Resource SV OU Viability Ranking Thread [ UPDATE: POST #751 ]

[Local Dog]

I would also agree with Great Tusk being up there with Gholdengo. I think these two are the most splashable mons in the tier, Gholdengo serving as the ultimate spinblocker with great specially offensive potential and mandatory glue in many, many teams. Great Tusk meanwhile is the best spinner in the tier, with Lando-T comparable versatility, great offensive and defensive potential and serving also as glue for many teams

 

[advaita]

→ S-

A+ is still an understatement imo. Garganacl is one of the most broken Pokemon from my playing experience the past week or so. Salt Cure has zero counter-play outside of ultra-specific cores and the fact that players are resorting to Covert Cloak to beat this thing is a testament in itself. The funny thing is I attempted using the item myself but every time I went into Covert Cloak Gholdengo, they would just capitalize by bringing in Clodsire or Garchomp to click Spikes. You can see where this is heading but the reality is you're not going to win the long-game when your opponent is alternating between hazards and Salt Cure. Garganacl Balance and Garganacl BO are by far one of, if not, the most dominant archetype in SV OU right now and the rankings need to reflect this. This Pokemon has a multitude of sets and all of them are amazing since it just needs Salt Cure + Recover to be the broken bastard it is. Protect + Stealth Rock is the norm, but ID + Body Press is still great since it makes Garganacl an immediate threat. I've even seen it tech Heavy Slam and Tera-Poison respectively to bypass traditional counter-play such as Hatterene and Amoonguss. The only down-side of this Pokemon is it is reliant on Tera but is this really a flaw when Garganacl literally turns into an Uber post-Tera? Doubt it.

 

[brokenmotor]

but doesn't its abysmal special defense give it a hard time against a lot of special attackers even with sturdy+mirror coat things, considering how both gholdengo and chi-yu are among the best mons in the tier currently

avalugg is usually found on stall/fat, and those teams are running blissey and clodsire to check special attackers

 

[bludz]

I honestly think it'd make sense to do away with S- tier entirely and put all those mons in S with Gholdengo at this point. Lots of arguments have been made for the S- mons to raise and I don't want to rehash them all, but I don't think it's crazy to put them all on the same level now.

Rises:

-> A+
I think plenty of good explanations have been given already.

-> A
As things settled a bit from some HO-crazed parts of the metagame, Garchomp is back in business imo. Offensive sets (e.g. mix LO) smash typical answers like Great Tusk and Corviknight, and thanks to great natural bulk, it still threatens many offensive pokemon when Chomp is still near full HP.

-> A
In a hazard crazed metagame revolving around setting and clearing, Magic Bounce utility is awesome. Plus this thing checks tons of the hazard setters naturally. It can be pretty annoying to switch into thanks to Nuzzle (which can actually para Gholdengo whew), Draining Kiss, and even Mystical Fire. Good utility mon that's great as an annoyer / pivot and IMO deserves a higher spot.

Drops:

-> A
I think it's good, but it seems to have lots of competition for different things and I see it almost as much of a role compression mon in a way. Like for a strong dark type breaker, you have other (usually better) options like Chi Yu, Chien Pao, and Kingambit, and for a DD sweeper I think Dragapult and Dragonite are more consistent. It almost seems more like it fits onto teams as a Chi Yu check with some offensive presence and the ability to pivot with U-Turn. Still a good mon, but not A+ material in my eyes.

-> A-
I think sash lead is pretty meh and the meta has adapted to it. Mortal Spin isn't so consistent, but I think Rocks + 3 attacks sets still have merit. It's not bad but not quite as meta defining as before IMO.

I also think there are arguments for Rotom and Pex to move up. I'm sorta torn on the Espathra and Kingambit noms to drop, I see the validity in some of the arguments but then I also see these pokemon clean things up late game so nicely.

 

[Venuesaur]

Noms after making reqs

S- -> Ubers

Lmao who knew having base 200 spa w stab overheat and 100 speed wasn't balanced (its getting qbanned anyways thankfully)

B -> A-/A

Talked about this in a previous post but I’d argue after making reqs with a team featuring this mon that it has a valuable enough niche where it should be in the A tiers. Great movepool/stats/ability. Knock off/U-turn are self explanatory. Flower trick is probably its best move. Auto-crit with pseudo 105 BP hits really hard, and grass is a weirdly good attacking type thanks to the current meta. Ground type mons like Ting Lu and Great Tusk are extremely dominant, and are often stacked together on teams. Further, hard to break, extremely strong set up sweepers that like boosting their defense all are hit either neutrally by tera, or go tera water and are hit supereffectively by it, essentially making Meowscarada negate a lot of the tiers most broken, hard to kill mons: Annihilape, Dondozo, Garganacl, Hatterene (which doesn’t boost its Defense but still is pretty bulky and loves going tera-water). As well, Flower Trick lets Band Meowscarada ignore screens, meaning it can essentially either punish Grimmsnarl by 2shotting it after it gets up screens, or can Tera-grass to 1shot max hp/spdef Grimmsnarl (tera-grass only 2shots max hp/def grimmsnarl), allowing it to both bypass screens while its out and greatly limits Grimmsnarl’s effect on the match. This further works with how screens is often used to enable bulky set-up mons as mentioned above, meaning Meowscarada essentially works as an easy stop-gap to these mons. Gets priority in sucker punch, which is very good for speed boosting set up sweepers as well as revenge killing mons like scarf goldie and pult, gets play rough for stab fairy cvg on dnite/moon/chomp, gets stab uturn to function as a pivot. Biggest weaknesses are Shroom/Corviknight, which it knocks off and kills with chip or can pivot to mons like Gholdengo and fire mons like Cinderace/Skeledirge/Iron Moth. It’s speed tier is extremely valuable for outspeeding Iron Valiant, Roaring Moon, Annihilape, Cyclizar, Tusk, Chomp, and Iron moth.

It faces its biggest competition with speedy, pivoting physical breakers like Chien-Pao, as well as some pult and Roaring Moon variants, but has very valuable niches over these mons, namely its better matchup into the bulky set up sweepers, which are all likely most at home in the A+/S- tier, as well as its ability to ignore screens and knock off its switchins, and stab fairy cvg/uturns. I’d argue these are valuable enough where it should be closer to them in ranking. The niche of being counterplay into the set-up sweepers and screens alone is enough to warrant a rise in its rank.

A -> A+

Extremely strong. Curse/Rest/Talk/Wave Crash is a great bulky physical mon that is a serviceable Chien-Pao check and an extremely strong check to most of the really strong set up sweepers right now, blanking DD roaring moon/Dnite/Pult. Rest lets it serve as a status absorber, and Curse means its able to serve as a late-game wincon. A lot of teams straight up lose to this set. Ranked way too low imo for how strong the DD mons and Chien-Pao are right now.

A- -> A

Very good mon. Water/Electric is a great stab combo and levitate means its only weak to grass, it resists Ice for Chien-Pao, and the only mon that can blanks volt/hydro/wisp is shroom, which still dislikes volt and wisp. Very hard to kill right now, and makes great use of protect. Resisting fire for Chi-yu is also very valuable.

A- -> B+

Still decent, but I’d argue its best as a pivot. Blanked by a lot of strong mons like Dirge, Nacl, Clod and even Ting-Lu without using its tera, but still makes decent use of U-turn, and can start becoming hard to stop if it gets a lot of Fiery Dance boosts. Being able to beat Volcarona after it teras is really nice. Makes decent use of Tera-Fairy with Dazzling gleam.

A -> A+/S-

Salt cure goes brrr. Makes great use of tera water and is just very hard to switch into and hard to kill. Too fat and salt cure makes a lot of progress. Also gets recover.

A+ -> S-

Very hard to play around thanks to taunt BU, as well as healing from Drain Punch. Not much else to say that hasn’t already been said.

A-/A?

Pretty good. Good stats. Pyro ball is good stab, and getting access to stab Sucker Punch is really valuable.. Court Change is nice in a tier with less removal, and is annoying to play against. High BP moves means it hits hard. I don’t see SD being worth it at all but boots/band is probably pretty strong. Pretty similar to Meowscarada, but they have differing offensive and utility profiles.

Noms I agree with but don’t feel like talking about.

A- -> B+
A- -> A
A- -> A
A+ -> A-
Can see being A
A -> A-
A -> A-

 

[Pinlup is the best]

This post has a menacing ass aura and I can't find how to describe it

There's a looooot of things that make Gholdengo S, here is some from yours truly:
- Its mere presence in the tier makes hazards - and, by extension, hazard stacking - the biggest thing you have to take into account when building a team imo, as Ghold shuts down what would be every VIABLE defogger and spinner thanks to Good as Gold which prevents Defog from removing hazards and walls and it being a Ghost type so it blocks Spin. The exceptions are Tusk and Treads, which are two meta staples due, in part, to Ghold's existence.

ranting

>inb4 uuuuuuuuuh actually tusk is also used because it hits like a truck and actually toedscruel can also do it and actually Talonflame is viable and actually I play defog bulk up power trip roost spe def corv so ur wrong

You either have to use a paradox don or give Boots to your entire team to stand a chance (may be exaggerated, ngl I've never played in OU this gen but I believe I have a good understanding of the game). Glimmora plays into that as it is the best mon we've ever had for hazard stacking playstyles, and it's actually good.
- Dragapult has ''''only'''' 100 SpA compared to Ghold's 133 SpA. It's not even comparable in sheer raw power and makes it near impossible to switch into Specs Shadow Ball. I believe only Clodsire can switch into Specs Gholdengo rather safely if you ignore the potential Trick (Blissey does NOT exist and so does Stall) and look, another reason why it's centralizing
- A pretty good speed stat for Scarf sets backed by the previously mentioned totally-fair-and-balanced™ 133 base SpA makes it a terrifying revenge killer as well.
- If it turns out the opposing Ghold is Nasty Plot, then it's probably too late by the time you realize it and you already lost the game so gg shake my iron hands... except if you play the Sire... again. Wait, there's a running theme here, isn't there...
- good f-ing luck for guessing which set Ghold is running based on team preview alone so have fun guessing wrong and losing a mon for free or outright losing the game to NP. Do consider all the possible weighted mindgames it creates and no I'm not listing them all here it's 3AM here and it's impossible to do anyway.
- oh btw if ghold is running balloon he can ensure he can buy a single free no-spin turn against the dons which is sometimes enough to win entire games, especially if Glimmora was the setter and left a few several little oopsies on your side in only 1 turn.

anyway thank you for listening to my rant xoxo

Thank you kind sire apologies for the ass aura.

 

[1LDK]

I wanna try 2 nominations, of course these are gonna be more docile (at least i hope)

C ----> C+

Sylveon is an extremly good Iron Valiant Check, capable of killing at full health even at +1 calm mind, it also takes everything well with the exception of a Posion Jab, but the amount of Valiants running physical and jab are low, also in a meta where you need to keep spamming recover/roost/rest, having somebody who can do that for you helps a lot, specially with the PP nerf this gen, she also loves that Cyclizar is around so that people feel safe behind the sub, Tera Fire, Shadow Ball and even Yawn are good support tools to keep something at bay, and most importantly, even tho he is practically ubers, Sylveon can check Scarf Chi yu and Specs chi yu IF is locked in Dark Pulse


UR -----> A-

Cinderace is by tecnicallity, unranked, because it got out like 2 days ago lmao, we all know what he does, he is an offensive suport mon who can serve as pivot, check, revenge killer and hazard remover, one thing nobody seems to see is that ace speed ties Roaring Moon, so the speed wars beetween the 2 are gonna be brutal, still, Cinderace does have 4MSS, of the heavy kind, is frail, and against defensive teams he is basicallly just a cute little pet who can do anything because its baby, so I think A- for starters seems good

 

[Magcargo]

-> A / A+

Might be a bit too early to say how good this Pokemon is since there might be some optimizations that can be made to its sets + some counterplay that I'm not seeing, but I think Cinderace is quite good. I've been using Pyro Ball / U-Turn / Will-O-Wisp / Court Change and it is all around an awesome Pokemon, rewarding you for playing kinda badly vs hazard stack and screen teams and being a nightmare for Pokemon like Great Tusk to switch into due to Will-O-Wisp crippling it and Pyro Ball dealing a good amount of damage to it. Generally speaking, I don't think it is that much worse than it was in Gen 8 in a vacuum, as it can still do the Pyro Ball / Wisp -> STAB U-Turn shenanigans that made it quite overbearing in that tier. However, the power and speed of this meta feel quite a bit higher than they were in Gen 8, making it quite hard for it to switch in entirely safely. In gen 8, I felt like I was able to get a lot more mileage out of its defensive qualities due to Libero being more flexible and the power level being lower, but in this metagame, it feels like Cinder is only able to take one hit at most before fainting (and even that may be somewhat generous). Furthermore, it can't actually do that much on its own to stop Great Tusk from spinning (I run Tera Ghost but burning your Tera for that is very high opportunity cost). Also, Adamant isn't quite as easy to run in this metagame due to Adamant Cinderace being unable to outspeed Jolly Iron Treads and Timid Valiant. In this metagame specifically, it does have some annoying counters, like Rocky Helmet Pex, and the infamous Bulk Up Ceruledge (which I've been swept by a few times due to the free turns Cinder gave it).

 

[RoiDadadou]

Here are my thoughts after achieving requs for the suspect:

RISES:

A -> A+/S- :

Garganacl
Okay so people who think this shit is not a top level Mon are clearly lacking any form of judgement. More seriously tho, it is consistency incarnated. I don't see it being lower than A+, but S- my be a bit overshot, especially with the rise of Cloaked Gholdengo recently. It's currently way too strong to stay in a simple A tier, and deserves a rightful rise in my opinion.

A- -> A :

Hatterene
Skeledirge
Volcarona
Those are three top threats at the time. Hatterene is excellent in its 'anti hazard' or 'instant setup Tera abuser' roles. Skeledirge prevents Volcarona and Hatty from being way more broken than they are right now, and its Unaware ability makes it imo at least on par with Dondozo, if not actually better, with the ability to snowball games so easily. Was really one of the thoughest matchups to beat on ladd (and also one of the reason why Gargy is so OP, even if just a minor one). Volcarona is also so OP right now, I really think Grass is the wayto go, but then again I saw some Steel variations to setup more easily, or Water ones to get rid of Skeledirge. Seems fine to me, although best set is still QD Giga Fiery Bug Buzz, for those nasty Ting/Moon SIs.

B+ -> A- :

Iron Hands
My man needs a raise. Also really reliable, you can do crazy things with this Mon. It is a K.O. machine, and one of the best revenge killer of the game despite its mediocre speed, through its sheer bulk and its perfect use of Tera.

C -> B- :

Ceruledge
This guy is a menace, and deserves a raise. I don't even know why it was that low, but it's way stronger and useful than any Mon in C or C+, maybe even B- itself. It could go in B, and I wouldn't be shocked.

C -> C+ :

Floatzel
Way stronger than actually anticipated, although really is Rain only.

DROPs:

Won't be as formal, but here are some things I think deserve a drop:
Espathra A+ -> A
Glimmora A -> A-
Slowking B+ -> B/B-
They're not as relevant as before.

The rest of the Mon between B- and D are either fine, or I didn't encounter them enough to tell. So I don't think that's a good thing for them, but hey, who am I to judge?

And last but not least:

Cinderace UR -> A-/A
Great Mon, didn't give it a try yet on a serious comp. Seems fair and has a decent matchup against a large portion of the metagame. I could see it alongside Chien Pao, I like this kind of CORE a lot, and it could actually reverse Screens on some setup teams, although you have to beware of Taunt Grimm, and kill him when he clicks it.

 

[memesketch]

Personally, I see Cinder as fitting right into A. Gholdengo has so few offensive checks (especially after we get through the fish qb) that Ace is a mon this meta needed. Still a really solid pivot too, those STAB U-turns still hurt. Court Change is fairly team-specific but huge for the hazard meta either way, nice to have a more reliable option to turn those annoying Chomp/Glimm + Dengo cores on their head, even if they're not quite as prominent anymore. And it can soft check Volc and Valiant and play chicken with Roaring Moon too so it's really nice to have vs offense in general.

Cinderace does have 4MSS, of the heavy kind, is frail, and against defensive teams he is basicallly just a cute little pet who can do anything because its baby, so I think A- for starters seems good

This was my sentiment too on what holds Ace back from rising higher in the VR (and where one could def make a solid argument for A- imo). Worst 4MSS in this tier, the utility moves are so important on Ace but then you lose out on HJK and get blanked by Garg or Sucker and get forced out by Pult every time. And there's just no room for something like Zen which sucks with Pex back on the come up. Also the one area where the Libero nerf was actually pretty costly, Ace just isn't the demon it used to be when it could just fish for Gunk poisons and then pull another STAB move out of nowhere. All in all, I think Ace would be solid in A but open to whatever at this point

 

[SDK03]

Not sure if anyone’s asked this already, but where does Tauros-W lie on the viability rankings compared to its Fire-Type counterpart? Doesn’t have Wisp like the Fire one, but I’ve heard a few people saying that they feel it’s slightly better due to the advantage of having a much better defensive typing and having access to Aqua Jet for Bulk Up sets to abuse.

 

[Da Pizza Man]

: UR --> S

War... has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies, or ethnicity. It's an endless series of proxy battles fought by mercenaries and machines. War, and its consumption of life, has become a well-oiled machine. War has changed. ID-tagged soldiers carry ID-tagged weapons, use ID-tagged gear. Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control, information control, emotion control... battlefield control. Everything is monitored and kept under control. War - has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control. All in the name of averting catastrophe from Weapons of Mass Destruction. And he who controls the battlefield, controls history. War has changed... When the battlefield is under total control, war becomes routine.

Some Serious noms

: D --> UR
: C --> UR

These mons are trash get them out of here

: C+ --> C
: C --> C+

I really think these two should switch places, because Floatzel overall is just a better rain abuser than Barraskewda. If you have to choose between one of these two for a rain team for whatever reason, you would go with Floatzel most of the time, because the nuclear Wave Crash under Rain is just way too good to pass up.

: A+ --> S-

I really think A+ is understating just how impactful Annihilape is on the game overall. Rage Fist alone just serves as a constant threat that your opponent has to keep in mind in pretty much any game it is in, and even outside of that, it sets up extremely easily and offers a good amount of defensive utility to whatever team it is on.

 

[Karxrida]

: D --> UR
: C --> UR

These mons are trash get them out of here

Agreed. They're both noob traps.

Maushold is hard walled by the best and most ubiquitous Pokémon in the tier because it relies on Population Bomb to do anything, plus Tidy Up removes your own hazards. Defog does the same thing, but when you're Defogging you're not trying to sweep immediately afterward and can typically afford to set your stuff back up. Plus good Defoggers are bulky and can do their jobs more than once.

The fuck does Lokix do? Tinted Lens First Impression? Use Slither Wing instead, it actually threatens things.

 

[Red Raven]

: D --> UR

Agreed. They're both noob traps.

Maushold is hard walled by the best and most ubiquitous Pokémon in the tier because it relies on Population Bomb to do anything, plus Tidy Up removes your own hazards. Defog does the same thing, but when you're Defogging you're not trying to sweep immediately afterward and can typically afford to set your stuff back up. Plus good Defoggers are bulky and can do their jobs more than once.

Agreed. Not to mention this thing basically kills itself if it runs into tank Garchomp

 

[baddummy]

Greetings all, after testing this mon in a suspect laddering team and seeing how it fares against the rest of the metagame, I'm certain it's one of the stronger pokemon in the tier and putting Cinderace at anything less than A+ is selling it short.

-> A+
To start with, when compared to gen8, there are actually some metagame shifts that work in Cinderace's favour. Without scald, bulky water types that Cinderace doesn't enjoy seeing have gone down in usage, and there's no Lando-T to u-turn pivot on it. The Libero/Protean nerf is less impactful for Cinderace than Meowscarada, as Libero won't activate if Cinderace uses a fire type move first, thus it will still have the ability active for the following turn.

I've been using the more obvious set of Pyroball/HJK/U-Turn/Court Change with HDB, and it's clear that this has very relevant meta impact in OU.
Hazard stack teams with Gholdengo are currently dominant, Court Change forces the bulkier versions of these styles of teams to play differently right from turn 1, else they risk spending multiple turns setting up hazards only to have them all be switched over to the other side. Cinderace is a good hazard deterrent in a meta that is low on reliable removal.

Cinderace does have flaws. Great Tusk is a good check to it that can also spin away hazards it might Court Change to the opposing side. Cinderace is outsped by mons like Chien-Pao or Dragapult and it can also be hard walled by defensive options like Skeledirge. Also, running Court Change obviously means it gives up a coverage slot. However, Cinderace has decent options to adapt its moveset in the future - moves like Sucker (to hit pult), Zen Headbutt, or Gunk Shot are potential coverage options and Wisp can be used to hit Great Tusk on the switch-in.

To wrap things up, this mon has strong coverage, a good unique selling point in the current meta, and the flexibility for adaptation in future metagame shifts. It's A+ material for sure.

 

[Mega Breloom]

Agreed. Not to mention this thing basically kills itself if it runs into tank Garchomp

Won't say that the mouse is good, but since Garchomp was mentioned, I can't think in something to justify using it rn. In my opinion it gets outclassed as both, offensive or defensive, hazards setter.

 

[Eeveeto]

Won't say that the mouse is good, but since Garchomp was mentioned, I can't think in something to justify using it rn. In my opinion it gets outclassed as both, offensive or defensive, hazards setter.

Way better than unviable Ting-Lu can ever hope to be, especially since Cinderace got released, Chomp is one of the best checks, especially with either Endure or Rest. Also SD + Tera Fire or Electric is pretty good.

 

[Mega Breloom]

Way better than unviable Ting-Lu can ever hope to be, especially since Cinderace got released, Chomp is one of the best checks, especially with either Endure or Rest. Also SD + Tera Fire or Electric is pretty good.

Even without considering Ting-Lu, we can't ignore the elephan(s) in the room (tier). They fill the bulky ground type role better in most of the cases and Cinderace has made spikes less valuable.

 

[Soosthemoose]

Why is barraskewda above floatzel?

 

[viivian]

Won't say that the mouse is good, but since Garchomp was mentioned, I can't think in something to justify using it rn. In my opinion it gets outclassed as both, offensive or defensive, hazards setter.

i do agree that offensive sets for garchomp are definitely worse off by virtue of their bad matchups against the likes of dragonite, dragapult, chien-pao, roaring moon and iron valiant but i'd like to mention that they're still very effective with proper play. it's still fast enough to outspeed gholdengo, annihilape, great tusk and chi-yu and can OHKO all of them after a swords dance, which it can absolutely get off if you're smart about it. and while i did mention that it has a lot of pokemon who can check it offensively, none of them can check it defensively at all, especially after a boost. it's only really stopped by corviknight and dondozo but the former has to check many other physical threats over the course of the game and has to constantly be wary of its two biggest counters, gholdengo and chi-yu, making it hard for it to simply switch in and halt garchomp's sweep. the latter can definitely check garchomp but loses to a ton of powerful special attackers like iron valiant, gholdengo and chi-yu that can pair very well with offensive garchomp sets. i think SD garchomp is very solid, but just needs a bit more support than it did in SS OU

and defensive garchomp? that set can check so many pokemon due to how good garchomp's natural bulk is, coupled with tankchomp being able to thwart many setup sweepers with dragon tail makes it invaluable to most teams. the contact damage it can inflict over the course of a game is nigh unparalleled thanks to its ability rough skin in tandem with rocky helmet. combine all these attributes with its access to stealth rock and spikes and you've got a pretty reliable hazard setter with some very good defensive capabilities

so all in all, garchomp definitely has a place in this meta. it's just not as prevalent as it was last generation due to stiff competition it has as both a setup sweeper and hazard setter

 

[Finchinator]

Why is barraskewda above floatzel?

Higher attack and not reliant on Wave Crash while having stronger priority due to the attack and different coverage

 

[Eeveeto]

Even without considering Ting-Lu, we can't ignore the elephan(s) in the room (tier). They fill the bulky ground type role better in most of the cases and Cinderace has made spikes less valuable.

Great Tusk is better than Chomp for sure, but he is the only ground who is really above Chomp. Clodsire and Iron Threads are on par with Chomp, the rest at least for me are clearly below. Chomp has the now useful niche of being a Fire Resist that punishes contact move from Cinderace and other Mons. He doesn't even have to run dual hazards, Endure, Rest and even SD + Dragon Tail can work. Chomp also has another advantage over Tusk, he is not weak to Grass, Psychic (this one is not that useful) , Water or Flying. He can take the spammable Flower Trick from Meowscarada or endure choiced waters in Rain. He can phaze away Curse Dondozo at least once, Tusk is almost set-up fodder. He can also run SD sets and actually forces 2 of Unaware Users to Terastalize with the Ground STAB.

Personally my favorite Grounds to run are Iron Threads, Gastrodon and Clodsire, but Chomp for me has still a lot of merits to be used, especially now with Cinderace in the meta. Great Tusk is still better, but Great Tusk is better than every Ground, not just Chomp, without even outclassing it.
After all, despite Finchinator taking lots of bad decisions in his life (like the BW tierings after 2013 or risking his council spot to MudkipNerd) , at least he recognizes Chomp's potential by using it as his profile pic. If you don't listen to me regarding Chomp, listen to him.

 

[Finchinator]

After all, despite Finchinator taking lots of bad decisions in his life (like the BW tierings after 2013

Every single one of these were decided by the community, not just me (and the only disagreeable one is Excadrill, which predates my time in charge entirely). I really just wanted to nuke trapping, assist, and king’s rock lol, I guess sleep as well

Anyway, Tusk is clearly the best (non-broken) Pokemon in the tier. Other grounds are great still, especially Ting-Lu, and plenty are viable, such as Garchomp, as they bring unique traits to the table. It’s not a linear discussion, but Garchomp is more lower A ranks than anything higher.

 

[pika pal]

Higher attack and not reliant on Wave Crash while having stronger priority due to the attack and different coverage

252+ Atk Choice Band Barraskewda Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight in Rain: 229-271 (57.3 - 67.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Floatzel Wave Crash vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight in Rain: 291-343 (72.9 - 85.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Floatzel Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight in Rain: 205-243 (51.3 - 60.9%) -- 93.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery


While I can see several other reasons to rank Barraskewda high, like the higher speed outside of Rain and the coverage dealing with some problem Bulky mons like Toxapex, Amoongus (Psychic Fangs can OHKO after SR and 1 Spike, Ice Spinner cannot), and Slowking, the higher attack feels like it's going to determine significantly fewer match-ups than those factors to mention it before them. Floatzel with Liquidation hits for only slightly less than Barraskewda on this Corv, which seems a reasonable example as far as Pokemon both would hit with Water moves rather than switch out of or need their coverage for, and Wave Crash is monstrously strong when comparing the Rain boosted STABs most frequently clicked. Barraskewda has coverage to muscle past more Checks-to-Water, whereas Floatzel has fewer mons that will survive Wave Crash in exchange for a much harder time when they do.

(Apologies if this seems more pedantic than I meant. Number crunching is something I like doing during the early "finding stuff" stages of a Gen)

 

[Finchinator]

252+ Atk Choice Band Barraskewda Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight in Rain: 229-271 (57.3 - 67.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Floatzel Wave Crash vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight in Rain: 291-343 (72.9 - 85.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Floatzel Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight in Rain: 205-243 (51.3 - 60.9%) -- 93.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery


While I can see several other reasons to rank Barraskewda high, like the higher speed outside of Rain and the coverage dealing with some problem Bulky mons like Toxapex, Amoongus (Psychic Fangs can OHKO after SR and 1 Spike, Ice Spinner cannot), and Slowking, the higher attack feels like it's going to determine significantly fewer match-ups than those factors to mention it before them. Floatzel with Liquidation hits for only slightly less than Barraskewda on this Corv, which seems a reasonable example as far as Pokemon both would hit with Water moves rather than switch out of or need their coverage for, and Wave Crash is monstrously strong when comparing the Rain boosted STABs most frequently clicked. Barraskewda has coverage to muscle past more Checks-to-Water, whereas Floatzel has fewer mons that will survive Wave Crash in exchange for a much harder time when they do.

(Apologies if this seems more pedantic than I meant. Number crunching is something I like doing during the early "finding stuff" stages of a Gen)

I think the extra power of Skewda normally helps the coverage and potential aqua jet above all else. Wave Crash nuke validates Floatzel for sure, but that’s the main selling point. Skewda is a tad more well rounded a Swift Swim abuser without the same nuke button. Personally I rank them p similarly and wouldn’t mind if they’re the same rank or one subrank off.

Also, I may post a nomination on Golduck eventually on an unrelated note