[Guide] Top Metagame Threats

[Dragonstrike]

Actually, Moody was banned because it was uncompetitive, not because it was overpowered or because there existed more than one Pokemon with it.

One of Smogon's frameworks for tiering is to make the metagame as competitive as feasibly possible, which essentially boils down to facilitating an environment in which a worse player does not have access to strategies which allow them to beat a better player through luck. This is why Double Team and Minimize are banned.

Moody is uncompetitive because it is incredibly luck-based. Using Moody requires almost no skill and amounts to hoping you get Evasion boosts in order to eventually luck your way to victory. This aspect of the game was deemed uncompetitive and counterproductive to a healthy metagame by Smogon, which is why it was banned.

Fair enough, but my reasoning still stands as well.  The uncompetitive aspect isn't just in the short term luck, but also that short term luck's long term effects.  And when you can stall to increase the odds of that luck actually occurring in that short period of time, that's when it becomes really unfair.

Nobody likes those completely luck based strategies, it's true, but it gets worse when those strategies become less reliant on luck.  Just look at the Endless Battle clause.  Totally not a luck based strategy, but still banned all the same (even in Anything Goes iirc).  Moody can get to the point that Double Team and Minimize reach given enough time, and it will have accumulated tons of other boosts while doing so as well.  Luck based?  A little.  But not as much as pure evasion or SwagPlay, for example, as those stat boosts everywhere can go a loooonnnng ways.