Announcement SV National Dex UU Stage 5.1: Feel Invincible (Light Clay Suspect)

[Arishem]

With tiering shifts in the clear for this month, and our plans for tiering action outlined in Gyarados’s ban. The council has decided to suspect Light Clay immediately.​

Suspect Reasoning:
Screens, or rather the aspect being tested for this suspect - Light Clay, has always been a pretentious topic within a lower tier. With an overarching list of offensive benefactors at its disposal, and several metagame-related facets for its ongoing reception, Screens has not only managed to persist as arguably the most threatening offense archetype on a game-to-game basis, but a key concern among the playerbase which has since risen to the point on board. To this end, the following suspect can be seen as a nipping of the bud at its core, with many previous abusers having been made much more apparent without the chance for a proper resolution otherwise.

Currently, Grimmsnarl remains the most prominent Screens enabler, whereas the previously legal Ninetales-A and Azelf also held similar precedents down the line. Grimmsnarl’s introduction not only allows for a much more straightforward plan against more offensive responses thanks to its access to Prankster, but also with notable tools such as Parting Shot and Taunt, alongside superior defensive traits that afford it substantial bonuses in finding opportunities to set Screens multiple times throughout the game, such as against the likes of SubToxic Aegislash and Mega Latias. With this in mind, many setup sweepers and wallbreakers have since taken these options to heart in being able to reach their full potential, more apparently so in distinction as of late, and some of the ways in which these have happened can be broken down below.

Key Screen Abusers in Detail - and the situations they benefit from

- Arguably the most fulfilling on screens with it further complementing its absurd bulk, giving it vastly more freedom to not only setup on, but switch into and force out defensive staples without the preliminary uses of status and / or hazard support - even from those consisting of grounds, while also becoming flatout impossible to revenge kill offensively.

- The classic duo from Gen 8 having gained a lot of traction down here too, outside of very specific resists, both become very difficult to stop from safely setting up, while also increasing their likelihood of breaking past netural defensive checks (Galarian Slowking, Blissey .etc) through boosted flinches.

- Similar to the two above, while both continue to possess their defensive stops in this metagame, in the context of these teams, it can be very hard to cover either Fire while still being able to cover the remaining threats on board given their specificity in answers, restricting teambuilding options significantly,

- A more subtle, but no less significant addition to Screens, especially with it having received a stronger and more reliable Dark STAB in Knock Off through the DLC.

- Often used these teams for its defensive utility, primarily in conjunction with Air Balloon to keep offensive Earthquake users in check - Screens not only capitalizes on its ability to boost (oftentimes more than once before switching formes) while it exhibits its amazing defenses, but can also be crucial in surviving attacks otherwise aimed at Bladeislash, such as those from Clefable and Buzzwole.

Do note that not all of these Pokemon are necessarily specific to Screen teams - instead, it is often the prevalence of Screens that heightens these offensive traits to the degree commonly seen and accounted for.

Screens remain a highly flexible archetype, but that doesn’t mean counterplay doesn’t exist. While many of the aforementioned sweepers can be stacked to incredible effect, the prevalence of entry hazards and passive damage can exasperated by defensive staples such as Hippowdon, Celesteela and Mega Venusaur, which often pack the survivability needed to apply their respective types of long-term pressure, can serve as an adequate limiting factor. Dual Screens abusers can also struggle against common momentum-based strategies surrounding faster threats such as Court Change Cinderace, Meowscarada, and Knock Off Thundurus-T that aim to abuse switch advantage to restrict the opportunities said sweepers can gain as a whole. That said, the sheer durability provided by dual screens, as well as an enormous pool of abusers to choose from can still render said archetype as highly malleable to the situations presented above.

Overall, the contributions of Light Clay are not to be overstated in its current form, having reached a tipping point in the latest tiering survey, we feel it is most appropriate to suspect it at this time.


Suspect Test Information
Reading this is mandatory to participate in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 79 with at least 40 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 79 GXE, down to a minimum of 20 games at a GXE of 83. Also, needing more than 40 games to reach 79 GXE will suffice.

Minimum games needed

GXE	minimum games
79	40
79.2	39
79.4	38
79.6	37
79.8	36
80	35
80.2	34
80.4	33
80.6	32
80.8	31
81	30
81.2	29
81.4	28
81.6	27
81.8	26
82	25
82.2	24
82.4	23
82.6	22
82.8	21
83	20

• You must use a fresh account that begins with the given prefix for this suspect test. That prefix is NDUU9SCRN. For example, I could signup and qualify with the name NDUU9SCRN Arishem.
• You may not impersonate or mock another user with your account name. If there is any slight hesitation, you're probably better off picking a different name. We reserve the right to null your voting requisites if you are found impersonating or mocking another user with your account name. Moderator discretion will be applied.
• If you are found trying to manipulate voting requisites in any way, you will be met with a harsh infraction. Manipulating voting requisites ranges from faking your screenshot to asking another user to forfeit.
• The aspect that's being suspect tested, Light Clay, will be allowed on the National Dex UU ladder so that we can properly assess its position in the metagame.

In order for things to run smoothly, this suspect test will be slightly shorter than usual. It will last until the 20th of November at 11:59 PM GMT-4.

 

[Gangsta Spongebob]

As I've stated in other suspect posts, the sheer power of hyper offense has been the defining issue of Nat Dex UU in this generation. While individual threats like Gyarados have been too much on their own, as a whole HO is bolstered to a ridiculous degree by dual screens. Arishem gave out some notable staples, but it must be stated that just about every setup Pokemon, from Ogerpon-C to Ursaluna, becomes a whole other beast behind screens, where they're nearly impossible to OHKO even after Stealth Rock. Dual screens don't make every HO threat broken on their own, but they make the number of centralizing threats they make even more centralizing. While balance and bulky offense is very good now, dual screens HO remains a huge burden on teambuilding that really hurts the tier's health. As with many other broken offensive tools, they unhealthily promote extreme playstyles in other HO, which can compete with the mirror match's pace, and Stall, which prefers a more centralized metagame.

Now an argument against banning Light Clay is attacking the elements that make it broken, though this argument is flawed. Admittedly, this Light Clay Suspect is practically a Grimmsnarl Suspect, as it is the defining screens setter of Nat Dex UU. However, a Grimmsnarl ban is a risk that at best would functionally achieve the same thing, the end of dual screens HO, but at worst accomplish nothing as another screens setter takes Grimmsnarl's place. While Grimmsnarl's utility is what makes it so great, it's still mostly a "fast" Reflect and Light Screen, something that wouldn't be too hard to replicate. Another more impactful solution would be to ban more setup sweepers until HO is neutered. This is another unfavorable solution, as the tier would lose a lot of otherwise healthy and important threats, such as possibly Mega Tyranitar and Aegislash, and obviously the number of bans for such a diverse range of Pokemon would be massive.

Honestly, Nat Dex UU has been getting much better in terms of its health. While October was uniquely awful due to the sheer number of centralizing or unwallable sweepers, this month has seen the tier become probably the healthiest it has been this generation. If Light Clay gets banned, I would say HO would finally get limited enough without being outright unviable. There are still some offensive threats worth discussing, such as Iron Moth, Cinderace, and Ceruledge, and some defensive ones like Mega Sableye, but as a whole I'd say Nat Dex UU would become a pretty balanced tier with no elephant in the room in terms of brokeness. Thus, I will be voting Ban on Light Clay, and I impore others to do the same.

 

[awyp]

First time I've been playing ND UU in my life, the only overwhelming part of it as Gangsta Spongebob has suggested is HO is really good, and with Grimmsnarl everywhere (it seems like) I feel like Light Clay is the issue. In other formats I would say it would be a joke to ban Light Clay but for ND UU it seems extremely plausible because it's really overwhelming with all the fantastic offensive mons you can use behind screens. The only consistent form of threat to these teams is honestly Court Change with Cinderace but you most likely will have to sack Cinderace to get a Court Change off (Of course you have Defog as well). So I would say lack of counters / options for elongated screen time seems problematic and probably the reason I will be leaning towards a ban.

 

[Arishem]

Light clay has been banned!