As mentioned in the metagame discussion thread, in the wake of the most recent tier shift, Kommo-o has dropped down from OU, and it was mentioned we would do a vote on it. However, after further discussion, to avoid disrupting ongoing tournaments and because support for retesting it was split among the council in the past, we have decided to postpone until after the upcoming survey which will include Kommo-o to get a better feel for the playerbase at large's opinion. We instead voted on Meowscarada for the time being, as it was already a controversial Pokemon to say the least, and we were already planning on voting on it after the drops.
MeowscaradaMeowscarada is a Pokemon that has seen significant uproar ever since the most recent DLC blessed it with Triple Axel right after DLC 1 blessed it with Knock Off, essentially turning it into a sidegrade of Weavile that trades Swords Dance and a little bit of speed and power for not being weak to rocks, STAB U-turn, and an easy way to get past Tapu Fini via Flower Trick. This is a problem, because Weavile was banned by suspect test a while back for being blatantly overwhelming with its Choice Band set, the exact same set Meowscarada runs most commonly, and it is almost as effective as Choice Band Weavile was minus Tera bolstering Weavile to even more absurd heights. Grass/Dark STAB was already almost unresisted in the tier, but giving it Triple Axel not only shores up most of the Pokemon that did, but gives it a potentially 120 BP STAB move that lets it 2HKO previous checks who could bulk it out such as Skarmory, Mega Venusaur and all but the most physically defensive Buzzwoles. As if that wasn't bad enough, in its fourth moveslot it can run U-turn to escape what few answers to it exist, Sucker Punch to turn the tables on revenge killers, Thunder Punch for Toxapex, or even Spikes to set up hazards on incoming checks and ruin Buzzwole and Scizor's days later in the game.
This, combined with its speed that sits very comfortably over almost every relevant unboosted Pokemon besides Mega Aerodactyl and Zeraora, both of which have found themselves struggling with the dominance of Ting Lu, making it an incredibly threatening Pokemon. This has lead desperate teams to running Pokemon like Bulky Z Scizor and very physically defensive Buzzwole, much like back in the Weavile meta, the former of which was defensively limited prior to the DLC, not seeing a single use in NDFL until week 5 (where the current usage stats thread stops) and only being used a grand total of 4 times in NDPL, indicating a significant degree of centralisation. This is on top of the two being an incredibly slim list of reliable viable answers that aren't 'run Toxapex plus resists and pivot like your life depends on it leaving you on the backfoot and vulnerable to doubles anyone can make and pray that you can get pex healthy enough again to not just get 2HKOd by Flower Trick next time Meowscarada comes in'.
Speaking of a certain new drop, now for the elephant in the room - Toxapex. It may seem hasty to ban Meowscarada given that Heavy-Duty Boots PhysDef Toxapex can sort of answer it, but the problem is that 'sort of' - Toxapex completely falls apart as an answer after a single Knock Off and rocks going up, thanks to the subsequent Flower Trick 2HKO the next time Meowscarada comes in, so ultimately, it only adds a few steps or forces Toxapex's team to have to bank on taking the resisted hits with teammates, putting the pex user's team on the defensive and mandating running teams with multiple bulky resists, limiting teambuilding options. In addition, as mentioned, Toxapex has to be Heavy-Duty Boots to even sort of handle Meowscarada, severely limiting its item options as it would much rather run Rocky Helmet to punish Cinderace's seemingly unlimited U-turns and make actual progress against Cinderace along with other prominent physical attackers such as Buzzwole and Zapdos-Galar. Alternatively, Meowscarada could potentially run Thunder Punch instead and easily 2HKO it anyways, no Knock needed. Worst of all, Toxapex, much like in OU, only fits on Balance and Stall, leaving Bulky Offense teams - the ones that fear Meowscarada the most and have the least alternative options - completely out to dry or resorting to bulky Z Scizor.
As a result, Meowscarada has been unanimously quickbanned!
These are the results of the vote on Meowscarada:
| Meowscarada | |
| Arishem | Quickban |
| Runo | Quickban |
| Niadev | Quickban |
| Pubo | Quickban |
| TBIC106 | Quickban |
| Outcome | Quickban |
In addition, as mentioned, we will also be conducting a survey later to evaluate the presence of other potential Pokemon, as well as the aforementioned inclusion of Kommo-o, so stay tuned!