Reuniclus

[Wanderer]

I on the other hand think it's pretty viable for OU, though not top. With some support that's easily gotten this generation, you can remove Tyranitar and Scizor that plague Psychic-types, which makes Rankurusu's life much easier. Without those super-effective hits on it, it's really quite bulky and can weather a lot of things with Magic Guard backing it. The rumours of unblockable spin have been proven false, so stall is looking stronger than ever with all the new tools that are available to it.

tl,dr: Rankurusu provides an easy solution for teams with problems facing stall and I think it'll receive its fair share of use.

 

[heroic poke]

I doubt Rankurusu will be OU. It has terrible STAB, is Pursuit weak, and has very low Speed. Trick Room still needs a turn to be set up, so Trick Room teams will suffer from the same problems this generation as the last. Stall is looking less and less viable due to unblockable Rapid Spin and numerous hard-hitting Pokemon, so Rankurusu will be a very niche Pokemon when used as a wallbreaker. I can see Rankurusu being a top UU contender, though.

point taken, just because you're tiered into UU doesn't mean you won't find niche uses in OU that could absolutely benefit your team. whilst before clefable was the only capable TrickOrber you could possibly use in OU, we now have an additional option in ranku who has slightly better defenses, a much higher offensive stat, although at the cost of additionaly weaknesses.

regarding the bolded part, going slightly off-topic (although still probably relevant to the ranku discussion), might reflect and light screen become more important now in a very, very offense-oriented generation?

 

[tofucocoa]

I'm kinda thinking along the lines of TR+Abomasnow. Magic Guard prevents Hail damage, and with Recover, this thing will be setting up for a while.

EDIT: In Doubles/Triples, if that wasn't clear.

 

[Desolation101]

What about a Wonder Room set? It seems interesting to me.

Rankurusu @ Leftovers
Magic Guard
Nature: Bold/Calm/Modest
4 HP/252 Def/88 SpAtk/164 SpDef
Wonder Room
Psycho Shock
Focus Blast/Thunder
Shadow Ball/Thunder/Thunder Wave/Grass Knot

I think this may be an interesting or good moveset what do you guys think?

 

[Wanderer]

Wonder Room doesn't seem all that effective. It just means you'll be walled by physical walls and stuff like Metagross instead of Blissey. Might as well stick with Psycho Shock.

 

[Desolation101]

It could be useful to keep switching the defenses of pokemon that are weak to certain moves but have the higher defense or special defence that will lessen the damage, therefore your team can work around different counters. That is if wonder room works like trick room.

 

[Gazooki]

I recommend sticking 40 defense EVs on the Trick Room Sweeper set, just in case Tyranitar starts to adapt to its presence by running Adamant. A Quiet 252/40 Rankurusu won't be OHKO'd on full HP, so it can set up TR then hopefully blast T-Tar with Focus Blast. You don't have to worry about the sandstorm either with Magic Guard.

 

[Lemmiwinks MkII]

Personally, I think a set like this shows the most promise in OU play:

Rankurusu @ Life Orb
Magic Guard
Nature: Relaxed
164 HP/248 Def/96 SDef
Focus Blast
Shadow Ball
Calm Mind
Recover

With this you get perfect coverage and can hit almost all threatening Pokemon hard right off the bat, even without Special Attack investment (I believe Focus Blast is guaranteed to OHKO 252 HP Tyranitar w/ SR, whilst Scizor is taking ~60%, and Geno about the same without defensive investment). Stallish Pokes meanwhile are set up on almost indefinitely. Rankurusu doesn't need Psycho Shock to beat standard Blissey, just set up a load of CMs, Recover to full health, then Focus Blast to KO. Only more gimmicky Calm Mind / Psych Up variants are an issue as a result.

Rankurusu benefits from having a lot more of what holds Clefable back the most, namely bulk and power. Scizor's CB U-turn doesn't KO this, and even CBTar's Crunch is not guaranteed to KO, assuming unchanged mechanics of course. It makes for a great check against numerous Fighting types, and can also check some Trick Room teams if need be.

I can certainly see this filling a niche in OU, if only a mid-to-low threat. There are definitely ways of playing around it, and stall is unlikely to be common anyway in the new metagame, but it is yet another strong 'checkmate' Pokemon that will easily walk over you if you don't prepare for it.

 

[Raikaria]

I'm fairly certain that Rankurusu will not be OU, there's too many Dark/Steel/Scizors there.

Although, Rankurusu would be EXCELLENT on a Trick Room team. Base 125 Sp.Attack, and Base 30 Speed. And he's got the bulk to set it up, and Regeneration means he can keep coming back in to set it up again later! If Trick Room proves good in Gen 5 [And with Rain/Sun/Sand abusers, this would stop them dead]

However, I can see this thing easily replaceing Clefable's role in UU. Better stats, actually has resistances, and can actually hit back!

 

[Heartgold]

I found this set quite deadly for a mid/end sweeper, using that 125 SP ATK to the max and taking advantage of its 30 base speed, does smack a lot of holes. This has been my best set of this pokemon, no other set has worked well as this in my battles.

Rankurusu @ Life Orb
Magic Guard
Nature: Quiet
252HP/252 Sp.Atk/6 Def
Focus Blast
Shadow Ball
Psycho Shock
Trick room

 

[Wafflez]

With 20 speed, it's almost guarenteed to go first​

Im sure you ment 30 =P.
Woah well i wonder how this one slipped by without me noticing.This is officially on my favourates list.This thing is amazing with its bulk and power and a very well placed ability.This will probably make a top tier threat when everything settles down and people realize its amazing potential.Seriusly this thing is so versetile.My favourate set is probably the simple LO attacker which seems to be qutie promising.Dont really have anything to suggest tho.Nice write up btw =].​

 

[ShinyAzelf]

The Life Orb set is great. Also being able to take a Pursuit (if it stays in) is a great bonus for Rankurusu. From there, nailing Tyranitar with a Focus Blast is awesome! Its speed sucks, but maybe we could make use of Trick Room!

 

[Lucindril]

One good thing about slow sweepers is that they have plenty of room for bulk. If your speed is below 60 you're pretty much hopeless, because outspeeding base 115s with Choice Scarf is pretty important. Rankurusu thankfully has that great HP to take advantage of. I can see it living a long time in the right hands.

 

[the voice of reason]

Regarding Rankurusu's stallbreaking abilities...

Are people actually feeling that substitute is necessary on the stallbreaking set? I would think that recover / calm mind / psycho shock / focus blast would be plenty to break some popular forms of stall, such as SkarmBliss, and hail stall. I feel a very strong instinct to put thunder over focus blast, but I don't know how effective that would be.

I've only seen him in a few scattered matches on youtube, so I don't really have a good idea of what his true potential is, as I think that the set I saw was substitute / recover / psychic / thunder, which is more or less a stalling set. Any thoughts on how our little plasma bear can best break stall?

 

[Lucindril]

I used this a few times on PO and it's amazing, as long as you keep it hidden until mid-game. You don't even need Trick Room all the time, because its bulk is great, and you have Recover + Magic Guard to keep it healthy for a while. It can counter both Burunkeru and Nattorei at the same time, which is great for any Pokemon.

 

[Forsety]

I'm kinda thinking along the lines of TR+Abomasnow. Magic Guard prevents Hail damage, and with Recover, this thing will be setting up for a while.

I'm thinking this would be the best role for alot of Rankurusu set too. A pure bulky psychic like Rankurusu w/ passive damage immunity would provide a huge opportunity for a switch in against fighting attacks which most ice teams tend to be weak to.

Actually I'm thinking if theres some possibility of EV'ing Rankurusu more towards being physically bulky for the TR set. He seems barely bulky enough to survive some pretty big hits really well along with his ridiculous s.atk and no recoil LO to make up for not running full s.atk.

Though no matter what you do hes still getting mauled by CBScizor...

 

[the voice of reason]

It can counter both Burunkeru and Nattorei at the same time, which is great for any Pokemon.

Do you judge that it needs focus miss to do this? Or can one feasibly calm mind up against Nattorei and knock it dead with psycho shock and thunder? I mean, I'm currently thinking "FOURMOVESLOTSYNDROMEFOURMOVESLOTSYNDROMEFOURMOVESLOTSYNDROMEFOURMOVESLOTSYNDROME" in my mind, due to wanting to be able to clean the clocks of both Nattorei and Tyranitar with focus blast, Blissey with psycho shock, and Burunkeru and bulky waters not named Swampert with thunder. If it was thunderbolt instead of thunder, I wouldn't hesitate...

I don't want to miss out on stab, and yet I don't want to be unable to actually break stall, which is the whole point of using Ranku, IMO. What is your experience regarding this on PO? Or anyone else's opinion on wifi, or whatever simulator?

Also, with regeneration (which we're technically not supposed to discuss yet, due to it being a dream world ability) this can be an excellent paralyzer. Teams with Togekiss that want Togekiss to have both roost and nasty plot can use this to paralyze the opponent's team. It's slow, so it can make good use of thunderwave itself, it can beat most natural cure pokemon (although beating Blissey probably requires a stallbreaking set, with magic guard), and it's bulky and has regeneration, so it can come in again and again to paralyze more of the opponent's team. I'm picturing this:

Rankurusu @aiming mark
Ability: regeneration
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 76 SAt / 56 Sdf / 4 Spd
Nature: Modest
trick
thunderwave
grass knot
psycho shock

I don't know if it really needs grass knot, as that's just to beat Starmie and ground types, the latter of which are probably handled just fine by tricking aiming mark to them and paralyzing them. The EVs give it almost balanced defenses, while still letting it screw over Porygon-Z and Genesect by giving them attack boosts instead of special attack boosts, enough speed to outrun Snorlaxen (who rarely invest an extra point in speed), and enough special attack to get the extra point with the nature boost, bringing it to 330, which is pretty damn good for a poke intended primarily as a team supporter. If he get's lucky, trick will nab him leftovers from a ground type, instead of choice band, or something awful like that.

 

[Garagara]

Everyone's making Rankurusu to be a sweeper, but when I first saw him I thought clefable 2.0. I used to see clefable every once in a while in 4th gen, and a couple times it was just ridiculously awesome. And with bulk and good SpA, I think he can be just awesome. I want to see more trick and flame orb!! With just trick, recover, flame orb and magic guard, he'd be a huge problem for both offense and defense.

 

[soul_survivor]

it can play support. it doesn't always have to set up Tr. did you forget other pokemon can set Tr up like dusknoir and bronzong.

 

[R.B.G.]

Magic Guard is an amazing ability, however, don't forget that Rankurusu also has another amazing ability in the form of Dust-proof that plenty of pokemon would kill for.

Too bad that Magic Guard also works Dust Proof.

Amazing stats, amazing ability, amazing movepool built just for its stats. Ranku, ily.

 

[Chaosking]

this thing nees to get played more. its very versatile like dialga for ubers.

 

[soul_survivor]

yea. there was a TR team on youtube. it used rankirisku and he looked great.

 

[heroic poke]

I'd rather Life Orb + Sub than set up with CM any day of the week

 

[JustChilling]

Rankurusu @ Life Orb
Magic Guard
Nature: Quiet
252HP/252 Sp.Atk/6 Def
Focus Blast
Shadow Ball
Psycho Shock
Trick room

i use this set, but with thunder instead of shadow ball and it works wonders once the trick room is up

 

[IcyMan28]

A pure bulky attacker set could work as well, with LO working as a non-restrictive but less powerful Specs set. Rankurusu has the bulk to switch in and out, so it is more than viable:

Rankurusu@Life Orb
Modest; 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 Speed

Focus Blast
Shadow Ball
Psychic / Psycho Shock
Energy Ball / HP Fire / Recover

It gets perfect neutral coverage, a STAB option, and a filler slot (and how the hell does it get Thunder but not Thunderbolt?). Energy Ball allows it to do significant damage to the water types out there, HP Fire covers the steels (think Metagross, Skarmory, Scizor, etc), and Recover is an option because the maximum investment in HP leaves Rankurusu with plenty opportunities to take advantage of its high HP and decent defenses.