Hi there! Long time no post here but I wanted to bring new updates and the up to date 2025 tier list now that Pokemon Stadium 3 is coming (ejem Pokemon Champions):
First I want to mention the rise of Chansey, forget about OU Chansey, but this thing is powerful, Thunder/Fire Blast is very difficult to switch into and you can stone wall some key targets so you can build different defensive cores not based on type but stats, Minimize can obviously win you lucky games but most of the time is there to pp stall or force the opponent to switch, You won't risk your Chansey to be KOed or bring too low anyways so most of the time you will swap and loose the boosts, note that to build a perfect team it is very difficult to cover Gengar without Chansey, as Chansey not only walls Gengar but counts as a sleeping Pokemon.
Other Pokemon saw light such as strong defensive cores like Exeggutor/Slowbro and typing from the Rock/Ground despite bad movesets, for sure you will choose the best of them if playing free choice.
In this more mature and balanced metagame wallbreakers and disruptors were esential to make progress, overlooked Pokemon with mixed offensive capabilities like Flareon or Dragonite saw a lot of play, other like Articuno or Gengar that could tilt the battle in your side were also very powerful.
From the powerful combo of sweepers (Kadabra, Jolteon, Persian) while super powerful and definitely able to lead well constructed teams to victory Jolteon and Persian were easy to wall, and in the scenario of the draft league Jolteon was also cheap to wall, where Kadabra was usually the biggest menace a lot of time leading to mirrors, and sometimes even muscling Chansey down with stat drops or pp stalling, Exeggutor while great was sometimes overwhelmed trying to cover too much and was kind of inconsistent always clicking a Egg Bomb or Stun Spore.
Despite this many archetypes are still viable, such as more direct and offensive teams or completely defensive ones, this metagame is more rich than you could expect!
Good Gaming!
