Why Moody Was Banned in Competitive Pokémon (Smogon)

Moody Was Unbanned and Then Banned in Competitive Pokemon. Here's Why.
Join this channel to get access to perks:

[UncleJrueForTue]

1:21 *Unbans Moody*
1:24 Why do I hear music that hits different?

[chilln]

I remember using a full team of Pokémon with Moody and my opponent said “I’m literally at work but this match is way more boring”

[presidenttogekiss]

You joke, but bibarel actually has several advantages over Glalie as a Moody sweeper:
- Immune to Ghost, and therefore to Spectral Thief and Astral Barrage
- Has acess to 140 bp Last Resort
- Has Dive to further adquire boosts
- Has Priority in Aqua Jet
- Is not weak to Stealth Rocks

[Ddyrg]

You could argue moody is even stronger now that it cant raise acc + evasion because it takes less turns to reach absurd attack and defence and evasion wasn't THAT important since you can stall until you get enough boost to simply survive attacks anyways.

[camwoodstock]

Imagine being so horrifyingly disruptive you managed to get banned BEFORE dynamax did.

[johnquach]

Very interesting!
Maybe a "Why Necrozma Dawn Wings, Zamazenta Hero, and Giratina are Doubles Ubers" despite walls being bad in Doubles OU.

[gigalodon]

Honestly, playing Moody Glalie is so much fun. I also feel like it fits the Pokemon designwise really well.
Being on the other side however…

[witmilk]

"It would probably be fine :)"
*THEY WERE COMPLETELY WRONG*

[abarette_]

I mean removing Evasion/Accuracy boosts actually buffed it in some way really
you have to waste less turns to get the boosts you want
the likelyhood of Attack being boosted is 1/5 instead of 1/7, same for Def, SpA, SpD, and Speed

[globalistgamer]

That week at the beginning of Gen 8 where Moody was unbanned while Dynamax was also still allowed was the craziest, most fun week of OU ever. It felt like OU was the OMotM or even a pet mod.

[SquimJim]

I feel like at this point they should just make Moody boost 1 random non accuracy or evasion stat by 2 stages when switched in with no stat reduction drawback and not do it every turn. You would still get the fun effect of it being a lottery like ability but without the possibility of it snowballing out of control or forcing a lot of stall.

[SofterSideStudios]

Anyone remember when Bidoof terrorized the Uber tier cause of Moody?

[lordinfernape]

This is sad, Glalie is mediocre without moody :(

[BaconNuke]

So pretty much.. originally banned for the chance of evasion and accuracy boosts.. when that got removed was temp unbanned, then it got rebanned since it now had a narrower scope of a better chance of boosting the other stats..

[nimroddafny]

Honestly Moody is pretty horribly designed. RNG doesn't keep it in check at all but due to the negative stat changes it's impossible to nerf the ability without making it useless. IMO it needs a rework. Either decreasing positive stat changes to a single stage or not letting it raise speed should prevent it from snowballing as easily but the negative stage changes should be removed to compensate.

[jesuisunstroopwafel]

I love how wrong Smogon can be when theorizing on the viability of so-and-so move or Ability or Pokémon. Remember Teatime and Stuff Cheeks theory crafting? Or Spectrier being OK in OU because of its lack of coverage?
About Moody, I'd like to say a big issue about this Ability is that optimal use of it is, well, boring. Every Glalie, every Smeargle is using Substitute plus a disruptive attack like Disable, a sleep move, and so on, plus one damage-dealing move, quite repetitive to watch, and uncompetitive because it relies on luck to destroy the opponent.

[RahidenChan]

Great vid 😊
Video idea: which fully-evolved Pokémon would fit into Little Cup without being overpowered? Unown, Luvdisc, Ditto, maybe even Smeargle?

[zad_rasera]

When I first played Showdown, I only played in AG, because I didn't like the idea of tiers and bans. And then I encountered teams with like six Smeargles with Moody and/or Mega Rayquaza. It was... quite the experience.

[Link]

Funny story of the moody ability.
Myuu is a pokemon bot for discord that I used to play alot.

One of the servers I was in I fought a elite 4 member by the name of nameless with his own rules. His team was ice based so it was easy, cept for the fact his team had moody glalie. No one could stop his monster of a team due to this. Except for me.

I had to deal enough of a blow with my mega lopunny during its rampage to suprise switch in with z-belly drum linoone(yes a Crystal's exist in myuu) to blow that glalie to the ground and blow apart the rest of his team with e-speed. ending with me clutching thanks to linoone.

Man I miss those days. They were the best.

[Slaking_]

I never knew they unbanned Moody in gen 8 lmfao what were they thinking?

Somewhat related, but I think a cool video idea would be explaining Smogon terminology like "check", "counter", "uncompetitive", etc. since it seems like a lot of non-Smogon players misunderstand them, particularly terms like uncompetitive and overcentralising being the main justification behind bans usually.