Tauros immediately caught our eye as a potentially broken Pokemon when it joined the tier a few days ago, and the possibility of a quick-ban was even considered, however, we decided a suspect test makes the most sense given the split nature of opinions about it. The tremendous breaking power of its Life Orb Sheer Force set is a lot for the tier to handle, and that's supported by an incredible 110 Speed, which is only naturally outsped by a small number of Pokemon, such as Persian-Alola, Dugtrio and Electrode. Body Slam is an incredibly powerful STAB option for it that's difficult to switch into, and it backs that up with fantastic coverage meaning no switch-in is truly safe. Iron Head can hit defensive Fairy-Types like Dacshbun and Carbink, Earthquake or Close Combat can target Steel-Types like Tinkatuff and Perrserker, Rock Slide is a nice middle-ground option that also targets some of the tier's top Pokemon like Charizard, and Assurance can catch out Misdreavus, traditionally one of our best Normal-Type answers. It also has surprisingly good bulk for a breaker relative to tier, especially on the physical side. This can make revenge killing attempts difficult, especially as the aforementioned faster Pokemon tend to be weaker attackers.
That being said, being forced to run Life Orb hinders it a little bit in a metagame dominated so much by hazards, as it would much prefer to be able to run Heavy Duty Boots like the other fast breakers of the tier. This, alongside items like Rocky Helmet and abilities like Rough Skin and Aftermath, means that chipping it isn't too difficult and you can often deny a re-entry from it by doing so effectively. It also has a slight case of four-move-slot syndrome, meaning its effectiveness can vary from battle to battle as you have to choose which defensive Pokemon you're able to break through. There are also some defensive tools available. Persian-Alola, which dropped with Tauros, can take two Body Slams and threaten with a faster Foul Play or Thunder Wave. Gabite, the tier's premier pre-shifts Stealth Rock setter, can be EVed to live two Body Slams, forcing a lot of chip damage onto the Tauros with Rough Skin. Additionally, our wealth of excellent Choice Scarf users such as Lycanroc and Indeedee can do a good job at revenge-killing Tauros, with Lycanroc being able to switch in comfortably on a Body Slam and threaten an OHKO with Close Combat. Finally, as a normal type, Tauros provides zero defensive utility which can make building with it awkward as you have to work hard to support its slot. This also means it can be a challenge to get it in safely as the tier lacks good slow U-Turn or Volt Switch Pokemon to support its entry.
Important: For this suspect, there will be two ways to qualify. The first is the typical laddering period, where players must reach the minimum GXE. The second is by winning a live suspect tournament, to be held in the Smogon PU Room on Pokemon Showdown!. You may compete in the suspect tournament on any account, and will need to post proof of you winning the suspect tournament on the voter ID thread.
There will be two live suspect tournaments:
Suspect Tournament Times
Saturday, July 8th at 8:00 AM Eastern Time (GMT -4), hosted by rien
Sunday, July 9th at 5:00 PM Eastern time (GMT-4), hosted by Shaneghoul
The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 78 with at least 50 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 78 GXE, down to a minimum of 30 games at a GXE of 82. As always, needing more than 50 games to 78 GXE is fine.
| GXE | minimum games |
| 78 | 50 |
| 78.2 | 49 |
| 78.4 | 48 |
| 78.6 | 47 |
| 78.8 | 46 |
| 79 | 45 |
| 79.2 | 44 |
| 79.4 | 43 |
| 79.6 | 42 |
| 79.8 | 41 |
| 80 | 40 |
| 80.2 | 39 |
| 80.4 | 38 |
| 80.6 | 37 |
| 80.8 | 36 |
| 81 | 35 |
| 81.2 | 34 |
| 81.4 | 33 |
| 81.6 | 32 |
| 81.8 | 31 |
| 82 | 30 |
Suspect information:
- There will be no draws allowed for any potential qualifiers. If you qualify with draws, your suspect requirements will not count, and you will not be allowed to vote. There is no way to actively enforce ties to prevent abuse, so they will be disallowed. Use stall at your own risk.
All games must be played on the Pokémon Showdown! PU ladder on a new alt with the following format: "PUTA (nickname)”. For example, PUTA Shaneghoul or PUT A SOCK IN IT.- Edit: The tag has been changed as of Tuesday night and is now PUT1. Do not ladder on the stricken through tag as it will not count towards reqs.
- Do NOT impersonate other people in your ladder alt, do NOT use any usernames which are offensive, flame-baiting, or targeting specific users, and do NOT use usernames which could be interpreted as breaking any of the username rules on Pokémon Showdown! Failure to abide to this will result in you being barred from voting in this suspect, and potential infractions.
- The suspect test will last for 10 days, ending on Friday, July 14th 11pm -4.
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)... So to address the problem mons!
Our initial perceptions of tauros were a bit presumptuous, as we expected it to be a monster outspeeding and killing everything, which didn't really turn out to be the case. There's rarely a perfect world for it, as it doesn't appreciate the drawback of either boots or life orb. However gum's take on it above rings very true. It functions as a wallbreaker and does that job extremely well, but it's also so fast and with base 95 def it can be surprisingly hard to revenge at times. So while not perfect, it's multiple positive qualities make dealing with it quite annoying. I'm still conflicted on this, but with every day I dislike its presence more, so i will most likely be voting BAN. 
Not a problem mon at all in my eyes. Pokemon that take body press well enough are plenty so it's not like its forcing specific mons, hazards or no leftovers wears it down quickly, boosting sets take a while to set up. There's potential here but as of week 1 I think it's appreciated in the tier as a new fire/normal/flying/dark check.
In my eyes, this is easily the most broken pokemon right now. HSliggoo and HQwilfish forced it to run tera ground, but now its free to pick and choose its counters. It completely dictates the tera use of every game its present in. Viable tera types include rock, fire, electric, poison, ground is still fine too, and with time it might find more, tera fight sounds ok too I've just never seen it. There are ways to check every set, but it sometimes requires some really uncomfortable scouting plays so you don't just lose to the unrevealed tera type. Quiver dance+tera continues to be one of the corniest ways to win (
). I'm trying not to be overly dogmatic about anything in these early stages of a new meta, but as it stands I really think Lilligant or even the move QD (which ik some very smart people are against) leaving the tier would be a good thing. But hey, with blissey in NU if we hold out till next shift we probably get chansey, which sits on all these dancers(id rather not hold out). 
