RE: Team PokéBeach - Join Now!
I don't like the idea of banning Garchomp for Sand Veil when it isn't necessarily the major factor contributing to its brokeness (or otherwise). Sandstorm isn't running in EVERY match, so although it's highly used it's not always there to give Chomps free turns.
Bear in mind that I have had no suspect laddering experience, so my views may not be as perfect as they should be. Nevertheless...
I looked at the suspect ladder stats from Smogon earlier. Now I know they're skewed because it's a suspect test etc, but honestly, the metagame is so centralised around TRYING to make sure Garchomp doesn't sweep you that it just looks horrible to see. If people thought that Scizor was dominant in standard, it isn't half as bad as how the suspect ladder looks... Scizor is used even MORE on suspect than in standard! (After all, it's a semi-check to Chomp, so of course it would be)
From what some people are saying, Garchomp hasn't been much of an issue to them. But from what more people are saying, Chomp has been at its usual "carry three checks or you die to me" to most teams. Two checks for any one threat SHOULD suffice... I mean, really, is there any other pokémon that you guys feel the need to check more than twice on any team? (I know half of the reason you need three for Chomp is just incase Sand Veil screws you once, but still...)
I don't think you can ban pokémon like Gliscor or Cacturn based on Sand Veil though. You have to consider the fact that neither of them are particularly great sweepers like Garchomp (and in the case of Gliscor it's not such a devastatingly good wall that it is broken if you miss once against it). Gliscor's LO set CAN hit about the same Atk as Garchomp, but it greatly reduces its survivability in the process... not to mention that the Spe is still lacking. What makes Garchomp's sweeping sets so good is that they can use a DEFENSIVE item and still maintain pretty much the same level of power as other sweepers that have to use the offensive LO in order to reach said power. It's not just one defensive item either - either weakness berry or even Leftovers can give it the edge it needs to wipe out whatever check comes in on him (Lefties is big to beat Scizor's BP down to a 3HKO, but it comes at the price of the opponent knowing a lot about what you aim to do). Other sweepers can't do that if they want to match the power Garchomp wields, which can inhibit long-term plans for sweeping. This is especially true of the likes of Salamence and Gyarados, whos SR weakness really makes them one-time events with a LO attached.
What this really means is that anything which is remotely capable of beating Garchomp has to instantly be pounced upon and used, or else the team in general will definitely lose to it. This IMO greatly reduces the effective number of pokémon viable in the OU environment, which in turn leads to a much duller game to play. One thing that I like about pokémon is the potential to show diversity in teams, even at the moment with all the centralisation surrounding Scizor and Latias (I'm picking on her because she's still rising in usage month by month despite the backdrop of "hard counters" to her being heavily used). Garchomp completely detracts from that by forcing teams to run several pokémon from a rather narrow list just to attempt to stop it.
Smogon wants things defined in terms of characteristics, and I must admit I find it rather hard to try and do that... naturally, since I lack experience on the suspect ladder. I have however been closely monitoring the situation in their suspect thread, and when combined with the ladder stats it just looks horrible. Even accounting for the fact that it's a test, there's absolutely no way that "projected" centralisation THAT extensive can be healthy for any competitive metagame, even pokémon. Personally, let the thing stay in Ubers for a long while to come :S
