Can we talk about a potential Desolate Land and Primordial sea unban? I think I mentioned this a little in a previous post but I highly doubt it’s as strong as the best abilities in the metagame like defiant, competitive, and magic bounce. Yes, they do nullify fire and water moves completely, but if that’s the only reason it got banned, I don’t think it should be.Yes and yes.
Agree, Dry Skin should just be banned entirely. Admittedly Honedge would probably not be overpowered on its own but it's easier to just group it in with all Steel/Ghost-types. Weathers that deal consistent damage every turn i.e. sand are against the spirit of the meta. Primordial Sea and Desolate Land, while they don't deal passive damage, were ruled too OP due to the ability to nullify Fire or Water attacks entirely.
The one valid complex ban I can see is Sturdinja, but even that will die to a stray Clamp, poison, Struggle, etc.
Let’s look into Desolate Land for example. Why would you choose this ability?
1. To cover up a water weakness on your fire type team
2. To boost the fire pokemon’s STABs.
3. And unlike flash fire, it benefits both of your pokemon!
Wow, all of these benefits in just one ability slot? So overpowered right? Well actually, there’s a logical fallacy to this, because Desolate Land can benefit your opponent’s pokemon as well. The above claim only points out how your team can benefit from the ability. DesoLand can prevent your Mega Camerupt from getting hit from a hydro pump, but the same applies to the opponent’s Sandaconda. It can boost your fire attacks, but it will also boost the opponent’s sizably, even if your fire pokemon resist it. In the worst case scenario, you will be bringing Desolate Land into a 4 fire pokemon battle and you just lost your ability slot. While I won’t deny that most of the time the ability will help your team slightly more, you just can’t ignore the fact that the weather will also help your opponent sometimes.
And obviously the same will apply for Primordial Sea. I wrote all this because I like weather and want to see some cool weather strategies on the ladder. How do you guys feel about the primal abilities?
TL;DR Primal abilities should be unbanned because it benefits your opponents too so it’s actually not that strong