Stepping away from the current discussion, why is Sceptile still in B+? That thing is garbage, and should, at the most, be in B rank, if not lower. It's physical sets are outclassed by Virizion who has better coverage and a powerful STAB, Sub Seed sets were and will always be shitty and mixed sets are outclassed by Shiftry who has more firepower and STAB knock off. The only viable set that sceptile has is full special and even that set isn't very good because having a mono Grass typing for an attacker isn't very good in RU imo. Let's look at RU top threats (S and A rankings) and we will notice how 8 things x2 resist grass and 5 pokes x4 resist it while in the other hand only 1 poke is x4 weak to grass and 5 pokes are x2 weak to it and these are: rhyperior, slowking, alomomola (the only three that really matter) Dugtrio, Sharpedo (can't take a hit anyways) and Gorebyss (Takes one hit smashes and passes) and I didn't even touched the B rankings were things like Braviary and Fletchinder resist grass. We never see this because most grass attackers have a secondary STAB that it's super effective against the stuff that walls grass type attacks for example: Registeel walls Virizion's grass STAB but it's weak to his Fighting STAB, Drudiggon walls Abomasnow's Grass STAB but it's weak to his Ice STAB and Moltres walls Rotom-C's Grass STAB but it's weak to his Electric type STAB. Thankfully Game Freak gave Sceptile decent coverage but still he needs to resort on Hidden Powers, MCJynx gave me this Sceptile set and I think it's his most viable set:
Unfortunately, the set has two major downfalls; it's frail as hell and it's not super strong. Also relying on Hidden Power to hit things sucks this gen thanks to the Hidden power nerf and sometimes it just won't be enough. This are the calcs for Sceptile:
Offensive:
252 SpA Life Orb Sceptile Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Registeel: 161-190 (44.2 - 52.1%) --
guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recover
252 SpA Life Orb Sceptile Leaf Storm vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Aromatisse: 185-218 (45.5 - 53.6%) --
1.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Sceptile Leaf Storm vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Slowking: 291-346 (73.8 - 87.8%) --
guaranteed 2HKO
-2 252 SpA Life Orb Sceptile Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Slowking: 86-104 (21.8 - 26.3%) --
8.8% chance to 4HKO
52 SpA Life Orb Sceptile Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Amoonguss: 177-211 (40.9 - 48.8%) --
guaranteed 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
52 SpA Life Orb Sceptile Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Druddigon: 161-190 (44.9 - 53%) --
25% chance to 2HKO
Defensive:
0 Atk Registeel Iron Head vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Sceptile: 97-115 (34.3 - 40.7%) --
guaranteed 3HKO (Registeel can just T-wave anyways)
0 SpA Aromatisse Moonblast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Sceptile: 117-138 (41.4 - 48.9%) --
guaranteed 3HKO
252+ SpA Slowking Fire Blast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Sceptile: 252-298 (89.3 - 105.6%) --
37.5% chance to OHKO
4 SpA Amoonguss Sludge Bomb vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Sceptile: 194-230 (68.7 - 81.5%) --
guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Druddigon Dragon Claw vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Sceptile: 193-228 (68.4 - 80.8%) --
guaranteed 2HKO
As the calcs show, Spectile often lacks a bit of power and therefore can't defeat many semi sturdy walls like other Grass types such as M-Abomasnow and while Spectile has amazing speed new threats such as Jolteon have even more speed and is often a better revenge killer. In conclusion I think these are the reasons of why Sceptile should drop:
- Lost of Flying gem
- Receives competition of other grass types
- Mediocre bulk
- Outclassed in every aspect except full special
- Mono Grass STAB sucks offensively
- Hidden power nerf
- Not enough coverage
- Not a relevant threat anymore
This is my opinion and if you disagree feel free to tell me why in a respectful way but until then I think that Sceptile needs a
drop to B- ranks.