I’ve noticed a lot of misconceptions about what aspect of Abra is powerful enough to warrant a suspect. Many of these were misunderstandings of the meta as a whole and how Abra interacts with the meta, so I thought I would write up a post about how I believe Abra influences and is influenced by the current meta. I should preface this by saying that I personally am currently undecided as to my vote on Abra; When I get to how Abra interacts with the current meta you’ll here sentiments from both sides of the pro-ban anti-ban coin.The Role of AbraAbra has consistently been a prominent offensive presence in Little Cup, and looking at its traits it is not hard to understand why: a sky high special attack stat in a physically biased meta, decent coverage, high speed and an incredible ability all combine give Abra quite the résumé. Abra was a good pokemon in ORAS (enough so that some users ( Shrug ) were calling for its ban back in ORAS, but that was considered a fringe opinion), and with the acquisition of Counter in SM now has a way to get past pursuit trappers it has only gotten more threatening. These traits basically guarantee that abra will be a solid pokemon to some degree, but how it has interacted with the meta has changed radically over the years, which I will into soon.First, however, I just want to clear up the role that Abra usually plays; this is not as much directed to most of the people getting reqs, but to others that I have seen on the announcement thread and on PS that have fundamental misunderstandings on the role that Abra plays both now and historically. This is the charge that Abra is somehow needed to check fighters, and that its banning would only result in fighting types becoming broken. This is both an incorrect view of the role of abra and an incorrect view of the state of the meta: Abra primarily takes on one of two roles: that of a powerful check to offensive sweepers with sash (though with this set Abra is still more than powerful enough to be a massive threat to almost any team) or an extremely powerful LO attacker. It is this offensive presence that is now being perceived as too much for the meta to handle. It is important to realize that, especially for the first set, Abra absolutely does not want to be switching in on fighting types in the first place, and while it can threaten them out it is not a sufficient check to fighting types on most teams. Characterizing the meta as fighting dominant is incorrect (I simply don’t have time to go into why this is the case in a post talking about abra, but I would suggest watching LC exhibition and taking note of what pokemon are the primary offensive presences; I think you will find that other types are just as potent as the fighting type, if not more), and even if it was correct the banning of abra would not make it much worse.2. Abra in ContextWith the exception of the acquisition of Counter, what Abra actually does has not really changed that much over the past 3 generations. So, if this is the case, why is there an Abra suspect now when it wasn’t really considered much of an issue in the past? This is a very understandable question, and in order to answer it I have to explain how Abra interacts with the meta and why recent metagame developments have made it so much more potent.ORASI know that we’re talking about SM right now, but I want to quickly bring up ORAS as an example of a meta where Abra still has all of these same strong offensive traits that are being called broken now, yet is considered balanced by all but those with fringe opinions ( Shrug ) because of the way it interacts with what is prominent in the meta. Fletchling, Gothita, Porygon, Diglett, Pawniard and Spritzee (among other things, but with the exception of the last these were pretty clearly the most prominent pokemon holding Abra back) all being staples of the metagame were sufficient to keep Abra balanced despite its great offensive presence.SMNow, if you were around during ORAS you know that Fletchling, Gothita and Porygon were all cruelly dismissed in various ways from either viability or the metagame as a whole. Grimer-A and the rise of Vullaby in SM both hurt Abra, but considering the formers massive problems both as an independent pokemon against teams without abragast and against teams with trappers and the latters inability to take more than 2 dazzling gleams, they were not able to keep Abra down to the same extent as the presence fletchling porygon and gothita had. Still, through most of SM most did not consider Abra to be broken (though i’m sure you could find someone other than Shrug this time who thought that is was). Apparently, despite the loss of these valuable means of checking Abra, most teams were still able to have various ways of dealing with Abra without compromising viability against non-Abra teams. Strong priority, Pawniard, scarfers and very bulky pokemon were able to fill these roles, but before I go into what changed between this early and mid-SM period and now to make Abra potentially broken, I first want to mention two pokemon in particular that were absolutely crucial in keeping Abra in check.The first is magnemite, who often found itself on teams consisting of a foongus+onix defensive core because of its ability to trap ferroseed. Although it could not switch into hidden power fires and fightings (it is important to mention that its popularity to some degree encouraged the use of hidden powers over the now prominent counter), with its steel typing it could usually deter abra from firing of STAB psychics with impunity, and could at the very least revenge kill it.The second, and far more important, is diglett. I already mentioned diglett as part of the cast of pokemon working to keep Abra under wraps in ORAS, but considering just how instrumental diglett was in checking Abra in early and mid-ORAS it definitely warrants a singling out. As the only pokemon in the metagame to naturally outspeed Abra (or, rather, the only good pokemon to do it), diglett was the single most reliable way of revenge killing Abra, and could even dispose of Sash Abra with beat up and Eviolite variants. Of all the ways of dealing with Abra, diglett was not only the most reliable but the most popular; Because of the dominance of balance in early to mid-SM the ability of groundium Z diglett to potentially eliminate an important defensive pokemon (mostly foongus) became extremely valuable. Because of this diglett found itself favored on many teams even without consideration of Abra, and its frequent use was arguably the most crucial bar in Abra’s prison.3. Abra nowIf you read my post in the metagame threat you may have some idea where I’m going with this: I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist trying to route everything to one point but I do think I’m correct in this instance. The thing that, for me, separates mid-SM where Abra wasn’t considered broken from the present SM meta is the popularization of a single pokemon: Trapinch.I know that I’m supposed to be discussing Abra here considering its the topic of suspect, but considering how Trapinch, at least in my opinion, fairly directly bought on this meta where Abra is considered to be potentially broken, I feel that without an understanding of Trapinch and the metagame trends it promotes it is impossible to understand what changed to make Abra so powerful all of a sudden. To those (hopefully) reading this post that might be a little behind on the LC meta, Trapinch is a pokemon that was popularized a couple months ago and with the banning of Wingull was able to stretch its influence even farther without having to fear a strong water type special attacker. It is, as the name suggests, a trapper, but with unique ability that its competitor diglett can frankly only dream of: Its bulk allow it to directly switch in on the pokemon that it likes to trap. Although the pokemon that diglett likes to trap like Mareanie and Ponyta are hindered by this vulnerability, they are still able to perform their roles to some extent even with Diglett on the other team. This is not the case with pokemon trapped by Trapinch, who are unable to perform the roles they would normally perform when Trapinch is present on the opposing team.The only pokemon that Trapinch invalidates thoroughly that was once holding Abra back is Magnemite; The most important archetype of pokemon that is invalidated by Trapinch is the consistent Ponyta and Vullaby check. This check, be it either Onix, Tirtouga, or Pawniard (Though the last only has to fear revenging and u-turn) was absolutely essential to the defensive structure of the balance characteristic of mid-SM, and this massive threat to their viability made flying and fire offensive types absolutely menacing to the balance archetype. This led to more offensive teams that generally are less adept at checking Abra.It is not, I would argue, this invalidation of defensive checks that has made Abra so powerful recently, though the tragic fall of Magnemite certainly helped it. No, it is the second role that Trapinch performs that has made Abra so good: Limiting Trappers. While pursuit trappers are certainly a component of this, Abra is already able to break those to some degree with counter. It is, in my opinion, the ability of Trapinch to trap diglett, a mon that was absolutely crucial in checking it in mid-SM, that has elevated Abra so high in addition to these other elements I’ve already mentioned. Trapinch teams are generally advantaged over diglett teams due to this revenge trapping factor, leading to a fall in diglett use, which Abra absolutely loves.I’m reserving my thoughts on whether or not Trapinch is balanced for another time, but hopefully i’ve shown that the metagame trends that Trapinch has bought on have created an atmosphere where Abra can shine in a way it was prevented from doing in mid-SM by diglett, magnemite and other pokemon. For more information on how Trapinch has affected the metagame I would suggest looking at Exhibition usage stats and my post in the metagame discussion thread3. To Ban or not to Ban?The purpose of this post is mostly to fill people in on the metagame shifts that have caused Abra to become so powerful lately, but I’d like to use this opportunity to share my own opinions on a ban based on these trends that I’ve described. I’ll present my thoughts on both sides of the coins as these are a reflection of my admitted indecision at this point.Pro BanI don’t think that Abra benefits any more from the metagame shifts resulting from Trapinch than, say, Vullaby or Ponyta, but at the same time I think that Abra, along with both of these pokemon, are frankly not able to be adequately checked right now, at least not when teams have to worry about other threats on top of them. According to the traditional view of only considering if a pokemon is broken or not and not looking at how the banning of x pokemon might make it balanced or the unbanning of x other pokemon might make it balanced, I think that Abra has a very strong case for a ban right now, in addition to the other pokemon that benefit immensely from Pinch, Ponyta and Vullaby.Anti-BanHere are where my opinions get a little bit more complicated, because as much as my current impression of the meta and evaluations on paper should tell me that Abra is broken I just can’t see it in practice, at least to the same extent some other people have been talking about. I think this is primarily because there is some part of me that believes, at least to some extent, that the metagame has some adapting to do to this threat of Abra, adapting that we’re already beginning to see. Things like sucker punch gastly, timburr being favored over mienfoo, other strong priority like bunnelby and corphish, diglett being run in tandem with mons that have good matchups vs pinch teams like Staryu, scarf vullaby rising… All of these trends i’ve been noticing perhaps in response to Abra have the potential to work, and considering how much I use them myself I think to some extent they do. I split a little bit from my friends with these opinions, but still I think they are worth mentioning. As much as Abra should be breaking the metagame on paper I’m actually enjoying this metagame more and more, if anything the introduction of Trapinch took as away from a balance-y meta that I could not enjoy as much, although it may have admittedly been a bit more healthy. I don’t know if these sentiments are shared by others, but at least on a personal level I struggle to vote ban in a meta that I’m really enjoying.