Standard Rules (as of April 15 from Smogon.com)+General Smogon discussion

[Illithian]

Syberia, I agree on almost all points, but honestly Yanmega moving from UU to OU makes little difference. Its essentially just banning her from UU, which is pointless as she does play just fine in both tiers. I think its a redundant argument anyway because if she fits in UU, keep her in UU, and she can still be used in OU.

And I can't think of any OU pokemon that have a realistic reason to be moved to BL or UU. Its a stretch, but you could make a viable argument for Donphan, Empoleon, Kingdra, Ninjask, and Smeargle to be moved into UU, but it would probably just break the metagame and most UU fans would just cry and complain. As for UU pokemon moving up, none of them are particularly broken at the moment, so I dont see any point.

[Syberia]

I could see Donphan surviving in UU without breaking the game. Empoleon and Kingdra would probably end up being banned on power, and Smeargle was getting along fine in the tier for the three months or so before usage kicked him out without any official testing.

[randomspot555]

I could see Donphan surviving in UU without breaking the game. Empoleon and Kingdra would probably end up being banned on power, and Smeargle was getting along fine in the tier for the three months or so before usage kicked him out without any official testing.

Donphan really only serves one purpose in OU battles (Spin). Sure, he's got the stats to run a Choice Band set, and a few others, but I've never seen those be all that common according to usage starts.

It'd be interesting to see if the non-Spinning sets could fit into the UU game.

[wraith89]

Donphan really only serves one purpose in OU battles (Spin). Sure, he's got the stats to run a Choice Band set, and a few others, but I've never seen those be all that common according to usage starts.

It'd be interesting to see if the non-Spinning sets could fit into the UU game.

Donphan's been slowly falling out of usage lately. The only sets I see are 252/252 HP/Def Impish ones with barely any attack invested in it. It's a bit too weak and Ice Shard barely hurts Salamence :-/

The only spinners I see are Starmie, Tentacruel and Forretress. I wonder if Donphan would break the UU game though. His attack is quite powerful and he is physically bulky too, but even then, he's slow and is just another Sandslash without Swords Dance if you think about it.

[randomspot555]

Donphan's been slowly falling out of usage lately. The only sets I see are 252/252 HP/Def Impish ones with barely any attack invested in it. It's a bit too weak and Ice Shard barely hurts Salamence :-/

Donphan still serves a spinning purpose on sand storm teams, though arguably Claydol does that better since it's immune to spikes.

And Ice Shard on it is overrated. It's like what...a 3-4 ko with no defense factored into Sala/Dragonite. That's why I always go for Knock Off and Rock Slide.

[wraith89]

Donphan still serves a spinning purpose on sand storm teams, though arguably Claydol does that better since it's immune to spikes.

And Ice Shard on it is overrated. It's like what...a 3-4 ko with no defense factored into Sala/Dragonite. That's why I always go for Knock Off and Rock Slide.

Sandslash gets Rapid Spin AND Sand Veil, hmmmmmmm...

[SilentFox]

Smeargle is used as a spore- some stat increaser - bp - something else

thats what i see run it could work in both tiers so i dont get it

[randomspot555]

Smeargle is used as a spore- some stat increaser - bp - something else

thats what i see run it could work in both tiers so i dont get it

Smeargle can do any type of set up. But I could see it being able to last longer in lower tiers, so it can do stuff like set up screens, Baton Pass Belly Drum, etc..