Summary

Suicune is the king of the bulky water type, a strong archetype of Pokemon that is splashable across many different team styles. With access to Calm Mind and Pressure, it can negate its two weaknesses to Electric and Grass by boosting its Special Defense while simultaneously becoming stronger on the special attacking side. Toxic is not always effective against it due to it having access to Rest, and in a format like ADV Draft where Sandstorm is rarely active Suicune is able to reliably recover health while setting up. It also has other defensive options such as Reflect, Substitute, and Protect to beat certain checks. Its only real weaknesses in the format with a lower power level than ADV OU are Leech Seed, Explosion, and Water Absorb in the case it does not run an Ice move -- each of these do have solutions against them, and it is unlikely that all three will be on the same team. It is also weak to Haze, which has a rare distribution, and phazing effects such as Roar and Whirlwind which are not effective if Suicune is the last Pokemon on a player's team.

Suicune is almost universally banned in ADV Draft, only seeing use in a few tournaments to date. It and its fellow outlaw Jirachi are banned for different reasons: Suicune does one thing extremely well with its Calm Mind sets that can be tailored to the matchup in ADV Draft, while Jirachi is overly adaptable to the point of headache and almost always has a set of four moves that will win its team the matchup thanks to its bevy of coverage options.

Summary written by Scraf

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