Suspect Mix and Mega Suspect 2: Terastallization

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Mix and Mega council has decided to suspect Terastallization!

Terastallization has long been a controversial phenomenon in Mix and Mega. Early in the metagame it contributed to the excessive brokeness of Koraidon and Miraidon, undeniably hastening their bans, and even after they left remained a potent threat on the likes of Palafin and Iron Bundle. In essence, it allows a Pokemon to change up their type, either gaining a boost to their attacks if they chose one of their previous stabs or changing up their type chart and boosting coverage if they chose a new one. Up until recently, however, it was constrained to a handful of Pokemon by the fact that it was incompatible with Mega Evolution, and thus largely only utilized by pokemon that could not make use of that instead. With the new item introductions to Mix and Mega, however, this changed. Prior to its ban, Terastallization helped render Rusted Sword users even more difficult to defensively or offensively answer, and while the introduction of Red Orb significantly suffocates pre-change Tera staples like Palafin, the ability of Rusted Shield users to Terastallize is still something of an issue. Between Rusted Shield and Terastallization, it is relatively easy for bulky setup users like Volcarona and Garganacl to safely gain boosts to potentially sweep opposing teams.

However, that's not to say that it is undeniably overwhelming in its power. While useful, the stat boosts from Rusted Shield are significantly less than that of a mega stone, and Dauntless Shield is admittedly a decent ability but is unexceptional in a metagame full of equal or better options. Which pokemon will run a Rusted Shield and Terastallize is usually obvious at team preview, and always apparent the moment it switches into battle. Rusted Shield sweeps are significantly harder to pull off if they don't succeed the first time the user comes into the battle thanks to Dauntless Shield being a one time effect, and Mix and Mega has traditionally had no shortage of options to force switches from the opposing team. Finally, since Rusted Shield does not boost a pokemon's offensive capabilities, defensive cores have a significantly easier time dealing with their damage output than even normal items combined with Terastallization, to say nothing of Mega Stones; Chien Pao, for instance, is barely stronger after a Rusted Shield Swords Dance than its older Life Orb Terastal set is unboosted, and is slower to boot.

Is Terastallization too much for the Mix and Mega Metagame, or is the phenomenon fine and any issues - if they do rise to that level - more the fault of individual abusers such as Volcarona, or Rusted Shield itself?

Requirements:

Requirements can be achieved by getting 80 GXE with 30 games, down to 76 GXE with 50 games on the Mix and Mega ladder. In order to participate in the suspect, you must create a fresh alt (creation date no earlier than 20 March 2023) with the prefix MNMTR at the start of the name. When you have obtained the reqs, make sure to post proof of your alt's record (generally a screenshot) in this thread, and if you wish to do so, you can also share your thoughts on the test here.


Voting:
Once the suspect period is over, everyone who has obtained reqs will be tagged. The post will then outline a process of blind voting, which will be clarified once the time arrives. For now, follow the above "Requirements" subheading to ensure that you have posted your reqs correctly. You must post on this thread in order to be tagged in the voting thread, however you do not need to include your vote on this thread.

A super-majority of 60% ban votes is required to prevent pokemon from Terastallizing in Mix and Mega.

TL;DR:
- Terastallization is permitted on pokemon with Rusted Shield or no Mega Stone on the Mix and Mega ladder for the duration of the suspect test
- The GXE requirement is 80 and the minimum game count is 30, down to a minimum of 76 after 50 games
- You must ladder on a newly-created alt using the prefix MNMTR
- You must post your reqs in this thread, though the voting process will happen in a separate thread. You are not required to state your vote in this thread.
- The suspect test will conclude at 11:59pm GMT -4 (EST) on Monday, April 3rd.
- A ban vote of 60% is required to prevent pokemon from Terastallizing in Mix and Mega.
 
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terra wasnt standard on every team until the rusted items were released and even now rusted shield+terra isnt broken. i believe people are confused about why rusted shield can occasionally seem overwhelming, it adds bulk and teambuilding type versatility which allows rusted shield users to more accurately adhere to team chemistry. it isnt broken offensively or defensively, but blends both fluidly as a team strategy enhancer leading to more pronounced visual differences in already existing team strategy disparities making already difficult battles to win even more hard. even if it was busted just get rid of the rusted shield, keeping AN ENTIRE GAME MECHANIC is more important than keeping A SINGLE ITEM *cough* sleep+pidgeotite *cough*

tl dr: rusted shield is a "win more card" (yugioh term)

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Giagantic

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Pretty Good run, would've probably went 30-0 if I didn't accidentally forget to mega my Dnite one game and wasn't crit in another.

Leaning DNB, I feel Tera as it currently is fine, I am a personal advocate of a complex restricting it but since that is off the table I can't help but vote DNB. There is so much opportunity loss not running a mega stone in regards to stats and abilities that I feel tera fits into the metagame as is... This being said I don't think it will stick around in the long run once some actual Ubers are released for that will certainly be the point in which Tera is excessive in nature.

I used the following two teams that are similar outside of one pokemon Baxcalibur Team and Palafin Team.
 

spatula

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I used the orb jugulis sample team. Tera didn't feel super broken, I thought the orb mons like iron jugulis and iron moth were absolutely nuts though. Tera on rusted shield mons seem to be the most common, and it feels like there's a decent amount of opportunity cost to forgo a mega stone for this. But tera is always a little unpredictable which can make it pretty annoying. Not sure what I'd vote yet.
 


Spent this suspect test trying to break terastalization on something other than Garganacl, which is definitely a candidate but I think Aggronite and Ttarite are both honestly better than tera most cases. I tried a few things, like SD Rusted Shield Baxcalibur (which is solid, I reccomend Tera Water), DD Rusted Shield Roaring Moon, which is a decent cleaner but really lacks the breaking power you would like, CM slowbro (who sucks), and QD Sub volcarona, who I think is the closest I got.

Volcarona @ Rusted Shield
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Def / 44 SpA / 116 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Morning Sun
- Substitute
- Tera Blast

Mono attacking is pretty rough, but the ability to bypass Garganacl is what really saves it. This set really does a number to offense (as long as you dont get crit by iron moth and dragonite too many times, rip those games) and takes advantage of full stall fairly well, but most balance can handle it decently enough even if it is still a threat. Tera Fairy and Ghost are both also options, but the former leaves you with a much harder job into gholdengo and the latter struggles with blissey and Chi Yu, so ymmv. Outside of sub I think Tera Ground + flamethrower and Tera electric + giga drain are the ones I appreciate the most, but they both also bring their own list of common mons they struggle with; there isn't a magic volcarona bullet.

Now that my suspect run is done, I'm going to give a few more mons like scream tail, kingambit, and specs Flutter Mane a go at being broken but I think at the moment I am leaning dnb on tera.
 

Redflix

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Will be voting ban. Part of it comes from the bias that sword wouldve likely been fine if we tiered tera first but even in the current meta tera breaks garg and volc and enables set up to be extremely annoying- be it bro / florges defensively or bax/chomp/iron hands offensively with SD. I also dont like the argument of banning rusted shield over it since that would mean we would have banned 2 of our new stones/items to preserve tera.

Mostly used this HO - all out offense (pokepast.es) so that i could get over with the ladder quickly but realised that red orb hippo is a tough mu for it (luckily only faced it twice) so i switched to this team when 3 games were left cuz i cared about my record at that point.
 

Osake

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Lost 1 game to mono bug cuz Volcarona clicked QD then Tera'd and I lost lol.

Can't say I had a good view my run was quite easy tbf and what I felt probably doesn't reflect the meta
I also didn't play in the "new" meta, but from what I know from previous meta + what I saw, tera is pretty dumb in general and can win games when it shouldn't - it's inherent to the mechanic -, but Volcarona was the only one I found truly annoying.

Still leaning for ban atm bc I think some stuff are too strong and I'd rather ban tera that is inherently unhealthy imo than Rusted Shield / too many abusers but it can change

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Cheezy

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don't really think tera is super broken, it's mostly just the combination of rusted shield + tera that is broken to me but since rusted shield wont be banned/suspected anytime soon ill probably be voting ban on tera

edit: didn't realise rusted sword was banned, still leaning ban on tera if there's a chance rusted shield will be suspected
 
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don't really think tera is super broken, it's mostly just the combination of rusted shield + tera that is broken to me but since rusted shield wont be banned/suspected anytime soon ill probably be voting ban on tera
I just want to be clear here that we're not in fact ruling out where to go forward from here; if Tera is banned, we will probably but not definitely suspect Rusted Sword back, but if it is not both tackling abusers such as Volcarona and dealing with Rusted Shield itself are both on the table, depending on how the metagame continues to evolve.
 
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I don't really notice anything broken about Tera – it's super predictable most of the time, and to be honest, it doesn't do much. Really the only time I struggled against Tera was a Tera Ghost Rusted Shield Gholdengo, and even then the main reason I couldn't beat that team was because of the opponent's Ditto. Keeping Tera around also makes the meta more diverse; there are a lot of fun – and good! – strategies that basically need Tera to work.

Voting DNB for sure, I just don't see a reason to ban
 
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I really feel like tera should be banned because it not only allows bulky set up mons to just set up against things they would normally lose to but it also enables walls with bad typings like nacl to wall weakened teams. I know it's how base game acts but it really just doesn't feel right to give the offensive/defense rusted items to tera when the stones can't. Voting Ban
 
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would love to echo sentiments that laddering in this meta is painful. i find that the meta is fun and that the problem is probably rusted shield or individual abusers rather than tera (palafin, flutter mane, bundle and chien pao i feel are all totally fine, problems only arise when pokemon are equipped with the arguably already broken rusted sword or a rusted shield) and therefore i will be voting no ban
 
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