Gonna vote
Ban.
If Dragonite is indeed quite inconsistent and MU reliant, it doesn't change the fact it's too oppressive in the teambuilder for balance and more aggresive style.
Let's be clear,
you can't understand the issue if you're playing fat to stall teams. In these kind of playstyles people are spamming mons like BU/Iron Def Corviknight, Unaware/Pixi physically defensive Scream Tail, Garganacl, Dondozo or bulky Regen Chomp with Dragon Tail. So yeah, if you're starting to run 3-4 mons that individually checks a Dragonite set, then yeah, you're quite fine lol.
And this is the current trend. People are playing extremely fat and boring (to me at least) structures because there are still too many offensive threats to deal with. Only fat to stall playstyles offer enough defensive space to guard against these many threats. By "many", I imput this current trend to 2 things:
- Dragonite. Balanced or more offensive teams tend to lose to a set because your defensive core is limited. Offensive counterplay is usually a way against things that are too hard to deal with defensively but here's the issue: offensive counterplay is extremely difficult due to Dragonite's busted priority. It's not like, Cinderace, Talonflame that you're going to deal with with Chien-Pao or Scarf Rotom-W, Hydreigon, Garchomp, etc for instance. Offensive options are basically limited to Dazzling mon that are decent but not great and particularly MU reliant.
- The dumb special mons. Zoroark-Hisui and Gengar are really difficult to deal with defensively for balanced teams because, if you want to be really safe vs them, you have to rely on things like RegenVest Garchomp, Bulletproof mons or generally passive mon that break the dynamism of balanced/BO styles. Iron Moth is also something I still have in mind but hopefully it somehow nerfs itselft by running Desolate Land pivot set which is often mandatory for defensive purpose (whereas Hadron/BoR sets can break almost anything).
These 2 things are responsible to
the direction the metagame is taking to me,
fat/semi-stall. And this is not a state I find particularly enjoyable because fat structures often tend to be redundant due to a teambuilder over pressure (knowing that our tools are already limited by the current dex).
Realistically, just see how people are just spamming physically defensive Unaware Scream Tail which is the passivest thing existing just because it prevents well to lose to dumb setup. Although, looking at VRs, Dragonite is definitely one of the reason this set makes sense. Corviknight that has been the heart of balanced teams providing defensive utility and momentum has to give up the last for BU/ID otherwise it's gonna lose to DD Roost Dragonite. Garchomp which is an amazing and scary breaker became a purely defensive mons to deal with Dragonite sometimes (but not only hopefully). We're playing quite shit Dazzling mon mainly to not autolose to Dragonite in more offensive structures. Etc.
I could continue this post more in-deph by looking at Dragonite's sets (DD Roost 2 atk, LO 3 atk + Roost and Band mainly) in practise or posting replays where Dragonite stupidly won against a balanced/BO team because it just had the right set (note that against balanced and more aggresive styles, even without the autowin set, Dragonite will not be a burden for sure) which is generally the kind of situation we want to avoid in a balanced metagame but I think we all already know what this mon does and why it's suspected tested.
In conclusion, I'm not saying Dragonite is broken, but its presence is not healthy for the metagame and the reason why it should go.
Quoting
Osake's
post for another approach and I also recommend to read
Atha's
suspect test OP to a brief explanation about Dragonite.