So I can't remember the last time that this was brought up but I would like to nominate Mega Sceptile to A-
Mega sceptile was such an underrated threat a few weeks ago and now its just a plain threat, between one of the best speed tiers in the meta and great STAB coverage mega sceptile can threaten so many teams. Now Sceptiles speed is a huge asset as a mega as many megas have to run a +speed nature or be out paced by most the meta however m-sceptile, much like m-bee, can run a modest nature and still reach a whopping 389 while hitting much harder than it would with a timid nature. As for its STAB well grass/dragon is great STAB coverage allowing it to check waters and significantly threaten the dragon types of the tier such as non scarf hydreigon and salamence. Sceptile will often run focus blast which allows it to hit the steel types of the tier. Sceptile also has the unique ability in helping check volt turn due to the fact that one of the best electric types in the tier, aka rotom mow, is hard walled by it. Now sceptile ofc has flaws much like the rest of the mons in A-, one such flaw is the fact that it can be threatened out easily by mamo but so can like half the damn tier, it is usually very restricted in its movepool as three stab moves are almost always required, and most special walls can switch in with ease since sceptile has almost no utility to it. One more point I would like to bring up is the fact that CM florges is on the rise and is very good in the current meta, well this set makes it so it actually can't switch into sceptile, a leaf storm from modest sceptile does about 50% to max defense florges meaning with a bit more damage or multiple hazards up, florges is 2hko'd.
Now some meta game changes other than cm florges that makes sceptile a bigger threat,
- Offense and bulky offense are great right now and with the right teamates even balance really fears sceptile
While these may not seem like a lot just keep in mind some common mons that are threatened by Sceptile, cobalion, heliolisk, gatr, mence, hydrei, etc.
- Scarfers have almost completely fallen out of favor as of late making sceptiles speed much better
TLDR: Im shit at getting a point across but sceptile is quite the threat as of late and a rise should definitely be discussed.
Tbh, most every post I've seen from him includes some form of insult, either to poster or post. Must just be a part of him..Rating Sceptile at b- is absolutely absurd. It shits on offensive teams so hard it's not even funny. If you want an example, look at one of the games of R0ady vs teal when, without a focus blast miss, R0ady quite literally clean swept from something ridiculous like turn 5. Sceptile has answers, yes, but that doesn't devalue its worth as a very potent cleaner which still maintains its ability to 2hko many common checks with hazards support. Offense has its hands full to deal with Aero, doublade, swampert, and cobalion; which leaves it strapped for slots to answer sceptile more than once per game. Also, let's cool it on insulting new users, he's just getting his foot in the door you don't need to be rude.
B+ -> A-: I'm on the fence on this one. It has great matchup versus offense, beats Suicune, and can check DD Feraligatr. Lightning Rod is a great ability as well, as it allows Sceptile to shut down Rotom-C, one of the best offensive momentum-grabbers at the moment. And with hazard support, especially spikes, Sceptile can be a nightmare for balance teams, weakening common switch-ins such as Florges and eventually cleaning late game. However, Sceptile does have quite a few noteworthy flaws. Its dual STAB is decent at best, meaning it has to rely on Focus Blast's shaky accuracy to round off its coverage and damage Empoleon, Mega Aggron, and other steels. Even with Grass/Dragon/Fighting coverage, Sceptile's moveset is resisted by Doublade and Whimsicott, two increasingly common pokemon in the current metagame. With no boosting moves outside of Growth (lol) Sceptile is set up fodder for Reuniclus, and struggles to break common special walls such as Umbreon, Porygon2, and Blissey. Offensively, it's not that hard to check either, given that most common scarfers (Hydreigon, Mienshao, Salamence, Darmanitan) force it out, and most priority moves (Ice Shard from Mamoswine/Abomasnow and Extreme Speed from Entei/Lucario) at the very least 2HKO it. Especially with bare hyper offense falling out of favor in lieu of Reuniclus balance, I think Sceptile is fine in B+, though I would not be opposed to it rising in the future if the meta shifts.
Well there are a few counter points of yours that I think are not really good reasons to deny Sceptile a rank up. The first of which is your point about Sceptile being walled by whims and doublade. Now I know you didn't say walled but neither of these mons have quite as safe of a switch in as some may think. Hp fire is a very legitimate move choice which can fit over a second grass STAB and does significant damage to both of thse mons, however even with two grass STABs these two mons can be hit relatively well with Energy ball which is a very solid choice for secondary STAB. While you lose out on recovery you do gain quite a good amount of power which allows sceptile to secure a good amount of 2hkos like on offensive whims. This also leads me to a second point in which u claim sceptile is setup fodder for reuniclus, which is very untrue. Modest Sceptile has an extremely good chance to 2hko with eball+leaf storm (this includes the use of a CM by reun). While I will agree scarfers and priority threaten sceptile this can be said about a lot of mons in the A ranks so I don't really consider it that major of a point. Also one thing I forgot to mention in my first post is how sceptile can check both gatr sets which is very important as gatr is arguably the best mon in the tier right now.I don't really understand how you can say Hoopa is a 'worse Chandelure' when they serve quite different roles. Chandelure may have a slightly better speed stat and stronger secondary STAB, but Hoopa can do things Chandelure wishes it could. The LO NP set absolutely manhandles stall due to Hoopa's access to STAB Psyshock, which OHKOs Blissey and Florges after a boost, while the OTR set can blow holes into offensive teams and sweep late game. While that's not to say Chandelure can't break stall or clean offense with the proper set, it often cannot do so nearly as effectively as Hoopa. That being said, I do agree that A is overselling Hoopa a bit, as it is easy to revenge kill and struggles against offense if it is not running OTR, so A- is probably a good place to put it for now.
Anyways, I'd like to give my thoughts on some of the previously made nominations:
B+ -> A-: I'm on the fence on this one. It has great matchup versus offense, beats Suicune, and can check DD Feraligatr. Lightning Rod is a great ability as well, as it allows Sceptile to shut down Rotom-C, one of the best offensive momentum-grabbers at the moment. And with hazard support, especially spikes, Sceptile can be a nightmare for balance teams, weakening common switch-ins such as Florges and eventually cleaning late game. However, Sceptile does have quite a few noteworthy flaws. Its dual STAB is decent at best, meaning it has to rely on Focus Blast's shaky accuracy to round off its coverage and damage Empoleon, Mega Aggron, and other steels. Even with Grass/Dragon/Fighting coverage, Sceptile's moveset is resisted by Doublade and Whimsicott, two increasingly common pokemon in the current metagame. With no boosting moves outside of Growth (lol) Sceptile is set up fodder for Reuniclus, and struggles to break common special walls such as Umbreon, Porygon2, and Blissey. Offensively, it's not that hard to check either, given that most common scarfers (Hydreigon, Mienshao, Salamence, Darmanitan) force it out, and most priority moves (Ice Shard from Mamoswine/Abomasnow and Extreme Speed from Entei/Lucario) at the very least 2HKO it. Especially with bare hyper offense falling out of favor in lieu of Reuniclus balance, I think Sceptile is fine in B+, though I would not be opposed to it rising in the future if the meta shifts.
A- -> A: I can see myself getting behind this. Toxicroak may not have the best stats on paper, with a mediocre attack stat and barely passible speed. However, what it does have is a great defensive typing, expansive movepool, and arguably one of the best abilities to have in UU, Dry Skin. Poison/Fighting typing with Dry Skin gives Toxicroak resistances to Fighting, Bug, Rock, Dark, and Grass, as well as an immunity to Water. This, along with its decent base 85 speed, allows Toxicroak to check many big threats in the current meta, including Mienshao, Feraligatr, Suicune, Heracross, Mamoswine, and many others. With one of Toxicroak's best checks, Crobat, seeing less and less usage, Toxicroak has a lot more freedom in its last moveslot, since it often does not need the priority in Sucker Punch. Ice Punch is fantastic in this slot, especially with the prevalence of Porygon2 + Fighting resist (generally either Florges or Gligar) cores. Ice Punch also allows Toxicroak to KO bulky Salamence, which has been gaining popularity as well. And on top of the fantastic physical set, Toxicroak can opt to run a specially based Nasty Plot set with Sludge Wave/Vacuum Wave/Dark Pulse, which allows it to lure and KO common checks such as Hydreigon, Doublade, and Krookodile after a boost. Overall, a great pokemon in the current metagame that has multiple effective sets and checks many common threats, including two S rank pokemon, so I believe moving it up to A would be appropriate.
Yeah my bad on the reun thing for whatever reason I was forgetting lefties haha but its still a solid amount and a lot of mons in the A ranks are setup fodder for reun so doing as much as sceptile does is honestly good enough since no mon can beat every threatYeah, I wasn't trying to say that Whimsicott or Doublade walled Sceptile by any means, just that they were solid checks. HP Fire wasn't really a move I considered since you have to give up Leaf Storm (which I believe is a much better option on Sceptile) but I guess that would help with the coverage. Anyways, you said that Reuniclus cannot set up on Sceptile and provided some calcs to prove that. However, from what I see, Sceptile cannot break Reuniclus reliably at all. Even when running Modest with Energy Ball and Leaf Storm, you would have to get a high roll on the initial Energy Ball (at least 53%) to KO Reuniclus with an absolute max roll on Leaf Storm. Maybe I was a bit off when calling Sceptile set up fodder for Reuniclus, but it really is not far from it when Sceptile has to run Modest and give up two moveslots for Energy Ball and Leaf Storm to even have a chance of 2HKOing it.
Sceptile doesn't get Ice Punch, no.Can't it learn Ice Punch? Seems like a solid move against Whimsicott especially. Any Ice-types Sceptile can't OHKO it will probably fall to, 4x weakness and all, so Drain Punch is a solid option. Doublade can't be countered with anything stronger than HP Fire?
Really only has Iron Tail against Whimmy, but I doubt that's worth a moveslot.Sceptile doesn't get Ice Punch, no.
Hi, I think Mega Steelix should go up in the viability rankings. It is a really underrated Pokemon, and suffers by comparison with Mega Aggron which has overall better bulk and a better ability. But Steelix has some advantages over the steel rhino, notably a nice stab Earthquake and a typing that allow it to stop VoltTurn teams easily.
I don't say Steelix should reach A+ rank like Aggron, but it definetly deserves a higher rank than B-.