I have to type up reasoning for my votes so I might as well make a post in advance sharing not only my rationale for the way I voted but also my thoughts on other Pokémon.
Ban. If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t expect her to be that bad considering how borderline she was in prior generations, but this Pokémon is probably the most broken threat we’ve got right now. Absurd bulk, potent special attack, and great natural speed even without investment makes this Mon far too overwhelming with its Calm Mind + Stored Power set alone, basically running over the entire tier rather easily even without screens. Move options like Aura Sphere or Substitute for the last move further add on to both its potency and unpredictability. Really just another Espathra. Tera versatility like Poison, Steel, Fairy, or Electric is the nail in the coffin making Latias able to change matchups just like that and turn checks into additional setup bait. Lyssa and many others cover this mon perfectly and I don’t want to repeat reasoning too much so check out prior posts on Latias. Easy
Ban
Ban. Iron Hands is absurdly broken when not running shit ass Tera Fire. That simple. Ice Punch + STABs bitches almost all of the tier and it trades far too effectively to be a healthy presence in the tier. It’s broken for the same reasons that caused it to be banned 3 times already this gen that I just don’t feel like repeating anymore. 4 times was not in fact the charm and I don’t think it’s ever worth bothering with Iron Hands as long as Skeledirge isn’t here but even then it was controversial regardless. I honestly don’t know, maybe if Skeledirge drops and we enter the “No rises” period of the gen it can be checked out but that’s like a year from now so in the meantime Iron Hands can have fun in UUBL. Easy
Ban
Ban. If I’m being honest, I didn’t expect this to really drop to begin with until it hit me that Gouging Fire is a Pokémon in OU but regardless we generally lack the tools to reliably handle Blaziken at this stage in my opinion. Only needs one turn to really run away with games, and that can easily be achieved through forced switches or even more irritatingly a right tera. Tera Electric, Steel, or Dark all can deny revenge killing attempts and Blaziken can just run away with games effortlessly. Swords Dance + STABs + Knock Off is all that’s really needed to destroy this tier. I wouldn’t even say Flare Blitz is needed, Blaze Kick backed by the Life Orb boost is good enough STAB for me. In my own experience, it doesn’t need screens to be a deadly and overpowered presence that we should get rid of. It’s the least broken of the voting slate and I can definitely see a future where Blaziken ends the generation in UU but the metagame is not suited to handle Blaziken right now. I don’t actually know whether or not this gets banned but right now I vote
Ban
This is by far the most difficult tiering decision I’ve had to make all gen. For starters, I don’t care if screens don’t add anything to the tier, I will only vote to ban it if I see that there are reasonably healthy Pokémon that are pushed over the edge by screens. As of now, while I am not very set on this, I think banning Light Clay and then reevaluating it is the best decision. Pokémon like Iron Moth, Latios, Kommo-o, Manaphy, and Garchomp all can potentially be healthy additions to the tier that involve offensive counterplay keeping them in line, but the presence of screens makes them more difficult to answer. I largely agree with the sentiments in Apple’s post, we see the vast disparity in calcs with Manaphy, something that has 0/0 bulk and low speed, that is now suddenly trading with checks like Sandy Shocks and Latios when screens are up. This is just one example of this, and I’ve become really convinced actually playing scenarios in my head where screens hinders counterplay attempts for a lot of threats that would be more reliable with it gone. However, I am not entirely set on a lot of these Pokémon being set in stone balanced without Light Clay. As such, I’d like to see Light Clay reevaluated in a month since by then we would’ve removed the egregiously broken stuff not reliant on screens by then. If this is too long and you just skipped to the end to see what I voted, I ultimately chose to vote
Ban on Light Clay.
My thoughts on other controversial Pokémon in the tier:
This is the only other Pokémon I’d ban as of now that I don’t think relies on screens to be overbearing. Swords Dance + STABs + Play Rough destroys almost the entire tier effortlessly and it just lacks any defensive counterplay. It even breaks past Steel-types like Jirachi and Hisuian Goodra relatively easily and you’ve got offensively checking as the only way to handle it, but Ogerpon has got useful enough bulk to where this is unreliable and Terastallization can help out in cases like eliminating a weakness to First Impression from Lokix and U-turn from Tornadus-T as well as a resistance to Hurricane from the latter as well as Iron Moth’s STABs just to name a few. It just slaughters the tier to an overwhelming extent that I really don’t think is healthy. Horn Leech creates annoying interactions with Sturdy as well akin to Ceruledge Bitter Blade issues. The loss of the item really doesn’t feel like that big of a deal. I’ll be pushing for action on this in the near future in a following slate after this vote.
I honestly haven’t really felt Ceruledge being that overwhelming as of now but I don’t deny how dumb it can be. Apart from bulky Garchomp and Tera Garganacl there isn’t defensive counterplay (you set up on Alomomola and Swampert is bad) to handle Ceruledge but strong Special Attackers + it’s low Speed have kept it at bay for now. Still, I’ll be keeping an eye on it as it seems plausible to do the same things it did in DLC 1.
This Mon is just very good but that’s it. It’s coverage is weak and if it’s not KOing what’s in front of it, Greninja is getting KOed back very often. It wants all of STABs + Ice Beam + Grass Knot + Water Shuriken and no matter what it goes with it wants something more. Reactive tera also does wonders in handling this Pokémon. It provides a good amount to the tier that I really like and so far I haven’t had troubles with it really which I hope to keep up. Like everything in this post I’ll still keep an eye on this Pokémon too.
This Mon unironically is mid as fuck. The only set worthwhile is Clangous Soul which is really vulnerable to revenge killing in a faster and stronger environment being both much slower than common Choice Scarf users in Terrakion, Keldeo, and Latios and losing 33% of its health clicking the setup move, thus putting it in range of priority. Mixed Stealth Rock sets seem fun and the defensive wall set that always gets overshadowed by setup sets can even find some cool applications. With Swords Dance just use Garchomp though; it’s only good for surprise value trying to hide as the Clangorous Soul set but you’re still a shitty version of Garchomp in the end. I wouldn’t be surprised if this wasn’t even included on a future slate but only time will tell.
Day 1 I wanted this mf gone but I’ve really mellowed out on it. It’s fast and strong but it’s prone to being offensively checked fairly easily by even faster stuff and is pretty prone to being traded with or taken out with priority. It’s basically forced to use Stone Edge for Zapdos which means no Iron Head for Fairy-types. Reactive tera handles this guy pretty well on bulky walls like Rhyperior and Hydrapple in addition to normal checks like Rotom-Wash, Mandibuzz, Garganacl, and more. If Light Clay goes, counterplay improves even more and we can hopefully get an idea if Garchomp is here to stay.
Cool addition I’ve really come around on to the possibility of being balanced. There are two main sets in Agility + 3 Attacks Special Attack booster and 4 attacks Speed booster but both seem fine to me. The agility set lacks the ability to hit everything it wants. Currently, Dazzling Gleam is the main coverage move on it which covers the Latis, Garchomp, Kommo-o, Hoopa-U, and Iron Hands well. However, it’s left very susceptible to many metagame presences like Arcanine, Rhyperior, Garganacl, Manaphy, and Gastrodon to name a few. Should it begin to run Energy Ball, it now struggles into the aforementioned threats hit by Dazzling Gleam to a fair degree instead. The booster Speed set is potent but also lacks power at times and generally bulky stuff handles it well as well as others like Hisuian Goodra and Assault Vest Tornadus-T. Iron Moth also really feels tera reliant at times and is quite vulnerable to priority. I Would give it a bit longer to see how it does
another cool mon who has a pretty fair shot of being balanced unlike his sister. Latios is very powerful but the lack of bulk compared to Latias is very noticeable and as long as you don’t sit around but rather play proactively it’s not that bad to handle. It’s kinda like how Hydriegon was in home/dlc 1. It’s super nice to have Latios though it can definitely provide a lot to the tier. Choice Specs are not that great if I’m being honest as is every choice breaker these days. Tera Fairy as a reactive tera is super common which hinders Draco Meteor from being spammed. I would also like to give this more time overall really.
This Mon has been nonexistent for me so I can’t really comment on it but I do think this Mon has the potential to remain balanced even as the tier settles. Garganacl is a tera hog, I don’t believe that has changed, but last time certain tera types were too powerful and it had a fair amount of flexibility in what could be run. Only time will tell what will actually be viable however. For example, Tera Dragon seems a lot more flawed in a metagame with Latis, Garchomp, and Kommo-o, while Tera Water struggles into Zapdos, Sandy Shocks, Ogerpons, and more. Tera Fairy and Tera Ghost seem to stand out on paper but I’d really like to just see things play out before banning Garganacl because its Iron Defense set can do a lot of good in stat checking the tier while being able to be exploited still.
In general the tier is still super new but I think we’re making good progress already in cleaning it up. Old Pokémon like Sandy Shocks, Ogerpon, Volcanion, Gastrodon, Hoopa-Unbound, Lokix, Azumarill, Mandibuzz, Rotom-Wash, Scizor, Slowking, Okidogi, Iron Treads, Tornadus-T, Empoleon, Hisuian Goodra, Jirachi all feel great to use and I project they will have high viability going forward in the generation. There are also plenty of Pokémon like Rhyperior, Metagross, Suicune, Reuniclus, Cobalion, Terrakion, Deoxys-Defense, and Keldeo that feel fairly unexplored and with time as well as cleaning up the tier will they come to more prominence as they all have the potential to be strong Pokemon in the metagame. I hope this massive post didn’t bore you and I’m looking forward to even more productive discussion in this thread!