Sleep is a mechanic that's been controversial since the game's inception. Earlier in the generation this topic was addressed in what I feel was a suboptimal manner, so I'd like to bring it up again. The current measure we have in place in singles tiers to address the blatantly overpowered strategy is Sleep Clause, which limits the amount of foes the user can put to sleep to 1 at any given time. This has functioned fine up until now but I do not believe it is the optimal way to do things and I think that we should look at banning Sleep altogether. My reasoning is as follows:
1) Sleep adds a completely uncontrollable element of luck to the game.
For reference, in modern generations (6 and onwards) sleep turns are determined as follows:
-A Pokemon must always burn at least 1 turn of sleep before it can wake up.
-There is a 33% chance that the Pokemon will wake up after 1 turn of sleeping.
-If it doesn't wake up after 1 turn, there is a 50% chance the Pokemon will wake up after 2 turns of sleeping.
-The Pokemon will always wake up after 3 turns of sleeping.
Older gens have much wilder turn counts but I'm focusing on SS here. Sleep is not something you can have traditional outs to; if a Pokemon is slept (which it almost always will be against the most capable Sleep users like Amoonguss, Venusaur and Roserade thanks to their ability to threaten and wall most other Grass types) you have no real way to outplay it other than hoping you wake up early.
2) Sleep is extremely lacking in counterplay.
Here are the ways to absorb the most common sleep moves (spore, sleep powder)
-Being a Grass type
-Safety Goggles
-Having an ability like Overcoat, Insomnia or Vital Spirit
This is a very disproportionately small list for something that is so devastating. Sleep is not particularly far from an OHKO move much of the time; in highly offensive metas such as SS UU, SM OU or DPP OU, you will often not get the opportunity to burn any sleep turns. BW OU made the correct decision to ban sleep not so long ago; while BW sleep mechanics are a huge mess on their own, the OU tier in that generation is so powerful and volatile that it was often impossible to burn a single turn of sleep anyway. This dynamic of "I have a counter to the opposing Pokemon but only if I correctly get this guessing game right earlier in the match" enabled by Sleep Clause is just silly.
"but what about Sleep Talk?"
In very, very specific situations, Sleep Talk can be an effective method of absorbing sleep. For example, a Pokemon that only ever really clicks one move like Vanilluxe can afford to run a moveset of Blizzard, Freeze-Dry and Sleep Talk without being crippled. These situations are few and far between, though, and absorbing sleep with another pokemon like Sleep Talk Moltres is ultimately going to bring even more RNG to the table as you have to pray not only that you stay asleep, but also that you pull the right move (and often hit it on top of that).
3) We have already acknowledged Sleep as an overpowered strategy and have no obligation to keep it
From what I can tell, Sleep Clause exists because players wanted to ban sleep and it was convenient to neuter it in this way because Pokemon Stadium (I think? May be wrong but it was some side game) had this version of Sleep Clause implemented and Smogon was much more preservationist back then than it is now. We more often acknowledge uncompetitive and overpowered elements these days and I think most people would agree that sleep is one of them. If we're going to such lengths to neuter something so blatantly busted and RNG-dependent, why not just axe it altogether?
Before anyone asks, no this shouldn't automatically apply to every tier across every gen. Also no we shouldn't ban Relic Song and this isn't the thread to discuss something like Effect Spore (which has an easy solution anyway). Please keep on topic and let me know what you think. Thank you for reading.
Also in case it's unclear this wouldn't impact Doubles tiers at all (unless they want it to, I suppose).
1) Sleep adds a completely uncontrollable element of luck to the game.
For reference, in modern generations (6 and onwards) sleep turns are determined as follows:
-A Pokemon must always burn at least 1 turn of sleep before it can wake up.
-There is a 33% chance that the Pokemon will wake up after 1 turn of sleeping.
-If it doesn't wake up after 1 turn, there is a 50% chance the Pokemon will wake up after 2 turns of sleeping.
-The Pokemon will always wake up after 3 turns of sleeping.
Older gens have much wilder turn counts but I'm focusing on SS here. Sleep is not something you can have traditional outs to; if a Pokemon is slept (which it almost always will be against the most capable Sleep users like Amoonguss, Venusaur and Roserade thanks to their ability to threaten and wall most other Grass types) you have no real way to outplay it other than hoping you wake up early.
2) Sleep is extremely lacking in counterplay.
Here are the ways to absorb the most common sleep moves (spore, sleep powder)
-Being a Grass type
-Safety Goggles
-Having an ability like Overcoat, Insomnia or Vital Spirit
This is a very disproportionately small list for something that is so devastating. Sleep is not particularly far from an OHKO move much of the time; in highly offensive metas such as SS UU, SM OU or DPP OU, you will often not get the opportunity to burn any sleep turns. BW OU made the correct decision to ban sleep not so long ago; while BW sleep mechanics are a huge mess on their own, the OU tier in that generation is so powerful and volatile that it was often impossible to burn a single turn of sleep anyway. This dynamic of "I have a counter to the opposing Pokemon but only if I correctly get this guessing game right earlier in the match" enabled by Sleep Clause is just silly.
"but what about Sleep Talk?"
In very, very specific situations, Sleep Talk can be an effective method of absorbing sleep. For example, a Pokemon that only ever really clicks one move like Vanilluxe can afford to run a moveset of Blizzard, Freeze-Dry and Sleep Talk without being crippled. These situations are few and far between, though, and absorbing sleep with another pokemon like Sleep Talk Moltres is ultimately going to bring even more RNG to the table as you have to pray not only that you stay asleep, but also that you pull the right move (and often hit it on top of that).
3) We have already acknowledged Sleep as an overpowered strategy and have no obligation to keep it
From what I can tell, Sleep Clause exists because players wanted to ban sleep and it was convenient to neuter it in this way because Pokemon Stadium (I think? May be wrong but it was some side game) had this version of Sleep Clause implemented and Smogon was much more preservationist back then than it is now. We more often acknowledge uncompetitive and overpowered elements these days and I think most people would agree that sleep is one of them. If we're going to such lengths to neuter something so blatantly busted and RNG-dependent, why not just axe it altogether?
Before anyone asks, no this shouldn't automatically apply to every tier across every gen. Also no we shouldn't ban Relic Song and this isn't the thread to discuss something like Effect Spore (which has an easy solution anyway). Please keep on topic and let me know what you think. Thank you for reading.
Also in case it's unclear this wouldn't impact Doubles tiers at all (unless they want it to, I suppose).