Explaining my 2025 VR picks pt. 1 (S and A tiers):
Introduction
LINK TO MY FULL RANKINGS
I started playing this tier competitively around August 2024, and I've enjoyed it immensely. I've had a decent amount of success building with most of the tier, and I've watched many games from other players, but I still felt like I didn't want to base my rankings completely on my own experience, so I wanted to include a significant statistical component into my rankings. So, I compiled a list (
link) of 728 games that I deemed "high-stakes" replays from 2025 - a large sample size that includes the top 16 of all Circuit tournaments, as well as all replays from the Invitational, GSCPL, SPL and ROAPL. Using the common scouting tools, I was able to glean quite a few significant trends that informed my analysis.
A few disclaimers about the statistics:
- There are 728 replays but the FLG scouter only counts 727, I'm not sure why.
- Winrates exclude ties from the calculation entirely.
- Usage rates are a percentage of the total games played (times 2) unless otherwise specified.
- The stats only count instances when are Pokemon is revealed in the game or where a move is clicked, so many things will naturally be underrepresented. This has a noticeable effect on certain stats, so be careful with the conclusions you draw from the numbers.
- There are some odd discrepancies in the scouter (e.g. 1 recorded instance of Zapdos using Explosion which is impossible), these may be due to pathological nicknames or some other error, I'm not sure.
And most importantly, stats don't tell the whole story. My placements were a combination of my own feelings about viability, the opinions of other experienced players that swayed me, and actual statistical results. I will attempt to justify them below. For some of the Pokemon I've also included an "X-Factor" set, which is a less-common or underrated set I like or want to draw attention to.
1. Snorlax
Usage: 1438/1454 (98.90%, 1st)
Winrate: 49.61% (10th, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
60.76% WR with Belly Drum (5.43% usage)
56.83% WR with Lovely Kiss (15.75% usage)
56.67% WR with Selfdestruct (14.72% usage)
43.24% WR with Flamethrower (7.63% usage)
Total unique moves used in 2025: 20 (1st)
The king of GSC stays on top with nearly a 100% usage (games where Snorlax goes unrevealed lowers its usage), continuing its essential role as an all-purpose physical sweeper/mixed attacker/mixed wall/special wall. The ubiquity renders the winrate stats meaningless, so it's more interesting to look at what sets players are having success with. I've noticed top players consistently get an edge with LK lax and the numbers support that. Drumlax is also looking like it should see an uptake in usage as a lot of teams are disrespecting it lately. Flamelax has been underwhelming which makes sense - letting in Golem, Tyranitar and Gengar in for free is not an attractive feature.
X-Factor set:
Double-Edge
Earthquake
Lovely Kiss
Curse
This is one prominent example of how players are using LK to terrorize opponents. LK can be used early on a switching spiker or curselax check, or it can be used on an opposing curselax to shut it down and execute a counter-sweep. Against stall, it can cripple a check like Skarmory or Forretress and enable a second sweeper like Machamp to go to work. I expect LK usage to only go up in 2026.
2. Zapdos
Usage: 980/1454 (67.40%, 3rd)
Winrate: 48.82% (12th, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
46.84% WR with Whirlwind/Roar (20.77% usage)
43.98% WR with Reflect (11.42% usage)
55.36% WR when paired with Forretress (11.61% usage) (1st among all Zapdos partners with > 3% usage)
Don't let the winrates fool you - Zapdos is still a menace that the entire meta revolves around. Its powerful special attacks, mixed walling capabilities and speed make it the ultimate midground play, and it's dangerous in all phases of the game with its damage output and chance to paralyze. WW Zapdos has been extremely popular this year, appearing over one-fifth of all games, although with mixed results (I think people are still experimenting on what structures it works best on and some of those experiments don't work so well).
3. Cloyster
Usage: 1002/1454 (68.91%, 2nd)
Winrate: 48.34% (13th, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
48.38% WR when NOT paired with Skarmory (62.17% usage)
<50% WR when NOT paired with Skarmory and paired with any other individual partner with more than 2.5% usage EXCEPT for Raikou (45.39% usage)
54.77% WR when paired with Raikou and NOT Skarmory (16.78% usage)
55.17% WR when paired with Skarmory and Blissey (1.99% usage, 29 games)
44.93% WR when paired with Skarmory and NOT Blissey (4.75% usage, 69 games)
A lot of numbers to say that Cloyster's WR has been a little bit underwhelming outside of a couple specific structures. Still, the tier's premier spiker is a strong pick for 3rd on the VR. Its relatively high speed, excellent physical bulk, splashability, Spikes, and the combination of STAB Surf + Explosion make it not just an excellent offense and team support option, but also a great emergency defensive option against powerful threats like Marowak and Snorlax. Rapid Spin Cloyster has also performed nicely on Blissey stall, although it has struggled outside of it.
I believe however that Cloyster is currently a bit of a victim of its own success. The meta has become very hostile to Cloyster, and many teams seek to bait an early appearance in order to cripple it with poison or sleep, or secure an early KO with surprise coverage (Thorlax). Once Cloyster has been taken out of the picture these teams can spin and it becomes much harder to make progress against them. In my opinion, builders should seek to take advantage of this by reducing Cloyster usage in favor of a certain other spiker (more on that later).
4. Raikou
Usage: 527/1454 (36.24%, 4th)
Winrate: 53.76% (2nd, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
50.66% WR when paired with Skarmory (16.07% usage)
56.21% WR when NOT paired with Skarmory (20.15% usage)
60.00% WR when NOT paired with Skarmory or Zapdos (11.21% usage)
60.14% WR when paired with Tyranitar (9.90% usage)
>50% WR with 13/15 most common individual partners (exceptions: Misdreavus with 45.45% WR and Umbreon with 48.89% WR)
57.48% WR with Crunch (8.94% usage)
Wow! 2025 was an exceptional year for the jaguar in just about every way. Raikou is perhaps associated more with stall than offense, but it's Raikou's offensive performance that stole the show this year, with offensive Raikou teams significantly outpacing stall teams in both winrate and usage. In particular, offense teams that eschewed Zapdos as an electric resttalker in favor of Raikou won three-fifths of the time on a large sample size. Such teams rely on Raikou's ability to take abuse from the tier's best special attackers to free up Snorlax to run a more aggressive offensive set, often dropping Rest on Snorlax entirely. These teams often dare threats with Earthquake like Nidoking and Marowak to punish them for dropping Zapdos...an occasion they have largely not risen to, as we'll see. As for stall, Raikou remains a reliable and essential choice on common stall structures, though some of these are among Raikou's worst showings this year.
I initially was going to rank Raikou lower, as it does have some issues. Good players will use Raikou as a doubling opportunity for strong physical threats and will exploit Raikou's inferior matchups to these relative to Zapdos. And of course, Zapdos-less teams are more vulnerable to Spikes. However, the results are undeniable, and everything points to Raikou's usage increasing even further in 2026. It's also worth noting that many Pokemon reach their highest winrates when paired with Raikou, showing its value and versatility in the builder.
X-Factor set:
Thunder
Crunch
Sleep Talk
Rest
I suppose this set is a bit of a throwback to when Hidden Power electrics were banned, although I wasn't around for that. Still, this set is a curious choice in a meta infested with ground-type Earthquake users...surely giving up Hidden Power is a problem? Well, apparently not. Crunch Raikou has a very high winrate with decent usage as well. Crunch gives Raikou more consistency against Psychic types that like to fish for drops and crits on the sleeping cat, and dishes out special drops of its own that can be problematic for the opponent with spikes down. It is a magnet for ground types, so this should only be used on teams that have appropriate answers to such lines.
5. Tyranitar
Usage: 502/1454 (34.53%, 5th)
Winrate: 50.50% (7th, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
55.67% WR when paired with Skarmory (6.81% usage)
64.20% WR when paired with Raikou and Forretress (5.63% usage)
63.30% WR with Rest (7.57% usage, 2nd highest Pokemon+move WR w/ min. 50 games)
49.25% WR when NOT paired with Skarmory (27.72% usage)
38.81% WR when paired with Nidoking (4.60% usage, 67 games)
55.71% WR with Thunderbolt (4.88% usage, 71 games)
41.67% WR with Surf (4.95% usage, 72 games)
44.53% WR with Screech (9.49% usage)
Total unique moves used in 2025: 20 (T-3rd)
Tyranitar has one of the most diverse and unpredictable movepools in GSC OU and this it allows to play a wide variety of roles in different team structures. Tyranitar is a bit of an anomaly in this VR because it's a traditionally offensive Pokemon (4:1 usage ratio) that performed much better on stall, in a year that found several stall-coded Pokemon finding significantly more usage and/or success on offense. The most common team used this year was the classic Tyranitar stall (Tyranitar/Forretress/Raikou/Starmie/Skarmory/Snorlax) and it was also the most successful, appearing a confirmed 37 times with a 72.97% WR. I would argue Tyranitar is the most important piece on that team as it gives it a way to exert pressure that stall often struggles to maintain.
The situation on offense has been a mixed bag for the kaiju, but this depends greatly on moveset and team composition. The classic Nidotar pairing has struggled this year, but it has positive WRs on offensive teams when paired with Forretress, Raikou, Gengar and Marowak, all of which are frequent partners. I wish I had data on full movesets as it's hard to draw too many conclusions w.r.t what's working and what isn't just from pairings and individual move winrates. Nevertheless, we all know from experience how troublesome Tyranitar can be when its moveset hasn't been scouted, and this makes it dangerous in a way that no other Pokemon besides Snorlax is.
X-Factor set:
Rock Slide
Earthquake
Thunderbolt
Dynamicpunch
Be honest...do you ever want to run into this set? All-out-attacker Tyranitar with Dynamicpunch is a menace and this is the variant with the best coverage. Very few things can adequately wall this beast, especially before the moves are revealed. This is one of very few things that can square up vs Snorlax, Zapdos, Raikou, and Skarmory 1v1 and have a good chance to win. I believe Thunderbolt's 55.71% WR is indicative of this set's performance, as Tbolt rarely makes sense on a non-AOA set.
6. Forretress
Usage: 370/1454 (25.45%, 9th)
Winrate: 54.79% (1st, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
52.91% WR when paired with Skarmory (12.10% usage)
56.48% WR when NOT paired with Skarmory (13.34% usage)
Highest WR among all Pokemon on offensive teams with >5% usage
63.58% WR if it uses Explosion during the game (11.97% usage, highest Pokemon+move WR w/ min. 50 games)
>50% WR with 13/15 most common individual partners (exceptions: Misdreavus with 44.64% WR and Steelix with 45.45% WR)
As a Forre offense truther, this data was like a late Christmas present. Despite its reputation as the spiker of stall, Forretress was more commonly seen on offense in 2025, where it performed splendidly. As I stated before, I believe the meta is overtuned towards defending against Cloyster, and many teams struggle to dispatch of Forretress in a timely manner with its Toxic immunity and Normal resistance. RT Earthquake Snorlax in particular is very common and an excellent entry point for Forre to come in and lay Spikes. My personal belief is that the optimal usage for offensive teams should favor Cloyster 2:1 (currently it is 4.66:1) - this keeps opponents from cheating much on one or the other, while still favoring the superior Cloyster.
Less surprisingly, Forretress has continued to be solid on stall, and has been much better than Cloyster on these teams. Misdreavus structures do seem to be a pain point, though this mostly seems to come from builds with Forre as the solo spinner, which probably asks too much of the bug. Altogether, Forretress has been too consistent on too many kinds of teams in 2025 for me to rank it lower than 6th. I think Forretress suffers from a rankings bias because it loses to almost everything 1v1, but the team support it provides is clearly invaluable and savvy builders should continue to reap the rewards in 2026.
7. Exeggutor
Usage: 380/1454 (26.13%, 8th)
Winrate: 50.80% (5th, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
58.27% WR when paired with Raikou (8.94% usage)
58.06% WR when paired with Forretress (4.33% usage, 63 games)
55.65% WR when paired with Golem (8.73% usage)
53.68% WR when paired with Gengar (6.67% usage)
57.26% WR with Hidden Power (8.80% usage)
I personally think Exeggutor is the most consistent offense enabler in the tier, and its consistency is the main reason I rank it above Gengar. Egg is an agent of chaos and early-game defensive check that always disrupts the opponent's defensive gameplan and rarely lets the user down if played correctly. It can check scary threats like Marowak, Machamp and Vaporeon, and is one of the best Thief users in the tier. It's true that its role is a bit trickier in stall matchups due to many of its sets being walled by Skarmory and Forretress, but on well-build teams Exeggutor should still be able to apply adequate pressure.
X-Factor set:
Psychic
Giga Drain
Thief
Explosion
In my opinion this is Exeggutor's best set, all things being equal. Even after using Thief, it retains an extremely high threat level vs. special walls thanks to Explosion. It also isn't much at risk of getting PP stalled by Substitute Starmie thanks to Thief's roughly 50% chance to break Substitute.
8. Gengar
Usage: 444/1454 (30.54%, 6th)
Winrate: 49.89% (9th, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
55.59% WR when NOT paired with Jynx, Nidoking, or Alakazam (19.81% usage)
39.35% WR when paired with at least one of Jynx, Nidoking or Alakazam (10.73% usage)
37.33% WR when paired with Jynx (5.23% usage)
63.33% WR with Perish Song (2.06% usage, 30 games)
Total unique moves used in 2025: 19 (2nd)
The stats tell a tale of two Gengars: when paired with a second physically frail offensive mon, its WR is horrible, but otherwise, it's one of the best performers in the tier. Pairings with Jynx, Nido and Zam remain extremely popular, appearing on over one-tenth of all teams, and the poor results from these pairings drag Gengar's WR down considerably. So, what to make of all this? Well, I feel that Gengar is somewhat to blame for the poor results with certain pairings. Gengar has many excellent qualities: spinblocking, boomblocking, immune to Snorlax's STAB, toxic immune, status, thief, boom, etc., and people praise these tools ad nauseum, but it also has significant flaws: horrible defenses, lack of STAB, and reliance on inaccurate moves like Hypnosis and Dynamicpunch. A lot of its threat level vs special walls with resttalk depends on Explosion, but at the same time Gengar's defenses means it often can't just sit on these walls indefinitely and dare them to stay in. I also think good stall players are skilled at wearing down Gengar and it's far from the auto-win vs. stall that some people like to claim. These shortcomings are fine on teams with more of a defensive backbone, but when paired with other frail mons like Jynx it can put too much stress on the team.
Don't get me wrong, I think Gengar is great, but I do believe people focus too much on its good qualities when rating it and ignore the issues. The issues are why I rate it below Exeggutor. Rather than something that can be indiscriminately slapped on a team, getting the most out of Gengar requires thoughtful building and play.
X-Factor set:
Ice Punch
Mean Look
Perish Song
Destiny Bond
This offbeat set is rarely used but has caught opponents off-guard more often than not in 2025, with Perish Song yielding a 63.33% WR in 30 games. A good choice for opponents who are a little too predictable with their Gengar lines.
9. Starmie
Usage: 292/1454 (20.08%, 12th)
Winrate: 53.10% (3rd, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
50.89% WR when NOT paired with Skarmory (11.69% usage)
56.20% WR when paired with Skarmory (8.39% usage)
70.97% WR when paired with Gengar (2.20% usage, 32 games)
62.24% WR with Substitute (6.88% usage)
56.25% WR with Nightmare (1.17% usage, 17 games)
Starmie, along with Forretress and Raikou, is one of the 3 common stall Pokemon to see more usage on offense in 2025. Unlike the other 2 however, it continues to see more success on stall. As the most splashable and verstaile Rapid Spin user, its defensive qualities are essential on stall squads, but offense teams desire these as well. The problem with Starmie on offense is the entry point you give to Snorlax, which offenses can't afford as much as stall can. Even still, offense players continue to try to find ways to mitigate this for the spin support, with mostly respectable results. The offensive Starmie set with Nightmare wasn't very popular in 2025, but it did perform well when deployed. Even without Nightmare Starmie, the Starmie/Gengar pairing was highly successful in limited usage. I rate Starmie higher than the Pokemon below due to its usefulness on both stall and offense, as well as the very common scenario where Starmie's role leads to a dominant victory: poison cloy and then eliminate it, while swatting the spike attempts away with Starmie.
X-Factor set:
Surf
Rapid Spin
Toxic
Recover
Given that allowing Snorlax (esp. Curselax) free entry is one of Starmie's biggest issues, I think Toxic should be considered more often, especially on offense. It can be game saving against Rest-less Lax, and can come in handy as well against some other threats.
10. Skarmory
Usage: 314/1454 (21.60%, 12th)
Winrate: 50.32% (8th, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
55.67% WR when paired with Tyranitar (6.81% usage)
44.16% WR when NOT paired with Starmie or Tentacruel (10.73% usage)
48.94% WR with Sand-Attack (6.60% usage, worst WR among all moves used by Skarmory)
Skarmory is one of the hardest Pokemon to rank in this tier. On one hand, as the only good Curse EQ Lax check it's essential to the stall playstyle, which remains an important part of the tier. On the other hand, Skarm's passiveness is a huge drawback and the main reason why you don't see a lot of "balance" team structures combining Skarmory and offense mons. If you're playing stall, you have to have it, but you also don't really want to send it out if you don't need to because it is an entry point for lots of nasty threats. All that being said, Skarmory/stall continues to have a respectable winrate and usage, and as one of tier's biggest gatekeepers, I can't rank it lower than 10th.
As far as team structures go, Skarmory has had consistent success when paired with Tyranitar and water-type spinners. Most of Skarmory's negative results have come from other structures, but even these still have OK results, with Suicune being the only pairing with a WR below 45% among Skarmory's 15 most common partners. Sand-Attack Skarmory saw consistent usage this year to target Curse sweepers, and while the results weren't too bad, it performed worse than any other variant of Skarmory.
11. Steelix
Usage: 386/1454 (26.55%, 7th)
Winrate: 46.09% (16th, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
<50% WR with all partners with at least 20 uses
Only 3 Steelix teams of 6 with at least 10 uses and a WR >50%
46.23% WR when using Explosion (lowest WR among all Steelix moves with >3 uses)
48.78% WR when paired with Starmie (5.64% usage, highest among all pairings with > 20 uses)
Steelix is likely the biggest example of stats not telling the full story. Despite its high usage, it has one of the lowest WRs in 2025, and furthermore that WR is consistently low no matter what Steelix is paired with. So what's going on here? Are players just stubbornly throwing an ineffective option into battle? Well, consider this: there were 140 games (9.63% usage) where no normal-resist phazer (Steelix, Golem, Skarmory, Tyranitar, Rhydon) made an appearance. The WR in these games was 58.70%. Now, some of the wins were definitely from teams with e.g. WW Zapdos as the only phazer, but many of them were from teams that jumped out to a hot start and never needed to send out their phazer. Given Steelix's high usage, it's reasonable to assume many of these teams had an unrevealed Steelix in the back, and these wins did not count towards Steelix's WR.
Still, I do dock Steelix a bit for not having ANY winning pairings among any pairings with frequent usage. After all, if a mon is valuable, you would expect it to do well in when it shows up in battle. Another interesting stat is the low WR with Explosion; this is contrary to most other Explosion users that see some of their highest WRs when clicking the move. I think this speaks to the value of Steelix as a defensive piece and what players lose when they give that up, so there's a little bit of antisynergy there. Another thing to consider is that Steelix builds often concede permanent spikes, which is a significant disadvantage. Starmie being Steelix's best partner would seem to support this, as Starmie is typically the only spinner you see paired with Lix.
All this being said, Steelix is an essential piece on many offensive teams, both as a defensive check to top threats like Snorlax, Zapdos, Raikou and Gengar, as an Explosion user trading with high-value targets like Zapdos and Skarmory, a Spikes shuffler, and even as a late-game wincon. Regardless of what the stats say I don't expect usage to decline much in 2026.
X-Factor set:
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Roar
Curse
This set only had 3 appearances in 2025, so I can't say its a dominant force in the meta, but it's personally my favorite set in the whole tier. Many teams are unprepared to deal with a Steelix that can sweep teams without needing Flying types removed, especially stall teams lacking debuffs. It's hard to build with but highly dangerous.
12. Golem
Usage: 368/1454 (25.31%, 10th)
Winrate: 48.90% (11th, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
46.51% WR when paired with Skarmory (2.96% usage, 43 games)
46.67% WR when paired with Gengar (7.30% usage)
56.94% WR when paired with Forretress (4.95% usage, 72 games)
55.65% WR when paired with Exeggutor (8.73% usage)
54.55% WR when paired with Heracross (2.32% usage, 47 games)
68.75% WR with Fire Blast (1.10% usage, 16 games)
Some players have cooled on Golem's potential, but it still had solid reuslts in 2025. Unlike Steelix, Golem's WR varies wildly depending on what structure it's used on. It definitely appreciates Exeggutor over Gengar, and in particular the Golem/Raikou/Exeggutor trio saw consistent success this year. Golem stall didn't do so well, but also was rarely used.
Golem doesn't have the same on-demand spinning ability as Starmie and Tentacruel. Rather, I would argue Golem's value lies in its ability to leverage the threat of Rapid Spin into forcing soft targets to take damage from Earthquake or its other moves. Golem is the only Pokemon in the tier that gets better when Spikes are down on its side as this makes it more unpredictable. It's definitely better in offense mirrors rather than against stall, but spin support is nice to have in any match.
X-Factor set:
Earthquake
Fire Blast
Rapid Spin
Explosion
The fire coverage on this set can put a lot of pressure on stall teams. It wasn't used much in 2025 but had a strong WR. Something to consider if you already have a phazer.
13. Machamp
Usage: 206/1454 (14.17%, 13th)
Winrate: 50.73% (6th, min. 5% usage)
Key Stats:
62.96% WR when paired with Gengar (1.93% usage, 28 games)
73.91& WR when paired with Forretress (1.65% usage, 24 games)
64.00% WR with Fire Blast (1.72% usage, 25 games)
46.67% WR with Earthquake (8.25% usage, lowest among all moves with >5 games)
Coverage move percentages (out of all 206 Machamp uses) - Earthquake: 58.25%, Hidden Power: 27.18%, Fire Blast: 12.14%
Machamp is a certified beast. This lifetime natty has established itself as one of the most consistent breakers in the tier, which is a bit ironic considering its reliance on Cross Chop. I want to say that a big part of that is the rise of Earthquake as the coverage moves of choice, but that's actually its worst move statistically - still, 46.67% WR isn't too bad and WR isn't everything. Earthquake allows champ to operate more independently as it doesn't need to rely on Cross Chop for chip damage on many foes, and makes it a more consistent finisher as well. Hidden Power and Fire Blast still remain fine choices and have performed well when used.
Machamp has strong or average winrates with most partners, but did exceptionally well with Forretress and Gengar, although the low usage prevents many conclusions from being drawn here. Don Eduardo's Machamp + Alakazam team was one of the best performing 6s with at least 10 uses this past year, winning 7 of 12 games (58.33%).
EDIT: forgot to mention why I ranked Machamp in its own tier. I think it's an excellent breaker as I stated above, head and shoulders above anything in B tier, but it isn't something that you can just slap on a wide variety of structures like all the mons above it. The usage stats reflect this as there is a significant gap in usage both above and below Machamp.
X-Factor set:
Cross Chop
Rock Slide
Curse
Light Screen
This set only showed up 4 times in high-stakes games this year (with 2 wins), but I think it's quite cool that Machamp can call its own shot to an extent against healthy special walls like Zapdos and Surf Starmie.
TO BE CONTINUED WITH B TIERS
