The NU Viability Rankings Revamp

Introduction

As the second-lowest official tier, NU is a place where extremely mediocre Pokémon can duke it out against each other as big threats; it's a place where literal garbage Pokémon such as Garbodor are actually top Pokémon in the metagame. Because of this, it also contains a vast number of viable Pokémon, which leads to people experimenting with a variety of gimmicky or uncommon ones, with some achieving relative success. This success would lead several users to hype up and nominate these Pokemon to move up in the viability rankings, and the community would proceed to bandwagon every nomination. Although this was good for promoting diversity, it inevitably became problematic. This, along with some other factors, led to oversaturation in the rankings, with several Pokémon ending up higher than they really should be. Especially troublesome was the fact that the NU Open was starting at that time, leading to a lot of people trying to learn NU; however, when they turned to the viability rankings as a resource, they got an inaccurate picture of the metagame. In fact, some people even said that looking at the rankings ended up not telling them anything at all. The Viability Council, along with several other trusted members of the community, got together to fix this problem, and, ultimately, the rankings were revamped.

The Revamp

Before they even looked at any individual Pokémon, the Viability Council began by replacing the old definitions with new ones, intending to create meaningful guidelines for how the Pokémon were to be ranked. These new definitions were based on four categories: Threat Level, Effect on the Metagame, Splashability, and Consistency.

Threat Level is how difficult it is to account for a certain Pokémon defensively or offensively—Pokemon such as Tauros pose a high threat level as an offensive Pokémon, while Mega Audino poses a threat as a defensive Pokémon. This category takes into account how common or effective its countermeasures are and if the Pokémon in question has viable ways to get around them. It also describes how valuable the role that the Pokémon plays is, such as Rhydon's value as a Stealth Rock setter and Normal- and Flying-type check and Garbodor's value as a (Toxic) Spiker and Fighting- and Grass-type check.

Conversely, Effect on the Metagame describes to what extent these Pokémon are accounted for in teambuilding and how they affect metagame trends, such as Samurott forcing teams to carry a Pokémon that resists Water. Pokémon that have a large impact on the viability of other Pokémon, cores, and even entire archetypes are considered to have a large effect on the metagame.

Splashability measures how easy these Pokémon are to fit into a team—that is to say, how much they can cover offensively and defensively and how they pair up with the rest of the metagame. If the Pokémon requires additional support that wouldn't be necessary if a player chose another Pokémon, this decreases their splashability, while self-sufficient Pokémon are generally very easy to fit into teams.

Lastly, Consistency looks at how consistently a Pokémon can perform its role, mainly taking into account how that Pokémon performs against all the team archetypes and even against specific Pokémon. A Pokémon's ability to be useful throughout the match as opposed to only being helpful late-game, for example, is also an important aspect of its consistency.

The Viability Council also agreed on negative definitions as ways to justify dropping a Pokémon beyond being lacking in these categories; the definitions were being passive, outclassed, weak to entry hazards, slow, frail, and having bad matchups against common Pokémon or archetypes.

After deciding on the definitions for the rankings, the Viability Council and other trusted members moved on to look at every ranked Pokémon and evaluated where they would fit best. While many of the changes made were fairly obvious ones, some were more notable and controversial.

Notable Changes

A+ -> S

Ever since its inception in Black and White, Samurott has been a top Pokémon in NU. Especially after Feraligatr, its biggest competition, left NU upon receiving its hidden ability, Sheer Force, Samurott replaced it as the premier Water-type in the tier and has been rising in viability and notoriety ever since. Samurott's rise to S can largely be owed to its Swords Dance set. Thanks to its power after a boost and Samurott's access to priority in Aqua Jet, this set poses a high threat level to nearly any team, and Samurott's solid mono-Water typing and decent bulk make it splashable as a soft check to Fire-, Rock-, and Ground-types such as Pyroar, Archeops, and Rhydon. Samurott's effect on the metagame can be seen in the presence of a Pokémon that resists Water on nearly every team, and the fact that it can still blow past a lot of teams with some support even with that is a testament to how consistent it is. Swords Dance isn't even Samurott's only set; its high Special Attack and expansive coverage make it an infamously hard-to-wall special wallbreaker that can get past a lot of the Swords Dance set's checks and counters, adding dangerous versatility to an already incredible Pokémon.

B+ -> A

By far the best of the Pokémon butterflies, several metagame shifts have led this adorable bug to becoming one of the most potent sweepers in NU. Quiver Dance is a fantastic boosting move, but an awesome STAB move in Hurricane, solid Speed, Sleep Powder, and Compound Eyes boosting the accuracy of its most important moves are what truly make Vivillon the monster that it is. Ever since the banning of Sneasel, the metagame trends have been turning in its favor, with Rhydon, which Vivillon has no trouble at all dealing with thanks to Energy Ball, replacing Regirock as the premier bulky Rock-type and two troublesome priority users in Sneasel and Fletchinder leaving. And even beyond just Rhydon, most Flying-resistant Pokémon that are commonly used nowadays, such as Lanturn and Carracosta, are Pokémon that Vivillon can take advantage of. Sleep Powder gives it ample setup opportunities in spite of its frailty, and even though sweeping can sometimes be hard due to the various priority users in the tier, Vivillon doesn't necessarily have to be played as a late-game cleaner; Vivillon is almost as effective as a lead as it is a sweeper, punching huge holes early-game thanks to Sleep Powder, a powerful Hurricane, and even Endeavor. This gives Vivillon consistent use in nearly every matchup. While it's far from the most splashable Pokémon due to its pathetic bulk and reliance on entry hazard control, Vivillon's threat level is huge enough to earn it its place all the way up in A.

A+ -> B

Probably the most drastic and controversial drop by far, Gurdurr looks like a top Pokémon on paper, and, in fact, it had been considered one throughout most of the generation. It boasts a good offensive typing, great coverage in Knock Off, semi-reliable recovery in Drain Punch, priority, great bulk with Eviolite, and even a setup move in Bulk Up, making it splashable in teambuilding as a check to the various Normal-, Dark-, Steel-, and Rock-types in the tier. Unfortunately, it's a lot less potent in practice. The main reason for its drop lies in its often non-existent threat level. Because of Sawk's dominance in NU, nearly every team requires a solid switch-in to Fighting-types. Any Pokémon that can check Sawk can check Gurdurr even more easily, as it lacks Sawk's insane firepower, coverage, and Speed, making Gurdurr very passive in many matchups, in spite of being an offensive Pokémon, outside of checking what it does. Granted, Gurdurr checks a lot of Pokémon, but it's a lot less consistent of a check than it may appear to be. Normal-types such as Tauros and Kangaskhan nearly 2HKO Gurdurr, Rock-types such as Rhydon and Kabutops can take off around 35 to 40% of its HP with their secondary STAB moves, and Dark-types can remove its precious Eviolite with Knock Off. In addition, against any team with a competent Fighting check, Drain Punch will do little damage, which means that Gurdurr will hardly recover any HP, making it very easy to wear down and thus unable to check various Pokémon a second time.

Gurdurr was moved all the way down from A+ to B, below even fellow Fighting-types Hariyama and Hitmonchan, which were judged to possess more valuable and unique niches, and right alongside Primeape. It's not outclassed, as all the Fighting-types possess their own unique niches, but it competes with them for a teamslot, as using them alongside each other stacks weaknesses. Though B is still a mark of a solid Pokémon, Gurdurr's ranking in A+ frankly exaggerated its capabilities.

Conclusion

Many other significant changes were made to the viability rankings, such as Ferroseed rising to A-, Magmortar and Archeops moving down from S to A+, Xatu falling to A-, Piloswine and Liepard dropping to B, and several other Pokémon being moved down to the C ranks. However, there are two very important things to note. The first is that most of these changes were made not because these Pokémon got better or worse in the metagame, but instead because the rankings inaccurately represented their viability in the first place. The other is that there's a misconception that because a Pokémon is in a lower rank such as C, it means that it's a bad Pokémon in NU. In fact, Pokémon in the C ranks are generally considered decent in the tier (you'll sometimes see people have just as much success with Grumpig as they do with Mesprit), and even the Pokémon in D are there exactly because they do have niches; it's just that they either require significant support or are not as threatening as a Pokémon higher in the rankings, making them often inferior options for the less experienced players that the rankings are intended for. One doesn't need to move up a Pokémon they've recently had success with to the B ranks to prove its effectiveness; a C or even D ranking is still a sign that the Pokémon can be effective and have a valuable niche to justify its use. If we don't learn this lesson as a community, oversaturation will very likely become a problem again, and we'll have to do another revamp to fix it.

Revamping the viability rankings was a lengthy process, but it ultimately resulted in rankings that much more accurately reflected the current state of the metagame. Although there was and still is some disagreement over the placement of certain Pokémon within the community and even the Viability Council, generally speaking, people seem a lot more content with the revamp.

The metagame is constantly changing, and with new threats emerging, metagame trends shifting the effectiveness of Pokémon and strategies, and even the possibility of new Pokémon being introduced in the next tier shift, the viability rankings must continuously be revisited. It's important to frequently update them, as they are an invaluable tool for newer players to learn the tier and for others to see a Pokémon sitting in the lower ranks that may inspire them to try the Pokémon out and discover its full potential. Come check out the viability rankings and get into the tier!

NU Viability Rankings: Changes
Rises		Drops
A+ > S		S > A+
B+ > A		A+ > B
B+ > A-		A+ > A
B- > B		A+ > A-
C > C+		A > A-
C- > C		A > B+
D > C-		A > B
Unranked > D		A > B+
		A- > B
		A- > B+
		B+ > B
		B+ > B-
		B > C+
		B > B-
		B- > C+
		B- > C
		B- > C+
		C+ > D
		C+ > C-
		C > D
		C > C-
		C- > D
		D > E

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