So my plea to bring Qwilfish to the list somewhere seemed to be fruitless the first try around. Given the recent meta shift, I thought I'd try again.
I suppose the easiest way to go around this is to start at the dubious assumption that Qwilfish was so horribly affected by the generation shift that he went all the way from a B+ ranking last gen all the way down to not even deserving a place on this list. Let's just assume that his niche as a bulky water type who can set up hazards and provide a great deal of utility was completely replaced by that new sixth gen bulky water that can also set up hazards and provide a great deal of utility now what was the poke called I can't recall for the life of me OH WAIT IT DOESN'T EXIST.
Now that I've gotten that out of my system...
Whether or not Qwilfish got seriously better or worse at the generation shift is a question that could go either way. One of the physical attackers he struggled with the most (Bisharp) was promptly banned, but the general physical power spike and introduction of new physical threats that Qwilfish can check, but not counter (Hawlucha, Crawdaunt) are certainly somewhat compelling arguments as to Qwilfish becoming marginally less effective. One could also cite the introduction of a new Physically Defensive Spiker in Chesnaught, and this too is somewhat valid. However, they do fill completely different roles as far as countering pokes and Chesnaught certainly isn't removing Qwilfish of it's niche. The last valid argument to Qwilfish becoming less effective would be the widespread distribution of Defog eliminating some of his effectiveness, as well as the buffing of physical dark type attacks and their presence in the tier, making Qwilfish less of an effective blind switch-in to all physical threats, as he does take hefty damage from some of them.
At the same time though, Qwilfish hasn't lost its effectiveness. Fire and Fighting type physical attacks are still very much present in the tier, and Qwilfish is still an extremely effective check/counter to various physical threats, including but not limited to Victini, Darmanitan, Entei, Heracross, Arcanine, Mienshao, and Hawlucha. The introduction of fairy type could even be looked at as a positive, as Qwilfish has the ability to do hefty damage to threats like Florges with poison jab, and they can't do as much to him in return because of resistance.
Put simply, Qwilfish was not affected by the tier shift any significant amount more than the other presiding bulky waters - Suicune, Slowbro, Milotic, Swampert, etc. All of these pokes seemed to have at least stayed within reasonable distance of their ranking last tier, dropping at most by a full rank or so. Yet, Qwilfish is still nowhere to be seen.
Finally, I'd like to talk about the benefits Qwilfish received from yesterday's tier shift. Most notable was the banishment of Zapdos and Latias from the tier. Both of these pokes were defensive, yet had enough offensive pressure to do massive damage to Qwilfish. More importantly, they were two of the premium defoggers in the tier, leaving the much more manageable Crobat, Mew, and Empoleon behind.
"But Kitten, look at all the rapid spinners that came in ._." Yes. This is true. The difference is that rapid spin is generally much easier to deal with on stall teams, who almost always carry an effective ghost to stop them. Trevenant, for example, who dropped into the tier yesterday, works wonderfully with Qwilfish, benefitting from the passive damage of his hazards while racking up his own with burn and leech seed damage, blocking spins for him, and absorbing most of his weaknesses as well. Besides, there's a massive difference that is sort of harder to quantify. Before the tier shift, if a Zapdos switched in as you were setting up spikes, there was immediately tremendous offensive pressure, as the Zapdos could obviously do massive damage to you. Your thought was less about trying to switch into something to block the removal of the hazards (which was impossible anyway) and more about not dying in one hit. The same is not true when a Forretress, Hitmontop, or Tentacruel switches in, as they hold very little offensive pressure against Qwilfish, allowing for momentum to be built up much more easily.
In conclusion, Qwilfish deserves to at least be around C rank. He really wasn't affected too negatively by the tier shift, and so he should still be considered as effective as he was in the previous generation. In light of the recent changes yesterday, Qwilfish has become massively more effective than he was previously, and I would personally place him at a solid B Rank.
P.S. Any criticism, discussion, or arguments are absolutely welcome. It's possible that I'm completely blinded by my devotion to the spiky poison fish, but I really don't see how it could be justified that Qwilfish not be on the list whatsoever. If you think you can tell me why, I'd be happy to find out.
