re: gengar
i don't know what meta shift actually happened to necessitate a rise in ranking of this pokemon? there have always been a couple of stall teams lurking around in oras. regardless, i've said it before and i'll say it again: this pokemon is just so goddamn hard to justify. i have never seen or made a gengar team which impressed me in oras, primarily because it's a worse salamence in almost every way. not only is gengar hella 4mss prone, but it can hardly check anything! imo as of now subhypno is gengar's best set-- perish trap seems helllllllllllllllaaaaaa matchup oriented and at least subhypno can effectively threaten all archetypes while still being able to check ekiller to an extent (you just have to hypno early). vs the stereotypical balance and offense, gengar has almost no reliable things to trap.... unless you hope they have a support arceus that can't immediately threaten it.... meh. i will not budge on my own personal judgment that this poke shouldn't move up.
re: sableye
it may not have the defenses, but it has the typing. a fucking hard check to deoxys-s, ekiller, soft mewtwo check, and overall solid poke for any stall or balance? yes please. it can even afford to run dual status, metal burst, fake out, or even sucker punch if you're trying to be cute. magic bounce is just such a fantastic ability, and it has pretty good typing to abuse it. the psychological advantage it gives you over your opponent, as they'll be wary of using dark void, toxic, etc. is quite nice. this poke is def a- worthy.
re: aerodactyl
it's more viable than literally every pokemon in b-. it has a defined niche on offense and it's pretty unexplored in general-- i think it could possibly fit on some type of balance with pursuit as well, not just aeroforre. i don't want to see it moved down especially when my team is one of the more common offenses seen in upl.
re: lati@s
they're both comparable and have their pros and cons so they should just be grouped together-- i mostly use latios since i feel the need to outpower kyogre with psyshock is important. i'm not sure how much it caught on, but i started running modest latios during spl and it's definitely the way to go w/ it. if you think lati@s is overrated, use a non defog modest set and you will probably change your mind. the splashability of this pokemon and the way it practically necessitates a steel-type on almost every team manifests its threatening nature-- no other dragon in the tier forces teams to use steels fwiw; they are either subpar or are checked by other types. lati@s is just on so many teams for such a good reason: it compresses several things into one team slot and can do dmg. ya, klefki and tyranitar can be gay and it gives darkrai a free switch after the opponent sacks something, but, from my perspective, a lot of latios teams poorly utilize it. mega sableye is one of the best partners to lati@s just because it means the opponent's klefki is effectively useless. similarly, pokemon like band ho-oh can lure out tyranitar for more standard balanced teams. just because lati@s get hard walled by a select few pokemon using a support set doesn't mean they should be relegated.
i don't know what meta shift actually happened to necessitate a rise in ranking of this pokemon? there have always been a couple of stall teams lurking around in oras. regardless, i've said it before and i'll say it again: this pokemon is just so goddamn hard to justify. i have never seen or made a gengar team which impressed me in oras, primarily because it's a worse salamence in almost every way. not only is gengar hella 4mss prone, but it can hardly check anything! imo as of now subhypno is gengar's best set-- perish trap seems helllllllllllllllaaaaaa matchup oriented and at least subhypno can effectively threaten all archetypes while still being able to check ekiller to an extent (you just have to hypno early). vs the stereotypical balance and offense, gengar has almost no reliable things to trap.... unless you hope they have a support arceus that can't immediately threaten it.... meh. i will not budge on my own personal judgment that this poke shouldn't move up.
re: sableye
it may not have the defenses, but it has the typing. a fucking hard check to deoxys-s, ekiller, soft mewtwo check, and overall solid poke for any stall or balance? yes please. it can even afford to run dual status, metal burst, fake out, or even sucker punch if you're trying to be cute. magic bounce is just such a fantastic ability, and it has pretty good typing to abuse it. the psychological advantage it gives you over your opponent, as they'll be wary of using dark void, toxic, etc. is quite nice. this poke is def a- worthy.
re: aerodactyl
it's more viable than literally every pokemon in b-. it has a defined niche on offense and it's pretty unexplored in general-- i think it could possibly fit on some type of balance with pursuit as well, not just aeroforre. i don't want to see it moved down especially when my team is one of the more common offenses seen in upl.
re: lati@s
they're both comparable and have their pros and cons so they should just be grouped together-- i mostly use latios since i feel the need to outpower kyogre with psyshock is important. i'm not sure how much it caught on, but i started running modest latios during spl and it's definitely the way to go w/ it. if you think lati@s is overrated, use a non defog modest set and you will probably change your mind. the splashability of this pokemon and the way it practically necessitates a steel-type on almost every team manifests its threatening nature-- no other dragon in the tier forces teams to use steels fwiw; they are either subpar or are checked by other types. lati@s is just on so many teams for such a good reason: it compresses several things into one team slot and can do dmg. ya, klefki and tyranitar can be gay and it gives darkrai a free switch after the opponent sacks something, but, from my perspective, a lot of latios teams poorly utilize it. mega sableye is one of the best partners to lati@s just because it means the opponent's klefki is effectively useless. similarly, pokemon like band ho-oh can lure out tyranitar for more standard balanced teams. just because lati@s get hard walled by a select few pokemon using a support set doesn't mean they should be relegated.