Other XY OU Viability Ranking Thread (V3) (Rank changes are over until ORAS)

[theV8man]

Last time I checked, all the pokemon in the metagame did not count as alakazam's main threats. What I meant was that it has HP fire for scizor and focus blast or dazzling gleam for tyranitar which, to some people, might seem like a few of alakazam's main threats. It can use trace to its advantage if you can use it strategically and has access to magic guard before it mega evolves which means for one turn of switch in, it can avoid all entry hazards and damage from status if any. Also, gardevoir does have the special bulk+pixilate hyper voice but what it lacks is speed. Alakazam makes up for that with a great speed stat. Gardevoir pretty much dies to any non-resisted physical attack. I'm not saying alakazam doesn't, but he can at least attack the opponents pokemon before going down.

As great as Alakazam may seem, you have to consider that by nominating it to A rank you are comparing this thing to metagame-defining threats like Tyranitar and Garchomp, who are so much more versatile, and, in my opinion, dangerous. Sure, it's fast and decently powerful. But there are so many Pokemon that can take a hit and OHKO back, there are the scarfers, and practically any form of priority is 2HKO-ing. I personally think we're being generous by letting this thing be in A- rank, but it definitely doesn't belong in A rank...

 

[SSJ]

As great as Alakazam may seem, you have to consider that by nominating it to A rank you are comparing this thing to metagame-defining threats like Tyranitar and Garchomp, who are so much more versatile, and, in my opinion, dangerous. Sure, it's fast and decently powerful. But there are so many Pokemon that can take a hit and OHKO back, there are the scarfers, and practically any form of priority is 2HKO-ing. I personally think we're being generous by letting this thing be in A- rank, but it definitely doesn't belong in A rank...

Well I guess A- rank might be fitting for a pokemon like alakazam. I thought it seemed more versatile and powerful when I used it but I guess we can't all just go nominating everything that we use and have a success rate with to a higher rank. You can call me convinced since I think alakazam is okay right where it is right now:A-.

 

[0besity]

Mega Alakazam can be devastating in the right hands (even I created a successful team with it!) but it requires a considerable amount of support to do so. It needs help getting in and it prefers the removal of revenge killers. This can be aided a little with substitute. It definitely requires more support than the likes of Tyranitar and the Mega wallbreakers. A- is fine for it but I wouldn't argue much with a rise.

 

[Flarowak]

No. It has excellent power and Speed, but it has a ton of flaws too, way too many to be compared to Mega Gardevoir or Medicham. "Access to attacks that can counter its main threats." What does that even mean? It sounds like you're saying this Pokemon has every coverage move imaginable and can OHKO everything and has no check or counters. It's not a pivot either, it's simply a special attacker. Trace is a great ability but how often will it truly come into play. On a mon like P2, who can use Natural Cure, or really any immunity ability (if that makes sense) well due to its great bulk that will let it last, Trace is great. The only times Trace will actually come into play are with Protean and if running Psychic > Psyshock, Sheer Force. Even then you have to be mega evolved beforehand and be able to stay in for a while to abuse it which Mega Alakazam can't do often. It's really good and all but it's nowhere near as good as Gardevoir, who gains a much stronger STAB Hyper Voice (not to mention Trace before Mega Evolving, which while again rarely comes into play, if Gardevoir gains a Lightningrod boost as it comes in at any point in the battle it can then abuse it with a Pixilate Hyper Voice and a boost.) I just don't see these 2 ever being in the same rank. Also, it isn't sweeping when the opponent has Stealth Rock (99% of the time) and any priority user with decent power (99% of the time)

I agree with the notion of keeping it A-, but I just want to say that no Heatran ever expects Alakazam to trace flash fire and then eat a focus blast, it's pretty handy for immunity buffs and stuff. He doesn't get any use out of flash fire with my set, but he stays alive. Especially if you wish pass him in and mega evolve the next turn, it's awesome.

 

[RotomPoison]

I agree with the notion of keeping it A-, but I just want to say that no Heatran ever expects Alakazam to trace flash fire and then eat a focus blast, it's pretty handy for immunity buffs and stuff. He doesn't get any use out of flash fire with my set, but he stays alive. Especially if you wish pass him in and mega evolve the next turn, it's awesome.

Yes they do because that's what Mega Alakazam does

 

[Flarowak]

Yes they do because that's what Mega Alakazam does

Yet it works every time I do it. Not saying I think they shouldn't, because they 100% should, but it works for me all the time.

 

[Firebird101]

Mega Zam is fine at A-. Let it stay there.

Moving on I recall Jukain nominating Terrakion to A rank and Breloom to B+ rank and to be honest that seems about right. The metagame has been really unfavorable to both of them as of late and both of them just have bad matchups against all the psychics rampaging the metagame. And Lando-T's popularity isn't doing Terrakion any favors either.

 

[Sucker Lunch]

I would like to nominate Lanturn for D Rank. You may now proceed to laugh.
Oh and Nog gave me a thumbs up yesterday so I might as well do it.

Anyway, I started using Lanturn as joke because I'm a big fan of Rotom-Wash, and I wanted to have "two on the same team" just to annoy my good pal Albacore who has a vendetta against floating electric appliances. Anyway, I did some experimentation, and Lanturn isn't a steaming pile of shit as I once thought. He's just a normal pile of shit with a few anti-meta perks that I think should bump it to D-rank. Firstly, this thing gives no shits about Electric attacks due to Volt Absorb, and is resistant to Fire, Ice, & Steel (So GGs Magnezone & Manectric). Rotom can't touch it except for Will-O-Wisp (but Lanturn has heal bell, so it's not that big of an issue.) In addition, Lanturn carries Scald, so you're taking a risk by switching a ground type into it. Also, the fish runs Ice Beam, so even Genies have to be a little cautious. Thundurus can't spam his STAB Thundercock against Lanturn and has to resort to using Non-Stab attacks (which Lanturn can sponge due to it's impressive mixed bulk)

0 SpA Lanturn Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Thundurus: 124-148 (41.4 - 49.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Life Orb Thundurus Focus Blast vs. 40 HP / 216+ SpD Lanturn: 147-174 (36.6 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery)

Anyway, don't get me wrong. Lanturn is still a crappy pokemon and should never be used without Rotom-W (Lan lacks reliable recovery as well). But pair this fish with the washing machine and it becomes annoying as hell. Rotom checks a ton of things in the meta but gets worn down (hindering its usefulness). Lanturn takes the weight off Rotom's shoulders by checking mostly the same things, and trades a ground immunity for an electric one. In addition, it also supports the team as a Volt-Switch pivot with Heal Bell. So basically, you're giving Rotom-W more HP, Bulk, and the Natural Cure ability by pairing it with lanturn.

Lanturn requires nothing more than Rotom-W and a grass counter to be effective. Two things that aren't hard to slap on a team. Rotom-Weakshit core wears down stuff pretty fast after grass types are removed, especially with hazards up.

In summation, Lanturn is an expansion pack for Rotom-Wash and is just as viable as Jellicent, Granbull, Mantine, Blissey, and Dugtrio. Usually it's a bad idea to stack-up in this sort of fashion, but Rotom is a special case due to how well it works.

Detergent (Lanturn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Volt Switch
- Ice Beam
- Heal Bell

 

[Baharoth]

some noms

manaphy -> a. recently i've come to realize just how ridiculously good this thing is. the tg rd set is by far the best setand has gained some popularity recently. it basically 6-0's any stall team and really shits on almost every slower team. offensive teams have trouble with it because it's more than bulky enough to take a hit and just ridiculously strong. manaphy has the bulk and power to tear apart all kinds of teams and is a really underrated threat, a rank makes a lot of sense for it.

terrakion -> a. this moved up following the aegislash ban when it became really popular, but i feel it has drastically decreased in effectiveness since then. one of the biggest things is that there has been an enormous resurgence in lead chomp for offensive teams, which has displaced terrakion a bit. slowbro has become ridiculously common because of mega medicham, and that is its best counter. landorus-t is everywhere. phys def gliscor is seeing significant usage again due to mega heracross. people are starting to use hippowdon again. all these things are enormous negatives for terrakion because the whole selling point of it is breaking down these defensive cores, but adaptions these defensive cores have made are impacting it in a highly negative manner. it can't even guarantee rocks up in a lot of cases because bulky starmie and latis are on every other team. terrakion really just isn't as effective as it was, and a is a fair ranking for it.

breloom -> b+. to be honest i think this is a bit overdue. breloom was mainly used on multi-sash hyper offense teams, but those just aren't as effective in the current metagame. mega venusaur is seeing a bit of a grow in popularity at least from what i've seen. ferro is common, mew is common, latis are common, landt is common. the metagame has really just shifted out of breloom's favors due to shift in offensive builds as a whole.

kyurem-b -> b+. this thing is just taking a beating in the current metagame. its wallbreaking role is highly eclipsed by megacross/gard/cham, for one thing (all of which it loses to btw). it's hard to be a wallbreaker in this metagame when you're walled by clefable and ferrothorn. the large and growing popularity of jirachi to handle gardevoir and latis also does not bode well for it. the scarf set can be a nice surprise to catch some faster mons but it's not even that much of a surprise anymore and can be taken advantage of/beaten by many of the same mons as well as more mons due to the lock-in. kyurem-b just isn't anywhere near as effective as it was atm.

mandibuzz -> c+. mandibuzz is ass post-aegi, c+ is being nice to it. all it does is sit there and invite half the tier to come in and do whatever it wants. it basically just gives fairies, mega heracross, heatran, keldeo, gard, gliscor, venu, etc free switch-ins. it beats like...nothing anymore. chomp i guess? drill i guess? landt i guess? i can hardly think of much else besides a handful of pokemon. giving free switch-ins to all sorts of dangerous pokemon while not even providing much itself outside of defogging itself. and as a defensive defogger, i'd pick skarm any day with all the pinsir, diggersby, what have you running around. i have not seen a single seriously used mandibuzz since the aegislash ban, and there's a reason for that: it's bad, and needs to move down far.

inferzaken are you joking zard y is still rlly good and a big threat to lots of teams. people who use latis to beat it just get their lati pursuit trapped, the metagame is very underprepared for it in general. i haven't use zard y myself very recently but i've seen people use it and it is just a threat. some replay links to help illustrate what i mean.

links

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-166203837
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-166181467
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-166164284

zard y is just an incredible nuke. it boasts enormous consistency over other wallbreakers with nice bulk and reliable recovery which make it much easier to use as a consistent threat throughout the match. it also requires very little prediction, unlike say mega heracross which can be played around because of that.

I agree with most of your nominations, Kyub however should stay where he is. The Life orb set is still incredibly powerful and many stall teams have trouble dealing with it. Fusion bolt, Ice Beam, Dragon Claw already cover most of what stall usually carries. In the last slot it can use HP Fire or Iron Head for Clefable and Ferrothorn to make it easier to deal with them but even without it, Ice Beam leaves a pretty big dent in Ferro and Fusion Bolt can 2hko phys def clef with a little prior damage, the calm spd spread that got popular lately is cleanly 2hkoed. It pairs nicely with Pinsir and Magnezone in which case it doesnt have to worry about Ferro at all. Chansey is also 2hkoed after rocks. Its utility against offense is limited but even there it can usually grab a kill or 2 with its sheer power. Sure it faces competition from the mega wallbreakers but it has one pretty obvious advantage over them. Its not a mega.

 

[Celticpride]

So basically, you're giving Rotom-W the regenerator ability by pairing it with lanturn.
Small, small nitpick, I think you are referring to Natural Cure instead of Regenerator, Scarfed Raptor.

 

[Sucker Lunch]

So basically, you're giving Rotom-W the regenerator ability by pairing it with lanturn.
Small, small nitpick, I think you are referring to Natural Cure instead of Regenerator, Scarfed Raptor.

Yup, thank you for that.

 

[Alfalfa]

Doesn't that just mean that Espeon should just drop to C? I know it has a solid niche but baton pass teams are pretty much history and I can't even remember the last time I faced one. Unless I'm missing something and Espeon is being used outside of baton pass teams I think it should drop. At least Sylveon can run choice specs and yet it shares the same rank as it's psychic sibling.

Alexwolf is convinced that Espeon with GeoPass support is viable. While I will not deny its usability, hat he does not mention is how much support GeoPassed Espeon needs just to pull its weight. But yeah, I back your Espeon for C Rank. We need to discourage people from actually using this as a dual screener or offensive Pokemon, because there are so many better Pokemon do to those roles. Plus, Espeon is so predictable - switch it into Ferrothorn to deflect Stealth Rock, and bam! You get hit with Power Whip or Gyro Ball. While Espeon does pressure hazard setters, it is not that difficult to deal with. Espeon for C Rank.

 

[Aragorn the King]

I'm just gonna repost my blurb about why cress belongs in B-:

Cresselia is a really underrated Pokemon now. Ever since the Aegislash ban, Psychic-types have skyrocked in viability, and this is for two reasons. The first reason is the more obvious one; there's one less Pokemon that can abuse Cress. Aegislash resisted Psychic and Ice, is immune to Toxic, didn't really care about Thunder Wave or Hidden Power Fire, and could kill it very easily with Shadow Ball. Now, Cress doesn't have to worry about Aegislash any more, and the other two viable Ghosts don't particularly enjoy dealing with Cress. The second reason is that Aegislash's removal also made Mega Medicham much more common, and so having a Pokemon that resists High Jump Kick and Zen Headbutt is a necessity on every stall team. Many people choose Slowbro for this role, since it also acts as a bulky water, some choose Victini, due to the extreme offensive presence, access to Will-o-Wisp, and Fairy resistance, and some choose Mew, due to its ability to terrorize opposing stall teams. However, Cresselia is also an incredibly viable choice for the role. Cresselia can counter Mega Medicham extremely well, while also countering Charizard-Y (it also can abuse Moonlight's recovery with the sun's boost), Mega Gardevoir, Landorus, Talonflame, Latias, Landorus-T, Latios, Greninja, Garchomp, and some other offensive threats. Of course, it's a defensive Psychic-type, so everyone always talks about how it's complete Pursuit bait. However, its defensive set commonly runs Reflect, which allows it to flee from Pursuit users in relatively good health. Being a defensive Psychic also makes people go crazy over the Knock Off weakness. However, it doesn't mind the move that much, since STAB users of it are somewhat rare now and coverage variants are relatively easily brushed off. An extremely good quality of Cresselia on stall teams is that it hard walls Calm Mind Landorus, which no other stallmon can do. Calm Mind Landorus isn't extremely common, but if you're running a stall team without Cresselia, you will lose to it. Cress also has a couple other pros, like being able to run a good dual screens set, access to Lunar Dance which is great for HO, and Trick Room, which is niche as hell but decent.

I'm not going to just say its pros though. Cresselia obviously has its flaws that prevent it from being a top-tier threat. The most major of these flaws is its incredibly unreliable recovery. Cresselia has the bulk to stand up to the likes of Excadrill, Mega Garchomp, and Talonflame, but sand restricting its recovery is pretty terrible. Moonlight also has low PP, and furthermore is restricted by rain. The only benefits of it are the ability to abuse Charizard-Y's sun, but that isn't that important, considering you avoid the 2hko anyway. Cresselia's offensive presence is also pretty terrible; it can't 2hko stuff like Amoonguss, can't OHKO dragonite after rocks, and only barely 2hkos Keldeo. I've also been stressing how Cress likes its Psychic-typing for Medicham, and it does. However, outside of Cham and Landorus, which again are huge, it relies on tanking super effective and neutral hits a lot. It isn't weak to that many attacks in OU, but it also only resists/is immune to three types, two of which are relatively rare.

When you look at Cress and try to rank her, you see her pros and cons, and have to see how they balance out. On the negative side, it's hurt by unreliable recovery, slight 4MSS, and a very specialized defensive typing that leaves it neutral to most moves. On the positive side, it's able to fulfill multiple niches on stall teams: it's the only stop to CM Landorus, and it also counters multiple other Pokemon, such as Mega Medicham, Charizard-Y, Mega Gardevoir, Landorus, Talonflame, Latias, Latios, Landorus-T, Greninja, and Garchomp, and can check, less reliably, pretty much every other offensive Pokemon that doesn't use Dark/Ghost/Bug STAB. It does struggle against stall teams, but that isn't as important as its handling of offensive teams, since its job is to be a glue mon on stall teams able to counter, or at least check, almost everything in OU. I think its pros outweight its cons, and so, in tandem with its need for some support (something to handle Bug-, Dark-, and Ghost-types as well as weather teams), I think it fits in the B rank perfectly. Comparing it to mons like Staraptor and Celebi is somewhat hard, so I don't think it's a great fit for B. However, I think its capabilities on stall teams equate that of Chesnaught; in fact, they work pretty damn well together. For the reasons above, I think Cresselia should stay in B-.

edit: okay i totally forgot gardevoir sometimes runs taunt. only 21.212% of them run it on the ladder, but it's still unrealistic to say that cress is a 100% counter to it. However, this slight decrease int he amount of the mons it completely counters shouldn't deter it from remaining in B-.

I'd also support Mandibuzz, Breloom, and Kyurem-B dropping. All three are really struggling to stand out in this metagame, and just are nowhere near as viable as the mons in the same ranking as them. I feel like this goes for Mandibuzz especially, since it doesn't really do anything anymore. It checks chomp, lando, and landt, which is cool, but apart from that, it struggles, since ghost spam is really dead.

I'm not really sure about Lanturn. I know we'd only be giving it D, but I think D should be for mons with some relevance in OU. Theoretically, I guess Lanturn is ok. It has the same resistances as Rotom-W, and trades Rotom's ground immunity for an electric immunity. I've never actually used/seen it, so I'll just stop there, and let people who have decide its tiering.

 

[Lil YoshiXD]

I'm just gonna repost my blurb about why cress belongs in B-:


I'd also support Mandibuzz, Breloom, and Kyurem-B dropping. All three are really struggling to stand out in this metagame, and just are nowhere near as viable as the mons in the same ranking as them. I feel like this goes for Mandibuzz especially, since it doesn't really do anything anymore. It checks chomp, lando, and landt, which is cool, but apart from that, it struggles, since ghost spam is really dead.

I'm not really sure about Lanturn. I know we'd only be giving it D, but I think D should be for mons with some relevance in OU. Theoretically, I guess Lanturn is ok. It has the same resistances as Rotom-W, and trades Rotom's ground immunity for an electric immunity. I've never actually used/seen it, so I'll just stop there, and let people who have decide its tiering.

I do support this, but in no way does cress counter mega gard. Mega gard commonly taunts you and hyper voices you to death.

 

[Aragorn the King]

I do support this, but in no way does cress counter mega gard. Mega gard commonly taunts you and hyper voices you to death.

Yeah that's fair. I was assuming Will-o-Wisp > Taunt, but I guess that isn't as common anymore. I just checked, and Taunt is used on 21.212% of Gardevoir on the ladder, so Cress will beat it the majority of the time. However, ik that in general tournys > ladder play, so it is unrealistic to say that Cress is a total counter to Garde. It's still cool that it has a pretty good chance to avoid the 3hko from Hyper Voice though.

 

[lalala45]

Lanturn is much bulkier than its friend rotom-w at least on the specially defensive side I guess, with a better movepool offensive wise (scald, dazzling gleam, ice beam etc.) and heal bell if it wants to cure status. It basically can check things that rotom-w has a hard time checking even if rotom invests in bulk, like most electrics with volt absorb (thundy, raikou, etc.) as well as checking most bulky waters and absorbing scalds with water absorb. It could even a run a nasty soak+offensive set or soak+toxic set to significantly weaken grass types if it wanted to.

But....you know what, the ground weakness really hurts a lot, and its just so stupid when you predict wrong and the ground type switches in for free, not to mention that its slow too :/.

I don't know, most people probably prefer rotom anyways, (will-o-wisp tooooo goooooood) so I don't see lanturn going up very high, but it has its merits, so I can say C.

 

[Firebird101]

I don't know, most people probably prefer rotom anyways, (will-o-wisp tooooo goooooood) so I don't see lanturn going up very high, but it has its merits, so I can say C.

Let's not aim too high ;) D rank is a fine place to put it. Haven't tried it out myself though so... ^_^

 

[lalala45]

Let's not aim too high ;) D rank is a fine place to put it. Haven't tried it out myself though so... ^_^

Heh, its okay, I've had success with lanturn in OU some time ago and it puts in work when it get the opportunity. Especially with the soak set, toxicing a ferrothorn and hitting it supereffectively with volt switch felt so good xD.

Maybe I'm biased? I probably can be sometimes :).

 

[Srn]

Yeah that's fair. I was assuming Will-o-Wisp > Taunt, but I guess that isn't as common anymore. I just checked, and Taunt is used on 21.212% of Gardevoir on the ladder, so Cress will beat it the majority of the time. However, ik that in general tournys > ladder play, so it is unrealistic to say that Cress is a total counter to Garde. It's still cool that it has a pretty good chance to avoid the 3hko from Hyper Voice though.

U also gotta watch out for Calm Mind (in addition to taunt), which is ridiculously underrated and dangerous. Besides, cress isn't doing much back except t-wave, and its not really worth wasting moonlight's precious pp on something you hardly touch. Cress is a bad answer to mega garde.

 

[Alfalfa]

Lanturn is much bulkier than its friend rotom-w at least on the specially defensive side I guess, with a better movepool offensive wise (scald, dazzling gleam, ice beam etc.) and heal bell if it wants to cure status. It basically can check things that rotom-w has a hard time checking even if rotom invests in bulk, like most electrics with volt absorb (thundy, raikou, etc.) as well as checking most bulky waters and absorbing scalds with water absorb. It could even a run a nasty soak+offensive set or soak+toxic set to significantly weaken grass types if it wanted to.

But....you know what, the ground weakness really hurts a lot, and its just so stupid when you predict wrong and the ground type switches in for free, not to mention that its slow too :/.

I don't know, most people probably prefer rotom anyways, (will-o-wisp tooooo goooooood) so I don't see lanturn going up very high, but it has its merits, so I can say C.

What common threats does Lanturn effectively check aside from Thundurus, Talonflame, and Greninja (don't say Keldeo, Lanturn needs a lot of investment just to take two Specs Secret Swords)?

 

[lalala45]

What common threats does Lanturn effectively check aside from Thundurus, Talonflame, and Greninja?

lanturn can check special bird spam such as torn-t, moltres, togekiss, as well as checking azumarill to an extent (you are faster than it if azu is running no speed), especially if you choose to run water absorb instead to check the belly drum set;it is just as viable as volt absorb, especially for checking things like slowbro and bulky starmie, other bulky waters, etc. It also checks heatran without earth power as well as skarmory, magnezone (when running volt absorb), mandibuzz, gengar to an extent (shaky though), mega scizor (shaky if you are banking on a burn from scald), other rotom-w and alomamola (especially if running toxic). Aside from that, it can check a variety of other moderately powerful special attackers with its huge hp stat.

If you run physically defensive, you can check talonflame and azumarill much better as well as scarf jirachi.

 

[Kurona]

lanturn can check special bird spam such as torn-t, moltres, togekiss, as well as checking azumarill to an extent (you are faster than it if azu is running no speed), especially if you choose to run water absorb instead to check the belly drum set;it is just as viable as volt absorb, especially for checking things like slowbro and bulky starmie, other bulky waters, etc. It also checks heatran without earth power as well as skarmory, magnezone (when running volt absorb), mandibuzz, gengar to an extent (shaky though), mega scizor (shaky if you are banking on a burn from scald), other rotom-w and alomamola (especially if running toxic). Aside from that, it can check a variety of other moderately powerful special attackers with its huge hp stat.

If you run physically defensive, you can check talonflame and azumarill much better as well as scarf jirachi.

No-one seriously uses Moltres anymore while Togekiss and Tornadus-T are far from common.

 

[lalala45]

No-one seriously uses Moltres anymore while Togekiss and Tornadus-T are far from common.

Well maybe we both have different experiences, but the highest I got in the OU ladder was the high 1800s to low 1900s, so I don't know how legitimate my info is based on what you've experienced.

If you say that torn-t and togekiss aren't that common then I'll take your word for it. However, lanturn does check a lot of things, some more so than rotom could and most of what I mentioned is common to both of us, like heatran and slowbro, so :/.

feel free to disagree.

 

[Alfalfa]

Well maybe we both have different experiences, but the highest I got in the OU ladder was the high 1800s to low 1900s, so I don't know how legitimate my info is based on what you've experienced.

If you say that torn-t and togekiss aren't that common then I'll take your word for it. However, lanturn does check a lot of things, some more so than rotom could and most of what I mentioned is common to both of us, like heatran and slowbro, so :/.

feel free to disagree.

252 SpA Heatran Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Lanturn: 170-200 (37.4 - 44%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

And oh, you are going to want some physical investment, but at worst, offensive Heatran 3HKOs you.

Considering that RestTalk users that can only stay in for few turns (like Lanturn) get worn down fast, Lanturn only really checks bulky Heatran, which it cannot even 3HKO with Scald. I will give you Slowbro, but Lanturn is forced to use Rest should Slowbro carry Toxic. Sorry, but I fail to see an effective argument here. I like Lanturn, but I do not think it has a place in OU anymore.

 

[Synchronation]

The main problem with Lanturn is that it has high competition with Rotom-W. I get the argument that it can be effective together with Rotom-W but most of the time I doubt that it is worth a teamslot if you already have a Rotom-W...
To become D-Rank it needs a notable niche OVER Rotom-W which is useful in OU.
Looking at Lanturn:
- no ground-immunity. Very crucial, since it is one of the abilities that makes Rotom-W so good. As a trade-off, it gets electric- or water-immunity, the former provides a way better check or even counter to Thundurus, Mega-Manectric, Magnezone, Zapdos and Raikou. The water-immunity provides a hardcounter for scald-spammer (Alomomola and Keldeo for example) without fearing burns and even healing itself. It's not a hard-counter to Keldeo, but it isn't able to spam Scald reliably, that's something at least.

-no Will O Wisp. Rotom-W is famous as a WoW-user that threatens fire-Pokemon (which usally want to switch into it). Lanturn can't do that. It has access to Toxic and Thunderwave, but so does Rotom-W. He has nothing above Rotom-W in this point.

-better offensive movepool. While it doesn't have such a strong Hydropump, it has access to Scald and Icebeam. Sadly, all the Pokemon that it wants to hit with Icebeam have an effective move against it (Amoongus has Gigadrain; Gliscor, Garchomp and Dragonite can use Earthquake;...). It is very slow so it can only hit them on the switch (exept for Amoongus), so that doesn't really help him either.

-better supportive movepool. Lanturn can learn Heal Bell and Soak to support the team or get a Toxic/Thunderwave off on Pokemon that are normally immune to that status. Rotom-W can't do anything like that at all.

-no recovery. Rotom-W hasn't a reliable recovery either but at least there is Pain Split. Better than nothing.

Conclusion: You would use Lanturn over Rotom-W, if you don't care much about ground-immunity (because you have already enough) and want to have a electric/water-immunity instead. Everything else is a bit situational and imo way too niche to warrant a rank on its own. It is more bulky and can provide an interesting teammember to counter and check different Pokemon than Rotom-W if the team needs it. Thundurus is common as ever and the usage of Raikou and Mega-Manectric are increasing too. Sadly, it is less useful against Sand-Rush-Excadrill. For me, that is enough to rank it in D.

BTW, with the right spread it is in every way bulkier than Rotom-W (if you still really want to check Talonflame):

252+ Atk Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-W: 81-96 (26.6 - 31.5%) -- 18.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Latios Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-W: 261-308 (85.8 - 101.3%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 232 HP / 252+ Def Lanturn: 117-138 (26 - 30.7%) -- 4.3% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Latios Draco Meteor vs. 232 HP / 24 SpD Lanturn: 337-398 (75 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

The defensive spread 232/252+/24 allows Lanturn to take physical hits better than physically defensive Rotom-W while taking more special hits than Rotom. 232 HP is used to hit the magic Leftover-recovery.

I know, a long post for a D-Rank nomination, but I really think we need to discuss new nominations better to prevent filling the D-Rank with useless or outclassed Pokemon.