Possible Smogon OU Suspect Candidates [2/19/2017]

[Flint]

The point of this post is me attempting to predict what possible Pokemons might be suspect tested by Smogon in the future.

As far as all 3 of these Pokemon, they're all banned from usage in Monotype. The ability "Battle Bond" is banned which is essentially banning Ash-Greninja from use.

http://www.smogon.com/dex/sm/formats/monotype/

According to usage statistics by Smogon from January of 2017, Ash-Greninja (5th), Tapu Lele (4th) and Pheromosa (6th) are within the top 10 most used Pokemon in Gen 7 OU.

http://www.smogon.com/stats/2017-01/gen7pokebankou-1825.txt

Ash-Greninja:

+High speed and huge offensive prowess.
+Has a wide movepool.
+Water Shuriken is guaranteed 60 BP after transformation.
+Access to U-turn
-Requires to KO a Pokemon before transforming.
-Fragile and cannot switch in on attacks very well.
-Has a difficult time KO'ing bulky Pokemon.

Tapu Lele:

+Psychic Terrain boosts its Psychic moves by 50% while already having base 130 Special Attack.
+Psychic Terrain nullifies priority moves (On grounded Pokemons).
+It's typing mitigates the weakness to Dark and covers the Poison weakness.
+Good Special Defense.
●Speed tier is relatively average. It can be mitigated with a Choice Scarf.
-Does not have many options to combat Steel-type Pokemon.
-Less than average Physical Defense.

Pheromosa:

+Very little checks.
+Very hard to switch into.
+Has a wide movepool.
+Beast Boost.
+Very high Speed and Offensive Prowess.
-Does not have a reliable way of KO'ing certain Ghost-types.
-Extremely fragile and can't switch in easily.
-It's strongest Fighting-type moves have a chance of missing.

The majority of what I think may lead to Smogon possibly suspect testing these Pokemon is their large offensive prowess for the most part. Since debatably the best playstyle at the moment is Hyper-Offense and all 3 of these Pokemon play a role in this playstyle. This is not what I think should be suspected/banned. The whole point of this post is to predict what Smogon might do in the future. As a side note, I wouldn't be surprised if Smogon suspected Protean Greninja and Hoopa-Unbound as well, since they were both in Ubers before Gen 7 had started and many of the reasons that made them strong in Gen 6 have not changed too much in Gen 7.

[Stardog]

Mega-Metagross
This might be my favorite Mega-Evolution Pokemon, but even I can't deny how powerful this Poke Monster is. I'm in the belief that this is the best Pokemon in OU, currently. With the new generation changing the mechanics of Mega-Evolutions, and Metagross gaining the speed immediately, this is a huge deal with this Pokemon already having a huge Attack Stat, good coverage and the Tough Claws ability. It is meta-defining and I think with no doubt in my mind would have possibly been banned or suspected if Dugtrio had been banned from the previous suspect test as it removes one of the more effective Pokemons that were used as an answer for Mega-Metagross.

Greninja
Specifically Protean-Greninja. Very fast, very unpredictable, and Protean allows it STAB on all of its move. Which is only assisted by the fact that Greninja has a very wide movepool. Unlike Ash-Greninja, Protean Greninja gets Happy Hour. Which at first seems like it doesn't matter until you use a Normalium Z Crystal, which then boosts every stat except Accuracy/Evasion by 1 stage. Ash-Greninja might be an effective Pokemon, although it's very predictable. The most common moves to see it use is Hydro/Surf, Water Shuriken, Ice Beam, Dark Pulse or U-Turn. Protean Greninja is a lot more unpredictable when facing against it. A common answer to Ash-Greninja is Tapu Lele, and if the opponent thinks that you're using Ash-Greninja, Protean Greninja can use Gunk Shot and kill Lele. Which just further adds to its effectiveness from its unpredictability.

Hoopa-Unbound
Still an amazing Wallbreaker that can go through Protection with Hyperspace Fury and can nearly either 1-shot or 2-shot everything currently in the meta for OU, currently. It's lacking speed can be solved with a Choice Scarf and with the addition of Z-Crystals, one of the more resourceful strategies is to use Z-Snatch which adds 2 stages of Speed and the previous effects of Snatch. On top of which, this can be ran as a Mixed Attacker to take out potential Physically Defense Walls.

[Flare]

The unreleased Megas are not hopelessly gone, and they're being released and distributed slowly. By tomorrow, Mawilite and Beedrillite will be distributed, making them allowed for use on Showdown. If not outright quick-banned, I think Mawilite will most likely get Suspect Tested.

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