I'll provide not only theory but also evidence from recent tournaments & current ranked play from this season + last season to back up this claim. In this very long winded post I will break down how the introduction of RNG strategies bit-by-bit has slowly began to shape OU into an RNG hell hole.
*I have tried to find at least 1 video example for each point here, but the video may not correlate directly with the point made since I do not record every single duel which I play lol
In this thread i will attempt to list and create a discussion on the current RNG abuse which (mainly) is happening in OU, alongside a list of viable solutions for each. I hope to create a discussion and dialogue with players, mods and developers alike. So we can nip these issues in the bud. If anyone has any good examples in lower tiers please post and I'll add it to the post too.
Firstly I want to speak about in my opinion the biggest issue right now, and that is:
Kings Rock:
For those who don't know, or need a refresher this is what this item does:
"Grants all attacking moves that do not already have a chance to flinch a 10% chance of causing each target to flinch."
Now, a 10% flat rate would not be entirely problematic, it's an annoyance.. sure. The issues begin to arise when you combine this item with multi hit moves, specifically Skill Link on Cloyster. Utilising King's Rock gives Cloyster a 41% chance of flinching the opponent when using Rock Blast or Icicle Spear. a 41% flinch chance is very high. 2nd to only Togekiss (60%) having this high of a % rate to brute force an opposing check or counter with flinches is way too high, and way too consistent when paired with a move with can boost speed up to +2. I'll show some examples below.
Example 1: https://streamable.com/4by1p9 Cloyster brute forcing probably the best wall against it (Relaxed Poliwrath) Typically this is unviable, but this was used in an anti Cloyster counter team. Even so it was irrelevant because it just dropped to the flinches. - Warning message did not do anything.
Example 2: https://streamable.com/mi5wkg Cloyster brute forcing its way past a Jellicent even after it was disabled by its only move which hits Jellicent for decent damage. The other player is forced to recover, then scald and pray for a burn, which does not happen. - Warning message did not do anything, again.
Example 3: One of my many personal experiences with this horrible mon flinching my bold Rotom-Wash to death from max HP. Warning message did not do anything.... Yet again. (This was from ranked so I could not record for a better view.)
In every single scenario the new change in mechanic of announcing King's Rock had 0 impact, and this is the case almost every single time. As there is nothing to counterplay this mon other than luck itself. Even if you hard counter it.
What are the solutions to fix this item?
Well, there are a few viable ones. However the developers are very hard headed on not banning hax items for some strange reason. Below I will list off a few acceptable / "viable" options which I will list from best to worst.
1) Remove the item from competitive play
2) Nerf the flinch % to 10% even on multi hit moves
3) Make Skill Link + King's Rock banned under a new clause "Skill Link + Kings Rock Clause"
4) A complete rework of the item, changing it completely adding a new viable strategy; you are unable to be flinched. This will mimic how the old version of inner focus used to work.
As you can see the lower we go in the list the more wacky the solutions are, I would also like to mention that I strongly believe even if it is banned for Cloyster we will see a big spike in usage of King's Rock on Weavile to utilise beat up + Icicle Spear, which is manageable yes. But still utilises a very broken anti skill strategy. But other than this I believe they are all are suitable changes which will balance this item.
Cursed Body:
For those who don't know, or need a refresher this is what this ability does:
"When a Pokémon with this Ability is hit by a damaging move, there is a 30% chance that the Cursed Body will disable that move of the attacking Pokémon for 4 turns."
Once you begin to play regular ranked / tours you really notice how ridiculous and pretentious this ability is. The 2 users of this ability mostly have to be attacked directly to be taken down, since Gengar is immune to toxic and very hard to chip to death; while Jellicent almost always carries taunt. Putting you into a situation where every time you attack with a choice locked mon (which is most commonly used to eliminate both mons) you immediately can become setup bait for a setup sweeper hiding in the back.
Here's an example below of how Cursed Body takes the game out of peoples hands from those who have very valid strategies of eliminating a Pokemon with cursed body:
Example 1 (shortened): https://streamable.com/17g5yt
Example 1 (full battle): https://streamable.com/c4ho7d
As you can see, the game was won until cursed body had activated and he was able to put rocks up.. So he switched while rocks went up, meaning that he could no longer set up rain and win the game. This would not have been able to happen without Cursed Body.
Potential solutions:
1) Ban the ability from competitive play
2) Nerf the Cursed Body chance to 10%
3) Only non contact moves / non choiced etc
4) Ban Cursed body + Revert gengar to Levitate
Sand Veil:
Probably the last of the big RNG issues in OU right now is sand veil, It is able to completely turn the tides in games and you can be absolutely helpless to it..
Example: https://streamable.com/egvs01
As you can see, this player was about to win with Excadrill - but out of no where Garchomp dodges an earthquake and kills his win condition. There is no way it would have survived without this dodge. It is able to change games and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. There is no counter play other than not using sand yourself, and hoping that your opponent does not use sand (this is difficult when Tyranitar is used with Garchomp 47% of the time). This is not healthy.
In my opinion this ability should fall under the current evasion clause we have in PVP, since the ability literally says
"Sand Veil raises the ability-bearer's evasion by 20% in a sandstorm. It also gives immunity to sandstorm damage"
How does this not fall under the evasion clause? This is an ability which directly boosts evasion.
Accupressure:
This is NOT an over-arching meta destroying move, but i thought i'd mention it since it should simply just be immediately banned under the evasion clause.
I won't type much for this, as it is honestly quite rare. However - I just ask you to watch this example clip of it boosting evasion.
This is absolutely insane, I know. But I literally spectated 1 game from this specific person and I saw this lol. I was also told from various players about them auto losing to this because they simply couldn't hit.
Example: https://streamable.com/yxrkr3 - For context the Cofagrigus was tricked.
We have an evasion clause, this should simply fall under the evasion clause and the move should no longer boost evasion or simply be banned in competitive play.
But, how successful and consistent are these strategies? Let me show you examples from a player who i have anonymised as "RNG Abuser" to prevent any witch-hunt or toxicity directed to this person. Since it is not their fault that these strategies are available to be abused, but the current system which enables them.
The team he abuses: https://pokepast.es/1ff4127f4d6d5766 (Abuse of Kings rock and Cursed body)
CC Win
Official Final (OU)
Official Final (OU)
All of this is within the past 2 weeks (from written), these are examples from 2 back to back official OUs and 1 CC. But, if this is not enough please see below that he is able to net himself on a top 10 spot, with a 70% WR on ranked in over 500 games. Using purely, and only RNG strategies. This is not the only person abusing such strategies, but the most prominent one who caught my eye.
I don't necessarily want to close off this post at all, but rather I'd like to continue the discussion to the rest of the comments in this post. I want people to share their thoughts on these items, abilities and moves. Are they as potent as I believe they are? And if I am wrong please disprove me below. I am open to all forms of discussion with anyone with good points, thank you for reading.
Chinese translation + thread: