EV
Banned deucer.
When I look at the current STABmons metagame I see something akin to the old American Wild West. Everybody carries a gun and the fastest hand is often the one that wins. Basically, the quicker you are at setting up against your opponent, the better your chances are at winning. This has been a building block of STABmons since its inception. However, it's clear to me that this foundation is not sustainable, especially with the constant introduction of bigger, badder threats and stronger attacks with every new generation.
With input from fellow players including the council I've come up with two fixes. Keep in mind, these fixes would create entirely revamped metagames, so unless we choose to do nothing to STABmons, we will be starting fresh with no extraneous bans, using OU as a starting point. The two options presented below are attempts to address the core issues that continue to plague STABmons, which is the combination of crazy setup moves and absurdly powerful attacks.
This process starts now as a community-wide discussion. Once OMPL III is over I will open up a poll, and conceivably, the option with the most votes will win and become the new premise of STABmons. Here are the options:
Option 1 – Exclude all setup moves from the pool of usable moves. In other words, you can't use Shell Smash unless your Pokemon already learns it naturally. This applies to setup moves that only raise and/or lower a Pokemon's own stats. This does not apply to damaging attack moves that also affect stats like Charge Beam or Fiery Dance or non-damaging moves that target the opponent like Growl or Feather Dance.
Acid Armor - Raises the user's Defense by two stages.
Agility - Raises the user's Speed by two stages.
Amnesia - Raises the user's Special Defense by two stages.
Autotomize - Raises the user's Speed by two stages and halves the user's weight.
Barrier - Raises the user's Defense by two stages.
Belly Drum - Halves the user's HP and maxes out its Attack at +6.
Bulk Up - Raises the user's Attack and Defense by one stage.
Calm Mind - Raises the user's Special Attack and Special Defense by one stage.
Charge - Raises the user's Special Defense by one stage. User's Electric moves have doubled power next turn.
Coil - Raises the user's Attack, Defense, and accuracy by one stage each.
Cosmic Power - Raises the user's Defense and Special Defense by one stage.
Cotton Guard - Raises the user's Defense by three stages.
Defend Order - Raises the user's Defense and Special Defense by one stage.
Defense Curl - Raises user's Defense by one stage.
Double Team - Raises the user's evasion by one stage.
Dragon Dance - Raises the user's Attack and Speed by one stage.
Geomancy - Takes one turn to charge, then raises the user's Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed by two stages.
Growth - Raises the user's Attack and Special Attack by one stage.
Harden - Raises the user's Defense by one stage.
Hone Claws - Raises the user's Attack and accuracy by one stage.
Howl - Raises the user's Attack by one stage.
Iron Defense - Raises the user's Defense by two stages.
Meditate - Raises the user's Attack by one stage.
Minimize - Raises the user's evasion by two stages.
Nasty Plot - Raises the user's Special Attack by two stages.
Quiver Dance - Raises the user's Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed by one stage each.
Rock Polish - Raises the user's Speed by two stages.
Rototiller - Raises the Attack and Special Attack of all Grass Pokémon in battle.
Sharpen - Raises the user's Attack by one stage.
Shift Gear - Raises the user's Attack by one stage and its Speed by two stages.
Swords Dance - Raises the user's Attack by two stages.
Tail Glow - Raises the user's Special Attack by three stages.
Withdraw - Raises the user's Defense by one stage.
Work Up - Raises the user's Attack and Special Attack by one stage each.
Agility - Raises the user's Speed by two stages.
Amnesia - Raises the user's Special Defense by two stages.
Autotomize - Raises the user's Speed by two stages and halves the user's weight.
Barrier - Raises the user's Defense by two stages.
Belly Drum - Halves the user's HP and maxes out its Attack at +6.
Bulk Up - Raises the user's Attack and Defense by one stage.
Calm Mind - Raises the user's Special Attack and Special Defense by one stage.
Charge - Raises the user's Special Defense by one stage. User's Electric moves have doubled power next turn.
Coil - Raises the user's Attack, Defense, and accuracy by one stage each.
Cosmic Power - Raises the user's Defense and Special Defense by one stage.
Cotton Guard - Raises the user's Defense by three stages.
Defend Order - Raises the user's Defense and Special Defense by one stage.
Defense Curl - Raises user's Defense by one stage.
Double Team - Raises the user's evasion by one stage.
Dragon Dance - Raises the user's Attack and Speed by one stage.
Geomancy - Takes one turn to charge, then raises the user's Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed by two stages.
Growth - Raises the user's Attack and Special Attack by one stage.
Harden - Raises the user's Defense by one stage.
Hone Claws - Raises the user's Attack and accuracy by one stage.
Howl - Raises the user's Attack by one stage.
Iron Defense - Raises the user's Defense by two stages.
Meditate - Raises the user's Attack by one stage.
Minimize - Raises the user's evasion by two stages.
Nasty Plot - Raises the user's Special Attack by two stages.
Quiver Dance - Raises the user's Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed by one stage each.
Rock Polish - Raises the user's Speed by two stages.
Rototiller - Raises the Attack and Special Attack of all Grass Pokémon in battle.
Sharpen - Raises the user's Attack by one stage.
Shift Gear - Raises the user's Attack by one stage and its Speed by two stages.
Swords Dance - Raises the user's Attack by two stages.
Tail Glow - Raises the user's Special Attack by three stages.
Withdraw - Raises the user's Defense by one stage.
Work Up - Raises the user's Attack and Special Attack by one stage each.
This option is the simplest and easiest to explain, but it's considered arbitrary because it singles out one particular aspect of the metagame while ignoring the overall premise. However, it's direct and addresses the main problem at the source.
Option 2 – This option is twofold. Pokemon can learn either all Attack moves or all Status moves that match their type, but not both. In other words, you can teach Shell Smash to a Normal-type that doesn't normally learn it, but you can't also teach it Extreme Speed. You must choose a category: Attack or Status. The easiest way to distinguish between them is to look for these symbols in the Pokedex. These symbols
This option is still simple but requires more explanation to new players. Unlike the first option, it allows you to keep setup on your Pokemon but you cannot also slap on high-power attacks like Boomburst or the extra priority granted with Extreme Speed. This encourages the player to rely on the Pokemon's natural attacks instead. This separation should lessen the fear that your opponent's FakeSpeeding Diggersby also has a Shell Smash in its back pocket.
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Let's see the options in action using one of STABmon's most notorious Pokemon and first bans, Sylveon, as an example.
We all remember how strong Sylveon was with access to every Normal move via Eevee, giving it setup in the form of Shell Smash, Belly Drum, and Geomancy, all of which proved to be effective in the metagame at sweeping. Plus, thanks to Pixilate, any Normal attack it used turned into a Fairy attack. Thus its Boombursts, Extreme Speeds, and even Explosions skyrocketed in power with those stat boosts under its belt.
Under Option 1, all setup outside its natural learnset is removed. No more +2/+2/+2 Geomancy or Shell Smash sweeps. However, it still maintains Pixilate-boosted Boombursts or even Pixilated FakeSpeeds. And since it has access to other Normal moves, it can utilize Lovely Kiss to disable a counter and setup slowly with Curse, one of Eevee's egg moves, or Calm Mind, a TM move.
This limit would make Sylveon less threatening overall because not only can it not boost Speed and Special Attack at once, it also can't run a random Belly Drum set to completely destroy your special wall designed to handle Geomancy or Shell Smash.
Pretend Sylveon is standing in front of two doors, one labeled 'Attack' and one labeled 'Status.' Already we can see Sylveon has more choices than Option 1. However, depending on what door it opens, Sylveon's viability varies dramatically.
If you open the door labeled Attack, it gains access to all its standbys like Boomburst, Judgment, and Extreme Speed. This is great! Sylveon hits really hard with these attacks and Judgment gives it valuable coverage depending on the plate it holds. Well if you chose this route, you have to remember Sylveon is unable to gain any status moves beyond its typical learnset. It loses setup and it also loses support moves like Lovely Kiss and Recover.
If you open the door labeled Status, oh boy, here are all its old setup moves again! Geomancy, Shell Smash, Belly Drum, Swords Dance, you name it! Plus it can run Lovely Kiss to disable Chansey or even Encore to lock a foe into a move while it sets up. But wait, where's Boomburst and Judgment? Well you left them behind the other door, remember? Okay, let's see what we have to work with instead. Hyper Voice is Pixilate-boosted, so that's good, though the 90 base power is a far cry from 140. Oh and look, it still has priority … in the form of Quick Attack. Not so lethal anymore, is it?
Essentially, the Sylveon trainer has to weigh the potentials with either category. If the trainer goes the Attack route they can hit harder with Boomburst and carry strong coverage thanks to Judgment, but has to rely on the slower Calm Mind to boost Special Attack. If instead the trainer wants to try Status to gain Shell Smash and Lovely Kiss, the trainer can expect to hit walls like Chansey for considerably less damage and be forced to run Hidden Power to get coverage on Steel-types. Option 2 maintains all the variety that STABmons has to offer, it just tones it down to manageable levels by splitting access into categories.
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So what do you think is better for the future of STABmons? Option 1, which makes setup off-limits but leaves everything else the same, or Option 2, which leaves everything on the table but requires you to be more selective with your sets? And if you don't like any, feel free to say why nothing should change, but I implore you to avoid that unless the idea of an untamed Wild West truly appeals to you. It did to me too, at first, but after a while it gets tiresome trying to keep up with all the broken combinations we keep discovering. Plus, with another generation on the distant horizon, who knows what other monstrosities await? The time to manage this metagame has come, so please choose what you think is best for its future. Thank you.
How this process works:
- The council + selected users from the ladder and community will be given one vote
- They will post here with their vote bolded and provide a reason why (a sentence or two is fine, but I encourage you to elaborate more if possible)
- The council will validate the votes and announce the result on the 16th
- If you are not in the group of voters, you may still post here but DO NOT attempt to vote. You can say what you'd prefer, but don't insinuate you are part of the pool in any way
- If you can get to 1350 on the ladder I will add you to the pool of voters!
- The banlist will revert to a fresh OU banlist with handpicked quickbans by the council unless Option 3 wins
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