Quoted By:
>While Melmetal has plenty of unique characteristics that let it stand out in the OU metagame, it is true that Melmetal is quite slow and can fall to strong special attacks. The problem is that most special attackers, aside from a healthy Rotom-Wash or Rotom-Heat, are incapable of switching into Melmetal safely due to how strong it is. On the contrary, Melmetal finds itself getting in unscathed frequently due to how practical the mono-Steel typing is, especially in conjunction with its defensive stat spread. Be it through the Body Press + Acid Armor set that is only countered by a very limited pool of Pokemon such as Toxapex and Jellicent or through other sets such as Choice Banded Melmetal, which is an absolute wrecking ball with Double Iron Bash, Melmetal is capable of posing a consistent threat to teams offensively while being a physically defensive behemoth. Given how disruptive the combination of Double Iron Bash and a potentially boosted Body Press can be, the amount of defensive counterplay to those variants of Melmetal present within the metagame is insufficient. In addition, there are virtually no switch-ins to the more offensive variants such as Choice Banded Melmetal, which is even more problematic due to how naturally bulky it is, letting it get in safely frequently. Therefore, we are electing to quickban Melmetal. The council intends to retest Melmetal in the near future once the metagame has settled down, so keep an eye open for that down the road.
