Alright, I'd like to bite, and take a bit of a different angle in my argument to ban Spectrier by illustrating my original argument, which you can find
here if you're interested.
To keep things straight forward, I would like to ask people in the DNB boat:
what positive consequence does keeping Spectrier in the tier do for metagame development and teambuilding? I ask this question namely because I have noticed many people who are against banning Spectrier tend to argue that it is, in theory, easy to counter. However, what does it actually take to
counter Spectrier? Let me break this down bit by bit, based on what we know about Spectrier.
1: A Pokemon that can take on Ghost-type STAB.
This one is obvious, but it does severely limit potential options simply because if your Pokemon can't take on Ghost-type STAB, then it is a non-answer regardless of how it fills the other criteria.
2: A Pokemon that does not care about being burned.
In this boat, we have most commonly used Normal-types, Obstagoon, Zarude, and Rest SpDef Tyranitar. Normal-types are probably the closest thing we get to a Pokemon not caring about being statused, as Dark-types will still have to stomach boosted Hexes (and, very frequently, against Spectrier's stat boosts). The latter two Pokemon are vulnerable to being chipped down, and even though both can in theory remove the status in question, they will have to actually take Spectrier's boosted hits first, and in the latter's case, become even more of a momentum sink for 2 turns.
Every other Dark-type example cannot take on Spectrier's Hex, and thus cares about being statused. Hydreigon and Mandibuzz are the best exhibitions of this example.
3: A Pokemon that can actually damage Spectrier reliably.
This criterion is relevant due to the rise of Disable sets being run to deal with a wealth of Spectrier's checks. Disable Spectrier can render a majority of theoretical checks sitting ducks, disabling the respective moves of Hydreigon/Mandibuzz/Obstagoon/Blissey/Snorlax and using them as setup fodder. It is in part for this reason that Mandibuzz is now running dual Dark-type STABs, however, neither can break bulky Spectrier's substitute after being burned, making it an unreliable answer.
In this category, Zarude and Tyranitar both have secondary STABs that do threaten Spectrier even if their main Dark-type STABs are disabled. Exploud only has one move, but can bypass the initial Substitute using Boomburst and blow it away. However, since this is the case, Exploud can only answer Spectrier upon a hard switch or after an ally Pokemon is picked off, as to not get its Boomburst disabled. This leaves it especially prone to chip damage, or in a worse scenario, forcing a potentially valuable teammate to faint.
4: A Pokemon that has longevity.
These five are the only potential counters that have reliable recovery. Everything else is forced to either use Rest, or fold to passive damage or Mud Shot/Dark Pulse damage over time, making them incapable of being reliable, long term answers. These three Pokemon are the only ones that have decent immediate recovery options; Soft Boiled, Recycle + Berry, Jungle Healing, and Roost respectively.
These two Pokemon tend to run Rest for artificial longevity, however I feel as though this is important to mention because it does mean they can, theoretically, remain healthy. However, this necessitates them to use Rest and either fold to Sleep Talk luck or sleep turns. This is a problem for fairly obvious reasons, and is why I don't want to put too much emphasis on it.
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With all of this criteria in mind, there are only really two potential "counters" that Spectrier actually has, those being Zarude and Tyranitar. These two Pokemon are, bluntly, not very great in this metagame barring the Spectrier matchup, and here's why:
SpDef Tyranitar is honestly garbage, and bar none my least favorite thing to use in the tier. It is unbearably passive and a major momentum sink more often than not, and while it can set Sand and Stealth Rock, I feel as though in every other department, it is a worse Hippowdon due to its poultry defensive typing and its proneness to lose to a majority of the tier's removal options (barring Moltres and Zapdos), making it a subpar Stealth Rock setter in a vacuum. When it uses Rest, it is forced to sit there for two turns, doing absolutely nothing, and either being setup fodder for a Spectrier teammate or being forced to sustain damage before it can move again. It tends to want Heal Bell support for this reason, but that forces you to actually bring Heal Bell, which Clefable tends to not have much room for.
Zarude, contrarily, is a really fun Pokemon to use, however I acknowledge that it is a really niche setup sweeper and has a difficult time, given the rise of walls such as Corviknight, Zapdos, and Landorus-T, and its painful proneness to being outsped and revenge killed due to spending many turns setting up before it can actually do work. It hates momentum spam, too, and even when setting up defense boosts, it is tremendously chunked by U-turn, and can be then picked off by a speedier threat such as Cinderace or Tornadus-T. I think it's really cool, but it's not really that good.
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Do you see the problem? The only two Pokemon that "counter" Spectrier to any degree of consistency are not splashable Pokemon in the tier, and this is the case with a majority of Spectrier's hypothesized "counters", being either incredibly niche to the point where their viability only comes from the possibility of checking Spectrier, or only being used much at all because of the possibility of checking Spectrier. None of these answers are genuinely sustainable in this metagame, and is why I consider these answers to be unnatural in a vacuum. Of any of the aforementioned Pokemon, Blissey and Mandibuzz are the only two natural Pokemon that can check Spectrier, but both are not at all reliable for the reasons mentioned above. Ultimately, what this does is constrain the teambuilder, forcing you to use one of these subpar answers just to make it so the ridiculous nature of Spectrier is even
able to be played around. Even that is not a certainty, and in that lies the big issue with Spectrier in the tier.
So, with all of that in mind--even if you still disagree--I ask again:
does keeping Spectrier in the tier actually do anything positive for our metagame and teambuilding? Is gutting team synergy and forcing the use of incredibly unnatural, inconsistent answers worth doing? I feel as though it isn't. Spectrier is a horrendously designed Pokemon competitively, abusing just about everything that could be considered problematic in its own right. Ghost-type STAB, gigantic base Speed, a nuclear base SpAtk, no Pursuit to pick it off, and a mindless snowballing ability--all to create a disgusting conglomerate of an offensive Pokemon. Spectrier adds nothing to this tier besides incredibly constrained teambuilding and frustratingly unnatural matchups, and it's for these reasons that I believe it should be
banned.