Tier List Update August 2018

Senile · July 29, 2018

There's no usage movements this month, however, there will be some bans in lower tiers:

Moving up from UU to BL:

Haxorus dropped from OU to UU by usage last month, and the tier council opted to not ban it. Unsurprisingly, it's been tearing up UU ever since. Although we were well aware of the sheer physical strength this thing brought to the table, we decided it's better to test it and see how it goes rather than insta-quickbanning it. Ultimately though, we quickly realized that it isn't just insanely strong, it's also really, really fast. Base 97 speed is excellent in a tier like UU, outspeeding a large amount of the tier, meaning that even checking this thing is difficult, let alone actually countering it. Even a good amount of the "counters"/"checks" that would handle this thing lacked good recovery or staying power, meaning that they would quickly be broken apart even if you dedicated them to just switching in on Haxorus.

With all this in mind, Haxorus is banned from UU.

Moving up from NU to BL2:

Venomoth has probably been the most contentious pokemon in current NU since it came into existence with the new update. Quiver Dance/Sleep Powder is already a pretty potent combination that severely limits the number and quality of things that can actually reliably switch in and handle Venomoth, however, it also has an amazing abilities in Tinted Lens. This makes losing 2 moveslots for QD/Sleep Powder, something that would normally result in very limited coverage and, by extension, many more options for switchins, nowhere near as bad. With Tinted Lens, Bug Buzz becomes a 1 move wrecking ball, capable of tearing through pokemon that might otherwise be able to handle a simple combination of Bug STAB + Coverage move.

Ultimately, although we've been holding off on touching NU for a while, we feel that Venomoth is very safe ban that's been coming for a while. Despite being dominant for quite a while, it isn't as if NU has adapted in significant ways to curtail it's strength. As such, Venomoth is banned from NU.

https://forums.pokemmo.eu/index.php?/topic/63603-pokemmo-official-tier-lists-and-usage-statistics/&do=findComment&comment=1463692