These are just my opinions, not the actual changes lol.
A- ---> A: Agree/Indifferent
Clefable is definitely one of the best Pokemon in A- imo. It's pretty damn splashable considering how much it soft checks in the meta, and it's a reliable rocker that can get them up vs stall which is huge atm. It's fantastic for switching into Zygarde as well as Mew, and it can also 1v1 Boltbeam Magearna as long as it's not running CM as well. Depending on what 4th move it runs it can bait in shit like Tran and Steela to Knock Off their Lefties which I personally think is the best option given how common both are atm, and Flame is nice for Ferro/Mawile. I do agree with NJNP tho that it often does let some Pokemon in for free, mainly Sub Heatran which is very problematic to deal with, and stuff like Volcarona and Zard-Y give zero fucks about it unless it runs T-wave which is pretty rare. Tbh I think you can say similar things about other mons in A such as Growth or Ferro, but to a lesser extent considering Growth's coverage and Ferro's hazards/Leech. I could go either way.
A ---> A-: Disagree
Keldeo is still one of the best Scarfers in the tier imo. Mega T-tar is one of the most annoying Pokemon to revenge kill, and being able to hard switch into it is very nice at times as well, which is something Gren can't do. Charti Volcarona is a lot less common now because more people are beginning to shift back to Z move sets, so Keldeo can revenge kill it more reliably. I also agree with NJNP that Specs Keldeo is underrated considering that some people's best switch-in to Keldeo are Celesteela and Scarf Latios, both of which take a fuck ton from Pump/Secret Sword. I still think it's one of the more solid Pokemon in the metagame, and I'd like to see it in A personally.
A- ---> B+: Agree
Mega Zam is still a cunt in some matchups but overall I'm not too fond of it. I wouldn't use Zam without Lele atm, considering that it really needs that extra support to not be extremely vulnerable to priority and be able to tear holes into shit like AV Growth and whatnot. While it's a good core, it's very exploitable defensively and doesn't really allow you to slap Zam on that many teams because of it. The influx in Magearna as well as Steela is really bad for it, its match up vs stall is obviously not very good (the stallbreaker set is niche as fuck and makes Zam significantly worse in every other match up) and Scarf Gren is more common now which basically gives it free momentum.
A- ---> B+: Strongly Agree
Gengar is just not good at all right now. AV Magearna easily eats hits from all sets, influx in CB T-tar as well as Weavile is really bad for it, and choiced sets give Mega T-tar free set up which is absolutely terrible. Mega Lopunny can take advantage of Specs Shadow as well. Better breakers exist.
A- ---> B+: Agree
Zone is still nice in the metagame because of its ability to trap problematic Steels mainly for Pinsir which hates the fact that Celesteelas are beginning to run more phys def spreads, but other than that, it fails to trap other Steels such as Magearna and Skarmory considering that most Skarms are using Shed Shell these days. A lot of Pinsir teams are forgoing running Zone entirely. AV is the only viable set and while it's a pretty good pivot, not being able to reliably check Magearna sucks for it because Z Focus Blast sets still fuck it over, and AV sets just grab momentum off of it. It can still check Koko as well as Scarf Lele and Greninja so it's still decent, but I don't think it's A- anymore.
A- ---> B+: Indifferent
Mega Scizor is still a decent Defogger that is able to check the most common variants of Bulu running around which is very useful for bulkier teams as well as CB Zyg. Its usefulness has dropped with the banning of Metagross for sure, but I still think its utility and insane physical bulk/typing is nice and it's still a pretty good pivot. Usage in Zone dropping is also nice too. Heatran and Zard-Y usage obviously gives it issues but you could also say the same with how Bulu usage is rising, which is great for it. I could go either way tbh.
---> B+
Gallade has been decent from my experience so far. I need to use it more, but so far I've been decently impressed. While its match up vs stall is still complete garbage, it loves the fact that Mew is being spammed atm, because it can seriously tear apart defensive cores such as CelePex, Heatran, Mew, etc. Clefable is beaten 1v1 if it switches in as it SDs, because a +2 Zen will 2HKO and Moonblast doesn't even come close to killing from full. Gallade has issues with fat Lando because the only viable set IMO is SD STABs Knock, otherwise you are better off just using Medicham. It also struggles to set up vs some things because of it being so prone to status as well as low phys def so it can't set up reliably vs something like fat Lando because EQ is still doing a fuck ton to you. It's not immediately threatening like Medicham and needs an SD to really do much, but its Speed tier and extra special bulk is really nice which sets it apart from Medicham as a breaker. I think one rank below Medi is good for it atm.
---> B
This Pokemon has been extremely underwhelming to me lol. While I've been using it/watching others use it, the amount of match-ups where its actually been useful has been far and few. Ladder might be a bit different because that tends to have more Webs which Lopunny obviously is good against, but in like a tour environment or outside of ladder where I run into more of the standard Mew/CelePex/Clefable builds Lopunny does basically nothing. It's also complete deadweight vs stall as well for obvious reasons. Without Ice Punch fat Lando is a huge nuisance, and without PuP it wont even have a chance to break through something like Mew/Clef. I just really dislike it atm, the meta is way too unkind to it, and it's nowhere near as useful as it was last gen.
B ---> B+: Fuck yes I hate this mon
No experience with Gard but it's underwhelming from what I can tell. Oh and btw if you haven't noticed all ready,
feel free to discuss the new megas now.
