How Mega Sableye Made Defensive Strategies TOO Strong

Why Was Mega Sableye Banned in Competitive Gen 6 Pokemon?
Pokemon can be crazy sometimes.

Shouts to Pedro for being the first Team Freeze Member!

[Weareonenation]

The hilarious thing about this ban was that M-Sableye was banned right when Sun and Moon came out which means not a lot of people cared about this ban.

[beybl]

I just wanna say, this vid forgot the scariest part about mega sableye
In gen 6, speed was calculated BEFORE mega evolving.
So for example, if you were a mega that got slower than your base form (mega garchomp), the first turn of mega evolving, you would be faster. Same goes for if you got faster with mega evolution, your first turn would be slower.
Sabeleye with prankster meant that mega sableye's first turn was always a priority move
EDIT: I used the wrong terminology. It wasn't "speed" that was it was "turn order". That's why sableye went first

[oscheoroset]

I remember that M.Sableye was banned at the day which OU ORAS end and start of OU SM, so people joke about him being on Uber for a short time, like he's saying "Thanks god it's over, those 2 seconds of Uber was a nightmare".

[FatherOfGray]

When talking about banning a single Pokémon it's important to remember that Singles, despite what the name implies, is a 6v6 game. You aren't just combating a problem Pokémon but also its support. Too often in threads you'd see someone say "just use Z to beat X" forgetting that they have mons like W and Y to deal with Z and support X.

[Yodaminnesota]

Love the amount of work you are putting in with such frequent updates! I love watching these I hope they continue

[butteredsalmonella]

Fairies turned the entire gen 7 metagame upside down. Mega Sableye fell off, Keldeo fell off, Hoopa-Unbound fell off, Greninja wasn't banned and Mega Metagross WAS banned.

[addchannelname]

This "why was ___ banned" is really interesting and i'm looking forward to more.

[grunkleg.]

If you're looking for more ideas on "Why Was Banned", some suggestions I have include Gen 8 Cinderace / Magearna / Spectrier / both Zacian forms, Gen 7 Mega Metagross, Gen 6 & 7 Aegislash, Gen 6 Greninja, Gen 4 & 5 Manaphy, Gen 4 Salamence, and Mr. Landorus-Incarnate himself. Of all the bans over the years, I feel like these ones are probably less obvious to most people. Alternatively, something like "Why Is Not Good" for something like Lugia, Dawn Wings Necrozma, or Solgaleo would be cool

[amberhernandez]

I KNOW THIS ONE!!!

Gen 6 had determined order of moves, so if a Pokémon with Prankster selected a status move, it'd get +1 priority even if it didn't have Prankster by the time the turn began. This was specific to Sableye, who would be able to get off +1 priority Will-O-Wisps to cripple physical attackers, while also being able to increase its bulk by Mega Evolving the same turn. In addition, Prankster wasn't nerfed to where Dark-types were unaffected, so it was pretty solid for nerfing strong sweepers like Bisharp by sitting in their face and tanking through them.

I KNOW this one, because MSab is one of my favourite Mega Pokémon ever <3

[Mr.Sax.]

Fun fact: Mega Sableye was banned the very last day of Gen6 (as the newest generation). The day after its ban, Pokemon Sun & Moon got released and competitive Gen7 started officially.

[beybl]

This is actually one I remember. Mega sableye had like 3 suspect tests over the course of gen 6, and the third one banned him during the last like, 2 weeks before gen 7 came out. And mega sableye was legal at the start of gen 7 (don't remember how long it lasted, or if that never changed)

[mannyslaport]

I really love it when you talk about Gen 5+ bans because that's when I really started playing competitive and lived through them. Oh man, a lot of these were hell 😅

[insynonymdog]

The pain I had to go thru facing against mega-sableye is unimaginable, I would just forfeit in team preview.

[hikerclarence]

When you brought up hoopa, it made me think you should make a vid on the effects broken offensive mons have on playstyles. A lot of new and (sorry) younger players decry smogon for "only banning offensive mons so they can play stall", but in reality offensive threats force stall more than they break them. Urshifu earlier this gen was a perfect example - it basically forced toxapex and clefable onto teams because a more offensive team would have to sack against wicked blow or cc literally every time urshifu came in

[stagnantlasagna]

I have no interest in getting into competitive pokemon whatsoever but I find myself fascinated by these videos. Seeing these explanations for things a casual player like myself would never touch makes me realize the depth in these games. Really enjoying your content!

[ThatRandomDaniel]

It’s kinda hilarious how Mega Sab and Keldeo both got power crept nerfed in Gen 7 with the Tapus.

I often wonder how much attention GF gives to 6v6 singles. Like you have the Defog distribution in Gen 7, and Heavy Duty boots indicate that they care a little bit(no where near the level of focus VGC gets though)

[technicolormischief-maker]

I think it’d be a good idea to make a video on why smogon bans more offensive mons than defensive ones. The common outsider reaction is just, “Smogon loves stall, ” which ignores the fact that offensive teams *also* like to use walls from time to time…

[ispeakcockney]

Mega Sableye didnt even care about the ban in gen 6 and power creep in gen 7. It still remained as the best mega to use in Uber (along with Salamence). In the tier, entry hazard is very important and M-Sableye easily pulled an uno reverse card to the opposing legendaries

[tonytang]

Mega Sableye was even more powerful in gen 6 due to the fact that the order of movement is determined when you select a move. Because regular Sableye has Prankster, Mega Sableye's status moves can still go first on the turn it mega evolves

[StarshadowMelody]

"Nowadays Stahl still exists in competitive generation 6 pokemon"

yes, the cavalier who's personality gimmick is "Completely Average" is still a thing in gen 6 competitive. good job autocaptions.