I tried laddering for this Suspect and for now epicly failed with evert team I tried (I established as a goal winning 9 first games to continue laddering with a team, and for now couldn,t do that).
My opinion about Clamperl changed after these attempts. I used to think Clamperl was held back by terrible speed and mediocre bulk. Then it just OHKOd my Porygon from full with Surf. That pretty much sealed it. This Pokemon OHKOs everything with some move. Only Mons that always avoid the OHKO from Surf, Ice Beam and HP Grass are:
Sdef Porygon (who can,t therefore wall Doduo).
Deep Sea Scale Clamperl (slower than Deep Sea Tooth Clamperl and 2HKOd by HP Grass anyway)
Tentacool. This one is actually a cool check that can 2HKO with Giga Drain... if it isn,t trapped by Diglett.
Lotad. Slower and 2HKOd by Surf + IB anyway.
Surskit. This one is probably the best offensive check, avoiding the OHKO from Sdef Diglett's Rock Slide too and being able to use Giga Drain and steal some Sitrus (or the actual Tooth, making Clamperl useless) too.
Drowzee. Slower and doesn,t OHKO back, so still has high chance to lose.
Thats it. 6 Mons. Half of them lose anyway, 1 of the others uses a Suboptimal set and another one is trapped by Diglett, while the remaining one can be trapped by Band Diglett too.
Offensive counterplay is definetely possible, but problem is that Clamperl will come with an army of Thunder Wave users (2 of which, Staryu and Chinchou even share Clamperl "checks") and most likely a Diglett. So, if I end up having the time to get reqs, I am voting BAN on Deep Sea Tooth.
Now, I will use this post to mention some things that I already said in the survey. First of them is another Mon that for me is even more unhealthy than Clamperl and that have terrorized every LC Tier across many Gens: Diglett. This Mon straight up invalidates many Mons. With either Band, Liechi Berry or Sdef + Sub, it will trap almost any grounded Mon, forcing many of them to use suboptimal Endure + Salac Berry sets (and predict well, because if you use Endure and Diglett uses Sub, you are screwed).
Yes, the best Mon in the Tier then countertraps it, but unless Porygon has Thief, it will also lose the Sitrus Berry to the Sub + Thief set in the process. Porygon would still be the best Mon if Diglett goes, but will not have like 90% usage it currently has.
Arena Trap in general has been deemed uncompetitive across many Gens and Tiers. In LC its even more dangerous than in other Tiers, since more targets can be trapped. Trapinch most of the time is fine despite due to having terrible speed. Diglett however is the fastest Mon in the Tier, if it had like 18 Speed, maybe it could have been balanced, 20 + Arena Trap is way too much. Every Fire Mon is Grounded, every Electric Mon is grounded, the few Steel Mons are grounded, Rocks too (at least some of these actually live a Sdef Diglett's EQ, like Rhyhorn or Anorith). Poisons are luckier due to being either not grounded or neutral to Ground but still, things like Grimer and Tentacool could have had some place in the Meta if Diglett didn,t exist. Diglett invalidates 4 whole types and many other frail Mons. Its the perfect Revenge Killer that can sometimes even switch-in into some Mons it traps (Sdef set being a great example of a counter of every non Sub Punch Elekid).
Diglett of course makes Clamperl more broken than it would otherwise be, since it traps the Electrics. Diglett makes the already best Mon better than it would otherwise be, not only because Porygon is the best Diglett counterplay, but also because Aron and Magnemite could have been very reliable Porygon checks (unless it started to use HP Ground), but can,t since Diglett exists. Diglett centralizes the Metagame and makes it less diverse than it could have been without it, so I believe Diglett should be the next Suspect.
If for some reason the Adv LC community thinks Diglett is totally fine I balanced, I would then like to evaluate/retest Wynaut. This Mon has been perfectly fine in DPP LC and subsequent Metas. Like Diglett, its a trapper. Only real differences between them is that it traps Porygon, opposing Diglett and Doduo (both Gastly and Koffing just explode, while Duskull can,t be countered due to using Shadow Ball). Its still not totally reliable vs them (Porygon can use TW on the switch-in and then start to use Recycle and Diglett could use Sub + flinch with Rock Slide).
For the record, I do consider Wynaut broken, but I don,t consider it much more broken than Diglett, therefore if Diglett is allowed, Wynaut could be tested at least.
Lastly, Baton Pass. Right now its fully banned. Some Tiers, like BW OU and DPP OU, however, have allowed it as long as Stats boosts and trapping are banned from being passed. I think Adv LC could at least test the same restriction. Now, what does the Tier get from it?
-Eevee can be a slow Wish Passer or a CB user that can gain momentum to escape from a counter.
-Similarly, Spearow can be a (worse) alternative to Band Doduo that can escape from a counter by using Baton Pass.
-Venonat can paralyze something and later in the match come and escape from a predicted switch-in the same paralyzed Mon via Baton Pass. Alternatively, could pass a Substitute.
-Natu can be a fast Psychic attacker that escapes from Houndour (as long as it wins Speedtie) with Baton Pass. Could also pass Substitute.
-Ledyba can use the interesting typing to come into Grass Mons and pivot out from them.
-Skitty is a worse Eevee. However, Skitty can attack from the special side and use Thunder Wave, while pivoting out with BP.
-Togepi is also a worse Eevee most of the time. However its notable for being a Mon that has Wish, Softboiled and Baton Pass at the same time, so it doesn,t need Protect. Its also the only Serene Grace user of the Tier, Baton Pass can make him usable.
-Lastly, Spinarak is just a worse Venonat in every regard. Honestly, its so bad that Spider Web + Baton Pass maybe could even be allowed, you are already restricting yourself a lot if you use Spinarak.
Hopefully at least some of these proposals are considered for the future, have a nice Eeveening.
