So, I'm finally back. Moved in, have now had internet for almost 24 hours, seeing the results of a suspect I missed (okay, I could have rushed reqs in the first few days, but the Lunar Dice in Armello were calling my name), and all that other fun stuff of about two and a half weeks or so of missed posts (I don't even wanna go and try to comment on everything in the Creative Sets thread.)
So, now that I'm back, I'd like to rustle some people's jimmies and bring up a topic I feel needs examining. I brought it up in some detail, along with some other stuff, back in S/M, but things have changed, I brought up too much stuff at once, and I got drowned out by the... uhh... Stakeout discussion I think it was? I don't feel like digging backwards to find out. Anyway, one thing in particular:
Mold Breaker moves. Specifically, Sunsteel Strike, Photon Geyser, and Moongeist Beam.
"But Rumors, didn't you argue against banning Photon Geyser for the last suspect?" Yes, I hear you asking that. Yes, I did. But it was context. Banning Photon because Xtwo abused it wasn't a good arguement. And banning it for the Mold Breaker effect while ignoring other moves seemed faulty. If we're banning for the Mold Breaker effect, then we need to be fair and consider the whole spectrum. Otherwise... it'd be like banning Roost for whatever reason but leaving all the other flavors of Recover moves alone because Mega-Ray abused it but not the others, even though they're all basically the same thing.
So first, let's clarify the table here. All three moves are Base Power 100, which is pretty darn solid, to say the least. All of them are best-in-class for their moves. Sunsteel is Physical and faces competition from Iron Tail, Meteor Mash, Gear Grind, and maybe Anchor Shot. Maybe possibly just including it to be safe. Moongiest is special and faces competition from Judgement and... Shadow Ball. Photon Geyser is whatever you want it to be and faces competition either from Psystrike, Psychic, Psycho Boost on one side and Psychic Fangs on the other. All of them also completely ignore opposing abilities, which is a really, really strong effect and is the part I have a problem with.
To get it all on the ground, here's the full list of abilities these moves bypass: Battle Armor, Filter, Flash Fire, Flower Gift, Immunity (with Poison Touch, along with all other status-immune abilities), Inner Focus (with King's Rock), Leaf Guard, Marvel Scale, Motor Drive (affected by Electrify, same for other electric immunities), Shell Armor, Shield Dust, Solid Rock, Sturdy, Unaware, Volt Absorb, Multiscale, Fur Coat, Disguise, Fluffy
A bit out of order, but I copy-pastaed from Bulbapedia.
Of those, the primarily relevnt abilites are Sturdy, Unaware, and Fur Coat. Some might have other relevance to BH, such as if Electrify Volt Absorb Mega-Gengar ever makes a return. But why these three?
Sturdy: Bypassing Sturdy for free pretty much negates Shedinja's usability in the tier. It can block an attack, once, with Focus Sash, and that is it. And most meta Pokemon can run a Focus Sash to do the same thing, but can do more in response to boot. Anything can carry a mold breaker move and strike without warning, making Shedinja a gamble. I used to get really friggin' annoyed by Shedinja, but in hindsight, the Shedinja Cycle* was healthy for the meta and kept things flowing and developing. Having Shedinja viable cuts down on spam strategies, particularly set-up spam, and gives teams more options to deal with set-up sweepers.
*Basically, Shedinja is popular. Shedinja checks become popular and Shedinja use falls. Seeing Shedinja is mostly absent, specialized checks to Shedinja lose popularity. Seeing Shedinja checks have left, Shedinja storms back in to curb stomp all the stuff abusing its absence. The cycle repeats.
Unaware: Past generations, Shell Smash wasn't a particularly great move. It was good, but other options were usually better since they didn't expose you to attack. Picking between Quiver Dance, Shell Smash, and Tail Glow or Swords Dance, Shift Gear, Coil, and Shell Smash was something to really think about when team building. Now? Shell Smash, 90% of the time. Why is this? I feel its because Unaware is just getting bypassed too easily. We used to have a plethora of viable Unawares. Kyogre, Cresselia, Audino, Giratina, Lugia, Registeel... really, any defensive Pokemon could go for the role. Now? You almost always pick Mega-Gyrados. One of the once prominent offensive threats has been relegated to a defensive role not because of its stats, but purely because its the bulkiest thing that resists the Sungeist Geyser trio. Eliminating the ability to trivially bypass Unaware will give all teams more options to deal with threats. Yes, offense too. You've not grinned maniacally until you've boosted up to +6 Quiver Dance alongside your opponent, only for you to get tickled and they get one-shotted by your set-up sweeper Unaware.
Fur Coat: The most viable ability of the three currently, but its struggling. For example, Fur Coat Giratina used to be an excellent set. But everything changed when the Photon Geyser Nation attacked. Previously, you could rely on your healthy Fur Coat user, whatever it might have been, to deal with Belly Drummers if you were caught without any better options (provided you weren't weak to their moves). But now? Not even the vaunted Prankster Registeel will save you when Belly Drum Mewtwo X Mach Punches it and then Photon Geysers the rest of your team who all have Fur Coat but Mewtwo doesn't care. And this isn't even the only instance. Kartana can do similar, albeit worse since its offensive typing is the only thing keeping it in check.
Basically, the current situation is when set-up comes a knockin, your reliable options are either A) Prankster and hope they don't have a counter. B) Focus Sash and hope you don't take hazard damage or get hit by a multi-hit move and can OHKO and hope they don't have a Sash if they're at full. C) Unaware Gyarados and hope they don't have Fighting, Grass, (hi Mewtwo and Kartana!), Fairy, Electric, or Bug coverage. D) Switch in your best wall and cross your fingers. E) Revenge kill and hope they don't have a Focus Sash.
If we remove Mold Breaker moves, I feel it'd offer a healthier metagame as it'd give all team archetypes more options to handle set-up moves without actually impacting set-up itself. Set-up was healthy and strategic in Gens V and VI, but only got out of control in Gen VII and only three indirect boons were granted: Power Trip, Dark-type Prankster immunity, and Mold Breaker moves. Considering Dark-types aren't dominating the meta, even when Psychic Surge was the thing, that really only leaves one possible source. Meanwhile, it'd also give more outplay opportunities and the like, such as giving teams an out of they lose momentum to a wall breaker by packing a Shedinja while giving the wall breaker player a chance to show off their skill and outplay the Shedinja gambit to expose the opposing team. On the other hand, offensive Pokemon can still bypass abilities, but the team builder will sit and need to consider if using the ability slot and announcing its capabilities is worth sacrificing their offensive ability.
Unfortunately, Mewtwo X and offensive, physical Steel types will suffer a bit. Mewtwo X will be hit the hardest since Psychic Fangs is a pretty hefty drop while Steel-types will probably downgrade to Meteor Mash or sidegrade to Gear Grind. Mewtwo Y will shrug and go back to Psystrike, Psychic, or Psycho Boost. Ghost-types will just go harder on Judgement. However, considering the number of sets and options that become viable to add healthier and more varied counterplay that would result from those three abilities becoming much more viable, I think it's a worthwhile trade-off.
TL;DR: Mold Breaker moves severely limit options available to all team archetypes. Removing them would make more choices in both play and team building open to everyone, leading to a more diverse, interesting, and most importantly, a healthy metagame.