Monotype Viability Rankings

[Salemance]

Hawlucha for B Rank

Hawlucha @ Power Herb
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance / Taunt / Substitute
- Acrobatics
- High Jump Kick
- Sky Attack

Adamant is chosen over Jolly because Hawlucha needs the power, and nothing will outspeed it after an Unburden boost.
Sky Attack is to activate Unburden. It's a one time use thing tho
High Jump Kick is the best Fighting STAB for Hawlucha since it hits hard
Acrobatics takes advantage of Hawlucha's no item, and unlike Sky Attack, it can be used even after switching out.
Swords Dance is for extra power, while Taunt is, well, to taunt. Substitute eases prediction and prevents status.
Explanation: One may question why Hawlucha would get any usage. Yeah, it gets a cool Flying / Fighting typing, but its 92 base attack may seem a little disappointing at times. Even Sky Attack would fail to KO a majority of healthy Pokemon, and a Scarfed Terrakion would be better in terms of power and speed. So you're better off thinking that Hawlucha's an anti anti-fighting Pokemon. (This is totally not confusing..) Its Flying typing lets it avoid Sticky Web, and not a lot of Bug types can stop a Hawlucha after Unburden. Its second purpose is to make Fighting vs Fighting matchups less speed tie based. Instead of relying on Medicham vs Medicham, or Keldeo vs Keldeo you can just set up Hawlucha and sweep. Its final purpose is to beat Swift Swim. (although its usage has dropped down quite a lot) HJK 1HKOs Kabutops, and can severally damage Kingdra. Acrobatics kills Ludicolo.

Hawlucha is a late game sweeper, nothing else. Using it too early will make it seem weak and horrible.

Fun fact: Hawlucha can live a Quick Attack from Mega Pinsir at full health :]

TFW YOU BREAK YOUR OWN RULE AND WRITE SOMEONE ELSE'S STUFF :[
I'll change this to flying later >.<

Also, DM35 I'll do it now. I need people to write the new writeups tho.

As geat as Hawlucha is, there is another set you could try adding there which is its LO Limber set which was and is a great answer to some Thund-I trying to get a quick paralysis on say your Mega Dos or Char X. Its not as say as late game potent like its unburden buts its more of an immediate attacker that I find useful here in monotype and OU.

 

[DoW]

I'm just going to throw one of the two pokemon I've reserved because he is easier to review.

I nominate Xatu for B rank in flying teams.

Pros:
-Good support due to access to double screens and Tailwind
-Has the almighty Magic Bounce, making other leads have a hard time doing their thing
-Access to Night Shade, meaning it won't become a huge set up fodder
-Decent bulk + Roost allows it to wall some things
-Renders almost every prankster set useless due to Magic Bounce
-It's a Totem shaped bird flying like a kite.

Cons:
-Stats are average, even his bulk is only decent.
-Not a threat offensively
-More often than not, after setting screens, it loses it's use.
-Tailwind is almost not needed at all in flying type teams.
-Weirdly enough, it can't learn Whirlwind.


The annoying lead
Xatu @ Leftovers / Light Clay
252 Hp / 4 Def / 252 SpDef
Bold Nature
Night Shade / Toxic
Light Screen
Reflect
Roost / Tailwind

Really the best and probably only set to run on Xatu, dual screens to help your team take the hits better, Night Shade or toxic so you can do some damage to the enemy while they try to set up on you, Roost to help you wall a bit, and in case you think you don't need the recovery and want that speed bonus for your team, get Tailwind.

Summary: Xatu might be a good lead and anti-lead all in one, but due to the other pokemon in flying being really strong, Xatu will rarely get a spot on the flying teams, especially with Skarmory being a good enough lead for the team. Also the fact that his pros barely out weight the cons makes it only reach the B rank.

Sorry, I gotta say I disagree with this. While Xatu was decent on flying last generation due to their lack of rapid spinners (outside of delibird), the use of Magic Bounce to dissuade Stealth Rock users is now far less necessary due to the en-masse defog available to everything. Dual Screens would be great were it faster or a little bulkier, but due to its mere 95 base speed and 65/70/70 defenses, not to mention bad defensive typing (weak to Dark, Electric, Ghost, Ice, and Rock), it simply can't do the job well. It doesn't even do the job of walling pranksters very well:
0 Atk Sableye Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Xatu: 218-260 (65.2 - 77.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Neither does it really stop Stealth Rock as many setters are also capable of beating it:
252 Atk Tyranitar Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Xatu through Reflect: 223-264 (66.7 - 79%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage and Leftovers recovery

And finally, I think the plain fact of the matter is that Togekiss does the job better. It may be a little slower but it's plenty fast enough, and is far more bulky and capable of running dual screens if wanted, defog for the stealth rock, and also has the offensive stats to deal some damage.

Xatu -> C/D rank

 

[truedrew]

ok since All Falls Down is lazy he's gonna make me do this. Nerd Alert
There needs to be some serious changes in this viability thing for real though. So many things should be demoted to lower ranks and so many things s
Cincinno (Normal) A - C rank - Let's be completely honest. Cincinno is garbage even with Life Orb or Choice Band. "Oh it has good coverage and skill link though!" The problem is it can't OHKO many of the threats normal faces and isn't useful VS. Steel or Fighting, normal's biggest threats.

Cincinno is amazing vs so many types and with life orb + skill link if it can hit something for SE moves it kills them in 2 shots. Your based slowbro cannot safely switch into a cincinno in fear of being 2hkod on the switch
252 Atk Life Orb Cinccino Bullet Seed (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 210-245 (53.2 - 62.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
just because it does not help vs steel does not mean it is completely useless... Also vs fighting it ouspeeds many of the 108 base speed pokemon and can easily ko them
252 Atk Life Orb Cinccino Bullet Seed (5 hits) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Keldeo: 325-390 (100.3 - 120.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Life Orb Cinccino Bullet Seed (5 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 325-390 (100.6 - 120.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Life Orb Cinccino Tail Slap (5 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Infernape: 290-350 (98.9 - 119.4%) -- approx. 93.8% chance to OHKO

And mind you cincinno is also very good vs bug and flying due to its amazing damage output and 2hkoing shit left right and center (only skarm can counter lando t is check as it cannot repeatedly switch in )
-1 252 Atk Life Orb Cinccino Tail Slap (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0+ Def Landorus-T: 155-180 (40.5 - 47.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
-1 252 Atk Life Orb Cinccino Tail Slap (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Landorus-T: 115-145 (30.1 - 37.9%) --- just showing how it can easily pivot to one of the myriad of walls norma carries.

To summarize Just because it is not that good vs steel, doesn't mean it is c rank it easily supports normal vs a multitude of types(ice, flying, ground, water, rock, fire etc) thus establishing its place as a rank.

 

[saquibalmamun1997]

Gastrodon for B Rank
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Def / 216 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover
- Earth Power / Protect

Explanation: On the face of it, Gastrodon looks a very unappealing mon, with pretty poor stats apart from above average Special Defense and high HP. And there's the fact it's a sea slug. However looking past all this you notice that Gastrodon has one major factor that means it's a common fixture on Ground teams, it's ability, Storm Drain. This ability, not only giving it a boost to it's Special Attack when hit by any Water move, but also gives it a full immunity. Allied with it's already very good typing, means it is the special wall of choice for Ground teams, only slightly contested by SpDef Gliscor, which is plagued by Water and Ice weaknesses, giving Ground teams little synergy value. Between Hippowdon and Gastrodon, Ground has a strong core to withstand attacks from both sides of the spectrum. Gastrodon also gets access to the rage inducing Scald, meaning it can get a burn in clutch situations and help to patch it's meagre Defense. A physically defensive set is also viable for a better switch in to threats such as Keldeo.

Why B Rank? It has only decent offensive presence, is set-up bait for a lot of things, such as Charizard Mega X and SubCM Keldeo and is still easily broken by Grass attacks. A useful part of the Ground defensive core, but also a limited mon.

I believe the water immunity and ice neutrality + the utility it provides by checking alot of water and ice Pokemon is enough to get it to A-Rank.
And by carrying toxic it can handle Charizard-X some what,and an earthquake from this thing is enough to break keldeos sub

 

[DoW]

Cincinno is amazing vs so many types and with life orb + skill link if it can hit something for SE moves it kills them in 2 shots. Your based slowbro cannot safely switch into a cincinno in fear of being 2hkod on the switch
252 Atk Life Orb Cinccino Bullet Seed (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 210-245 (53.2 - 62.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
just because it does not help vs steel does not mean it is completely useless... Also vs fighting it ouspeeds many of the 108 base speed pokemon and can easily ko them
252 Atk Life Orb Cinccino Bullet Seed (5 hits) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Keldeo: 325-390 (100.3 - 120.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Life Orb Cinccino Bullet Seed (5 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 325-390 (100.6 - 120.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Life Orb Cinccino Tail Slap (5 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Infernape: 290-350 (98.9 - 119.4%) -- approx. 93.8% chance to OHKO

And mind you cincinno is also very good vs bug and flying due to its amazing damage output and 2hkoing shit left right and center (only skarm can counter lando t is check as it cannot repeatedly switch in )
-1 252 Atk Life Orb Cinccino Tail Slap (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0+ Def Landorus-T: 155-180 (40.5 - 47.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
-1 252 Atk Life Orb Cinccino Tail Slap (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Landorus-T: 115-145 (30.1 - 37.9%) --- just showing how it can easily pivot to one of the myriad of walls norma carries.

To summarize Just because it is not that good vs steel, doesn't mean it is c rank it easily supports normal vs a multitude of types(ice, flying, ground, water, rock, fire etc) thus establishing its place as a rank.

I haven't been keeping up with the Cinccino debate, sorry if I'm repeating what anyone's said.
I'd like to talk about the roles Cinccino can fill on teams. It has good speed and usable attack, alongside a decent movepool, but not good defenses or any one outstanding stat. So overall it's a usable offensive pokemon, and could run a Band/LO set, or a revenge killing Scarf set. However, its low attack stat means it'll never be an A rank revenge killer and its low bulk and not amazing attack stat mean it'll never be the wallbreaker of the century. B rank seems fine so far.
The problem is that it doesn't really fit onto normal teams. They have such revenge killers as Scarf Staraptor, Scarf Porygon-Z, Ditto (which is very good for setup sweepers) and Slaking (unorthadox but extremely powerful). As for all-out attackers, once again there's Staraptor and Porygon-Z, as well as a few other options such as CurseLax though none really seem very outstanding. This leads to a tricky situation as normal has too many attackers for Cinccino to really be useful on a defensive team while not enough attackers to support an offensive team. While it's a decent pokemon, it simply doesn't seem to fit onto normal teams because of this.

So yeah I'd put it at B/C rank. It's far from unusable, it's probably your best bet for a strong attacker that can outspeed base 100s (rather than tieing) and it's got decent coverage. However on a stally normal team you want something like Close Combat staraptor for the steels, and on an offensive team it simply doesn't add enough.

 

[n64lord]

Starmie for (water) B rank

Starmie @ Leftovers
EVs: 232 HP / 200 Def / 76 Spe
Bold Nature
- Hydro Pump /Scald
- Thunderbolt
- Rapid Spin
- Recover

The slowest of all starmie, it still outspeeds +nature 80s and any pokemon in its normal speed tier not running speed EVs. However it can survive STAB pursuits and check something like mamoswine multiple times for superior rapid spin support.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 136 HP / 156 Def / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Thunderbolt
- Psyshock

The second rapid spin variant outspeeds base 110s but can still avoid the OHKO from +1 gyrados after stealthrock, which makes it a soild check to both the keldeo-gengar group and set up dependent pokemon besides gyrados himself.

Starmie @ Choice Specs/Choice Scarf
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Psyshock
- Trick
- Ice Beam

Starmie does have access to grass knot and dazzling gleam if you want coverage that will be unique on your team. That said, the Choiced starmies show decent power and amazing speed, topping all of the versatile scarf set you see in keldeo/latios, and also doing a number to anything weak to it's stab or off attack. The specs does the same, but they'd better not be scarfed. Analytic is preffered because it jacks up the damage if they switch... and when they have a pokemon 4x weak to ice beam out... they're going to switch, which gives you the ability to nuke their main special wall with psyshock very reliably. Ice beam is stronger against 2x dragons, but dazzling gleam prevents trolly hydregion from tanking you and is the only move starmie wants to use against kyurem-B and W. Trick brutally cripples walls, which is especially important in mirror matches against other water teams.

Starmie @ Life Orb
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin

The offensive spinner Is straightforward, again using its scary coverage to chase people out before disposing of their hazards and possibly using Analytic boosts to punch holes in predicted switches to starmie's checks. Running natural cure on the offensive spinner is an option if you don't want to deal with last resort thunderwaves and glares from a variety of pokemon, and if your opponet assumes you are using analytic, you can sometimes fake out a sleep inducer.

Starmie @ Light Clay
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 136 HP / 156 Def / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Relfect
- Light Screen/ Psyshock
- Thunderbolt/ Recover
- Scald

A two attacking version with one screen and recover is also an option If the boosting pokemon doesn't need many protection turns or you want starmie to last for a very, very long time. Best suited for going huge with the likes of manaphy and shell smash pokemon, although it can be used on bulky offense teams as well for an extra edge.

Starmie has a near perfect movepool, and while it's role as a spinner is generally overlooked in favor of Tentacruel, it still can fit into a huge number of roles for your team with it's good coverage options, speed, optional bulk, support movepool which also includes thunder wave and gravity (for those of you who want Thunder/Blizzard to make up for the base power I guess). It's not really the revenge cleaner than greninja is most of the time, but in exchange for slightly less power, it can also condemn stall with trick and with psyshock and analytic, it can chip at its hard checks better than greninja does his.

 

[n64lord]

This weeks suspects

Zapdos to S for flying. It already defines the metagame. A huge percentage of higher flying teams already uses him and the fact that he can be either a physical wall or a special tank (both of which do more chip damage without investment than all other options) makes his status as a pivot rather safe. he can even pull out suprise baton pass sets occasionally, and by maintating discharge/roost, even those can keep their pivot role if the sweep is unsuccessful.

Staraptor can go S for normal, It is hugely beneficial for supplying pressure for normal teams and can snipe a few of the pokemon that can rick roll the defensive core normal teams favor (Keldeo, Terrakion) as well as bring damage to teams worn down by repeat exposure to hazards and porygon 2.

Pinsir Mega isn't used as much as Scizor or heracross, but it has incredible power, especially with support from voltswitch forretres or "classic" choice band scizor, whose slower U-turn (as opposed to genesect) allows it to come in easier. Airelate Return and quick attack can nearly dismantle some opposing types on their own, although they aren't types that the other megas struggle with. It's much less dependent than heracross is on sticky web. Once it gets a sword dance up, it can trounce most pokemon easily, as it's only resisted by rock/steel/electric, which can be covered with it's fourth move (close combat, although I have seen people prefer earthquake to OHKO Rotom pre evolving.) If you ran it without Sword dance, it also has knock off and stone edge, although they aren't epseically extra to the few pokemon resisting Return. I've always felt like it could be S, since I find It's breakneck setup to be more like azumarill than anything. If it could force out a few more fire pokemon on the turn it megas "having only 85 speed" then I'd go for it all the way. So I'll vote A.

 

[n64lord]

Reserving Cloyster, Forretress, and vaporeon.

 

[Anttya]

Both Ferrothorns have been finished btw

 

[Hutyro]

Sorry, I gotta say I disagree with this. While Xatu was decent on flying last generation due to their lack of rapid spinners (outside of delibird), the use of Magic Bounce to dissuade Stealth Rock users is now far less necessary due to the en-masse defog available to everything. Dual Screens would be great were it faster or a little bulkier, but due to its mere 95 base speed and 65/70/70 defenses, not to mention bad defensive typing (weak to Dark, Electric, Ghost, Ice, and Rock), it simply can't do the job well. It doesn't even do the job of walling pranksters very well:
0 Atk Sableye Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Xatu: 218-260 (65.2 - 77.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Neither does it really stop Stealth Rock as many setters are also capable of beating it:
252 Atk Tyranitar Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Xatu through Reflect: 223-264 (66.7 - 79%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage and Leftovers recovery

And finally, I think the plain fact of the matter is that Togekiss does the job better. It may be a little slower but it's plenty fast enough, and is far more bulky and capable of running dual screens if wanted, defog for the stealth rock, and also has the offensive stats to deal some damage.

Xatu -> C/D rank

Fair enough, I see your point. But I guess D rank is too low, I guess C is good enough, he still has some decent uses and can be a nuisance. Anyone else has something to say about Xatu? I'll edit the review after a while if no one else has any say in the matter.

 

[Dirpz]

Clefable Cancer (Fairy) for S-Rank

Notable Moves

Bold Is Stab

Physical

- Counter
- Drain Punch
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Knock Off
- Meteor Mash
- Seismic Toss
- Thunder Punch
- Zen Headbutt

Special

- Blizzard
- Charge Beam
- Dazzling Gleam
- Fire Blast
- Flamethrower
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power
- Ice Beam
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Signal Beam
- Stored Power
- Thunderbolt

Status

- Amnesia
- Aromatherapy
- Belly Drum
- Calm Mind
- Cosmic Power
- Encore
- Gravity
- Heal Bell
- Healing Wish
- Light Screen
- Magic Coat
- Moonlight
- Reflect
- Splash
- Soft-Boiled
- Stealth Rock
- Substitute
- Thunder Wave
- Toxic
- Trick
- Wish

SR Lead Fable

Clefable @ Life Orb/Lefties
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower

This set is a good lead set, and setup sweeper, Its job is to set up rocks and it has the bulk to take a hit set up rocks then sub out, if the enemy wants to status you clefable doesn't care, its got magic guard, but Clefable is very versatile like

Cancerfable

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 SpD
Calm Nature
- Rest
- Charge Beam
- Stored Power
- Cosmic Power

Yes thats the Infamous set I run this set looks pretty bad when looking at it from here, but when clefable gets paired with dual screens Klefki, it can take hits, then can set up cosmic power, and charge beam boosts, it can take hits from MegaMawile
252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 240 Def Clefable through Reflect: 135-159 (34.2 - 40.3%) -- 48.7% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

CMFable

Clefable @ Leftovers / Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Flamethrower

This is the most common set probably your best bet

ClericFable

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell

Cleric fable is good at supporting the team but there is better supports

Good teamates:
Klefki: Dual Screens helps so much
Mawile-M: Helps deal with Poison types, and Steel types
Azumarill: Helps deal with Steel types
Scarf Togekiss: Incase People try to trick you when setting up

Honestly Clefable is an amazing pokemon with an insane move pool. I have no problem saying its the base of my Mono fairy, and OU team, versatile and defines the meta for fairy teams. Clefable is a beast hence it is S rank[/hide]

 

[all falls down]

Clefable Cancer (Fairy) for S-Rank

Notable Moves

Bold Is Stab

Physical

- Counter
- Drain Punch
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Knock Off
- Meteor Mash
- Seismic Toss
- Thunder Punch
- Zen Headbutt

Special

- Blizzard
- Charge Beam
- Dazzling Gleam
- Fire Blast
- Flamethrower
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot
- Hidden Power
- Ice Beam
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Signal Beam
- Stored Power
- Thunderbolt

Status

- Amnesia
- Aromatherapy
- Belly Drum
- Calm Mind
- Cosmic Power
- Encore
- Gravity
- Heal Bell
- Healing Wish
- Light Screen
- Magic Coat
- Moonlight
- Reflect
- Splash
- Soft-Boiled
- Stealth Rock
- Substitute
- Thunder Wave
- Toxic
- Trick
- Wish

SR Lead Fable

Clefable @ Life Orb/Lefties
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower

This set is a good lead set, and setup sweeper, Its job is to set up rocks and it has the bulk to take a hit set up rocks then sub out, if the enemy wants to status you clefable doesn't care, its got magic guard, but Clefable is very versatile like

Cancerfable

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 SpD
Calm Nature
- Rest
- Charge Beam
- Stored Power
- Cosmic Power

Yes thats the Infamous set I run this set looks pretty bad when looking at it from here, but when clefable gets paired with dual screens Klefki, it can take hits, then can set up cosmic power, and charge beam boosts, it can take hits from MegaMawile
252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 240 Def Clefable through Reflect: 135-159 (34.2 - 40.3%) -- 48.7% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

Physical Fable

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Soft-Boiled
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt

Probably the worst Clefable set but still its like belly jet Azumarill except gets some recovery, but loses priority and Stab. You are better off using one of the sets above.

Good teamates:
Klefki: Dual Screens helps so much
Mawile-M: Helps deal with Poison types, and Steel types
Azumarill: Helps deal with Steel types
Scarf Togekiss: Incase People try to trick you

Honestly Clefable is an amazing pokemon with an insane move pool. I have no problem saying its the base of my Mono fairy, and OU team, versatile and defines the meta for fairy teams. Clefable is a beast hence it is S rank

add the most common cancer set

Clefable @ Leftovers / Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Flamethrower

and the cleric set

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell

and take out the terrible physical set, thats like belly drum slowbro ._.

 

[feen]

I nominate Zapdos for flying (S-rank)

Railgun (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Toxic/Heat Wave/Hidden Power Ice
- Defog/Toxic/Heat Wave/Hidden Power Ice
- Roost

Zapdos is undoubtedly Flying's BEST Special Wall. With a bulk of 90/85/90, it is an excellent special wall due to it being neutral to Electric, one of flying's main weaknesses. Discharge is Zapdos's most useful move, with a 30% chance of paralysis and coming from a STAB of BST 125 SpAtk, it hits quite hard, and the paralysis dents sweepers and set-ups and creates an opening for Togekiss and Landorus-T to hit. Heat Wave hits hard on most things that are weak to it, and with Discharge/Heat Wave combo, Zapdos can wall Steel teams if it doesn't carry ToxicTran and Excadrill (Mega mawile can be 2hko-ed if predicted perfectly upon switch-in). Toxic can destroy bulky walls such as Meloetta and Zapdos, which are quite a pain to deal with in Flying, and then Zapdos can Roost-stall. HP Ice can be used as a gimmick set to counter Landorus-T, which can otherwise force Zapdos to switch out and the ever-annoying toxic stallin' Gliscor. Defog is used to remove Stealth Rocks which are a huge threat to flying. And the last slot is left for Roost which is the perfect recovery which Zapdos, as a wall needs.

In addition to the awesome bulk this has, it creates an excellent synergy with Skarmory creating the best core of mono flying. Very few mons can destroy this core (Kyurem-B, LO Greninja, Entei, Tyranitar), but what other cores are there to wall these threats? (Those threats are known as the banes of flying, I can tell how to wall/weaken them if you insist).

Togekiss is a great special wall as well, but it's weak to electric which makes it more fragile than Zapdos. Also, Zapdos has a BST of 100 in Speed, which can make it faster than most walls and it also has one of the best ability a wall can have, PRESSURE, which can PP stall most walls (I once ended up in a 1v1 with my Zapdos and Acast 's Mega Venusaur and I pp stalled him, I don't think he remembers though). Anyways, it is HIGHLY recommended in flying teams, and the only reason I think it's not used is because some people doesn't want to be generic.

Therefore, I nominate Zapdos for Flying as S-Rank

 

[DoW]

I nominate Zapdos for flying (S-rank)

Railgun (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Toxic/Heat Wave/Hidden Power Ice
- Defog/Toxic/Heat Wave/Hidden Power Ice
- Roost

Zapdos is undoubtedly Flying's BEST Special Wall. With a bulk of 90/85/90, it is an excellent special wall due to it being neutral to Electric, one of flying's main weaknesses. Discharge is Zapdos's most useful move, with a 30% chance of paralysis and coming from a STAB of BST 125 SpAtk, it hits quite hard, and the paralysis dents sweepers and set-ups and creates an opening for Togekiss and Landorus-T to hit. Heat Wave hits hard on most things that are weak to it, and with Discharge/Heat Wave combo, Zapdos can wall Steel teams if it doesn't carry ToxicTran and Excadrill (Mega mawile can be 2hko-ed if predicted perfectly upon switch-in). Toxic can destroy bulky walls such as Meloetta and Zapdos, which are quite a pain to deal with in Flying, and then Zapdos can Roost-stall. HP Ice can be used as a gimmick set to counter Landorus-T, which can otherwise force Zapdos to switch out and the ever-annoying toxic stallin' Gliscor. Defog is used to remove Stealth Rocks which are a huge threat to flying. And the last slot is left for Roost which is the perfect recovery which Zapdos, as a wall needs.

In addition to the awesome bulk this has, it creates an excellent synergy with Skarmory creating the best core of mono flying. Very few mons can destroy this core (Kyurem-B, LO Greninja, Entei, Tyranitar), but what other cores are there to wall these threats? (Those threats are known as the banes of flying, I can tell how to wall/weaken them if you insist).

Togekiss is a great special wall as well, but it's weak to electric which makes it more fragile than Zapdos. Also, Zapdos has a BST of 100 in Speed, which can make it faster than most walls and it also has one of the best ability a wall can have, PRESSURE, which can PP stall most walls (I once ended up in a 1v1 with my Zapdos and Acast 's Mega Venusaur and I pp stalled him, I don't think he remembers though). Anyways, it is HIGHLY recommended in flying teams, and the only reason I think it's not used is because some people doesn't want to be generic.

Therefore, I nominate Zapdos for Flying as S-Rank

While Zapdos is great on balanced or semi-stall flying teams, it's less good (though still definitely usable) on offensive or Hyper Offense flying teams. It should also be noted that while it's a very good special wall it still can't wall some special attackers.
252 SpA Life Orb Protean Greninja Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Zapdos: 252-299 (65.6 - 77.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

And finally I'd recommend mentioning Volt Switch which is the main niche on offense teams, as a volt-turn defogger. It's not a big enough niche to require being slashed with any other moves though.
Because of this it's not a necessity, though I agree with S-rank..

 

[feen]

While Zapdos is great on balanced or semi-stall flying teams, it's less good (though still definitely usable) on offensive or Hyper Offense flying teams. It should also be noted that while it's a very good special wall it still can't wall some special attackers.
252 SpA Life Orb Protean Greninja Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Zapdos: 252-299 (65.6 - 77.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

And finally I'd recommend mentioning Volt Switch which is the main niche on offense teams, as a volt-turn defogger. It's not a big enough niche to require being slashed with any other moves though.
Because of this it's not a necessity, though I agree with S-rank..

I did mention that LO ninja can destroy Zapdos. And yeah, Volt switch can also be used, but is more rare.

 

[truedrew]

Personally I think Cinccino and co are remnants of a speed creep mentality that started with guts swellow. I'll own up trolling OU and Ubers matches in the past with Life orb Fake Out+ Double hit Ambipom. << In X/Y (and B/W for that matter) though, wall breakers are fairly common. Mono Normal has several ones that can jump on the playing field multible times, and they don't have the drawback of taking ~30% from an uninvested ice beam/scald/seismic toss from a wall, or a similar pitiful move. This does have two added bonuses though substitue breaking, and Crit chance (more likely to be used on relfect than bulk up/curse this gen). I say B-.

yah firstly the more common wall breakers being???? staraptor? and porygon z?
Staraptor is 25% upon entry and it is weak to ice beam so it cannot switch in reliably unless its bulkbird which mesns that its not a wall breaker so ...
Porygon z cannot bulk anything and is again 12% to sr every switch in and in addition to this it is life orb dependant like cincinno so hence it takes a similar roll granted it can run recover but then it loses out on its set up move as tri attack + bolt beam is mandatory.

Cincinno can take on several walls 1v1 and win as slowbro canot switch in for fear of 2hko to bullet seed same for most other types and steel being the only tyoes being ble to switch in reliably

Hence it should remain A rank

 

[DoW]

yah firstly the more common wall breakers being???? staraptor? and porygon z?
Staraptor is 25% upon entry and it is weak to ice beam so it cannot switch in reliably unless its bulkbird which mesns that its not a wall breaker so ...
Porygon z cannot bulk anything and is again 12% to sr every switch in and in addition to this it is life orb dependant like cincinno so hence it takes a similar roll granted it can run recover but then it loses out on its set up move as tri attack + bolt beam is mandatory.

Cincinno can take on several walls 1v1 and win as slowbro canot switch in for fear of 2hko to bullet seed same for most other types and steel being the only tyoes being ble to switch in reliably

Hence it should remain A rank

Cinccino has 75/60/60 defenses while Porygon-z has 85/70/75, so the argument that it "cannot bulk anything" is a little silly. Meanwhile Staraptor can run a band while Cinccino generally has to run Life Orb due to its reliance on coverage rather than spamming a single attack, so I wouldn't say the difference is incomparible (One switch into SR for staraptor is roughly equal to a switch into SR and a round or two of LO recoil for cinccino). And yeah, Porygon-z has this as well (if it doesn't run specs which is the set I'd recommend anyway), so I don't really get what you're trying to say about bulk... But yeah cinccino isn't gonna be living many hits anytime soon.

But the main problem is normal only ever runs stall effectively, and cinccino simply doesn't do much against the pokemon good against stall. It can't touch weezing or even SpD Heatran, making it near useless against the two types great at beating toxic stall, and at the same time the pokemon is can beat such as Zapdos or Slowbro don't do particularly well against Porygon-Z. Beating walls 1v1 isn't worth particularly much in any case, as you rarely get 1v1 situations. Cinccino can't switch in on Slowbro easily for fear of a scald burn for example, while zapdos will happily toxic it on the switch before switching to gliscor. All of that is pretty irrelevant, what matters is being able to win in specific situations. For example Staraptor can come in on Heatran and either threaten the entire steel team with close combat or U-turn to porygon2 on the skarmory switch. Thus it's capable of dealing plenty of damage to steel teams, which generally normal struggles with due to the immunity to toxic.

Cinccino is a usable attacker (though like I said far from an A-rank attacker), but the main problem is that normal teams have no use for it. Because of this, I still think it should be B/C rank.

 

[scpinion]

yah firstly the more common wall breakers being???? staraptor? and porygon z?
Staraptor is 25% upon entry and it is weak to ice beam so it cannot switch in reliably unless its bulkbird which mesns that its not a wall breaker so ...
Porygon z cannot bulk anything and is again 12% to sr every switch in and in addition to this it is life orb dependant like cincinno so hence it takes a similar roll granted it can run recover but then it loses out on its set up move as tri attack + bolt beam is mandatory.

Cincinno can take on several walls 1v1 and win as slowbro canot switch in for fear of 2hko to bullet seed same for most other types and steel being the only tyoes being ble to switch in reliably

Hence it should remain A rank

Diggersby can wall break pretty well too, and without having to predict what coverage option to use... It also gets STAB priority to deal w/ those pesky scarf users and doesn't care about SR.

+2 252+ Atk Huge Power Diggersby Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 291-343 (73.8 - 87%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
SD on the switch and the opponent will need a scald burn to survive the coming onslaught.

or if you're that guy running a LO set... gg Slowbro

252+ Atk Life Orb Huge Power Diggersby Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 188-224 (47.7 - 56.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

I will not repeat all of what DoW/Articuno I said in their past couple posts, but Cinccino is B rank for me for similar reasons. In particular match ups it will be the MVP of your team because of its coverage, usable attack stat (95 isn't so bad when you use all 125 BP moves) and awesome speed. However, in others it is utterly useless--either dying to SE priority or getting walled to hell and back by most steel types. It is also outclassed in each of it's possible roles by some other option for normal teams.

 

[scpinion]

I guess Zapdos (Flying) is a obvious candidate for tomorrow's ranking changes. Zapdos (A Rank), along with Mega Pinsir (A Rank), and Staraptor (Normal and A rank) will be Week 3. Feel free to post stuff on both Week 2 and Week 3

Zapdos: Arifeen's post on Zapdos sums it up pretty well. Zapdos is only left off of a flying team you're intentionally going for something that isn't generic. S rank


Mega-Pinsir: The first two things I consider when ranking are versatility and effectiveness, which is then quickly followed by "uniqueness". Of those three, Mega-Pinsir only makes the grade in effectiveness: it is a truly fearsome set-up sweeper. However, it's versatility is pretty much limited to what coverage attack one choses (EQ, Close Combat or Knock Off); while Bug type has access to, arguably more useful, mega-evo's (Hera and Scizor) and set-up sweepers (Volcy, Scizor, Genesect, etc.). When that is coupled with the crippling weakness to SR, Mega-Pinsir stays A rank in my book.


Staraptor: I originally said Staraptor was A rank for normal, but I have put a bit more thought into it and I now think it should be moved up to S rank. If we currently look at the rankings, Meloetta, Diggersby and Ambipom reside in A rank--probably a fitting home for each. Staraptor is much more valuable to a Normal team than any of those three with its neutrality to Fighting attacks and ability to threaten the types Normal struggles with the most: Steel and Fighting. With that, the effectiveness and "uniqueness" criteria are met, but it also has the versatility to deserve S rank.

BulkRaptor fits very nicely alongside the bulky core seen on almost every team;
ScarfRaptor is has a great moveset paired with enough speed and power to make an excellent revenge killer, fast pivot and late-game cleaner;
BandRaptor is a more-than-capable wall-breaker, although this set does not find as much use on Normal teams.

It's main weakness is SR, but that can be overlooked with all the utility it brings to the team.

 

[saquibalmamun1997]

Nominating Doublade---->C-Rank(Steel)

-With the banning of Aegislash in Steel Monotype,the Steel typing lost a valuable part of the infamous immunity core it used to form with Skarmory and Heatran.
-Doublade comes with the exact same defensive typing+better physical bulk due to evolite boost.
-It has an okay 110 attack,which it can boost further with Sword Dance.
-However the similarities between the two end right here,unlike Aegislash its Special Defense and Special Attack is non existent.
-It doesnt have Kings Sheild which was a big plus when using Aegislash.
-It is no where near as versatile as Aegislash is.
-And due to carrying Evolite it fears Knock Off more then ever.
-No Guard makes common attacks like Fire Blast and Hydro Pump always hit on Doublade.
-No reliable recovery.

Sword Dance Tank

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SpD
Brave Nature
- Swords Dance
- Gyro Ball
- Sacred Sword/Toxic
- Shadow Sneak

-Gyro Ball is its main nuke hitting quite hard after a boost.
-Scared Sword is used to hit steel types who resist Gyro Ball such as Ferrothorn,Heatran and Bisharp on the switch.
-Shadow Sneak is invaluable priority which can be used to take down Psychic Pokemon+Weakened Pokemon.
-Toxic is useful to cripple some of its common switch ins,Hippowdon,Landorus-T and Mandibuzz.

Sleep Talk Wall

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Toxic/Sacred Sword/Shadow Claw
- Gyro Ball

 

[Acast]

yah firstly the more common wall breakers being???? staraptor? and porygon z?
Staraptor is 25% upon entry and it is weak to ice beam so it cannot switch in reliably unless its bulkbird which mesns that its not a wall breaker so ...
Porygon z cannot bulk anything and is again 12% to sr every switch in and in addition to this it is life orb dependant like cincinno so hence it takes a similar roll granted it can run recover but then it loses out on its set up move as tri attack + bolt beam is mandatory.

Cincinno can take on several walls 1v1 and win as slowbro canot switch in for fear of 2hko to bullet seed same for most other types and steel being the only tyoes being ble to switch in reliably

Hence it should remain A rank

Neither Porygon Z, nor Cinccino are LO dependent. Cinccino is hard walled by the type that gives offensive normal teams the most difficulty, Steel. With Steel being such a common type, that's hugely crippling. Yes, Cinccino is good and Skill Link is a great ability, but it's not enough to make it A rank. When someone is building a team, they won't be thinking "How can I deal with Cincinno?" because it's not that big of a threat. B rank does not mean it's bad, it's just a more appropriate location for Cinccino.

 

[Acast]

I nominate Zapdos for flying (S-rank)

Railgun (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Toxic/Heat Wave/Hidden Power Ice
- Defog/Toxic/Heat Wave/Hidden Power Ice
- Roost

Zapdos is undoubtedly Flying's BEST Special Wall. With a bulk of 90/85/90, it is an excellent special wall due to it being neutral to Electric, one of flying's main weaknesses. Discharge is Zapdos's most useful move, with a 30% chance of paralysis and coming from a STAB of BST 125 SpAtk, it hits quite hard, and the paralysis dents sweepers and set-ups and creates an opening for Togekiss and Landorus-T to hit. Heat Wave hits hard on most things that are weak to it, and with Discharge/Heat Wave combo, Zapdos can wall Steel teams if it doesn't carry ToxicTran and Excadrill (Mega mawile can be 2hko-ed if predicted perfectly upon switch-in). Toxic can destroy bulky walls such as Meloetta and Zapdos, which are quite a pain to deal with in Flying, and then Zapdos can Roost-stall. HP Ice can be used as a gimmick set to counter Landorus-T, which can otherwise force Zapdos to switch out and the ever-annoying toxic stallin' Gliscor. Defog is used to remove Stealth Rocks which are a huge threat to flying. And the last slot is left for Roost which is the perfect recovery which Zapdos, as a wall needs.

In addition to the awesome bulk this has, it creates an excellent synergy with Skarmory creating the best core of mono flying. Very few mons can destroy this core (Kyurem-B, LO Greninja, Entei, Tyranitar), but what other cores are there to wall these threats? (Those threats are known as the banes of flying, I can tell how to wall/weaken them if you insist).

Togekiss is a great special wall as well, but it's weak to electric which makes it more fragile than Zapdos. Also, Zapdos has a BST of 100 in Speed, which can make it faster than most walls and it also has one of the best ability a wall can have, PRESSURE, which can PP stall most walls (I once ended up in a 1v1 with my Zapdos and Acast 's Mega Venusaur and I pp stalled him, I don't think he remembers though). Anyways, it is HIGHLY recommended in flying teams, and the only reason I think it's not used is because some people doesn't want to be generic.

Therefore, I nominate Zapdos for Flying as S-Rank

I actually do remember that PP stall battle. Ever since then I have been very wary of Pressure pokemon to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again.
Anyway, I'm starting to see good arguments from both sides of this debate so I've decided that I'll be neutral on Zapdos. I still think the only thing that stands out about it as a special wall/tank is its typing. If it weren't for the typing, it wouldn't be looked at twice considering Togekiss's stats and move pool are far better suited to the role, but I suppose typing is enough.

 

[truedrew]

I agree with wha Acast has said and i agree it might not be A rank sorry if i came of as rude just dealing with stress after pro-conning it i have decided that B+ or B is good as rightly said it is not the best for a rank

 

[n64lord]

Vaporeon (water) for C rank

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Scald
- Roar

The bread and butter vaporeon, it can provide substational healing for its team and itself, and dosen't let people set up on him due to roar. If you have a heal bell pokemon in reserve, it can repeatedly phase defensive teams for hazard damage. Given that it can survive two outrages from CB salamence, (and by extension quite a bit else, namely non stab attacks like fusion bolt) You might want to give up roar for the dragon specific ice beam or the general toxic, which allows you to beat down most dragon types: the difference between the uninvested ice beams of other bulky waters and the 110 base Special of vaporeon becomes clear basically immediately. Toxic deals with the dying out 3 attach gyarados, opposing walls, and most special attackers over time, although scald's presence (not forgetting teamates also using it as main stab) might limit your chances to use it.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 244 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
- Roar
- Scald
- Heal Bell
- Wish

130/95 makes a fully special vaporeon shut down special attacks even better than it did before, and with cleric support, it does a lot to prevent the opponet from beating your team in the toxic/burn damage sources. It does have more trouble healing itself though. Vaproeon also learns haze, although roar is superior in normal play.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 244 HP / 136 Def / 128 Spe
Bold Nature
- Baton Pass
- Scald
- Acid Armor
- Wish/roar

By giving vaporeon a little speed, it can roar out pokemon that would stop it from passing the acid armor. While only passing a defensive boost seems counterproductive, something like CM manaphy(not tail glow), suicune, or keldeo, already dangerous, become able to ignore even more threats with +2 extra defense. It's not really as versatile as a dual screener though. Wish over roar makes it liable to attracting whirlwinds or roars but you can repurpose it as a back up wall/cleric if your sweeper dies. It should always have sturdy breaking srealth rock support before passing, as the opponet will of course fodder skarmory if it means phasing a bulked up manaphy.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Scald
- Baton Pass

Baton Pass without boosts is used like volt turn, vaporeon uses it's slowness and bulk to take the opponet's attack, and then you get to bring in Keldeo/Greninja without them taking light hits on top of hazards and their life orb, or status directed at vaporeon.

 

[n64lord]

Forretress (Bug) for A rank and (Steel) for D rank

Really this picture sums him up: he is the centerpiece that makes bug HO possible through supreme support options.

Forretress @ Red card
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Spikes
- Toxic
- Volt switch

The standard forretress can set up in people's faces by virtue of it's red card. Personally, I like to run pain split over toxic, since the guy dragged in by red card will be crippled, and your health will return to levels where you can get a rapid spin in later as well (assuming you did it early game so most of their team was at full health. Painsplit also allows you to whittle down specific walls and tanks in an emergency. Sturdy acts as a one time fail safe against suprise fire attacks from mix pokes and specs powered psychos like keldeo. Volt switch allows you to bring in pinsir, genesect, scizor, venomoth, or whatever with forretress taking the attack on the turn you leave. Gyro ball is proscribed if you feel like things like deo-S, megadactly, azelf, crobat, keep taunting you, but they aren't really favored atm in monotype.

Forretress @ Light Clay
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- volt switch/ stealth rock

Dual screens might make the safety of volt switch passable, it's up to you really. This makes the sword dance mons and volcarona all the more scary, and is one of the only answers to dual screen rotom (as bug monos lack phazers to deal with people setting up behind screens) Keep in mind that all forretress really like the support of a 4 attack pokemon (prob choiced) or a 3-attack+roost pokemon due to attracting taunt users. And that the opponet can predict this and status them instead.

Forretress @ Mental Herb
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Stealth Rock

Going for maximum hazards is a bit ridiculous in the defog era, and additionally bug team's have to rely on the opponent making the switches, as they have no phasing ability outside of defensive szicor, which anyway, would need a dedicated special tank as well, of which their are only assvest escavalier and shuckle.

Forretress @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Atk / 144 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Explosion
- Earthquake

DPP forretress can lure in heatran in the match vs steel or infernape vs fighting and by dropping earthquake on the switch, you get paydirt in eliminating the primary check to most of your team. Explosion can put many persistant pokemon into KO range of bullet punch or your scarfers.

Forretress provides massive support to bug teams, and has few rivals for his job. He can stop the dread terrakion if he choses to run full bold and gyro ball. Hazards ensure the few super walls cabable of living boosted attacks from your mega pokemon die just like their lesser counterparts, and makes fragile-esque pokemon safer for your scarfed genesect or heracross to take out. He also eliminates the dreaded stealth rock. Sadly he hates taunt so very much. On steel teams, his lack of reliable healing more or less automatically make klefki and skarmory preferrable and leave him with the D pokemon. You can also experiment with power trick/gravity/counter+sturdy shenanigans or overcoat to rip smeargle and grass types a new one.