Clefable is definitely a fantastic option and is honestly the quintessential utility 'mon. The unparalleled utility it provides balance is irreplaceable. The ability to set up guaranteed rocks, provide its teammates with fantastic healing support and serve as a compressed defensive check to some of the tier's most influential breakers while serving as a fantastic stallbreaker is just incredible. Being one of the few rockers that is able to reliably beat and set rocks versus sableye is an incredible niche that no other rocker (sans offensive rocks tran) possesses and ensures that clefable serves as one of the best stallbreakers available to balance. The utility of Wish is an incredible asset that improves the matchup versus just about every common and viable team archetype currently available in the tier - against offence and opposing balance, you vastly invalidate common methods of breaking past walls, including chip damage and just hitting them hard, by doubling on the correct turn. Speaking of doubling, when combined with entry hazards, you might as well endlessly double against stall, because that's all you really need to break it open, especially if paired with another magic guard abuser or a regen mon. Continuing on with the theme of annoying stall, calm mind essentially invalidates a large majority of stall staples, as you now have the means to reliably 1v1 just about everything with hazards, excluding the obvious staples such as celesteela and chansey. Its defensive utility should also not be understated, considering that it has the means to reliably check the large majority of the tier, most notably balance beakers such as zygarde and mega latios (after a single calm mind boost) find it incredibly difficult to do anything versus balance due to it just sapping momentum and pp. In short, I believe it has the potential to be an excellent contender for the esteemed S rank.
Gastrodon is undeniably in a tight situation - on one hand, it's still one of the best blanket checks to a large portion of the meta that isn't entirely passive or even a momentum drain, but on the other hand, it's just not great anymore. Not only are most builds prepared to break past it, but the 'mons it's supposed to check can easily break past it. Now, you might immediately think that said mons must run a specific lure to break past it, however that just isn't the case. 'Mons such as Heatran and Greninja are the mons that immediately come to mind, as the former pressures it immediately through the combination of toxic and taunt, which wears it down incredibly quickly, especially if combined with entry hazards. Speaking of entry hazards, gastrodon cannot properly check greninja either, as the combination of one layer of spikes and a dark pulse on a switch-in immediately renders it useless as a "reliable" gren answer. The recent rise of tangrowth and specially defensive variants of swords dance bulu doesn't necessarily help it either, although it does have the means to punish both upon switch in. However, the niche of being a greninja and latios check that is also immune to volt switch (or electrics in general) is an incredible niche for balance to possess, especially considering that tapu koko has an advantageous matchup versus the majority of other electric immunities, barring gliscor, as well as the fact that most other forms of defensive counterplay to latios (celesteela, bulu / tang, mega zam) flat out loses to heatran (mega zam cannot check a corkscrew crash variant properly, but that set's stupidly good), whereas gastro has a decent matchup versus it, even if it is immensely pressured by it. I honestly have no opinion on whether it will whether it should drop or not, but it will be interesting to see where it will end up.
Celesteela is undoubtedly a fantastic pick. While the dominance of heatran is detrimental to it, the amazing matchup that it possesses versus not only some of the most dominant breakers in the tier, including mega latios, tornadus, alakazam and pinsir, but it also possesses an amazing matchup versus offence as a playstyle. The additional niche that it possesses versus offense - which is the ability to sit there versus the large majority of breakers commonly found and sap momentum - is incredibly useful, especially considering that the mentioned breakers all gain incredible amounts of momentum whenever they come in. Zam and Pinsir are the highlights in this case, as there's normally no reliable defensive counterplay versus most traditional balance builds. (or those that lack steela on it). It would also be blatantly negligent of me to ignore crucial changes to the meta that have made its niche even more desirable - the increased prominence of balance breakers such as mega alakazam, mega latios, tornadus and clefable has only boosted the demand and viability of this mon. Clefable in particular is especially notable, as you not only have the ability to scare it out with a heavy slam, but you also have the ability to directly invalidate its wish by being able to leech seed on a switch in, then being able to sap momentum for another turn by protecting. Now, you may say something along the lines of "uh grass types can just absorb the seeds", but you must consider the fact that celesteela forces out every grass type in the tier that's not named tangrowth. You may also be saying something about tornadus' access to knock off, uturn and heat wave, but you must also consider that the exact same scenario occurs to anything that pivots into it, and also beats torn 1v1 regardless. Slight filler aside, the metagame heavily favours celesteela's presence in the tier and deserves to rise to the A+ rank to reflect this.
It would be wrong to say that this isn't my favourite new toy, and i'm all for this rising. The sheer utility that zam provides balance is honestly astounding - the ability to counter non steelium variants of heatran as well as non draco meteor latios is just a godsend for most balance builds. I definitely sound like a broken record at this point, but alakazam's niche as an incredible switch-in to the mentioned is incredible, especially considering that reliable defensive counterplay for the two are incredibly limited.
When you think of reliable checks to heatran on balance, your thoughts should head straight for bulky grounds such as Zygarde, Gliscor and Gastrodon and mega lati@s. Now, you may consider these checks as being consistent, however you must consider how easy it is for heatran to break past these 'mons - Zygarde, Gliscor and Mega Latios must fear the ever-present will-o-wisp, which not only limits the former from properly functioning, but it also provides tran with incredibly effective method of breaking past these mons - gliscor now takes far too much damage from an offensive magma storm (not to mention it drops to an inferno overdrive, which alakazam is able to negate), zygarde now cannot reliably switch in, as the combination of magma residual and wisp / toxic + potential entry hazard damage just puts it in range of another magma storm, not to mention its offensive presence is heavily restricted thanks to its burn. Mega Latios is also restricted, though to a lesser extent, but is primarily punished through the use of pursuit, from 'mons such as weavile and tyranitar. I also feel obliged to mentioned that Gastrodon will be put into a position where it cannot recover off the residual damage from magma + toxic / wisp and any potential entry hazard damage and is thus heavily pressured. Now at this point, you may be wondering "well what does this have to do with mega zam?" (holy shit i'm so sorry for making you read this)
Well, Mega Alakazam has the advantage of not being subjugated to any of these issues - through its trace ability, it no longer has to fear an inferno overdrive, nor does it have to fear being chipped by wisp. Toxic is also alleviated through the combination of reliable recovery, in addition to trace, which allows it to trace abilities such as magic guard and regenerator - which is a common occurrence, as torn / pex / clef is absolutely everywhere, so it's not a stretch to assume this will occur in a game - which only further reduces the severity of toxic. Pursuit trapping is also alleviated through its amazing speed tier, allowing it to outspeed and ohko both weavile and tyranitar, although you do have to risk focus blast actually landing for it to avoid getting trapped. Speaking of its unrivalled speed tier, its speed tier is another crucial aspect to its success, especially on balance. Being able to outspeed common balance breakers such as tornadus, heatran, mega lati@s and protean gren gives it the edge over other breakers, especially since a majority of breakers on balance such as heatran, mega latias and torn have a disadvantageous matchup versus offence, due to a low speed tier or inability to break past common pivots such as greninja and tapu koko, which limits the breaking capabilities of the listed. Zam's speed tier fixes this issue, as it no longer has to fear a large handful of 'mons from coming in an revenge killing it.
I honestly think nearly everything that needs to be mentioned about Latios has already been discussed, so I'd actually like to address something that Charmflash brought up a few pages earlier, with that statement being that both Mega Alakazam and Latios should be listed in the same rank. Now I personally agree with this sentiment, although I do not agree with both being in the A rank. Mega Latios and Mega Alakazam are both arguably superior than everything listed in the A rank and possess qualities that are comparable of those in the A+ rank. I've already gone on about mega zam in a fucking essay holy shit and i'm certain I have nothing more to add to mega latios at the current moment in time, but I believe that both have influenced the meta enough to be listed in the A+ tier. I promise i'll expand on this at a further date, but it's 1 am in the morning so gimme a break
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