Hi everybody, I've been gaming to make my own update post for a while but I never really had the time to sit down with it. I'll just start by going down the list top to bottom in terms of what I think we should change.
S --> A+
Maybe some people will disagree with this, but I think with how the metagame has shifted around, Sceptile isn't as dominating as it used to be. Locking yourself into Specs Leaf Storm isn't as easy to do nowadays with the lurking threats of Vikavolt, Guzzlord, a dozen threatening Fire-types, and Xatu. Sceptile has the tools to get around some of its common checks, but a lot of its checks are so abundant and its so much more reliant on prediction that I don't feel that it's as difficult to play around or adapt to compared to the other three S ranks. It would help if it had any other relevant options over Specs, but it's so desperately reliant on its one set that it's hard to step away from that status quo.
A --> A+
Our best sweeper right now if you ask me. Barb threatens just about any team and finds itself a load of favorable matchups in this primarily offensive metagame. Z Moves have only further buffed this creature as it's able to run stuff like Rockium Z to get past the omnipresent Slowbro and other various soft checks like Virizion. Between Return, Grass Knot, Razor Shell, and Z-Stone Edge, I think it's next to impossible to find a hard counter to this creature that can fit on a variety of offensive and defensive builds. Barb has a stranglehold on the metagame right now and it's not looking like it's going to let up soon.
A --> A+
Speaking of mons that have a stranglehold on the metagame, Delphox is becoming legitimately unstoppable. You see it all the time on offensive teams because it has so many tools at its disposal depending on what it needs to do. Calm Mind Z nuke sets can dismantle defensive cores, Dazzling Gleam is picking up in popularity to handle the far more relevant Guzzlord, and Scarf can be used to handle offensive teams considering it can revenge kill the likes of +2 Barbaracle and still sport impressive coverage and offensive pressure. It's a mon I'm always scared of at team preview and I think it should be obvious nowadays how it's affecting the meta.
A- --> A+
I think we should stop being babies about this thing by just moving it up one sub rank at a time and just put it where we all know it belongs. Vikavolt is on an absurd amount of teams because it does an absurd amount of jobs very consistently. It brings stellar offensive presence, a very sturdy Grass resist, a good Fighting resist, Steelix answer, slow Volt Switch, and the ability to soft check a lot of special and physical attackers in a pinch because of its nice natural bulk and access to recovery. Vikavolt has been abused to hell and back in NUPL and has a 70% win rate, as stated by Jarii a bit earlier, over 20 uses of the mon. This thing is quickly becoming the face of NU and, personally, I think it's a top ten mon that deserves the ranking that reflects that.
A- --> A+
This is another mon that I think we should get to the point with. Vanilluxe is another very relevant threat that is warping the metagame. Even in ORAS, we never had to deal with an Ice-type this powerful and it doesn't help that our most relevant Ice resists are Emboar and Delphox. Vanilluxe is just about as terrifying a wallbreaker as Emboar and it does this job using two predictable attacks, Blizzard and Freeze-dry, that you are likely unable to do anything about unless you have one of AV Hariyama, AV Incineroar, Piloswine, or Cryogonal. Scarf Vanilluxe is on the rise in popularity because people understand that it's still as powerful as it needs to be, but it circumvents a lot of the traditional ways of handling Vanilluxe through Speed control. Vanilluxe is flourishing in this metagame like none other because both Specs and Scarf manhandle both of balance and offense, respectively, and it's all a matter of what your team wants to punish more.
B+ --> A-
I've been using a team with Vaporeon a fair bit recently and I think it's a lot more useful than some are giving it credit. It's a very reliable check to the likes of Scarf Emboar and a useful soft check to the likes of Ebelt/Banded Emboar. It's useful in Barbaracle matchups because it has the ability to play around +2 Z Stone Edge with Protect and it handles non-Z Move Barbaracle very comfortably. It's also really hard to discredit the Wish support for balance teams nowadays when they use Pokemon like Guzzlord, Steelix, and Skuntank that don't have reliable recovery options. The rising popularity of Samurott also makes Vaporeon a more appealing choice for your balanced teams as well considering how effectively you Toxic stall it. Oh, and since I'm talking about it, you don't want to run Heal Bell on Vaporeon or it will just make it passive and harder to use. Do what every other Bulky Water in the tier does and abuse Toxic.
I was going to delve further into the lower ranks, but I think I'll keep it short and keep the post focused around the A ranks for now. I'll make another post soon to talk about Froslass/Mega Audino and the lower ranks soon enough.