Has nothing to do with the tier...but chances are it will be tentative replacement (if it hasn't already been one already)
Chances are it'll be bad, too.
Has nothing to do with the tier...but chances are it will be tentative replacement (if it hasn't already been one already)
With excadrill gone, in my opinion, Steelix with sturdy ability will become the more popular of the two ground/steels in the metagame. The three things it lacks when compared to excadrill, however, is the high base speed excadrill has, rapid spin, and last but not least, sand rush...
In terms of metagame impact, however, you may think that sun teams will get more popular, until you find that the existence of tailwind gives rain teams a form of "pseudo-phyll" that gives the same benefit of chlorophyll: double speed, even to those who don't really have the actual ability itself. And that same speed boost gives all of the user's allies equal footing against chlorophyll users, if only for one less turn than the real chlorophyll, meaning sun teams not boosted by tailwind as well as sun can still be countered. So, until the time tailwind becomes a banned move, when and if it comes, a check to sun teams will still exist in OU, ensuring fair metagame all-around....
Steelix is RU and doesn't replace Excatrill in any way.
Soaking damage and type coverage I think is what he was referring too. Although it can't compare via speed or attacking capabilities. Still, rise in usage would be nice for the old snake, at least in my opinion, but I doubt it will set foot in OU any time soon.
Screw Smogon and their bans. It makes me feel that they can do whatever they want, but I don't care. I'll still use Excadrill. Those who don't like just need to get over it. That and Speed Boost Blaziken, that things a beast. I feel like Smogon is banning what is made to make it more difficult so they can benefit and we can't.
I think stall is more mindblowingly mighty than ever before. Without Excadrill threatening to sweep you as the last pokemon standing, or spinning all your hard earned hazards away, stall got a major boost. Jellicant also becomes a much better spinblocker since Starmie needs Thunder to beat the specially defensive variants, and Hitmontop is NU. The spinners have trouble against it. Heavy Offense is a pretty hard matchup for stall, but I think the pros out-weigh the cons. Quagsire helps against Heavy Offense on stall, especially when combined with Skarmory.As a stall player, I'm not a fan of the Excadrill ban. Now Heavy Offense is a lot more prominent and Max Speed Acrobaticas Gliscor are starting to appear. I agree with your points about Drought and Drizzle, though. I think that the term of "winning the weather war" is less relevant with sand, as it isn't as dominating as Drought/Drizzle. Sand is merely quelling the other weather types when they 'Win the weather war'. Sun is going to dominate the metagame, most likely, considering how effective Volcarona is in Drought and the fact that Chlorophyll is still allowed, so stuff like Sawsbuck can rip through the metagame, the fire types are obviously more potent under drought, but Sawsbuck/Venu is a great cleaner.
I honestly can care less. I hope to see more ingenuity with the higher level metagame now, but chances are I shall be dissapointed in that regard and we will just see a rise in a few pokemon; Dragonite and Volcarona were mentioned for examples by some people already.
As for what we shall see afterwards, I doubt we will see more glass cannons and hyper offensive teams in there. There are still a ton of defensive pokemon in the metagame that can out-stall or downright cripple the unprepared still.
I don't know...I honestly see very little changing fundamentally, the only thing is that some usage will go down for specific pokemons, and few will go up and maybe become popular.
Screw Smogon and their bans. It makes me feel that they can do whatever they want, but I don't care. I'll still use Excadrill. Those who don't like just need to get over it. That and Speed Boost Blaziken, that things a beast. I feel like Smogon is banning what is made to make it more difficult so they can benefit and we can't.
It's been like this for about a week...EXCADRILL BANNED!?Noooooo!Now whats gonna be on my team?Excadrill is one of my favorite Pokemon!
Try Scarf Landorus or Terrakion if you were using it to revenge things.EXCADRILL BANNED!?Noooooo!Now whats gonna be on my team?Excadrill is one of my favorite Pokemon!
You do not have to follow Smogon's bans. Smogon is the standard banlist though, because they take the time to test everything. They also have the best players, and have reasons for everything they do. I can tell you that the people that voted Blaziken and Excadrill uber are mostly very strong BW OU players. They won't let a random person who whines vote on the tiers. They have the people who consistently abuse, or consistently beat the suspects vote on the tiers.
Smogon is doing this to have a healthy metagame for all of us. As a very active member on Smogon, and a person who participated in these tests, I can assure you on the integrity of them. I myself participated to confirm the integrity, to have a say because I didn't always agree with everything they did, and to prove myself.
Speed Boost Blaziken has like no checks or counters in Sun. At +2, you OHKO Latios with a resisted move. I can talk about Excadrill too, but Blue Harvest's post summed it up well enough. http://www.serebiiforums.com/showpost.php?p=13462379&postcount=490
Best players is highly debatable.
And as for the voting committee, I won't deny that they are trying to look out and make everything more streamlined and integral to the competitive community as a whole, but there is a lack of vision sometimes, especially in the OU tier, when it comes to finding viable strategies, hence my cynicism about things not actually changing after the ban, minus a few getting a bit more use now.
Best players is highly debatable.
excadrill banned!?noooooo!now whats gonna be on my team?excadrill is one of my favorite pokemon!
I used Shell Smash Excadrill this morning to see what it was like.