[UU Discussion] Scizor (Banned to BL)

[Arimanius]

Between Slowking, Scizor and Kangakhan being all over the place and causing all sorts of controversy in here, it was proposed we go about doing some test bans. There's too many mixed opinions and uncertainty.

Yeah I think this is the way to go but we have to do it soon, since for me for example neither slowking or scizor give trouble. The thing would be what should we test? scizor? slowking? both?

[DrCraig]

Yeah I think this is the way to go but we have to do it soon, since for me for example neither slowking or scizor give trouble. The thing would be what should we test? scizor? slowking? both?

It's being discussed like right now, just telling yous. Leaning towards one at a time; banning both is silly in my opinions and it doesn't follow da rules.

[RysPicz]

What about Sceptile? Is it being discussed as well?

[BurntZebra]

What about Sceptile? Is it being discussed as well?

Not really. Most believe that moving down BL threats will just make the meta centralize around them rather than fix any actual issues. 

[DrCraig]

I'd say it's better to move BLs down when the tier is looking less ugly. I know this isn't your intent, but it looks like trying to fix broken things with broken things.

[Albeast33]

I agree, its not so much the Pokémon we already have in UU that are the problems, its that we need more options.

[RysPicz]

I guess you guys might be right and I'm a bit overhyped with Scept going down. Let's see how meta does without Sciz (and possibly Slowking (?)) first, shall we? :v)

[Tyrone]

The Tier council has determined that Scizor will be test banned for 4 UU Tournaments.

 

Scizor has been many things in the UU tier. It has been a trapper, a tank, a powerful CB user. No matter what role Scizor has taken on it has become very centralizing to the UU meta to the point where the meta is at a standstill. People build entire teams that revolve around slowing down Scizor. When you play in UU right now you will find that every pokemon under the sun (pun maybe intended blame Holiday drinking) needs a fire move in order to do realistic damage to Scizor and potentially slow it down from sweeping though teams. Scizor is a great pursuit user to trap Swellows that come in for revenge kills. Scizor could also be the reason that we see the high usage of Slowking and leads to the long matches that have been becoming more of a common occurrence. The problem with straight banishing Scizor to BL is that the tier council is not sure what this will actually do to the meta.

 

Without Scizor gone we could see several things happen:

1. Already strong pokemon become stronger. Without Scizor, Crawdaunt could become too much of a threat with CB stab Crunch, Swellow could potentially sweep though the tier without much effort (provided steelix or omastar are weakened/dead) are some examples
2. With one less wall breaker the stall meta that has been developing could become stronger and harder to break as the main walls (Slowking, Vileplume, Executor, Kangaskhan) no longer have to use a move slot on a fire move.
3. Some new pokemon culd emerge that were previously unreliable due to Scizor presence in the meta. Granbull, Haunter (to some extent) are some good example of this. 

 

We will be keeping a close eye on the tier to see if any of these things become problematic, as well as the general health of the tier following guidelines like:

1. The metagame should be highly competitive, and the best players should usually win.
2. The metagame should be diverse in terms of playstyle, team building, and various sets on individual pokemon.
3. The metagame should favor skill over luck, without being as deterministic as chess.
4. The metagame should incentivize the development of new threats and the development of counters to them, so that the game can grow and change in the future.

Thanks Robofiend and Artemiseta for the write-up.

[Tyrone]

Update:

 

After 4 Official UU Tournaments without Scizor, the Tier Council has decided to permanently ban Scizor to BL.

 

What happend to the meta when Scizor got banned, is somewhat what the we expected.

To counter Swellow, Omastar and Steelix have taken Scizor's place. (Aggron could also be used for this).

Without Scizor, Slowking's usage has dropped considerably and resulted in a drop of Crawdaunt usage as well.

(Note: Usage will be made public next week!)

This indicates that Scizor was too centralizing, without Scizor, there are more options to build a competitive team.