Get it, cuz it's a black bird ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Faded was unavailable for the slate, but the outcome would not change with their vote on each topic. Drought was a debated topic for a while between the council, but came to the conclusion that the initial Drought ban reasoning still remains present in the current meta, as Venusuar and sun fueled Mega Houndoom are not practical to demand players to answer, and banning both of them is not as practical as keeping Drought banned. Expect a Thundurus-T test in the future tho.
We've also updated our samples for the test! You can check them out through this link.
Suspect Reasoning:
Moltres-G has been a terrifying sweeper the entire time it's in the tier. It's flagship set has always been it's Z Double Dance set, with Agility outspeeding the entire metagame after a boost, and +2 Z Hurricane with a potential Beserk boost is nearly unwallable. Recently, it's presence on screens teams highly contributed to a vote on Light Clay, thinking that with no screens, Moltres-G would become a lot less challenging for each team to handle. However, it's ability to diversify it's moveset has kept it relevant even versus it's best checks and keep them just a flinch away from breaking through them.
The most common check Moltres-G has is Nihilego, you resists Hurricane and is able to handle Fiery Wrath until your team is able to win game. However, Moltres-G has a plethora of ways around it. Power Gem does not OHKO from full against Moltres-G, and we've seen Charti Berry in the event Nihilego is Meteor Beam, which doesn't have the longevity it's Black Sludge set does. At +2, it only takes one flinch for Nihilego to crumple and Moltres-G potentially clean the entire team. It can even switch it's Z for Darkinium Z, since a +3 Dark Z will OHKO Nihilego, and Hurricane's accuracy turns it into a game of randomness to see if you can land all the Hurricanes required to sweep. Other common ways teams handle Moltres-G's sweeping sets are Zeraora and Mega Manectric, who come in on either attempted Nasty Plots or Agilitys and hit it back with their STAB. This is potentially exploitable for Moltres-G as well, as after an Agility, Fiery Wrath is still one flinch away from breaking through these answers, or they can die to Darkinium Z after a slight amount of chip. With all of these answers common on most teams however, Moltres-G has taken on some defensive Rest Talk sets to both handle Aegislash and sit on passive Toxic users such as Hippowdon or absorb sleep from Amoonguss. These sets excel at dismantling balance and other offensive sets either through Taunt, Nasty Plot or just it's sheer longevity being hard to break through. Sleep Talk's randomness contributes to it's uncompetitiveness as well, since it's ability to potentially call Foul Play on something like a Zeraora switch is very risky and impossible to predict.
Nonetheless, Moltres-G is not without fault, as it's sweeping sets sometimes fall short on damage if it finds the wrong matchup. Priority like Scizor's Bullet Punch, Mamoswine's Ice Shard and Aqua jets from Azumarill or Urshifu-R are able to cut a sweep short, but do not show up on all teams. Zeraora, Mega Manectric and Mega Altaria restrict defensive sets heavily as it doesn't want them switching in for free on either predicted Rests or a Bad Sleep Talk. Some have also cited it's Speed as slightly slow before an Agility, meaning a sweep can be cut short by calling it out while it attempts to boost. Lastly, the flinch not being guarenteed sometimes causes Moltres-G's damage to fall a bit short, with Hippowdon, Celesteela or Mega Steelix/Aggron being able to potentially land a Toxic or Leech Seed and try to stall it out. Mega Steelix/Aggron in particular can smack it hard with their Steel STAB as screens not being an option make Moltres-G take a signifcant amount of damage from it.
Suspect Test Information
- Reading this is mandatory to participate in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 79 with at least 40 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 79 GXE, down to a minimum of 20 games at a GXE of 83. Also, needing more than 40 games to reach 79 GXE will suffice.
GXE minimum games 79 40 79.2 39 79.4 38 79.6 37 79.8 36 80 35 80.2 34 80.4 33 80.6 32 80.8 31 81 30 81.2 29 81.4 28 81.6 27 81.8 26 82 25 82.2 24 82.4 23 82.6 22 82.8 21 83 20
- You must use a fresh account that begins with the given prefix for this suspect test. That prefix is NDUUMG . For example, I could signup and qualify with the name NDUUMG MudkipBeans.
- You may not impersonate or mock another user with your account name. If there is any slight hesitation, you're probably better off picking a different name. We reserve the right to null your voting requisites if you are found impersonating or mocking another user with your account name. Moderator discretion will be applied.
- If you are found trying to manipulate voting requisites in any way, you will be met with a harsh infraction. Manipulating voting requisites ranges from faking your screenshot to asking another user to forfeit.
- The Pokemon that's being suspect tested, Moltres-G, will be allowed on the National Dex UU ladder for the next two weeks so that we can properly assess its position in the metagame.
- This suspect test will go on for two weeks. It will last until June 22nd at 11:59 PM GMT-4.
Last edited: