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Project 1v1 Other Tiers

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post-cl personal natdex vr shifts

:charizard-mega-x: S -> A: I'll get the nuclear take out of the way first and talk about other drops later. Not only is zard x not the best mon in this tier, it's not even the best fire type in the tier. Gaining the dragon type is almost exclusively a hinderance in an environment where every dragon is either faster (pult, naga, chomp, moon) or beats you anyway (zyg, malt, hoodra). If you want to beat water types with your mega zard you can just be zard y and if you want to beat them with your fire type you can be ogerpon, which has the added benefit of being better into grounds and dragons like hoodra, zyg, and zard x itself. The high power level of sv mons + z moves also lessens the uncertainty of the x or y guessing guessing game since you're liable to get deleted regardless, so I view the zards like the urshifus in that they're both around A tier but one isn't really better than the other, and the preview ambiguity is a nonfactor.

:magearna: S- -> S: Tied for the best pokemon in this tier in my eyes. Fairium beats an unbelievable amount with just z-fleur cannon so you functionally get 3 flex moves between tr, encore, heart swap, id, pain split, cm, or any coverage move to pick up the mus your team needs. Incredibly easy to build and play with and hard to load into a bad matchup.

:ogerpon-hearthflame: A -> S: The other contender for the best mon in the tier, and unquestionably the best fire. I like this so much better than zard and I think the fact that this is the first time that these two have shared a tier is the reason that hearth was overlooked initially. Grass fire is substantially more synergistic than dragon fire and hearthflame's extremely malleable evs, access to encore, and mix-up potential in subseed and counter which demand different checks rockets it ahead of the other fires. You can genuinely make a very good natdex team of just magearna and hearthflame and tack whatever third you want on the end.

:gyarados-mega: A+ -> S-: Access to grass and fire coverage makes this much harder to beat reliably. I am actually a fan of random special move 4th too since bswipe is so popular (and good). Benefits from flyinium being able to surprise grasses like ogerpon and venu if anyone would ever use that guy (i would much rather run this over sedge for hearth).

:chien-pao: A -> A+: I still believe in A+ pao. It has a phenomenal matchup spread into the top tiers, icium and darkinium are great delete buttons, you have outplay potential with sub, sd, even taunt and you're immune to custap with ice shard. If all else fails you can just flinch with icicle crash because that move is broken.

:primarina: A -> A+: The water fairy type combo is really good. I like very offensive fairium for a more reliable gyara/spdef hands and primarium is as good as it always was. This was my most used mon in cl after hearthflame and for good reason.

:dragapult: A- -> A: I really liked pult throughout the tour. Playing with z-moves solved my problem of it always feeling too weak and the eternal problem of pult having no physical ghost moves. Z-phantom force is a great nuke that gives it a winning matchup into a lot of the fairies of the tier like koko, lele, fini, and a 50/50 into diancie while z-outrage lets you be the best dragon beater dragon next to malt and maybe hoodra. I know z-curse is popular but I never used it, at worst it's another point for set variety. Z-coverage move is also theoretically possible but not likely to ever be more than a one off imo since it would just be a less versatile choice item which is not something pult really wants to be anyway.

:roaring moon: B -> A-: I know we banned dnite already but it's crazy that this is still in B tier. Good typing and great nuke with z-outrage that even has odds into outrage mgyara. Far and away better than current B tier contemporaries dracozolt and donphan.

:crustle: B+ -> A-: Between grassium and rockium this mon is surprisingly annoying to cover in builder and I ended up loading some pretty sketchy checks for it (252 hp 252 def jolly koko GO). Generally easy to discern which z move it's running on preview though, even beyond obvious triple water-weak structures, which holds it back a fair amount. Still think it's as good if not better than some mons currently in A- like ghold and naga.

:ursaluna-bloodmoon: B -> B+/A-: I like this quite a bit. Lacks regular ursaluna's problem of having to pick between normalium or groundium since blood moon is almost a z-move's power by default. Sucks less into substitute because it's doesn't need to run a recharge and a stat-dropping move. It feels more like a sidegrade here than in sv where it's weaknesses are much more pronounced compared to regular luna.

:chansey: B -> B+: Could stand to go up a half tier, stonewalls a ton.

:tapu koko: S- -> A+: A lot of the hype around this guy has started to die off. Theoretically has good mix-up ability with fairium to snipe dragons that otherwise win vs electrium but you give up a lot of reliability against electric neutral mons you should otherwise beat that it makes it not feel worth it. Electrium on its own is still very good but it's sort of all it really has going on, and terrain nerf means a lot of mons can just bulk it.

:charizard-mega-y: A+ -> A: I like it as much as zard x. It just doesn't feel that good compared to other fires.

:darmanitan-galar: A -> B+: I would rather be chien-pao. The only matchups where scarf darm's speed is relevant are pult and zera, but having to choose between power and speed when icium pao gets both is hard to justify.

:naganadel: A- -> B: I don't like it that much. Ghostium pult feels like naga's upgrade, i've never felt like building with or around this mon.

I have a lot less to say about some of the other mons that should drop

:manaphy: :iron valiant: :regidrago: :togekiss: B+ -> B/B-: 4 pokemon i never used and never saw get used.

:dracozolt: & :dracovish: B -> C: this is generous

:blaziken: B -> D: honestly why was this half a tier below mega blaziken

:golem: C+ -> D/UR: not even alolan golem huh

:illumise: :magneton: :tauros-paldea-blaze: :lycanroc-dusk: :blissey: :aron: D -> UR: nooooooo


Overall I enjoy this tier a lot. The versatility and options that the top tiers have makes building feel skillful and rewarding. Many times in cl (including finals) I felt that a winner was decided in the builder which is something I like a lot in my 1v1 tiers. There is a ton of more development to be had and I hope to see more opportunities for natdex in team tours and maybe an individual once in a while. I encourage others who played and built in cl to share their thoughts as well LogIce crucify zo Mist Shadow079 The Hisui Region seraphz RADU
 
i only used hearthflame once in cl, i always overlooked it because of stuff like xard (both mine and opp's) pao pult rai and koko dropping in usage, but the case for it being top tier makes sense to me
i do think magearna is the best mon though; i used the old pqs sheet vr (dragonite is on there LOL) instead of the one on the hub while building just because i prefer the sheet format so i'm not really well acquainted with the current one, but i would say magearna mgyara and maaaybe pao S but pao might be pushing it
pao with z move is super good and mega gyarados feels like it can beat almost every mon in the tier with the moves it gets now. like it's beating fini it literally beat fini in a tour game that's actually a thing that happened
i also feel like i didn't see that much darm usage even though that mon is pretty scary in builder u can even run into random band
zygarde is kinda bad i cant lie
i saw a lot of mega lopunny on the more tryhard type structures as well but i feel like it's kinda just pao but with worse matchups. but what matchups? okay maybe this mon is him
looking at the vr on the hub too it feels super long/padded with stuff you're never realistically gonna use like how are we ranking mega scizor and iron boulder and alolan marowak in c
hisuian lilligant in c- like i wouldn't be surprised if this mon never gets brought in a tournament game in this tier ever
ok and what is mega pidgeot doing here wtff
umbreon sawk dondozo tusk shaymin terrakion carracosta could probably be moved up too
why is clefable in b
gholdengo and mega slowbro are too high
hoodra and lu could be a too, band hoodra beats a lot
moving around stuff in the lower tiers doesnt rly realistically matter tho, the tier is in a great place and i think the top is pretty well defined
 
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A+->S
Best mon in the tier. Outside of mag and the electrics it can use its insane range of coverage and tech moves to beat whichever specific mon you want to cover. DD is a must, but then you can choose any 3 of crunch, waterfall, power whip, temper flare, stone edge, outrage, earthquake, taunt, and sub, with said ability to target mons through set variation making it feel like an amazing glue piece that I wanted to use on most of my teams.

:marowak-alola: I won't stand for the alo wak slander. Lightning rod makes it a unique way to check the electrics(zard x doesn't count, every other zera is outrage), which in combination with just hitting really hard makes it deserving of at least c imo.
 
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Wasn't going to make a post here but since I was tagged to here we go. Going to preface this with the fact that I built exactly 0 teams for myself this tour, shoutout crucify again for carrying so hard in prep. I tend to agree with some of the blanched noms, will go into my feelings on the metagame below.

:charizard-mega-x: S -> A agree with blanched in the fact that zard x is a bit overhyped. It often felt the need to be very overtuned and gets pressured hard by a decent bit of the meta (primarina, band zera, etc). While it is still very strong, I feel like it wants to run like 7 moves to really be effective, and until someone finds a way to fit roost on it its not going to be the best mon in the tier. More pressuring in the builder than anything atm.

:Magearna: S- -> S yeah this guys just the best mon in the tier, not gonna say much more as others have elaborated.

:ogerpon-hearthflame: A -> A+ Not on the same level as blanched with the amount of hype around hearthflame. I think while its one of the best fires in the tier (if not the best) it just doesn't have the affect on the builder that things like magearna and stuff do that should be S.

:tapu lele: A-> A+ Lele often felt like one of the most splashable mons in the tier to me, even though it does get quite a bit of competition in the fairy slot within the tier (mags, fini, prim, etc). Z-Reflect, combined with the need to run almost no offensive invest just makes this mon super threatening into so much of the meta.

:gyarados-mega: A+ -> S ngl I think this could be the 2nd best mon in the tier behind magearna, so much stuff it can run with almost unlimited coverage and very easy to bulk it for a lot of the meta.

:Porygon-z: A -> B feels like potiential mon, that is a remnant of SM.

:custap berry: small tangent but this item needs banned. This meta already has enough bullshit to deal with between Z, large dex, and move pools that allow for so much set diversity that custap just makes the tier unfun to play at times (See me vs blanched game 7 during reg season where I lose the custap 50/50 for the series) I genuinely don't think it adds anything positive to the tier and should just follow suit of SV in getting rid of it.

That's about all I have to say, had fun in my first bout in 1v1 and happy to be able to go from 0-3 to 4-3, though I mostly attribute to this to the prep provided to me. Learned a lot about clicking well in 1v1 and hopefully get to play more tours in the future.
 
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