Metagame USUM Monotype Suspect #1: Naganadel

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Eien

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Art by Acast
​
Welcome to the first USUM Monotype suspect! With the new games came a new top tier powerhouse: Naganadel. With great coverage, setup potential, and base stats, Naganadel solidified itself as a threat that every type had to be wary of immediately. While some types are lucky enough to have relatively accessible checks, some others have a much harder time beating it properly.

Naganadel is blessed with a great Special Attack stat and a movepool to back it up that features two powerful STAB attacks in Draco Meteor and Sludge Wave alongside almost perfect coverage with Fire Blast. To further its firepower, Naganadel can use Nasty Plot, at which point a Devastating Drake off of Draco Meteor threatens to KO almost any Pokemon in the metagame, even boasting the impressive ability to almost always OHKO Chansey at +4 after Stealth Rock damage. This much damage output is made truly troublesome by its ability, Beast Boost. With a Timid nature, Naganadel will get a Speed boost every time it gets a KO. Thanks to its amazing Speed tier making it faster than every common Choice Scarf user bar Greninja, this makes Naganadel difficult to revenge kill for some teams.

That being said, Naganadel's initial success has slowed down quite significantly with time as the metagame began to build around it and more ways to handle it were found. Many types have found simple and healthy ways to handle Naganadel naturally. With these adaptation, it's difficult to say whether Naganadel is truly broken and significantly better than the rest of the metagame or not. As a result, to fairly assess its presence in USUM Monotype, the council has voted to suspect Naganadel.

In order to cast a vote in this suspect test, you must participate on the Monotype suspect ladder in which Naganadel is allowed. The requirements for qualification are 2850 COIL or more in 75 games or fewer. The B-value for this suspect test is 9.0. The suspect test will last two weeks until Tuesday December 19 at 11:59 EST (GMT-5). You will then have three days to cast your vote. Naganadel will require a 60% majority of voters in favor of banning it in order for it to be banned from Monotype.

Upon meeting the requirements, you must post proof of the qualification in the Voter Identification thread, which is separate from this thread and will be created closer to the end of the suspect. Do not post your proof in this discussion thread.

You may use this thread to discuss this Naganadel suspect or ask for clarification for any questions you may have.

You may not use this thread to post one-liners or discuss topics unrelated to this specific suspect, such as possible future suspects.

Please stay respectful when you post and follow all Monotype forum rules. Please also make sure to follow the Monotype tiering philosophy found here.

To earn 2850 COIL, you must have at least a certain GXE corresponding to the number of games you have played:
Code: 
GXE | Games
86      34
84      38
82      45
81      49
80      54
79      61
78      69
77.5    75
This means if your final GXE is below 77.5% when you hit 75 games, you will not have 2850 COIL and will not have met the requirements.

To calculate for yourself the required number of games for any given GXE, compute:
N=9.0/log2(40*GXE/2850)

Tagging The Immortal to set up the suspect ladder. Thank you!
 
Honestly, having played with naganadel in both ou and monotype I can say that Naganadel is completely broken it has checks its just how you use them, if you let naganadel beast boost it can win a game but Naganadel can be handled by the likes of Scarf Earthquake Lando-T while being outsped can deal loads of damage to naganadel and takes out the biggest threat to the team

252 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Naganadel: 342-404 (119.1 - 140.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

edit: first teehee
 
Ok so with this decision coming up it is very interesting and an important suspect to start off this new meta in my opinion. From my experience, Naganadel is a pokemon that can either do very little in a match because of the matchup it is put into, or it can straight up sweep teams. For example, when Naganadel goes against teams with scarf greninja or pursuit trap alolan muk (Dark & Poison). In these cases, Naganadel would be lucky to get one or two kills and that's usually normal for a mon with such offensive presence. However, as I stated before, this mon can sweep teams with the set that is getting it suspected in the first place, dragonium nasty plot is just way too much for this meta. With Naganadel being able to sweep water on its own if scarf greninja is not on the team to revenge kill with ice beam, and if the water user is against poison, naganadel just switches out into toxapex and comes back in later to clean up the team. Also, this is one of the few special attacking mons that can ohko a chansey with its z move, it isn't the first because waterium z manaphy also can do this with it's tail glow set. However, there are ways for normal to stop Naganadel from sweeping with the likes of banded diggersby with its priority, Lopunny's fakeout to get chip damage on it if it gets whittled, and ditto itself. Let's not also forget about the steel MU because this mon can nasty plot up on ferrothorn and gets access to fire coverage to pressure that type as well, keep in mind it took specially defensive heatran to check this mon in OU, which I don't think max spD is ran on steel or fire for that matter, there will be calcs below to show how threatening Naganadel can be offensively, and things you may not realize defensively. So that being said, with a mon that can either do nothing, or sweep teams because there simply aren't enough counters to it in general; should it be banned or not? Well, I believe that it does over centralize the meta currently and is one of the best breakers in monotype right now, and even though it does have a predictable move set; it doesn't matter because even if you know the set, how do you switch into it? Using the monotype philosophy this mon is very good for poison, I believe poison really does like having this mon, and so does dragon because having something to finally pressure the p2 + chansey core on its own is really good, but is it too good?

Calcs:
252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 16+ SpD Mantine: 211-249 (56.4 - 66.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Naganadel Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 16+ SpD Mantine: 141-166 (37.7 - 44.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 16+ SpD Mantine: 280-331 (74.8 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

This gen mantine has found it's place on both water and flying, being good in defensive cores with zapdos and celesteela on flying, and with toxapex and swampert on water, this is their mixed wall because of mantine's amazing spD. However, naganadel abuses this mon and if you're toxic mantine, you cant toxic this poison type and if you're haze, it has too much offensive pressure to stop it from ko'ing mantine or forcing the switch.

+2 252 SpA Naganadel Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 307-363 (100.9 - 119.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 231-273 (75.9 - 89.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252 SpA Naganadel Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 154-183 (50.6 - 60.1%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery

Toxapex is another defensive mon that has come into monotype in gen 7 that has become very good in its longevity because of its regenerator ability and has provided a great toxic spiker for both types, it has made both types good at pressuring types that cant handle their mons getting toxic'd. However, Nagandel beats down and sets up on toxapex with ease, regardless of haze or not. I believe phys def toxapex is the best set to run in this meta cause of how much it's able to wall for its respected types, and naganadel abuses it. Both mantine and toxapex are known for being good haze mons and Naganadel has proven to beat both with ease.
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Porygon2: 436-514 (116.5 - 137.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0 SpA Porygon2 Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Naganadel: 176-208 (61.3 - 72.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Moving on, naganadel also abuses normal. Now people may be wondering why a person would use their z on porygon2 and it's simple, porygon 2 walls dragonite once it traces dragonites multiscale. Dragonite itself does very good at breaking through the type if it's dragon dance, I can see staraptor also stopping dragonite from sweeping, but dragon does very good at setting up rocks vs normal; but i would preserve the Z if I was using nagandel on poison because once pex gets tspikes up, p2 loses to it regardless. Now, I am aware that porygon 2 can run download, but you should put ur 4 left over ev's to put it into SpD to avoid this situation and resulting in you breaking through porygon2.

0 Atk Ferrothorn Gyro Ball (150 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Naganadel: 199-235 (69.3 - 81.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Ferrothorn doesn't always carry gyro ball, occasionally it does carry power whip instead to have a shot vs water with hazard stacking teams to pressure the type. This calc shows that Naganadel should always be able to get 1 nasty plot for free versus this type and can force heatran in to pressure it. Keep in mind, Naganadel isn't in this matchup to sweep, it helps both poison and dragon break through tran to have a better shot of breaking through the type because of how good it is defensively vs both.

+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 248 HP / 136+ SpD Heatran: 238-281 (61.8 - 72.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Pretty straight forward calc, this is a more defensive tran set that would be used to check a mon like Naganadel, I will also show the calc for max hp tran with no spD

+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Heatran: 297-351 (76.9 - 90.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
This is also straight forward, this damage is insane and the fact that a resisted move like this takes away at least 60% of your hp from both of these spreads makes it very hard for heatran to stop dragon from using its fire coverage because it is getting whittled down so much by this mon because of other passive mons letting naganadel set up on it

252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Diggersby Quick Attack vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Naganadel: 165-195 (57.4 - 67.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
This calc is important because it just goes to show that even though Naganadel has a poor defensive stat of 73, a mon as strong as diggersby struggles to pick it off and that naganadel will slowly break through these bulky offensive builds.

+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Naganadel: 205-242 (71.4 - 84.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
I do not have much to say about this calc, I'm not going to say that naganadel always revenge kills because you can run different hp spreads on azumarill and light screen can be active if it is against fairy and azu gets its belly drum off with them up or not, this calc is more relevant for dragon, but its also irrelevant because a lot of dragon types take aqua from azu at +6. This calc can matter in one instance for poison if its the azumarill set which carries return/frustration to hurt venusaur, but that set doesn't run adamant so that is also something to consider.

The Conclusion

I believe that Naganadel is a bitter sweet pokemon in this meta. It punishes people who use bulkier or stall type teams, making it easier for players to pick a type to use and keep under control. However, it also punishes offensive types because there just are flat out no good switch ins because even some the bulkiest mons in the meta can't take it on and prevent it from setting up. It is great when you have it on your side, and annoying to play around when you're against it because if your check gets whittled down, even 2 stealth rock switchins can lose you the game. Naganadel is just too good for this meta and I will be voting ban.
 
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Camicio said:
Honestly, having played with naganadel in both ou and monotype I can say that Naganadel is completely broken it has checks its just how you use them, if you let naganadel beast boost it can win a game but Naganadel can be handled by the likes of Scarf Earthquake Lando-T while being outsped can deal loads of damage to naganadel and takes out the biggest threat to the team

252 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Naganadel: 342-404 (119.1 - 140.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

edit: first teehee
Click to expand...
Yeah scarf lando checks naganadel, it's not like the naganadel user can switch out or anything right?
First of all, scarf lando has become uncommon, with double dance being its most used set on both ground and flying (maybe defog on flying idk). Assuming you have your scarf lando (on flying) in against an unboosted naganadel (on dragon), you have 4 possible outcomes.

1. You surprise him with the scarf and kill off Naga, great.
2. He switches out to either mega latias, altaria, or latios, making you lose momentum, rip.
3. You uturn predicting a switch, while he nasty plots or drops a draco (z), hence pretty much autowinning the game, rip.
4. You uturn on the switch to a ground-immunity, hence preserving momentum, great.

He has 2 ways of coming out on top, while you have 1 way of removing the biggest threat to your team. Plus it requires your lando to be in against an unboosted naganadel, which is hard to execute unless you got those fire plays. ez check?

Also wtf is a defensive Naganadel lol

edit: third teehee
 
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So earlier I discussed why I thought Naganadel would be a good pokemon to suspect, later it received a suspect. Still semi-undecided whether or not I wanted it gone from the meta. I laddered and made reqs for the suspect test, again, here are some of my thoughts on it.

unleash_the_beast___poipole_and_naganadel_by_thecelesticwarrior-dbumahm.png

Art by DragonForgedPJ
Naganadel
Stats: 73 / 73 / 73 / 127 / 73 / 121
Ability: Beast Boost

Earlier I demonstrated how Naganadel could break through a few key defensive threats with +2 Devasting Drake rather easily. Here are a few calcs to demonstrate its power.
The Excadrill said:
Bulky Pokemon OHKO'ed by +2 Devastating Drake
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex: 351-414 (115.4 - 136.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 40 SpD Suicune: 535-630 (132.4 - 155.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Porygon2: 435-513 (116.3 - 137.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Heatran: 297-351 (91.9 - 108.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mantine: 466-550 (124.5 - 147%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 28 SpD Venusaur-Mega: 522-615 (143.4 - 168.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Stakataka: 309-363 (94.7 - 111.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252 SpA Dragalge Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 248 HP / 248+ SpD Assault Vest Muk-Alola: 303-357 (73.3 - 86.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Lives +2 Devastating Drake
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 397-468 (56.4 - 66.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 301-355 (74.6 - 88%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Empoleon: 223-263 (59.9 - 70.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
It should be noted that Naganadel can even break through these checks with just 1 more Nasty Plot Boost.
+4 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 595-702 (84.6 - 99.8%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
Click to expand...

I added a few calcs from my original post such as +4 Naga vs Chansey and +2 Naga vs Empoleon.

So firstly, while technically everyone knows what Naganadel does and can easily switch their defensive checks out from play to bait Naganadel's Z move and completely avoid it ohkoing your teams main check. The only problem with this is it is at a scenario where Naganadel is constantly causing 50/50's by whether they are going to attack with Devasting Drake or simply setup another Nasty Plot. Causing 50/50's whenever it comes in is a reason Naganadel is a major issue.

Secondly, say your teams defensive check is dead and your time only has an offensive check to Naganadel there is very little you can do to really stop Naganadel. The only 2 scarfers which can beat Naganadel at +1 Speed are Greninja and Ditto. The only other exception would be Mimikyu, which due to the ability Disguise can take any one of Naganadel's attacks and retaliate and OHKO with Play Rough into Shadow Sneak.
252+ Atk Life Orb Mimikyu Play Rough vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Naganadel: 211-250 (73.5 - 87.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Life Orb Mimikyu Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Naganadel: 95-113 (33.1 - 39.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
This makes checking Naganadel offensively very difficult if not impossible after a single beast boost. Another way to offensively check Naganadel might be priority right, turns out it lives a vast majority of even Super Effective Priority attacks.

252 Atk Life Orb Mamoswine Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Naganadel: 218-260 (75.9 - 90.5%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Naganadel: 204-241 (71 - 83.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Naganadel: 207-243 (72.1 - 84.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Naganadel: 189-223 (65.8 - 77.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
These just showing that Naganadel isn't really easily picked off by Priority without chip prior to the attack. This means that taking out Naganadel with priority before hand involves at least sacking 1 to 2 pokemon. Then you have to rely on the naganadel user to stay in with Naganadel to something that could easily take the priority attack. Which is very unreliable and again requires players to throw away pokemon. This shows that not only checking Naganadel can be very difficult but also requires you to throw away a pokemon just for a chance to kill Naganadel.

With the 3 reasons being Naganadel is incredibly hard to check offensive, defensively and causes many 50/50's making Naganadel entirely too good for monotype. That is why I think Naganadel should be banned from USM Monotype.​
 
I wanted to share my personal thoughts on the suspect so far especially because so far no arguments have been raised for not banning Naganadel. I have a hard time deciding whether I really see Naganadel as being as amazing as it is touted to be in Monotype. Hopefully we can have some good discussion on the topic that doesn't just rehash the same thing again and again.

First, is Naganadel really that successful? Let's look at MWP. In week 1, less than half the games had a Naganadel, and of the games with it, it was not particularly influential in determining the game's outcome in any of them but one. In the most recent round of seasonals, it was only used once and lost that match too. The reason, I suspect, is because, as good as Naganadel is, many ways to handle it already existed and were popular to begin with.

I find that only Flying, Fighting, Fire, and Grass are without easily identifiable checks, with Electric having a somewhat unreliable way to stop it. Unsurprisingly, all of these types were already at quite a disadvantage against Naganadel's usable types, making it difficult for me to assume Naganadel is broken because of these matchups.

Other types like Ground, Normal, Water, and some other 8 types naturally already ran checks to or strategies for Naganadel. Naganadel itself didn't particularly force major teambuilding changes on most of the metagame. Naganadel isn't forcing most types to do something they wouldn't otherwise.

For the Naganadel mirror matchup, we have seen some ideas like Zukushiku's Choice Scarf Noivern for Dragon. Naganadel would hardly be that uncompetitive in the Dragon mirror either way, however, as Pokémon like Mega Altaria and Choice Scarf Latios have both imposed an uncompetitive metagame on that matchup. Thus, I don't think this angle would convince me either.

So while it is impressive that Naganadel can break walls, we certainly have many other Pokémon that can do the same that are banned and not banned. I'm not certain where Naganadel falls on the line.

Naganadel calcs mostly rely on it being at +2, which it definitely is good at finding situations to Nasty Plot to. They also often require the one-time Devastating Drake. However, assuming Naganadel gets a free turn also means the user was able to force that situation. I'm not sure that creating opportunities to sweep with Naganadel in this current metagame is anti-skill. This is also questionable because it is hardly a Pokémon that both cannot be stopped if it gets going and is difficult to prevent. Quite the opposite, as most types can do one if not both.

I understand that on paper Naganadel looks incredibly frightening, but I'm not certain it fully translated to reality. When I was getting reqs, I used a Dragon team to test how I would use it. Almost none of my games came down to having Naganadel at all. My team had it in the back pocket, but I almost always won or lost regardless of whether I had it or might have had a Hydreigon or Kommo-o instead. I didn't anecdotally see almost any Dragon or Poison on the ladder either, reflecting the usage in tournaments. In MWP tournament play, Naganadel has hardly shown itself to be out of the ordinary. It's easy to just assume Naganadel is too good and vote to ban it, but after the initial impression, I'm quite conflicted.

I'm still not fully decided yet, but I honestly don't find the ban argument particularly compelling. I'd find helpful reasoning on why Naganadel is or isn't significantly better than the rest of the metagame, which would expose whether it is broken or not. A billion calcs that reiterate the same on-paper point that I don't see in many actual battles don't say a lot to me.
 
Since I've been mostly playing OU and just recently peaked into the monotype metagame Im sure my opinion is relatively uninformed but I will share it anyways.

I started laddering with a team pork chop man passed me. It was flying HO and ran really fast through low ladder so it seemed like the perfect team for starting off as I was blasting through my first games. Until I met Naganadel. The moment Naganadel set up a Nasty Plot (vs my Zard Y or by forcing out an important pokemon I had basically lost. Most of you seem to have recognized how great it is at wallbreaking. but I feel like the real problem is combining these wallbreaking capabilities with beast boost. At +1 choice scarf users have a lot of trouble outspeeding it & priority doesnt always knock it out either.

Since I've been losing quite a few games against Naganadel, I switched teams to something that I've seen people I faced spam and thought is really good, which is the normal type chansey/p2/staraptor/ditto/lopunny-mega/diggersby team. On this team I had next to no problem handling Naganadel as Ditto is phenomenal at handling sweepers and a few other mons were also able to annoy it with strong priority or set up hazards. I ended up finishing my reqs with this team.

Overall, I believe Naganadel to be as overwhelming as it was in OU, if not even worse, since good counterplay is type-locked. It is by no means unbeatable and if you go into the teambuilder with the goal to have a good matchup against it you will be able to accomplish just that. However, I believe Naganadel's existance to be very unhealthy for the tier as it is restricting type diversity and teambuilding overall in a nightmarish similar way it was in OU.

Thus, I will be voting for Naganadel to get banned.
 
The Excadrill said:
The only other exception would be Mimikyu, which due to the ability Disguise can take any one of Naganadel's attacks and retaliate and OHKO with Play Rough into Shadow Sneak.
Click to expand...
This is not actually true. Focus Sash Alakazam beats Naga every time as well. However that's used on Psychic which is a type Naga will have trouble actually setting up / sweeping so it's not a huge argument against it being broken.
 
I have found that Naganadel is most frustrating to face when using offense. This is because Naganadel can easily pick up a kill using its z move without needing to set up, then the only way I can revenge is by using a scarfer which outspeeds it (many types don't have access to that kind of speed) or by priority, a lot of which doesn't 0hko it from full. Due to this I am often forced to sac another pokemon to draco meteor to lower its special attack so that I can then revenge it. I think that makes it too limiting both in game and during team building, so I will most likely be voting ban. Bulkier types such as normal and to an extent water through empoleon can deal with it more effectively, but in general Nagandel poses a huge threat to most types.
 
Naganadel is a really interesting Pokemon as it is unlike any other Pokemon that has recently been banned from Monotype (Magearna, Hoopa-U, Marshadow, etc.) One major point the I feel needs to be emphasized unlike the other two Pokemon I mentioned, Naganadel isn't unpredictable unlike Marshadow, Hoopa-U, and Magearna and it was suspect / quickban worthy with the standard Draco Meteor, Fire Blast, Sludge Wave, Nasty Plot set with Dragonium Z. This brings an unique case that hasn't been seen in Monotype, a Pokemon only able to run 1 set with no real variations and be suspect worthy.

The biggest issue I have with Naganadel is how it almost invalidates offense as a playstyle a prominent example being with Za Meowdo using PCM's hyper offensive Flying team and basically auto losing to it because Mega Charizard Y is one of very few Pokemon on a Flying team that can put a dent through Poison's defensive core. Naganadel forces the builder to build a bulkier team instead of a more offensively inclined one. For example say I'm building a Steel team one thing that is almost an absolute must is specially defensive Heatran because without it my Steel team would be extremely weak to Naganadel in general as +2 Devasting Drake OHKOs Offensive Heatran after Stealth Rock. With Naganadel being such a prominent threat do I want to auto lose to it at the cost of running an inferior set in Specially Defensive Heatran instead of Offensive Trapping Heatran. In this situation Naganadel is forcing an inferior set on both Fire and Steel just to have a reliable stop for Naganadel. This is especially controversial for Fire users as it only really helps against Poison matchup since it is basically an auto loss for Fire against Dragon, so most Fire teams won't use Specially Defensive Heatran.

It being fast in general with an almost perfect moveset doesn't push it over the edge. Beast Boost giving Naganadel a +1 Speed boost is what is pushing over the edge because after Naganadel picks up a kill it outspeed a majority of Scarf users such as Terrakion, Keldeo, and Gengar cannot revenge kill Naganadel because of the +1 Speed boost on top of its base 121 Speed, only being outsped by one viable Choice Scarfer in Choice Scarf Greninja. With the +1 Speed boost it makes it nearly impossible to revenge kill without strong priority along with a bit of chip damage because Naganadel has just enough bulk to survive powerful priority with a little bit of wiggle room. With the idea of strong priority it has made Choice Band Mamoswine a viable option necessary on Ground teams often at the opportunity cost of the utility Arena Trap Dugtrio provides and the luxury to switch moves that Life Orb Mamoswine has.

Naganadel might be good, but one of biggest issues with it in general is it sometimes needs to use Devastating Drake twice to bring certain bulky cores most notably Poison core of Alolan Muk, Mega Venusaur, and Toxapex. This makes Naganadel not as good against bulkier builds such as Normal, Steel, and Water some of most relevant types on the current suspect ladder outside of Poison and Dragon. This is evident as on the suspect ladder where bulky builds are prominent because of Naganadel being the main focus on the current suspect ladder people are trying to adapt to it, but it is causing some sub-optimal builds and sets such as Choice Scarf Noivern and Specially Defensive Heatran.

It is also evident that Naganadel is also limiting team options as Kommonium Z is rarely seen because of Naganadel's dominance on Dragon teams along with it invalidating Fighting completely a type that had high hopes coming into USUM with some of it's new additions, but to be fair to Naganadel it is unlikely Fighting will ever be as good as it was in the past. The point is Naganadel is putting restrictions on some types making previously viable options such as Choice Scarf Latios and Mega Altaria almost optional on Dragon teams. This is really alarming as it is drastically shifting the playstyle of mutiple types means Naganadel has some sort of impact on the metagame in the short time it has been apart of it.

Personally, Naganadel should be banned because of the drastic negative impact it has the Monotype metagame whether it it be forcing a player to play a certain way or use inferior sets just so they don't lose to it at team preview. Therefore, I will be voting to ban Naganadel.
 
For the first time, I will like to share my opinion on the suspect test with the laddering portion ending tonight. As many of you know, I have been M.I.A in the regular Monotype scene ever since Monothreat was introduced and transitioned to the main server but I finally completed my reqs for voting. Nonetheless, I feel Naganadel should be banned and here are my few reasons in no particular order:

Pros for Banning:
  1. Nasty Plot and Beast Boost
    1. This combination has already been talked about previously but it is still worth mentioning. As a Monothreat "main" if you will, I try to create all my teams with the ability to check a vast variety of threats so I do not get swept due to a lack of teambuilding; especially because I love to use balance. However, Naganadel makes this process incredibly difficult because not all types are equipped with a check for its type coverage, dual STAB, and always present stat boosts. The combination of NP + a speed boost, from Beast Boost, + being part Poison-type make this offensive threat more annoying than say Volcarona.
  2. Viability
    1. I would like to compare Naganadel to a past banned Pokemon from Monotype, Hoopa-U. Yes, Naganadel must set up or use a Z move to pose a threat unlike Hoopa-U nor has a range of varying sets at its disposal but both Pokemon are amazing wallbreakers. Just like Hoopa-U, if a Psychic or Dark team, more so Dark, did not have a Hoopa-U on their team, they already put themselves in a disadvantage because it is realistically saving at least two slots on the team during teambuilding. Naganadel is no different. I firmly believe there is no reason for it NOT to be on any Poison or Dragon team. Its role is unmatched for both types and it would be wasted potential for a team to not use Naganadel.

Pro for not Banning:
  1. Set Diversity
    1. The one pro for not banning Naganadel, in my opinion, would be the lack of set diversity. The mainstream set ran on Naganadel is obviously Z-Draco Meteor but I have seen a few that differed and were sub-optimal. I witnessed a Choice Scarf Naganadel which was mainly for the surprise factor for opposing Scarf users like Infernape who instinctively believe they will be faster. Other sets are HP Ground for Heatran and Z-T-Bolt to help destroy Flying. The lack of set diversity helps teambuilding with making checks to this menace.
These are my overall thoughts on Naganadel. As I stated earlier, I am a bit rusty when it comes to Regular Monotype so I only have a few top reasons for banning and not banning. Thanks for reading!
 
This is pretty late, but I might as well add my thoughts.

I believe that I'm in agreement with most others in saying that Naganadel should be banned. I'm not going to post a wall of calcs because I shouldn't have to show anyone how a +2 Z-move destroys so much of the metagame. Naganadel obviously isn't the only Pokémon that can achieve this level of power (although it does require a Nasty Plot before it does significant damage), but it has some qualities that turn it into a potent sweeper, one far more dangerous than other setup sweepers.

Nasty Plot + Moveset
I think everyone covered this well enough already, but yeah it's strong. One thing that I'd like to add on, however, is that Naganadel goes from 0 to 100 extremely quickly because of Nasty Plot, which affects how the opponent plays. Also, I don't see how Naganadel not having "set diversity" would be a reason to not ban it. Yeah, it only has one good set, but that set is extremely good. Just because you know what set is running, doesn't make it any easier to check, and this one set already has hardly any counters as is. and choice scarf is garbage

Amazing Speed tier + Beast Boost make Naganadel difficult to effectively check.
Naganadel doesn't just have a good Special Attack, it has a great Speed tier, which is further helped by +Speed Beast Boost. Once it gets the first KO and the +1 Speed, the only relevant things that can revenge kill it are Scarf Greninja, A-Raichu, and Jolly Sand Rush Excadrill, of which the latter two are unreliable. In Monotype, the conventional way to check something threatening is with a scarfer (Char-Y vs. Grass [Bulu], Mega Lopunny vs. Rock [Terrakion], etc.). You just can't do the same against Naganadel. You need something that can tank a +2 Z-Move and retaliate. Not many types have access to something like that, and I'm not just talking about the Grass or the Dragon mirror, where Naganadel's presence doesn't affect the matchup much. Bug, Fighting, Psychic, Flying, Steel, etc, don't have something that can do that. When you start seeing Occa Berry Jirachi in tours you know something's up.

Immediately Threatening Presence - Capability to Snowball
Once Naganadel gets switched in, it's going to Nasty Plot or simply attack. This puts you in a poor position; do you anticipate the Nasty Plot and attempt to weaken it? Do you go into your defensive check and hope that it doesn't go for the Nasty Plot? Questions like this commonly pop up during a match and aren't unique to Naganadel, but Naganadel has a way of utterly punishing the wrong decision very effectively, which usually ends up deciding the match. If it simply attacks, (since a smart Naganadel user would give it a favorable matchup) you're likely losing whatever you left in. Switching out as it goes for Nasty Plot leaves you with a healthy Naganadel at +2 staring you down with a Z-move. Either way you're left at a loss. In short, it's probably one of the best win conditions you could ask for.

Really, the main point that I could see for anti-ban is the fact that Naganadel is a little underwhelming before it gets that Nasty Plot, and it can't always get the Nasty Plot that it needs. My counter for that is the fact that Naganadel threatens the opponent with its ability to snowball in order to acquire those boosts more easily.
 
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