Whoever is surprised by Venasaur's jump in usage obviously hasn't played a lot of UU. That thing is fucking everywhere as it can fill a ton of niches on any style of team; sleep inducer, physical/special wall, t-spikes absorber, LO wall-breaker, Swords Dance sweeper, Specs user, ect. I think the spike in usage was mainly because it's able to check Raikou and force out Rhyperior in the new UU, and simply because people are now using more offensive Vena than the bog-standard defensive spread than in the past (which was really the only thing anyone really ever used). (LO usage jumped from 16.7% in October to 21.9% in November, and Leftovers/Black Sludge dropped from a combined 71.2% in October to 61.9%).
For all the people that think Honchkrow is BL, here's some statistics to make your case: Everyone who is saying Honch is BL agrees that its LO set is what makes it BL. Considering 75.2% of the people using Honch use LO makes it clear that the LO set is far superior than running any other set because of its effectiveness (Choice Scarf was only used 16.4%).
Also worth noting is the fact that Roost isn't as common as I'ld of thought (27.8%). Sure, that seems pretty high, but most LO sets suggest Roost to recover some HP lost from Brave Bird and LO recoil. And besides, if you're not running roost, you should be running the next move in line that gets you more type coverage, which you would think would be HP Grass, but even that is only getting 9.8% usage.
I clearly believe that Honch is BL, and the insane usage of the LO suggests that people are abusing it to the fullest.
I also thought that Moltres would be seeing more usage since it's a possible suspect, but seeing that it's not even in the top 20 (23rd to be exact) at least shows to me that people aren't exactly abusing him as much as one should, especially if it's BL material. I'm not saying usage dictates what is BL or UU, but what I am saying is that it's hard to tell if a pokemon is BL or UU by not using it (and therefore testing it I suppose).
For all the people that think Honchkrow is BL, here's some statistics to make your case: Everyone who is saying Honch is BL agrees that its LO set is what makes it BL. Considering 75.2% of the people using Honch use LO makes it clear that the LO set is far superior than running any other set because of its effectiveness (Choice Scarf was only used 16.4%).
Also worth noting is the fact that Roost isn't as common as I'ld of thought (27.8%). Sure, that seems pretty high, but most LO sets suggest Roost to recover some HP lost from Brave Bird and LO recoil. And besides, if you're not running roost, you should be running the next move in line that gets you more type coverage, which you would think would be HP Grass, but even that is only getting 9.8% usage.
I clearly believe that Honch is BL, and the insane usage of the LO suggests that people are abusing it to the fullest.
I also thought that Moltres would be seeing more usage since it's a possible suspect, but seeing that it's not even in the top 20 (23rd to be exact) at least shows to me that people aren't exactly abusing him as much as one should, especially if it's BL material. I'm not saying usage dictates what is BL or UU, but what I am saying is that it's hard to tell if a pokemon is BL or UU by not using it (and therefore testing it I suppose).
