Plague von Karma
Banned deucer.
RBY UU Sleep Suspect Test
In response to the survey results, the RBY UU Council has decided to suspect test sleep.
For the past few months, roughly since around the time after RBYPL II, sleep as a status in RBY UU has increased in controversy. While vocal users such as Volk pointed it out prior, a noticeable portion of tournament-playing competitors has argued that it should be banned. There is a mirror post in the RBY forum, but if you wish to post in the Policy Review thread but lack a badge, you can apply for access here.
The reason for this mainly stems from RBY UU's offensive nature. The strength of RBY sleep is known to many: up to six turns asleep, requiring a turn to wake up, all of this is magnified in such an offensive tier, and waking up on Wrap is a strategy that has become continually more difficult as gameplay improves. Sleep strengthens strong attackers like Persian, Kangaskhan, Dodrio, Swords Dance Tentacruel, Kadabra, and Dugtrio to dizzying heights, with slower and bulkier Pokemon simply being unable to be fit onto teams to check them. Many players have advocated for universal sleep bans in RBY lower tiers, and the UU Council wishes to give this idea a fair shake.
Many teams require speedsters to deal with Tentacruel, as well as offensive answers to teams stacking multiple Normal-types, all while including the mandatory sleeper among other roles. This means teams tend to have 6-Pokemon cores to fit all the roles they require in UU, with no "weakest link", and this means sleep's impact on games can be very swingy depending on timing. Plus, with the relevant sleepers - Hypno, Tangela, Venusaur, and Haunter, as well as the newly dropped Victreebel - being generally consistent with high power levels, it can be difficult to effectively block sleep as well. Hypno is often tasked with the job of blocking sleep once paralysed - a Pokemon already strapped for defensive play - which worsens matters further; keep in mind it can have sleep itself too. This has led to unscrupulous interactions like Hypnosis Hypno mirrors and turn 1 Venusaur switch-ins being seen as uncompetitive. With teambuilding so geared towards profiting from the environment that makes sleep so powerful, a critical mass of speedsters that make it difficult to even wake up a Pokemon, and the general unsavoury nature of RBY sleep not meshing with UU, a suspect test seems very clear-cut!
We anticipate two questions regarding the nature of this suspect test, which will be answered now for transparency:
"Why not Hypno?"
This was hotly debated among the UU Council prior to the survey's release and was the main argument against a blanket sleep ban. Not only does the playerbase not agree with it overall - our survey results greatly showed this - but the Council also believes a Hypno ban would make the tier worse. The argument makes sense on paper: many of the interactions leading to sleep come from Hypnosis Hypno, as it compresses the sleeper role well, and mirrors between them are sometimes forced. However, Pokemon like Venusaur - and, again, the new Victreebel - are seen as similarly unhealthy with sleep access; the impact of the status itself and the team compositions encouraged are the problems here. Ergo, banning Hypno itself removes the tier's strongest defensive pivot and ignores playerbase concerns, all while not addressing the fundamental issues that allow a critical mass of speedy attackers to be used viably with little punishment. The UU Council hopes that a sleep ban would lead to the opportunity to run slower teams without the need to always dedicate the role to the tier's frail, inconsistent sleepers, while also diversifying Hypno's movesets. Hypno will be on the table should it prove to be broken in and of itself, but this has failed to manifest.
"Where's Lapras?!"
The UU Council aims to retest Lapras after RBYPL III. This is because a potential sleep ban would nerf Lapras in a way that would lead to a more successful and productive suspect test. Current anticipations and experimentation bring concerns to Lapras wars defining a "Lapras UU", and its access to Sing will make these interactions exceedingly unhealthy, even if it doesn't prove to be a mainstay set. Lapras could cancel itself out, but with Sing, you end up with variance that could lead to it gaining an extreme advantage that's difficult for players to dig themselves out of. Additionally, shifting the metagame in such a large way would be very problematic for RBYPL III's draft if Lapras returns, something the UU Council wants to avoid. Thus, suspect testing sleep itself first in response to current metagame concerns feels far more appropriate, allowing us to deliver on our promise in a more in-touch manner later.
Qualifying Players & Methodology
The following requirements will determine our Voter Pool:
- Played 3 games and won at least 1 in the following team tours: UUSD III, UUFPL II, RBYPL II, UUSD II
- Placed in the Top 3 of RoA Olympics 6
- Placed in the Top 4 of the RBY UU Open I
- Placed in the Top 2 of the RoA's UU Spotlight Tours
- Placed in the Top 4 of the RBY UU Invitational LCQ
- Placed in the Top 8 of the RBY UU Invitational
With these requirements, the following 25 players qualify;
- 5Dots (UUFPL II)
- AM (UUSD III, UUFPL II)
- Amaranth (UUSD II)
- Cam (UUFPL II)
- chuva de perereca (RoA Spotlight Tour #2)
- Ctown6 (RBY UU Open I)
- Drogba In Shenhua (UUSD II)
- emma (UUSD III)
- FriendOfMrGolem120 (RoAO VI)
- Ice Yazu (RBY UU Open I, RBY UU Invitational QF)
- juoean (UUSD III, RBY UU Invitational QF + LCQ)
- Khaetis (RBY UU Invitational)
- kjdaas (RBYPL II, RBY UU Open I)
- Koalacance (UUFPL II, UUSD II, RoAO VI, RBY UU Invitational)
- Mikon (RoA Spotlight Tour #2)
- pac (UUSD II, RBYPL II)
- phoopes (UUFPL II, UUSD II, RBYPL II)
- pokemonisfun (RBY UU Invitational QF + LCQ)
- robjr (RBY UU Invitational QF+LCQ)
- Sage (RBY UU Invitational LCQ)
- Shellnuts (UUSD III, UUFPL II, RBYPL II, RBY UU Invitational)
- stunner047 (UUSD III, UUFPL II)
- Torchic (UUSD III, UUSD II, RBY UU Invitational)
- Unowndragon (UUSD III, UUFPL II, UUSD II, RoAO VI)
- Volk (RBYPL II, UUFPL II)
This thread will be open for two weeks to allow players to gather their thoughts and discuss RBY UU sleep, after which a blind voting thread will be made for the qualifying players to cast their votes. Blind voting will, thus, open on the 5th of September, just in time for Week 1 of RBYPL III!
Should sleep be banned, it will be non-transitive, like the Agility + Partial Trapping ban.
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