Was going to nom moistshifu to A+ but VR got locked so I'll talk about why it's so good here instead. This mon has been one of my favorite breakers for a while, so I'm glad to see it getting the recognition and usage it deserves, being #2 in WCOP, being on roughly 1/3 of teams. The metagame has been trending to Slowking as the primary fat water regen mon on a lot of teams, which moistshifu takes advantage of by dealing huge damage with u-turn. It also does extremely well vs weavile and bisharp, acting as a solid switch in and revenge killer to both of these. It's also a great check to Heatran, one of the most overrated but also most vocally complained about OU mon. We can see the effect moistshifu has on the metagame as a lot of teams are being forced to run rocky helmet on Corviknight as a means to punish it, as well as an uptick of rocky helmet on Toxapex. In general, the metagame is really trending towards strong breakers with u-turn and moistshifu fits into this frame perfectly.
Also in terms of all the tiering talk that's been going on recently I think we should quickban volcarona and king's rock, and suspect dragapult and teleport a bit down the line. Can elaborate if anyone wants me to but that's what I believe is best for the tier.
I definitely see Urshifu-R as one of the most underrated threats in the current metagame. It is one of the most difficult Pokemon to reliably swap into, and its access of U-turn to gain momentum on a wide range of Pokemon that can switch into its STAB combination reliably throughout the course of a game makes it really easy to form really dangerous cores with Pokemon like Slowking, Weavile or Bisharp to enforce some easy, brutalizing progress with. I also think Urshifu-R really loves and fully capitalizes on current metagame trends; Toxapex is mostly running SpDef to keep Dragapult in check, Slowking is the superior Slowtwin right now and is considerably less bulky on the physical side, and Amoonguss and Tangrowth are incredibly exploitable Pokemon that can easily be hit with U-turn and can easily become momentum fodder to some pretty scary wallbreakers like Hydreigon or Kyurem in the current metagame.
About Teleport (and friends)
I personally cannot get myself to subscribe to a Teleport suspect test given my stance on how it's a move that inherently comes with an opportunity cost on any non-Slowtwin Pokemon. The other two viable Teleport users--Clefable and Blissey--rely on being healthy to keep their targeted Pokemon in check, and Teleport essentially means that guaranteed momentum comes at the cost of potentially key chip damage against major defensive proponents unless you manage to force a switch, and even if you don't, sometimes pigeonholing yourself into Teleport expecting a switch can force the Teleport user into a poor position and take additional damage for no reason. I feel like the issue isn't any component centralizing around Futureport and more the whole package of Regenerator + Teleport which only the Slowtwins have access to. The fact they are able to heal and pivot
simultaneously completely removes Teleport's opportunity cost outside of Taunt.
While on the subject, Regenerator + Heavy-Duty Boots is something I'm much more finicky on as a whole. I believe a lot of fingers are being pointed toward different individual components of the metagame being broken, but sadly I feel it's kind of a combination of things, which really conflicts with tiering philosophy regarding complex bans and is why I feel the best, cleanest step in this regard is to eye the Slowtwins first. Regardless, we still need time to see how the metagame adapts and develops over the course of WCoP to see if anything we once deemed to be problematic grows to be less of an issue, or if a key issue becomes blatantly obvious.
About Volcarona
I think Volcarona is a Pokemon that needs much closer evaluation to really determine if it's inherently problematic, but I'm certainly welcome to explore the idea of a suspect; however, as it stands, I heavily disagree with the idea of quickbanning it as it has been a component of the metagame for a while, and the degree of its impact as a win condition has only been realized recently. Though, all things considered, it is an incredibly fearsome win condition; in fact, one of the best in the tier, if not
the best. The role compression on its Bulky Quiver Dance set is actually crazy as a check to most Melmetal variants, Kyurem, and Rillaboom while also serving as an incredibly versatile, customizable win condition at the same time. It's something that makes me question the whole "matchup fish" ideology that Volcarona has lived by for a long time now, as unlike most Volcarona variants of the past, it has the ability to actually provide utility for its team with Heavy-Duty Boots to give it many more switch-in opportunities, and more importantly, invite direct pressure against its checks with a lasting, active presence on the field.
About King's Rock
King's Rock I fully agree with as it provides literally nothing productive to the metagame other than weighted dice rolls at its core. I don't really have much else to add here that hasn't been said already; I would love to get it--and potentially other RNG-centric mechanics that we can feasibly clause--gone.
In gen 8 OU there is effectively only one prominent user of King's Rock which is Cloyster
. Everyone who wants KR banned should just nut up and call for a Cloyster suspect test.
Every other KR user is either crap (
) or uses the item so infrequently (
is a distant 2nd place,
had a blip of usage during March and not even
has >=1% KR usage) that it both begs the question of 1. why is nobody abusing this item on any of the above mons? and 2. makes talking about these users of KR irrelevant unless someone wants to spend the next month(s) actively proving me wrong.
As far as I can tell items that see similar usage are largely considered irrelevant to their viability -- WP Dragapult, banded lando, lum Chomp, specs Heatran, Grassy Seed Rillaboom (and many other countless examples) just combing through stats are what I deem as comparable to KR Weavile.
Would Weavile's viability not drop if it were locked into using King's Rock?
While on the subject, this post also mainly misses the point of people's complaints with King's Rock (and other RNG mechanics for that matter); the main argument behind it is not really that it in of itself is actually good and more that the abusers either completely seize games by what's essentially sheer luck or dies. Nobody is disagreeing that Cloyster is the only actually good one, but the thing is that's not the point. What is the point is if it's competitive or healthy as a whole, not if it's actually a centralizing, metagame defining item. People have discussed the ban of Quick Claw and/or Quick Draw for the same reason; not that they're good, but because they downplay the progress, advantages, and positioning-based aspects of a battle and instead turn it into an RNG simulation. While a more extreme comparison, you get the idea--not fun.
About Dragapult
I'm completely welcome to the idea of a closer look at Dragapult as it is a Pokemon that completely dominates numerous archetypes and is not only the strongest enabler in the metagame but is also able to be enabled itself to a pretty frightening extent from the aid of wallbreakers with shared checks (which, there are quite a few). Though, in spite of its power, it has some pretty major caveats like its Special Attack, lack of longevity, and proneness to residual damage. I personally am not sure how I feel about Dragapult as of yet, but I'm going to be keeping a closer eye on it in the coming weeks to better evaluate its impact on the metagame.
.
