It was a good chunk of time since the last update and Rillaboom is still much better now than it was before its rise to relevance at all, even without Sneasler.
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Resource SV OU Teal Mask Viability Ranking Thread
- Thread starter ausma
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RIP Infernape’s 1 month in the VR. Gone but not forgotten.
Also what prompted Volcanion and Ursaluna to rise on the VR?
Also what prompted Volcanion and Ursaluna to rise on the VR?
Makes sense.
So I'm guessing Rilla would've been like S- or S territory if Sneasler was still around?
Volcanion's weirdly very bulky, which in tandem with Water Absorb, Tera, and Steam Eruption can make it a brutally efficient physical tank with access to a spammable click. It helps a lot into stuff like Wellspring, Kingambit, etc. Ursaluna is also effective for a similar reason, and it benefits a decent deal from Rillaboom's high usage and Alomomola being more common to offset its longevity issues thus making it generally less reliant on Trick Room to do its job.
Okidogi can be a decent setup sweeper utilizing Bulk Up, STAB Drain Punch, Tera, and Taunt; both of its abilities having their own form of utility for its purposes is also quite good and distinguishes it from its competition, especially with Sneasler gone. Iron Treads on the other hand can be a great lead and its access to Speed-boosting Quark Drive, STAB EQ, and Rapid Spin can make it a difficult Pokemon to respond to and prevent from creating an optimal position for its teammates to follow up on.
Both of these Pokemon actually have improved from Gliscor's ban I would argue, but even if the needle hasn't moved much in their favor, they are still definitively the most defining aspects of the metagame with versatile and argubly oppressive offensive applications. If nothing else it's wise to move them to S in order to discern the more S-tier picks from A+ (Dragapult and Great Tusk) that would deserve to be higher but aren't exactly on Gholdengo/Kingambit's level of centralizing.
Garganacl I personally voted to A, so I don't personally subscribe to it in A-, but Substitute is still a relatively common option that can disrupt Garganacl's gameplan, and it doesn't help that Ting-Lu, Rillaboom, and Ogerpon are becoming better and are able to force it out one way or another.
Likely, yes. I would've voted for it to be in S- with Sneasler around.
I wanna ask how viable my boy Empoleon is and why he went down a rank?
It’s quite mediocre and hard to fit onto a team. It’s technically viable thanks to unique typing/defensive presence with a practical set of utility options, but you’re going to only see a few teams with it, let alone very good teams.
Why did Ribombee fell?? Webs are still strong and gliscor's ban has helped quite a lot.
In short: the metagame has greatly adapted to its presence. Since its gameplan and options are very run-of-the-mill, it's pretty easy to build a pipeline on how to approach it; Pokemon like Mortal Spin Glimmora, Court Change Cinderace and the many Pokemon that can 1v1 it naturally and stomach Stun Spore (like Zapdos and Gholdengo) can take it down and/or exploit it, and undoing its Sticky Web only takes one correct turn from there. It's not that the strategy is suddenly worse, but Sticky Web as a playstyle finds its greatest success in unstable metagame environments, and right now it's just easier to react to it, especially when it's pretty obvious what Ribombee is going to be doing and because Heavy-Duty Boots have hit their stride again.
Webs is still by far the best HO Style (and dare i say the only viable one) but with the rise of zapdos tinglu spikestack teams, a lot of teams have been using more cinderace and mono-boots effectively making webs useless, but then why is it the best HO Style? because it can reliably stack Balance breakers like Manaphy and Ogerpon Cornerstone while not having to worry about opposing offense teams out-offense/out-speeding them
Tauros-P = Gambit check w/ wisp + Intimidate & has good utility vs other threats such as Weavile and Meowscarada (watch out for Knock Off)
Salamence = Rillaboom + Ogerpon + Tusk check with Intimidate and Hurricane + can 1v1 certain other threats like Iron Moth and Heatran w/ EQ
Here's a team I stole that uses both quite well: https://pokepast.es/6a91c1ebca4ce680
No strength sap on the tumbleweed?
I swapped protect for Strength Sap, but both are probably equally valid options. Sap is better vs Garg, but Protect lets you deal with random Teras and Choice locks much easier, which on a Pokemon as frail as bramble is important.
Dang I thought with the 30 buffs it got it would have a chance
I dunno, maybe because Sneasler was simultaneously Rillaboom's partner AND his rival. Rillaboom did NOT like facing Sneasler at all. All it could do is High Horsepower, which, good luck doing that since Sneasler is naturally faster than him.
AZUMARILL NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOC+ to C
What caused Kingambit to rise rather than staying put? While it remains a potent win condition and check to Ghold/Pult, this was still true when it was S- rank. If anything, I feel that meta conditions have gotten more hostile toward Gambit since the Gliscor ban. Great Tusk, Cinderace, and Flame Body Moltres/Heatran are all more splashable post-Gliscor ban and constrain Gambit’s ability to sweep. I just don’t see what has changed about the meta that merits a Gambit rise.
Another question. What is keeping Lando T away from the A ranks? I know Great Tusk competes with him as Ground Type Glue. Just feels odd to not see him in an elite position.
Also why is Garchomp still B rank, was expecting it to rise to at least B+ since scale shot sets are doing decently well at the moment
Only real question I have is why 
has been doing decently enough to be in the B ranks. Tidy Up being removal that bypasses Gholdengo is really nice for it, but I'm curious too if there's more to it than that given we have many resists for Population Bomb.
has been doing decently enough to be in the B ranks. Tidy Up being removal that bypasses Gholdengo is really nice for it, but I'm curious too if there's more to it than that given we have many resists for Population Bomb.
Population bomb is REALLY scary, stuff that runs rocky helmet are usually Lando, tusk and corv and they are usually a teams knock absorber, and maus is usually paired with one or two knockers like weavile or samurott. at even just +1 u can outspeed and ohko almost the whole meta, so just the existence of maushold is enough to be threatening since you know one misplay you just get population bombed 6 times and lose.Only real question I have is why
Encore is also a puck and a half to face and forces its fair share of misplays or hasty unboosted attacks; I think Encore was underexplored pre-HOME (and maybe even post-HOME, pre-Teal Mask) for Maushold.
Mainly just competition and the importance of role compression in this meta, imo. It has its place but the lack of splashable utility outside of U-turn, Intimidate, and Stealth Rock on a Pokemon competing with Great Tusk and Ting Lu actively makes it a tougher sell. This makes it more structure reliant than anything else.
It had some votes to rise but the main thing is that Garchomp looks better as a sweeper on paper than in practice. Rillaboom’s dominance constrains things a lot for it, and requires positioning and teammate pressure to get to a point where it can actually initiate a sweep.
It’s been well over 24 hours so I’m opening the floor for discussion again. DLC is around the corner but I will try to conduct one last vote to tweak the VR before then!
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