







To achieve voting requisites, you must reach a minimum GXE of 82 with a minimum of 40 games played on the Pokemon Showdown! OverUsed (OU) ladder

on the Pokemon Showdown! OverUsed (OU) ladder You must signup with a newly registered account on Pokemon Showdown! that begins with the appropriate prefix for the suspect test. For this suspect test, the prefix will be OUTY . For example, I might signup with the ladder account OUTY FINCH.

. For example, I might signup with the ladder account Laddering with an account that impersonates, mocks, or insults another Smogon user or breaks Pokemon Showdown! rules may be disqualified from voting and infracted. Moderator discretion will be applied here. If there is any doubt or hesitance when making the alt, just pick another name. There are infinite possibilities and we have had trouble for this repeatedly. If you wish to participate in the suspect, you should be able to exhibit decent enough judgement here. We will not be lenient.

We will be using the regular OU ladder for this suspect. We will not be creating a new Suspect Ladder. At the beginning of every battle, there will be an announcement denoting the ongoing suspect with a link to this thread.

The aspect being tested, Arena Trap, will be allowed on the ladder.

on the ladder. Any form of voting manipulation will result in swift and severe punishment. You are more than welcome to state your argument to as many people as you so please, but do not use any kind of underhanded tactics to get a result you desire. Bribery, blackmail, or any other type of tactic used to sway votes will be handled and sanctioned.

Do not attempt to cheat the ladder. We will know if you did not actually achieve voting requisites, so don't do it. Harsh sanctions will be applied.

Unlike previous tests, we will be posting the voting identification thread immediately after this thread. Your voting requisites will be confirmed by a Council member or OU moderator, to which we will edit in confirmation. Please avoid getting more games before getting confirmed.

The suspect test will last for two weeks from right now, lasting until March 29th at 11:59 pm (GMT-4), and then we will put up the voting thread in the Blind Voting subforum.

No unhelpful one liners nor uninformed posts;

No discussion on other potential suspects;

No discussion on the suspect process -- this includes the Dugtrio vs Arena Trap debate;

You are required to make respectful posts;

You are required to read this thread before posting.

Failure to follow these simple guidelines will result in your post being deleted and infracted without any prior warning.

Please also take a moment to read over some suggestions from the OU Council and the OU Moderation team for posting in this thread; adhering these will help out our time moderating the thread and present your arguments better and more educated. Do not argue because it's your favorite Pokemon. This should he common sense, but please don't do this, because we will delete posts like this. You do not need a boatload of experience to have an informed opinion, but please try to minimize the theorymon aspect and use your experiences watching and playing. Playing some on the ladder before posting is plenty if you're concerned about this. Do not flame, belittle, or be disrespectful to users in this thread. While not everyone will read this post in its entirety nor will everyone have informed opinion, please be sure not to be disrespectful. If there's an issue, bring it up to a moderater. Do not use the argument of broken checking broken. Should your argument rest on your opinion that banning the Pokemon or mechanic being tested in this suspect test will make a Pokemon or mechanic broken, overpowered, and/or uncompetitive; don't. If something needs to be banned because of the result this suspect, then so be it. This thread is not to voice complaints about the suspect process or decisions of the council. While we are more than open to hearing complaints that may arise, this isn't the place for it. I suggest you message the OU Council, PM our Tier Leader, Finchinator, or make a post in Senior Staff requests, should you have a badge.



Hey everyone, the OU tiering council has decided to testArena Trap has been identified as a potentially banworthy ability in the SS OU metagame; trapping with Dugtrio has a large impact on gameplay in the current metagame. Switching is viewed as a fundamental part of how we play competitive Pokemon. Seeing as Arena Trap restricts the ability to switch for anything that is grounded, it should be no surprise that a capable abuser of this ability can be deemed a problem in the context of the metagame. Dugtrio has been one of the best Pokemon in the metagame in recent months; it is able to fit on to balance archetypes and help eliminate common Pokemon in order to help support teammates. This dynamic has been viewed as problematic historically, but we must examine Arena Trap specifically in the SS OU metagame to determine its banworthiness (or lack thereof).Dugtrio tends to run two sets in the current metagame: Focus Sash and Choice Band. Previously, the latter was seen as superior and saw more usage, but recently the former has risen to prominence. While it is true that Focus Sash Dugtrio is more reliant on support or positioning such as hazard removal or set information, it also is able to trap a wider array of Pokemon, including a number of top threats that are new to the tier.Honing in on the Focus Sash variant of Dugtrio, users of it are able to eliminate prominent threats such as Kyurem, simply through switching in on any attack and then taking it out with a single Reversal, or Zeraora, after a pivot from Teleport or U-turn allowing for it to come in unscathed. A trend in these interactions is that the field must be cleared of hazards, making reliable Defog or Rapid Spin support mandatory for Focus Sash Dugtrio. Fortunately, this is very possible in the current metagame and using Endure can allow it to be brought down to 1 HP for Reversal as a quick fix to the hazard control issue if need be. It is true that some specific situations, such as the aforementioned Zeraora interaction, require fairly precise pivoting or something to die in order for Dugtrio to revenge kill the threat, which is also worth noting. Dugtrio's fragile nature can hold it back in some situations. With this said, it is able to take advantage of a lot of commonly provoked situations and remove Pokemon such as Tyranitar, Excadrill, Cinderace, Terrakion, and Toxapex, barring Scald burn.Choice Band Dugtrio is also a strong option; it is able to take out various Pokemon from higher health and even eliminate a handful of walls that could otherwise hold teams together. In particular, Clefable that are not near max physical defense and Bold nature are 2HKOd by Dugtrio, a burn cannot save Toxapex from Earthquake 2HKOing, and Sylveon is 2HKOd with ease. Of course, there are also situations in which Choice Band Dugtrio is called on to handle the aforementioned Pokemon from the Focus Sash paragraph, but it is incapable of handling faster threats like Zeraora without Focus Sash, which can prove to be problematic. Choice Band Dugtrio also has the ability to revenge trap plenty of Pokemon in the context of games with some chip; this can be applied in countless different fashions depending on your team and your opponent's teams. Finally, there are also some less common ideas such as pairing Dugtrio with Trick + Iron Ball Clefable in order to cripple threats like Corviknight or Rotom-Heat, which can expand the scope of Dugtrio's trapping. Overall, Trick being common is quite good for Dugtrio.While Dugtrio is the lone current abuser of this ability, Arena Trap is the subject of this suspect test. The OU Council decided on this focus because Arena Trap allows for the act of trapping to occur. We believe that this ability may not have a place in the SS OU metagame. We have reasonable cause to believe that Arena Trap could be deemed banworthy on any half-decent Pokemon that would receive it and have tiering precedent to back the decision to make the subject of the suspect test Arena Trap as opposed to Dugtiro. This allows for us to avoid having to address the issue again moving forward if it were to come to that.Additionally, Arena trap is the same as Shadow Tag in many ways, which was banned from OU previously on the same terms as those outlined above with regards to mass trapping being problematic. Seeing as Pokemon that are not Grounded make up only a fraction of the metagame, this case happens to be quite similar. Even though Dugtrio is the only commonplace abuser of Arena Trap at the moment, the suspect test is asking whether or not this sort of wide-scale trapping ability has a place in the OU metagame. Please note that any posts disagreeing with the subject of the suspect test instead of discussing the banworthiness (or lack thereof) of the suspect will be deleted and potentially infracted.This thread will be open to allow all users to share their thoughts on this suspect test and discuss with one another their thoughts. However, this thread will be strictly moderated, moreso than the average OU forum thread. Our moderators will apply discretion as to what is appropriate. Please read and keep in mind the following before posting:Should you have any questions about the suspect test, feel free to message the OU Council . And if you have any questions about the moderation of this thread, feel free to message the OU Moderation team Each member of the OU Council will write up their thoughts on this suspect test, which can all be found in the second post.Keep in mind that our suspect tests are decided by the community; anyone who achieves voting requisites is allowed to vote. The outcome is up to you. Happy posting and laddering!