The DPP council has unanimously voted to ban Swagger from OU.
We saw Substitute + Swagger Mamoswine in week 1 of SPL as well as Substitute + Swagger Jirachi in week 3. The former allows Mamoswine to beat checks such as Skarmory and Bronzong after they've been statused, while the latter in tandem with its Body Slam paraspreading takes the game significantly out of the opponent's hands with extremely low odds to attack combined with Iron Head flinch chance, further exacerbated by Jirachi's unparalleled moveset flexibility. It's important to make clear that this is not a knee-jerk reaction to just two uses of the move in SPL. Many DPP players have agreed that Swagger is a problematic aspect of the metagame prior to the tournament, allowing restrictive Pokemon to beat counters that they have no business beating by spinning the wheel for around 50% odds.
From my personal experience using Swagger, I found that a surprising number of Pokemon can make very effective use of it. One of my favorite examples is Substitute + Swagger Flygon, who can use Swagger + status spreading (paralysis or burn) strategies to beat opposing Gliscor, Skarmory, and Bronzong, which are some of the only solid checks. I strongly believe that Swagger is the best filler option on the Substitute set and that having this set soar in popularity would be a hugely negative influence on the metagame, as Flygon is quickly becoming one of the most viable Pokemon. Rather than wait for Swagger to inevitably receive more usage in SPL and all across the board, we want to be proactive and instate a ban before it becomes even more of an issue.
Tagging Marty and Kris to implement this, thank you!
We saw Substitute + Swagger Mamoswine in week 1 of SPL as well as Substitute + Swagger Jirachi in week 3. The former allows Mamoswine to beat checks such as Skarmory and Bronzong after they've been statused, while the latter in tandem with its Body Slam paraspreading takes the game significantly out of the opponent's hands with extremely low odds to attack combined with Iron Head flinch chance, further exacerbated by Jirachi's unparalleled moveset flexibility. It's important to make clear that this is not a knee-jerk reaction to just two uses of the move in SPL. Many DPP players have agreed that Swagger is a problematic aspect of the metagame prior to the tournament, allowing restrictive Pokemon to beat counters that they have no business beating by spinning the wheel for around 50% odds.
From my personal experience using Swagger, I found that a surprising number of Pokemon can make very effective use of it. One of my favorite examples is Substitute + Swagger Flygon, who can use Swagger + status spreading (paralysis or burn) strategies to beat opposing Gliscor, Skarmory, and Bronzong, which are some of the only solid checks. I strongly believe that Swagger is the best filler option on the Substitute set and that having this set soar in popularity would be a hugely negative influence on the metagame, as Flygon is quickly becoming one of the most viable Pokemon. Rather than wait for Swagger to inevitably receive more usage in SPL and all across the board, we want to be proactive and instate a ban before it becomes even more of an issue.
Tagging Marty and Kris to implement this, thank you!