20210102 Voting Slate

Ban. Removing Indeedee from the meta would be beneficial for the tier's growth - right now, the meta is bogged down by HO cheese, with Indeedee being the main source of the issue. Not only is Indeedee difficult to counter in its own right, which sets it apart from weaker auto-terrain setters like Thwackey and Pincurchin, but supplying strong sweepers like Hitmonlee, Sceptile, Omastar, etc. with both Psychic Terrain and Healing Wish support severely limits all forms of counterplay.

Ban. Sirfetch'd is simply too powerful for PU, even taking our newest drops into consideration. There are few enough resists to Scrappy Close Combat coming off of base 135 Attack as it is, but now factor in the potential for it to run CB or Leek, access to Poison Jab and Knock Off for mauling PU's typically used Fighting resists, and First Impression for giving Sirfetch'd a way to KO its offensive checks. There basically isn't a consistent way to answer Sirfetch'd, and so it is deserving of a ban.

Ban. Much like Sirfetch'd, Machamp is hugely potent and has the tools to maul Fighting resists badly enough that they're unable to answer other portions of the meta. Some combination of Heavy Slam, Knock Off, and Facade coming off of (Guts-boosted) 130 base Attack is simply too much to handle, and on top of that, it has the tools to clean against some of its offensive checks (ex. Bullet Punch against Whimsicott and Ribombee). No Guard Dynamic Punch sets are also constricting in their own right and add another layer of broken to Machamp that the tier cannot handle.

Do not ban. There are a number of Steel-types that can address choiced variants of Duraludon, especially Silvally-Steel and Stunfisk-G. If Duraludon chooses to run Body Press in conjunction with its dual STABs to bypass other Steel-types, there are still Pokemon available like Jellicent, NP LO Vacuum Wave Toxicroak, and Lanturn that can check this well. Duraludon is the sort of Pokemon that is scary on paper but palatable in practice, as its Special Defense is very exploitable and often lets it down.

Ban. CritDra is too strong for PU with Draco Meteor + Hydro Pump being mostly unresisted (save Whismicott, Ferroseed, Shiinotic), and Shell Armor / Battle Armor Pokemon either not using the ability, not hitting the SpDef requirement needed to take a Sniper-boosted Hydro Pump or Draco Meteor, or are old meta (ex. Type: Null) and don't fit on most teams. Even if you do have the SpDef investment on a Pokemon needed to take on Kingdra, the potential for Kingdra to be a mixed or physical set with DD is there and so reliable prep at builder for Kingdra is elusive at best.

Do not ban. While none of these enjoy eating Sleep or switching into Spikes, the meta's Fire-, Poison- and Steel-types are often enough to answer Roserade at least in the short-term. Specially defensive Charizard, Vital Spirit Magmortar, Silvally-Steel, etc. are some examples of the above that can address Roserade effectively while avoiding being deadweight in other match-ups.

Ban. Exploud is part of what makes building in this meta so difficult and is a big reason why specially defensive Gigalith sees so much usage. And, with SpDef Gigalith seeing high usage, this provides potent Pokemon like Virizion (and Golurk in the previous meta) an easy avenue to switch in and setup, thanks due in part to how threatening Exploud is. Exploud also has coverage for Gigalith in Hydro Pump anyway, meaning Gigalith is a shaky answer at best. In other words, it is better to build with enough offensive checks to Exploud and limit the number of passive Pokemon that let it in, but that is not always an option in this meta.

Do not ban. I haven't really found fully dedicated Electric Terrain teams to be common or all that effective in this meta, and so I question letting an otherwise balanced breaker like Raichu-A go based on how it functions on a playstyle that's overshadowed by teams centered around Indeedee's Psychic Surge. There are checks to Raichu-A that are easy to build with in this meta, especially Guzzlord and Claydol. Additionally, its paper-thin defenses leave it vulnerable to strong priority users like Shiftry, Absol, Toxicroak, etc.

Do not ban. A lot of what causes Sceptile to be overwhelming stems from the fact that Unburden sets cannot be answered by priority while Indeedee's Psychic Terrain is in play, which prevents offensive checks like Talonflame, Sneasel, Piloswine, Abomasnow, Sandslash-A, etc. from RKOing Sceptile. Haze Weezing, specially defensive Articuno, and Golbat are some examples of sufficient defensive checks for each variant of Sceptile. On the other end of the spectrum, there is a handful of faster checks to Sceptile (prior to Unburden activating) like Ribombee, Accelgor, and Talonflame (and the aforementioned priority users if Terrain is down).

Do not ban. Same reasoning as Sceptile - it's a Pokemon that can be considered overwhelming when it's built with very specific supports, but take away those supports, and you're left with a Pokemon vulnerable to typically used Fighting checks.

Do not ban. It's received virtually no usage (1 game in LTPL where it didn't do much) in competitive play as a result of it being awkward to build with and it offering little defensive utility in this meta. There is very little data suggesting a ban is warranted now - this could easily change later on, if after the meta settles, there are replays showcasing Tauros being overwhelming. As it stands now however, there is both defensive (ex. Palossand, Cofagrigus, Regirock, Tangela, Jellicent, Corsola-G, etc.) and offensive (any scarfer, Lycanroc, Sneasel, Gurdurr, Hitmon-chan/-lee/-top, etc.) counterplay, and so banning Tauros until we see more from it would be premature.

Do not ban. Virizion is very restrictive in how few checks there are to it (ex. Talonflame, Whimsicott, Accelgor, Ribombee, Toxicroak), but enough counterplay exists even with Vileplume leaving. I am a proponent of the idea that we should wait for the meta to settle before holding another vote for Virizion.