First,
Pigeons has joined the Council!
In addition, we have updated the VR, however we may have missed some outdated stuff so if you find any then please post the noms!
So some people have questioned some mons' presence in the metagame, this post basically is to go through these mons and "analyze" them.
Shuckle:
Shuckle has been viewed as problematic by some people due to being able to inherit a high hp stat to increase its bulk substantially. This makes it very difficult to take out, especially when most Ubers have >= 100 HP. However, in my opinion, Shuckle is not a problematic mon in this metagame.
1. It is very passive, 10 offenses are not doing any significant damage, this means it relies on Toxic and Infestation to be able to do damage along with Encore to deter setup if you predict correctly. This makes it extremely predictable due to players knowing what moves they need to watch out for. Notably, Substitute shuts down Shuckle completely, as well as mons like Gliscor and Mega Diancie. In addition, Taunt completely shuts down Shuckle, as it can only use Infestation or Knock Off, which isn't very threatening (Crobat for example Roosts off damage and doesn't care too much about Knock).
2. 4MSS, while a lot of other mons have 4mss while being very viable (such as Waterceus with Judg/Beam/Recover/Toxic/Defog/Wisp) but Shuckle will lose to very threatening mons without some attacking moves or losing out on utility or losing out on recovery. It wants SR/Webs/Infest/Toxic/Knock/Rest/Encore/(Shell Smash). It should always have SR and Toxic, and Webs on offensive teams. If no Infestation it lacks anyway to damage Magic Bouncers or Steels or Poison types. If no Knock it cannot annoy mons by removing item (loss of utility). If no Rest it gets chipped down easily. If no Encore it is pretty much setup bait.
3. Not great typing, it is weak to the common SR which when combined with its lack of reliable recovery (it usually doesn't want lefties over mental herb so even easier to chip). It is weak to water and steel which are fairly common. In addition, its resistances aren't very useful, Normal is not bad in this metagame but it isn't the most common type and they all have coverage anyways. Poison type is almost non-existent.
4. Competition in the HP slot. The HP slot is one of the most used slots, with many prominent Pokemon wanting to receive a higher HP stat, such as Ferrothorn, Magearna, Ditto, Mega Diancie, Rotom-W, and Gliscor. Many of these mons have advantages over Shuckle, such as a more useful ability, more reliable recovery, strong offensive presence, pivoting, and others like hazard removal.
PDon:
PDon is one of the best Gods, and a large part of this is its own viability (its stats are arguably worse than stuff in the A-tier like Kyu-W, Yveltal, Xerneas, and NDM). It is very difficult to wall with OU mons if your god cannot take it on well, and provides immense defensive utility. However, once again, in my opinion, Groudon isn't problematic and shouldn't be suspected.
1. Its stats aren't very good for donating purposes. Of Groudon's stats, the only really good ones are Attack and Defense, since the other stats are all 100 or 90, which are honestly pretty difficult to find suitable mons to receive (apart from speed). This makes the rest of the team possibly weaker than with other Gods.
2. It is easily chipped down. While it has pretty solid bulk overall it does suffer from a complete lack of recovery and susceptibility to status. While this can be argued that it is still phenomenal despite this (see Ubers) it definitely limits its potential. A lot of defensive mons running Toxic doesn't benefit it either. Once it gets chipped it can get revenge killed by either priority or just fast mons as its speed is pretty disappointing. Some mons even outspeed Rock Polish with a scarf.
3. Ground weakness is pretty big. EQ and EP are some of the most used coverage moves and Ground is also a very good STAB. This is more prevalent than Ubers. There are also much more Ground types such as Landorus-T, Garchomp, Nidoking, Gliscor, and Gastrodon. This is detrimental to it as not only is it threatened by Ground types but teams will definitely have durable counterplay to Ground types.
4. Depending on the moveset it can be walled by some fairly common mons. If it is running EdgeQuake then it has trouble breaking stuff like Skarm, Celesteela, and Gliscor. If it is running Fire Punch over Edge or Mixed RP it struggles against Latis, Mantine, Rotom-W, and Araquanid. While this is true for a lot of mons a lot of PDon's strength comes from its own breaking/sweeping potential and this definitely holds it back a little.
5. The Ubers that check it are fairly common. Ubers like Ho-Oh, Lugia, Supportceus, Both Giratina, Rayquaza, and even Yveltal sometimes are commonly seen as a God and this definitely impacts it. Other Gods like NDM, Lunala, Kyu-W, Mewtwo, Offensive Arceus pressure it quite a lot.
That being said, it is still an enormous threat and still difficult to handle on teams with Gods like Kyu-W, NDM, Xerneas, Ogre, etc.