Is Landorus-Therian good or bad for the metagame?

[Sirfetch’d]

I don't want this to be a discussion too heavily focused on whether or not Landorus-Therian is broken, but is it's omnipresence good for OU? Has it's consistent dominance for 3 gens been more beneficial or detrimental to the overall health of the tier?

 

[gimmepie]

Landorus-T is a very good Pokemon but it's not exactly difficult to check either. I think it's definitely as good as a Pokemon can be without being banned but I don't think it's particular good or particularly bad for the meta.

 

[Dark Azelf]

Id say its presence is healthy. Kinda like mini GSC snorlax (except not nearly as unpredictable) in that it helps balance the metagame, fits on alot of team archetypes and helps check alot of other stupid stuff. Sure it can be a pain in the ass but it does have checks and counters that are common. Basically the question should boil down to "is the metagame better with or without said pokemon?" and in a Lando-Ts case id say yes it is, unlike its other form which is the opposite and basically contributes nothing healthy to the metagame because its an absolute nightmare to prepare for.

 

[Frequency]

It's the glue that the meta needs. It's really good without being impossible to deal with. And honestly, I'd rather a meta WITH Lando-T than one without it.

 

[w1f1pa55w0rd]

It's fun to use, it's strong, it's versatile, and it's not overpowered. It can easily be checked by any decent special attacker with ice beam or even surf w/ Greninja and Tapu Fini. Though I've only played comp for two years, it's been a fun two years though.

 

[Whim]

As someone said Landorus-T is the glue for the current OU-meta. Differently from the majority of the generations we had until now, none had such a big power creep as Gen 7 as a whole, mostly with physical attackers. Even though it's pretty bad for a meta to have 50% of the teams with it, as competitive is meant to make players work with their strategies, a really good option is always going to be more common in comparison to others. It's not like it's OP, it's just good in what it's made to do (mostly spam SR and Intimidate in the face of physical sweppers).

Would be better to not depend on it? Definitely. Is there anything that could be done to make up for its absense? Not even close. (i also wish I liked its design so at least i would have something prettier to look at)

 

[w1f1pa55w0rd]

I don't know about Battle Spot, but on Showdown, it feels like everyone and their mom uses it, sadly me too. It's just too good to ignore. Power and versatility? That's an unbeatable combo.

 

[2Fruit]

Lando-T has a huge amount of options, I'm surprised I don't see a rock polish set much, especially with z-fly letting it smash stuff and clean up in the lategame after scaring something out and boosting it's speed to insane levels.

I think the most annoying thing about it is probably everyone just sticking a choice scarf on it and spamming u-turn. fortunately since it lacks recovery it's easy to wear down, as long as you hit it with something it isn't immune, with stealth rocks up it'll soon be low in health since Lando-T often comes in on a lot of things. I'm still learning how to guess Lando sets from team preview. I think when you figure out what it is before it becomes very manageable.