I don't want to come off as overly critical, but I think it's strange how this was accepted when the MMX teams that Jhonx/I submitted were criticized as being too Ho-Oh weak. Defensive Ho-Oh walls the entire team except for Pdon, so a common stall core of Ho-Oh + Gira should just autowin against this team. Dusk Mane is total bait for it, and the only concrete way to punish it besides Pdon is Toxic from Arceus-Fairy/Yveltal, which it can shrug off with Regen or cleric support. It can spam Toxic versus everything for free and there are no status absorbers. Pdon is also the sole fire resist on the team, and Ho-Oh walls the sole flying resist, so offensive variants can just spam their STABs and murk everything. Another problem that stems from having a single Fire resist is that mixed RP Pdon can set up on Mewtwo Y/Dusk Mane, and KO everything with Fire Blast/Pblades after chipping Arceus-Fairy and Yveltal. I think the team is a tad weak to Fire-types to be featured as a sample.
I don't get it, how can you claim a team is 'weak' to Primal Kyogre and Ho-oh when the team gives neither barely a chance to get in and has checks for both and then accept a team that's 6-0'd by Rock Polish Primal Groudon? I get it has tour usage, but it seems somewhat hypocritical to me.
I'll try to address each point raised in as much detail and honestly as possible.
I'll start with the concerns raised about the claimed weakness of Rock Polish Primal Groudon for the submitted Mega Mewtwo Y offense team and the arguments against the rejection of the Mega Mewtwo-X teams since these are both concerns brought up by both of you and I hope this helps clear the air.
I'd like to reiterate, there is a team of us who all put their evaluation on the teams to remove bias and an overall conclusion was made on every team, I don't solely make decisions otherwise it would be heavily biased. I will be brutally honest, yes I do have more input than the others and I'm tasked with making a final overall decision since I am the project leader. I do think calling me hypocritical directly is taking this a bit too far.
I'll start with the Mega Mewtwo X teams, I guess I can understand the frustrations for the rejection of these cause on paper they don't seem like bad teams. The Issue with Primal Kyogre is that it needs to be handled offensively. The problem comes with the nature of the archetype of teams presented they're more like balances and need to have certain criteria in order to function against Primal Kyogre or have adequate switch ins such as Ferrothorn / Blissey or a Pivot such as Toxic Arceus-Water would be acceptable as an example.
You are completely correct in saying Kyogre can't switch into much, yes, but lets break it down further than that. Think about how games actually play out, no one is ever going to switch in Kyogre into something like Choice Banded Ho-Oh, the issue is comes with free turns, you're faced with a choice, lets use Timid Primal Kyogre for example since that's the best and most common used set right now.
Primal Kyogre is easily capable of taking at least 2 Pokemon off you in a game without solid revenge killing plan, and for a balance team this is too much damage to be taken as you end up losing valuable pokemon and end up losing the game to the other members of the opposing team as a result. You have no practical water move switch ins as you have both opted for Jolly Primal groudon, which runs the risk of taking ice beam, this risk is actually increased on bigtalks team as Ice Beam is a free play against Arceus-Ground who actually does very little against Primal Kyogre, therefore Kyogre getting free turns eventually ends up you losing the game. The worst scenario is Kyogre coming in for free on Primal Groudon because you are forced to lose a Pokemon 100% of the time even if you decide to go for the tie which if you lose, puts you in a even worse position.
Similar goes for offensive Ho-Oh (mainly CB), a perfectly played Offensive Ho-oh is just devastating there's just no adequate switch ins on a balance team, you aren't even running stone edge lure on Mega Mewtwo-X which makes this issue worse.
Jhonx's team also has a huge glaring issue which is worse than both and I'm really sorry that I forgot to mention that. Its AoA Mega Gengar Counterplay is unacceptable with Stealth Rock up, Scarf Yveltal with Foul Play doesn't even KO it, Primal Groudon is 2hko'd by Shadow Ball, Your best play is to go for a speed tie with MMX, a team completely ignoring a S rank threat will never be included. This is arguably worse than the Kyogre / Ho-Oh issues which yes, Bigtalk's version does fix with the inclusion of Arceus-Ground which hard stops most common sets of Mega Gengar.
The teams don't simply meet the standards that are required for a Ho-Oh Balance team to be featured in samples, there are so many wants a Ho-Oh team needs to achieve. Like I said with a change of Bigtalks team with a toxic Arceus-Water and a Scarf Yveltal might lead it to actually being considered to be accepted.
However, Mega Mewtwo X is also not Meta representative right now and a significant way to improve these teams would be to honestly change the mega slot to Mega Gengar with Thunder, this would allow you to trap and remove a weakened Primal Kyogre or Ho-Oh from play and considerably improve the matchup for the team against them, while bringing other team benefits. I understand however this takes away from the core idea of the team and you may not want to do this.
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Moving on, I don't understand the claim that the Mega Mewtwo -Y team is 6-0'd by Rock Polish Primal Groudon, that is a bold statement to make without actually fully researching your points, yes I will acknowledge you the point it is something to be wary of in a matchup, but it is not unbeatable by any means to the point you lose to Rock Polish Primal Groudon teams outright everytime. Every pokemon on that team is able to chunk it for at least 45% minimum, so setup chances are not exactly that free, putting it in revenge killing range, so the damage is not as huge as you think, some pokemon come out victorious at full, too. The Point of Mega Mewtwo Y is the advantage it has against offense in the early game and being a fantastic revenge killer along with Marshadow, which prevents threats like Rock Polish Primal Groudon winning in the end game or from completely sweeping the team, the team has enough options to deal with it offensively and not be large of a threat to be accepted as a sample team.
On paper, all teams in the tier actually struggle against Rock Polish Primal Groudon as a whole to a degree, thats the nature of the pokemon, it's S+ for a reason, if a team covers it adequately enough, it is good enough to deal with it. Rock Polish isn't the most used set or the biggest threat of set to deal with right now, Jolly swords Dance Pdon or Mixed Swords Dance / Overheat Rocks are much more common and problematic to face which this team aims to cover better.
Furthermore, a replay from Ubers Premier League 7 between Garay Oak and a Kyogref4n can be found here:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ubers-436954 - This replay features mixed Rock Polish Primal Groudon and the team is able to overcome it with ease, which I hope helps to cement my points.
As for the defensive Ho-Oh bigtalk raised, yes this can be a slight issue but it is indeed beatable with good offensive pressure options that this team offers, its also the reason toxic is on Arceus-Fairy, to help deter its effectiveness so precautions have been taken to deal with it considerably more. Defensive Ho-Oh is rare in the meta and is honestly not what i'd consider on the meta threat list right now either.
I'd also like to say no sample team will ever be perfect, its impossible for a team to be perfect and they will have threats they can struggle against, but I am in the process of writing up detailed descriptions on every sample team, how to use them, what they strong against etc in order to inform our users, but please understand this is a work in progress and something Im expecting to finish soon.
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Thanks for reviewing, but I respectfully disagree with your reasoning for rejection. I made it sound all complicated in the description, but IMO this team is actually pretty braindead to use; there is much less need to think or make plays compared to a bulky offense team. See ogre? Go ferro, click spikes/leech. See xern? Go dusk, click rocks/toxic. See fire type? Go waterceus, click toxic. See physical attacker? Go to yvel, click fp. Unless you have an unfavorable matchup, the impetus is mostly on your opponent to predict your switches and prevent you from spikestacking them. The only major plays you have to make are like in matchups with mgar where you have to decide whether or not to pursuit with marsh.
Here is a replay to illustrate my point. My opponent was using a team very similar to the one I posted but with zyg > waterceus and xern was specs, made next to 0 plays, and still would have won had I not gotten a lucky crit.
I understand this rejection may come off as harsh to you, I honestly feel like you're a capable builder and player, but your teams need to meta representative to be included. Furhermore I was generous to even evaluate and give you feedback as you ignored the rules stated in the OP of the thread, instead I could have just simply ignored this submission, but I would have felt bad about it.
It does not feature Primal Groudon on a balance team, which building a new team with your concept significantly brings a lot of benefits to your team. Yes I know teams like this can get success, I've seen players like Exiline win with teams like this, yes its a good enough team, the issue is the skill floor required to gain consistent results with it.
I'd say the only acceptable Pdonless teams for Samples would be Stall teams and honestly even that is pushing it. The inclusion of Primal groudon would lower the difficulty and what skill floor is required to pilot the team, Its a pokemon which even the below average of players can get a lot out of. It may be braindead to you and to the average user I'm sorry to say its not, they need to be user friendly.
You're a good builder and I'm always looking for people to contribute to this project more often, and I'm sure you're capable of building and posting meta representative teams, I'd be more than happy to evaluate them and potentially accept them. I do appreciate you have taken the time to contribute to the project and I'm pleased to see teams submitted by others and I honestly hope this continues. If you want kinds of teams I'm looking to accept at the moment: Ferrothorn spikes balances, More mega Gengar teams, a strong Ho-Oh balance( but that will probably come internally) and honestly Hyper Offense teams at this point of the meta as no one honestly uses strong hazard controls anymore and this beats out the bulky offense dominant meta USM Ubers is.
In conclusion, I hope this satisfies all your points raised, if you have any further concerns about how sample teams projectis organised or how I run it as the leader of the project, you are more than welcome to raise them with someone above me such as a Ubers Forum Moderator (Dream) or the Ubers Tiering Leader (Nayrz), but I do hope I have been able to clear the air with any concerns and frustrations you have had and thank you for raising them.