I am here once again to make a post, fiddling around with the subdivisions of the A-rank. I so far have a 100% success rate on my posts in these threads, so this time I am going to make an argument for Spritzee to go to A+. A+ is the tier where all the cool kids are, so one might think that A+ wouldn't be a rank welcome to puny fairies with limited offensive presence (since the cool kids dont have very calm minds). However, I believe that Spritzee being A+ is not WISHful thinking. TUO'S ON FIRE WITH ANOTHER PUNyta, which is a check to this mon :((((. (in hindsight, i could have gone for PUNYta, but i just go with the flow, also this does not mean I am against Pony's viability rank, ponies are for cool kids too.)
Spritzee is really rising in the metagame, and was the 10th most used Pokemon in ORAS LC during SPLC. Out of the top 10 pokemon used, it also had the highest winrate. Note there are currently 10 pokemon in A+ and S, 2 in S while 8 are in A+. There is a reason that Spritzee is used so often (and tbh should be used even MORE often). Unlike Pokemon like Fletchling, Gastly, and Hippopotas, Spritzee is not limited to offense or stall. Spritzee has been and can be used properly in many different playstyles (except something like HO lol). The ability to pass massive wishes while resisting both Fighting and Dark-type attacks is something that both offensive teams and defensive teams would love to have, as well as being a secondary check to some sweepers like Vanha and Fletch.
Spritzee is also really good meta-wise. Hawkstar just recently made a post supporting Snubbull for A, because of how helpful it is to have a fairy-type pivot like that. Hawkstar mentioned how having an anti-status mechanism along with being able to check the physically-biased meta is something that is very much welcome in the meta, and that is something that Spritzee offers while offering wishes, as well as being able to be placed on both offensive and defensive teams without feeling so outclassed. Spritz also pretty good synergy with other pivots and defensive mons, namely Porygon and Ferroseed, while also having good synergy with offensive mons like Pawn, or anything that doesnt like fighting/dark, or something that appreciates anti-status and/or Wish. When you think about pokemon that benefit from what spritz has to offer, thats a lot of mons.
I haven't even touched on CM set, which lets it be a nice little secondary sweeper while making a nice core with arena trap dig, another mon that is going to rise in viability rankings sometime.
Add that to the idea that Spritzee's checks are either weak to Rocks or Fighting-type moves, which are very common sights in the meta, and you got yourself a mon that represents the color pink very, very well.
Spritzee to A+ is a change I've opposed before, and I've seen no reason here to make me change my belief. Before I get into why, I'd like to ask what SPLC win rate has to do with anything. The win rates are untrustworthy because of two things: the team nature of the game and the fact that both players can use the same Pokemon. In a 6v6, every Pokemon on the winning team gets a win, and same with the losing squad, with no consideration given to performance in that game. Whether Spritzee tanks half of the opponent's team or eats a crit Gunk Shot and does nothing, there is no difference so long as the team with Spritzee on it wins. Also, since both players can use the same Pokemon, that means that one Spritzee wins and one doesn't when it is present on both sides. How is that useful in determining who should be A+ or not?
Meta-wise, it's still a fantastic physical wall, and annoys Fighting-types to no end. Spritzee's biggest problem is that it gives out free turns like candy on Halloween. Between Wish, Protect, Aromatherapy, and the fact that it saps your team's momentum heavily, your opponent has plenty of turns to make a switch, set up hazards or boosts, or heal themselves while Spritzee is busy not hitting them. This makes it ill-suited for anything but stall and defensive balance teams, and from my experience using it, I find it too much of a load to bear for use on more offensive teams. If Spritzee is the bulkiest member of your team, those free turns become a problem quickly. Spritzee has great synergy with Pokemon like Ferroseed or Porygon, but I'd say it's more like it relies on those two Pokemon, because when not paired with one of those two, I find Spritzee lacking.
Another one of Spritzee's biggest flaws is its reliance on Wish. Sure, you can heal your teammates with it, but doing so basically guarantees that Spritzee will be too weakened to do its job next time. After all, you are taking hazard damage plus any damage dealt to Spritzee as it uses Wish, and even if it's only 26%, that's a 3HKO after two rounds of SR. For example, Porygon's Psychic deals 7 HP to Spritzee without a Download boost, which is certainly not much. However, if you pass a Wish and then try to switch into Psychic later in the game while SR is up, Spritzee is KOed by two more Psychics and those two rounds of SR. Passing a Wish after taking a hit means Spritzee is basically dead unless you manage to get it in on a Timburr or something. When you pass a Wish to your teammate, you are also giving up 2 turns with absolutely no damage dealt to your opponent besides hazards. As for healing Spritzee itself with Wish, the delayed healing is almost always a detriment except in fringe cases such as stalling out Guts Taillow or something.
CM Spritzee seems like a great sweeper on paper, but in practice it's underwhelming. At the risk of sounding fanboyish, Timburr really is the gold standard that bulky boosters need to reach, and Spritzee doesn't cut it. To make a sweep, Spritzee needs its Eviolite and it needs to be at mostly full health, which means that its role as a wall directly compromises its sweeping chances. It cannot sweep and wall in the same game, and while Timburr can't do that either, its immediate power gives it an advantage over Spritzee. It has only one attacking move, which means it can't be useful until Poison-, Fire-, and Steel-types are gone, especially since it lacks Knock Off or priority to chip away at things when its checks are still alive like Timburr can. Spritzee lacks immediate power, making it reliant on boosts to deal large amounts of damage. Most importantly, it can't recover health while attacking at the same time. This is what makes Timburr shine as a sweeper, and this is where Spritzee falls flat. Without Draining Kiss (which makes Spritzee's lack of immediate power even worse), Spritzee is forced to stop boosting or dealing damage to heal itself, and also has to dedicate a slot to Protect to prevent it from taking more damage than it can heal off the next turn.
Not being A+ material does not preclude Spritzee from being a fantastic wall. It does its job well and if there's any one Pokemon that causes me no end of grief in battle, it's Spritzee. It sits on the edge of A and A+, but it just doesn't have that extra oomph to make it in. If I had to make a comparison with anything in A+, it would be Porygon, since they both serve as bulky walls with recovery and some team support. What pushes Porygon into A+ is its more immediate recovery and much higher power, while being able to be fit on a larger variety of teams than Spritzee. It's a great wall, but it's definitely not A+.