Arena trap is completely broken, uncompetitive, and has warped the metagame into what I find is an unhealthy and boring state. Dugtrio at this time traps or forces suboptimal sets on quite a few wallbreakers, like Shed Shell Toxtricity as Mannat pointed out was used in Sage vs Tace and Quick Attack Sylveon exists for Dugtrio exclusively as well, showing how constraining Dugtrio is to worry about for these Pokemon that would otherwise have absolutely no reason to run these things. Also, a lot of wallbreakers can’t fix their Dugtrio matchup too much really (CM / LO Clef, Excadrill at +0, speed, Obstagoon, Tyranitar, etc) which makes the metagame harder to break since these defensive Pokemon have less ways to break them. However, what I find to really be what brings Dugtrio over the edge (and why I for sure want it and Arena Trap banned) is the fact it traps many defensive Pokemon as well (chipped Seismitoad, Clefable, Sylveon lacking Quick Attack, Toxapex, and pretty much any grounded and weakened Pokemon that’s outsped). Said defensive Pokemon and even more offensive ones who work well with it are also able to get it in easily to abuse the trapping, namely U-Turn Corviknight, U-Turn Dragapult, Rotoms, etc. We can also see Dugtrio’s effect on SPL with many games revolving around Dugtrio and it trapping something for either play to make much progress.
Finally, to address the Dugtrio vs Arena Trap debate, my own stance is we ban Arena Trap as a whole since it brings nothing of healthiness or value and just gives room for Digglett or even stuff that could get Arena Trap in the DLC to run free and potentially be problematic. For people saying “Digglett and Trapinch aren’t broken so only ban Dugtrio”, we’re legit debating LC and a Pokemon that fell to PU after its ahility is banned is broken soley because of its ability, which in my opinion just shows how insane Arena Trap is. Let’s just not take any chances on this one like we did with BW, where people just used Digglett and did the same shit as before.
Sorry for a long and probably shitty post.
Finally, to address the Dugtrio vs Arena Trap debate, my own stance is we ban Arena Trap as a whole since it brings nothing of healthiness or value and just gives room for Digglett or even stuff that could get Arena Trap in the DLC to run free and potentially be problematic. For people saying “Digglett and Trapinch aren’t broken so only ban Dugtrio”, we’re legit debating LC and a Pokemon that fell to PU after its ahility is banned is broken soley because of its ability, which in my opinion just shows how insane Arena Trap is. Let’s just not take any chances on this one like we did with BW, where people just used Digglett and did the same shit as before.
Sorry for a long and probably shitty post.