King Sceptile
Banned deucer.
With Dugtrio being banned, I just wanted to give my opinions on a couple of the things that have been discussed in the thread with my take on whether they should rise, drop, or stay in the same rank they're currently in.
Heatran shouldn't go to S rank solely because it isn't on the same level as Lando-T and Magearna. Sure, Dugtrio leaving made Heatran a good bit better, but it's not improved to the point where it's one of the defining forces in the metagame and arguably the best Pokemon in the tier. S- is a stupid rank because it devalues the viability of some of the mons in A-rank and offers another arbitrary ranking line to argue over, so nomming Heatran to S- won't help either.
I'm split on Tapu Lele because while breaking sets like Choice Specs and Twisted Spoon Taunt got a lot better with the departure of Dugtrio from the tier, Tapu Lele still doesn't really have the flexibility of some of the other breakers in A+. However, Psychic Terrain support coupled with its ability to run a solid revenge killer for offense in Choice Scarf is enough versatility in terms of what it contributes to the team that sending Lele to A+ rank wouldn't be unjustified. Heatran only has one set, but it also has defensive utility aside from its breaking prowess whereas Lele's relatively frail bulk makes its defensive utility situational at best.
Kyurem-Black should definitely rise due to its ability to be a prolific breaker that tears apart the slow bulky offenses and balances favored by many good tournament players. Aside from its respectably strong STAB Ice Beam Fusion Bolt in Electric Terrain completely invalidates most of Life Orb Kyurem-Black's normal answers while Hidden Power Fire destroys both Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor, making both of them excellent coverage moves. Subzero Slammer sets certainly aren't bad by any means, but they don't have the sheer balance breaking power of Life Orb and the recent departure of Dugtrio makes it viable as a stallbreaker. This mon is such a good breaker right now that not raising it would simply be a mistake.
These two should drop due to the departure of one of their best teammates in Dugtrio, trapping troublesome defensive Pokemon such as Heatran and Chansey that would otherwise be annoying to deal with as well as the recent surge in Hyper Offense, as Volcarona now has significantly fewer setup opportunities than it did when the metagame was nothing but bulky offense and balance and Mega Charizard Y has fewer opportunities to switch in and fire off attacks. Obviously there's still a good amount of balance now, but these two are a lot more reliant on teammate support to beat its checks than just having Dugtrio trap them like it did before. Volcarona's Bug Buzz Hidden Power Ground set can still blow through offensive teams that run things like Latios and Tyranitar, so Volcarona is not bad by any means, it's just seen better days. Mega Charizard Y is honestly pretty hard to justify building around now due to its teambuilding constraints coupled with no distinguishing features that make it a significantly better choice than other breakers, unlike Volcarona's immense sweeping potential.
There's a few other things that I would change in these rankings, but all of those are changes to mons that are ranked below A rank right now, and I haven't used them enough to properly justify my changes in their placements.
Heatran shouldn't go to S rank solely because it isn't on the same level as Lando-T and Magearna. Sure, Dugtrio leaving made Heatran a good bit better, but it's not improved to the point where it's one of the defining forces in the metagame and arguably the best Pokemon in the tier. S- is a stupid rank because it devalues the viability of some of the mons in A-rank and offers another arbitrary ranking line to argue over, so nomming Heatran to S- won't help either.
I'm split on Tapu Lele because while breaking sets like Choice Specs and Twisted Spoon Taunt got a lot better with the departure of Dugtrio from the tier, Tapu Lele still doesn't really have the flexibility of some of the other breakers in A+. However, Psychic Terrain support coupled with its ability to run a solid revenge killer for offense in Choice Scarf is enough versatility in terms of what it contributes to the team that sending Lele to A+ rank wouldn't be unjustified. Heatran only has one set, but it also has defensive utility aside from its breaking prowess whereas Lele's relatively frail bulk makes its defensive utility situational at best.
Kyurem-Black should definitely rise due to its ability to be a prolific breaker that tears apart the slow bulky offenses and balances favored by many good tournament players. Aside from its respectably strong STAB Ice Beam Fusion Bolt in Electric Terrain completely invalidates most of Life Orb Kyurem-Black's normal answers while Hidden Power Fire destroys both Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor, making both of them excellent coverage moves. Subzero Slammer sets certainly aren't bad by any means, but they don't have the sheer balance breaking power of Life Orb and the recent departure of Dugtrio makes it viable as a stallbreaker. This mon is such a good breaker right now that not raising it would simply be a mistake.
These two should drop due to the departure of one of their best teammates in Dugtrio, trapping troublesome defensive Pokemon such as Heatran and Chansey that would otherwise be annoying to deal with as well as the recent surge in Hyper Offense, as Volcarona now has significantly fewer setup opportunities than it did when the metagame was nothing but bulky offense and balance and Mega Charizard Y has fewer opportunities to switch in and fire off attacks. Obviously there's still a good amount of balance now, but these two are a lot more reliant on teammate support to beat its checks than just having Dugtrio trap them like it did before. Volcarona's Bug Buzz Hidden Power Ground set can still blow through offensive teams that run things like Latios and Tyranitar, so Volcarona is not bad by any means, it's just seen better days. Mega Charizard Y is honestly pretty hard to justify building around now due to its teambuilding constraints coupled with no distinguishing features that make it a significantly better choice than other breakers, unlike Volcarona's immense sweeping potential.
There's a few other things that I would change in these rankings, but all of those are changes to mons that are ranked below A rank right now, and I haven't used them enough to properly justify my changes in their placements.