It's time.Last time I was much better at not procrastinating and stuff. Resultingly, this won't be quite as long as last time, as I find myself rushing to get this finished on time. I found my enter key too. I would like to link last suspect vote as a lot of the points still hold true so here it is. Specifically, the earlier philosophy on what constitutes a ban in Ubers and the burden of proof are important. Now, let's jump right in.So, last suspect test I spent a lot of time identifying what really constitutes a ban in Ubers, and a lot of that still holds true, only the importance of the parts have changed. As last time was the ban of solely Gengar, I struggled a lot with the setting of a precedence in Ubers, and with how the banning of Mega Gengar would be very negative in regard to the Ubers philosophy. This is different however. We are no longer singling out a mon to ban, but were are looking at the inherent uncompetitiveness of an ability, a fundamental function of the game rather than a smaller piece of the puzzle. It's more like the banning the source of abuse rather than the abuser, banning sleep spam rather than banning Darkrai, if you will, but of course with a different variable being substituted in stead of sleep, which is Shadow Tag which functions differently. I'm not at all implying that Shadow Tag is directly comparable to sleep, and that because sleep was deemed uncompetitive, Shadow Tag should be too. I am merely reinforcing my past thoughts on a ban on Shadow Tag in relation to a ban on Gengarite.Since the precedence piece is less applicable than before, the inherent uncompetitive factor of Shadow Tag is to be weighed. This is not to be said that precedence is irrelevant- it can still effectively be used to counter an argument, for example proving that being weak and losing to Shadow Tag is no different than being weak and losing to any other Ubers sweeper, which will come back later. The increased focus on the uncompetitive factor means that I need to identify this even further, for as with before, making an uneducated decision would be a waste of time.In general, the definition that I have seen attributed to uncompetitive has been something along the lines of "taking away autonomy to a sufficient degree." To me though, this sufficient degree is hard to measure, as it would theoretically differ from person to person. So then, how can this definition be applied without a common sufficient degree? I think quite possibly the only way we can discern this degree would be by drawing lines based on comparisons to other mons and past bans. Basically, given that, say, Extreme Killer Arceus is not uncompetitive (which I am pretty sure is a safe assumption), anything else that can be proven to be effectively the same does not surpass the "sufficient degree," and even if it is not the same it does not necessarily mean that it is uncompetitve. For that we look to comparisons to Swagger, Sleep spam, Moody, and such things. In short, something that takes away autonomy to a sufficient degree must be determined in regards to things that are given to be above and below that line.Last suspect test, I wrote a lot filtering through legitimate and illegitimate arguments, but this time, I would like to focus on a few key ones that I find to be particularly important. These are the removal of choice by the prevention of switching, Shadow Tag's uncounterability, and the teambuilding argument. The reason I chose these three was because I feel like they show some of the core arguments by both sides, which I think are the most important to analyze in order to come to a final conclusion.I'm going to start with the uncounterability point; if you are paranoid about me changing up the order I'm sorry. Regarding Shadow Tag's uncounterability, I do understand that Shadow Tag is a really difficult strategy to outplay. I recognize that Gengar has a surplus of coverage moves, like Hidden Power Fire, Shadow Ball, and Focus Blast that beat its common checks, and that Gothitelle has a surplus of support moves, like Taunt and Charm, that can widen and alter what can prevent the effectiveness of its trapping. I agree that it's really hard to counter Gothitelle and Gengar, at least in the traditional sense; I also agree that if you bring a team with members that are easily trapped and removed by Shadow Tag, it is very difficult to play around. With that being said, I think there is a fine line between uncounterability and uncompetitiveness. Something that is difficult to counter does not really take away autonomy, unless it is uncounterable to a point where it cannot lose. As we all know, it is possible to use Shadow Tag and lose- it is not an automatic win button without regards to anything. Now, you could try and argue that Swagger never had a 100% win rate, it was just playing with a loaded dice. This is true. In fact, you could argue that bringing Shadow Tag is in fact playing with a loaded dice, because they could chose a team that is weak to it, and you have a strong matchup that gives you a much higher chance of winning. However, there is a fundamental difference in that Swagger takes away autonomy regardless of what team they use, whereas Shadow Tag still gives your opponent the autonomy to chose a team that is not weak to Shadow Tag. Furthermore, it is true that Gengar can run a ton of coverage moves to beat certain pursuit trappers, but is it really that different from running Overheat/Refresh/Earthquake/Shadow Claw/Shadow Force/Grass Knot/Stone Edge on Ekiller? Sure, some of those are less common, but usage has never been an argument for bans, even in lower tiers. The only fundamental difference is that you cannot switch out. However, let me give an example scenario to show that the lack of an ability to switch is mostly irrelevant. Let's first imagine a scenario where a team has an Arceus-Grass to check an opposing Kyogre. The opposing team has a Gengar, which has Sludge Wave and would easily trap the Arceus-Grass, and a Kyogre. The player is placed in a situation where they need to go to Arceus-Grass, but he also cannot afford to because Gengar comes in and kills him, and then Kyogre wins. Perhaps he even has a Scizor to pursuit Gengar, but it's a Hidden Power Fire variant, so Scizor loses as well. We would consider that player to be in a pretty dire situation right? Maybe Gengar is just uncompetitive? Well, consider this situation as well. A player brings a team with a Leftovers Heatran for his Xerneas check, i.e. he is weak to Focus Blast Geomancy Xerneas. He also has a Giratina-O on his team. His opponent brings Focus Blast Xerneas, but it can only set up on the Giratina-O. He also has a Blaziken. The Blaziken is in on Heatran, let's say, so the player could go to Giratina-O. However, his opponent could either double to Xerneas, which would mean he wins, or he could stay in with Blaziken, hoping to catch Heatran staying in, or if Giratina-O comes in on Blaziken, Xerneas frees in so the player is forced to potentially overpredict Xerneas, or else he loses. It may not be particularly recognizable, but this scenario is very similar to the first. In the first scenario, Gengar getting in on Grassceus loses the game. In the second scenario, Xerneas getting in on Giratina-O loses the game. Our response is one thing that differs greatly though. We look at the first and say that Shadow Tag is uncompetitive. We look at the second and say that the player with the Giratina-O and Heatran should have built a team that wasn't weak to Focus Blast Geomancy Xerneas. Yet, the same result was achieved, even though Xerneas does not have Shadow Tag. Keep this in mind as we segue into my next point.Let's talk about Shadow Tag's function. It is an ability which prevents the opposing pokemon from switching. At first glance, it certainly seems to take away autonomy. It limits your choices in that you cannot switch. The thing is though, there are plenty of things that limit choice. Taunt limits choice, for example, and in many cases, good plays can limit choice, for example if a hyper offense team relies on Ekiller to revenge a Xerneas with significant prior damage, it is more often than not absolutely forced to Extreme Speed, or else you lose. Whether we immediately recognize it or not, this is a forced decision- not a decision at all. This is not all I have to say though. Experienced players often think broadly. Sure, at some level they think, I am going to switch on this turn. They have broader plans more often than not though. They think, I need to get rocks up, get a bit of prior damage on x, and then set up my y on his z, and then I win. Even when using Shadow Tag, it is, I'm going to use a to trap his b, so that c can win. Think of being trapped by Shadow Tag as a single play which lasts several turns, not as a bunch of individual turns where you can't switch. I cannot force you to think this way, but I think that it is more close to how Shadow Tag works in practice- it is more of an intermediate set up for another pokemon, not something which is created with the purpose of taking away the opponent's control. In this way, while Shadow Tag prevents switches and mechanically takes away autonomy, it does not take away autonomy at a level of complex play. Shadow Tag does not take away autonomy as set by the precedence of other bans. For example, Moody takes away autonomy because what you do is irrelevant, but rather in the hands of the Moody rolls. Sleep spam puts you in a situation where, you can't stay in or else they get free turns, and you cannot switch or your incoming pokemon gets put to sleep and the situation repeats. Swagger literally pits your confusion luck against theirs in favor of their luck, and is easily abusable. OHKO moves won or lost games on the pure accuracy of a move. The difference is, as I've to some degree mentioned and will go in to more depth on, the aforementioned bans banned things that were uncompetitive regardless of beforehand preparation, and the types of scenarios are built on luck, and are unavoidable. Yes, there are 50/50s which come when deciding whether the opposing team is going to switch or attack. However, what I'm talking about is the ability in a vacuum. If you could never switch in any circumstances, the game would just play differently. But if the only move every single pokemon knew was Sheer Cold, Fissure, or Horn Drill, that would be an absolutely awful dice-roll game. In regards to the actually pokemon creating 50/50s, I cannot deny that fact, but it obviously doesn't come into play if your pokemon is not actually trapped by Shadow Tag, something related to my next point about the teambuilding argument.Going back to the Blaziken, Xerneas, Heatran, Giratina-O example way back in my first major point, you might have been yelling at me for forgetting that Giratina-O runs Shadow Force+Shadow Sneak to prevent Xerneas from setting up, which is a great setup for my next point: the teambuilding argument. To me, this argument has always been really important. The sentiment that Shadow Tag is not outplayed during the match, but it is beaten in the beforehand preparation is a crucial means of drawing comparisons to other pokemon. If you recall, I made a reference to Swagger earlier and how you have the ability to beat Shadow Tag in the teambuilder, but not so much with Swagger. Even when running a Ground-type "check" to Swagger, you did not necessarily beat it and it still forced its luck-based situations. However, if you bring a team with nothing that is trapped by Shadow Tag (for example, bringing Shed Shell Blissey), Shadow Tag as an ability cannot fulfill its purpose of removing a specific check to another threat. Of course, for this argument to stand it must be proven that it is possible to beat Shadow Tag in the teambuilder, which I think it is. There are obviously Pursuit trappers for Gengar, which although many are beaten by specific coverage, so are checks to most Ubers threats, and even those that are the closest to a full counter in Ubers (like Defensive Yveltal for Ekiller or something) would be comparable to Spiritomb I suppose, not that Spiritomb is great in Ubers, but it does consistently beat Gengar, as Yveltal consistently beats Ekiller. Additionally, look at Gothitelle. If a team gives free switches and setup opportunities for sweepers to win games, whose fault is that? Similarly, building a team where Gothitelle can remove members with ease is akin to this. You see, rather than saying that Gothitelle is uncompetitive for removing your Blissey, and complaining how you couldn't have possibly played around that, just build around it, use Shed Shell Blissey. If you build a team where, let's say Sylveon is removed and you straight up lose to Yveltal, that is the builder's fault, and they should rebuild, perhaps maybe not using Sylveon. We are warned against "git gud" arguments, but I feel like if someone built a team that got 6-0'd by Scarf Kyogre we would certainly call out the team and not Kyogre. We're drawing lines in our mind at Shadow Tag because of its difficultly to counterplay, but we're ignoring the build. Now, I believe I saw an argument claiming that running a Shed Shell was sub-optimal, and in doing so we are appeasing Shadow Tag, and thus it is still uncompetitive regardless. I disagree with this- it is not sub-optimal if it is being used to adapt to a common metagame strategy. Something being optimal in the context of the meta is defined by the meta. Looking at Giratina-O, we run Shadow Force on it to stop Xerneas set up. But, if Xerneas didn't exist, I would have to guess we would still be running the standard defensive Giratina-O set without Shadow Force. Being forced to run Shadow Force lessens Giratina-O's ability to check Kangaskhan and Arceus, or lose the Defog utility, which is appeasing Xerneas as a threat, just the same as Shed Shell Blissey. So to sum of these teambuilding points, this is all I'm saying. 1. Shadow Tag is able to be beaten in the teambuilder and 2. Beating Shadow Tag in the teambuilder is not fundamentally different than beating anything else in the teambuilder.It is clear that Shadow Tag has had a profound effect on the state of the current Ubers meta. It is not a matter of debate that Shadow Tag is one of the strongest abilities in the game, and allows for some very strong teams based around the strategy of Shadow Tag. It is common knowledge that Shadow Tag diminishes the viability of certain pokemon in Ubers, that Shadow Tag is effective in the current Ubers meta, and that Shadow Tag quite possibly will always be a dominant force in Ubers as a tier. However, the nature of a ban in Ubers is far more complicated than "Shadow Tag is dominant, it is good, it is effective, it is broken." The Ubers philosophy requires something that is uncompetitive, something that takes away autonomy to a sufficient degree on par with past bans. It is my stance, that Shadow Tag is all of the former things, it is obviously very good. It is just not an uncompetitive force in Ubers, and thus I will be votingtl;dr (More of a rapid fire summary. Just read the whole thing please; there are lots of proof and smaller points that I make in the actually thing. It's like 500 words fewer than last time so I know it's at least manageable ;] but just read the whole thing please)- Shadow Tag is difficult to play around, but not uncounterable- Shadow Tag is not fundamentally harder to counter than some other major Ubers threats which are clearly not uncompetitive- While Shadow Tag prevents switches, the prevention of switches does not take away autonomy at a complex level, only a temporary mechanical level which ignores the bigger picture- Shadow Tag can be successfully beaten in the teambuilderWith all this considered, Shadow Tag might be an overpowered, overcentralizing asset in Ubers, but it is not inherently uncompetitive and is therefore not banworthy. I will be voting