There are a few holes in your nomination, for one, any swift seimmer is a potent sweeper under rain. But the problem with rain sweepers is how to get the rain up, and swamp suffers from that when more than other rain sweepers, the problem is getting the rain up, and if you use a setter thats not swampert pre-mega evolution, then you waste a lot of rain turns. If you run rain dance, you miss out on coverage such as rocks, rest, or even ice punch. So keep Pert-M in A
Mega Swampert is a savage and has almost no trouble setting rain for itself. Set up on MAero and you're in for 4 turns of fun with a crazy powerful Waterfall. In addition, Jolly Pert beats pretty much every scarfer in the tier under rain. This is only the Rain Dance set though. Other sets like Bulky Attacking Rock setter can be used to provide hazards while still hitting incredibly hard (think Nidoqueen). Even SpD Rest Talk has seen play on various stall teams as a reliable answer to pretty much every Chandelure and other special attackers. Pert is a crucial member on offense, a viable member on bulky offense and balance, and a solid choice for stall. It's a mon who can fit everywhere and be damn good in everything it does. A+ is certainly something to be considered.
The biggest issue is the fact that it takes up a Mega slot. On some balanced teams, it'd be much better to run regular Pert and run a different Mega than burning your mega slot for Bulky Rock setter MegaPert. Essentially, you have RestTalk Pert on stall (which isn't a common enough playstyle for that to make significant mention) and Rain Dance Pert.
Offensively, especially for a Choice-item set, Magic Bounce and Levitate aren't going to be doing you too many favours, as they are mostly defensive abilities. The only thing I really see Espeon doing over Azelf in this comparison, taking into account it was nominated for the Choice-item sets, is that Espeon can switch-into entry hazards and bounce them back, although all it can do back to bulkier entry hazard setters, i.e Empoleon, is Trick it. Espeon hard-countering Hydreigon, Beedrill and Cobalion is yet to be seen lol, as it checks, not counters (I'd like to see it switch-into an Adaptability U-turn or Life Orb Dark Pulse tbh). Also, if we're taking into consideration this is the Choice Scarf set, which is the only set that checks Beedrill, Azelf can do the exact same thing but better due to access to Fire Blast, letting it roast Cobalion as well. I believe Espeon should stay C-ranked, as the only thing differentiating it from Azelf is Magic Bounce and higher SpA, which is what allows it to not go down to the depths of D rank in the first place.
Noivern is already a B rank mon so it doesn't need to be ranked. Cacturne is a pretty cool Cune check ( Bar Ice Beam) and has a bunch of power after an SD. Sucker Punch helps mitigate his awful speed, but his pitiful defenses make him have to rely on Sucker Punch for faster mons. I say he should be C rank.
Yeah, it's not that great, but the fact that you wouldn't leave a water type on it doesn't make it less of a water type killer. I mean, no one would ever stay in with a Blissey vs. a Heracross, but you won't stop using it as an answer to the blob because of that. In fact, because water types will be switching out, Shiftry gets the opportunity to Defog freely, if you want to see it that way. Regarding the "most specific role" thing, you are right, but it is the only mon that can do that, having a nice and useful niche.
I can see ur points but I think that's exactly why Shiftry should be C rank and not unranked at all. It's not near as good as other B- Rank mons if you take a look.
I think Cress is fine where it is. It has cemented it's place in Stall nowadays with it's aftermentioned insane bulk, and while it's CM set may be outclassed (don't know, I've never tried it) It's defensive sets are really nice. It can take a hit from just about any pokemon and hit back with a thunder wave, toxic, or a weak psychic. I've even personally ran moonblast to take out hydra. And while it's movepool is pretty barren, it has what it needs. It has dual screens for helping set ups, toxic and thunder wave to stall and annoy, psychic
I've tried to use Shiftry several times and it's just so underwhelming. It's pretty weak, extremely frail, and its useful niche aside from defog is neutered by the things its supposed to check (sucker/knock off, scald burn). In addition, Defog on offensive teams is fairly counter intuitive. Offense doesn't give a shit if hazards are up most of the time; in fact, they'd rather have hazards on both sides than on neither side, eliminating Shiftry's niche. Other than that it's okay but the amount of stuff that comes in safely/threatens it out is too high for a B- rank mon. Drapion is also pretty underwhelming and could see a drop like people are saying. However, I haven't used it recently so I'm not sure.
I get what you mean. To be honest, it has done pretty well on the team I showcased on your thread, putting enough pressure on opposing water types and defogging away hazards when I most needed it, as Victini and Mence needed to be healthy or I would get destroyed by fighting types. This may just have been because Shiftry was like the perfect answer for the last slot on my team, it almost always did its job every battle, but I haven't tried in any other scenario. Nevertheless, looking at what is on C rank (Gourgeist, Spiritomb, Blastoise), I am definitely going for Shiftry on there rather than not been ranked at all, as it does have a good niche that may come in handy sometimes.
Going to try to build a cacturne squad, my only gripe is how slow the thing is. Base 55 speed is well, pitiful to tell you the truth.
I just want to say I see this argument everywhere and I'm so tired of it :/ "Heliolisk doesn't beat Vaporeon because you switch Vaporeon out, Forretress doesn't beat Florges because you switch Florges out, etc"....I mean come on, then the only mons that can beat other mons are lures.
Heliolisk do not beat Vaporeon but can grab a whole lot of momentum with Volt Switch. Forretress do not beat Florges but can get rid of opposing hazards/setup his own while also grabbing momentum with his slow Volt Switch. Shiftry might get rid of hazards (of both sides btw) on the switch out but that's it and now you are probably in a worst situation than ur opponent.
I respect the innovation and don't want to seem rude but there's almost no viability in Trapinch. It has literally zero bulk and requires too much effort to fill an extremely niche, unimportant role. Also I'd suggest getting higher quality replays against better opponents to showcase the mon next time you nominate something.
