English isn't my native language and excuse me if something I'm going to write conjugates bad the verbs, but ok, yesterday I saw at least two people complain in the Chat about Unaware's Ban (which is funny, considering how before the Ban everyone were complaining in the Chat how unaware should got ban), there were people saying that it wasn't Broken at all, and that Unaware wasn't difficult to counter, I told them Unaware completely nullified the stats boost teams, and they answered "just use Stored Power or Power Trip!" , then they start talking about how Hustle + etc counter Unaware, and other things like that (and those two people didn't leave me with the impression that they played a lot of the meta when one unaware wasn't banned, tbh).
So, I felt that I should have said something about all of this here, and explain why I think Unaware should never be unbanned, and why Unaware + Furrscales was many times more broken than the current Regenerator + Furrscales.
You see, what makes Unaware (in conjunction with Ice Scales and Furr Coat) broken and the problem with that ability,
WASN'T the fact that it nullifies the opponent's stats boost, in fact that was never the problem, the problem is that Unaware
does that, while it doesn't nullify the stats boost of the pokemon itself with the ability, such as your defenses increases through cosmic power, so basically Unaware gave the ability to any pokemon to boost their own stats, while denying such capacity to his opponent.
I know that all of you know what Clef can do, and what she is capable of.
Well then, can Stored Power or Power Trip fix the problem ?? Let's see
How much damage does a Modest Mew, with Adaptability, with a Mind Plate, with +6 in spee def spd (remember the Clef has Unaware, so no spa boost), with Stored Power, to an Ice Scales Clef with +2 in defenses?
Is a guaranteed 3HKO, it isn't even a guaranteed 2HKO, and you guys know, it isn't difficult for Clef to find a moment to get those +2 Cosmic Power Up, and from that moment Clef will only continue to use Cosmic Power and recover himself, and this will get worse and worse.
even if we change stored power to be, i don't know, a water type move, in the rain, to simulate something like flare boost, it doesn't make too much difference, and i don't know how you're supposed to get +6 on 3 stats while Clef only got 3 cosmic power up.
And what about Power Trip? Well let's check Power Trip, against the exact same Clef that was sp defense (with Furcoar instead of scales to do the calculation, obviously), and a Huge Power Corviknight to simulate Hustle + Guts + No Guard.
I think that should clearly prove my first point, Stats boost becomes a completely dead weight strategy/playstyle against an Unaware team, in that circumstance you can't do 'anything'.
Well and what about the other side of the argument, was possible to beat Unaware before, with Hustle + Adaptability + Etc, right? Well not exactly, you see, what happens with Furr Coat and Ice Scales, is that both add a x2 to the defenses of your pokemon, not a x1.5, this means that, when you are stacking attack power through Hustle + Guts for example, what you are really doing is, basically, just removing the defense increase via Fur Coat on your opponent, in order to have the regular attack level what your pokemon should have, and of course you can continue increasing your attack power with other abilities from there, but only up to a point, while Clef will be able to continue raising his defenses when you reach your top, without even trying too much.
Let's see how much damage a Choice Banded Skill Link Technician Terrakion does, with +1 Attack to simulate Hustle + No Guard, to the exact same Clef, with +2 cosmic power up:
much better, and that Clef is dead if she fails to recover while trying to use Cosmic Power again, but what if the Clef is Max Def?
That doesn't look good
Then, If you are fighting a +Def Clef, you have to kill it before she can get +2 with Cosmic Power, or else you lose the moment Clef gets there, and even if you manage to kill Clef, your opponent's team could have another pokemon in the back with the same strategy specifically designed to counter the one you just used to kill Clef, something that isn't so difficult to do, since any pokemon that learns Cosmic Power or learns Shell Smash to make the Shell Smash + Contrary combo, plus a Recovery move, can abuse this strategy. Jirachi for example, resists all the Skill Link moves except Pin Missile, is much more bulky than Clef, and Clef can handle those dark types pokemon that can kill Jirachi or handle Dragapult depending on the case.
This is the reason why Steel Spam was the best strategy against Unaware in the old Meta, because that kills Clef (and Steel Spam was a separate problem, since it was a Combo that was already broken by itself), and it turns out that not even Steel Spam guaranteed you to beat Unaware, ignoring that perhaps your opponent has a Jirachi or something like that, also your opponent could use another Unaware mon, like Pyukumuku, who may not be able to increase his Defenses, and he isn't as good as Clef, but he is bulky and annoying.
Anyway, the problem is that although you could design a team to counter a specific Unaware team, for an Unaware team is not difficult at all or complicated to adapt to counter that counter, since the Unaware + Furrscales combo was very easy to use and could be combined with many things effortlessly.
Do you want to Toxic that Clef to dead until run out of PP in his Heal Bell? Clef doesn't even need Heal Bell, his team could have Immunity Snorlax!, What about just use Taunt? It isn't a problem! The enemy team could have Aroma Veil too to prevent that! and so, I could go on and on with more examples. Suction Cups prevents switch, Soundproof nullifies Perish Song and Roar, and with Corrosion your Shell Smash Contrary Shuckle can use Toxic on everybody.
You can't counter every Unaware 'counter' in just one of yours Unaware team, but find a Unaware team that you can counter with one of these tricks is just luck.
Soo, what options do you have? Haze to dead until you remove all PP from Cosmic Power? What if the Clef team has Pressure + Prankster? Then you have 24 turns to make the Clef waste all his Cosmic Power PP if you don't have Pressure too, like 16 turns if you have, and then what happens? Your opponent switches into his Jirachi who has the exact same moveset. Do you have to run Haze on at least two of your Pokemons then?
The other option you have left is use Leech Seed, but +3 def /spdef Clef doesn't care about that at all, then... Leech Seed + Haze + Excadrill...? Your best option maybe is trick a Choice Scarf and that requires a lot of prediction, not to mention that there is no lack of the madman who run Sticky Hold in his Clef team. I think Jirachi is the ''best'' Counter because he can Flinch to Dead the pokemon who is increasing their defenses, and you know how ''fun and strategic'' that is.
The only 'true' way to counter Unaware, was to literally also use Unaware, since if you put an Unaware mon in your Hustle + Guts + No Guard + Adaptability team, then your pokemon could ignore the boost in the defense of your opponent, and directly damage them, and them couldn't do anything about it. Even the Stored Power / Power Trip strategy works if you had someone with Unaware on your team.
then, Unaware was such a broken ability, that it forced you to run Unaware in order to defeat it, or Flinch a pokemon to dead, the one that suit you better, any other solution could be destroyed if your opponent was ready for it, with a specific ability to cancel that.
I just wanted to share my thoughts on the thread about this, I am sorry that I didn't support much of what I said with replays since I didn't save any during the time unaware wasn't banned and I was playing, and I only saw one person using the Clef + Jirachi combo during that time in the ladder, because apparently nobody else came up with it. But I really hope that Unaware stay banned forever, I'm not sure if my post is going to be useful for someone to understand what was the problem with Unaware, but I didn't lose anything with trying.
Regarding Furrscales, I don't see a problem with it at all, even considering the combo with Regenerator, because I see Furrscales as something that keeps the Meta in ''balance'', and most of the time isn't the big deal.
Look at it this way, if you use Guts + Hustle + No Guard, your opponent must spend a space of his team to put Persian-Alola to cancel that, and you can continue increasing from there.
For example, let's say you use a team of Guts + Hustle + No Guard + Sand Spit + Sand Rush, well all you have to do is find an opportunity to use Sword Dance with Excadrill and that Toxapex as the complete team, is dead. That's the whole point of boosting your team, is not about ''make your pokemon more powerful'', is more about make your pokemon overcome your opponent's defenses
Now the problem you could have in that situation is if the Toxapex also has Levitate due to his teammates, but you can solve that with Gravity, which is not a bad move in fact, since Gravity is useful for handle both Rotom and Corviknight.
