Landorus-T may be...getting banned?

[HeroLinik]

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/landorus.3625600

If you didn't catch this, discussions have surfaced about the potential worth of Landorus-T in OU, especially considering how it's now the most popular mon ever used in OU, sitting at a near 52%, something unprecedented in OU usage stats. Some people are starting to call for it to be banned even, thanks to its high usage and the fact it needs to be on nearly every team, while others are calling out the opposite, largely thanks to the fact that there isn't a lot of limited counterplay and several mons in OU can easily dispose of it. Even then, there have been some sets that have risen for the hopes of checking this Pokemon, such as AV Tapu Bulu and Shuca Berry Tapu Koko. Even Mega Latios, a Pokemon often deemed as the worst mega competitively, has started surfacing.

What do you guys think about this? If Landorus-T gets banned, how will the meta unfold without it?

 

[gimmepie]

Honestly, I don't think that it's a centralising mon in the same way as many banned mon were. It's very good and very popular, but really not that hard to check or KO. It simply does its job(s) better than its competition.

 

[Levea]

Alright, so I'll give my imput. Whether or not a Mon has 50% or even 80% usage alone should never necessitate a suspect test, Landorus-T does not and will not ever be centralizing, I define centralizing as essentially running the tier so that a certain set of mons must be run to deal with said Mon. Landorus-T is not this, yes Landorus-T is a good Mon but it's because if it's versitility in what it can offer to a team ex. Rocks, Z-user, or to defensively counter certain threats such as Charizard x. Lando is not a Mon where it is a necessity to run say... Greninja to counter Landorus-T, it will never be sweeping teams only cleaning up at most or wallbreaking if it's offensive. In OU Landorus-T is a good Mon, yes but compared to centralizing mons of the past such as Naganadel and Aegislash which required their own set of counters to be run on every team essentially warping the tier and requiring it's players to run unviable mons and sets such as AV Ttar and Mandibuzz. Lando is not centralizing to this degree to be worthy of a suspect test. I also wish to point out that Landorus-T's presence keeps many scary mons in check such as Charizard x, kartana to an extent, Garchomp, Zygarde, and a few other's. Also to point out the argument ''there is no counterplay'' Landorus-T has a a lot of counterplay Greninja, tapu Lele, tangrowth, tapu bulu, Hawlucha, thunderus, Kyurem B, anything with water and ice coverage, rotom, etc even many mons in UU and RU can stop lando. This is my opinion on the matter involving Landorus-T and it's status in the OU tier

 

[Nah]

I'm just gonna try to keep it short, so basically I think that the more likely reason for its very high usage percentage stems from the fact that it's an unusually versatile 'mon for OU that also compresses a lot of good shit into one teamslot and pretty much fits onto almost any team, rather than that it's potentially broken or uncompetitive or whatever.

But if there's any reason at all for it being suspect-test worthy, it's probably that the introduction of Z-Moves (which maybe are kind of fucking stupid) combined with said versatility+utility makes it feel a bit like XY Protean Greninja where it's maybe "too unpredictable" and can potentially beat almost all of its checks/counters, and so it might be too difficult to handle that in the team-building phase or something.

 

[wolf]

I agree with the OU council. Centralizing/common != broken. There are plenty of other similar cases, such as Tauros being on 61% of teams in RBY OU, Snorlax being 67% in GSC OU, and Tyranitar being 39% in ADV OU. Granted, those metagames have had time to settle, but over time Lando will probably end up in a similar situation. Even then, Lando isn't as threatening as those Pokemon and is mainly used for its utility. The argument that it walls a large portion of the metagame seems weak as well, because it's easily weakened due to it lacking recovery, having a major weakness that can be capitalized on, and falling to most strong special attackers. Also, only the combined usage stats show Lando at 52%, whereas for each individual month it hovers at around 27% to 30%.