Self explanatory
As the 2024 National Dex circuit progresses, our latest community survey has shown large and concerning drops to player enjoyability (to 6.1 out of 10, down 0.86 from the previous survey) and balance (to 5.53, down 1.64) within the current metagame. Voters ranked the Terastallization mechanic at 6.78 out of 10 in terms of uncompetitiveness, the highest from a shortlist that includes Ogerpon-Wellspring at 3.34 out of 5 and Kyurem at 3.09, among others. Following a National Dex council vote, we are once again launching a suspect test of Terastallization.
This unprecedented third test of Scarlet and Violet's generational mechanic has quite a bit of history and related tiering action behind it. Over a year has passed since the last suspect test in June 2023, and almost two years since the first suspect test near the beginning of this generation, and Tera narrowly survived the vote in both instances. An extremely substantial change a few months after, the release of DLC2 in December 2023, brought with it a number of Pokemon that quickly became A-tier and S-tier in the Viability Rankings, if not outright banned. Several suspects have occurred since, with Zamazenta, Darkrai, and Gouging Fire all departing the tier; in addition, Kingambit, Dragapult, Sneasler, and Gholdengo were also voted out in the period between the first suspect test and release of DLC2.
Yet Raging Bolt, Iron Crown, Archaludon, and other DLC2 Pokémon remain as extremely viable options for Hyper Offense archetypes, significantly contributing to the low metagame balance score from the survey cited above. Beyond those, Ogerpon-Wellspring is a notorious abuser of offensive Tera, and rather than suspecting this repeat offender, we have decided to target the mechanic with the funny hats (Tera) as the core issue threatening metagame stability and player enjoyability.
The arguments against Terastallization are well-known at this point. By changing type once per match, a Pokémon team can flip would-be checks and counters on their heads, into a favorable matchup for the Tera user. While not entirely unpredictable or unplayable, Tera often grants its user a large momentum boost that is difficult to catch up to. Moreover, the sheer flexibility of Tera to change matchups makes game plans harder, and a growing body of evidence from tournament play suggests Hyper Offense best capitalizes on this mechanic, reducing the balance of the metagame. Supporters of Tera may enjoy the dynamicism of Tera-boosted gameplay, or argue that the metagame simply has a different point of stability than other generations. Needless to say, this vote has potential to go down as one of the most consequential in National Dex OU history, and the result is up to you.
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