Hi all - if you've been keeping up with ORAS UU games within the past couple of months, you'll have noticed that hyper offense has reached an all time high in usage. Froslass as a lead is very consistent in commanding the first few turns; unless you have Mega Absol, the Froslass user is essentially guaranteed a spike, and there are very few responses that the opponent can have t hat isn't disadvantageous in the long term given it being able to Taunt basically every Defog user barring Crobat, and DBond / Cursed Body making it so that any move clicked is essentially walking on egg shells. Alongside that, rockers like Nidoking and especially Krookodile keep up offensive momentum and, more importantly, can consistently maintain hazards up, which is then usually followed by any number of offensive wincons like Slurpuff, Gyarados, Venomoth, Cloyster, etc. to wreak havoc.
Now all this is the usual for this type of framework; however, what has pushed it over the edge imo and has drawn the ire of pretty much everyone who has played the tier and loves it otherwise is Slurpuff. In simplest terms, it's the backbone of what makes these teams so dominant. The sequencing required for the Slurpuff user to get it into an optimal position is fairly minimal, because it has just enough bulk and just enough speed to where getting a Belly Drum off and cleaning up shop happens more often than not. Of course, this isn't to say that there's a lack of dedicated answers to it. A lot of mons that are great / splashable otherwise can handle it one on one, mostly bulky steels that aren't Empoleon. However, the issues with this lie in that you are shoehorned into using them ONLY for Slurpuff, because even a marginal amount of chip from anything else means they become much more at risk for getting nuked straight, which opens up the rest of the team to Slurpuff's partners. Beyond that, games pan out such that even if Slurpuff itself dies, then there's something else waiting in the wings waiting to finish the job - this replay that happened just last night displays this perfectly.
There might be an argument to be made for alternative courses of action, such as banning Froslass, who is the facilitator of these teams and is flat out better than any and every suicide lead by itself, or other sweepers like Venomoth that have also been shown to snowball similarly to Slurpuff. That being said, I think banning Slurpuff cuts off the largest part of the issue immediately for a few reasons. Firstly, Slurpuff doesn't need spikes as badly as other mons in its place, and screens offense teams have been used here and there (albeit much much less because the screens setters can't actually prevent Defog and their utility pales in comparison to Froslass). I guess one way to put it would be that the non Slurpuff mons need it much more than the other way around. Aside from that, Slurpuff's defensive utility is a big part of why these games end up going the way they do. It can set up on mons that would otherwise thrash hyper offense like Mega Aero, and Scarf Hydrei / Mienshao. Its presence by itself essentially makes scarfers a liability, which leads to revenge killing it being an option that is rarely if ever actually available. The other teammates have it much worse in terms of their openings, and the ones they do get are bolstered by what Slurpuff does on its own. When it comes to the presence of the other mons, I think keeping Lass HO and other core win conditions is a good thing for the tier, because having something to punish standard balances is never a bad thing on its own. but what Slurpuff does pushes it far beyond that to the point where the tier is nigh unplayable.
On a personal level, in both UU Snake last year and UUPL this year me and my teammates spent an obscene amount of time, basically hours, brainstorming how exactly to play the matchup against one specific team, scrapping ideas if they didn't pan out even slightly favorably. Almost every matchup is skewed to where if you are using teams like this, the lines to victory are very linear and you barely have to put in any thought while the other side has to dance around multiple different scenarios just to get to a point where they might not get cleaned on the spot. This is not the sign of a good metagame, and I think a ban on the cupcake is sorely needed in order to save what is otherwise a very fun tier. I implore anyone who has played ORAS UU within the past few months to share their thoughts, because I think it's evident that we are headed in a very bad direction if this isn't voted on soon.
Now all this is the usual for this type of framework; however, what has pushed it over the edge imo and has drawn the ire of pretty much everyone who has played the tier and loves it otherwise is Slurpuff. In simplest terms, it's the backbone of what makes these teams so dominant. The sequencing required for the Slurpuff user to get it into an optimal position is fairly minimal, because it has just enough bulk and just enough speed to where getting a Belly Drum off and cleaning up shop happens more often than not. Of course, this isn't to say that there's a lack of dedicated answers to it. A lot of mons that are great / splashable otherwise can handle it one on one, mostly bulky steels that aren't Empoleon. However, the issues with this lie in that you are shoehorned into using them ONLY for Slurpuff, because even a marginal amount of chip from anything else means they become much more at risk for getting nuked straight, which opens up the rest of the team to Slurpuff's partners. Beyond that, games pan out such that even if Slurpuff itself dies, then there's something else waiting in the wings waiting to finish the job - this replay that happened just last night displays this perfectly.
There might be an argument to be made for alternative courses of action, such as banning Froslass, who is the facilitator of these teams and is flat out better than any and every suicide lead by itself, or other sweepers like Venomoth that have also been shown to snowball similarly to Slurpuff. That being said, I think banning Slurpuff cuts off the largest part of the issue immediately for a few reasons. Firstly, Slurpuff doesn't need spikes as badly as other mons in its place, and screens offense teams have been used here and there (albeit much much less because the screens setters can't actually prevent Defog and their utility pales in comparison to Froslass). I guess one way to put it would be that the non Slurpuff mons need it much more than the other way around. Aside from that, Slurpuff's defensive utility is a big part of why these games end up going the way they do. It can set up on mons that would otherwise thrash hyper offense like Mega Aero, and Scarf Hydrei / Mienshao. Its presence by itself essentially makes scarfers a liability, which leads to revenge killing it being an option that is rarely if ever actually available. The other teammates have it much worse in terms of their openings, and the ones they do get are bolstered by what Slurpuff does on its own. When it comes to the presence of the other mons, I think keeping Lass HO and other core win conditions is a good thing for the tier, because having something to punish standard balances is never a bad thing on its own. but what Slurpuff does pushes it far beyond that to the point where the tier is nigh unplayable.
On a personal level, in both UU Snake last year and UUPL this year me and my teammates spent an obscene amount of time, basically hours, brainstorming how exactly to play the matchup against one specific team, scrapping ideas if they didn't pan out even slightly favorably. Almost every matchup is skewed to where if you are using teams like this, the lines to victory are very linear and you barely have to put in any thought while the other side has to dance around multiple different scenarios just to get to a point where they might not get cleaned on the spot. This is not the sign of a good metagame, and I think a ban on the cupcake is sorely needed in order to save what is otherwise a very fun tier. I implore anyone who has played ORAS UU within the past few months to share their thoughts, because I think it's evident that we are headed in a very bad direction if this isn't voted on soon.
