Honestly, I am loving the current meta right now. Its very diverse after the Terapagos ban. Just gonna go through a few new mons and my thoughts on them.
: This is the only mon right now I would look into action on. Deoxys Speed's lead sets are... fine. I know a lot of people have mixed feelings of HO, but to be honest Deoxys Speed isn't that much scarier than the Hisuian Samurott, Glimmora, or Meowscarada HO leads we saw this gen.
My concern is the offensive sets are pretty dang good. LO 4 Attacks or Nasty Plot end up feeling like a Dragapult on crack. You outspeed so much and can revenge kill so much of the tier. It isn't impossible to deal with and is more threatening to Hyper Offense than it is to Balance, Bulky Offense, or Stall, but it is something on my radar. I want to see more of where this trends going forward. Right now it feels like a borderline case to me, but part of that feels like people just are not building in account for it. A lot of the Deoxys Speed usaged on ladder is the standard spikes set, which while good is not what pushes it towards the edge.
Darkrai will get banned once the meta settles.
There are more pressing things to ban, first...
Quote me when it happens.
On a more serious note, this thing is fine. Even on balance, Darkrai feels manageable. Hypnosis Nasty Plot is bait and bad. Nasty Plot 3 Attacks hates how fast the meta is and having to choose between Life Orb and Boots is back breaking. Specs and Scarf are pretty nice right now, especially with Booster Valiants and Boulders running around for Scarf to help pick off.
I think people need to look at this thing less as a Nasty Plot bot, and moreso the way they look at Dragapult or Gengar. Darkrai has plenty of disruptive tools beyond just Hypnosis. I have found Sub Disable, Sub Wisp, Taunt Nasty Plot, heck even Thunder Wave sets better than the Hypnosis sets. If anything, I like the effect and tools Darkrai gives us in this meta. It is a nice piece of speed control and disruption, which is a great touch right now.
: Gouging Fire is so much fun. It provides such a good defensive backbone for fat teams while being a great sun abuser in its own right. It is probably the most fun to use out of the new drops and I love the effect it has had on the tier. I've seen more of a trend towards Bulky DD on Sun with Morning Sun now that Terapagos is gone, and it seems very solid. Keep an eye on this one.
On the other hand, Iron Boulder feels very one dimmensional, yet it is still absurdly scary imo. Booster SD is the nuts. Its its only set, but its a very good set. I wouldn't be shocked if this got a lot more ire thrown its way in the future. It is quite strong. Mighty Cleave is goated as well.
This is the only super strong user of Stellar Tera imo. I have seen a bit of it on Offensive Deo S which seemed alright and it on Serperior which seemed... not great. But Enam loves stellar Tera. Contrary sets with Specs or Scarf go hard. Our tier was already starving for more fairy resists, and now we have a surplus of Dragons to prey on too. This feels like a borderline top 5 mon in the meta right now to me, and its super constraining in builder.
It is not bax jr at least. Kyurem has a lot harder time dealing with Steels and hits notably less hard on the physical side. Its still bulky as sin and easily the best reason to run Veil. Specs is also a headache to build for if you build balance, but I think its not nearly as scary as a lot of us worried it would be.
MU Moth is good. Honestly feels pretty nice in the tier right now. I dont think its broken, but man, tossing this thing on balance feels great. I love having Volc in builder to make prepping for Valiant a tinge easier.