Houndoom will be suspect tested and removed from tournaments
The PU council has decided to suspect Houndoom while removing it from tournaments for the time being.This means that Houndoom will remain on ladder for the duration of the suspect, but will be removed from PU tours until the suspect concludes. The overriding notion was that a suspect is necessary but Houndoom is not clearly problematic enough to immediately quickban. Like Pyroar before it, Houndoom is an extremely potent offensive threat capable of breaking through most of its checks, but is susceptible to entry hazards, offensive pressure, priority, and pretty much any faster Pokemon. Houndoom can be prepped for with Pokemon such as Assault Vest Hitmonchan, but the degree of preparation necessary for balanced or defensive teams seems to be fairly significant and potentially overcentralizing. The council is concerned about the teambuilding impact that Houndoom might have, which is what the suspect test will attempt to determine over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, we felt that keeping Houndoom out of tournaments would be the safest option.
We have also decided to lay down a future policy for more consistently dealing with these kinds of situations. If a Pokemon drops to PU and the council decides to suspect it before the next round of tournaments (typically Sunday or Monday), the dropped Pokemon will not be allowed in tournaments until the suspect test is concluded. This goes for the official PU circuit tournaments, as well as any subforum tours that might be going on.