Reuniclus

Been using a modest max HP/Def one, and it's pretty great.

Because of the defense investment it can set up on weaker physical attackers like Swampert.
While it does lose a lot of immediate power, it can help setting up. As a bonus, it can survive leftovers Scizor's u-turn(Who does that anyway?). Unsure about the Choice Band variant.

I've been using a CM Leftovers set with max HP and Defense and it works fantastically. I tend to bring it out pretty early because it can counter so many Pokemon. With Calm Mind and recover it can stall out all but the strongest special attackers, and with its high defense it can take a beating on the physical side as well. I tend to Calm Mind first as the opponent will probably switch to a "counter" like Scizor or Tyrannitar. Well Scizor just U-turns out letting me recover since it won't kill (I think). The only T-tar that OHKO's is the Choice banded Cruncher. On the other hand a Pursuit does not even deal 50% and after a CM I OHKO with Focus Blast. It does fail about 30% of the time, but when it works my opponent's in trouble with their best Rankle counter Rankled.

As a side note Magic Guard is amazing since considering how many people continue to toxic him (for some reason) and Boil Over is great when it burns since I'm then immune to sleep. I also don't have to worry about letting the opponent set up spikes.

Also I run a minus speed nature with 0 speed IV's because let's face it, Rankle isn't outrunning anything anytime soon except for maybe other Rankles. But with min speed I catch Trick Room teams completely off guard with fun results.

The above set is what I have been running as well. Works amazingly, just as described. It can switch into anything Nattorei has and set up some Calm Minds. It also works good with a Heart of Justice Choice Bander like Terakion or Kobaruon.

Note: The 0 Speed IV's + Relaxed Nature helps with Roopushin, as (iirc, dont hold me to this) Roopushin's Payback will only do ~25%.

I believe Payback is becoming less common on Roopushin in favor of Stone Edge these days, as even even 252/252 SpD Roopushin has trouble with STAB Psychic attacks. As a result, you　need to be wary of +1 Stone Edge insted since most Roopushin will Bulk Up on the switch. Of course if it is totally SpD and has no attack EVs (which is really rare) than the Bulk Up isn't as threatening. Bulk Up and Guts boost however certainly is as I've KOed quite a few Rankurusu with a boosted Stone Edge. Maybe they weren't defensively EVd though.

I would disagree.Payback is still far more common then Stone edge even though a lot of people are changing to Stone edge.
Well anyway from personal experiance i found TR Rankurusu to be far more effective then CM Rankurusu.But this is ofc only useful in a semi slow team in which Tr would be off some use.Ive been using
Rankurusu @ Life orb
Modest
252 Hp/252 S.atk/4 spe
-Trick room
-Psycho Shock
-Focus blast
-Recover

At the moment it is, but people are learning how relatively ineffective it is. Eventually, Stone Edge will be the standard, I can guarantee it.

I've been using Ranky on my TR team as a bulky attacker that can set up trick room as well to great success. It can switch in to many attacks with impunity, can set up trick room with ease and can sweep pretty well.It also helps that many of my opponents are very unprepared for Ranky, often using Toxic on me, giving me a free turn to set up Trick Room or do some major damage.And this guy is absolutely adorable! :D

@Leftovers
252HP/252Sp.Attk/6 Def
0 Speed IV, Quiet
Psycho Shock
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast
Trick Room

This thing's ability to take on and beat Roobushin makes it an excellent teammate for Dory on a Sandstorm team.

It's my favourite 5th gen Pokemon aesthetically, and I'm glad it's extremely useful in competitive play.

Rankurusu is kind of an anomaly of psychic types - it has a great sp.atk, but also decent bulk and a passable movepool, meaning it can perform many roles. However, it's coverage moves are very similar to Alakazam's. They both get Shadow ball, Energy ball, focus blast and hidden power. Rankurusu gets Thunder, but the accuracy is a let down. Maybe he'd have a gimmicky spot on a rain team?

Honestly, Ran's best set is...

Ran @ Flame Orb
252 hp 252 def
Magic Guard
Psychic
Trick
Recover
Thunder Wave

the status platform.

A super-effective Payback that goes first is just as strong as a neutral Stone Edge. IMO, Rankurusu's best use is to completely dismantle any full stall team (currently uncommon, but when it does resurface the benefits will be more obvious) with a single Pokemon, while being able to take out an offensive Pokemon or two with its large SpA stat. With Rankurusu taking care of stall, you're free to use the rest of your team to take care of more offensively-minded teams.

Not only Stall TR rankurusu can pretty much fuck over any Normal offensive/SS team really.The only thing that can actually do anything to it and survive its hits are pretty much down to Scizor and Genosect really.I mean this thing is just such a beast.

^Yeah i played a stall team and i was completly fucked by this thing. Even my offensive teams got quite a little trouble with him as i often don't carry powerful Bug or Dark type attacks.
Magic guard works wonders on this thing (well i doubt there is anything where it wouldn't^^) not taking any entry hazard or toxic damage (not to mention how good LO is on him) makes it really hard to one shot this thing and there isn't much wich doesn't takes a shit ton of damage given his fantastic base SpA that hurts even without EV investment.
His bulk may seem medicore at a first glance, but not taking any passive damage makes up for this a thousand times and with some defensive investment he can take alot of hits and even got Recover wich can make him a bitch to take down.
However he got only 4 move slots and while you would like to fit Trick Room, Calm Mind and Recover in one Set that would leave you as a mono attacker and Psychic isn't the best stab available with all those steel types.
So u will usually end up with two of these moves + Shadow Ball and Focus Blast for coverage.
psycho shock and Psychic are options too ,but you need to sacrifice one utility slot for them and they are often more useful than his stabs another option is to use them over Shadow Ball this leaves you completly walled by Spiritomb, but he isn't that common.

This guy, my favourite pokemon of this gen, is amazing, it has helped me in so many matches and i'm lost without it; He even managed to break through a Chansey & Nattorei from 1 recent opponent as his last two pokemon as my physical sweepers got knocked out (Thank God Wish works AFTER sandstorm -_-') It'll be in every team i may happen to make and this moveset makes it all happen:

- Psychic
- Recover
- Reflect
- Focus Blast

Nature: Modest
Evs: 252 Sp.atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
Ability: Magic Guard
Item: leftovers

Psychic i found better because it hits harder on some pokemon in which it needs to.
Recover is recover
Reflect i found the better of the screens because everyone wants to land physical attacks on it such as SE moves and such
Focus blast which somehow doesn't miss at crucial times owns for coverage.

A very underrated pokemon but I do understand that it has a high percentage usage. And it's awesome for my SS team all because of its ability, leech seed and entry hazard are completely ignored. I lol at some people who actully Toxic it and leech seed it as they don't know how it works.

I've been running an interesting Rankurusu set lately.

Rankurusu@leftovers
Magic Guard
Bold Nature
252 HP / 204 Def / 52 SpA
Psychic
Focus Blast
Protect
Recover

The EVs are kind of makeshift, I didn't have a reason for 204 Def / 52 SpA specifically, I just wanted physical bulk with a little bit of power. Any suggestions are welcome for the spread.

I've been using him on a sandstorm team with Dory as my main sweeper, so he's mostly meant to take care of fighting types with priority (thus the physical bulk). After a bulk up, Max Atk Adamant Rohpushin fails to 2hko, while psychic is an easy 2hko, which means it is easy to switch him in. I haven't faced Breloom so I don't know how much bullet seed effects this guy but Psychic should be a clean ohko. I don't think anything short of a CB'd dark type can take this guy out with pursuit, and only if he switches out. Though I haven't been pursuited a lot (so I could be wrong), since Focus Blast makes short work of most pursuit users while I can survive if not switching out.

Protect / Recover is excellent in sandstorm for stalling out opponents, especially due to Magic Guard. He really annoys TR teams, since he's bulky he can stall out the turns.

His biggest weakness is that he's walled by other psychic types. Shandera can severely damage him with Shadow Ball (I'm not sure if it's an ohko or not, as I've usually taken some damage first). Zoroark disguised as Rohpushin is definitely his biggest bane. Psychic doesn't affect him while he gets up a free NP and proceeds to annihilate you.

I'm going to chime in and say that this thing is amazingly underrated. It's surprising on how much stuff a simple Calm Mind + Recover set can kill provided you can get that first Calm Mind in. Shanderaa can't revenge it if it gets that boost, failing to OHKO outright, and that's just the beginning really. His low speed does screw him over in a few instances, but by then you've left some nasty holes in the enemy team.

Demo-Kun said:

I'm going to chime in and say that this thing is amazingly underrated. It's surprising on how much stuff a simple Calm Mind + Recover set can kill provided you can get that first Calm Mind in. Shanderaa can't revenge it if it gets that boost, failing to OHKO outright, and that's just the beginning really. His low speed does screw him over in a few instances, but by then you've left some nasty holes in the enemy team.

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I agree here. It really annoys me when people are like "its psychic so its sucks" or "it just sucks".

Im gonna call people out on the fact that they have never obviously played a good player using this thing and have no idea on what they are talking about.

The Bold max/max LO CM Recover set has RIDICULOUS bulk. Not only does it totally wall off most stall teams without a good answer to it (which is hard enough to come by in itself, like CM/Taunt + Recover psychics and Tomb pretty much?) teams but even offense struggles with this thing because really if you cant OHKO it it will seriously fuck you up. Speaking of OHKO, thats hard to come by too. Only things like CB Scizor and CBTar can hope to achieve that. Even Scarf Cross cannot OHKO this annoying thing. Rank is definatly top 3 in my "i hate facing this" list lol.

I use:

Rankurusu@leftovers
Magic Guard
Relaxed Nature
252 HP / 128 Def / 128 SpD
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast
Calm Mind
Trick Room


It works really well. Shadow Ball + Focus Blast hit most Pokes for at least neutral damage. Calm Mind is necessary... if you can set up you hit really hard and are even more difficult to take down (with special attacks).

Trick Room is really good on Rankurusu since it's so slow. Of course you'd need some other Pokemon on your team that can use it... TR really screws over many Pokemon that rely on their speed. And you outspeed nearly everything.

I gave it 128 SpD because it often needs those EVs to survive 2 hits... and the CM boost is a little bigger.

im currently using the bold 252def/252hp with leftovers variant. this thing is seriously under rated but im glad because i dont want to start facing him. most variants i seen have been trick room ones. i have a hard time giving up psycho shock for psychic however because it saved me in a CM wars against espeon, latias, and suicune since it hits their unboosted def. but KOing Pushin is harder if he sets up. i still end up koing him tho

Luigi player said:

I use:

Rankurusu@leftovers
Magic Guard
Relaxed Nature
252 HP / 128 Def / 128 SpD
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast
Calm Mind
Trick Room


It works really well. Shadow Ball + Focus Blast hit most Pokes for at least neutral damage. Calm Mind is necessary... if you can set up you hit really hard and are even more difficult to take down (with special attacks).

Trick Room is really good on Rankurusu since it's so slow. Of course you'd need some other Pokemon on your team that can use it... TR really screws over many Pokemon that rely on their speed. And you outspeed nearly everything.

I gave it 128 SpD because it often needs those EVs to survive 2 hits... and the CM boost is a little bigger.

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I say replace TR with Recover or change your EVs. I don't see the point in investing in defese if you're supposed to be a TR sweeper. You'll want the SpA EVs.

This thing is absurdly powerful, no doubt about that. There is a set I've been running that is the anti-christ in terms of stall. This set originated out of seething hatred for Roobushin, and since then it's been used for much more:

Rankurusu @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpAtk
Nature: Bold (+Def, -Atk)
~ Calm Mind
~ Recover
~ Psycho Shock
~ Focus Blast/HP Fighting

Right off the bat, this thing has 424 HP / 276 Def / 203 SpDef, making it amazingly bulky, being able to avoid a OHKO from almost everything unboosted. Blissey and friends becomes setup bait for Rankurusu, as it boosts in the face of status, which does jack shit to it, and then slays EVERYTHING with Psycho Shock or FB/HP Fighting, which nearly achieves perfect coverage. Sure, Psychic types can resist it's moveset, but most either have a secondary typing that affords it a neutrality to either move, or they're not strong enough to KO this thing. It can also set up on some weaker threats as well. Notably, after a CM, HP Fighting OHKO's Tyranitar, which TTar fails to do back, although CB Crunch might OHKO. You need Psycho Shock since otherwise CMers like Suicune can beat you outright, at a cost of having issues taking on Roobushin.

Really, if you need a stallbreaker that isn't Gliscor, this guy is amazing.

Demo-Kun said:

This thing is absurdly powerful, no doubt about that. There is a set I've been running that is the anti-christ in terms of stall. This set originated out of seething hatred for Roobushin, and since then it's been used for much more:

Rankurusu @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpAtk
Nature: Bold (+Def, -Atk)
~ Calm Mind
~ Recover
~ Psycho Shock
~ Focus Blast/HP Fighting

Right off the bat, this thing has 424 HP / 276 Def / 203 SpDef, making it amazingly bulky, being able to avoid a OHKO from almost everything unboosted. Blissey and friends becomes setup bait for Rankurusu, as it boosts in the face of status, which does jack shit to it, and then slays EVERYTHING with Psycho Shock or FB/HP Fighting, which nearly achieves perfect coverage. Sure, Psychic types can resist it's moveset, but most either have a secondary typing that affords it a neutrality to either move, or they're not strong enough to KO this thing. It can also set up on some weaker threats as well. Notably, after a CM, HP Fighting OHKO's Tyranitar, which TTar fails to do back, although CB Crunch might OHKO. You need Psycho Shock since otherwise CMers like Suicune can beat you outright, at a cost of having issues taking on Roobushin.

Really, if you need a stallbreaker that isn't Gliscor, this guy is amazing.

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Actually,a huge part of Roobushin are specially defensive. Psycho Shock rapes them.
This thing is amazing,I'd go as far to say that it's even better than Roobushin.
It can set up so easily,I've swept entire teams with this thing.

I really love the TR Sweeper Set its amazingly effective for late game sweeping or ripping a hole in a team midgame.
The possibly biggest problem is the reliance on Focus Blast against its counters Scizor/Tyranitar cause if you fon't KO them with FB they OHKO back with Crunch/U-Turn (there is a chance to survive ScarfTars Crunch though, but on the other side you need some SR damage to KO Scizor).
The biggest pro is imo Magic Guard not taking entry hazard and LO Recoil allows you to set-up on alot of Pokemon or take a strong hit later if you can only 2HKO something.
Blissey is a problem since i run Psychic over Psycho Shock and Focus Blast fails to 2HKO. I still think that Psychic is a better option due to higher Base Power if your team got a reliable way to deal with Blissey.

BurningMan said:

I really love the TR Sweeper Set its amazingly effective for late game sweeping or ripping a hole in a team midgame.
The possibly biggest problem is the reliance on Focus Blast against its counters Scizor/Tyranitar cause if you fon't KO them with FB they OHKO back with Crunch/U-Turn (there is a chance to survive ScarfTars Crunch though, but on the other side you need some SR damage to KO Scizor).
The biggest pro is imo Magic Guard not taking entry hazard and LO Recoil allows you to set-up on alot of Pokemon or take a strong hit later if you can only 2HKO something.
Blissey is a problem since i run Psychic over Psycho Shock and Focus Blast fails to 2HKO. I still think that Psychic is a better option due to higher Base Power if your team got a reliable way to deal with Blissey.

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Blissey is set up bait,since with max HP,Blissey can only 5HKO you.
Recover and CM to +6 and Blissey doesn't stand a chance.

Kefka the god of magic said:

Blissey is set up bait,since with max HP,Blissey can only 5HKO you.
Recover and CM to +6 and Blissey doesn't stand a chance.

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i talked about this Set:
252 HP/252 SpA/4 S/Def
Ability: Magic Guard
Nature: Quiet
Item: Life Orb
-Trick Room
-Psychic
-Focus Blast
-Shadow Ball

not the CM Recover version i used CM recover too, but honestly i think its often too hard to set it up if your opponent is prepared for it, but if he isn't you can often easily 6-0 you opponent right from Turn 1.
The TR sweeper won't sweep teams on his own but works on a more consistent base and is still deadly with some timing.