Subject 18 post is legit gold, and anyone who for some reason doubts the legitimacy of the rankings need to all be redirected to that post.
Seriously guys, the rankings themselves have absolutely nothing to do with bias. It is a DIRECT reflection of the OU metagame itself, not what the best HO players think is best. No offense, but if any of you still don't think HO or offense in general is the best playstyle at the moment, then I highly doubt you play the metagame enough to support your opinion. There's a reason why offense was so common in tour and SPL. Deoxys-D isn't S rank simply because it's the best hazard setter or because it's standard on HO, it's S rank because HO is one of the most effective playstyles in the metagame, and Deo-D basically makes it 10x more threatening and dangerous. It's bulky enough that it can pretty much live any hit or outspeed most things that could potentially OHKO it, so unlike Deo-S is doesn't have to depend so much on its Sash to get up a layer. With a Mental Herb, most Taunt users end up becoming complete set up fodder for it, allowing it to get off several layers. When paired with Bisharp, it becomes even more of a threat, because opposing teams with Defog are pressured heavily by its partner in crime, thus preventing them from getting rid of hazards as quickly as they might want to. It's just so easy to slap on offensive teams (again, the most effective teams) and it will almost always accomplish what it sets out to do, while giving its teammates a ton of support. That's the DEFINITION of an S-rank threat, and it's never going to move down lower than S unless somehow the meta shifts away from favoring it so much.
Now look at Chansey. It's one of the most defining features of stall, much like how Deo-D is pretty much the face of HO. Now you could say offense itself, is an S rank playstyle. Stall itself, while effective and sometimes a huge pain to break through, is arguably a less effective playstyle, simply because it is basically man handled by a lot of Pokemon used on offense, such as Landorus, Gengar, Bisharp, LO Deo-S with Knock Off can be a huge pain at times, and Mega Gyarados, and it's almost impossible to cover certain Pokemon just because they're so threatening. Chansey is also pretty much niche to stall, and I don't really understand why some people say it's good on balanced, because on in all honesty I've yet to see a really good balance team with Chansey. If balance wants a cleric, it almost always prefers Clefable, simply because of its better defensive typing, abilities, offensive potential, and versatility, something that Chansey doesn't possess. Chansey itself ALSO has flaws, because it can be overwhelmed and crippled by many of the Pokemon on, big surprise, offense.
So if stall was indeed the best playstyle, Chansey and friends would be ranked MUCH higher, but unfortunately that's not the case, offense in general is just so much better because it has so much to work with, which makes it very hard for stall to cover it. I'm not ranking something higher just because it makes a playstyle viable. Why do you think we dropped Politoed down from A- rank? Rain itself can be very threatening, but compared to all the other playstyles, even stall, it struggles, and Politoed itself, much like Chansey, has other issues. I'm not saying defensive Pokemon can't be ranked high, because that's definitely not the case (see Mega Venusaur and Clefable) but because defensive playstyles in general are hurting right now due to the massive abundance of offense, defensive Pokemon wont be ranked as high unless they have many other features about them that make them less niche and easier to fit onto other playstyles. Going back to Clefable again, that thing can fit on bulky offense, stall, balance, and I've even seen it used successfully on more fast paced offensive teams, mostly for its ability to stop opposing HO sweepers dead in their tracks with Unaware and begin boosting on them. It can stand up against the powerhouses found in the upper ranks.
So yes, this thread tends to rank offensive Pokemon higher on the list because offense is unarguably the best playstyle at the moment. Offense is very dominant, while stall is viable but is struggling to make nearly as much of an impact in the meta as offense, which is why stall niche Pokemon tend to be ranked lower.
