GG Godly Gift

Sectonia

But I set fire to the rain
is a Tiering Contributoris a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Staff Alumnus
With home out, I'm excited to see where Godly Gift will be going. With that said, though, I do think we have a bunch of threats that should be dealt with soon. Most of them have already been mentioned earlier, but I really want to emphasize that Magearna is incredibly powerful, and with its wide access to speed donors (or even HP donors, although I think Speed is the best stat for Magearna to receive right now because it's absurdly fat and powerful), the sets with setup are incredibly difficult to handle, especially since it has amazing bulk to use, and an amazing typing. If OU does not handle the Magearna problem for us, I think Magearna should be banned as soon as it is reasonably possible to do so. I've been given a screens team with Zacian-C and speed receiver Magearna, and it's as fucked up as you'd think it'd be.

After the meta settles down, and we've gotten rid of the biggest offenders in this metagame, I think Groudon would stand to be a nice god to have, since it recently got Will-O-Wisp this generation, meaning it can spread status much better without needing Lava Plume.
:sv/Groudon: :rocky-helmet:
Groudon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Drought
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Will-O-Wisp
- Precipice Blades
- Rock Slide

I made a team with this set with some help from Hizo, and I think Groudon is really nice at harassing physical attackers as long as it has Wish support (like Alomomola or Scream Tail, for example). If you already have a Stealth Rock setter, it could run Spikes over Stealth Rock, or you could change the 4th slot to be something else, like stronger coverage, different coverage, or even other utility options if you want to keep Will-O-Wisp as well. With Kyogre around though, you basically need to make sure you don't auto-lose to Kyogre with either a water immunity or a sturdy water resist, so I feel like Kyogre will probably be problematic down the line once we've taken care of most of the currently concerning Pokemon.

I am, at the very least, happy that we finally have more viable gods than Miraidon and Koraidon now, and I'm especially happy with the return of Arceus, but I do hope we iron out the problem elements as soon as possible for a better metagame soon.
 

KarpeChan

Banned deucer.
Good evening, your resident Calyrex-Ice apogoist here to briefly talk about day 2 Trick Room.

:magearna: | :braviary-hisui: | :toedscruel: | :calyrex-ice: | :slowbro: | :hoopa:

TL;DR Instruction Manual
Lead Slowbro and improvise lol.

Overview
Calrex-Ice Trick Room is unfortunately kinda sucks right now and is somewhat fishy, mainly due to the de-existing of teleport. I do think it's still viable to an extent, as hard switching or sacking can get the job done, especially against bulker pokemon. TR is also more weak to many big breakers this gen like Kyogre, Miraidon, Chien-Pao, Dragapult, etc as a result of mid setters. Lead Slowbro tech helps mitigate that to an extent but you have to rely on play around them and sacrafice to bring in your breakers if need be. This is TR after all, sacks are necessary. Take calculated risks and play aggressively. Once the major, watchlist level mons get banned, options for Trick Room teams will open up and it will most likely be less fishy. Here are 2 interesting abusers I want to expand on:

:sv/braviary-hisui:
Monkey see, Monkey click

I think everyone can tell what this set does; 165 Tinted Brave Birds OHKOs everything offensive and 2HKOs everything else, the pinnacle of TR breaking. OHKOs include offensive Treads, SpD Heatran, a bunch of other steels/elecs/rocks, and most SpD mons. Out of my several dozen test games on ladder and with Tea Guzzler (tyvm) I have clicked CC twice and U-turn once. Click TR with a setter, ???, Braviary-H is in and claims at least 2, repeat.

:sv/hoopa:
Nice Protect bro

I originally just added this thing to cope against Extreme Speed, but it's surprisingly strong and can pivot in on most moderately strong special attacks and retaliate. It's barely not strong enough to break things at +0, though it often has the leeway to click NP on weaker attacks, its coverage is also quite excellent.

Other Options
TR must run several set mons in order to handle the current metagame, as such, other options are quite limited. I have tested Cresselia as it is the face of TR in many tiers (and a bunch of other setters), but those styles were horribly weak to either the SpA gods or the Darks and Ghosts. Drifblim could be viable as a setter in Defense to take Hoopa's place as the Extremekiller answer, and slotting in a fat AV Fighter (most likely Hariyama or Crabominable) could help with the weakness to Darks and Ghosts. Slight moveset tweaks such as Destiny Bond last on Hoopa are obviously not out of the question. This might be the superior option tbh, but it's midnight. One major point I didn't cover is 'what about other gods?' yea good question it's day 2 i'll test more later.

I rate Trick Room 3 breaking opportunities out of 8 Specs Miraidon Dracos in terms of viability and 165 dead Steels out of 424 Brave Bird recoil coupons in terms of fun.

i'm probably blind and missed the most obvious editing/spelling/grammar mistake
 

HiZo

我が為に苦しめ。我が為に狂い泣け。我が為に死ね。
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Magearna is super fun and definitely hope to use it in OMPL.
I've been given a screens team with Zacian-C and speed receiver Magearna, and it's as fucked up as you'd think it'd be.
Here's that incredibly fun screens team if you feel inclined to use it on the ladder.

:dragapult: :lilligant-hisui: :volcarona: :zacian-crowned: :chien-pao: :magearna:

Is it good? Who cares, I haven't lost on ladder with it.
If you are scared of fairy and psychic resists you can just run max speed and shadow ball over shift gear, but it's stored power so it can just ohko resists anyways.
 

Sectonia

But I set fire to the rain
is a Tiering Contributoris a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Staff Alumnus
are people on the council already talking/thinking about this mon? yes

am i the most qualified person to talk about this mon? no

who are you getting to talk about this mon in this post? me ;w;

:sv/dragapult: Dragapult :sv/dragapult:

I'm sure Dragapult needs no introduction by any average Godly Gift builders and players, as it is a terror that blasts enemies with a donated Special Attack stat usually higher than its base stat of 100 (120+ preferably) and using its 142 base speed to its full advantage to ensure that not many optimal options exist as counterplay.

:sv/dragapult: :choice_specs:
Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- U-turn

This is the set that will be discussed the most in this post, although Dragapult definitely has some niche other uses (like the screens setter in hizo's team above that uses the now ubers magearna). One thing I should note is that Flamethrower is not even a guaranteed 4th move, as I've seen options like Hex and Surf in that slot when the team composition allows for it, so some of my talking points later can become moot when considering these move options.

:dragapult:
This Dragapult almost always find itself in the Special Attack slot if the donating god has an acceptable amount of Sp. Atk to donate (I've said this already but it's usually at least 120) - in exchange it leverages said Special Attack stat and its mindboggling Speed to essentially double the offensive output of a god - this isn't necessarily bad since this whole metagame is based around receiving stats from a god, but Dragapult turns this quirk of the metagame up to 11 with its speed, meaning that you are now facing a pokemon with two tremendously high offensive stats (in this case, Sp. Atk and Spe) and very little way to counterplay since the Speed takes away most good ways to revenge kill it, and the Special Attack stat hurts a lot of tanks that would aspire to give us defensive counterplay.

This, I personally believe, is already harming the variety in teambuilding - if you are attempting to use a god and it has a good Special Attack stat, it feels as though Dragapult essentially has a monopoly on it, as other options feel worse compared to Dragapult. But I think that this effect extends to the other team slots sheerly because of Dragapult's power - the most notable one I'll talk about is the god, but I believe that the relevant effect applies to the designated special tank on the team (if one is included) as well.

:sv/eternatus:
1008.gif

Dragapult affects the god slot primarily by its synergy with said god - with the options of gods, it's inevitable that you may end up stacking types with Dragapult - some immediate examples I could think of is Miraidon and Eternatus. Both Miraidon and Eternatus can form a Dragon spam core with Dragapult, but Miraidon is noticably worse than Eternatus due to being easily replacable by Dragapult itself. Miraidon is a fast and strong special attacking god, but as I've alluded to in the prior sentence, its qualities aren't necessarily enough to overcome the issues of stacking Dragon-types on a team with Dragapult - sure, it has 135 Sp. Atk, 135 Spe and Hadron Engine, but these qualities alone aren't enough to overcome shared checks that Dragapult and Miraidon would have (Ting-Lu comes to mind first) and as a result, Dragapult essentially does everything Miraidon does, and Miraidon doesn't offer enough benefits to be worth considering on a team with Dragapult. Contrast this to Eternatus, who offers a Poison typing, 140 HP, 145 Special Attack, 130 Speed, and move options to allow Dragapult to explore alternative move options. Although this is another Dragon core, Eternatus has more qualities to offer. It has a Poison typing, for example, which is stellar at threatening Fairy types, thus making their Dragon STABs more spammable, but it also has move options such as Toxic Spikes, Toxic, or even Sludge Bomb itself, that allows Dragapult to explore options like Hex to deal more damage, and they can collectively wear down shared checks through different means. As such, Eternatus brings enough to the table that Dragapult wouldn't be able to conceivably replace Eternatus to the point where you'd barely notice a difference.

:sv/arceus: :sv/rayquaza:
The point of the tangent above is to highlight an issue. I firmly believe that Dragapult is the best pokemon to receive a Special Attack stat from the god on the team, with very few exceptions, and because of this constraint, it actively hurts the viability of other gods in the context of Dragapult. And this is only when the team itself is only being considered. When you include the fact that you will be facing opponents and will need to prepare for threats, Dragapult's influence begins to show more. Just considering the gods alone, Dragapult hurts the viability of Arceus-Normal and Rayquaza - both formidable threats on their own, but held in check largely by how Dragapult threatens to take out the god and then run the battle to its desires. Arceus can't freely use Extreme Speed with Dragapult around, and is currently forced to use Shadow Claw to reasonably have a chance to force it out - this means that it can't revenge kill Dragapult, which is bad because it means Dragapult usually gets to click moves vs it with little actual consequences. Even max HP Arceus stands to be revenge-killed by Dragapult if it's not set up as, with some chip, Dragapult will 2hko Arceus with Draco Meteor. (252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor over 2 turns vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Arceus: 385-456 (86.7 - 102.7%) -- 12.5% chance to 2HKO) This calc is with 120 Sp. Atk, the general minimum that Dragapult wants. When you go higher, it makes it easier to force out Arceus if it's not set up. (252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor over 2 turns vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Arceus: 443-523 (99.7 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to 2HKO) This is from Eternatus donor, so 145 Special Attack means that not much can reasonably survive hits. Rayquaza is another god that would have viability by virtue of donating 150 Attack and 150 Special Attack, but has some synergy problems with Dragapult and also loses to Dragapult because it can't revenge kill with Extreme Speed. If Rayquaza doesn't want to auto lose to Dragapult, it needs to either set up to +1 speed already or be running Choice Scarf. (don't run choice scarf) I won't even go into Miraidon because Dragapult is basically Miraidon but better, so Miraidon's kinda screwed lol

:choice_scarf:
1003.gif
980.gif

Dragapult's influence over receivers can be noted too in that it essentially demands either a Choice Scarf revenge killer, some form of priority that isn't Normal-type, and/or a special tank that can comfortably eat ghost and dragon moves. Most of them are fine already as normal building options, but the demand that Dragapult places on teambuilding can be punishing if you don't meet said demands. The special tank thing is especially troublesome, because Kyogre is still a threat to think about, so you will normally want something to be able to sponge hits from Kyogre, but you may be in a position where you find it difficult to fit Dragapult answers while also being able to beat Kyogre, and I'm not sure what you can really do if you end up facing Kyogre + Dragapult teams. I acknowledge that Kyogre isn't necessarily an enormous threat at the moment due to the faster metagame, but I personally think that Kyogre is still a force to be reckoned with, and you should always respect it in some way lest it runs through your team.

I'll end this post by saying that I believe that Dragapult is broken and should be banned, and I strongly support quickbanning Dragapult in the near future largely because of all the constraints Dragapult puts on teambuilding while also simulanteously being an oppressive force in battles. I also believe that tiering receivers should be the higher priority at the moment before looking into gods themselves once we take action on Dragapult, as I think some gods may seem a little overblown since they're donating to very strong receivers (Dragapult and Great Tusk anyone?)
 

Greybaum

GENTLEMAN, THIS IS DEMOCRACY MANIFEST
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Home dropped just over a week ago. Heck, if you're involved in OMPL you've probably not even had more than 3 days to explore the tier.

Point is, I feel it's much too early to claim something is "the best" much less that it has a negative influence on the tier's building.
135+ Special Attack makes anything strong, but it's important to note that Dragapult doesn't have any damage amplification abilities, unlike Miraidon, or Kyogre, nor does it have set-up options like Gholdengo or Cloyster. These things combined mean that you can check it pretty comfortably with generic fat SpDef slots like Arceus/Garganacl (Draco Meteor = 51.4 - 60.8%), Koraidon/Ting-Lu (Draco Meteor = 34.6 - 40.8), Arceus/Tyranitar (Draco Meteor = 34.4 - 40.8%), etc. Also, there are viable Pokemon immune to each of its STABs, and Pokemon like Zacian-C and Chien-Pao that can pressure it offensively.

Even if we say Dragapult is the best SpAtk slot - which it may be, but again, it's far too early to say that - does that really matter? Since I started playing Godly Gift it was rare I considered more than 5 or 6 options for the HP or Speed slots, because it's usually pretty clear what the best options are there, and people either find counterplay to them or they get banned like Kingambit. A week isn't enough time to decide Dragapult is the best in slot, especially when it only works with a handful of Gods and pushes you down a very linear building route that people can very easily take advantage of.

Miraidon is better than Dragapult. It still outspeeds almost all the same Pokemon, it's notably stronger with Hadron Engine, has a better STAB combination, and offers far better support options when you consider how many good Quark Drive mons there are. I don't understand how anyone can look at Dragapult and say "Oh, Eternatus works better with it, so there's surely no reason to run Miraidon". Like, Miraidon is absurd, and it probably would've been banned pre-home if people weren't scared of running out of viable Gods to use.

I also disagree with many of the comments Sectonia made regarding the meta. Eternatus covers Fairy-types, yes, but what Fairy is dealing with Miraidon or Dragapult in the first place? This isn't relevant to how they pair as a core in the slightest. I agree Eternatus is a better partner, but I'm of the opinion that it works better as a teammate because building with Eternatus typically results in teams better equipped to handle fat walls like Ting-Lu that people use specifically for breakers like Miraidon and Dragapult. Like he said, neither Miraidon, nor Dragapult is realistically breaking through these Pokemon, so doubling down on their breaking power as a win condition is detrimental.

Speaking of breaking power, having a strong, fast Pokemon immune to Extreme-Speed is a GOOD thing. It's not like Dragapult counters Arceus-Normal, either - I'm going to use the ND Ubers set here for convenience, don't judge me.
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor vs. 240 HP / 0 SpD Arceus: 295-348 (66.8 - 78.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ Atk Arceus Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 287-338 (90.5 - 106.6%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO

Dragapult with Eternatus' Special Attack doesn't kill HP invested Arceus from full, and Arceus can pretty safely just click Recover before taking it out with Earthquake - the 2 turn calcs he posted aren't representative of a real game IMO because they assume Arceus-Normal is switching directly in, which is unlikely to be the case when Arceus-Normal is the best wincon anyone could ever ask for and gets free set-up opportunities on a -2 Dragapult. This is just a healthy, standard interaction between two strong offensive threats.

Dragapult is fine. Don't ban it.
 

dhelmise

banend doosre
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Dragapult is fine. Don't ban it.
oops

:ss/dragapult: :ss/zamazenta:
Dragapult and Zamazenta are banned from Godly Gift!
KrisLilylonghiepponchlakeSenkoTPPUTResult
:dragapult:DragapultBanDNBDNBBanBanBanBanBAN (5-2-0)
:zamazenta:ZamazentaBanBanDNBBanBanBanBanBAN (6-1-0)

We also voted on Great Tusk and Hawlucha, but neither even reached 50% ban votes. Also, welcome back Senko to the Godly Gift council!

You also may have noticed we have gotten a few new gods lately! We will release an updated post-HOME viability list soon, but for now here is a quick overview of the new gods we've gotten since HOME's initial god list:

1686345013801.png


:regieleki: Regieleki

Regieleki is just a more minmaxed version of Deoxys-S with even less to offer defensively. While 200 Speed is insane to provide to any Pokemon, allowing any Pokemon to outspeed base 150s with just 12 EVs, the base 100 Attacking stats aren't high enough to be used for anything except filler and the base 80 HP is really only good on Rotom-W.

:magearna: Magearna

Magearna's stat distribution is actually very nice, allowing for easy Trick Room teams or just reproducing the run of the mill dual screens teams it typically runs in OU. Running Magearna requires a very specialized selection of Pokemon that still focuses on Magearna being the main sweeper of the team, so I would not recommend using it as a god over Arceus or other gods if you like having a non-centralized team structure.

:chien-pao: Chien-Pao

An already borderline stat spread pre-HOME, Chien-Pao pretty much has no place in the metagame as a god due to the existence of other fast gods with high Attack with more to offer utility or stats-wise.

:zamazenta-crowned: Zamazenta-C

While Zamazenta-C distributes Zamazenta's base stats, giving off a base 138 Speed allows a member of your team to easily outspeed non-Choice Scarf base 135s, which are incredibly common in this metagame. With the power creep this generation, 120 is a bit low of an Attack stat to offer, but the HP and defense stats make up for it.
 

ponchlake

cult of personality cult leader
oops

:ss/dragapult: :ss/zamazenta:
Dragapult and Zamazenta are banned from Godly Gift!
KrisLilylonghiepponchlakeSenkoTPPUTResult
:dragapult:DragapultBanDNBDNBBanBanBanBanBAN (5-2-0)
:zamazenta:ZamazentaBanBanDNBBanBanBanBanBAN (6-1-0)

We also voted on Great Tusk and Hawlucha, but neither even reached 50% ban votes. Also, welcome back Senko to the Godly Gift council!

You also may have noticed we have gotten a few new gods lately! We will release an updated post-HOME viability list soon, but for now here is a quick overview of the new gods we've gotten since HOME's initial god list:

View attachment 524457

:regieleki: Regieleki

Regieleki is just a more minmaxed version of Deoxys-S with even less to offer defensively. While 200 Speed is insane to provide to any Pokemon, allowing any Pokemon to outspeed base 150s with just 12 EVs, the base 100 Attacking stats aren't high enough to be used for anything except filler and the base 80 HP is really only good on Rotom-W.

:magearna: Magearna

Magearna's stat distribution is actually very nice, allowing for easy Trick Room teams or just reproducing the run of the mill dual screens teams it typically runs in OU. Running Magearna requires a very specialized selection of Pokemon that still focuses on Magearna being the main sweeper of the team, so I would not recommend using it as a god over Arceus or other gods if you like having a non-centralized team structure.

:chien-pao: Chien-Pao

An already borderline stat spread pre-HOME, Chien-Pao pretty much has no place in the metagame as a god due to the existence of other fast gods with high Attack with more to offer utility or stats-wise.

:zamazenta-crowned: Zamazenta-C

While Zamazenta-C distributes Zamazenta's base stats, giving off a base 138 Speed allows a member of your team to easily outspeed non-Choice Scarf base 135s, which are incredibly common in this metagame. With the power creep this generation, 120 is a bit low of an Attack stat to offer, but the HP and defense stats make up for it.
Some quick explanations for the Dragapult and Zamazenta-H bans..

:Zamazenta: Zamazenta-H: This one is fairly self-explanatory. It's a box legendary that could receive stats, which alone makes it pretty crazy. Allowing it to receive 120 or 140 HP from Eternatus made it absurdly bulky, which allowed it to function as both an incredible defensive wall and an offensive threat with Body Press. You could even inherit Attack from something else and run Choice Band as well, but I'm not gonna talk about that. It was basically too fast and too bulky on top of being able to gain stats from whatever other Uber you have, which made it too much to deal with.

:Dragapult: Dragapult: This thing is too fast and too stong, and it clicks buttons too easily. So why are we banning it now when we left it free for the duration of the pre-HOME meta? Besides the fact that we've since gained new Gods that can donate high SpA to Dragapult, team structures have also changed with the release of HOME. If you take a quick gander at some replays from the pre-HOME meta, you'll notice that Ting Lu is on 100% of teams. Ting Lu is the single best check to Dragapult, but now the meta is no longer centralized to the point of requiring Ting Lu on basically every team. Dragapult is a lot more freed up than it was previously as a result of this.
 
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:hatterene: :Samurott-Hisui: :Slowking-Galar: :Calyrex-Ice: :Volcanion: :Arcanine-Hisui:

I just built this team so I don't know how good it is but I want to share some fun sets.

:sv/Samurott-Hisui: :sv/Arcanine-Hisui:

These two are really good wall-breakers. The things that make me choose these are their's strong priorities. My team don't have a reliable trick room setters except for Glowking so being able to function outside of trick room is great.

:sv/Slowking-Galar:

I think this mon is pretty underated. As a trick room setter, it can easily survive every hit and set up snow for Calyrex-Ice. I'm thinking about using Shuca berry if Groudon gets more uses in the future. The moves slot on this is not optimize at all, Future Sight might be a good option.

:sv/Volcanion:

This thing is pretty bad tbh. It doesn't hit as hard as I would want and its STABs are walled by a lot of things. The only good thing about this is that it is pretty bulky and can take neutral hits pretty well. I'm trying to find a better alternative.

:sv/Hatterene:

This set is not what you would expect for a Hatterene on a TR team. I learned that most people won't lead their hazard setters because of Hat so I turn this thing into a late game sweeper. The bulk is quite amazing and it can easily sweeps if you can get rid of the steel types on opposing teams.
 

UT

Old habits die SCREAMING
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Appeals + C&C Lead
Elaborating on my survey votes

Should be quick banned
:sv/miraidon:

We all know what Miraidon does at this point, at worst 2HKO everything not named Ting-Lu (which has no recovery and can still get U-turned on) and OHKO most everything. It can still be played around to some degree since it is usually Choice-locked, but being forced to bring Ting-Lu to reliably win short term or multiple immunities to still need to win the guessing game is overly restrictive on teambuilding. It also passes the coveted 135 Spe slot, the second most valuable donation in the game, and combined with its wallbreaking prowess, sets that Speed slot up for success. I think it's pretty indisputable that Miraidon warps building to an unhealthy degree, and imo should be yeeted.

:sv/zacian-crowned:
While I am less sure about yeeting Zacian-C, I think there is still a very strong case for it. While it does undeniably have walls, such as physdef Clodsire, HP Moltres, and Skeledirge, and is more easily handled if it can be forced out once, it is still heavily oppressive if its walls are removed. Additionally, unless the opponent brings Electrode-H, it is the fastest unboosted viable mon and very difficult to revenge kill even with a choice scarfer, as 92/115/115 bulk isn't exactly frail. It also passes the 138 Spe donation, the single most valuable donation in the meta, supercharging a whole host of receivers as well. While I feel more strongly about a Miraidon ban, I do think Zacian-C is also warping on teambuilding, especially due to its resitance to being revenge killed.

Should be watched for now
:sv/Arceus:
Ekiller is a force to be reckoned with and has precious little counterplay outside of hard walls. Bulky variants especially are hard to stop from setting up, and outside of Ghosts, it can be nearly impossible to revenge kill without priority of your own. I don't think it's nearly as warpping as the other two guys, but probably the next up after they're gone.

:sv/arceus-fairy:
Calm Mind Arceus also scares me, but I am not sure which variant(s) are the most terrifying yet or if they really need immediate action.

:sv/eternatus:
I fully expect Eternatus to be banned eventually, but not today. Once Zacian-C and Miraidon are gone, that 130 Spe slot will look a lot more appetizing, and it passes two other great donations with HP and SpA as well. Its 3a + Recover sets (why does it get Fire Blast now???) are the definition of combining Speed, power, and bulk all into one set, and once the meta has calmed down I expect it to be oppressive and later banned.

:sv/koraidon:
Little reason to use it now when Miraidon and Zacian-C are right there, but when they go, it now has the fastest relevant Speed tier (unless Zama-C rises up) and a myriad of dangerous sets to bypass its normal counters.

Regarding non-gods...

While I do still think Great Tusk is a little stupid at times, I am not really itching for action on any receivers right now. I do think both Great Tusk and Gholdengo are very strong, splashable threats, and could see them being broken soon, but I would probably not advocate for any receivers to be banned today.

I am a famous hater of RNG item bans and don't think they're good enough to be worth taking action on (they all have one notable user at most, who arguably isn't even broken with them). I really don't like banning things unless I think they're actually relevant enough / good enough to be better than their alternatives...but I won't exactly cry if they go.

I would really hate to see any unbans, with the possible exception of Booster Energy. The Paradox mons are much less centralizing than they used to be, so maybe that one could come off the banlist. Toxapex, Swift Swim, etc can all stay banned imo.

I am also a famous Tera hater and, given historically how hard it has been to balance gods in Godly Gift, am loathe to give them another tool. But, I also don't really want to get into Tera debates and recognize that people feel very differently about the mechanic, so it is what it is. I do hope that we can tier some gods before a Tera suspect though, as going 3+ more weeks without taking action on Miraidon and Zacian-C in my opinion would be a mistake.
 

Lily

it's in my blood
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one thing I think holds zacian back from being QB worthy is the inability to pass good offensive stats; 120 attack is nothing special and obv it's taking the spa slot 99% of the time itself. in practice this means that your offensive mons need to either be good even without being passed a stat (rare, but workable), be a speed receiver (there are many ofc) or be meowscarada basically. compared to something like miraidon which also passes that nuclear 135 spa, it's difficult for me to see zacian as qb worthy, especially since its own power isn't much to write home about.

passing crazy bulk is good tho. i think it deserves to be on the watchlist but for now i think mirai is the only qb worthy god.
 

ponchlake

cult of personality cult leader
one thing I think holds zacian back from being QB worthy is the inability to pass good offensive stats; 120 attack is nothing special and obv it's taking the spa slot 99% of the time itself. in practice this means that your offensive mons need to either be good even without being passed a stat (rare, but workable), be a speed receiver (there are many ofc) or be meowscarada basically. compared to something like miraidon which also passes that nuclear 135 spa, it's difficult for me to see zacian as qb worthy, especially since its own power isn't much to write home about.

passing crazy bulk is good tho. i think it deserves to be on the watchlist but for now i think mirai is the only qb worthy god.
That's a fair argument to make. 120 Atk isn't great, but it also passes 138 Speed, which is arguably the best stat donation there is right now. Zacian already outpaces everything besides Hisuan Helectrode on its own, and the 138 speed just the icing on top since it also happens to outpace basically everything but Hisuan Electrode. It enables offensive threats to the point that I'd argue the 120 Atk is offset by it. Also, I find the problem to be more of a Pokedex issue rather than a Zacian issue. Again, 120 Atk is not the best, but we've been starved for meaningful Pokemon who can be slotted in Atk even before HOME and I don't find it all that much better even now. Zacian-C as a standalone threat warps teambuilding as is. Passing great defensive stats + passing 138 Speed + Zacian-C itself as a threat is enough of a merit to QB it imo.
 

Greybaum

GENTLEMAN, THIS IS DEMOCRACY MANIFEST
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:miraidon:
miraidon is the kind of pokemon i'm never bringing to a tour game because frankly it's a huge matchup fish. i try using it and i run into a gastrodon or clodsire or ting-lu i simply cannot break and i resign myself to the fact i'm using a glorified u-turn bot. granted, specs sets have a much easier time breaking, but those have their own problems; namely that ground- and fairy-types are everywhere and there are plenty of breakers right now that dont need to play these 50/50 mindgames miraidon does. id rather use those guys

also, i don't know about you guys but the way i approach building is almost always "hmm what followers pairs well with this broken god?" and frankly we don't have many good special attack slots right now. helectrode and barraskewda are the only truly fast recipients in this meta and helectrode in particular does not benefit from miraidon; it's already very self sufficient and the things it has problems with (e.g. clodsire, eternatus) are better handled with a different partner like arceus-ground or mewtwo imo.

as you may have surmised from the above paragraphs i think people overstate how big of a problem miraidon is, but i do still want it gone. while it isnt hard to prep for, it has so few real switch-ins and being locked into using clodsire on every other team isn't fun.

:koraidon:
koraidon, oddly, i think is a better pokemon in this meta simply because it's not prepped for as hard. it has near-hard counters much like miraidon (skeledirge, alomomola, slowking, slowbro, talonflame) but those aren't brought as often and even in these matchups i find it putting significantly more pressure on my opponent because of its greater set versatility (scarf, eject pack, heat rock). DNB for now but i think it's underused.

:zacian-crowned:
zacian-c i wanna see a bit more of; as a standalone mon it's pretty good but by no means broken after the intrepid sword nerf, and the only thing that would really make me think otherwise is the pattern of broken wallbreakers going in the speed slot. but, like, that's always been a problem for godly gift. a lot of these teams could just slot in zama-c instead and change a mon or two around and still do the same thing.

:eternatus::kyogre:
somehow i literally have not seen eternatus or kyogre since week 1 of post-home. no comment except after attempting to build with it i don't think kyogre is even good right now. just like with miraidon, it has really bad spatk recipients and its speed stat is just... so bad... like id nearly always rather run spatk slot walking wake or speed slot volcanion instead of using fast kyogre, and i'd nearly always rather run slowbro or dondozo as a bulky wincon too. i should have put it at 1 on the survey.

:arceus:
ekiller feels fine right now with how common mons like bulky gholdengo and corv are but i do think it could be broken with more development. not got much else to say about it.

:great tusk:
great tusk cheeses wins too easily for my liking and it has the movepool flexibility for it to not have any consistent switch-ins; arceus-ghost and corviknight can get 2HKOd by choice band headlong/cc respectively, lando-t and zapdos switch in until it clicks ice spinner, and bulk up sets can trade with virtually every pokemon in the tier. i think it was good that we freed it for post-home but it's gotta go again.

:electrode-hisui:
helectrode feels kinda broken right now but i think a large part of that is because miraidon's presence leads to a lot of non-ground-type electric resists feeling pretty unviable right now; i'd feel more comfortable running pokemon like glowbro or eternatus if they didnt have a significant problem taking hits from miraidon.

:gholdengo:
gholdengo is the most broken pokemon in the tier and absolutely needs to go. gholdengo itself can wall a significant chunk of mons with physdef nasty plot turning traditional answers like clodsire into set-up bait, but good as gold is the more broken part of it. giving pokemon like clodsire and ting-lu base 5000 spdef is a horrible idea when great tusk is the only removal that can actually pressure them & also remove on gholdengo sometimes. spikes are broken right now and a gholdengo ban is by far the easiest way to fix that.

:kings rock:
rng items should be banned from every tier but are particularly egregious in godly gift because you can give glowbro 150 special attack and weavile two base 150 attack teammates. i dont know why people arent just running brightpowder on random ass wincons that dont need other items either; the cheese potential is too high to not abuse lol.

:volcarona:
in the context of high-base stat tiers like AG and godly gift, tera is the most broken generational gimmick gamefreak has released. it's worse than dynamax, genuinely. i absolutely do not support it coming back but i do recognise that it should be voted on in a suspect test - just, like, settle the meta first. it's too early to deal with that nonsense right now when mons like miraidon and great tusk are floating around.

tl;dr quickban miraidon, gholdengo, great tusk, and the cheese items. dont bother suspecting tera back in for a few weeks yet.
 

dhelmise

banend doosre
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Social Media Head
hi survey results these will be summarized quickly because i need to go to sleep and was held up waiting for these to be shared with me

current meta enjoyment
Forms response chart. Question title: On a scale of 1-10, how enjoyable do you find the current metagame?. Number of responses: 30 responses.

  • median meta enjoyment is 7, which is not bad for the first survey of the generation
  • average meta enjoyment is also 6.67, which is not too bad either but definitely not ideal
  • both of these are decent but show that there is ample room for improvement
current meta competitiveness
ds

  • median meta competitiveness is 6, not very promising
  • average meta competitiveness is 6.067, again, not very promising
  • these show the meta has a long way to go in terms of being competitive
miraidon :miraidon:
Forms response chart. Question title: Regarding Miraidon.... Number of responses: 30 responses.

  • median response is 4
  • avg response is 3.967, meaning the playerbase wants a suspect test at minimum for miraidon
  • we are going to vote on miraidon as a result
koraidon :koraidon:
Forms response chart. Question title: Regarding Koraidon.... Number of responses: 30 responses.

  • median response is 3
  • avg response is 2.633
  • a decent amount of the playerbase identifies koraidon as an issue to be addressed but a fair amount also has no problem with it
  • we will keep koraidon on our radar but have no plan to tackle it as of yet
zacian-crowned :zacian-crowned:
Forms response chart. Question title: Regarding Zacian-C.... Number of responses: 30 responses.

  • median response is 3
  • avg response is 3.4
  • while not as high as miraidon, zacian-c has been identified as a major issue and will be addressed in the near future
eternatus :eternatus:
Forms response chart. Question title: Regarding Eternatus.... Number of responses: 30 responses.

  • median response 3
  • avg response 3
  • eternatus is seen as a pokemon that can be potentially unhealthy. council will keep their eye on it
kyogre :wailord:
Forms response chart. Question title: Regarding Kyogre.... Number of responses: 30 responses.

  • MEDIAN 3
  • avg 3.13
  • kyogre, just like eternatus, is a pokemon council will keep their eye on but currently have no plans to address
arceus :arceus:
Forms response chart. Question title: Regarding Arceus-Normal (E-Killer).... Number of responses: 30 responses.

  • median 4
  • avg 3.43
  • see zacian-c
other arcuse forme ?
  • ground saw the most support for action with 8 mentions
  • fairy 5
  • next most was ghost with 2
  • every other forme only got 1 mention or nothing
  • we will discuss ground and fairy sometime in the future
great tusk :great tusk:
Forms response chart. Question title: Regarding Great Tusks.... Number of responses: 30 responses.

  • median :ledian: 3
  • avg 2.767
  • great tusk isnt really seen as a potential threat yet but is nearing there, we will keep a somewhat close eye on it
hisuian electrode :electrode-hisui:
Forms response chart. Question title: Regarding Hisuan Electrode.... Number of responses: 30 responses.

  • median 2
  • avg 2.233
  • hisuian electrode isnt seen as a potential threat by majority of the active playerbase
gholdengo :gholdengo:
Forms response chart. Question title: Regarding Gholdengo.... Number of responses: 30 responses.

  • median 3
  • avg 3.067
  • see kyogre/eternatus reason
rng items :kings rock::quick claw::bright powder:
Forms response chart. Question title: Regarding RNG Items (King's Rock, Quick Claw, Bright Powder).... Number of responses: 30 responses.

  • median 4
  • avg 4
  • we r voting on these babies!
tera
Forms response chart. Question title: Regarding Terastallization.... Number of responses: 30 responses.

  • majority supports a suspect, most prefer it to be later on
  • council voted on when to host suspect, results coming soon :3
other elements u want council to look into
  • :toxapex:
    • not rn, see below answer
  • :walking wake:
    • we will host a post-ompl survey and put this on it
  • changing how gods work/allowing a restrict system that allows us to restict pokemon into being gods instead of forcing mons broken here but no in ou to be banned (the hoopa-u issue)
    • council has discussed this amongst themselves and alongside om staff at large. we still havent really reached a common ground on doing this, as restrictions in general are fairly antiquated in oms
  • :ting-lu:
    • we will look into it after we address miraidon
  • :sneasler:
    • potentially, gholdengo's existence handles sneasler pretty handily but we will look into it if we end up addressing gholdengo
  • :hatterene:
    • there's not really much to look into with this at the moment, as enamorus-t is arguably just a better version of this pokemon. we will consider it on the next survey though
  • booster energy (no sprite for this fsr)
    • maybe? this is a pretty hard element to address because it could easily make like half of the relevant mons right now broken out of nowhere
  • swift swim
    • ig there isnt harm in trying? swift swim has been a historically difficult topic though, so there's not an easy way to approach this
  • :samurott-hisui:
    • comparisons have been drawn to it being the gen 9 version of crawdaunt and i dont necessarily disagree; we will consider adding it to our next survey
  • " Trick room is remarkably difficult to fight. Kingambit is broken and very easy to abuse. "
    • what? kingambit is banned
  • :kingambit:
    • we can consider this? its up there with swift swim and booster energy with being very easily nuclear if we arent careful.
  • no
    • ok
  • " realistically tera should be quick unbanned bcuz the QB was very stupid in the first place "
    • thanks for the great input!
    • our qb was before the discovery of arceus formes being revealed on team preview with the basis that almost half of our new god pool alongside all of the new pokemon would be instantly broken. calling the qb stupid is really baseless and quite out of left field when majority of the community and council supported it.
 

dhelmise

banend doosre
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Social Media Head
:ss/miraidon:
:bright powder::focus band::kings rock::quick claw:
Miraidon and RNG items are banned from Godly Gift!
KrisLilylonghiepponchlakeSenkoTPPResult
Miraidon :miraidon:BanBanBanBanBanBanBAN (6-0-0)
RNG ItemsBanBanDNBBanBanBanBAN (5-1-0)
Tera Suspect TimingNowNowNowAfter OMPLAfter OMPLAfter OMPLAfter OMPL (3-3)
  • we are having the tera suspect after OMPL despite the vote being tied because the survey acts as a tiebreaker and had a majority for an eventual suspect over an immediate one
UT and ponchlake are stepping down from council. UT did so a bit ago but ponchlake waited until after this slate to do so. Thanks both for your time and contributions!
 

Greybaum

GENTLEMAN, THIS IS DEMOCRACY MANIFEST
is a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogon
my heartfelt thanks to UT and ponchlake for their work. godly gift has been depressing this gen with nintendo's new drip content structure effectively shoving the tier's core concept into a wetherspoons urinal and i know dealing with it hasn't been easy.

on a more upsetting note, i'd like to ask for some clarification from the council as to why arceus-normal and zacian-c weren't voted on despite having an average score of 3.4. as a reminder, 5 represents "very unhealthy" and 3 "potentially unhealthy". i'm not suggesting they should have been quickbanned, but i believe a suspect test should be under consideration - even if the ultimate decision is to not proceed with any tiering action just yet.
the post mentions these pokemon being "addressed in the near future" but ompl is ending in roughly a month at which point a suspect on tera is supposedly happening, and i've lost all confidence in the council to work quickly on tiering action with information this vague.

  • we are having the tera suspect after OMPL despite the vote being tied because the survey acts as a tiebreaker and had a majority for an eventual suspect over an immediate one
on that note: i find it extremely unsettling that a vote on immediately re-suspecting tera nearly got a majority vote despite only 26.7% of the community wanting that outcome. 73.3% of people either do not want to even consider a tera re-suspect, or only want to consider it after further tiering action. in fact, every single pokemon in the survey has a higher % of votes (using 3 as a baseline) than tera does under the current meta.

with this in mind the reference to the survey as a "tiebreak" is... certainly something. if the majority opinion is being thrown out this easily, i don't understand why a survey was run in the first place.
 

UT

Old habits die SCREAMING
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Appeals + C&C Lead
Potentially re-defining what a god is has come up a few times on Discord, and I just want to signpost it here. Currently, the premise of Godly Gift is you can use one Uber / AG Pokemon on your team, and it passes its stats to otherwise-OU legal teammates.

The definition of a god needs to be objective and not set by the Godly Gift council; it cannot be a restricted list

OMs have to have a single, objective, universally applied to all Pokemon rule; it is what distinguishes us from Pet Mods. There are several variations of allowing banned receivers to be used as gods being proposed, but these at council's discretion change the category of a Pokemon and how it interacts with the metagame and make it subjective. The council should only be able to ban Pokemon from the format, not change how they function in the format.

Similarly, there have been proposals of untying Godly Gift from OU tiering by changing the definition of a god to something else. While the association with OU tiering is absolutely annoying at times, again any potential replacement idea must be objective, and it's hard to think of an alternative. GameFreak's definition of legendary has some hilarious inconstancies, and other objective measures like Base Stat Total fail to capture powerful Pokemon like Flutter Mane and Iron Bundle.

What about other metagames with restricted lists? Almost every single existing restricted list has to do with moves. STABmons, Sketchmons, and ABC expand Pokemon's movepools but still allows them to keep their native movepools; Garchomp doesn't lose Fire Blast in STAB. Since there is a clear delineation between native movepools and moves gained through the mechanic, it makes sense to only ban moves given by the mechanic rather than out of existing movepool as well, hence the restriction list. Similarly other move-based metagames like Linked, Revelationmons, and Force of the Fallen utilize a restriction list relative to move order, since moves in the affected moveslot can be hilariously overpowered while perfectly normal in a non-affected moveslot.

The only metagme that has a similar-ish restricted list is Mix and Mega, which has been carried forward for over a decade and would not be approved to have a restricted list today.

Lastly, there have also been suggestions of having a user-selected god, and every Pokemon can be both a god and a receiver. This would either require a restricted list (covered above), or require almost every Uber level Pokemon to be banned since they would be hilariously broken as a receiver. While the latter is fine within our tiering philosophy, it is a fundamentally different game than Godly Gift.

I would encourage discussion to center around the metagame that exists, tiering action that is needed, and interesting new strategies. If people do want to continue discussing fundamental changes to Godly Gift, I can't stop you, but please understand what is even on the table (single, objective, non-council changeable criteria).
 

Lily

it's in my blood
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UU Leader
I asked this on Discord last time it came up and nobody could give me an answer so I figure I might as well respond here

While the association with OU tiering is absolutely annoying at times, again any potential replacement idea must be objective, and it's hard to think of an alternative.
The reason I dislike this so heavily is that OU and Ubers aren't objective. The OU council can throw any pokemon they want into Ubers at the drop of a hat. Ubers isn't an objective, stagnant list: it has members that are, like obviously Mewtwo is a permanent Uber, but anything can end up there if it just happens to be obnoxious enough (see Espathra). The OU council does not factor us into anything they do, rightfully so; it then stands to reason that it's incredibly frustrating for us, or at least me, when an unaffiliated group has more power over the metagame than its actual council members.

So my question from here is: why is it that when the GG council wants to make a list of banned receivers it's arbitrary and subjective, but when the OU council does it it's objective? Every answer to that question I can think of is absolutely awful from a tiering and competitiveness standpoint. Something is going to have to give.
 

UT

Old habits die SCREAMING
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Appeals + C&C Lead
The reason I dislike this so heavily is that OU and Ubers aren't objective.
How OU tiers is obviously not objective, and no one is claiming they are. However, with regards to determining whether something is a god or receiver...
The OU council does not factor us into anything they do, rightfully so
They are the closest thing to an objective power level between gods and receivers we have. Since standard tiering has nothing to do with balancing OMs, they are a disinterested party that is approximating power level completely agnostically to our tier. And Ubers / OU / UU etc provides easily referenceable, external-to-us categories to approximate power levels (Tier Shift does the same thing).

It would be great to have a fully objective, static list that works as well as OU tiering at determining power. And if anyone has suggestions, I am still loathe to make a fundamental change to an existing meta, but we can talk about it.

While a restricted list would absolutely be nice for giving council more control over categories, it goes against what makes OMs, OMs. Our council can only ban or not ban Pokemon based on how they exist in the metagame, just like OU can only ban or not ban Pokemon rather than give them a new category that nerfs them. We cannot change their category or how they interact within the metagame.

I get the frustration that sometimes things happen to tiering that our outside of our control. It's a real frustration. But, frankly, I do not see a better alternative that fits within OM tiering guidelines.
 

Gimmicky

You give me chills, I've had it with the drills
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They are the closest thing to an objective power level between gods and receivers we have.
This is mainly why I see no reason to change the premise of GG, and why the current system works-- any standard chosen is going to be arbitrary. There is no objective determiner of power. Anything that seems like it would work "better" has serious flaws that ultimately would make the tier worse and, importantly, less playable. I'm going to address a few of the potential reworks I've seen thrown around in the OMs room, and talk about why they're not better than the current way GG works.

Only legendary Pokemon can be Gods, and you're limited to 1 per team
This is even more arbitrary than the tiering system! For one, there is no widely agreed upon set of legendary Pokemon. It's entirely arbitrary, and even the games do not have a distinction between the different kinds of legendary. For one, there is 3 "types" of legendary Pokemon in the code of the games: Sub-legendary, Legendary, and Mythical. Where should the line be drawn? Is this not also arbitrary? On top of being just as, if not more arbitrary, no matter how expansive or restrictive you make the "legendary Pokemon" list for GG, it is going to be both arbitrary and flawed.

You very heavily restrict teambuilding by only allowing one legendary Pokemon-- great receivers like Ting-Lu, Moltres, Glastrier, and Hoopa are now essentially useless, as they do not have stats worthy of being a God. This makes teambuilding even more restrictive than the current system, for not much benefit-- as most of the legendary Pokemon actually worth using as Gods are Ubers anyway.

Only box-legendary Pokemon can be Gods, and you're limited to 1 per team
Take everything I said about the previous idea, but make it worse. "Box legendary" is even more arbitrary, and opens up Pokemon that should absolutely not be receiving stats such as Mewtwo, Eternatus, Magearna, and Arceus to receive stats, while also removing them as viable Gods. Sure, you can ban these Pokemon, but at the end of the day, you've made team building much, much more restricted while again ending up in a similar spot-- the gods you'd want to use in a meta like this are already Ubers, so you've ultimately just limited the pool of options.

What about a user selected God via nicknames? and/or whatever other idea people have to make this possible
The big thing that makes GG work is the fact that it is obvious on Team Preview what stats are going to be donated. Loading into a battle, you know with 100% certainty what the stat donation ranges will be. Let's take a look at one of the OMPL Week 5 games, for an example.
Screenshot 2023-06-27 2.33.27 PM.png

When Sylvi and Ponchlake loaded into this battle and looked at the other team, they can immediately have known what stats were being passed on to each Pokemon. It's obvious at a glance that Hatterene is going to have the HP of Eternatus and Heatran is going to have the HP of Arceus. Cyclizar will have 120 base Special Defense and Ting-Lu will have 95. This is obvious at a glance because it is not hidden from you. Nicknames are hidden from you on team preview. This means that you do not immediately know what your opponents stat donations are going to be-- making the tier, in my opinion, basically unplayable.

This also opens up another Pandora's box of problems-- if ultra-powerful Pokemon like Eternatus and Arceus aren't 100% obviously the God of a team, this opens them up to recieve stats from other party members. This would be wildly uncompetitive, essentially allowing the rich to get richer. Instead of an obvious-on-team-preview God donating its own high stats to other team members, you now have what is essentially a metagame where you use other pokemon to patch up the holes of these already insane Gods. Almost every traditional god would inevitably end up either banned or unusable. And what is Godly Gift without.. gods? This meta would not be inherently bad, but it would not be Godly Gift

The tiers as we know them are the best way to determine Pokemon that would be appropriate as a "god" and Pokemon that are appropriate as receivers. While this system is imperfect, it's also not broken. It works perfectly fine, with the median meta enjoyment being 7/10 and likely to increase as the tier balances out.

TL;DR Godly Gift is fine, and most if not all of the potential 'fixes' people are talking about are either unnecessary, direct downgrades to the system in place, or fundamentally different games
 

kenn

Prince of the Halidom
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Okay I figured with the Miradon ban, I would throw out my personal thoughts, as a reflection of my survey votes, on the other controversial Gods and why I think they should go sooner rather than later or why they are okay (for now)

:sv/zacian-crowned:
The elephant, or in this case big doggo, in the room is this particular Fairy/Steel type. While I will say that the stats it donates are less-than-stellar, the reason I don't think it deserves to stick around is purely because of itself. Despite the nerf to its Attack and its signature ability only activating once per battle as well as having common answers in Skeledirge and Clodsire, among others, it is still one of the fastest Pokemon naturally that's relevant outside of Hisuian Electrode. This means that for most teams you have to run a Scarf mon just to outpace it or run the aforementioned walls which isn't always ideal especially on a more offensively inclined team. I also think that even if it gives overall lackluster stats outside of the Speed stat, that 138 Speed stat alone coupled with Zacian-Crowned being just a really good mon all on its own, I think that if any God were to go next, this would be the one council should be keeping their eye on for a ban.

:sv/arceus:
We all knew when it was announced that Arceus was coming back via HOME that this was gonna make a splash in Godly Gift and boy howdy did it do just that and more. While other Arc formes are good (mainly Ground and Fairy from what I have seen), I wanna focus specifically on plain jane Arceus i.e. Ekiller. Ekiller takes advantage of Arceus' fantastic 120/120/120 bulk by not needing to really invest in Speed and hitting as hard as possible with STAB Extreme Speed. I think that while other Arceus formes are problematic (looking at you CM Arceus <_<), I feel like this is the most pertinent one to focus on for a potential ban just because it enables itself so easily and giving 120 stats across the board means it is very flexible to fit into a slot that the team doesn't need (usually Atk or SpA). This should be the next in line after Zacian-Crowned as a God to go.

:sv/arceus-ground: :sv/arceus-fairy: :sv/arceus-ghost:
Other Arceus formes I think for right now are okay as they are required to hold a Plate but also have to worry about Speed creep moreso than Ekiller does thanks to no STAB Extreme Speed. While CM Arceus is a pain, I do believe there are bigger fish to fry at the moment and this can always be revisited.

:sv/eternatus:
While I haven't had too much experience using or playing against this, I do feel Eternatus is eventually worthy of a ban just due to the extreme HP stat and really good SpA/Spe slot that it provides, but I also think it is in the same boat as the other Arceus formes in that there are bigger fish to fry before tackling this monstrosity lol.

:sv/kyogre:
I am definitely not a fan of how this forces most teams to have to have a Water immunity such as Gastrodon or Clodsire, but I will say that it isn't as unpredictable as last Gen due to the offensive nature of the meta forcing it to run Scarf unless it wants to be outsped by basically everything, making it fairly predictable as to what set it would be. This again is in the "there's bigger fish to fry" category but I do feel like I could see this going down the road but not for quite some time.

Now onto some of the receivers:
:sv/gholdengo:
This is probably one of the absolute best receivers in Godly Gift in my opinion and rightfully so due to being able to up its bulk in the HP slot or make it even more threatening in the Speed slot. I personally am in the camp that receivers right now can wait to be banned but should they be up for a slate at the council's discretion, this should be the first choice for a vote and subsequent ban. Steel/Ghost is a fantastic typing and Good as Gold is an amazing ability so giving Gholdengo either a chunky HP stat or a 130+ Spe slot allows it to further enable the pros of the typing and ability to the point that I would consider it too much for the OM though not as bad as the aforementioned Gods.

:sv/great tusk:
I personally think that teams are so strapped for hazard removal right now that banning Tusk would make it rough to fit said removal onto teams and could make hazardstack an even bigger threat than it already is. While I saw the issue with it pre-HOME, I think post-HOME has adapted well enough to Tusk that for now it is okay to not worry about especially when you have got things like Zacian-Crowned and Gholdengo running around lol.

:sv/electrode-hisui:
I am in the majority that think Hisuian Electrode is okay and not broken; however, I do feel that to a degree it is a necessary evil as it outspeeds not only Zacian-Crowned but also everything else naturally so it can be used as solid Speed control for more balanced teams. I don't see this getting worse by a Zacian-Crowned ban (should that happen it should)but it definitely has a very good niche at the moment that makes it a solid choice for most teams.

As for other gods/receivers, I am a huge fan of almost any :arceus: forme due to just the above average stats it gives to any receiver making things like :clodsire: or :skeledirge: hard to take down and slower threats like :slowking-galar: go brrr. As for receivers, I am loving :garganacl: a lot. I feel like a lot of "set up and sweep" situations are going on and Garganacl can tend to live most hits and get a Salt Cure off to at least wear them down or even force them out. I also am a huge fan of :clodsire: just because of all that it provides for a team in one slot. An Ogre/Water check, entry hazards, and an all around bulky wall.

I know this was a lot to spit out at you guys but I wanna put my thoughts out there and say that I am personally enjoying the meta save a few outliers (mainly Zacian-Crowned, Ekiller, and Gholdengo to a degree) and I can't wait to see what council does to continue shaping this to be the best OM there ever was! ;)
 

ponchlake

cult of personality cult leader
:sv/zacian-crowned:
While I am less sure about yeeting Zacian-C, I think there is still a very strong case for it. While it does undeniably have walls, such as physdef Clodsire, HP Moltres, and Skeledirge, and is more easily handled if it can be forced out once, it is still heavily oppressive if its walls are removed. Additionally, unless the opponent brings Electrode-H, it is the fastest unboosted viable mon and very difficult to revenge kill even with a choice scarfer, as 92/115/115 bulk isn't exactly frail. It also passes the 138 Spe donation, the single most valuable donation in the meta, supercharging a whole host of receivers as well. While I feel more strongly about a Miraidon ban, I do think Zacian-C is also warping on teambuilding, especially due to its resitance to being revenge killed.

Should be watched for now
:sv/Arceus:
Ekiller is a force to be reckoned with and has precious little counterplay outside of hard walls. Bulky variants especially are hard to stop from setting up, and outside of Ghosts, it can be nearly impossible to revenge kill without priority of your own. I don't think it's nearly as warpping as the other two guys, but probably the next up after they're gone.

:sv/arceus-fairy:
Calm Mind Arceus also scares me, but I am not sure which variant(s) are the most terrifying yet or if they really need immediate action.

:sv/eternatus:
I fully expect Eternatus to be banned eventually, but not today. Once Zacian-C and Miraidon are gone, that 130 Spe slot will look a lot more appetizing, and it passes two other great donations with HP and SpA as well. Its 3a + Recover sets (why does it get Fire Blast now???) are the definition of combining Speed, power, and bulk all into one set, and once the meta has calmed down I expect it to be oppressive and later banned.

:sv/koraidon:
Little reason to use it now when Miraidon and Zacian-C are right there, but when they go, it now has the fastest relevant Speed tier (unless Zama-C rises up) and a myriad of dangerous sets to bypass its normal counters.

Regarding non-gods...

While I do still think Great Tusk is a little stupid at times, I am not really itching for action on any receivers right now. I do think both Great Tusk and Gholdengo are very strong, splashable threats, and could see them being broken soon, but I would probably not advocate for any receivers to be banned today.

I am a famous hater of RNG item bans and don't think they're good enough to be worth taking action on (they all have one notable user at most, who arguably isn't even broken with them). I really don't like banning things unless I think they're actually relevant enough / good enough to be better than their alternatives...but I won't exactly cry if they go.

I would really hate to see any unbans, with the possible exception of Booster Energy. The Paradox mons are much less centralizing than they used to be, so maybe that one could come off the banlist. Toxapex, Swift Swim, etc can all stay banned imo.

I am also a famous Tera hater and, given historically how hard it has been to balance gods in Godly Gift, am loathe to give them another tool. But, I also don't really want to get into Tera debates and recognize that people feel very differently about the mechanic, so it is what it is. I do hope that we can tier some gods before a Tera suspect though, as going 3+ more weeks without taking action on Miraidon and Zacian-C in my opinion would be a mistake.
Alright since everyone is giving their ¢ 2 on GG right now, I thought I would as well because I've got nothing better to do.

:SV/Zacian-Crowned: :SV/Kyogre:

I feel like people are confusing these two as being bad right now when in reality they're absolutely busted. Now the problem is we aren't seeing them very much and they can be difficult to use. Now how does that make sense if they're absolutely busted. In my opinion, it's because they're busted that we don't see very much of them nor are they easy to use right now. They've warped teambuilding to the point that every team has counters and outs to both to the point of making it difficult to use either at the moment. It doesn't take away from the fact that both are busted and will need to be banned at some point in time, because I feel like the slighest shift in teambuilding trends could see both of them become unbearable overnight.

:SV/Arceus:
E-Killer is in a similar boat, except it is much easier to bring and build a team with by virtue of having 120 across the board. This makes it easier to slot in mons to help and support your E-Killer in the endgame. I'm too lazy to find replays but look up the Tlneit vs Gum's replay. Instruct's team has the flexibility to include stuff like Helectrode and Tinkaton, which you otherwise would not be able to do with either Zac-C or Kyogre.

:SV/Eternatus:
This thing is very good, but I am not entirely convinced it is broken just yet. Will it need to go eventually? Likely. But I am holding out on it at the moment. The HP it passes is insane and 130 speed is crazy though. It's the same Eternatus from last gen, but I do think the limited dex is what makes this just very good right now. The DLC could flip things on its head and make Eternatus incredibly broken if it's still around by then.

:SV/Gholdengo: :SV/Great Tusk:
I'm going to touch on these two very quickly because I have to go soon. Gholdengo enables hazard stack to an annoying degree just like it did pre-HOME meta, which is even easier now with stuff like Hamurott and Ting Lu being a bit freed up no longer having to stuff Miraidon. This just makes Great Tusks that much better because it is the best Rapid Spin user by a country mile or kilometer, and it also happens to blow up Gholdengo... along with basically everything else in the meta. I feel like both of these need to go eventually. I think Gholdengo sooner than Tusks, but I wouldn't mind both going at the same time.

I won't even get into Terastallizaton, but I feel like the community consensus is that despite it being tested.. it's broken and ought to stay banned. You're welcome to discuss, but I personally have not seen anything remotely resembling a half-baked argument for Terastallization being legal besides things like it's the generational mechanic, it's fun, or stuff along those lines that aren't entirely related with the tier's overall health.
 

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