The SV OU tiering council has been monitoring the ongoing tiering survey. We like to conduct regular surveys to gauge community sentiment on the metagame, but this survey generated irregular response patterns admittedly. Upon seeing the results over the first couple of days, we have determined that it is most appropriate to expedite our timeline through conducting another "emergency vote".
As you may know, last week Regieleki was banned from SV OU after receiving overwhelming support throughout the community, which led to a unanimous council vote to ban it in record time. After this weekend where we banned Magearna from SV OU, we expected to wait until this coming weekend to vote again. However, between the metagame's continued response to these bans and the playerbase's sweeping sentiments expressed across the survey across a sample of 2000 total participants and well over 100 qualified participants.
Chien-Pao currently had the highest mark of any Pokemon in the history of our surveys while Zamazenta-Crowned only trailed by a small amount, leaving both firmly entrenched in territory we normally view as the quickban vote zone. Zamazenta-Hero was a distant third and fell slightly outside of this threshold, but we will still be voting again this weekend on Zamazenta-Hero and other radar worthy presences. With this in mind, we voted in the following fashion on both Chien-Pao and Zamazenta-Crowned:
The result is that both Chien-Pao and Zamazenta-Crowned have been unanimously banned from SV OU!
has been able to make use of its great two STABs alongside Sacred Sword to hit the vast majority of Pokemon in the metagame, especially after the ban of Magearna. Chien-Pao has effectively able to handpick its own counters throughout the entire metagame due to its STABs and coverage, and this is amplified by the possibility for attack boosting items or an offensive Terastallization choice such as Tera Dark with Crunch. A boost from Choice Band or getting a Swords Dance under its belt can lead to it being uncounterable, and this does not get into how naturally fast it is in a metagame where offense is king. While it was not quite able to beat Zamazenta forms and it was weak to Stealth Rock, Chien-Pao's offensive arsenal allowed for it to have hardly any counterplay and what did qualify was not remarkably consistent either. As such, we wanted to get it out of the format to match the desires of our playerbase and help develop a rapidly shifting metagame in the best fashion possible.
In a metagame known as Scarlet & Violet Overused, a mini-game known as Iron Defense + Body Press simulator exists when
is summoned onto the field. Few adversaries are worthy of trying to outmaneuver the king himself, which made it very problematic. Truth be told: Zamazenta-Crowned was undoubtedly polarizing as it hits unreasonably hard for a Pokemon with bolstered defenses thanks to the newly found Body Press. While it only ran one set and followed this predictable pattern, that was all that we needed to break the tier wide open, making teambuilding a massive challenge due to its burden. All things considered, Zamazenta-Crowned fit an interesting niche to perfection and does so while greatly limiting the metagame. We were excited to dabble with it, but Body Press was clearly too much.
Tagging Kris and Marty to implement the ban!
As you may know, last week Regieleki was banned from SV OU after receiving overwhelming support throughout the community, which led to a unanimous council vote to ban it in record time. After this weekend where we banned Magearna from SV OU, we expected to wait until this coming weekend to vote again. However, between the metagame's continued response to these bans and the playerbase's sweeping sentiments expressed across the survey across a sample of 2000 total participants and well over 100 qualified participants.
Chien-Pao currently had the highest mark of any Pokemon in the history of our surveys while Zamazenta-Crowned only trailed by a small amount, leaving both firmly entrenched in territory we normally view as the quickban vote zone. Zamazenta-Hero was a distant third and fell slightly outside of this threshold, but we will still be voting again this weekend on Zamazenta-Hero and other radar worthy presences. With this in mind, we voted in the following fashion on both Chien-Pao and Zamazenta-Crowned:
| Finchinator | Ruft | ausma | ima | mind gaming | NJNP | Star | TPP | xavgb | |
| Chien-Pao | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban |
| Zamazenta-C | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban |
The result is that both Chien-Pao and Zamazenta-Crowned have been unanimously banned from SV OU!
has been able to make use of its great two STABs alongside Sacred Sword to hit the vast majority of Pokemon in the metagame, especially after the ban of Magearna. Chien-Pao has effectively able to handpick its own counters throughout the entire metagame due to its STABs and coverage, and this is amplified by the possibility for attack boosting items or an offensive Terastallization choice such as Tera Dark with Crunch. A boost from Choice Band or getting a Swords Dance under its belt can lead to it being uncounterable, and this does not get into how naturally fast it is in a metagame where offense is king. While it was not quite able to beat Zamazenta forms and it was weak to Stealth Rock, Chien-Pao's offensive arsenal allowed for it to have hardly any counterplay and what did qualify was not remarkably consistent either. As such, we wanted to get it out of the format to match the desires of our playerbase and help develop a rapidly shifting metagame in the best fashion possible.In a metagame known as Scarlet & Violet Overused, a mini-game known as Iron Defense + Body Press simulator exists when
is summoned onto the field. Few adversaries are worthy of trying to outmaneuver the king himself, which made it very problematic. Truth be told: Zamazenta-Crowned was undoubtedly polarizing as it hits unreasonably hard for a Pokemon with bolstered defenses thanks to the newly found Body Press. While it only ran one set and followed this predictable pattern, that was all that we needed to break the tier wide open, making teambuilding a massive challenge due to its burden. All things considered, Zamazenta-Crowned fit an interesting niche to perfection and does so while greatly limiting the metagame. We were excited to dabble with it, but Body Press was clearly too much.Tagging Kris and Marty to implement the ban!