Hey guys, in case anyone didn't know, the BW LC Council recently held a suspect vote for Scraggy and Misdreavus in the metagame. I figured I would tell you guys why we were suspecting them and what my personal thoughts on them were, since this thread isn't JUST about ORAS (I asked quote!!!). OK so I'll start with Misdreavus. Misdreavus was offered up as a suspect for largely the same reasons that Gligar was offered as a suspect a couple years ago in XY. Misdreavus just does EVERYTHING really well. It can effectively run a defensive pivot set for bulkier teams, a Choice Specs set to bop common counters and form pretty cool cores with things like Tirtouga or Abra, a Choice Scarf set in order to clean late game while providing a safety net against things like Sandshrew, Snover, Shell Smashers, and more, while an Offensive Nasty Plot set is probably its most threatening set as it can often just win games. It is definitely something you should prepare for, but the problem becomes how its counters are few and far between, and instead relies on checks, which if you lose your check you often just lose the game.
Scraggy was up for suspect in a similar manner, but incredibly more volatile. Its counters were hyperspecific: Timburr, HJK defensive mienfoo, Riolu, and Scarf 16 Speed + Pokemon are the only things that REALLY check it reliably and aren't gimmicks. Due to Shed Skin and decent bulk, it often sets up on either super defensive Pokemon, like Clear Smog-less Foongus, Chinchou, Lileep, etc but it can also easily set up on some more threatening Pokemon in the tier, such as Abra and Misdreavus. This meant that Scraggy's offensive prowess often meant that builds were starting to form similarly, often revolving around Scraggy + checking Scraggy. It was becoming more and more of a liability to run defensive teams, as Scraggy + Misdreavus just demolished any sort of defensive core through their sheer power and immense set up potential. One wrong move often lost you the game against Scraggy.
Now onto my thoughts: On Scraggy, I voted ban. I personally felt that Scraggy was just too volatile and warped the metagame unhealthily around things like Timburr to stay. The problem a lot of people feel though is that BW is in some sort of rock paper scissors metagame, when it isn't. Banning Scraggy does not mean that Missy is automatically broken, and banning Misdreavus does not necessarily mean that Sand Rush would be broken. Scraggy itself was unhealthy in that it often turned into a one turn win after one or two things were weakened, and if not outright won it certainly dented holes too often to even remotely be considered healthy. I felt that Misdreavus, while certainly powerful and metagame defining, I did not find it did to the extent that Scraggy did. On top of that, its low number of counters (Porygon, Lileep, Vullaby, Stunky) was more than sufficiently fulfilled with a large number of checks, especially because Misdreavus is often a common switchin to random things, similar to Croagunk. Without reliable recovery it can't continually switch in, especially with weather and Stealth Rock being two really common things, as well as random Toxic's on things like Lileep or Bronzor. This makes preserving your Misdreavus often a sub skillset of its own in the metagame, as too many things limit its life. This in my eyes makes Misdreavus, while a difficult mon, not really too difficult ot deal with as it ends up taking a ton of passive damage without any sort of reliable recovery (although healing wish + Misdreavus is BROKEN).