Why blaziken banned

Support-wise, Excadrill remains the best offensive spinner in the tier, with only Swift Swim Kabutops giving it a run for its money. Truly, Rapid Spinning with Excadrill is far from a chore. The other viable role Excadrill can play is as a physical sweeper in sand.

Now let me make this clear: this Excadrill set needs sand support. The above bulky Rapid Spin set functions well in multiple weathers, and can take a hit or two because it has solid defensive investment. The Achilles heel of this sweeping set is that all it takes is a weather change to ruin Excadrill's day.

However, should Sandstorm constantly remain in play, Excadrill will be fast enough to set up, and then start wreaking havoc. It's finally very important to mention that Leftovers and and Air Balloon can be wonderful items for both sets. An Air Balloon can let Excadrill outright wall Gliscor, one of the mole's hardest counters, and even turn it into set-up fodder before the balloon is popped. Meanwhile, Leftovers lets Excadrill stomach more hits, and have an easier time beating Skarmory, another prominent check.

When talking about teammates, checks, and counters, Kyogre immediately stands out. Excadrill really has a love-hate relationship with the leviathan.

If it's on your team, you can use it to deal with Excadrill's checks, e. Grass Arceus is universally helpful to Excadrill though, being able to check both Kyogre and Groudon. Meanwhile, the sweeping set needs Tyranitar or Hippowdon. As for counters, Skarmory, Gliscor, and Bronzong are hell for the mole, as they sponge any attack Excadrill throws at them. Truly, if Excadrill is used correctly, you'll find that it's one mighty mole!

Being ranked 1 in OU usage is a testament to just how powerful Genesect really was. Meanwhile, it could use its great special attacking prowess to deck dragons with Ice Beam, roast Grass-, Steel-, Ice-, and Bug-types with Flamethrower, and fry Water- and Flying-types with Thunderbolt. Needless to say, on November 30th, , Genesect was banned to Ubers, a victory for organic life forms everywhere.

But the cyborg could not be forgotten, and today, Genesect's danger has definitely not diminished. Currently, Genesect's premier mode is, once again, with Choice Scarf, enabling it to slowly whittle down an opponent's team through hit-and-run tactics.

Given how well Genesect can chip away at a team, it can then become outright incredible if given hazard support from the likes of Deoxys-S or support Dialga. This is not to say Genesect is nigh on invincible.

Despite having U-turn to flee from potential checks, this cyborg can be beat by those such as Reshiram, Steel Arceus, Ho-Oh, and specially defensive Giratina.

Also, because Genesect will switch out so often via U-turn, hazards—particularly Spikes—will really eat through its HP, leaving it vulnerable to priority attacks from the likes of Extreme Killer Arceus. Fitting with the terminator vibe, Genesect is a fiercely independent predator, and doesn't need much help to put the hurt on its enemies.

As mentioned earlier, reliable hazard setters such as Deoxys-S and Dialga are great partners. Forretress also deserves a mention—while it's also weak to fire, it can set up hazards, spin them away, Toxic bulky threats, or keep the momentum of battle on your side with Volt Switch. Tentacruel can play a similar role to Forretress, providing a safe switch-in to any oncoming fire attacks, and then being able to spin away hazards while setting up some of its own.

Kyogre also pairs well with Genesect because one of Kyogre's major checks, Latias, almost becomes a liability when you have a Genesect. Finally, Ho-Oh can be a fantastic partner by letting Genesect U-turn away from threats, sponging Fire-type attacks, and then switching back into Genesect at the right time, restoring its own health through Regenerator.

Seriously, at the end of the day, Genesect remains one deadly machine in Ubers, being able to do serious damage to most of the tier. The ancient Greeks worshiped a being named Zeus. Zeus is the king of the gods, being able to harness lightning to strike down all who dare go against him.

With a shockingly high base Special Attack, an incredible base Attack, and a solid base Speed working in tandem with his wonderful Prankster ability, Thundurus was able to smite down almost any OU opposition. But it was with rain via Politoed that Thundurus could do real damage. A perfectly accurate STAB Thunder would fry just about anything that dared stand against the genie, allowing it to dominate the tier. Even faster revenge killers could be shut down via a Prankster Thunder Wave, making Thundurus even harder to stop.

All in all, Thundurus was fast, ferocious, and demanded attention. After much outcry, Thundurus was finally banned in October of There are two major roles that Thundurus can perform in its new tier.

It can function as a Prankster user, or can use Nasty Plot to turn into a frighteningly powerful special sweeper. Rillaboom is another that falls in the Series 5 popularity category, then banned in Series 6. Never has two starter Pokemon from the same game receive a ban.

It was a short experiment, but the impact lasted. Rillaboom saw an incredible amount of competitive usage, especially as the Gigantamax 'mon on most teams. The Series 6 ban, with so many other Pokemon, was downright frustrating for some. Blaziken may be the most overpowered starter Pokemon ever. Originally, there was no issue.

Speed Boost's hidden ability is what saw it receive a ban. Speed Boost did exactly what it says. At the end of every turn, it would gain a point to its speed stat. One Protect could easily see it outspeed every opposing Pokemon. It was deemed utterly ridiculous, and only special, unofficial tournaments allowed Blaziken.

New User posted their first comment. It was a huge limiting factor and ruined the flow of the game, hence the ban. The controversial Shiftry card released in the Next Destinies expansion also caused a huge issue. This could only be done once, on playing Shiftry to evolve a Pokemon, but it formed a totally broken combo with Forest of Giant Plants allowing Giant Fan to kick in multiple times. After Forest of Giant Plants was banned itself, Shiftry was again permitted for use in the Expanded format.

This is where the whole policy of banning some Pokemon and allowing others gets deeply shonky. Then, all it needs to do is fire off a Dazzling Gleam or Moonblast, boosted by Fairy Aura, and melt the opposition into a puddle of happy, rainbow-colored mess like one of those Unicorn Frappuccinos from Starbucks. Now, these are the sorts of Pokemon that get under some people's skin the most.

With its fiendish shenanigans, mostly. As reported over on Screen Rant , though, it has often been banned from tournament play. As competitive Pokemon players know, a balanced team with well-defined roles is the key to success. Among other things, players pack sweepers, clerics, and dedicated walls.

So why is Gliscor banned? Whenever players see Gliscor, they can usually be sure that they're in for a long and frustrating battle. It has the Poison Heal ability, and will almost always carry a Toxic Orb to take advantage of that. In its standard form, Greninja surprised a lot of players. It may not have Protean, but it has something even more potent in its place: Battle Bond. It has some truly excessive stats in this form and is rightly forbidden.

Anyone who has dabbled in competitive Pokemon over the last decade or so has almost certainly encountered this thing. Its defenses are some of the best in the game, and it has a great healing move Moonlight to sustain itself.

It can happily boost itself and dish out some nice damage, too. Trick Room? Helping Hand? Its attacks blow through OU like its nothing, specifically the 4 attacks Life Orb set.. Offensive teams struggle to get past it, defensive teams just get pounded due to its ability to hit on both sides of the spectrum.

Aegislash and Scizor are two of the few reliable switch-ins that aren't a liability in OU unlike Spiritomb , and even then they fear Fire Punch, which ties in with.. Its movepool is amazing. The only move you know for sure that it has is Psycho Boost, and maybe Superpower.

From that point on, it's a guessing game to what it might have. This is without mentioning sets with Spikes and Magic Coat as a surprise factor. Unlike Deoxys-S, Deoxys-N does major damage with Psycho Boost and Superpower to anything that tries to spin or Defog away hazards, with the exception of literally only Mandibuzz and Scizor, who fear certain super effective moves regardless if Deoxys-N decides to carry them.

It's faster than almost everything.