Announcement Revenankh Nerf Reverted

[spoo]

Movepool: + Poltergeist
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Hello everyone! The SV CAP metagame council is happy to announce the reversion of Revenankh's nerf from earlier this generation.

In March of last year, Revenankh's consistently absurd performance as both a wallbreaker and a cleaner led to the necessary removal of Poltergeist from its movepool. I'll not reheash the entire original justification, and instead consult the original nerf thread to explain the rationale at the time.

One only needs to look at post-buff Revenankh's performance in CAPCL to understand why it's being nerfed. Sporting over an 80% winrate, the mummy has almost no reliable counterplay besides itemless Pokemon, with even "hard counters" like Tera Fairy Garganacl able to be worn down long-term. Backed by boosts from Spell Tag and Bulk Up, Revenankh's Tera Ghost Poltergeist nukes nearly every physical wall in the tier, and those that can tank it are blown past by priority Drain Punch. Support from Pokemon like Shed Tail Orthworm and Screens Grimmsnarl means that Revenankh has no shortage of setup opportunities and can bypass some of its traditional checks and counters. This mon is an absolute semi-truck of a wallbreaker and we could not continue to leave it alone in good conscience.

Tera Ghost Revenakh with Poltergeist reached a threat level that few modern OU Pokemon could hope to compare to. However, Poltergeist Revenankh also existed at the peak of Shed Tail's dominance over the meta, meaning Revenankh had trivial access to essentially ideal setup opportunities––especially when we consider that its best check at the time, Tera Fairy Garganacl, couldn't threaten Salt Cure with a Substitute in the way. Screens were also much more consistent than they currently are, once again empowering Revenankh to set up in the face of some of its strongest theoretical counterplay. Some of Revenankh's best partners in crime on these structures, like Baxcalibur and Espathra, are now long gone from the tier. Finally, Pokemon Home and two DLCs have since raised the overall power level of the metagame to a point where we feel comfortable testing the waters with Poltergeist once more.

However, at present time, we are doing no more than just that: testing the waters. Given Revenankh's access to Poltergeist in Gen 8, we hope that meta changes have now rendered Poltergeist as a balanced option that can maintain intergenerational parity between CAP creations, with the potentially positive metagame effects of Revenankh's increased viability represnting a secondary but important benefit as well. With that said, this nerf reversion is not necessarily permanent. While the overall power level of the metagame has increased, it stands to be seen whether Revenankh's counterplay has increased alongside it. New physical walls like Skarmory, Clefable, and to an extent Gliscor are still largely helpless against the power of Spell Tag boosted Tera Ghost Poltergeist; new physical powerhouses like Ogerpon-Wellspring are brushed off after a single Bulk Up, while new special powerhouses like Specs Kyurem and Deoxys-Speed are easily dispatched with priority Drain Punch and Shadow Sneak; its previous best check, Garganacl, is simply not as viable as it was before Revenankh's past dominance; and even the two new CAPs since Revenankh's nerf, Hemogoblin and Cresceidon, can accomplish very little once Revenankh uses its Tera.

The metagame council promised to revisit Revenankh's nerf after Pokemon Home, and at this point after the second DLC, we believe now is a good time to retest Poltergeist's strength. We are optimistic about the results but will nonetheless be carefully monitoring Revenankh following the move's addition. Lastly, Poltergeist will not be immediately implemented, and will instead go live alongside the DLC2 movepool updates after their discussion finishes in a week's time.