phantom
Banned deucer.
We’re here with another suspect test after an overwhelming majority of the playerbase voted in favor of suspecting/banning Reuniclus. The council was largely divided on what to do tiering wise, with many not in favor of suspecting anything at all. Other council members were more so in favor of suspecting Necrozm or Xurkitree, but within the interests of the playerbase, the council agreed to suspect Reuniclus. Depending on how the post-suspect metagame develops, we may look into taking action on Necrozma or Xurkitree sometime after.
Reuniclus is being suspected for largely the same reason it was suspected in the last two gens: its Calm Mind set. With Magic Guard, instant recovery, and several viable coverage and item options, Reuniclus can pose as a massive threat with a set of CM / Recover / Psyshock / Focus Blast | Shadow Ball | Thunder. Despite just being broken off the CM set, this set has numerous variations, including the use of Life Orb, Leftovers, and Colbur Berry in its item slot that allow it to circumvent various checks and counters. Additionally, Reuniclus can utilize lesser seen techs such as Acid Armor and Stored Power to good effect. Reuniclus is also capable of taking advantage of many staple threats such as Registeel, Crobat, and Gastrodon without Clear Smog, in addition to most other passive defensive threats, even Dark-types such as pivot Incineroar and Umbreon. Reuniclus also has its Assault Vest set, which while not overpowered, does making dealing with Reuniclus and its wide variety of Calm Mind sets a bit of challenge. Many checks to Reuniclus‘ Calm Mind set are especially vulnerable to Knock Off.
However, despite its variation, Reuniclus cannot prepare for everything. Several offensive checks such as Obstagoon, Heracross, and various Poltergeist users such as Golurk are all strong checks capable of holding Reuniclus off. Additionally, RU has an incredible amount of Trick users capable of shutting down Reuniclus. Meanwhile, other checks such as Togekiss and Cosmic Power Metagross may falter to the right coverage moves such as Thunder and Shadow Ball, respectively, but will usually come out on top otherwise. The amount of counterplay available necessitates team support to alleviate these flaws, which itself may not be enough given the matchup.
What do you think? Does Reuniclus deserve its place in RUBL for the third gen in a row, or has the power creep finally caught up to it? Feel free to share your thoughts below.
GXE | minimum games |
78 | 50 |
78.2 | 49 |
78.4 | 48 |
78.6 | 47 |
78.8 | 46 |
79 | 45 |
79.2 | 44 |
79.4 | 43 |
79.6 | 42 |
79.8 | 41 |
80 | 40 |
80.2 | 39 |
80.4 | 38 |
80.6 | 37 |
80.8 | 36 |
81 | 35 |
81.2 | 34 |
81.4 | 33 |
81.6 | 32 |
81.8 | 31 |
82 | 30 |
Suspect information:
- There will be no draws allowed for any potential qualifiers. If you qualify with draws, your suspect requirements will not count and you will not be allowed to vote. There is no way to actively enforce ties to prevent abuse, so they will be disallowed. Use stall at your own risk.
- All games must be played on the Pokemon Showdown! RU ladder on a new alt with the following format: "RURR (nickname)”. For example, RURR Regen or RURR FreeZydog
- Do NOT impersonate other people in your ladder alt, do NOT use any usernames which are offensive, flame-baiting, or targeting specific users, and do NOT use usernames which could be interpreted as breaking any of the username rules on Pokemon Showdown! Failure to abide to this will result in you being barred from voting in this suspect, and potential infractions.
- The suspect test will last for two weeks, ending on November 1st, at 11:59 PM EST.