Resource SV ZU Viability Rankings

[I'm Tapu Bulu]

Not sure I'd agree with Lycanroc-Midnight being placed in the B ranks given how its regular much faster form exists. If you're scared of Stone Miss you can drop down to Loaded Dice Rock Blast with Swords Dance and it achieves much of what choiced midnight versions achieve while carrying priority to boot. And Midnight does not have what it takes to spam Knock Off and Sucker Punch repeatedly throughout a game, especially with a lot of competition around. C rank is alright maybe


On Orthworm, it honestly sucks ass but it also benefits from magneton and perrserker being fake steel types in many scenarios due to their bad special defense. Orthworm also has more utility to boot and that ironpress set. I would agree with dropping it to B though, this pokemon is fucking garbage and showcases the dearth of good steel types in the tier.


I have to disagree with Sableye rising - it's an obnoxious prankster mon, but it's very easy to snipe on the specially defensive side, so you can just pressure their special wall e.g. Lanturn/Snorlax with pivoting moves. Sneasel (a mon i think needs to rise) laughs in its face and turns it into setup fodder, and Toxicroak commonly carries Tera Dark and does the same, so you might find out you need a weezing or muk as well and congrats you've turned your team into fat balance.


Agree with its drop, floatzel leaving the tier made it a lot less functional.

Also i would be careful with nomming NFE mons because Knock Off is god mode this gen. Quilladin cannot reliably wall Venusaur or Basculin with knock + hazards in play, and Clefairy has an endless movepool but once it gets knocked it gets turned into death fodder. This is partially why I nommed Ursaring earlier - only has to avoid knock during the first turn, before guts gets activated.

Vivillon sounds interesting but it is very easy to kill even at +1 since there's a lot of priority in the tier. If anything Masquerain sounds more interesting, has intimidate and a higher SpA.

 

[plznostep]

probably short nom post since its so hard to rate Pokemon in this metagame, everything feels shit but good at the same time lol

UR to C
So uh this maybe bit of a stretch but I think this Pokemon has a niche in this tier in two team styles that aren't common by any means but give it a reason to be used. One is Trick Room. Being a setter that can revive many of your team mates can be quite clutch in some scenarios. But it's not mandatory by any means so I can see how you can overlook that. The other team style is Grassy Terrain since Rabsca has a few traits that make it a fair option to consider.

Rabsca has access to Recover + Calm Mind + Stored Power. This is actually rather unique in ZU. The only other people I would consider who can pull this off are Chimecho, Duosion, and Medicham. Out of these Pokemon, Rabsca has the highest defenses and offensive stats out of these Pokemon while its secondary typing gives it a pretty decent attacking type as well to hit Tera Dark Pokemon or hit the other Dark-types neutrally. It can be a pretty powerful combo since the other Stored Power users such as Mesprit have to rely on Draining Kiss or do not get good recovery options in Farigiraf. Even though Rabsca has a Stealth Rock weakness, a lot of Grassy Terrain teams already carry Hitmontop to support Oricorio, which also ends up supporting Rabsca so it's not too big of an issue.

I know you usually need replays to nom a UR Pokemon so take some random replays of me beating ladder players you don't actually care about.

Replays

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9zu-2507843398-0e4800nhng9cmbudbrsflgcma7dxiwwpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9zu-2507977662-v57qwsj90l3wma028gk5c5pdp6ngn94pw

B to A-/A
I feel Whiscash is a genuine Pokemon for once. Despite not actually being threatening, I feel like it threatens what it needs to most times in spinners like Sandslash and can chip Hitmontop on switch as well, so it ends up not actually being too passive since its able to get its hazards up without much trouble. Whiscash's stats do help a lot since it's very bulky unlike most other Ground-types in the tier and the typing lets it check a good majority of the tier as well.

C+ to B
Pyroar is really similar to the other Fire-types in the tier but is faster than Charizard and has Taunt + STAB Tera Blast that allows it to compress secondary STAB and coverage in one slot. So uh like put it up to their level please thanks.

uh okay byeeeeeeee

 

[lettuce]

im a sheep and its nom time

if we dont lose it, > A/A+
I really like having toxicroak around. It makes Basculin feel trivial since the basc guys haven't switched over to double edge. Idk the odds of us keeping croak but I'm hoping for the best. It's got ZU's favorite physical attacking profile of Fighting/Poison and then Knock Off and Sucker Punch to boot, and it has set diversity with special sets, different items, and other options like SD and EQ. It's a fantastic mon.

A -> A-
It's not Toxicroak. The speed tier is useful, but I've been punished for not outspeeding Whimsicott in this meta one too many times to say that you can get away with this as your fastest mon. The other fightings just offer more, with Croak's real ability and top's spin.

A- -> B+
I think that pass being the slowest scarfer makes it usually not worth considering, especially when Hitmontop and Toxicroak are better fightings. On top of that, it's probably the worst tera dark user of our fightings since you probably would want to be Tera Poison, since it doesn't get STAB on gunk shot. The only niche it has over the other fightings is U-Turn, and I don't think that can keep it in A-, especially alongside possible scarfers like Grafaiai and (it barely counts but) Braviary.

I think there's a solid argument to put both Pass and Sneasel in the same tier, since I weigh their pros over Toxicroak similarly, but if Sneasel is higher because it's more versatile I see it.

A -> A-
I'm trying really hard not to hate on Mowtom too hard, but it doesn't typically beat Basculin and I think that's a problem. You kinda need a grass type that's able to do that in my opinion (or Toxicroak). I haven't used Mowtom much since Venu dropped, which is mostly due to the Basc MU + being resisted by Venu. Now, the fact that I haven't used it is why I'm not sure if I'm underrating it or not, but I still don't think too highly of it.

B+ -> A
If you haven't lost to a Sableye or ran/clicked Tera Dark on something for the Prankster immunity, I don't know what you're doing unless you have never used a fighting type/physical attacker in this tier or smth. Sableye is a viable piece of the meta, and is way more legitimate than the rest of B+ and most of A-. Will-o-wisp makes it a viable Spinblocker since you force out Hitmontop, and if the top player tries to be smart and clickes Taxel on the switch, they don't 2HKO you unless they dodge wisp or use tera.

A -> A-
Now that spinblockers exist, Sandslash is a really mid spinner. It's best used as a Gunk Shot resist that can threaten a knock, since it doesn't beat the ghosts (Sableye/Spiritomb), although its not like they want to take a knock. You can't deny Sandslash's utility which is why I think it should only go down 1 tier, but it's better as a physical wall than a designated spinner. Also, I don't like

A- -> A
Its death was greatly exaggerated. Turns out, adding Venusaur to maybe 2 fairy resists doesn't suddenly make Fairy a bad type to spam.

keep them where they are (A/B+ respectively)
I think these 2 are fine where they are. If you're disappointed with Lanturn, you're probably not switching into a Zard/Jolt and slow pivoting out immediately into your revenge killer, or are doing it at 50% HP. At least in my experience with Lanturn, it's able to do this as many times as you need it to in a battle when you keep it healthy enough. As for Orthworm, it has it's MUs. The only downside with it is its fighting weakness. Steel has its problems as a typing in a tier where Fire/Water/Fighting/Dark/Electric are some of the best offensive types, but between its stats, weight making it a relatively safe Snorlax switch-in, ground immunity, and access to spikes, I think its benefits outweigh its awkwardness and justify it in B+.

I don't really have an opinion on most of the UR noms, outside of what I already said about Samu/Ursaring being ranked. Feel like most of them need more showings, but they're all mons I'd consider using outside of the red Lycanroc, who is just Mabo with a worse defensive typing, and Clefairy, since idk why you would want a poison weakness on your fight resist.

 

[risin_glory]

So had some productive discussions on discord and also read through opinions in this thread. I did nom midnight Lycan a bit too high lol.
As a weaker mabostiff I suppose C rank is fitting afterall.
Now as to why I ended up nomming it that high? I genuinely think if I have to choose an offensive rock type between daycan and night can I personally would always choose nightcan. Like I just don't see daycan doing much personally so I wanted to keep both forms close in VR.

So here's my updated nom:
B -> C+ (mabo rank)
UR -> C

The reason I want both lycan on VR vs just one is because functionally these mons couldn't be more different. It is a very similar yet reasonably different dynamic as heasel vs croak.

I second the noms lettuce and steppy made too

 

[Apagogie]

Since it’s nomination season, I think it’s worth doing some cleanup of the crowded C rank. It’s difficult to judge which Pokémon deserve to stay ranked as experiences with lower ranked mons can feel different. That said, the C tier feels big and includes Pokémon with different levels of viability in my eyes. Reintroducing a C− rank could help with this. With that in mind, here are my nominations:

Lurantis B− to C+
Crocalor C to C+

Poliwrath C+ to C−
Cacturne C to C−
Carbink C to C−
Combusken C to C−
Alolan Dugtrio C to C−
Komala C to C−
Sceptile C to C−
Piloswine C to C−
Veluza C to C−

Scovillain C+ to Unranked
Victreebel C to Unranked

Lurantis feels underwhelming to use with Venusaur around and the introduction of Toxicroak to a lesser extent. It faces competition from other defoggers such as Braviary while non-defog sets feel like a very average bulky setup sweeper compared to more consistent options like Malamar or mons benefiting from the grassy seed. Lurantis feels at this point like a Tera hog Pokémon which was not the case previously. Overall, it feels more niche than a B rank.

Crocalor represents stall viability in the tier. It performs better than sand which is currently ranked C+ and also performs better than several Pokémon ranked above it so C+ feels reasonable.

With the introduction of a C− rank, many extremly barely viable Pokémon fit naturally there. Most of them are rarely if ever seen in practice and occupy mostly theoretical niches.

The two Pokémon proposed for unranking are either directly outclassed by Venusaur or became unviable after the Heat Rock ban which removed the conditions that previously justified their niche

 

[I'm Tapu Bulu]

My last nomination for 2025 here. I feel like Boots are like a 3rd option for this mon if you really can't afford hazard removal. At 75%, so after one round of SR damage, Sneasel@Eviolite has more survivability than 100% Sneasel with other items.
Life Orb gives an important boost to Triple Axel's power output, since you're on a mon that needs to run Jolly but can't outpace Whimsicott and don't want to rely on chip damage and the hazard game since Sneasel can't really take a hit anyway.

With that said, Sneasel deserves to rise to A or A+ for how threatening it is at +2, a wallbreaker and sweeper in one. Tera Ghost is my favourite tera to use on Sneasel because this allows it play mind games with Passimian and Hitmontop, Knock Off is god mode, and you can drop to Ice Spinner for still good damage if you're scared of misses. Definitely better than Passimian itself or Oricorio-F, and imo on par with or above its Hisuian counterpart, disregarding Toxicroak's presence.