View attachment 554995(One of the biggest glow ups from Home to DLC1. The combination of its fantastic bulk, Regen, Scald, and Flip Turn have made it a splashable defensive glue and the second best bulky water in the tier. It pretty much blanket checks most of the physical attackers in the tier with option to either fish for burns or pivot into something that can rkill said offensive threat. Matches up really nicely against rain, specially since it can stall out rain turns via Protect. I couldn’t rank it any further since it gets hard walled by Wellspring Ogre and is still exploitable by the likes of Gliscor and Gholdengo. Nevertheless, loving the new Mola.)
View attachment 555004(A bit overblown. Veil isn’t nearly as popular as it was when Bax and Firepon were in the tier. It has inconsistent match ups with the top mons, especially Gliscor who can just come in and set up hazards again cause realistically, what is Cinder gonna do back? Its still a strong pivot, burning checks like Waterpon, Tusk, Dnite, etc is always gonna be appreciated, but its matchup into Gliscor is just very mediocre, specially as hazard removal. Overrated but still obviously good.)
View attachment 555014(Clef does Clef things. Sets up rocks, Knock + T-Wave, etc. One of the best Valiant checks in the tier. Absorbing Knock and being immune to hazards is a deal breaker. Imo tho the best sets rn are SpD Tera Grass Unaware and CM. Clef is unique in being an Unaware wall with the invaluable fairy typing without Tera and having solid special bulk. Its funnily enough one of the best Bloodmoon checks in the tier. With Tera Grass it stuffs out Waterpon even without PhysD investment and can T-Wave it. More physically defensive sets even check other shit like Valiant, BU Tusk, and Kommo-o. CM sets with Tera Water or Ground make for scary wincons, specially since even without spd investment, Modest Ghold doesn’t even one shot it at full. Veil being less common also helps Clef feel less deadweight. Rain sucks tho but its not like Clef ever had a stellar Rain mu anyways. Clef is still good y’all.)
View attachment 555064(Dozo has been consistently the same viability wise since the beginning of SV OU. Checks a bunch of physical attackers, Curse wincon, easy to exploit due to a lack of recovery besides rest and very vulnerable to spikes.)
View attachment 555066(Shits on common Gliscor Spike Stacking builds while being a threatening CM sweeper with Tera. Hamurott still trashes it but Hatt matches up well with every other hazard setter in the tier. Fits on BO, Veil, and Sun. Doesn’t actually check much defensively but its utility is not to be understated. If the meta gets bulkier as a result of more defensive staples, Hatt will only get better with time.)
View attachment 555067(Kommo-o is legit great both as a sweeper and a defensive glue. Mola being such a reliable Wish passer offsets its “no recovery” weakness. Checks several mons and has its own utility with Rocks, Roar, and Taunt. Stuff like Tera Dark Gambit, non-Play Rough Waterpon, Dnite, and non-Psychic/Dgleam Manaphy. Bulletproof lets bulkier builds and HO pivot into the ghosts. Its defensive presence shines even more on HO where it uses its bulk + typing to find setup opportunities and it has a billion ways to mess the opponent up. Be it Special, Phsyical, Mixed, Scale Shot or even Salac BD cause why not. Tera Normal Boomburst with Throat Spray is also just insane. Bax leaving has only made it easier for Kommo-o to be slot onto teams, be it offensive or defensive builds. It might rise for me in like a week
View attachment 555072(Firepon provoking high usage of this thing made people realize Moth is pretty kino, even with Firepon gone. An offensive threat that checks Valiant and Ghold. Fiery Dance boosts can snowball teams hard. Most player’s special walls are Gliscor who risks getting blown up by Fiery Dance boosts or Glowking who takes 2 turns to dent Moth or run T-Wave which in that case, Substitute says hello. Specs Moth is a powerhouse, and under Sun its a demon. It tears apart many common defensive cores atm, and with Tran pretty much being nonexistent, it doesn’t even need to run Tera Ground Blast.)
View attachment 555080(Wake is still kinda stupid and they buffed it even further by giving it Knock and Scald. Now Wake can ruin Blissey and save the Hydro/Draco fun for the rest of the team. Scald is just an improved Hydro Steam outside of Sun. The admittedly decent Empoleon and Wellspring-Oger are solid checks to Wake (the latter dies to Specs Tera Dragon Draco tho lmao). Protect on Gliscor and Mola makes it easier for bulkier builds to pivot around Specs. Can you tell that DLC1 is more balanced than Home? If I’m not complaining about Wake anymore despite buffing it, they’re doing something right.)
View attachment 555081(Zama is about the same viability wise as before but slightly better since the birds aren’t nearly as common as in Home. Sub-ID absolutely shits on Gliscor and Mola. It checks the usual suspects, Gambit, Dnite, Hamurott, and also now Waterpon. Band is kinda bad cause Gliscor fucks with it, but the bread n’ butter works great as always.)