hi, we've gotten a lot of questions about the slate / the survey so i thought i'd clear some things up. note that these are my own opinions, not everyone else's on council. people also wanted to see voting reasonings so i'll be sharing mine!
to start off, i think the metagame is in an awkward spot - not because anything is broken, but because while our defensive pokemon are good, they're somewhat awkward to build with. for example, articuno, appletun, cryogonal, and probopass are all capable of handling most of the tier's special attackers but charizard. this means that you'll often have to use naclstack or cramorant to cover that matchup, pokemon that don't offer a lot defensively outside of doing this one thing (not excellently, i might add), or accept that you'll need to tera articuno / cryogonal. this makes building rather awkward at times, as it means you'll have to sacrifice something. obviously, considering how fire answers are the ones that create this awkwardness in the building process, it makes sense to look at charizard in particular. pyroar, on paper, should be easier to deal with due to lack of flying coverage for appletun. we didn't vote on it as we didn't think it'd make sense to vote on a pokemon that's been around for months now, but this reasoning is why me and others on council wanted it on the survey, to gauge if the community felt the same way
as for the slate itself, we just added whatever we thought was worth voting on, including everything we voted on last week that avoided the banhammer. we admittedly should've posted about the slate before it happened, apologies for that
--
do not ban: very good breaker for sure, and probably underexplored as of now, but it doesn't feel very stupid; it needs choice specs to do some good damage, and can't do much vs cryogonal and articuno unless it decides to use tera blast rock / fire. wouldn't really mind taking another look at this if physically offensive sets become actually good, but as of right now to me it just feels like a great slow breaker with an awkward defensive typing and a weakness to hazards. i don't think veil sets are particularly great either, as you really only get 3 turns for whatever's in the back and your answers don't care a lot about you setting veil for yourself
do not ban: this pokemon is excellent, but it feels pretty similar to abomasnow in the sense that all of its answers are very good pokemon that we've been seeing a lot of. speed tier issue is even worse, as even a set like choice specs that feels like it should be borderline broken can't force out that much, as a lot of walls it "threatens", like weezing, can simply outspeed it. epack / boots recover 3 attacks/recycle is the best set, but it's nothing more than a very solid tank that's actually a very welcome presence in the builder
do not ban: to be quite honest i don't think this thing is very good. i think it's outclassed by samurott and swanna for the most part, and it doesn't have the coverage nor the strength to keep up with this metagame (gogoat and leafeon are no longer our only water resists). not a terrible pokemon by any means but nowhere as good as it was months ago
do not ban: it's very scary, and i very much get the sentiment on paper but it's not very easy to build with, sits at a rather awkward speed tier, and doesn't get as many opportunities as it'd like. another pokemon i think could probably become stupid with time but for now i'm just not seeing it. subbu sets can potentially steamroll teams but those sets feel fishy and don't appreciate how fast-paced this metagame can be, while choice scarf feels unreliable as speed control due to its weakness to rocks and how fast our other scarfers are. it also really, really wants to be able to switch moves. boots 3 attacks roost is the best set but again it just doesn't get that many opportunities to break, it's not that bulky for a pokemon with that speed tier, and brave bird recoil adds up very quickly
do not ban: scary breaker, frail, not very fast. even in matchups where it feels like it should run you over, the speed tier and bulk make it manageable. most sets really hate how common neutralizing gas weezing is (non-cb sets do a pathetic amount with zen headbutt). the scariest set imo, choice band, is very prediction reliant, and pokemon like those in a generation with tera are even more high-risk, high-reward. setup sets are done better by paldean tauros imo, as even after a trailblaze medicham is slower than plenty of our scarfers (haunter, swanna, morpeko, alolan dugtrio). those sets also don't get many opportunities due to its aforementioned poor bulk and average speed tier. its reliance on tera in certain mus also makes it feel fishy at times, but the same way it can use tera to flip the script the opponent can too
do not ban: i'd like to see more of rain before deciding what to do with it, if anything. we're still in the early stages of the metagame and people are experimenting with different things, so i think it makes sense for something like rain to look like a potential concern. but yeah, scary on rain if it gets a belly drum off, which is not the easiest thing to do, and overall decent and good for the tier outside of this one playstyle. worth keeping an eye on
do not ban: very fun breaker and wincon that can run a lot of different sets, but none of them are really amazing; it just has a lot of good sets. the speed tier is unfortunate too, and so far it just hasn't been a very concerning presence in the tier. i like it a lot, i'm glad to see it sticking around
ban: i think this is the best pokemon in the tier, and it's quite annoying. the speed tier is very good now that pokemon like alolan persian, electrode, and the raichus are less common. i wouldn't really call it broken, but its ability to just pivot around all game while having multiple great sets makes it quite annoying; answers to special sets like articuno don't enjoy taking a choice band brave bird, while "answers" (it pivots on all anyway) to physical sets like weezing don't want to eat a surf or hurricane. manageable, kinda, but in a metagame not completely settled i'd rather see something like swanna gone than it potentially ruining the tier for a while, but i'm fine with it staying
do not ban: scary breaker and the speed tier is really good to revenge kill a lot of slower, frail-ish pokemon, giving it a lot of chances to get in and click buttons. despite that it's not very good vs certain of all our walls due to its inability to ohko/2hko a lot of them and being sorta easy to trade with, while anything that isn't body slam is going to do rather mid damage, making it somewhat easy to pivot around
do not ban: the better fighting in my opinion. speed tier, bulk, and not being reliant on huge power in neutralizing gas weezing meta makes it more consistent, but it's still balanced; kinda tera reliant in a lot of matchups, and needs a decent amount to go its way to be able to sweep with trailblaze sets, while other sets like cb / scarf are very good but nowhere near stupid. great addition to the tier, overall
- This thing I've had SO much success with. It has won me most of my games. It's been a staple. Very good behind veil. I don't think I need to say much.
- The defensive core of my team. They are both very good at coming in and sponging hits for me. I'm very thankful that neither have felt super passive, but I may have been getting lucky against me opponents.
Morpeko Appreciation Post
