>>30438048Both sides of this "argument" are incredibly irritating. Decidueye did not end up being a top-of-the-line sweeper with clear GameFreak favoritism, nor is it irredeemable garbage without any kind of merit. It's versatile and capable enough to perform OK in a few roles, but it is by no means the best option for any of those roles. If you like it and want to build a team around it, go ahead. It isn't total dead weight and it's not straight-up outclassed by Dhelmise either as some folks keep saying. It'll probably be UU, or even RU, and some Smogonites think it could potentially put in work on specific OU teams but it's just not that big of a deal. Definitely an Empoleon/Chesnaught tier starter, and to be honest that's not too bad. Before Megas and Greninja that level of "viability" was something to be thankful for as a starter. Think of pre-Kalos Charizard.
I'm happy with my owl, and I'm glad it's not a complete waste, but I have no illusions about its overall usefulness.
