So, I’ve been mostly a spectator and watching the thread and metagame develop — mostly because I don’t have the spoons to get back on track with competitive battling — but I felt the need to chime in about something.
I don’t think there’s any way I, or anyone besides maybe tier/site leadership, could provide that assurance, but for those of you whose primary motivation is to preserve Tera in UU and lower tiers, I urge you to vote Full Ban now, and here’s what I hope will be a compelling argument as to why:
I largely disagree with voting Full Ban, in that case. If all, I’d say that the opposite should be considered: either restriction, or no ban.
For one thing, a second test can always happen down the line, and it’s so much easier to test something that is still currently on the tier than something that has been banned already and brought back down. By the time a second test would occur, people would be used to the new metagame and would be far less inclined to revert things back to the previous state.
Meanwhile, keeping the mechanic around for a bit longer would allow us to keep studying it, and if all the other things on the radar are gone — namely Fire Fish and Shed Tail, which contribute into warping the metagame with the destructive firepower (boosted further with Tera) of the former and the sheer supportive potential of the latter (which facilitate setup, especially for Tera attackers like Dragonite and Espartha) — then we can also see more clearly whether it’s the mechanic that is broken or the Pokémon who are broken.
Heck, there was a similar discussion way back in the SM metagame, which was about whether the problem was the amount of attackers who could abuse the offensive prowess offered by the generational gimmick or the Pokémon themselves (sounds familiar?):
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/state-of-sun-moon-ou.3654499/
Among the things discussed were Magearna being able to constantly adapt to the metagame by swapping to the Right Z-Move, and that Z-Moves are what pushed Pheromosa and Zygarde into being the unstoppable forces they became. They probably would have been banished even without Z-Moves, but those
contributed in making them broken.
However, at the end of the day, Z-Crystals weren’t removed from the game. Why throw an entire mechanic is we can get rid / nerf the few offenders?
Honestly, it would probably help to answer these questions in an objective way. (Hopefully not with stuff like “50/50” which has basically become a meme at this point.)
• What Pokémon are broken because of Tera or facilitate Tera abusers? Would they be as troublesome even without Tera around?
• What Pokémon are balanced with Tera? Did Pokémon with bad typing get a new lease of life by being able to ditch their original typing?
• If the unpredictability of Tera is the problem, then why not entertain the preview option (+1 Tera user, eventually) before nuking Tera as a whole? Even if nobody is a mind reader and can tell when the opponent is about to Tera, wouldn’t knowing the opposing Tera help mitigate the risks of failing predictions (ex. by relying less on supereffective attacks and using more neutral hits, perhaps)?
If it turns out that Tera is
undeniably broken on
multiple Pokemon even
with restrictions, then sure. Get it out of the game as soon as possible. But make sure to consider all the angles of this topic and try to understand where the other side is coming from, no matter whether you’re pro-ban and anti-ban, while making your decision.