Heatran is not a good answer at all. Not only does it prefer phys sets with flame body to check outrage locked garchomp and banded Weavile, it lacks recovery and is relied on to take many attacks so it gets worn down insanely fast. Plus hoping Latios to not have SE coverage is not counterplay.Even the standard defensive set of Heatran can force or beat Latios 1v1 if it doesn't come in Surf/EQ and can take a hit from Latios to put get in an offensive revenge killer (priority/scarfers). Even Clefable can be adjusted to carry more spdef should the team demand a better spdef wall.
Clef cannot afford to drop defense because it is relied on to check huge phys threats like Garchomp. Even if it ran max Spdef
252 SpA Choice Specs Latios Psychic vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Clefable: 169-201 (42.8 - 51%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
And it is forced into unaware which means it becomes hazard and status weak. Which means
252 SpA Choice Specs Latios Psychic vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Clefable: 169-201 (42.8 - 51%) -- 51.6% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
so it doesn't even check it reliably and outright can't with even tiny chip prior.
Spdef Ttar is a bad set. Passive and exploitable and weak. And running non lefties items means it gets worn down really fast. And it doesn't check much of anything. Also if it drops lefties then it definitely loses to Weavile.Speaking of Spdef TTar, it doesnt lose to weavile unless it carries the rare Brick Break, in which case if weavile starts using it more ttar could run Chopple and if the team is weak to weavile.
252 Atk Weavile Icicle Crash vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tyranitar: 121-144 (29.9 - 35.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
also Ttar isn't even that good right now anyways so...
I do not think Latios restricts teambuilding in anyway. It's probably the strongest Spatk wallbreaker/revenge with good coverage in the meta right now, but let's compare it to gengar, which had virtually no switch-ins to its stab+coverage. Latios on the other hand has checks and hard counters, and get's revenged easier as it doesn't have the priority immunity which gengar was able to use more due to lack of pursuit.
Latios has switch ins but those switch ins have to run mediocre or terrible sets to do so. Also let's quit using priority when talking Latios because other than Choice band dnite espeed and ice shard, no priority in OU threatens it at all.Teambuilding Balance: Can fit in a Spdef answer somewhat naturally, though not always the case. But likely it is very likely to carry atleast 1 offensive check to it by means common scarfers or priority users.
Latios does not NEED magnezone. It simply has the option to use it to make nuking even easier. As for point 4, if the only reliable offensive option is to run a scarfers to try and revenge it (hint: it can switch out if it is still healthy), it is a problem. Latios forces at least one hard check and a soft check + scarfers to truly allow teams to be safe. This is infact very restrictive when said defensive checks are limited.
Calm Mind Bliss is used for Latios too.2) Natural teambuilding didnt lead to natural checks (Specific CM blissey sets rose up, SPdef ttar chopple for focus miss coverage, UU and lower mons like drapion were used tried as checks).
I'm not sure if you haven't seen usage stats for either but Scizor still sits near 50% in usage. Blissey isn't far behind. And Latios is a huge contributing factor to the former being used so much.Also Scizor and Blissey aren't even mandatory on many teams but just happens to be so common that many teams naturally check latios.
This isn't reliable and more importantly a roosting Scizor reinvites Zone back in to finish it off.However, I have seen plenty of scenarios (not just from myself, but from various people's replays), where Scizor gets a roost of after getting a free switch and getting a roost off(by either a good double or a teammate sacrifice which is worth the switch to scizor).
On the defensive side people will finally breath and not have to run junk Spdef Scizor and CM Blissey. Or junk Spdef passive Jirachi sets and could instead run better sets. And again, Spdef Ttar is bad. Suggesting it supports the argument favor of a ban than anything.But on the defensive side, do i see some mons rise up because latios is gone? No, as I mentioned teams aside from HO are almost always naturally build in a way that have a counter/check for almost any latios set (with exception of the more rarer but slower CM set)`and if neccessary one could go out of his way to search for hard checks like Spdef Ttar
252 SpA Choice Specs Latios Draco Meteor vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Scizor: 132-156 (38.4 - 45.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recoveryFor Latios to beat Scizor by itself is required some good prediction and/or luck, and latios is going to either end choice locked in a non-stab move or not dealing enough damage to put scizor in a bad position, without zone putting pressure the scizor player should have the advantage.
Blissey is going to be passive with any set and most of the time you dont even have to use niche stuff like cm as twave is usually enough to keep latios under control, specially if you run other checks like heatran, tyranitar, jirachi, clefable, magnezone, etc. that will have an easy time handling a paralyzed latios after Blissey revealed the set.
Im not a big fan of Jirachi, but it does his job just fine, it will either paralyze Latios or uturn away into something dangerous like Weavile.
Rocks+meteor forces a roost.
Blissey can't rely on just twave even with extra checks because... Latios can just switch out. And no Heatran, Ttar, Clef are not good Latios checks.