The Gods We Slew: The Bans of SS Godly Gift
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Art by Daylight.
Introduction
Godly Gift is an Other Metagame where you're allowed to add one Uber to an otherwise-OU-legal team, and the Uber donates its stats to the rest of the team (here is a great introduction if you want to learn more). Even with Uber gods running about, some Pokémon are just too good and need to be banned, and both Ubers and receivers have received the boot. Sword and Shield have also brought massive changes to the metagame; while Godly Gift was once seen as a side meta, it is now part of the OM Tour Circuit and has received far more attention, development, and resource generation than ever before. Given its rise in popularity, we have decided to give a history of Sword and Shield Godly Gift through its bans and their impact on the metagame. After all, even gods can bleed…
Pre-History: The Pokémon That Were Never Free
To start Gen8, Godly Gift did not have a permanent ladder, and like other side OMs, it was only eligible to receive a monthly ladder once every six months. As a result, it had very little tiering action to start with, mostly limited to a few abilities that would obviously be broken like Shadow Tag and Huge Power. However, there were two Pokémon that were banned even before they were released in DLC: the blobs. Godly Gift actually existed in Gen7, and it only had three Pokémon bans for its entire generation: Blissey, Chansey, and Mega Sableye. It is not hard to see why, but in case you are struggling to visualize it, let me show you this calculation of Chansey receiving base 120 Defense from Giratina:
252+ Atk Guts Conkeldurr Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey (120 Def): 288-342 (40.9 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO.
Needless to say, Blissey and Chansey would clearly have been unhealthy presences in the metagame, and they were banned before seeing the light of day.
Early History: Pokémon Banned Before Spotlight League
Since Godly Gift could only have a ladder once every six months, even if it won Other Meta of the Month (OMotM) voting or was selected by the OM Leaders as Leader's Choice, it had a very limited number of games and was largely unexplored at first. From its establishment in January 2020 until August, the only tiering action it saw was the already mentioned Blissey and Chansey quickbans when they were introduced with The Isle of Armor DLC.
Finally, in August 2020, Godly Gift won OMotM for the first time and received a ladder. And there was one ugly sea urchin everywhere you looked: Toxapex. Already annoying in standard play with Regenerator, Recover, Haze, and immunity to poison, Godly Gift supercharged it, replacing its measly base 50 HP with up to base 150 in the case of Giratina. Almost every god has at least 100 HP, meaning even offensive teams could slap this undying monstrosity on and wall the majority of attackers with ease. Have you ever tried to KO something with 150/152/142 bulk, Recover, and Haze? I have. It's not fun. Toxapex received a quickban early in the month, but that was the only tiering action the metagame saw that month.
Godly Gift lay dormant again until April 2021, when it received a second OMotM ladder, and this time, the council was much more proactive in tiering. Before the ladder went live, the council announced that Melmetal and Calyrex-S were quickbanned. Melmetal is a titan of SS OU thanks to its amazing bulk and ludicrously strong Double Iron Bash. When it can have 130+ Speed and that 51% flinch chance is much more relevant? Any team without a bulky Steel-resistant Pokémon folded immediately, and even teams with one were at the mercy of its flinch chance. Even if you could withstand its attacks, KOing it back wasn't exactly easy.
Calyrex-S was the first banned god of the generation, and it's not hard to see why. It terrorizes Ubers, as its only semi-consistent check is Yveltal, which cannot be run on every Godly Gift team. If Calyrex-S somehow didn't win the match on its own, it could pass its ludicrous base 165 Special Attack and 150 Speed to teammates that could finish the job. Walling Calyrex-S and both of its offensive receivers (especially with no Blissey to blanket check the Special Attack receiver) was a neigh-impossible task.
With Calyrex-S's departure, another god quickly took center stage: Zacian-C. While not quite as unwallable as Calyrex-S (Defense-donated Quagsire could wall it, and HP Skarmory could slow it down), it still was immensely difficult to check. It also donated amazing all-around stats, including a fantastic base 138 Speed, good 130 Attack, and solid defensive spread of 92/115/115 (since Zacian-C is technically an in-battle change, it donated base Zacian's stats). This spread meant it fit on a wider range of teams, not just the ride-or-die triple threat cores that Calyrex-S supported. It was hard to justify using any other god over Zacian-C; it's a terror in its own right, donates great offensive and defensive stats, and really has no bad match-ups. It received a quickban decision only a week later.
But the council was not done; with three weeks left in the month, they decided to run the first-ever suspect test for Godly Gift! They took aim at two gods: base Zacian and Kyogre. Zacian provided all the same amazing stats that Zacian-C did, just without Behemoth Blade, but it made up for that with a free item slot to run Choice Scarf or Choice Band. Kyogre, on the other hand, has always been a controversial threat in Godly Gift. Its stat donations are decidedly mediocre, sure; it has great 150 Special Attack, but so do many other gods, and its 140 Special Defense can be hard to put to good use. Everything else is 100 or below. However, Kyogre itself was a titan. With no pink blobs and most teams not having an Eternatus, it would cleave most teams in two with its Choice Specs-boosted Water Spout or run through offensive teams with a Choice Scarf. Ultimately, suspect voters narrowly voted Zacian out while decisively sparing Kyogre. After that flurry of tiering activity, the month ended, and Godly Gift went dormant again…
The Spotlight Era: Godly Gift Gains Ground
Spotlight League was a team tour that aimed to "spotlight" non-permanent-ladder OMs and give players who weren't quite OMPL caliber a chance to play in a large team tour. Godly Gift was selected as one of the six metagames, which was the first time it had received any type of tour recognition. To pile on, it was also selected as the Leader's Choice ladder for September, giving ladder and tour representation at the same time!
The council wasted no time in setting up the second-ever suspect test, this time for a receiver: Alolan Marowak. With Thick Club, Jolly Alolan Marowak hit 518 Attack, and it had insane STAB moves in Flare Blitz (also recoil-free thanks to Rock Head) and Poltergeist. By far its biggest limitation in standard play is its measly 45 Speed, but Godly Gift easily fixes that. It was also the engine behind Trick Room teams, which were very powerful at the time, as it could hit well over 900 Attack with a donation and become truly unwallable. While the council did go through with a full suspect test, the result was never much in doubt, and it was decisively banned.
Spotlight League was what really gave Godly Gift the space it needed to grow, with high-level tour games going on weekly. These quality games let the council zero in on other problematic elements. One of the chief offenders was Pikachu (no, seriously, stop laughing). Thanks to Light Ball, it was also able to take advantage of Attack donations to hit over 900 Attack. Moreover, Fake Out + Extreme Speed made up for its middling Speed tier, allowing it to revenge kill almost any offensive threat. Even Ghost-types had to fear switching into Knock Off, and Pikachu also had a ludicrously strong Volt Tackle to take something out instantly.
Another centralizing threat in Spotlight League was Hawlucha. You may have noticed a theme by now, but STAB moves with high power are extremely strong in Godly Gift, and Hawlucha had two of them in Close Combat and Acrobatics. Additionally, with a Terrain Seed item and Unburden, Adamant Hawlucha was able to outspeed the entire metagame upon switching in. Its combination of Speed and power was overwhelming, and it had high usage in Spotlight League as one of the most consistent wincons. Several games even came down to which Hawlucha won the Speed tie. Near the end of the regular season, the council announced that both Hawlucha and Pikachu were banned.
But wait, there's more! There were two other highly controversial elements in Spotlight League: Dragapult and Xerneas. Dragapult had an amazing Speed tier and great special coverage options, including the coveted STAB Shadow Ball, and no Blissey to slow it down. With U-turn allowing it to pivot on its few checks, Choice Specs Dragapult was a menace that could overwhelm many teams just by firing off Shadow Ball over, and over, and over, with an occasional Draco Meteor thrown in to keep them honest. Xerneas, much like Hawlucha, became a terrifying sweeper. With a Geomancy boost, it was virtually impossible to revenge kill without priority, and even then, it had the bulk to survive most priority attacks. With its best checks like Necrozma-DM and Ho-Oh being restricted to the Uber slot, it was very difficult to consistently handle Xerneas, to say nothing of its excellent stat spread to donate to teammates. Shortly after the conclusion of Spotlight League, Dragapult and Xerneas received the ban hammer as well.
Spotlight League was a great showcase of Godly Gift, and with all of the attention and tiering action it received, things were looking up. Even the most optimistic fans did not realize how much more lay in store…
Modern History: Perma-Ladder and Tour Circuit
With the ladder once again removed and the tour over, Godly Gift seemed poised for another hibernation until, on December 14th, 2021, its course was altered forever. OM leadership announced that Godly Gift was being added to the team tour lineup, which meant it would be included in OMPL and WCoOM, the two largest team tours in OMs! Even more, it would have a permanent ladder and its own Open and Seasonal tours as well! Overnight, Godly Gift was promoted to the big leagues.
Once the ladder was up and running, there was one clear problem: it was always raining. Rain teams were the dominant force on the ladder, led by their powerful Mantine (once again, not a joke). STAB Hurricane + Hydro Pump had precious few switch-ins, especially when Mantine had up to base 170 Special Attack, Choice Specs, and Swift Swim. Rain teams often employed a god with high Attack and Special Attack like Yveltal or Kyurem-W, Swift Swim users in both attacking slots, and a powerful wallbreaker like Crawdaunt (more on that guy later) in Speed. Add in Pelipper to bring the rain and something like Ferrothorn to pretend to have a defensive core, and you had your standard rain team.
The Godly Gift council first tried to take action solely against Mantine. Banning an ability in a non-ability-based OM is a big deal, and they wanted to see: is Mantine the problem, or is it Swift Swim as a whole? Sure, other Swift Swim users had the same Speed and power, but they had generally poorer coverage. With the Godly Gift Open going on, the council wanted to move faster than a suspect test would allow, and it announced the quickban of Mantine.
Turns out, rain was still very much broken without Mantine, and a week later the council announced that Swift Swim was banned, and Mantine was free again. Oops.
The other dominant story of the Godly Gift Open was the centralization around Eternatus. Eternatus had a lot going for it; as a stand-alone threat, it had insane Speed and power, with near-perfect coverage between its STAB moves and Flamethrower. Additionally, it had Recover to utilize Life Orb without eventually wearing itself down, and it had the bulk to trade hits and come out on top against almost everything. It was an amazing donor, with top-tier HP, Special Attack, and Speed allowing it to support offensive and balance teams alike. Its only truly bad stat was Attack, which it could slot itself into without issue. Since banning gods in Godly Gift is no small ask, the council set up a third suspect test, which resulted in the unanimous ban of Eternatus. Guess we all agreed there.
While the metagame settled down after the Eternatus ban, there was another elephant in the room that needed addressing: a lobster, I mean, Crawdaunt. With a Speed donation, Adaptability, and fantastic STAB moves in Crabhammer and Knock Off, it was a force to be reckoned with. Its consistent checks were few and far between, and they mostly lacked reliable recovery like Tapu Fini, so it received a quickban vote not long after.
While Crawdaunt was the last Speed recipient that used a too-good ability to get ahead, there were two Special Attack receivers that stood out thanks to their ability and wide coverage: Nidoking and Nidoqueen. Thanks to Sheer Force and recoil-free Life Orb, strong STAB moves in Earth Power and Sludge Wave, and near-perfect coverage options in Flamethrower, Ice Beam, and Thunderbolt, switching into them was nearly impossible. They put tremendous strain on any defensive switch-in not named Special Defense Gastrodon, and they still had enough Speed to get the jump on any wall that did not invest heavily in Speed themselves. The council decided to put them up to a suspect test, which resulted in a decisive ban for the faster Nidoking, and a narrow ban for the bulkier Nidoqueen.
Future History: What else might get banned?
Godly Gift has had an impressive showing in its first several tours. The metagame has shown to be diverse and varied, with several different archetypes and playstyles proving to be viable. That being said, the metagame is still young and in flux, and there are a few threats that might still need action in the future.
Kyogre, having survived a suspect test already, might be a good candidate for a re-test. Eternatus, one of its better checks, is gone, and it remains incredibly difficult to handle defensively. Sure, it's a poor donor, but does that matter when Choice Specs Water Spout just deletes your special wall? Similarly, hyper offense is a powerful archetype that can use up to three supercharged receivers plus an Uber to blow the doors off of defensive cores. There have been calls to look into Light Clay, as dual screens is the most common form of hyper offense, or Galarian Moltres, perhaps the single most terrifying sweeper in the tier. Time will tell if they end up being banworthy, as the Godly Gift Seasonal and the World Cup of Other Metagames are underway!
Want to be part of Godly Gift's history? Check out our resources, ask questions in the OM Room on Showdown, and play a few games on the ladder! There are always more gods to take down…
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