- It's balanced and diverse: The meta has a wide range of viable threats and team archetypes, and each individual Pokemon tends to have many viable sets to choose from. It is also the only generation with Z moves, which open many additional possibilities on many Pokemon.
- It's accessible: Being the generation closest to Gen 8, the meta is very similar to SS LC in terms of the main threats, with the notable exceptions of Vullaby and a few others. It is relatively easy to pick up for a player without prior experience, once he or she gets used to the presence of Z-moves and Hidden Power.
- It's relatively stable: Despite Sticky Web being banned after it became an oldgen, the meta has been very stable since the end of Gen 7. A diverse set of builds have consistently been viable over the years, giving players a lot of solid options to choose from.
Banlist
Pokemon:
Moves: Dragon Rage, Sonic Boom, Swagger, Baton Pass, Sticky Web
Abilities: Moody
Items: Eevium-Z
Clauses: Species, Sleep, OHKO, Evasion
Sample Teams
Standard Bulky Offense - by Ninjadog
Scarf Pawniard + NP Vull - by Starmaster
GastBra Hyper-Offense - by Acehunter1
Veils Setup Spam - by Corporal Levi
Screech Diglett Fightspam - by Luthier
Scarf Mienfoo Offense - by Toadow
Icium-Z Staryu - by Unknown
FerroSpritz + Scarf Mudbray - by Unknown
Z-Fire Ponyta - by Voltix (winner of SM LC Cup II)
Big thanks to Corporal Levi, Coconut, LilyAC, ninjadog, and Star for making this thread possible!