Hogg
grubbing in the ashes
Gardevoir-Mega moved from OU to UU
Jirachi moved from OU to UU
Kingdra moved from BL3 to OU
Nihilego moved from OU to UU
Gallade-Mega moved from OU to UU
Hawlucha moved from UU to OU
Ampharos-Mega moved from OU to UU
Latias-Mega moved from OU to UU
Heracross-Mega moved from OU to UU
Altaria-Mega moved from OU to UU
Ninetales-Alola moved from UU to OU
Smeargle moved from OU to UU
Manectric-Mega moved from OU to UU
Hoopa-Unbound moved from OU to UU
Rotom-Wash moved from OU to UU
Major changes are afoot!
First, let's talk about what we lost: Ninetales-Alola, Hawlucha and Kingdra have all risen to OU. While Kingdra only saw minimal usage, Ninetales-A and Hawlucha were major parts of the tier, and together their departure means UnderUsed most likely waves goodbye to Aurora Veil as a common playstyle altogether.
Now to the big ones: UU has seen a huge influx of major new threats, including quite a few new Mega evolutions: Gardevoir, Gallade, Ampharos, Latias, Heracross, Altaria and Manectric all saw their Mega evolutions drop to UU with this shift. Several non-Mega threats also have come down: Jirachi, Nihilego, Smeargle, Rotom-Wash and the monstrous Hoopa-Unbound have all entered the tier.
Obviously this represents a lot of major changes to UU. Several of these threats have the potential to completely upset the tier. However, most of them are completely untested, having not been released during UU's alpha and beta stages. The UU Council has met and discussed how best to respond to these drops.
In the end, the council has determined that we will quickban Hoopa-Unbound, Heracross-Mega and Gallade-Mega. While many of the other threats have the potential to be unhealthy, these three were near-unanimously agreed on to be too much for the tier. Hoopa-Unbound's incredible mixed offenses combined with a vast movepool and excellent special bulk give it a wide variety of sets that leave it impossible to counter. Heracross-Mega sports similar wallbreaking potential thanks to a sky-high Attack and several no-drawback high BP moves thanks to its ability, but trades some of Hoopa-U's Speed and upredictability for incredible bulk and the ability to set up with Swords Dance. Gallade-Mega benefited greatly from this generation's Speed mechanics, and with reasonable bulk, fantastic Speed and access to Swords Dance, it threatens both defensive and offensive teams alike.
These quickbans give the tier a chance to adjust to the new threats and provide an opportunity for major UU tours such as UU Open and the Smogon Snake Draft Tour to proceed without undue interference. However, UU will be immediately suspecting Heracross-Mega and Gallade-Mega to determine if they can be reintroduced to the rest of the tier. The council felt that this was the best way to preserve the UU metagame while still allowing us to determine if Heracross-Mega and Gallade-Mega are as threatening in practice as they are on paper.
The suspect test will have an N value of 20 and a COIL requirement of 2650. In addition, there will be a game limit of 90 games. It will last for two weeks. Heracross-Mega and Gallade-Mega WILL be allowed on the suspect ladder.
You can calculate the number of games required using this formula:
N=20.0/log2(40*GXE/2650)
And what about the others? While many of the new threats have the potential to be similarly disruptive, the council felt that quickbanning such a large swath of Pokemon on theory alone was not a reasonable solution. However, the council will be testing many of the new threats, and may consider council bans or suspects on some of these threats in the near future. To these ends, this thread will be a bit different from most suspect threads, where we restrict discussion solely to the Pokemon being suspected. The UU Forum Staff will not be deleting off-topic posts that discuss the metagame in general. However, please do not use this as an opportunity to derail discussion about the suspects themselves.
The Immortal and Eyan - please ban Heracross-Mega, Gallade-Mega and Hoopa-Unbound from UU, and set up the suspect ladder allowing Heracross-Mega and Gallade-Mega.
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