day in this tier, but it’s at least a good discussion point and I’d like to hear your opinions on it. Unlike Aegislash which the council deemed not broken immediately, if Darkrai were to ever get unbanned, it would be immediately followed by a
suspect test in order to see how Darkrai fares.