I didn't articulate myself super well in my original post, and I'm starting to see a lot of people just pick on the phrase "50/50" (it has literally been tossed around 19 times in this thread so far). I regret typing that, since it was shortsighted on my end to word it like that, and just wasn't the right way to put across what's on my mind about the move. So, I'm gonna take a second swing at this.
First of all: obviously it's too early to ban this move or anything like that, so I just want to nip this in the bud before people imply I'm saying otherwise. The move just got its Move Tutor distribution recently, and aside from a few Invitational matches we haven't seen it used in high level play yet.
Second of all. and more importantly, I do see a few potentially unhealthy aspects to Ally Switch. I'm not saying they warrant any action against the move now, I'm just saying there are a few potential trends to watch for:
Ally Switch is the new Follow Me, and some bulky AF Pokemon get it now
Follow Me and Rage Powder aren't considered broken or bad for the meta, mainly because the distribution is limited to basically Amoonguss, Togekiss, Clefairy, and some other Pokemon nobody uses. Yet Jirachi was banned earlier in Gen 7 because its good bulk, combined with its excellent defensive typing, made it too good at its job (to the point where Fire-types and Ground-types were nearly mandatory on teams).
In USUM, Ally Switch's expanded distribution included really bulky Pokemon like Cresselia, as well as decently bulky Pokemon with specifically good defensive typing, like Bronzong (Steel/Psychic) and Rotom-W (Water/Electric with Levitate). These Pokemon can spam Ally Switch (or bluff it) to tank attacks that a specific partner doesn't want to. As one example, Cresselia or Rotom-W can use Ally Switch to protect a Mega Salamence, Zygarde or Landorus-T while they set up a Dragon Dance or Swords Dance.
In essence, Ally Switch accomplishes the same thing as Follow Me, just in a slightly different way. It is objectively worse than Follow Me from the user's end, since it can be countered by a hard read from the opponent. From the opponent's end, Ally Switch doesn't present any new 50/50s that redirectors like Amoonguss can't already pose with Rage Powder / Protect mind games. So in essence, it's a weak arguement to say that Ally Switch itself is broken if you're currently OK with Rage Powder and Follow Me being allowed.
The distribution of this move was really wide though, and it included a lot of highly viable Pokemon as well as a lot of Pokemon with defenses comparable to Jirachi's. We'll need to see more matches with Ally Switch in action to know if there are any Pokemon that make it a problem, and it's very likely if we get to that point that we'll be more likely to question the Pokemon rather than the move. All I'm saying here is Ally Switch's new distribution is comparable to a bunch of new Pokemon getting Follow Me, and Jirachi is proof that redirection can be unhealthy when the right (or wrong?, idk) Pokemon is using it.
Ally Switch is also a pseudo-Protect that doesn't burn out
Follow Me and Rage Powder serve one purpose, and serve that purpose well. Ally Switch can be used as a "fake" redirection move, but can also be used as a panic button on more offensive Pokemon like Stakataka, Mega Gengar, or any number of Pokemon with exploitable weaknesses to single-target moves. Unlike Protect, which has a good chance to fail if used consecutively, Ally Switch can be used endlessly. Pokemon with flexible third slots like Mega Gengar particularly worry me, because they can use both Protect and Ally Switch in the same set to bypass Protect's burnout (or to save Protect for a spread move like Earthquake). Some offensive Pokemon, like Mega Metagross, have good defensive typing AND can use Ally Switch as a panic button, making Ally Switch a pretty good two-for-one move.
This is all in theory, anyway. It goes without saying we need a bigger sample size of competitive matches with offensive Pokemon using Ally Switch before any conclusions can be made.
New toy fatigue / variable overload
This isn't a valid argument in terms of Ally Switch's role in competitive play, but I'm just going to address what I feel might be an elephant in the room: there are so many teambuilding variables to account for in Gen 7, and it's getting really fatiguing to account for all of them.
I might catch some flak for going here, but I'm gonna do it anyways. (And as a disclaimer: I've really enjoyed Gen 7. It's the first meta I actually entered from the beginning, whereas Gen 6 to me felt like I was always playing catch-up with more experienced players that actually knew what they were doing.)
Sometimes it can be really fucking tiring to build teams that account for:
- everything that mattered in XY and earlier, plus:
- the terrains
- Marshadow
- an absurd speed creep in the metagame
- the fact that there are 802 Pokemon to account for now, and
- on top of all this, you throw something like expanded Ally Switch distribution into the mix.
Like idk, maybe it's a matter of "git good" or whatever, but at what point is it going to be acceptable to just say that there's a lot going on in this game now and it's tiring to keep pace with the changes? Even if a game is technically balanced, that doesn't matter if people stop having fun playing it, or if the barrier for entry becomes too complex for a sufficient amount of new players to replace the old ones that eventually outgrow mons and leave. I'm not saying I'm at that point personally (if I was, I probably wouldn't have wasted my time writing this post) but I've seen a lot of people say they miss the older generations and I feel like this overload of variables to account for might be a factor.
All I'm saying is yeah, maybe sometimes some people do take an overly strong "kneejerk" stance to something new - but maybe sometimes there's a reason for it that goes beyond people caring about Smogon politics and goes into whether or not they're still having a good time playing this game.
And with all that said...
Having talked myself through the pros and cons of Ally Switch in writing this post, I'm not still entirely convinced it's as bad as I thought it would be. I do still think it's worth keeping an eye on, but it's not a super, super broken move. Time will tell.