Doubles Says Farewell to Jirachi and Kangaskhanite

By talkingtree.
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Art by Tikitik

Art by Tikitik.

Introduction

Jirachi and Mega Kangaskhan have been powerful and influential threats in Doubles for a long time, each surviving suspect tests in Generation 6 and continuing on as titans of the metagame. With the new metagame in Generation 7, a variety of changes in new Pokémon, new mechanics, and new balance changes made it worthwhile to give each another look, first Jirachi in the beginning of March and then Kangaskhanite about a month later.

With access to drawback-free redirection in Follow Me and a variety of speed control options, high bulk, and a fantastic defensive typing, Jirachi had a ton going for it in Doubles. The ability to control turns by manipulating either the foe's target or its Speed made Jirachi overwhelming for many teambuilds, allowing its teammates to set up freely or attack without fear of taking damage. Serene Grace Iron Head further improved Jirachi's ability to disrupt opposing teams by causing their members to flinch once they had been slowed down enough by one of its plethora of speed control moves. Despite lacking much of an offensive presence by itself, Jirachi's ability to give more powerful threats free turns ultimately made it suspect worthy.

Before Generation 7 began, many viewed Mega Kangaskhan as a threat likely to fall out of favor. Parental Bond's second hit would be reduced from 1/2 to 1/4 the power of the first hit, Sucker Punch's Base Power would be lowered from 80 to 70, and the re-entrance of Salamencite into the metagame could leave it somewhat overshadowed and hurt by another prominent Intimidate user. However, in practice, the introduction of the island guardians scared away most Fighting-types, leaving Mega Kangaskhan's bulk far easier to take advantage of, and so a bulky set with Seismic Toss became standard. Thanks to the mechanics of Seismic Toss, each hit from Mega Kangaskhan deals a fixed 100 damage, meaning any foes under 400 HP would be 2HKOed at worst by the move. The metagame shifts causing classic Mega Kangaskhan checks to fall out of favor in addition to its ability to pressure every potential switch-in left the council convinced it deserved a closer look in a suspect test.

Jirachi

Jirachi

Iron Head allowed Jirachi to take on the variety of Fairy-types in the tier offensively and did decent damage off Jirachi's base 100 Attack. When backed by Serene Grace, it also had the advantage of a 60% chance to induce flinching in foes, disrupting a variety of strategies. Follow Me is the primary reason Jirachi was used, taking advantage of Jirachi's fantastic defensive typing and stats to absorb attacks for frail or setup-based allies. Icy Wind and Trick Room were used to further support Jirachi's teammates, helping to ensure foes would move last each turn and opening up the possibility of Iron Head flinches. Icy Wind also dealt passable damage to the many viable Pokémon quite weak to Ice-type moves, including Mega Salamence, Zygarde, and Landorus-T. Finally, Protect was typically run on Jirachi to allow for positional maneuvering and stalling of various field conditions.

The EVs, though quite flexible for each team's needs, were most commonly this spread, which ensures Jirachi avoids the OHKO from Mega Charizard Y's Heat Wave with the most Defense possible afterwards. For an item, Jirachi typically favored the boost healing Berries, of which Sitrus was easiest to activate while Iapapa and its fellow pinch Berries provided the most extra health.

Helping Hand, Stealth Rock, Thunder Wave, and Rain Dance each found their way onto a viable Jirachi set, depending on its team's needs. Shuca Berry and Occa Berry were also options for held items, providing an improved matchup against Ground- and Fire-types, respectively. In general, however, Jirachi's best set was the one listed above, and all other options were inferior in the majority of matches and team compositions.

Pro-Ban Arguments

The largest problem that Ban voters had was that Jirachi enables setup far too easily. With Dragon Dance users in Mega Salamence and Zygarde, Belly Drum users in Azumarill and Snorlax, Quiver Dance Volcarona, and even non-setup-based but already quite strong Pokémon such as Tapu Lele and Kyurem-B, plenty of quite powerful Pokémon could become quite difficult to control after being given even one free turn, something Jirachi was near guaranteed to provide each game. Also, the most viable threats to Jirachi's success in a 1v1 situation were almost exclusively setup bait for the majority of its aforementioned teammates. This put, in Ban voters's eyes, too much pressure on the opponent to prevent situations where a healthy Jirachi was beside a setup Pokémon and to quickly deal with any such combination; predicting the foe to switch to a counter and risking granting a free turn of setup was not a safe or reliable option most of the time.

Jirachi's defensive utility also brought forth some issues for Ban voters. The prevalence of Fairy-types and bulky teams made it quite difficult to break Jirachi down, while pinch Berries like Iapapa further improved Jirachi's staying power. Although Jirachi itself was a solid check to various Pokémon and styles, these users recognized that it also prevented a whole host of other Pokémon from reliably checking those same threats. Jirachi may not deal tons of damage on its own, but most were convinced that it was still the unhealthier component of each potentially meta-breaking sweeper / redirector pair.

Between redirecting for powerful threats, stomaching hits easier than ever before, and inducing countless flinches on its foes, many argued that Jirachi caused too much of a headache for it to remain in the tier.

Anti-Ban Arguments

Other users saw Jirachi's presence in the tier in a more positive light. The main arguments presented by users who wished to keep Jirachi around in Doubles were: first, that it was easy enough to take down with many common and viable threats having positive matchups against it, and second, that it was crucial as a check to Psychic spam and Mega Salamence, among others.

With threats such as Heatran, Hoopa-U, Zapdos, Seismic Toss Mega Kangaskhan, and Z-Move users like Aegislash, Volcarona, Landorus-T, and Zygarde able to take Jirachi down or match up against it quite well while also doing well in the metagame, the anti-ban crowd didn't see anything particularly oppressive about Jirachi's presence. Some argued further that with these threats running rampant, if a Jirachi user is able to set up and fully execute a redirection, setup, and sweep with positional play, they deserve to be rewarded for it. The play to prevent Jirachi from coming in for free to protect a boosting ally also requires far more forethought; thus, higher-level play is encouraged on both sides of the field when Jirachi is involved.

Similarly to how Jirachi was seen as manageable, these users argued that it made Psychic spam, a popular team archetype with Tapu Lele and Deoxys-A, and Mega Salamence manageable by walling otherwise incredibly threatening attackers. As a Pokémon kept in balance that keeps others in balance, they also argued that it prevented hyper offense builds from getting out of control and helped Trick Room teams gain some traction, fostering diversity in the metagame.

Mega Kangaskhan

Mega Kangaskhan

With the reduced power behind Parental Bond and Sucker Punch, all-out attacking Mega Kangaskhan fell out of usage in favor of sets reliant on Seismic Toss for their primary method of dealing damage. Guaranteeing 200 damage on any non-Ghost-type foe regardless of Mega Kangaskhan's Attack, the move allowed bulkier sets to not be setup bait by still having a great damage output and 2HKOing the majority of the metagame. Aside from Seismic Toss, Mega Kangaskhan's moveset could vary widely, but the most difficult-to-handle set is the one listed above. Fake Out disrupted opposing strategies and provided chip damage on a variety of foes. Wish and Icy Wind took two different approaches for ensuring Mega Kangaskhan could use Seismic Toss more in the battle, with Wish + Protect healing it and Icy Wind allowing it a greater chance to move first in each turn. Protect is useful for almost any Doubles set, and this was no exception, though it was especially crucial on Wish sets to ensure the ability to heal.

The HP and Special Defense EVs with a Careful nature ensured that Life Orb Tapu Koko cannot 2HKO Mega Kangaskhan, meaning it could use Wish to heal off any damage taken. The remaining EVs were dumped in Defense, improving matchups against the few physical attackers that are viable in Doubles. Scrappy helped Mega Kangaskhan exert pressure on Ghost-types by allowing it to hit them with Fake Out or remove weakened Ghost-types with Seismic Toss. Inner Focus was also an option, primarily used on Trick Room-based teams for a Fake Out user that doesn't mind facing opposing Fake Out.

The EV spread was incredibly customizable, with non-Wish sets typically running max Speed for a better matchup against Tapu Lele and Kyurem-B by guaranteeing Mega Kangaskhan outsped non-Choice Scarf variants. Low Kick, Sucker Punch, and Double-Edge all saw usage on these faster sets, granting Mega Kangaskhan more offensive presence. Power-Up Punch was still available, but without Jirachi around for redirection and with the lesser power behind Parental Bond-boosted attacks, a purely setup-focused set was more difficult to pull off.

Pro-Ban Arguments

In analyzing Mega Kangaskhan and its effect on the metagame, the primary element some users identified as problematic was its ability to deal 200 HP of damage to any non-Ghost-type foe every turn, leaving very few switch-ins. The fact that it was able to do this, especially when combined with its solid defensive typing and stats and both its indifference to Intimidate and non-reliance on Attack EVs, was certainly impressive and demanded respect and attention from its foes.

With the high number of poor matchups Fighting-types faced in Doubles, very few were viable, despite them having the niche of taking on Mega Kangaskhan. Thus, there were very few moves around that could hit Kangaskhan super effectively and even fewer that could actually OHKO it. With Wish, Kangaskhan could typically shrug off most other hits, especially if granted redirection, Intimidate, or speed control. The high difficulty in removing Mega Kangaskhan from the field while it chunked nearly every foe it faced left some users clamoring for it to be removed from the tier.

Anti-Ban Arguments

A fairly common consensus among anti-ban users was that Mega Kangaskhan was clearly powerful, but post-Jirachi ban, there hadn't been enough time for the metagame to adapt, and in time, Mega Kangaskhan would become manageable with various subtle shifts to take it on better. A few suggestions for adaptation that these users had were to use pinch Berries, Pokémon with more than 400 HP, and more Ghost- and Fighting-types.

No Ban voters also pointed out that Mega Kangaskhan happened to match up extremely well against the trend of bulky teams the started mid-SPL, and when facing other, less bulky teams, there were more threats to remove it from the field, and it rarely got going. In the end, some felt banning Mega Kangaskhan would be simply giving up on adapting to its presence when there was still a fair amount of unexplored ways to do so.

Conclusion

Following Jirachi's suspect test, a 60% majority was needed to ban Jirachi, and 31 out of 51 voters chose to ban it, reaching a 60.8% majority where every vote mattered. The closeness of this suspect leaves the door open for a possible re-suspect later down the road, but for now, Jirachi is stuck in Doubles Ubers. As for Kangaskhanite, 39 out of 49 qualified voted to ban it, so with a 79.6% majority the item and its associated Mega Evolution are now banned from the tier. Since a majority of qualified and knowledgeable members of the community agreed that these two elements of the tier didn't belong, get out there and try out the new Doubles OU without these oppressive presences! Doubles Premier League is ongoing right now, and many high-quality matches without Jirachi and Mega Kangaskhan will be on display for those interested.

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