The thing with honk is that brave bird+moxie creates those scenarios where you have no choice but to let it get a moxie boost because there are very few things that can even dare to switch on it AND survive the sucker punch follow up. A +1 honchkrow is nothing to scoff at, even though there are many fighting types capable of revenge kill it, pretty much anything that doesnt resist sucker punch is going to fail doing so. While honchrow has many flaws such as sr weakness and pathetical bulk, its still an insanely powerful threat. Frankly, those ''a is walled by b and c so it sucks'' arguments are really getting old
UU ALL DAY. Things arent ranked based on how they do with specific threats, they are ranked based on how they fare against the entire metagame. I dont really have any idea on what rank honchrow should be in but it should be decided more fairly.
eaglehawk the metagame is not comprised of solely the 6 pokemon currently at S rank (and some of them dont even deserve to be there anyway), its not fair to ignore the huge amount of threats that honchkrow can destroy in this tier just because they are not at the very top of this thread.
Can't the same thing be said about Heracross? With a guts or moxie or anything like that, you're basically forced to sack something to Heracross if it runs adamant nature. Sure, Gligar can wall it, but it's the fact that there are pokemon that can check and counter Heracross that make it a non-issue.
The same can be said about Honkcrow. What makes something A-ranked is that it can do exactly what it is supposed to do. With a LO and Adamant Nature, one is forced to play mind-games. SubCM Raikou for example. It can sub on the predicted Sucker Punch, or Thunderbolt on the predicted Brave Bird. Likewise, Suicine can eat up 2 hits and proceed to Scald. The recoil from BB and LO will put it in the range in which Scald will most likely kill.
Honk will not always get to +1, in fact, with threats like Mega-Aggron and the likes being around taking hits from Choice Banded Crawdaunt, I don't see how most teams will lose a Moxie Honk. It relies too much on the user playing with Honk than Honk doing the actual work. This is in great contrast to Mixed Victini. A player can play extremely recklessly and still get kills, ie Rhyperior/Swampert switches in on V-create, then gets popped by Grass Knot. Because of the ease of use, Victini can do its job. If dedicated Physical Walls switch in (one being Zapdos), there is not much Honk can do.
I'm not saying because Honk is easily walled that it's bad, I'm saying that people are coming up with these insane hard hitters being instantly good. Any Moxie Sweeper is good when it is at +1. It's getting to +1 that is always an issue, and even if it is at +1, it usually gets there after taking something that is already on its last legs. I'm not going to switch in a Suicine when I'm at 80% when I have a 13% Victini. I'll let it get that +1 just to revenge it. It makes me have to sack a mon, but a lot of base 125 attack, adamant, LO 120BP moves do that. That's like not having a switch in for Sharpedo, it happens, so you have to sack something in order to get it out of the way, but that is pokemon, no?