Monthly Roster

March 2024 began with the third ever 35 Pokes ban, as Gallade's Sharpness-boosted attacks effortlessly cleaved through every defensive Pokemon in the meta. Following this ban, however, the presence of solid defensive walls allowed the meta to stabilize greatly. Though not impossible to break through, the core of Swampert, Weezing-Galar, and Regice formed the backbone of several balance teams. On the other end of the spectrum were Oricorio-Sensu, Oricorio-Baile, and Ninjask, all of which could pull off game-ending sweeps. March is also notable for featuring Politoed, Gallade's replacement, whose Drizzle ability made rain teams a viable archetype. Seaking, of all things, was viable on rain teams due to being the only Swift Swim user, and a very threatening endgame cleaner once its checks were weakened. As the meta progressed, new Pokemon rose in usage to counter the common team structures. These included Farigiraf, which could support its team with Wish and Teleport; Cacturne, which was a powerful wallbreaker when equipped with a Choice Band; and Magmortar, which was a surprisingly effective Assault Vest user. The unique development of the meta, on top of it being the month with the largest amount of new players, made March 2024 an unforgettable month to everyone who was there.

Written by gcgoat

Viability Rankings

/challenge gen9nationaldex35pokes @@@ -All Pokemon, +oricorio, +wigglytuff, +phione, +politoed, +ninjask, +samurott, +galvantula, +mesprit, +scrafty, +rotom-fan, +greedent, +seaking, +swampert, +weezing-galar, +shelgon, +leafeon, +cacturne, +turtonator, +magmortar, +lilligant, +sirfetch’d, +oricorio-sensu, +persian-alola, +farigiraf, +pinsir, +primeape, +tatsugiri, +dugtrio-alola, +flygon, +regice, +ditto, +grafaiai, +pidgeot, +palossand, +ribombee

Tier Maker

Gallade Ban

Since day 1, Gallade had been a very strong force to be reckoned with. With sharpness boosted Sacred Sword and Psycho cut, nothing switched into Gallade. The premier (and one of the few only real) physical wall in the tier, Galarian-Weezing, was completely broken by Gallade's Psycho cut, and not even a full health Swampert wanted to switch in because of Leaf Blade. The only real switch into Gallade was Mesprit, who was completely invalidated by knock off, which was a really common mid ground click. Gallade's early sets consisted of mostly life orb with sticky webs, though people quickly realized it was a much more effective choice scarf user. The set that really got it banned though was Life Orb agility, which not only could consistently clean games with little effort, but sweep games straight up if mesprit was even slightly chipped; if you weren't on mesprit you would straight up get swept. With the overwhelming force that was Life Orb, Choice Scarf, and Choice Band Gallade, it was banned. Though it may seem pretty clear to most that Gallade was unhealthy and broken, this was not the case to everyone. Many high level players in the tier actually enjoyed Gallade, because while yes guessing what move it would click was a 50/50 a lot of the time, the other chunk of the time it was down to a prediction, which rewarded skill in a very impactful way. Regardless, it was banned, and rerolled into Politoed, which proceeded to give Seaking a role as a really solid cleaner. In the 8 days Gallade was legal, it really shook up the meta, and to this day theres a large portion of the March community that thinks Gallade should not have been banned.

Video by PortobelloMushroom explaining why Gallade was banned

from March 2024, and also from July 2024. Explains the text above