Resource RU Viability Ranking: ORAS Edition

[Kyuzeth]

http://www.smogon.com/forums/thread...derrated-movesets.3510009/page-9#post-5767216 pretty sure he also used it in gen 5, can't confirm that though.

Kee Berry got introduced in Gen VI, so the item itself couldn't be Gen V.

 

[Ares]

Kee Berry got introduced in Gen VI, so the item itself couldn't be Gen V.

Must of been specially defensive Musharna then, or something along those lines for the gen 5 innovation. But the Kee Berry mushy set was his.

 

[QueenOfHax]

Alright. M-Glalie to A+

I know it's in A, but let me out the A-Rank blurb here.

A Rank

Reserved for Pokemon who can sweep or wall significant portions of the metagame, but require some support or have some flaws that prevents them from doing this consistently. Supporting Pokemon in this rank may give opponents free turns or cannot create free turns easily themselves, but can still do their job most of the time.

Mega Glalie can do all of the above better than most pokemon. It has versatility in a spikes set that has priority, Taunt, and a base 487 power move to prevent the opponent from defogging or spinning away hazards (if they live) while the attacking set can simply spam Double Edge against anything slower than it, while Ice Shard deals with faster threats. As it stands, MGlalie is super anti meta, as it's one of a few pokemon who can check or greatly hamper all three suspects. (Pidgeot takes an average of 60% from shard after rocks, greatly weakening it. Dragalge is fucked by Double Edge. Serperior takes around 55% from shard, meaning with only rocks as prior damage, it's allowed only two-three leaf storms [which can be easy to live with proper switching]) Also, none of the three can switch in. It has no problem battling it out with the two premier A+ walls, Gligar and Alomomola, the former is 4x weak to Glalie's high power STAB, and the latter is 2HKO'd by freeze dry. It beats non scarf variants of Moltres, and without Rocks up can tie vs. Life Orb (Glalie does min 88% with Double Edge, so any prior damage means it's dead, and if it does above 90%, Moltres dies to Life Orb) and it checks Mega Sceptile with Ice Shard.

Here we have a Pokemon that checks 5/6 of the S Rank mons and beats all four A+ rank mons with relative ease. (Melo is OHKO'd by Double Edge after Rocks [min does like 87%] while a hyper voice to a -SpD nature MGlalie does around 76% max. Pangoro is OHKOd 70% of the time after rocks.) MGlalie is hugely anti meta currently, and the ability to beat all but 1 pokemon above it by ranks (2 if Moltres is scarf) just leads me to believe that MGlalie deserves to be with fellow wallbreakers Pangoro and Meloetta in A+'rank.

Agree with this post and I'd like to add a very important detail: M-Glalie does NOT need to use Explosion to beat those pokemon!
The implications of this point are very important: it can beat the biggest threats in the metagame and then explode on something else, dealing huge damage (even against resists). Basically nothing is safe once M-Glalie is out. Its biggest (and pretty much only) flaw is that, as an Ice type with mediocre bulk and speed pre-evo, it's not easy to bring out safely. Other than that it has no real flaws for an offensive pokemon and it's defintely worthy of A+ rank.

 

[blaargathon]

I haven't used Emboar at all since its HA was released, but considering that its now basically the same thing as it was but better thanks to Blitz always having an attack boost, as well as Wild Charge getting boosted, Emboar may be a valid candidate for receiving a raise to A Rank. Again, it does the same thing it did before, so if Reckless doesn't really make it any more threatening than it already was then A- is still fine, but it seems like that's one hell of an upgrade from Blaze (not on the level of Overgrow to Contrary, but you know).

Also, what are your opinions on Pangoro possibly becoming S Rank in the near future? It has amazing power and coverage hitting pretty much everything. Nothing can truly be called a safe switch to this thing. Some cons to be considered however, is that its speed is atrocious... and that's a huge thing seeing as Cress (Cress should be running enough EVs to outspeed Jolly Panda), Moltres, M-Pidgeot, Serperior,M-Sceptile, and Dragalge, which DOMINATE the meta, all outspeed and beat it 1v1. It isn't exactly frail, and though its typing isn't the best defensively it's certainly not the worst, but all of these S Rank Pokemon give it trouble. I personally believe that A+ is perfect for it at the moment until some possible bans take place (don't take this the wrong way, this is just a hypothetical proposition. i'm fully aware that Pidge, Galge, and Serp are still RU).

 

[Swagodile]

Like you said, Pangoro's terrible speed lets it down.

It's a good wallbreaker, but that's pretty much all it can do; it has a hard time sweeping anything other than slower, defensive teams.

I say it's fine in A+ Rank. Its speed is a huge flaw, and unlike Dragalge or Cresselia, it doesn't have the bulk to make up for its poor speed.

 

[Ares]

I support Pangoro for S rank as it can literally tear any stall / balance team a new asshole. While playing with hyper offense and balance I've found myself at points in the match were I didn't know what to switch in as something was going to possibly die to one of Pangoro's coverage moves. There isn't any good straight up counter that can handle Pangoro as it has all the coverage it needs to destroy the meta, it can even run Ice Punch if it really wanted to too beat Gligar. From using Pangoro on a team with Mega Pidgeot, it does as much if not more work than the mega bird. Definitely a worthy candidate for S rank.

 

[MrAldo]

Mesprit to B+ or A-, this thing is the face of offense in RU, perfect record (2-0 ;o) in SPL, and its just all around incredibly useful. Healing Wish + SR + beating all of the defoggers is so incredible idk how to even describe it.

Definitely supporting this for B+. A- seems like a huge jump but it is pretty plausible. Healing Wish is a godsend for offensive teams, being able to help your sweeper or wallbreaker have a second at doing what they do is simply fantastic, it is also an excellent SR user that its able to defend its rocks thanks to Ice Beam killing the omnipresent gligar and other possible defoggers like shiftry on a switch. Healing wish is the icing of the cake though, such a good move right now that many mons love.

B+ should be pretty good by now. Playing it safe.

 

[Molk]

Alrighty, finally got around to making some updates x.x

Updates

Mega Abomasnow moved up to A+ rank
Mega Glalie moved up to A+ rank
Huntail added to C rank
Quagsire moved down to C+ rank
Musharna added to C+ rank
Scyther added to C rank
Durant moved up to A- rank
Mesprit moved up to B+ rank (totally open to A- rank after using it for the entire suspect test, but i'll start off slow for now)
Sawk moved up to B rank

I'd be open to moving Emboar up to A rank, but i'd like some more discussion on it first. I'd also be open to moving Pangoro up to S rank in the future, but i believe A+ is fine for it in the current meta, if it were to move up at all it'd probably move up after this suspect test imo.

I'd also like to see some discussion on what exactly to do with Gorebyss and Huntail, should both be ranked? and if so, should one be ranked higher than the other? or should they both be the same rank? I added Huntail to C rank for now because Sucker Punch is a legitimate niche over Gorebyss, but i'm not sure if i should move Huntail up to gore's rank or move Gorebyss down to C rank to accompany it.

Mega Steelix seems pretty solid, but i think S rank is kinda pushing it tbh :/. Does anyone else have thoughts on Mega Steelix? Whether it be the rocks set or the Curse set?

As for mega Banette, Hikari do you have any replays you could share here of Mega Banette working well? thanks in advance :]

As for the changes made, if you strongly disagree with any of them/think things should be higher or lower, just say so! I intentionally shot low for all of the new additions as usual (kinda helps counter overhype), same with moving Quaggy down, but i'd be willing to move it down/the others up further if you guys want.

I might make a nomination here myself in a little bit, but i'd like to gather my thoughts first.

 

[Ares]

I'd also like to see some discussion on what exactly to do with Gorebyss and Huntail, should both be ranked? and if so, should one be ranked higher than the other? or should they both be the same rank? I added Huntail to C rank for now because Sucker Punch is a legitimate niche over Gorebyss, but i'm not sure if i should move Huntail up to gore's rank or move Gorebyss down to C rank to accompany it.

So I'm not sure on what actual rank to place a SmashPass mon at, but I think that Gorebyss should be moved to unranked. The reason that Huntail was never ranked is that really couldn't do anything whatsoever and Gorebyss had a slightly higher SpA (114 vs 94) and as Huntail's physical movepool was so sparce there was literally no reason to not use Gorebyss over Huntail so you could attack some things with stuff like Surf if you didn't wish to pass right away. Now I think Huntail's access to Sucker Punch means that there is literally no reason to use Gorebyss over Huntail, as Huntail's ability to KO scarfed Pokemon is vastly more important than a couple of SpA EVs. On top of this Huntail can also more effectively pull of a Coil Pass set do to its access to Sucker Punch and higher attack set. I can't think of a situation now were I would use Gorebyss over Huntail, so for that reason I think that Gorebyss and Huntail's ranks should be switched and Gorebyss should possibly move to unranked.

 

[phantom]

Switching their ranks goes on the assumption that offensive Shell Smash sets with Huntail are actually viable and that's the reason Gorebyss was ranked in the first place... Gorebyss's niche is purely SmashPass, in which case, Sucker Punch hardly becomes useful. If anything, a stronger Scald is probably better to have. Huntail probably pulls off offensive SmashPass sets more effectively, but on bulkier sets (which are the more consistent SmashPass variants due to the ease in which it can set up), having that stronger Scald seems better to me than an uninvested non-stabbed priority move. =/ I wouldn't unrank Gorebyss.

 

[Ares]

Switching their ranks goes on the assumption that offensive Shell Smash sets with Huntail are actually viable and that's the reason Gorebyss was ranked in the first place... Gorebyss's niche is purely SmashPass, in which case, Sucker Punch hardly becomes useful. If anything, a stronger Scald is probably better to have. Huntail probably pulls off offensive SmashPass sets more effectively, but on bulkier sets (which are the more consistent SmashPass variants due to the ease in which it can set up), having that stronger Scald seems better to me than an uninvested non-stabbed priority move. =/ I wouldn't unrank Gorebyss.

The ability to stop a scarfed Pokemon from coming in and easily revenge killing you as you shell smash is what makes Huntail better than Gorebyss. Gorebyss can't do jack shit to a scarfed mon that is faster than base 90, as the opponent can just switch in on the Shell Smash and then attack and KO the Gorebyss with their scarfed mon. Huntail on the otherhand can damage if not outright KO the opponents scarfed Pokemon with Sucker Punch, which now is pretty much the entire reason to use Huntail over Gorebyss on a purely SmashPass set. Cause I agree that these two mons should not be ranked for anything other than Baton Passing boosts.

 

[phantom]

Okay, mind telling me which Choice Scarf users can KO Bulky Gorebyss after Stealth Rock that can be stopped by Huntail's uninvested +2 Sucker Punch? Because I just don't see them.

 

[jg1198]

I'd like to advocate moving Slurpuff from A- rank to A+ rank. As we've seen in OU with Greninja, adding a little coverage from new ORAS move tutors can take a mon from good to ridiculous. Slurpuff getting drain punch is everything it could have ever wanted. Slurpuff can now hurt steel types and heal itself with only one moveslot, a moveslot that was basically useless anyways. Drain punch and the healing that it provides makes it so Slurpuff is no longer afraid of being revenged by all but the strongest priority, and it already resists mach punch and sucker punch. A scarfed pokemon needs a base speed of 120 or higher to outspeed jolly max speed puff after unburden, and the only pokemon that are remotely viable in RU with access to Bullet Punch are Metang, Hitmonchan, and...Machoke? I guess we still have fletch, which can't do more than 56% without a boost. The addition of Drain Punch has made a well played Slurpuff an absolute nightmare for offense and balance, and it still isn't useless against stall. Dugtrio also makes for a perfect partner, since it can trap a weakened Doublade, and then memento the next mon, allowing Slurpuff to set up easily and worry-free since it's biggest counter is gone and it will be facing an attack at -2. Honestly, I would not be surprised to see this thing as a future suspect.
Calcs:
252+ Atk Life Orb Iron Fist Hitmonchan Bullet Punch vs. 52 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 146-174 (45.9 - 54.7%) -- 52.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Metang Bullet Punch vs. 52 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 116-138 (36.4 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Druddigon Sucker Punch vs. 52 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 66-79 (20.7 - 24.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Kabutops Aqua Jet vs. 52 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 99-117 (31.1 - 36.7%) -- 64.2% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Fletchinder Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 52 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 153-181 (48.1 - 56.9%) -- 91% chance to 2HKO
+6 252+ Atk Slurpuff Play Rough vs. 104 HP / 248+ Def Alomomola: 388-457 (78 - 91.9%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+6 252+ Atk Slurpuff Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Registeel: 280-330 (76.9 - 90.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+6 252+ Atk Slurpuff Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss: 317-373 (73.3 - 86.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery

Edit: dug cant trap doublade durp

 

[Froggyboy]

While I wouldn't be opposed to a Slurpuff rise, two things, 1. NEEEEEVER use Hitmonchan as a reason for a Pokemon to rise. 2. A+ is too high, A should be your best bet.

 

[jg1198]

While I wouldn't be opposed to a Slurpuff rise, two things, 1. NEEEEEVER use Hitmonchan as a reason for a Pokemon to rise. 2. A+ is too high, A should be your best bet.

I wasn't at all trying to say that Hitmonchan is good, but as an example to show how Slurpuff doesn't care about priority since it resists most, and we have no good bullet punch users in the tier.

Also I wouldn't say that A+ is impossible, because it really, really, tears offense and balance apart.

 

[aVocado]

I wouldn't say it tears offense apart, it actually suffers the most against offense because it's often too pressured to find something to set up on, and balance can have things like Bronzong and Escavalier that can at worst live a hit from max hp (escav can die to +6 dpunch and SR but zonger can live it easily, takes like 73% max)

It's fine where it is, I actually don't mind a drop.

edit: i said registeel when i meant bronzong soz

 

[skup]

i honestly feel like slurpuff is really badly positioned in this meta, and wouldn't mind seeing it move down into the B ranks, rather than up any higher. offense has way too much pressure for slurpuff and it can only hope to set up on a few mons like gligar, druddigon, eelektross, etc. none of which besides gligar are even particularly common. any offense that does run mons that can give slurpuff a turn to belly drum is most likely running doublade which completely bones slurpuff and basically means that slurpuff cant even hope to set up until late game when doublade is removed.

slurpuff has more mons it can set up against on balance, although even alomomola, which is like your best hope to set up against most of the time, has a 30% chance of fucking you over. the real issue here, however, is that literally any decent balance has a steel, all of which do at least a decent job checking slurpuff besides cobalion.

unless the meta moves away from offensive teams and balanced teams with steels (which is possible with dragalge and serp potentially leaving), slurpuff really struggles to carve out a niche for itself.

 

[Molk]

I'd like to advocate moving Slurpuff from A- rank to A+ rank. As we've seen in OU with Greninja, adding a little coverage from new ORAS move tutors can take a mon from good to ridiculous. Slurpuff getting drain punch is everything it could have ever wanted. Slurpuff can now hurt steel types and heal itself with only one moveslot, a moveslot that was basically useless anyways. Drain punch and the healing that it provides makes it so Slurpuff is no longer afraid of being revenged by all but the strongest priority, and it already resists mach punch and sucker punch. A scarfed pokemon needs a base speed of 120 or higher to outspeed jolly max speed puff after unburden, and the only pokemon that are remotely viable in RU with access to Bullet Punch are Metang, Hitmonchan, and...Machoke? I guess we still have fletch, which can't do more than 56% without a boost. The addition of Drain Punch has made a well played Slurpuff an absolute nightmare for offense and balance, and it still isn't useless against stall. Dugtrio also makes for a perfect partner, since it can trap a weakened Doublade, and then memento the next mon, allowing Slurpuff to set up easily and worry-free since it's biggest counter is gone and it will be facing an attack at -2. Honestly, I would not be surprised to see this thing as a future suspect.
Calcs:
252+ Atk Life Orb Iron Fist Hitmonchan Bullet Punch vs. 52 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 146-174 (45.9 - 54.7%) -- 52.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Metang Bullet Punch vs. 52 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 116-138 (36.4 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Druddigon Sucker Punch vs. 52 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 66-79 (20.7 - 24.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Kabutops Aqua Jet vs. 52 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 99-117 (31.1 - 36.7%) -- 64.2% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Fletchinder Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 52 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 153-181 (48.1 - 56.9%) -- 91% chance to 2HKO
+6 252+ Atk Slurpuff Play Rough vs. 104 HP / 248+ Def Alomomola: 388-457 (78 - 91.9%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+6 252+ Atk Slurpuff Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Registeel: 280-330 (76.9 - 90.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+6 252+ Atk Slurpuff Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss: 317-373 (73.3 - 86.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery

Just wanted to point out that the bolded text is incorrect, Ghost-types are completely immune to Shadow Tag, Magnet Pull, and Arena Trap as of Gen 6, which means that it's completely impossible to trap Doublade with Dugtrio, making it a completely safe response bar being worn down severely or being hit by *multiple* Pursuits. Of course, the Memento support and the ability to at least damage some of RU's Steel-types is still quite nice. But between the fact that Doublade's completely immune to trapping, Bronzong is immune to Arena Trap, and Escavalier only takes neutral damage from Earthquake, Dugtrio+Slurpuff most certainly isn't instant death imo.

As for Slurpuff itself, i don't really have an opinion on it. Just keep two things in mind while discussing it.

1) Slurpuff only has once chance to sweep, if it gets forced out or fails to set up, it's p. much done for, it'll never get another chance.

2) As with most Belly Drum sweepers, Slurpuff isn't exactly the easiest thing to set up without team support.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Hi since I literally use Slurpuff like so much it's incredible, I guess I'll pop into this discussion since I use cupcake and have a right to say some stuff about it. Now, Slurpuff is pretty good yes, with Belly Drum and Unburden, it is a nigh unstoppable sweeper in the late-game once it has set up and its few stops like Doublade and Quagsire (lol) are gone. However, A+ is being extremely generous to it, it is in no way dominant or defining the metagame like stuff such as Pangoro and Mega Glalie. It's really good, but has a few issues. Those two things Molk just said right above me are pretty much the biggest reasons why Slurpuff shouldn't really move up, as because of those it needs more support than anything in A+ or even A to be worthy of being higher than it is now. Its typing is pretty cool, and Slurpuff can manage priority thanks to okay bulk and nice typing, plus Drain Punch and stuff, but it's still not that bulky and doesn't set up very easily because of how much Belly Drum digs into its HP, and entry hazards make it even harder for it to set up.

Yes, Slurpuff is pretty awesome as a cleaner, and can tear stuff apart, but it needs too much support for a higher rank. A- sounds good for it, and that's about as high as it should be imo.

 

[jg1198]

As for Slurpuff itself, i don't really have an opinion on it. Just keep two things in mind while discussing it.

1) Slurpuff only has once chance to sweep, if it gets forced out or fails to set up, it's p. much done for, it'll never get another chance.

2) As with most Belly Drum sweepers, Slurpuff isn't exactly the easiest thing to set up without team support.

While imho I think a lot of people are underestimating slurpuff's ability to set up, especially when combined with a memento user or screen setter, as slurpuff should be, I guess I would agree that A- is fine for it, the only reason it not deserving a higher ranking in my mind being that for it to be really effective, it does need a moderate to high amount of support to clean/sweep, depending on the opposing team, since for less passive mons, it needs screens or memento, and that while drain punch gives slurpuff far less counters than before, some hard stops like doublade still exist.

 

[MrAldo]

Slurpuff is a pretty interesting case considering it is a really dangerous sweeper that can sweep unprepared teams with ease. The main problem (if not the only problem) is that it requires team support in order to work but all of its checks are relatively easy to wear down to the point were slurpuff can just sweep teams with ease.

I sincerely dont see how it is difficult to find an opportunity to set up when this could be eased by running a dugtrio on memento to setup on something, and considering one of its checks registeel can be easily trapped by dugtrio so it can be killed or weakened enough in order to slurpuff to deal with it. There is also the 2 other steel checks in doublade and bronzong and they both share one bad trait in common, both of them are pursuit trappable so they can be weakened enough in order for slurpuff to clean the rest of the team, they both also lack reliable recovery. it also has decent bulk in order to take common priority attacks in the RU metagame. Also quagsire is far too passive and so easy to take advantage with some offensive pressure or just by putting it under some status or something. It also has good enough coverage to hit everything else at least neutrally

Now the bad traits is that it is certainly a one-dimensional pokemon, a one-trick pony. It has only one effective set (calm mind is pretty ass) and the strategy can be seen in the long run so a player could attempt to adapt its gameplan to the situation (some teams dont have the luxury to do so unless this besides having a speedy taunt user or something, talking about defensive teams). Thankfully it is a extremely linear threat that demands some team support in order to be effective and the fact that the player needs to find a good setup opportunity which sometimes cant be easy unless a team is weakened enough otherwise... this mon could be unhealthy for the meta.

It is certainly controversial but lets keep it in A- for now, it certainly shouldnt drop.

 

[Saria]

Molk

As for mega Banette, Hikari do you have any replays you could share here of Mega Banette working well? thanks in advance :]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-ru-33470

Crippled Pidgeot and Dragalge. Even without the full para Banette survives with enough health to come back later even if SR are up. The miss did help it cripple Pangoro, but it had already opened the gates for Gatr the moment it hit Shadow Claw on Alge. (also the optimal play there was using Dragon Pulse, because Banette was in the ko range. Only reason I didn't use Dbond was because: 1) Alge wasn't going to be a threat to anything 2) getting a crit was a 100% win)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/rususpecttest-205872463

Pressured Golbat and Aromatisse, which helped me break through that team later on. Granted, it didn't do much in this match, but the only reason why it didn't completely shit on that team was because it got low rolls on Aromatisse

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/rususpecttest-205884844

It switched into subbed Cresselia and forced it out, removed Registeel from the game, and then crippled Cresselia. Thanks to it I effortlessly broke through that defensive core, and if he hadn't let his core get ruined by Banette, it would had destroyed his offensive core.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/rususpecttest-205886925

Banette put an insane amount of work on this match. Pressured Gligar, crippled Escavalier with Shadow Claw, paralyzed Moltres, killed Rhyperior (Rock Blast miss helped here, but I had already burned it and crippled it enough to guarantee the match with Jolteon), and kept Alomomola at bay because one WoW on it and it was a certain Gatr sweep.

Mega Banette definitely isn't as threatening as the other megas in RU (except Audino,,,), but it is a great support Pokemon that consistently gets the job done thanks to Prankster. Mega Banette doesn't belong in the same ranking as trash like Pelipper, it is significantly more reliable and less situational than C+ Pokemon like Sandslash and Kecleon, and unlike Mega Audino (which is in B-) it doesn't need 5 Pokemon supporting it to do anything. I'd say Mega Banette is good enough to be at least in B-.

 

[col49]

oh, just noticing this now, but huntail probably deserves a ranking. not for the niche-y boons its smashpass set has over gorebyss, as i whole-heartedly agree with spirit in that isn't particularly relevant here, but rather for its coilpass set, which has pretty nice value, especially in a meta so over-saturated in passive-ass defensive bodies, like zonger and momo. here's the set, for reference

Huntail @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 104 SpD / 108 Spe
Impish Nature
- Coil
- Baton Pass
- Substitute
- Waterfall

cool 'mon b.c it can pass subs, boosts, etc., pivot bulky waters rather nicely due to scald resists / burn immunity, all things that offense likes a lot. goes to town on things like momo (scald 3hkos the sub) and zonger (eq fails to break unboosted subs, fails to 2hko when at +2) as mentioned, and generally the utility presented here is really, really, nice. ru has so many nukes that love being sub / dry passed in safely, coil pass in and of itself is sick as well (can make a nuke like tyrantrum that much scarier, improve the consistency of an end-game scarf moltres / durant, etc. etc.), and pHazers don't even particularly like dealing with it, since +1 waterfall actually leaves a ok dent in a bunch of them and has a chance to flinch.

just something to consider. i'm p.awful at 'ranking' things, so i couldn't for the life of me identify an appropriate spot for them, but if you're gonna use huntail, use it for this. fanks buds

 

[Hot N Cold]

Molk
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-ru-33470

Crippled Pidgeot and Dragalge. Even without the full para Banette survives with enough health to come back later even if SR are up. The miss did help it cripple Pangoro, but it had already opened the gates for Gatr the moment it hit Shadow Claw on Alge. (also the optimal play there was using Dragon Pulse, because Banette was in the ko range. Only reason I didn't use Dbond was because: 1) Alge wasn't going to be a threat to anything 2) getting a crit was a 100% win)

Without the para was easily killed by any other move of my team without risking DM so might be the situation completely different from that (for example I had U-turn on Mega-Pidgeot).

Anyways, in that case I needed to hit that DM to kill Banette so I can have my full Pangoro + death fodder Dragalge. I didnt have Dragon Pulse on that Dragalge, lol.

 

[Saria]

Without the para was easily killed by any other move of my team without risking DM so might be the situation completely different from that (for example I had U-turn on Mega-Pidgeot).

Anyways, in that case I needed to hit that DM to kill Banette so I can have my full Pangoro + death fodder Dragalge. I didnt have Dragon Pulse on that Dragalge, lol.

I'm sure you would had played differently if some stuff hadn't happened, but I would had done the same. (Also I really wouldn't call that full para hax, considering Pidgeot proceed to move three times in a row after that, and it hit way more important targets that Banette. So it effectively got para'd 25% of the times). Discussing how things would had been different in turn 2 hadn't happened is silly, Pokemon is a game of two players.

The explanation in my post was to show that being killed by any other move was fine, because that Banette had Destiny Bond. 1% Banette would had been as threatening as 100% Banette thanks to Prankster Destiny Bond. That was important because I'm trying to show Banette's viability in the RU tier.

PS: The confirmed Jolly Pangoro (ie: the version that runs minimal bulk) dies to +6 Aqua Jet, unless you sac Gligar to Defog (because with SR Aqua Jet was a OHKO 81% of the times), then sac Cresselia to para it (because otherwise Waterfall kills Pangoro) and then try to win the coinflip with the Aqua Jet damage rolls. I liked my chances, specially because your only real way of stopping the Gatr sweep would guarantee getting to +6 with it and killing every single real threat in your team. The miss gave me the 100% win, but the chances of winning were with me already because you sacced Dragalge.

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To stay more on topic.

Feraligatr should be much higher on the rankings. Huge offensive threat that destroys slowish teams, takes advantage of all the common walls in the metagame and can hold its weight against offensive teams thanks to Aqua Jet. Many people have been using it successfully on the ladder and the SPL showed how threatening Gatr is if you give it one free turn.