pinsir in a is silly, to the point where i wouldn't consider it at all. it's so dangerous and crazy to deal with. it puts a lot of pressure on skarm to run counter as otherwise it can't ohko a +2 pinsir. and with the ability to run cc, it actually ohkoes scarftar and balloon exca on the switch-in, pops rotom hard, and finishes off skarm from higher. a +2 pinsir is difficult to deal with, and most of its offensive checks are not difficult to exploit/check, espec since rotom becomes a garb answer. pinsir's return blasts holes in the tier, and is one threat that has to be very specifically accounted for (well kinda grouped with talonflame, but not entirely) on every team. tired so my thoughts are a bit jumbled but basically, crazy nuke, strong sweeper, only gets better with aegi as good as gone.
i think the two big offensive waters, azumarill and keldeo, should be considered for a push to s. these two have been consistently in the top 5 of tourney usage, dominating, and high in ladder usage for months now, and that's just because they're so damn good.
as halcyon would say, every non-megasaur offensive team is azumarill weak. for a long time i feel, azumarill has been the best a+ pokemon, espec with maw up in s semi-recently. av azumarill is the best offensive glue as it beats much of the offensive tier 1v1, and serves as an effective blanket check to things like keldeo, mega gyara, char x, greninja, lando, weakened sand exca, ttar, conk, char y (1v1), thund (1v1), etc. it actually beats every single s rank mon in a 1v1 scenario. and i haven't even gotten to cb azumarill, which is insanely difficult to switch into for almost any team. skarm is 2hkoed after rocks and a bit if you run enough speed to outrun it a la what cbb has on his team. the only solid defensive answers to this set are bulky grasses (venu, amoon, phys def celebi, ferro) and even then amoon hates knock off and ferro hates superpower. i feel like bd is rather meh in this meta, but it's still o.k effective, espec under azelf screens, and can catch unprepared teams by surprise. i even ran a sap sipper resttalk physically defensive (just a change on the spdef eo azu) set on a stall team one time that beats hera, both zards, and keldeo which is crazy. and i know other stuff is viable, like you can run jolly on bd to pop a bit weakened venus aka your best counter, or twave one of adam's innovations that lets it check sweepers and faster mons better + paraflinch/support + it spreads para easily because few para immunes switch into it. last stuff is mostly irrelevant, what i am saying is that azumarill is a versatile and devastating threat to almost every team, and a check to so many top-tier threats. this change is overdue, imo, azumarill is amazing.
keldeo i am not quite as adamant on, but i still think it might be worth considering. first of all, it was #2 in wcop overall usage after thund, which should speak for itself because thundurus is the best pokemon in the tier after aegi, which that actually puts keldeo above. the specs set is a crazy good breaker. many of its good checks/counters are actually severely flawed. venu is prone to being worn down espec with scald burns/hp flying. latis are pursuited/icy wind. azu is burnt. dnite is burnt/icy wind. i will make teams with combo av azu + latias or something, and i still will have trouble with keldeo just because azu gets burnt and latias gets trapped. usually by that point it can be revenged or whatever, but the fact is that is does an enormous number. it pulls ridiculous weight in every battle, as a big threat to offense and stall. teams typically have to pack multiple answers to it. it's an incredible bisharp check, it checks mega gyara, it is the reason sd mega mawile doesn't utterly annihilate half the offensive teams in the tier, and much more like checking crocune. and all i just did was talk about the specs set. the scarf set has gained a bit of popularity/recognition recently, as it is a great check to dders while having much less exploitable stabs than, say, terrakion or garchomp. it also has surprise factor that often gets kills against the likes of thundurus and greninja that people bring in to rk. then there's subsalac endeavor, which sounds really weird but has caught on a bit in high-level play as a massive hole opener and catching thund, ninja, etc by surprise when they can't effectively revenge it. cm is still good, particularly in my eyes subcm and hp flying cm, as a neat sweeper and check to various things. keldeo is nothing short of amazing.
going to compare them together because despite being wildly different, azu and keld compare rather similarly. feel both of these have a much better matchup against offensive teams than, say, landorus, or even char x, which has plentiful common offensive checks in comparison. they check more total and more relevant threats, boasting greater versatility, and are very difficult to deal with. they have few exploitable weaknesses, keldeo even has a resistance to sr, and take advantage of probably the best ou offensive typing overall (water). thus, azumarill and keldeo are often used as glues/require very little support to function. zard x needs more support to get anything done, while these two require minimal support to deal with their checks/counters and can in some cases even dismantle them of their own accord. they represent two of the best pokemon in the tier, i think they're probably better than lando and maybe even char x lol. belong in s.
