Rate of the Week V3: Week 38

[Enki]

Rate of the Week
​

Welcome to Rate of the Week! This is a project that looks to bring quality individual rates into the spotlight and recognizes the hard work of unbadged raters. Here's how it will work:

• Each week, official Team Raters will be paying close attention to the RMT forum and reading the rates posted in their respective tiers. They will then shortlist a few which will be in contention for the Rate of the Week award.
• From the pool of shortlisted rates, one will be chosen which most exemplifies the qualities of an excellent rate. That rater will be the winner for that particular tier!
• A post will be made by an official TR who specialises in that tier, explaining how and why the particular rate won. This will allow aspiring raters to gain an idea of what constitutes high-quality rates, and hopefully incorporate those aspects into their own rates.
• There will be multiple winners every week, one from OU and a couple from other tiers depending on the quality of the rates posted. We hope that in this way we can expand rating activity in less popular tiers, while maintaining a weekly OU winner.
• Official Team Raters are eligible to win, but unbadged raters will have priority since that is the main focus of this project.

So what's in it for the winners? Well, they will earn a place in the Hall of Fame, which will be kept in the OP of every thread, and will earn more consideration for the Ladybug

and Team Rater

badges. Also, after gaining three places in the Hall of Fame, a rater will be eligible to earn voice status in the RMT room on PS! on the condition that they've shown an interest in getting involved.

We hope that this project will encourage people to put more effort into their rates and become better and more experienced raters, which will consequently increase the quality as well as the quantity of rates in the forum. Good luck to you all!

Hall of Fame

Week #1 - Toon Linked (OU)
Week #2 - Nedor (OU), Arifeen (UU)
Week #3 - Fireburn (Ubers), Do A Bibarel (UU)
Week #4 - AM (OU), Raiza (PU), Kiyo (NU)
Week #5 - FlamingVictini (OU)
Week #6 - Cyndequil. (UU)
Week #7 - BreloomMyHomie (OU)
Week #8 - FlamingVictini (OU)
Week #9 - oml it's too ez (OU), Cyndequil. (UU), MrAldo (RU)
Week #10 - Nedor (OU), Cyndequil. (UU), Cranham (Ubers), Lax (Monotype)
Week #11 - AM (OU)
Week #12 - Lange (OU), Amaroq (UU)
Week #13 - all falls down (UU)
Week #14 - Manipulative (UU)
Week #15 - mil (OU)
Week #16 - Tricking (OU)
Week #17 - Hector Hard Mode (OU), Christo. (UU)
Week #18 - p2 (OU), all falls down (UU)
Week #19 - ez (OU), Chakra (RU), S0LID G0LD (LC), Memoric (Doubles)
Week #20 - nv (UU), GradeAGarchomp (VGC), Joshz (Anything Goes)
Week #21 - King Sun (OU), PrinceLucian (NU), GradeAGarchomp (VGC), NOVED (Battle Spot)
Week #22 - ez (OU), fran17 (LC), TONE114 (PU)
Week #23 - Sken (LC)
Week #24 - Nedor (OU), RebornFX (VGC)
Week #25 - Adaam. (UU), Level 51 (Doubles), all falls down (Monotype)
Week #26 - bludz (OU)
Week #27 - celes (OU), Cyndequil. (UU), Chakra (RU)
Week #28 - Hector Hard Mode (OU), nv (UU)
Week #29 - Special Mention: Nedor, celes (OU)
Week #30 - Fireburn (Ubers), Level 51 (Doubles)
Week #31 - Eutychios (OU), pokeisfun (UU)
Week #32 - GradeAGarchomp (VGC)
Week #33 - ez (OU)
Week #34 - Bright Size (VGC)
Week #35 - Amaroq (UU)
Week #36 - ez (OU)
Week #37 - zbr (OU)
Week #38 - tigers jaw (OU), Killintime (UU)

 

[Cynde]

This weeks UU winner is Killintime! His rate was one that used small changes to bring about greater efficiency in the team. He starts off his rate by recommending that Iron Tail be run over Superpower on Hydreigon in order to prevent Slurpuff and Specs Sylveon from gaining a free turn versus the team as those Fairy-types were very threatening.

His next change was to run Bullet Punch over Ice Punch on Lucario as it would help mitigate his Fairy-type weakness even further. In addition to this Adamant Lucario tends to run double priority in order to make up for not running a Speed-Boosting nature.

He wraps up his rate by optimising Foretress' EV spread in order to take Hyper Voices from Sylveon and provides the set with passive recovery by recommending Leftovers. His last change is to run Roar over Toxic on Swampert in order to soft check Gyarados. Thanks to his rate killintime has earned himself a well deserved spot in the Hall of Fame! Congratulations!

 

[dream light]

This week's OU winner is tigers jaw! He made a well structured rate with good suggestions for the current metagame.

tigers jaw started by analyzing the team's obvious flaws, which included a lack of Stealth Rock, no Keldeo switch-in, no counterplay to Earthquake Charizard X, and a few suboptimal sets. He then fixed up the less optimal sets, replacing Air Slash with Roost on Charizard-Y, improving the Scarf Tyranitar's EV spread to outpace Latios and Starmie, and giving it Stone Edge. tigers jaw also proposed using Choice Band Tyranitar in its place to improve the team's matchup against stall if the team builder found themselves having trouble with that. He then pointed out that reliable Fighting-type STAB in Secret Sword was essentially mandatory on Keldeo for scenarios where missing was game-changing.

tigers jaw then replaced Skarmory with Landorus-T, reasoning that Skarmory had been a momentum-sink and that Landorus-T could handle the roles that it was handling much more effectively while handling Mega Charizard-X and setting Stealth Rock. He gave it a Yache Berry to lure out Thundurus and KO it with Stone Edge, which otherwise posed an existential threat to the team. tigers jaw also mentioned that U-Turn could provide momentum for the team, potentially garnering Charizard-Y and other members free switch-ins.

However, tigers jaw noticed that the team now had no hazard removal for Charizard-Y. Therefore, he replaced Chansey with Defog Latios, which also doubled as a reliable Keldeo check with Roost while also providing the team with significantly more offensive presence. Finally, tigers jaw replaced Tornadus-T with Scarf Jirachi in order to cover up for the lack of Latios switch-ins caused by removing Chansey. This change also provided the team with a source of speed control and Healing Wish, which could be crucial for Tyranitar.

Although raters are normally not advised to change three Pokemon throughout the course of a rate, tigers jaw's changes made the team much more solid and relevant against current threats where it had previously been destroyed by a vast majority of the metagame. Thanks to his well-structured rate, tigers jaw has earned himself a place in the Hall of Fame! Congratulations.