I'm under the impression that the council intends to vote tomorrow due to shifts happening on Saturday so I shall share my thoughts on Venusaur/Drought and Diggersby now.
Venusaur is still far too efficient at cleaning through teams with Drought being legal. Most people have to resort to unconventional methods to even keep Sun teams in check by running multiple counters in Goodra, SpD Tyranitar, Gigalith, Mamoswine, Flash Fire Chandelure, and Coalossal to handle the combination of Specs Charizard + Venusaur + second breaker of choice. In doing so most teams become structurally too weak to handle the rest of the metagame. With shifts, we only got one additional response capable of switching into Venusaur being Dragalge. Talonflame can revenge kill if it is at full health but you are putting yourself in a position where you a forced to Brave Bird and break your Gale Wings anyway. Aside from this nothing has changed when it comes to us having not enough ways to switch into or revenge kill Venusaur efficiently.
Charizard has also now emerged as a threat under Sun. While Charizard was legal the last time Venusaur was free I don't think anyone caught onto how devastating Choice Specs sets are under Sun. The OU sample is probably the most likely reason why it has gained so much traction. Solar Power boosted Weather Ball's, Fire Blast's, and Overheat's tear through pretty much anything including foes that resist said coverage. People have already shown how powerful it is with it being strong enough to 2HKO foes like Slowking, Dragalge, etc. Not to mention we have plenty more Pokemon that become a lot more problematic to switch into like Darmanitan, Noivern, Heliolisk, and Hatterene because Drought enables them to break through their checks substantially easier.
I was previously against Drought as a potential ban the last time this was discussed but I am more inclined to believe this would be a better approach this time around. Venusaur isn't the sole issue with Sun teams anymore, which previously made the playstyle fall completely under the radar with its ban. I've been replacing Venusaur with Shiftry and while it is definitely less effective at cleaning than Venusaur it does the job well enough with partners like Darmanitan and Charizard plowing holes through teams. I've seen discussion on banning Torkoal but there is nothing that stops you from using Ninetales. While you lose the role compression this can be remedied by putting SR on Blissey or using Hatterene + Noivern for removal as an example. R: Manual sun, we should focus on this if it proves to be problematic after a potential Drought ban. Teams being forced to set sun manually have commonly been rather flawed, as shown with rain teams, and I believe this is a gamble we should be fine with taking. If it is an issue then we can simply look at Heat Rock, which is something PU has done this gen. Though I don't see this likely being an issue.
As for Diggersby, UU doesn't benefit from having it in the tier. I don't think the logic that the metagame is faster matters as much when this generation has seen a substantial buff to pivoting and bringing in your partners easier/safely. Diggersby still has a respectable Speed tier that lets it outpace a good chunk of the metagame to fire off Huge Power boosted Body Slams/Mega Kicks or Earthquakes. While it is true we have more Ground immunities, which brings us up to about 5-6 good ones, only one of which actually resists its Normal STAB, this being Skarmory. However, Diggersby has no issue breaking through this with SD sets when it has access to coverage like Fire Punch, which notably allows it to also pressure Pokemon forced to use Shuca Berry's like Cobalion. Bronzong resists its STABs but it is also far more prone to the rest of its coverage. Said coverage being Knock Off and U-turn, which gives it the ability to run multiple sets efficiently like SD, Scarf, Band, Agility. This flexibility paired with the ability to bring it in so easily gives it more than enough opportunities to tear apart teams. Not to mention it having STAB priority to prevent certain foes like Crawdaunt or Keldeo reliably revenge killing it. This makes you far more reliant on using a faster Steel, Chandelure, or Lycanroc Dusk to comfortably take the hit. This is further worsened if you support it behind dual screens too. So, realistically we have one 'safe' switchin to the bunny with the rest being reliant on you predicting correctly whether it tries to set up or clicks X move. I'd prefer if this was sent back to UUBL, there is nothing gained from keeping it.
tl;dr I think Drought is worth looking at as the primary ban-worthy issue here. If the process has to go back through Policy Review then re-ban Venusaur and open up the discussion there again. Ban the bunny. Don't let
Lilburr vote, she can redeem herself if she bans Jirachi though :x
