Metagame Terastallization Tiering Discussion, Part II [CLOSED FOR DLC]

[Napoli Burns]

Banning tera blast for me doesn't really solve nothing, it nerfs some tera user but most of them will remain more broken than ever, making them even stronger

The strongest way to use tera for me is by turning into a typing and get an immunity (like flying for evading eq or fire for evading wow) or turn into ghost for antispin reason

Tera blast can turn NU pokemon like ice moth into something viable in OU thanks to the legendary coverage ice-ground but it still requires support to swipe a team alone, it doesn't automatically make ice moth broken, the only one was regieleki.

Sneasler without the ground (or fire) tera is still a top 5 threat thanks to 130 atk, 120 speed, unburden and in any case, has shadow claw for hitting ghosts

 

[BolTingBlazie]

"some" uubl mons? as of right now there are exactly two of them, unless my info is outdated. that's why i even mentioned it instead of saying uu

That list is definitely getting a bit bigger. Goltres will definitely be going there at some point, and possibly hyrdeigon at some point along with maybe a few others. Regardless it sounds like a really cool OM idea

 

[ant4456]

How many times have you clicked Tera Blast without Terastalizing? This is dishonest

A few times, actually. Normal Types especially like it.

 

[Hiddenfreezer]

I will make a simple statement:

I predict 99% of teams will look like exactly the same be it either with or without terra...

 

[ianlazerbeem]

A few times, actually. Normal Types especially like it.

Is Arboliva or whatever using non-Tera Tera Blast (man gets Hyper Voice and Zoroark too so idk why y'all keep mentioning this) significant enough to be worth allowing every sweeper to choose a 3rd stab and become that type only while getting a free boost and killing its counter?

Banning tera blast for me doesn't really solve nothing, it nerfs some tera user but most of them will remain more broken than ever, making them even stronger

The strongest way to use tera for me is by turning into a typing and get an immunity (like flying for evading eq or fire for evading wow) or turn into ghost for antispin reason

Tera blast can turn NU pokemon like ice moth into something viable in OU thanks to the legendary coverage ice-ground but it still requires support to swipe a team alone, it doesn't automatically make ice moth broken, the only one was regieleki.

Sneasler without the ground (or fire) tera is still a top 5 threat thanks to 130 atk, 120 speed, unburden and in any case, has shadow claw for hitting ghosts

I'm uncertain that Sneasler itself is broken (it's certainly very good and uses Tera very effectively and easily to win games.) Sneasler is a poster child for Pokémon with huge coverage that don't need Tera Blast to do this. cases like this are where we start getting also applying the Pro Tera viewpoint of "just ban the especially egregious Tera users."

No one restriction is going to address every issue. I'm happy with full ban but many aren't. This is why we need a multi pronged approach and multiple yes/No votes on one ballot, and to revisit the issue after trying restrictions out since Finch has said we aren't going to test restrictions with a suspect ladder. This is why I'm also pretty in favor of Tera preview, because it can be reversed if it turns out to be as bad as some are worried, and isn't mutually exclusive to other types of action such as Tera blast bans, Pokémon bans, and light Clay bans

[The UUBL] list is definitely getting a bit bigger. Goltres will definitely be going there at some point, [...]

 

[BolTingBlazie]

View attachment 535966

I said goltres is going to UUBL, also tera blast NORMAL is ran on Goltres of all things!?!?? That sounds not optimal or really that good at all honestly. Wouldn't flying, fairy, or fighting be more optimal? I just run double dance + tera fighting blast and fiery wrath and it feels super cheap down there since nothing can really safely answer double dance sets that pack tera fighting really.

Anyway let's get back on topic now.

 

[ianlazerbeem]

I said goltres is going to UUBL, also tera blast NORMAL is ran!?!??! Wouldn't flying, fairy, or fighting be more optimal?

yes, I shared the image to highlight that this Pokémon is borderline-to-broken in at least one tier and Tera Blast is very much a factor there based on that number. Note that you listed 3 different types - Goltres is the poster child for using Tera Blast to gain perfect STAB coverage of its choice, and the fact that there's 3 very viable types with different counterplay... at least you can infer based on team context but it's pretty easy to make any of these work regardless of other threats on the team (flying is pretty uncommon I think)

I'm pretty sure Pikalytics always shows Tera Blast as normal as that's what it is pre Tera, and it would have to collect stats on each type separately otherwise - Pikalytics doesn't even record Tera type

Anyway let's get back on topic now.

Goltres is extremely relevant to its thread as it's a premier Tera sweeper, frequent Tera blast user, has several viable Tera types it can sweep with that aren't easily telegraphed, and is living proof Tera isn't just an OU problem

 

[Bakugames]

Some good anti tera posts but I feel like a lot of the anti tera folk here are kinda just here to reply to pro tera posts with their basic arguments instead of properly interacting with what the other person wrote down. if someone says "i think tera blast will do something because x y and z" and your reply is "it wont" and not interact with the proposed discussion, why post? this isn't @ everyone, theres good anti tera posts here, I just dont get why interact if you're just gonna repeat the basic premise and not touch following arguments

 

[Froctopus]

Buckle in folks, this is going to be a looooooong post.


The Terastal phenomena is a fun mechanic introduced in Gen 9 along with some beasts of new pokemon, and what a phenomenon it is. Causing the forum that everyone was supposed to respect into my last thanksgiving dinner. Now to preface, I am a tera supporter. I love the mechanic and how versatile it makes team building and the process of a battle. In my eyes here are the positives and negatives of 'clicking the button', I will list the problems that I see with tera below (in no particular order)

Positives
1. Allows for skill expression, players that study the meta and can infer move sets on certain mons are rewarded by Tera-ing in front of threats
2. Adds depth to team building that patches holes for unexpected/troubling match ups for your team
3. Allows for multiple avenues to salvage a game if you are surprised by your opponent (Comeback Mechanic)
4. Offers wider coverage for everyone (Tera Blast specifically)
5. Either a 2x or normal STAB boost to moves

Negatives
1. Unpredictable since there are 18 different types a pokemon can choose
2. Removes blaring weaknesses from pokemon to make them harder to deal with
3. Coverage is too wide (Tera Blast I'm looking at you)
4. "Rewards the worse player" (Comeback mechanic)
5. Creates mindgames of when the opponent will tera (the infamous 50/50s)

(Please if I missed any big ones let me know, I kinda lost my mind reading this thread and may have lost my ability to concentrate)

Taking my opinions into account, I will try to justify why the positive outweigh the negatives. My fondness for the mechanic comes from the extra dimension it adds to the game and team building. From my perspective it allows you to dial in the play style of the team, if you want to be more aggressive you would choose a STAB tera, if you want to be more defensive then pick a Steel Tera or one that compliments your typing (Ground Tera if flying) but the most intriguing usage is as a lure in combination with tera blast. These decisions all must be made in the team building phase and because of that, they should be rewarded for being prepared. Imagine a scenario where you go into school to take a test, one person studies and the other doesn't. The one who studies will likely get the higher grade. If you study the games you play/meta and prepare the weaknesses of your team, you are more likely to be rewarded from your tera plays. Now before everyone starts saying that people shouldn't be forced to keep up to date on the meta, this studying can be done by just playing your team and iterating on it. Maybe your Garg kept running into matchups with a Great Tusk, well maybe you add something to punish that switch in. Now I know that's a crack pot example, but you learn the intricacies of your team by playing with it, and tera is one tool you can use to patch up weakness.

Onto the mindgames of Tera. You can never tell when your opponent will tera, and to what it will tera into. This to me is the worst part/actual reason it should have action brought up against it. It is such a dramatic effect (changing typing) that you can make a case that there should be some warning. Now I do not oppose the idea of Tera Preview, as I will get into later, but mind games have always existed. There is no signal for what your opponent will send out first, there is no signal for when your opponent will switch, there is no signal for when your opponent will use a priority move. All these differentiate plays have no signal/warning when they are going to happen. Would the game be balanced if there was? If you think about it, Tera is sort of like giving a pokemon an added u-turn to any move, and an effective 7th mon on their team.

Now overall these two attributes, mind gaming and reward of team building have existed in the game. That’s with specific stat distributions to survive different hits. You can calc out moves to survive hits from threats on your team, an example that I am proud of is that I ran a scrafed Samurott to outspeed Dragapult jolly Dragapult by 1, and then built in bulk to survive a Sacred Sword from a Samurott to make it my go to lead. This was not known to the opponent, yet it was just as impactful if I were to tera. You don’t know the stat distribution of an enemy, maybe they invested some SpD in their Great Tusk, maybe some speed in Dragapult to outspeed other Dragapults. But this type of rewarding team building has always existed and comes down to fitting all these customizable aspects together to make a solid team.


Now this example obviously this avoids the idea of coverage, but I am very much a Tera Blast Ban. By removing the ability for anyone pokemon to change type and get a base 70 Stat move to revenge is blatantly absurd. There should not be more benefits to something that is already beneficial to you. This is unfair and creates unpredictable plays of destroying a check with a move that the mon never had access to (Think of how regieleki gets boltbeam specifically because of tera blast). But overall tera typing should just change your type, not give you access to moves outside your move pool. There is no denying that movepools help balance pokemon. However, this does not solve much because not many pokemon use Tera Blast so this wouldn’t help the problem children. (I just want the moth back man, he’s just a harmless lil guy I’ll do anything for him)



Now onto the negatives, many of these come from the surprise factor of tera, you don’t know when it’s going to happen or what type they have chosen. The negatives occur because of the impact of tera. Your sure fire Close Combat is now null and void because they chose to be a ghost, even when they didn’t have a ghost to switch into. The Play Rough you calced to live to KO right back now always kills you because of the STAB granted by tera. These are the outcomes from a precise tera. Now a way to significantly impact these ‘feel-bad’ moments are to add in the information that they may happen. Which is where Tera-preview comes in. I believe the best compromise for the Tera Problem is to add tera preview. This gives you a warning sign of that “that Gargnacl is tera ghost, maybe don’t use high jump kick”. By adding information you know which ways your opponent can play around your plan, but it doesn’t get rid of the skill aspect of knowing when to tera.



The 50/50s of Tera are, from what I believe, are stopping people from coming to a compromise. Tera Preview is a totally fine solution, you take away half of the surprise of tera, while maintaining that reward for making that tera type decision. Now you can’t safely Will-O-Wisp a King Gambit because maybe he tera fires. This 50/50 cannot be avoided, and that shouldn’t turn people off from the idea of Tera Preview. These 50/50s exist and they will always exist as long as switching and sucker-punch are in the game. How do you know an Earthquake is safe if they have a flying type. How is a thunderbolt safe if they have a ground type. These are all decisions that must be made. Yet they are accepted (if someone can prove me wrong that these are not the same, I will gladly say I’m wrong) but nothing is ever a ‘safe’ move because you build your team around the weaknesses of your team. 50/50 mind games will always exist, and it’s just another way for a player to show their skill. But when stuck in these 50/50s, you at least to get the knowledge that there might be a move you want to spam. Or this brings along more tools like bringing protect to attempt to scout. However, as optimistic as I maybe, these 50s will persists if tera stays in and I am personally ok with that.



So overall I think the best way to nerf tera is to make it Tera Preview and banning Tera Blast is an added bonus. This way there is still some skill involved on when you activate tera, who you activate tera on, and what tera types you should pick. But it provides you with the information on what each pokemon’s specific role is on the team and allows you to more easily pick apart the enemy team.

 

[SnackWasTaken]

Just throwing out ideas ausma is stab-tera only or bst-tera restriction (such as 500 bst and lower only can tera) off the the table?

While I (and most others as well) think that bst should not be a measure of what does and doesn’t get a certain feature, I have more respect for you than most people here just because you’re actually trying to brainstorm ideas until something is found that many people agree upon.

 

[Eelstartega]

Looking through the (1825) usage stats, the only common abusers are:

at 14.121%
at 7.294%
at 8.206%
at 16.701%
at 13.370%
at 85.782%

The usage stats were for an older metagame however. Using WCOP usage stats though (only counts revealed moves iirc)

Round 2:
used Tera Blast in 1 of 38 games
used Tera Blast in 2 of 13 games
used Tera Blast in 1 of 2 games
used Tera Blast in 1 of 1 games

No other pokemon used Tera Blast in Round 2

For a larger sample size but older metagame, I'll use Round 1 too.

Round 1:
used Tera Blast in 1 of 272 games
used Tera Blast in 6 of 200 games
used Tera Blast in 6 of 102 games
used Tera Blast in 1 of 56 games
used Tera Blast in 2 of 47 games
used Tera Blast in 1 of 42 games
used Tera Blast in 2 of 32 games
used Tera Blast in 1 of 25 games
used Tera Blast in 1 of 24 games
used Tera Blast in 3 of 23 games
used Tera Blast in 1 of 18 games
used Tera Blast in 1 of 18 games
used Tera Blast in 5 of 11 games
used Tera Blast in 2 of 9 games
used Tera Blast in 1 of 2 games
used Tera Blast in 1 of 1 games

Thank you for complementing my tera blast post of a while ago. I had not used this and well, we now have a bit more data about the move. That being said, you forgot Iron Moth who uses tera Blast a nice amount (69%... I'm not inventing this) and kinda Moltres-Galar (35%). That's also why it was so difficult to see the actual data, because it's so uncommon, in a 5% or less ratio and/or in uncommon creatures. That's why I feel team Preview could solve all this weird tera blast lure cheese issue.

 

[ianlazerbeem]

Thank you for complementing my tera blast post of a while ago. I had not used this and well, we now have a bit more data about the move. That being said, you forgot Iron Moth who uses tera Blast a nice amount (69%... I'm not inventing this) and kinda Moltres-Galar (35%). That's also why it was so difficult to see the actual data, because it's so uncommon, in a 5% or less ratio and/or in uncommon creatures. That's why I feel team Preview could solve all this weird tera blast lure cheese issue.

I think there are enough Pokémon that fit the example of "made less bad by preview but unaffected by a Tera blast ban" but also vice versa that both is ideal

 

[SnackWasTaken]

Looking through the (1825) usage stats, the only common abusers are:

at 14.121%
at 7.294%
at 8.206%
at 16.701%
at 13.370%
at 85.782%

What are these percentages for, it wasn’t too specific

 

[Rootb]

What are these percentages for, it wasn’t too specific

Tera Blast usage rates (via Pikalytics)

 

[SnackWasTaken]

Tera Blast usage rates (via Pikalytics)

Pikalytics isn’t super reliable, a few months ago I saw iron jugulis at 11% usage in OU no cap
https://www.smogon.com/stats/ is much more accurate from personal experience.

 

[Rootb]

Pikalytics isn’t super reliable, a few months ago I saw iron jugulis at 11% usage in OU no cap
https://www.smogon.com/stats/ is much more accurate from personal experience.

I would bet a significant amount that you saw UU usage rate, where it was and remains popular.

Either way, the usage rates in the official Smogon statistics seem to be identical to the ones on Pikalytics, at least for Dragapult and Heatran. I'm not going to comb the rest when the first couple are identical down to the thousandths.

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

How many times have you clicked Tera Blast without Terastalizing? This is dishonest

several, actually. i ran it on h-zoro for a bit as an experiment because i thought it might be a good way to keep the illusion mindgame going—my hypothesis was that people would think "hah, this idiot forgot to tera" instead of "wait a minute, roaring moon can't use hyper voice". turned out to not be as great as i anticipated, mostly because it was piloted by me instead of someone good, but specs tera blast is still kinda neat because you effectively get to switch moves while choice-locked (though only once)

 

[Eelstartega]

Pikalytics isn’t super reliable, a few months ago I saw iron jugulis at 11% usage in OU no cap
https://www.smogon.com/stats/ is much more accurate from personal experience.

I did the investigation of tera stats a few days before, and saw that Smogon Stats and Pikalytics ones were IDENTICAL, a copypaste into a readable format instead of just raw numbers in txt.

 

[veti]

Pikalytics isn’t super reliable

I didn't use Pikalytics, I used the moveset stats on https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-06/

 

[ianlazerbeem]

several, actually. i ran it on h-zoro for a bit as an experiment because i thought it might be a good way to keep the illusion mindgame going—my hypothesis was that people would think "hah, this idiot forgot to tera" instead of "wait a minute, roaring moon can't use hyper voice". turned out to not be as great as i anticipated, but specs tera blast is still kinda neat because you effectively get to switch moves while choice-locked (though only once)

So something niche and not competitively useful. Surely you don't think that justifies every Pokémon gaining a 3rd stab of its choice to beat anything it chooses and sweep?

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

So something niche and not competitively useful. Surely you don't think that justifies every Pokémon gaining a 3rd stab of its choice to beat anything it chooses and sweep?

and there you go again, changing the subject. let's stay on topic. you equated tera blast with tera and claimed that arguments to the contrary were "dishonest". what i did was provide you a counter-example of a scenario where tera blast without tera could conceivably work (obviously not when piloted by me, but perhaps when used at a higher level of play where mindgames actually matter because people are doing more than just clicking buttons). and the fact that it didn't work that well is yet another point towards the actual move tera blast not being broken, which means that banning it would run contrary to tiering policy, including past decisions that were made this generation and supported by both myself and the wider community, like choosing to ban annihilape instead of rage fist and putting garganacl on tiering surveys instead of salt cure.

 

[ianlazerbeem]

and there you go again, changing the subject. let's stay on topic. you equated tera blast with tera and claimed that arguments to the contrary were "dishonest". what i did was provide you a counter-example of a scenario where tera blast without tera could conceivably work (obviously not when piloted by me, but perhaps when used at a higher level of play where mindgames actually matter because people are doing more than just clicking buttons). and the fact that it didn't work that well is yet another point towards the actual move tera blast not being broken, which means that banning it would run contrary to tiering policy, including past decisions that were made this generation and supported by both myself and the wider community, like choosing to ban annihilape instead of rage fist and putting garganacl on tiering surveys instead of salt cure.

Ok let's unban baton pass then, Flareon can't do anything unhealthy with it, not broken on every user, not a broken move. Last Respects on Basculin-H was never tested or voted on in OU. Are Gems broken on Spinda? Tiering policy, especially with brand new mechanics and moves tied to them, doesn't always address the needs of the metagame, which is why Policy Review has a Tera discussion thread as well. Trying to say that a Pokémon that isn't even particularly viable in OU using ~TERA~ Blast without terastalizing, with an extremely specific use case, and not even successfully, means that TERA Blast is not related to TERA, is a hardcore reach.

There are enough people that like enough aspects of Terastalization that identifying problematic dynamics it creates and minimizing impacts to the rest of the mechanic are key, and the fact that banning Tera Blast prevents it from being used with out Terastalizing is virtually inconsequential

 

[658Greninja]

So something niche and not competitively useful. Surely you don't think that justifies every Pokémon gaining a 3rd stab of its choice to beat anything it chooses and sweep?

If we are to touch Tera (either ban it or restrict it), Tera Blast should be left alone. There is a clear opportunity cost to running Tera Blast. Running a mon with Tera Blast often means focusing the entire team on making use of that one mon with Tera Blast. Even if a mon has Tera Blast, it doesn’t always mean it completely blows over the whole team. A Tera Blast Tera Ghost Pult is still getting checked by Garg, the same way a Tera Ground Sneasler is still getting blanked by Zapdos or Balloon Ghold. Tera Blast is also often deadweight except when you Terastilize which is a problem for mons like Sneasler or Gambit who want coverage or in Gambit’s case (Iron Head or Low Kick). Its more of a commitment than clicking Tera Steel or Dark with Valiant. What’s more is that most of the OU tier doesn’t need Tera Blast. Sneasler and Gambit are fine with not using Tera Ground or Tera Fairy Blast. Bax certainly doesn’t need Tera Blast and neither does Valiant nor Ghold. I believe we should keep our focus on Tera as a whole and whether or not we want any action taken upon it.

Again, its either a high skill cap meta or a balanced meta.

 

[LoseToRU?]

This is a good mindset to have. You like that the meta is fun but don’t like how Tera skews the balance of certain mons. Most of these mons, especially Gambit were built in mind with one or two major weaknesses, but Tera removes that weakness and leaves you with an unbalanced mon.

However I disagree with this one statement.



Um…

Amoonguss, Clod, Corv, Ghold, Tran, Molt, Slowking-G, Scizor, Toxapex, Volc

I'm going to put the fact that things like Psyshock, Shadow Ball, Focus Blast exist and these switch-ins are an easy predict, especially since most teams only have 1, maybe 2 of these mons, but I love calcing to show how stupid Tera is sometimes lol

252 SpA Choice Specs Tera Fairy Iron Valiant Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 84 SpD Amoonguss: 159-188 (36.8 - 43.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Tera Fairy Iron Valiant Moonblast vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Corviknight: 166-196 (41.6 - 49.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Choice Specs Tera Fairy Iron Valiant Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Gholdengo: 158-187 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Tera Fairy Iron Valiant Moonblast vs. 248 HP / 248+ SpD Moltres: 118-139 (30.8 - 36.2%) -- 56% chance to 3HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Tera Fairy Iron Valiant Moonblast vs. 236 HP / 0 SpD Scizor: 176-208 (51.7 - 61.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

So really you barely have to predict, as these calcs mean most these mons can't safely switch in, you just have to spam Moonblast, and then fire off a Psyshock, Focus Blast once, or cripple with Trick.

---

Banning tera blast for me doesn't really solve nothing, it nerfs some tera user but most of them will remain more broken than ever, making them even stronger

The strongest way to use tera for me is by turning into a typing and get an immunity (like flying for evading eq or fire for evading wow) or turn into ghost for antispin reason

Tera blast can turn NU pokemon like ice moth into something viable in OU thanks to the legendary coverage ice-ground but it still requires support to swipe a team alone, it doesn't automatically make ice moth broken, the only one was regieleki.

Sneasler without the ground (or fire) tera is still a top 5 threat thanks to 130 atk, 120 speed, unburden and in any case, has shadow claw for hitting ghosts

Haven't been on for a few days and just kinda using your post to hop into the ban TB discourse.

TB is actually a huge problem.

I meant to come back later when more ppl had voted, but this gives a quick glance.

I've seen Fairy TB on Specs Zap in rain and scarf Rotom-W.
The others are fairly obvious and most have seen what TB these run.

Anyway, banning TB is a huge step towards balancing the gimmick.

Gaining resistances is one thing, but gaining offensive power and coverage is much better.

Was Gambit designed to be able to resist Fighting/Ground etc? Probably not, but that's part of Tera.
We can live with that if needed.

Was Gambit designed to hit Fighting types for SE damage? No, definitely not.
Just like Pult wasn't designed to hit Dark for SE, or Volc wasn't made to be able to hit Ground for SE.

Gaining the ability to have a move a mon was literally built not that have is insane.
It's 100% a part of why Tera is a problem and if we can get rid of it the meta gets better overnight.

I don't like how mons are being pushed past their built in flaws in regards to coverage moves, it feels broken and stupid.

GF takes such care into choosing what moves a mon should have, Nagan literally didn't have HP Ground, they manually removed it so that it couldn't hit Steel for SE lol.
Any they got rid Hidden Power, cuz even that low damage was still too much for some mons to have that coverage.
(Why then removed HP for balancing, then made us suffer with Tera I'll never know lmfao)

Frankly, if I had to choose between Preview and banning TB then I'm banning TB.

If we are to touch Tera (either ban it or restrict it), Tera Blast should be left alone. There is a clear opportunity cost to running Tera Blast. Running a mon with Tera Blast often means focusing the entire team on making use of that one mon with Tera Blast. Even if a mon has Tera Blast, it doesn’t always mean it completely blows over the whole team. A Tera Blast Tera Ghost Pult is still getting checked by Garg, the same way a Tera Ground Sneasler is still getting blanked by Zapdos or Balloon Ghold. Tera Blast is also often deadweight except when you Terastilize which is a problem for mons like Sneasler or Gambit who want coverage or in Gambit’s case (Iron Head or Low Kick). Its more of a commitment than clicking Tera Steel or Dark with Valiant. What’s more is that most of the OU tier doesn’t need Tera Blast. Sneasler and Gambit are fine with not using Tera Ground or Tera Fairy Blast. Bax certainly doesn’t need Tera Blast and neither does Valiant nor Ghold. I believe we should keep our focus on Tera as a whole and whether or not we want any action taken upon it.

Again, its either a high skill cap meta or a balanced meta.

The opportunity cost really isn't that high.
A lot of good teams have a dedicated sweeper/cleaner running TB, and sometimes they have 2, maybe even 3 TB users for different MU.

It doesn't always mean it completely blows over a team, but sometimes it does.

Something common like Ground Bax is still going to be good even if Tera is used or plans to be used by a different mon.
It still has its two stabs.

A better example would be Volc, but it's banned, ironically due to TB.
There were times I would set up and sweep and never Tera the Volc or use TB, QD + Fdance + Buzz/Psy/Giga was enough.

Your other points about like, Sneas gets blocked by Zap... that's just how pokemon works...
It also is just going to click Dire Claw next turn so idk..

Anyway, back to the main topic.
Storm Zone has a rain team with specs Zap with Fairy TB.
Many, many games I never had to use it and still got insane mileage out of the mon with Tbolt/Volt/Cane.

Choice locked mons and overall great mons don't really care if their 4th move isn't used half the time- it's the other half the time they do that matters.
It's actually a simple low-risk high-reward situation most of the time.

 

[veti]

Ok let's unban baton pass then, Flareon can't do anything unhealthy with it, not broken on every user, not a broken move.

The difference is there are an extremely large number of pokemon banworthy with baton pass (and baton pass is less broken and more uncompetitive) while Tera Blast, with way more users than Baton Pass, only broke two pokemon... of the hundreds.