UU Nomination Thread 8

Status
Not open for further replies.
I'm nominating Stealth Rock under the Support Characteristic. The description for the support characteristic states: "a Pokemon is BL if, in common battle conditions, it can consistently set up a situation in which it makes it substantially easier for other Pokemon to sweep [a significant portion of the metagame]."

Thus, a move (as with the item Damp Rock) can be BL: "if, in common battle conditions, it can consistently set up a situation in which it makes it substantially easier for a Pokemon to sweep [a significant portion of the metagame]."

Let's begin with the versatility and breadth of Stealth Rock. A move such as Nasty Plot can only cover a few Pokemon--Houndoom, Ambipom, Ninetales, Jynx, etc. Within the group who can use the move, only a very small number can actually use it to any substantial effect (Houndoom, maybe Jynx). Stealth Rock, however, will aid virtually any sweeper, and allow even the most mediocre of sweepers to become a relatively potent threat. This is huge, and it explains why I'm nominating this particular move over other support moves.

Now, there are two ways in which Stealth Rock actually aids a sweep. First, it limits the amount of switching that a team facing it can do. This means that sweepers cannot be threatened out constantly by the same Pokemon, for that Pokemon will eventually take enough damage from coming in as to be unable to prevent the sweep.

Second, and most importantly, Stealth Rock increases the sweeping power of many threats in the metagame. Let's take a look at one of the Pokemon nominated for BL status, Alakazam. Would Alakazam have a shot at being BL without Stealth Rock? I doubt it. One of the arguments made in favor of Alakazam being Suspect was that it could only be countered by Spiritomb. But with SR . . .

Modest LO Alakazam's Focus Blast vs. 0/252+ Chansey: 41.8% - 49.3%

If Chansey switches into this, and SR isn't down, Chansey can beat Alakazam. If SR is down, however, an Alakazam rolling average damage CAN beat Chansey. SR, which requires only a single turn of set-up, can easily make Chansey go from being an Alakazam counter to something that Alakazam can easily beat, leaving Spiritomb as the only 100% counter.

This is just one example. I could provide hundreds of calcs showcasing the extreme effect Stealth Rock has on the ability to sweep. What about something more obscure, like non-rain SD Kabutops?

+2 max Atk (neutral) LO Stone Edge vs. 252/252+ Milotic: 83% - 97.7%

0 SpAtk Milotic will 2hko Kabutops with Surf. So if Kabutops comes in and Milotic has eaten even 1 round of SR damage, or if Milotic comes in on Kabutops (terrible situation), Kabutops is going to get an SD and OHKO the sea serpent. In the absence of SR, Kabutops cannot sweep. With it, Kabutops can possibly run through an entire team. One move made all the difference.

Instead of droning on with example after example, I'm going to leave this nomination at that for now. I think everyone can see how much SR helps Pokemon to sweep--the only way that balanced and offensive teams can legitimately compete with other balanced and offensive teams is to also run SR, or to run a spinner. This is obviously very centralizing, and while centralization is not a valid argument for a ban, it is a strong indication that something is too powerful to handle without overpreparation. And I think this is the case here.

SR helps so many sweepers to sweep with such ease that I cannot but nominate it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top