Again, Purrloin does almost just as well as Liepard and performs basically the same role.
Ok, I gonna use that battled to post my thought on this suspect discussion:
First the battle:
Some of the counters to assist cat have been mentioned, fake out kanga, volt switch probo, etc.... My approach to this matter is to NEVER let liepard set up on me. If you look at my team neither of them are liepard setup fodder. I carry two of the mentioned counters to liepard, a lurer signal beam musharna, the weird (and almost useless) taunt Sawk, standard scarf ape and an extra volturner in Eelektross.
performs basically the same role.
Here I slighty disagree with tenni, mini cat not only perform the same role,
he do it better!
Fake out on kanga: wasted with protect
Quick attack Swellow: extra burn damage with protect
Close Combats: stalled with protect
Protect is so damn good on purrloin that is just plain better. what you say? that you can't setup NP with purrloin? wherever told you that this is neccesary is a liar. For example my team never give an opportunity to set up to liepard, and I think this is the best you can do against assist cat, imo. Tenni stalled me way better with sub + protect than any liepard will ever do with sub only. Sub + protect purrloin bypass all the "counters" of assist cat in exchange of giving up the opportunity of maybe sweep with NP liepard, but sweeping never was this team goal anyway :s
Second, the ban discussion:
I want everyone to read this post that I will call
Tennisace Proposal.
There he propose to ban Assist + roar/whirlwind in the same team and make good points in their deffense. I totally support this complex ban and here a few more reasons if we decide to adopt that complex ban:
We will keep SwagPard that is luck reliant and way more manageable
We will keep Pivot Liepard that is a legit and useful set on big cat
We will keep Roar riolu, that need a turn to set up and is priority weak
we will keep all other prankster user (volbeat and illumise being the most prominent)
We will lose assist purrloin
We will lose assist scarf shenanigans
We will lose molk horrible idea of assist liepard
(I think you already got my point)
Third, broken or not broken?
As tennisace said in his post neither of the pokemon on the team are broken by themself, the bad part is when they got together. Unstopable, of course not! hard to beat, maybe. You will lose if you don't prepare for it, SURE!. FLCL posted somewhere that this team really restrict teambuilding and this is my main reason to do something about it.
With assist cat in the tier: stalll is not viable, bulky offense is not viable, wheather is not viable... only viable teams are hyperoffensive teams BUT with the restriction that no one of the members are liepard setup fodder. In my oppinion if a treat (in this case a whole team) have that heavy influence in teambuilding options is really unhealthy to the metagame.
Now you say that Jynx, Primeape and Scolipede made stall and bulky offense unviable, well you are wrong! they surely made then harder to built but not impossible. NU have really good walls and bulky attackers, that their usage dropped in favor of faster options does not make then useless. An example is Musharna revival thanks to Treecko and his T-wave Mushy, taking the 3rd spot in usage stats this month. Tangela, alomomola, roselia, torkoal, probopass and my favorite Mandibuzz all of then good and viable walls.... but all of then assist cat setup fodder....
To wrap it all: For
heavily restricting teambuilding options we should do something about
assist teams (not only liepard or purrloin) and in my honestly opinion, tenni's proposal is the best course of action.
.... so cute yet so hated....