Personal noms after SCL:
Rises:
Xerneas —> A
Xerneas has seen high usage througout SCL and defensively is able to wall Marsh and Zyg and ygod while checking Don and clericing, which is highly desirable. Even its offensive geo set has seen a bit more usage recently. It definitely deserves to be just as high as Marsh, and higher ranked than a mon like Lunala.
Landorus-Therian —> A-
Lando-T is a really splashable mon in this metagame. Being able to fit a rocker/defogger and a physical wall in one package is really great for teams that can’t fit a rocker ndm, and its able to pivot with u-turn while blanket checking a lot of mons, namely Don. However, it is let down by its lack of recovery and sometimes is let down by its mediocre stats uberwise.
Darmanitan-Galar —> A-
Darm-G is a fantastic wallbreaker as of now. Its the primary abuser of zone alongside Xerneas, and it being able to so easily threaten entire teams while being great speed control is pretty unique, as many other breakers of the same threat level are often much slower. Darm literally threatens an OHKO on 3/4s of the mons on each team, while being able to break through its few checks with prediction, or just clicking u turn for easy momentum. The only downside is that it quite vulnerable to rocks compared to many other offensive options.
Magnezone —> B+
Zone has definitely established itself as a very powerful option to easily break through traditional balance, by trapping the NDM on those balance teams to let its ice and fairy friends run wild. While zone teams are basically fishes, as they can struggle against teams with fast paced offensive teams like webs HO, alternate steels (see: Heatran), or a random shed shell NDM, that doesn’t take away from how effective it can be against the ever common YEN balance, something no other mon can claim.
Weavile —> B+
Laughed at for its ever frusterating lack of accuracy on its axels, Weavile has still continued to rise in usage as a potent option on offensive teams. It has a really limited pool of potential checks, such as defensive Xerneas, defensive Ho-Oh, and defensive Ogre, and all of these Weavile can break with some hazard support and a couple of turns. Once these checks are gone, better pray Weavile misses.
Rayquaza —> B+/B
CB Ray is a pretty cool breaker, pretty much being unwallable outside of defensive Lunala. Although it lacks defensive utility and is weak to rocks, Ray has a lot of great qualities, like being able to easily smash through many teams single handily with its two 180 bp moves in Dragon Ascent (with stab) and V Create that makes it hard to play around, as either move is equally as strong on neutral targets. Another nice quality of Ray is with its flying typing and powerful Espeed, it has solid utility against HO, something that other absurdly strong breakers like Dracovish can’t claim.
Heatran —> B
I really like where Heatran is at the moment. Both more defensive SR sets and offensive trapping sets have great utility against otherwise scary breakers like Darm-G, Ray, and Zone teams, and it has plenty of opportunities to get in because it walls Eternatus, defensive Xern, Ho-Oh (w/o eq), and Lunala. Its main issues is its lack of longevity and weakness to grounds and fblast geo Xern, but this is more than manageable on certain builds. Heatran is really awesome at plugging holes on specific teams that appreciate its utility and defensive qualities it brings to the table, and can be surprisingly splashable as an alternate steel to NDM.
Tapu Fini —> C-
Fini (waifu) exists and deserves to be on the VR at least. For those that don’t know, its main niche is being able to set terrain to stop Zyg from resting, which is useful for stuff like offensive Ho-Oh. A limited niche for sure, but probably more viable than something like Celebi (haha).
Drops:
Zekrom —> A-
Zekrom is just facing a hostile metagame right now, as the prominance of Don leads to increased Lunala and Lando-T usage as well, which sucks for Zekrom. The ground happy metagame can lead to Zekrom being rather inconsistent at times as a DDer. However, DD Zekrom can still be strong against certain teams without a Don or a Lando-T, and other sets like life orb 3attack roost sets can also be quite threatening.
Zarude —> B+/B
Zarude really hates the increase in fire move Groudons, and does not appreciate the increased defensive Xern usage either. Its still a fine mon, being the best secondary dark type and still doing stuff against some Zygarde and Groudon sets, but its much harder to splash onto teams now.
Calyrex-I —> B/B-
Non TR Caly-I is pretty much just outclassed by better ice types like Darm-G and Weavile at this moment. Being slow just really sucks right now, and while Caly-I’s bulk is much much better, its defensive typing is pretty horrible, which doesn’t allow it to actually abuse its bulk. The only real niche it has is on TR as a setter/abuser (SCL PTSD), which is a rather limited niche since TR isn’t that good.
Tyranitar —> C+
TTar hates the increase in ground types, especially Groudon. While countering Calyrex-S and setting rocks is a nice niche in theory, in practice, its liability to practically every other offensive mon makes its niche not worthwhile. Its outclassed in its rocker role by every other rocker like NDM, Groudon, and Lando T, and outclassed in countering Caly-S by Zarude.
Excadrill —> C+
If TTar is bad, then Excadrill is bad. WIthout sand, Excadrill has pretty much no other niche. Unfortunately for Excadrill and TTar, being both weak to ground and relying on the sand that Groudon resets is a recipe for disaster.
No change:
Necrozma-DM - S
While NDM still feels like a necessary evil at times, thats the point, NDM is necessary. No other mon can offer the defensive utility of fully countering Etern (otherwise irritating to counter outside of NDM) and Geo Xern, while checking ice types like Darm G. It can act as your rocker instead of forcing you to use Lando-T or Groudon, or it can be an excellent breaker with SD, and if you’re really worried about Zone teams, you can just use shed shell too if you’re desperate. Unlike Groudon, you can justify NDM on any single team, from balance to stall to HO. You have to take special consideration if you are not planning to use NDM on your team to cover the threats NDM usually keeps at bay.
Groudon - A+
While Groudon is certainly a very very good pokemon right now, I would disagree with the argument that Groudon deserves to be S- on the VR. The Groudon hype train has died down a lot since week 1 of SCL, as people have adapted to it through more Zygarde, Lunala, Lando-T, defensive Xern, and foul play ygod. Not to mention, Groudon still has a myraid of issues holding it back, like its lack of longevity, weakness to status, lack of defensive utility, and low speed. Unlike the big 4 in the S tier, Groudon can’t be slapped onto just any team, shown by its high but not that high usage, and needs more careful consideration into how to build around, which isn’t the mark of a S tier mon.
Thats probably it for the main ones I wanted to cover, I would nom a few more B and B- mons to drop but that would be a bit superfluous for this one post.
edit - PS:
SuperEpicAmpharos wants everyone to know that confide blissey is a shitmon