Metagame NP: RU Stage 9 - Hit or Miss (Durant Banned)

[EviGaro]

Hlelo everyone, after some discussions the Council has agreed to suspect Durant. While we again never had agreement for a quicker method, having this public suspect is the expected way and hasn't been met with dissent so here we go.

Durant, as seen in the previous threads, has started to do what it does again and again in RU, slowly creeping to the forefront of the metagame as one of the most difficult threats to play around. Starting near the end of Open we saw Durant on some teams already performing extremely well, and through RULT and the following weeks we saw more talk about it and more agreement about it being a problem in the metagame. Despite this somewhat late acknowledgement, Durant in itself does nothing hardly different from previous iterations. Its hustle-boosted attacks, while inaccurate, are ridiculously strong, and Durant always had coverage to deal with specific countermeasures, like Rock Slide or Crunch as odr alluded to in the past thread. However, Durant in the past was always slightly conflicted in roles, having to equip a Choice Scarf to neatly check more offensive builds. While it was always a good set, it often paled in comparison to Choice Band or, especially in SM, boosting sets. Gen 8 renders that almost irrelevant with the addition of First Impression, making Durant extremely difficult to deal with as it now can plausibly revenge large swats of the metagame while still being able to boost its power with CB / LO.

But Durant, again like always, is not without flaws. Gen 8 offers a ton of potential pivoting options making its life easier coming in, but Durant often carried a stigma of being a risky steel to build around for many teams due to its immense frailty, upon which missing a ko - or just straight up missing - can end up with devastating consequences for its impact in a game. As such, its usage has been remarkably low this generation, only 2.894% (good for 58th) this past month on the ladder. The previous month with RULT in full swing, it was 54th at 3.165%, While sure, ladder usage is not everything, Durant was safely hitting above 10% and a top 10 mon in its last RU ban, plus players in tours have been decidedly more split and we've had a circuit tour played on that ladder in this timeframe. Is it too early for this vote? Is it really that easy to fit on teams and make progress with? If it was, shouldn't it be reflected in usage more? I have my own opinions on this, obviously seeing my history, but others might not necessarily come to my conclusion and it's worth thinking about.

So there you have it, is Durant once again too strong for RU? Is its impact overbearing both in play and in the builder, or does its lack of consistent performance still too significant to vote ban? It's up to you now! Tagging Kris and Marty to announce it on the RU ladder, thank you both!

minimum games needed

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: "RUD5 (nickname)”. For example, RUD5 Hustle or RUD5 YNOTREUN
• 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 Saturday, September 11th, 23:59 EDT (edit: it's actually nine days yes, reasoning is to have the suspect results before week 2 of SCL if possible while still giving a reasonable timeframe with long weekend and part of another)

/!\ NOTICE /!\ RU will not be tolerating any form of voting manipulation. Any attempt to manipulate votes can result in an infraction, loss of eligibility to vote in the current test, and loss of the Tiering Contributor badge. While we won't necessarily enforce super strict punishment, this won't be tolerated and will be handled accordingly. Voting manipulation can simply be described as attempting to get people to vote a way on the test in inappropriate manners. Bribing with teams to vote a certain way, directly messaging people to vote a certain way, publicly announcing "vote this way" all fall under voting manipulation. For more query feel free to PM me or phantom.

Happy laddering!

 

[Denial]

UU has banned Arctozolt via a council vote. Hail was a really shake playstile here to begin with, its missing a lot of tools that make it good in upper tiers, so our meta shouldnt be shaked up too much by this. Congrats to everyone that got reqs so far and good luck to everybody else!

 

[phantom]

Durant banned: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...s-round-5-voting-durant.3690744/#post-8974748

 

[Fabi_ODST]

So, tier shifts happened, and we lost some stuff, won a new fairy and stole Celebi:

Barraskewda moved from RU to OU
Ninetales-Alola moved from RU to OU
Seismitoad moved from RU to UU

Grimmsnarl moved from UU to RU
Lucario moved from NUBL to RU
Celebi moved from NU to RU

So, hail is definetly dead at this point, given the difference in viability ninetales and vanillixe had and the fact that arctozolt is no longer with us :(
I did not see many seismitoads this month, so I won't comment on it, and Barraskewda was decent on rain, but nothing the archetype can live without.

Grimsnarl seems to arrive dead on arrival, given how we no longer have light clay, though it could have potential as an offensive support with t wave and taunt, or maybe the power level is low enough for it to pull of a bulk up set? idk, we'll have to see.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Grimsnarl seems to arrive dead on arrival, given how we no longer have light clay, though it could have potential as an offensive support with t wave and taunt, or maybe the power level is low enough for it to pull of a bulk up set? idk, we'll have to see.

I think Grimmsnarl will still be usable even without Light Clay as far as Screens are concerned, albeit not as effective as it would have been with it. It actually still sees a bit of use in UU tournament play as of late and is still usable for offensive builds even though obviously no Light Clay does make it less effective in many regards.

I am not sure about Bulk Up sets yet but perhaps if people can find a way to make those usable I think there miiiight be a shot considering Grimmsnarl does have a pretty good STAB combo to use and priority with Sucker Punch, plus a bit of coverage if you're up for that. It might have some 4MSS problems but I do imagine it can have some potential for usability here though we'll have to see how it shapes up in the meta. For now though I think it's something that might be worth playing around with though.

 

[KaenSoul]

Raikou is a big winner of this changes, no seismitoad means one less answer and no Barra means almost nothing is faster.
Sadly i loved the toad, water + electric immunity + stealth rock was too valuable, and it was my fav on rain teams, that archetype seems dead now.
No idea on grimms, is a cool mon, it lacks the tools Klefky has and is not as strong as Pangoro, but is something on between these two mons that look nothing alike, and another tea answer is always welcome.