Hello everyone just dropping by to give my opinions on the recent survey, specifically gouging fire, but lets start with the others:
Roaring moon: i voted a 2, it has way too many checks rn mimikyu stardust posted a list of counterplay, and it needs lots of conditions met to sweep any team thats not BO, and even BO can beat it, if its taunt its walled by gambit, if its eq its walled by balloon gambit, if not taunt pdef scor beats it and so does ting lu, weav shard + pivot corv , dozo loses boots but still beats it, raging bolt recenges if it teras , any tera on tusk can revenge it, dnite espeed aswell, just overall okay mon.
Raging Bolt: i voted a 1, idk why its here, mid speed tier, is beneficial to the tier providing a good pivot and electric priority for utility on BO, balance, and HO with booster, great sun abuser, lots of versatility =/= broken, otherwise we would have banned lele or lando t last gen, or garg/ghold this gen if we're being realistic, overall great healthy pokemon shouldnt go anywhere anytime soon, its a joke that its on here, lando , clod, ting lu, gking with toxic, any tera ground ever, so much counterplay, it reminds me of rotom wash last gen, awesome pivot and can serve as offensive.
Wellspring: i voted 3, i think its powerful it would be very stupid to ignore its presence, but i dont think it has enough to warrant a ban, limited to 1 tera , u basically know its movepool, sd encore trailblaze play rough cudgel, its easy to scout and hella easy to revenge with thunderclap , sucker, any tera grass ever , dnite espeed, moon threatens, cant sd on moon, cind threatens, some of these cant switch in but wellspring doesnt come in often either in this meta, but i will speak on this more in depth if it does get suspected, as to why i would vote dnb.
Tera: is this a joke, not only would it cause a meta reset because defensive tera checks ALOT rn, but offensive tera makes up like 90% of the meta, its do we want a stale never progressing meta, or a forever evolving one with versatility and actual skill ceiling, this mechanic really exposed whos good and whos not, the people messing around in swsh in 2000s with surskit , can now stay in 1400s, forcing u to experience the sv meta is healthy overall because now u cant just come in after a 10 year break , grab a sample and win ur way to the top with minimal effort, no u work ur way like a skilled player, play and learn the meta, stay up to date, incredibly healthy mechanic, small vocal minority who only talk on the forums want this mechanic acted upon, cause there are tens of thousands of players on discord servers and youtube community who play showdown, aka the vast majority, they love the mechanic, and only a small select few want it gone on smogon, this is a discussion i dont plan on entertaining as i will remain pro no action, and from what was mentioned, the council is in no rush to act on tera rn, because its ridiculous.
Gholdengo: eh, hate that it limits defoggers but, thats all it does, hazards , wellspring is also mad weak to hazards in a hazard dominated meta, back to gholdenJOE, pretty mid rn, isnt explosive, only thing you do banning this is open up a few foggers that are still gonna lose to the setters like garg anyway lmao.
Kingambit: voted a 3, its really good obviously, its ability was designed to reverse sweep, but there are legitimate fighting types in ou alongside wispers, and encore users, zama, tusk, valiant, encore dnite, wisp volcarona, and u need a specific tera to check these , and its hard to guess that tera on both ends.
Volcarona: yeah okay LOL, this needs no explanation as to why i voted a 1, i would have voted 0 if i could, this mon needs so many conditions to sweep a good team its crazy, its actually so bad i usually swap it out for moth and moth always does more even without quiver.
Okay now that i have covered the rest of the survey, its time for me to touch on gouging fire, i voted a 5 on this thing, this pokemon is so ridiculously broken and can be compared to chi yu and terapagos.
Here are my reasons as to why i want gouging fire extinguished from this tier:
The band speed set in sun, with raging fury, not only do u get a speed boost, but u still hit like a free train with tera fire:
168 Atk Choice Band Tera Fire Gouging Fire Raging Fury vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon in Sun: 334-394 (95.1 - 112.2%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
-1 168 Atk Choice Band Tera Fire Gouging Fire Raging Fury vs. 252 HP / 220+ Def Landorus-Therian in Sun: 266-314 (69.6 - 82.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
168 Atk Choice Band Tera Fire Gouging Fire Raging Fury vs. 248 HP / 252 Def Skeledirge in Sun: 199-235 (48.4 - 57.1%) -- 92.6% chance to 2HKO
168 Atk Choice Band Tera Fire Gouging Fire Raging Fury vs. 252 HP / 220+ Def Protosynthesis Great Tusk in Sun: 238-282 (54.8 - 64.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
168 Atk Choice Band Tera Fire Gouging Fire Raging Fury vs. 244 HP / 248+ Def Gliscor in Sun: 312-368 (88.6 - 104.5%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
If these calcs arent proof enough, keep in mind that this is not even max attack jolly, its 168 attack without the proto boost, which is not okay.
Let me provide more calcs but this time lets use the breaking swipe set:
-1 252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 252 HP / 104+ Def Gouging Fire: 186-222 (44.9 - 53.6%) -- 1.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Keep in mind tusk is doing this type of damage after a breaking swipe, so it will 1v1 tusk, also, this set 1v1s dondozo, with tera and pp stall, which is ridiculous, dondozo is so stupid vs all physical attackers, invalidates most, but cant stop gouging fire, thats a strong red flag, get this mon out.
252 Atk Wellspring Mask Ogerpon-Wellspring Ivy Cudgel vs. 252 HP / 104+ Def Gouging Fire: 132-156 (31.8 - 37.6%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
This is supposed to be a mon people consider banworthy, 31? Really?, After a breaking swipe its doing 22, this is another reason to ban gouging fire.
But let me get to the last few calcs which i have a comparison so ridiculous that ill accept nothing but a fat quickban:
252 Atk Choice Band Protosynthesis Tera Fire Gouging Fire Raging Fury vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo in Sun: 230-271 (45.6 - 53.7%) -- 42.2% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Protosynthesis Tera Fire Gouging Fire Raging Fury vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo in Sun: 252-297 (50 - 58.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
So lets make a comparison now, but before we do, its safe to say that dondozo is as bulky physically as blissey is bulky specially, the two are close in bulk on their respective strong stat.
so if those 2 dondozo calcs above were not resisted, dondozo would have dropped:
252 Atk Choice Band Protosynthesis Tera Fire Gouging Fire Raging Fury vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tera Dark Dondozo in Sun: 460-542 (91.2 - 107.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Protosynthesis Tera Fire Gouging Fire Raging Fury vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tera Dark Dondozo in Sun: 504-594 (100 - 117.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
So if this serves right, lets look at a familiar calc:
252 SpA Choice Specs Beads of Ruin Tera Fire Chi-Yu Overheat vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey in Sun: 510-600 (78.2 - 92%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Beads of Ruin Tera Fire Chi-Yu Overheat vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey in Sun: 560-660 (85.8 - 101.2%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
Surprising me AS IM WRITING THIS, it actually does MORE to dondozo than chi yu does to blissey, and dozo was max hp max defense, blissey wasnt even max hp , just max spdef.
When a pokemon is being compared to chi yu like this and out shining chi yu in damage, while having sets and stats bulkier than or almost as bulky as the walls in the tier like garganacl, its time for it to go, like seriously, what a ridiculous pokemon, get it out immediately, needs a big fat quickban with cause, after gouging steps out, this meta will be balanced once again.
My conclusion: Yall lets just quickban this absolute MONSTER called GOUGING FIRE and we can go from there.