atomicllamas: Barbaracle: Do Not Ban - This one is tough and probably should be revisited later, the reality is I just haven't seen enough of it in terms of usage or success in order to feel comfortable banning it at this point. It certainly has some customizable movesets in order to get past would be counters like Gastrodon and Bewear, but there are still a bunch of ways to deal with it in terms of both offensive pressure and defensive answers. I think where Barbaracle really succeeds is on Aurora Veil, but I haven't seen any success with those teams yet, again, as those teams improve, its possible Barbaracle (or veil) will need to be revisited.



Averardo: Barbaracle: ban. Barbaracle is one of the best setup sweepers in the tier. After one shell smash, its almost impossible to revengkill, especially if under screens. Opportunities to setup are also not hard to find, since it can easily abuse Snorlax, Choice locked Pokemon like Goodra, Rillaboom or Passimian, or just anything that doesnt hit it with a super effective move. Its combination of stabs is the most threatning in the tier, with enough coverage to hit checks like Gastrodon or Quagsire with Grass Knot.



Bebo: barbaracle: ban. This mon is also unhealthy and most teams really struggle with being able to avoid it setting up and just straight up winning. Our best checks are probably like quag and gastro and even then any team that dont have those 2 could very easily be broken up with. It's also way too easy to set up with the meta we have currently this mon really just doesn't give the tier anything it sets up and wins and has very minimal counterplay.



eifo: Barbaracle: ban. The meta is not centered around it, but I believe this is mostly bc users have not yet caught on to how problematic it is, due to the arguably more toxic presence of mons such as Pangoro, Sigilyph and Salazzle. That being said, we have a grand total of two mainstream mons which can tank a hit from +2 barb: Vileplume and Gurdurr (which it is a stretch to even call mainstream). Our ways of revenging it are also limited to obscure mons such as Mach Punch Hitmontop/chan/lee and Scarf Salazzle. This in my eyes makes Barb a very unhealthy presence in every game it is brought to, as unless you have any of the above on every single team, it forces the player to play in ways in which it would not in any other given matchup in order to prevent it from ever setting up. E.g. you can't kill Sigilyph with Scarf Passimian Knock Off, bc then the Barb comes in, sets up and wins.



EviGaro: Barbaracle: Ban: Despite losing the z-move, Barbaracle finds itself in a much, much slower metagame with also limited defensive counterplay to its Life Orb set and the death of hidden power lures on something like Scarf Salazzle, making it a lot more reliable to do something. Like Spirit alluded to, Barbaracle has quite a few supporting assets helping it do its thing, from veil to the rarer but effective Psychic Terrain from Indeedee-F, not only cutting down on the priority moves hitting it but also providing it Healing Wish support on top of it. Also like Spirit said, Barbaracle still has a tremendous attack stat allowing it to break when opponents hurry to their countermeasure or try to hit it as it would setup, allowing it to do more damage than just being a setup mon that can hopefully clean a game.



Feliburn: Barbaracle: Ban I don't really think Barbaracle is broken, ever since its introduction in gen 6 it's been the one mon that always has the potential to break teams but then teams adapt to it rather quickly, however back then we could slap Hidden Power Grass on most mons and call it a day. Currently it finds a lot of set up opportunities and the defensive cores aren't as anti Barb as they were in the past so sure this mon can leave.



MrAldo: Barbaracle: Do Not Ban

With Home now I believe we need to see Barbaracle a bit more doing its thing to take a better course of action. It is still doing the same thing since its introduction but in previous cases the meta always managed to adapt to it so I think the metagame right now has room for finding ways of not letting it set up as freely and because of Pangoro and Sigilyph that punish defense so freely I think new ways to handle Barbaracle like seeing more Gurdurr and what not could be a possibility. Id keep it and see how we adapt to it, I freely banning it would be a very abrupt move to do right now.



Odd Della Robbia: Barbaracle - Do not ban: Not denying this is a big threat, but it finds trouble getting setup opportunities. Dropping it’s own defenses means it basically requires veil/screens support, which can be hard to set up with ninetales torkoal and gigalith being so prominent to block veil. Even then it usually has to take a hit or get statused when setting up, and then it wears itself down with life orb recoil, leaving it easier to revenge kill. Basically I believe there is enough relevant counterplay to barb.



phantom: Barbaracle Ban: Barbaracle is a bit too unhealthy for the tier. I’ve been running LO sets and they’ve been able to cut through dedicated “counters” like Vileplume and Gastrodon with just a bit of hazards support. There’s just not much able to stop it once it gets going, and with the myriad of viable support options like screens and veil, supporting barb doesn’t take a whole lot of effort. Additionally, barb also doubles up as a breaker so even in situations where it doesn’t fully sweep, it still plays an important part in supporting its team by breaking their defensive backbone, thereby letting another sweeper pick up where it left off.