Resource National Dex Viability Rankings (Post Tera Ban)

[Vlarcheops]

From A+ to S (or S- at least!)

Ah, Landorus-Therian, what CAN'T you do?

The reason I want to put Landorus-Therian in such a high place, because, let's face it, it's Landorus-Therian, this guy has just so much tools he has to be incredibly versatile: typing, choice of items and his movepool (whenever status or physical). For that reason, you can slep Landorus-T on your team as a need of something: a (bulky) pivot? A set-up sweeper? A lead? A defogger? Or even a combination of some sort?

The saying in this picture couldn't be any more truthful. As it says, you just can't not see Landorus not being used in a single day in NDOU. Why? It's because of all the things I listed, mainly its versatility. Due to its versatility, it can fit in quite a variety of teamstyles: Hyper Offense, Offence, Bulky Offence and more. It's just that no matter which playstyle you're playing, Landorus-Therian is bound to have a purpose in the game: whenever offensively or defensively. For example, on Hyper Offence he can be either a lead or a set-up sweeper with a Z-Crystal (Flyinium-Z or Rockium-Z) or in an Offence team it can bea speed control with Choice Scarf, defenive pivot or even a defogger.

Not only that, buit Landorus ca go face-to-face against threats such as Goldengo without Air Baloon, if it does have it, Landorus can just pivot to Ting-Lu or an offensive teammate or clock another offensive move, then hit Earthquake. Against Flying Pókemon, he can use Stone Edge/Continental Crush. Other unseful Steel types such as Kingambit and Melmetal and Poison types like Glowking and Toxapex FEAR a STAB Earthquake from him. He can shut off walls with Taunt, something Ferrothorn doesn't appreciate. And facing Water types such as Wogerpon and Hamurott, Landorus with a Choicew Scarf can screw them off by chipping them with a strong U-Turn. Hell even with abysmal matchups, landorus can still do something: either pivot, using Knock Off or landing Toxic.

Here's some of my comparisons:

VS
While yes, Gliscor has the better recover in Poison Heal and Roos, while Lando-T has only access to Leftovers, the problem is though that Gliscor is FORCED to use only Toxic Orb to activate Poison Heal, therefore making its versatility quite limited. Landorus on the otzher hand doesn't shy away of using a Z-Crystal/Choice Scarf for Offence or Leftovers/Rocky helmet for defence, therefore landing him having a FAR bigger versatility that Gliscor.

VS
Well, my GOAT, is used more than ever, rightfully enough. Decent Attack, the normally fastest Pókemon in NDOU (I don't count Pókemon in lower tiers) and bulky enough to take 2 hits. These two seem to be used very often, so why would I say that Lando-T should be ranked higher than Zama? Well, Lando-T has tools that Zama doesn't: Stealth Rock for hazards, U-turn for pivoting, Knock Off for removing items. Not only that, but Lando's ability can always be used and he has a neat defensive duo.

And for showing off how versatile Landorus-Therian is, here's a list of the any viable sets:

Fast Defensive Pivot

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 Spe
Jolly / Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Taunt / Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake / earth Power

Swords Dance

/
Landorus-Therian @ Rockium Z / Flyinium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge / Fly
- Stealth Rock / Fly

Choice Scarf

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 8 HP / 248 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Defog / Explosion

Lead

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Explosion

Defensive Pivot

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 Spe
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake

Specially Defensive Pivot

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- U-turn
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake

Extras:

A- --> A
This is long overdue, the versatility of this mon combined with its compression and broken ceaseless edge. Being able to set spikes and knock off boots is amazing, checking the #1 mon in the tier, can also run other sets such as encore/sd.

I Mean, yeah: having STAB Ceaseless Edge and Knock Off is great, but I dont really think Hamurott is THAT great. Don't understand me wrong, this pokemon is good, great even: checking Glodengo is a huge plus, setting up spikes is a HUGE plus, but the Pókemon in NDOU are quite hostile to it, not to mention it has not the very best of stats. In tghis tier we have Zamazenta, Urshifu, Mega Diancie, Wogerpon, Tapu Lele/Koko, Raging Bolt and Rillaboom present a very ugle presents for this Pokemon, and 85 Speed leaves you quite Vulnerable. 108 attack is not great either (even with Sharpness). I dont really see Encore used THIS much and SD sets leave you with an 85 Speed, which sure against walls is great, but if you are against an offensive team, you tend to struggle. As for choice Scarf sets, you might as well use Urshifu: stronger, faster EVEN at the cost of Ceaseless Edge. Samu HAS Flip Turn and STAB Pivot, but there comes Wogerpon to ruin it. Not to mention the many other physical walls with Rocky Helmet that can srew it over. Oh btw, Ceaseless Edge has a 10% to miss, and there's Terapagos, which makes Hazard Removal much easier for teams.

B -> C+

I honestly dont know how victini survived being in B. This things most viable set is maybe like band/scarf in sun? Has good defensive utility via typing but ultimately does nothing outside that.

I think its aboput Z-Happy Hour as well. Having an omni boost attack, just like Kommo-O, bt without attacking is great, Plus having STAB Stored Power when you omniboosted yourself gets you in a great position. Speaking of Kommo-O, Victini has a better duo typing and faster than Kommo-o Leaving it to have some sort of success in NDOU, plus Z-happy-Hour isnt blocked in the face of a Fairy Type. And yeah even in Sun, Choice Scarf Victini is just nasty to deal with. STAB V-Creat boosted with Sun can leave a mark. And if that's a Choice Banded Victini on Sun.... OOOF...

 

[Moyashi]

but the Pókemon in NDOU are quite hostile to it, not to mention it has not the very best of stats. In tghis tier we have Zamazenta, Urshifu, Mega Diancie, Wogerpon, Tapu Lele/Koko, Raging Bolt and Rillaboom present a very ugle presents for this Pokemon, and 85 Speed leaves you quite Vulnerable.

Rilla isn’t a relevant pokemon and not worth including while the rest of these only offensively check Samurott either through being faster or switching in on a hit they’d resist. Zama, Komi and Urshifu are vulnerable to knock off, and none of them actually prevent spikes from going up. The fact it puts up spikes and does good damage makes it a very efficient progress maker (so long as CE isn’t trolling by harping as a 70% accurate move when it’s really 90%). Its speed also is just enough to outpace certain targets and its stabs prey on common defensive staples like Glowking or Gliscor.

108 attack is not great either (even with Sharpness). I dont really see Encore used THIS much and SD sets leave you with an 85 Speed, which sure against walls is great, but if you are against an offensive team, you tend to struggle. As for choice Scarf sets, you might as well use Urshifu: stronger, faster EVEN at the cost of Ceaseless Edge. Samu HAS Flip Turn and STAB Pivot, but there comes Wogerpon to ruin it. Not to mention the many other physical walls with Rocky Helmet that can srew it over. Oh btw, Ceaseless Edge has a 10% to miss, and there's Terapagos, which makes Hazard Removal much easier for teams.

Sharpness does a ton of heavy lifting in giving it power, and it actually is deceptively strong. Especially considering the added effect of stacking spikes. Even when it is checked defensively, it’s still making positive progress with this move. And its water stab is strong as well, since Razor Shell has a nasty 50% defense drop rate that can put a would be 3HKO into potential 2HKO range. For example let’s say a defensive Zapdos was minorly chipped earlier and is around 85% when it now switches into Hamurott, eats a razor shell and takes a minimum of 34% leaving just around half. If Zap were to take a defense drop on that hit as it switched in, it suddenly would be KOd by the follow up Razor Shell. This applies well to other defensive pokemon too such as Clefable.

Encore isn’t used as much, but it’s nonetheless a very potent tool in its arsenal that lets it screw with defensive teams even more, locking them into recovery moves or stealth rock for instance. As for RH, yeah it’s annoying but that applies for most physical attackers.

Regarding scarf shifu v Sam, while
shifu is more widely splashable and easier to fit, samurott compresses very valuable roles in one slot that Shifu cannot in one slot. A Glowking check, Gholdengo check, Heatran check, spiker, speed control, knock off user, and the fact it sets spikes through magic bounce and can knock means it has some value against stall… They both have their roles and do it well, earning their respective ranking spots.

 

[Eviolite Bisharp]

I don't play a lot of NatDex, but my mind isn't able to process how is ranked in C+. My theory is that Is because fire coverage and Zard Y are everywhere, but still i don't fully get it. If someone can explain it to me i will thank it

 

[Moyashi]

how the fuck are we over halfway through February already send help

A+ -> S
I was hesitant on this earlier but at this point I think that Zamazenta has cemented itself at minimum, as a top 2 pokemon in the tier, and I’d argue it’s straight up #1. An insane value Mon that compresses key roles which includes reliable speed control which is quite rare. Offers a soft blanket check to a myriad of relevant pokemon and source of offense all in one slot, and is very customizable which makes it incredibly splashable and valuable for so many teams.

A -> A+
B+ -> A-
Both are potent contact punishers that discourage clicks for fear of ruinous status and are popular and effective roadblocks to a lot of physical attackers, and have even contributed to the decreased viability of several mons (Shifu and Mlop come to mind but the birds are also guilty of gimping Mscizor and physical Valiant). Zapdos is notably better since it isn’t as crippled by knock off as Moltres is and can be more irritating to switch into, but Moltres is also good.

B+ -> A-/A
Can’t believe I used to think this Mon was awful but uh… yeah. This thing is super nice and a great source of role compression. Good stats, great typing and can be tailored to fit different roles on whatever team it is on. It rarely fails to do anything and will almost always contribute value.

B+ -> A-
Super neat Mon that’s rightfully getting more and more attention. Unique alternate pivot to Glowking with a cool defensive profile and utility which includes spin blocking non EP Terapagos. NP is also deceptively solid and is quite effective at beating down defensive teams.

A- -> B-
The tier is extremely well prepared for physical attackers right now between Zapdos, Moltres, Slowbro, Zamazenta, and rising pokemon like Pecharunt and even Hatterene as well as lots of Rocky Helmet or Iron Barbs which makes it very tough to consistently make any useful progress with these. Scarf Shifu kind of just sucks ass now and set up sets that aren’t sub variants hate the ubiquity of Alomomola who just slow pivots into a teammate that can beat Shifu. They also struggle too much with Slowbro and Toxapex and Zapdos’ huge popularity does them zero favors either.

Mega Lopunny is unreliable as speed control and despises the presence of Zapdos and Moltres who alone make safely Mega Evolving a coin flip as to whether it’ll get statuses and ruined or not, and then it still winds up walled anyways. Nevermind the other physical stoppers I mentioned above, which also make its life miserable. This Mon just fell way way off.

A- -> B+
This one also is a victim of elemental birds but it also feels less consistent in the roles you’d want it for due to its somewhat lacking defensive typing and 4mss at times. It’s probably the weakest of fhe “OU level grounds” and though I outright wouldn’t call it bad, it feels underwhelming quite often.

C+ -> C
Awful speed control and offensively outclassed and mediocre. So easily stopped by a huge amount of pokemon, so rarely does anything of value and even if it does, you could also have accomplished it with a much better pokemon. Weird to see what was once a terror now fall so far down but what isn’t weird about this gen?

 

[Sputnik]

I was originally going to drop this as I dropped my final wrap up to the NDCL recap posts I've been doing, but I've been out of work due to an injury all week and I'm extremely bored so I'm going to expedite the process a little bit here and post some recommendations for movement around this VR.

Full disclosure, I have run the usage stats for the tournament every single week and now for the entire tournament as a whole up until this point. While I do think the usage stats are useful for informing decisions on viability, I do not believe they should be the only decider. These stats did in part inform my decision making, but so did observing, building, and playing in games over this time period.

Rises

A -> A+
Garchomp has arguably become the tier's best Stealth Rocker. Dragonium Z sets are brutal wallbreakers that are very hard to handle defensively, while the things that do handle it often lose to the more offbeat Rockium variant. Meanwhile, defensive sets are great at spreading status and have an excellent profile for offensive teams, checking things that they can sometimes struggle to switch into like Yard and Heatran. Rocky Helmet variants are also great into Zamazenta, Mega Lopunny, and many other contact attackers. All of these sets are excellent Stealth Rockers, as they are not at all easy for most of the standard hazard removal (think Pagos, Tusk, Treads, Zapdos, Torn-T) to switch into. The Loaded Dice sets are also great sweepers. No other Stealth Rocker combines this defensive profile with such consistency in keeping hazards up and threatening progress into your opponent's team, and I believe a rise is necessary as a result.

B+ -> A-
Minor spoilers for the big post, but as of right now Iron Treads was the most used Ground-type in the entire tournament. (This could change depending on how Finals goes, it wasn't by much) Treads became immensely popular on offense as a way to compress Spin, Rocks, and a Steel-type all into your Ground's slot. The excellent defensive typing makes Treads surprisingly hard for some teams to take down quickly thanks to its good defensive typing, and its access to both Earthquake and Ice Spinner makes it a great Rapid Spinner thanks to its ability to threaten many Stealth Rockers as well as the most prominent spinblockers. I do think some people began to overuse Treads, as people adapted to it and it found its way onto some teams that didn't really utilize its talents properly in my mind. That being said, this was still a great run for the elephant, and its been doing its thing for a while at this point. The specially defensive set is a star for offense, and that is more than enough to warrant a rise into the A subranks.

B -> A-
I would guess that this will be a little more controversial than the two above it, but Corv is done a huge disservice being this low on the VR and I think this relatively large rise is necessary. Much has been made of Corviknight's inability to Defog on Gholdengo or its lack of crucial resistances to Fighting- and Water-type attacks, but even so the Steel Bird archetype holds strong. Corviknight's inherent defensive utility is still excellent. It's one of the best ways to mess with common offensive Ground-types like Garchomp and Landorus-T, while its natural physical bulk lets it help out vs physical attackers like Zamazenta, Ogerpon-W, and Urshifu-RS. It also functions as a great check to Tapu Lele, Mega Latios, and Mega Diancie; it can even run Mirror Armor to turn Mystical Fire's Special Attack drops against the latter two. Pressure is still superior overall, however, as it lets you have more Defog PP than the Stealth Rocker. (This is why Defog sets should still run Pressure) Oh yeah, remember that Gholdengo thing? Well in practice it really doesn't matter all that much because Corviknight can just pivot out of Ghold as it comes in and get its powerful revenge killer teammates in. A really excellent, underrated defensive piece at the moment.

B -> B+
I don't have a huge amount to say here to be honest, I just find the general gameplan of Ceruledge to be so effective that it deserves to rise. Nothing has really changed about the Pokemon but with its insane STAB combo and ability to force really scary 50/50s with Endure makes this a consistently dangerous foe unless you have one of the really specific set of Pokemon that aren't really threatened by its STABs. B does not do this thing justice.

C- -> C
I find that sand has a little more motion than we originally thought, largely off the back of this guy. With Swords Dance, STABs, and Rock Slide, there really isn't too much that wants to take you on, and the defensive Pokemon that did give this a ton of trouble are a lot less common as folks start to trend towards defensive Pokemon that this is fully capable of breaking through. This has the same great defensive typing that makes Treads a pain to take down, but instead of using it to check stuff you use it to find an SD versus a bunch of different Pokemon and then you just start blasting. Guys like Zapdos do not need much chip to be taken down by a +2 Rock Slide, while the fat Grounds that everyone loves right now are just blasted apart by your STAB moves. Still finicky to use in a lot of matchups but much more consistent than a lot of the C- shitters.

Drops

A -> A-
The meta is not friendly to Mega Charizard Y at the moment. Bulky Dragon-types that absorb all of its moves are everywhere, with the surge in Garchomp usage being particularly bad. Meanwhile, Water- and Fire-types that counter or check it such as Assault Vest Alomomola, Toxapex, and Moltres are as common as ever. The vast majority of teams are capable of switching into this without too much issue now; even most offenses have the tools to stave this off. It's just a really tall ask to make this work considering how much support this requires to even be able to function properly. I would drop it lower but Raging Bolt and Great Tusk are still broken with sun support; if it wasn't for this guy propping up an entire playstyle then I would advocate for him to go even lower since he simply isn't very threatening to most teams at this point.

A -> A-
This really hates the upsurges in Iron Treads usage, especially since there were already so many teams it wasn't very threatening vs. what with how common Ferrothorn and GKing are. In a lot of games its just a pivot bot, which isn't bad necessarily but its also not really worth wasting your speed control slot on something that thuds so hard into so many common Pokemon. It's not even good against offense anymore because thats where Treads sees the most play. Still can roll into a good matchup but it's not consistent enough to be worth it imo.

B -> C+
Has really, really struggled as of late. The defensive profile combined with the pivoting is at least somewhat interesting but this is still threatened by a lot of common stuff and it isn't even a very good Psychic- or Fairy-type check since they are all so strong at this point that it still takes a ton of damage from the common ones. Meanwhile, the Z-Celebrate set is just another cheesy sweeper, and we have plenty of those that are just better than it. The best use case for this is probably Choiced sets on sun, but sun as a playstyle has gotten worse as of late and its not mandatory there either. Just not a good place for this to be right now.

B- -> C
Ceruledge really just said "I'm you but better." One of the most clear cut outclassings I've seen in a while, Ceruledge is both way more consistent and easier to use than our chicken friend here for basically the same payoff at their best. Not much reason to use this unless you are hard reading something with multiple Dark-types on it or something.

C- -> UR
Overqwil really just said "I'm you but better" although to be honest I wasn't a fan of this on rain even before Overqwil became more standard. It's fast and strong, sure, but it offers nothing defensively and being locked into Water-moves can be very awkward when there are a lot of very dangerous Water- and Dragon-types that you really don't want to be giving free turns to.

C- -> UR
Guys the only reason this wasn't UR last time was because Seth put it in B- and singlehandedly kept the thing on the VR. This guy is turbo ass, its super passive and isn't worth using to check Waterpon and Zama because you just give so many free turns to Pokemon like Gholdengo, Alomomola, and Glowking. Put it out of its misery man its not 2021 anymore.

The big NDCL wrap up post will be up sometime early next week!