Hogg
grubbing in the ashes
DLC2 brought with it a huge number of radical changes, and UU as we know it is no more. What has emerged in its place is a new beast: stronger, faster, perhaps just a little bit scarier. The previously imprisoned UUBLs were freed, and most found themselves right at home in this new world. The chaos of turboshifts kept us on our toes for a while, with seemingly small changes like the rising of Hippowdon having major impact. But now, as things begin to settle, it is time to take stock of the tier as a whole.
Oddly enough, for a metagame with so many dangerous threats, few stand out as outright broken. However, one Pokemon in particular has been on everyone's mind: Blaziken. Relegated to Ubers just last gen, it has seen a big drop all the way down to UU, where it narrowly avoided a council ban in the last voting slate. But since that vote, it has emerged as perhaps the single most dangerous threat in the metagame. This should be no huge surprise: Blaziken has phenomenal attacking stats, two physical STABs sporting 120 base power and Speed Boost to allow it to easily steamroll teams. Its movepool beyond Close Combat and Flare Blitz is no small thing either: Swords Dance to provide a considerable boost to its breaking power, Knock Off to power through would-be checks such as Latias or Slowking, Thunder Punch for Primarina and Azumarill or Stone Edge for Salamence.
Perhaps the biggest pressure Blaziken applies is on the teambuilder. Speed Boost eliminates many methods of offensively checking it, leaving teams to rely on priority from Pokemon such as Azumarill or Crawdaunt. Pokemon such as Quagsire or bulky Salamence appear to be good checks on paper, but in practice they struggle: Quagsire falls to a pair of Close Combats from Adamant LO or Choice Band sets (and if Knocked loses to Jolly Blaziken as well), while Salamence falls to two unboosted Stone Edges and even has difficulty versus Knock Off sets due to its reliance on Heavy Duty Boots to consistently come in.
So, with the tier settling after several rounds of turboshifts, we open the question to the community as our first post-DLC2 suspect: does Blaziken deserve a home in this new UU? The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 80 with at least 50 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 80 GXE, down to a minimum of 30 games at a GXE of 84. As always, needing more than 50 games to reach 80 GXE is fine.
GXE | minimum games |
80 | 50 |
80.2 | 49 |
80.4 | 48 |
80.6 | 47 |
80.8 | 46 |
81 | 45 |
81.2 | 44 |
81.4 | 43 |
81.6 | 42 |
81.8 | 41 |
82 | 40 |
82.2 | 39 |
82.4 | 38 |
82.6 | 37 |
82.8 | 36 |
83 | 35 |
83.2 | 34 |
83.4 | 33 |
83.6 | 32 |
83.8 | 31 |
84 | 30 |
Other than that, the test will operate as always. There will be no suspect ladder. Instead, the standard UU ladder will remain open. Those who wish to participate in this suspect test will instead use a fresh, suspect-specific alt. All games must be played on the Pokemon Showdown! UU ladder on a fresh alt with the following format: "UU8B (Nick)." For example, I might register the alt UU8B Hogg to ladder with. You must meet the listed format in order to qualify.
Participants will have until Sunday, December 27 at 8:59 PM GMT -4 to meet voting requirements and post in the Alt Identification Thread. PLEASE DO NOT POST YOUR CONFIRMED SUSPECT RESULTS HERE - there is a dedicated thread for identifying your suspect results. Happy laddering!