Shadow Tag suspect shouldn't take priority. There's clearly more pressing concerns in regards to actual threats themselves that should be looked at first. This isn't an argument establishing that Shadow Tag shouldn't be looked at though, this is more about the order of what I feel should be reviewed.



As far as those threats are concerned M-Metagross and M-Sableye is sort of a given, one correlated to a power level point of suspect worthy and another based on centralization respectively. The issue with M-Metagross is that for an offensive standard it is not only extremely powerful but it has the coverage and bulk that ups the ante of what I believe is considered normal. We can't really use the argument that chance is a factor in what could be suspect worthy but let's take into consideration that its main STAB Meteor Mash is providing you a 1/5 chance to boost your already powerful physical presence into unreal levels, which isn't hard to net at least once per match due to the nature of the low cost of using M-Metagross and its longevity. Then you need to consider that this is also coming from its ability to be a set-up sweeper with Rock Polish / Agility at its disposable on top of these mentioned traits. M-Metagross is extremely hard to check given its coverage options and granted it has checks but in regards to team-building a lot of times players are forced to play around it and the support provided by its team-mates to not get potentially floored. Some games in order to check M-Metagross, unless you're running something like Alomomola or extremely bulky such as Mega Slowbro, you're just shooting in the dark based on certain risks vs reward scenarios in the hope you're not getting nailed with a coverage move. As seen from SPL and high ladder games it's an extremely dominating force in our meta-game right now and is one of the pinnacles of OU right now putting a very high and subjectively unhealthy aspect towards team-building and practicality.



M-Sableye is the "savior of stall" but it's in a way that skews it in the completely wrong direction. What we've seen is the liability of defensive builds that are completely shunned to the side or become obsolete solely due to M-Sableye's presence. One could argue that it can get worn down by heavy hitters and the increase of Fairy Types however this isn't exactly the case. On top of both the support it provides with its CM set and along with the support it provides with its utility set it gives the M-Sableye user an edge against so many builds of all arch-types. These so called checks and counters are only based on trivial circumstances at times and it's not exactly unheard of to see games where you'll just watch these checks and counters get worn down or defeated in the long run due to the way M-Sableye teams are built. M-Sableye is the epitome of anti-hazard and anti-utility, traits that are a necessity in the game to almost all play-styles out side of certain forms of offense. We see this with the rising usage of SD Gliscor, the increased usage of Manaphy, with the second example increasing the usage of Gothitelle and trappers that brings us back and makes us realize why Shadow Tag should be looked at as well. M-Sableye is to put it bluntly, one of the easy buttons of our tier at this moment. Massive utility in its move pool, fantastic typing coupled with its bulk, Magic Bounce to deter Stealth Rock and hazards which many teams rely on to function properly, and overall is what I feel is unhealthy in giving a clear advantage coupled in with all of its positives with its negatives easily accommodated for that outweighs whatever opportunity cost people will believe that it somehow establishes.



Not much to say about Shadow Tag to be honest that hasn't been said in the past. It comes back to people's perspectives in that Stall is extremely hard to build for because the trait of Shadow Tag primarily used with Gothitelle and Wobbuffet has the ability to dismantle defensive cores with ease, and in the case of Gothitelle can simply do this by itself. Stall's emphasis in forcing to adapt I believe is where Shadow Tag finds itself as the big culprit towards this trend, a big factor because defensive cores are reliant in maintaining switch control which is removed out of the big picture by these very influential trappers of Gothitelle and Wobbuffet.



The meta-game right now I feel has the ability to build around plenty of play-styles, but it doesn't change the fact that the team-building constraint is evidently there because there is too many things to take into account for with these mentioned aspects being the red flags I have personally come across with others sharing similar sentiments. In regards to Toxzn's mention of Lando-I, I'm sympathetic towards it but this is one of these things that is hidden behind the allure of everything else that is going on at the moment, thus overshadowing elements that the community may or may not be aware of. The power creep has been established by the first two threats I've described while issues such as Shadow Tag are considered uncompetitive elements for our OU meta-game that should be reviewed in my honest opinion.



I apologize Haunter if this post seems sort out of line as it's not a suspect thread but I do feel that it correlates to the post Greninja meta and as such I feel confident these are relevant points of discussion that should be considered when we look at the OU meta-game. In order of what I feel should be on the chopping block at this point in time.



1. M-Metagross 2. M-Sableye 3. Shadow Tag 4. GeoPass



Thanks for reading.