I currently believe a
ban is necessary for this. However, terastallization is a big contributing factor to these suspects and quickbans, as about 75% of these Pokémon won't be as good if tera didn't exist. Like Garganacl for example, if it couldn't simply tera Grass on a water move, it would be significantly less threatening than it is in the tier.
Chien-Pao, however, is less reliant on terastallization than most other Pokémon. It's high attack stat along with its speed allows it to outspeed and potentially OHKO anything that threatens it, and its access to Ice Shard and Sucker Punch allows it to finish off weak opponents. Sacred Sword also allows it to cover threats like Chi-Yu (previously, before it was banned).
Chien-Pao can also act as a sweeper under the right conditions. From my experience of using Chien-Pao at the beginning of SV (I stopped using it a while ago until the suspect), there have been many instances where I could simply use only Chien-Pao to get an easy win. I admit, I have also been swept by a singular Chian-Pao before, probably like most people in this suspect or even OU players in general. Chien-Pao can easily stack up a few Swords Dances, tera Ice (sometimes), and start spamming Ice Shard and other moves.
However, Chien-Pao has some checks and counters:
Priority: Chien-Pao is pretty physically frail, and its Ice/Dark typing makes it 4x weak to Fighting and weak to Steel, meaning it can't take (if not can barely live) a Bullet Punch or Mach Punch from
or
. I understand Ice Shard exists for Breloom, but from my experience at least a lot of Breloom run Focus Sash, and I also run Focus Sash Breloom a lot.
252+ Atk Technician Scizor Bullet Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Chien-Pao: 258-306 (85.7 - 101.6%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Chien-Pao: 472-556 (156.8 - 184.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Hazards: Since Chien-Pao is an Ice/Dark type, it takes 25% damage from Stealth Rock, leaving it open to be killed even easier. Along with that, Chien-Pao struggles to keep Pokémon such as Garganacl from setting up rocks due to Garganacl's high defense stat. This Stealth Rock damage plus 3 layers of Spikes (if that ever happens, but I almost always get 3 layers) equals 50% damage, easily dying to a Bullet Punch from Scizor or an Extreme Speed from Dragonite.
Toxic: This is my own personal opinion or from my own experiences, but I normally take care of a Chien-Pao by using Toxic on it and then stalling the poison with Clodsire, preventing it from setting up on an Unaware mon and barely doing any damage since I'm spamming Recover and occasionally (if I have it, but I barely run it on a Clodsire) Protect.
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(this is not an edit, just a break)
I forgot to mention this earlier, but its signature ability, Sword of Ruin, is also a key factor in this Pokémons potential. Sword of Ruin lowers every mon on the fields physical defense by 25%, and it is very clearly a physical attacker, meaning this thing can be a menace to your entire team if you're not careful.
As time goes on, I see less and less Chien-Pao in OU, and I see more and more checks and counters for Chien-Pao on peoples teams, such as Breloom. (This is all in my personal experiences)
Note that my vote may change quite a bit as I am very easily persuaded.