>>18091581Using the December 2013 statistics, I count around 10-15 potential RS/Defog users in the top 100 used OU mons, and one magic bounce user (Espeon). Hardly "everywhere". My point remains, Smogon tiering council tend to make a "stable" format because it is easier to solve than a volatile format, and tend to ban anything that can interfere with that format. If it is consistantly better than the format they want, they call it "centralising". If it is consistantly able to interfere with the format they want, they call it "degenerate". As a result you get a nice stable format, but one with a clearly defined metagame that everything has to address, which is where we started anyway.
Look, currently VGC is built around having a solid core and coverage. You see some sand, hail and rain still, although it is less popular than it used to be, or sun on the back of Char Y. You see trick room, Tailwind and Prankster support all being viable alongside the aforementioned weather, spore spam is kept in check by Venusaur/Goggles (which are finally seeing some use)/Ferrothorn/suprise lum berries, such that the bigger threat from Amoonguss for many now is actually rage powder to give setup time. Yes, you see Mega-mum, but you also see Char-Y, M-Mawile, M-Manectric, the occasional M-Blastoise, M-Gar, M-T-Tar, M-Gyara (although those are all more fringe). You see many strategies and the metagame is still "volatile", but there is no real dominant strategy yet (give it 6 months and we should have a "stable" meta). At the moment, VGC seems to be more open for creativity than Gen VI OU, with its Mega mums, spore spam, dark void bullshittery and so on.
>>18091662Fair enough, I think that is the logical argument for Smogon to begin with. People playing the format decide on the rules of the format. Unfortunately, it is a remarkably small core that decide on the format (and I don't mean open it up to ELO<1400s or whatever, I mean stop it being a council circlejerk).
