Hi! I always have a habit of making a VR every time I come back to the tier but this time I have so much to say that I wanted to make a post about it
It's important to mention that I'm far from a good player so take everything with a grain of salt, if you disagree with one of my placements/opinions, there's probably a very valid reason for it lol
S tier:
:Latios: Shocking to no one, Latios is the best mon in the tier. No other pokemon blends offense and defense like Latios does. Specs is the best and most common set, specs draco in particular strikes fear into just about everything, even the mons that are meant to check it, and usuallythose checks don'tlike eating a trick. It's Other sets are good too of course, scarf is in a weird position since while I'd argue it's very flawed as a scarfer, it's such a good cleaner that it can make up for it so it's still a great set on the right structure. Colbur is a very good support for other psychics that appreciate the support it provides, usually with paralysis but sometimes with the steel melting hp fire or the spikes chip forcing roar (not really seen a lot nowadays but I think it still has a place). Again it's so important to mention that it does this while having a typing that allows it to check a ton of commom threats like Thundy, Keld, hell even things it doesn't like switching into like Chomp and Terrak, it also can and often does run roost to take advantage of everything running away from it, all the while having levitate so it's not afraid of spikes and the many ground moves in the tier.
:tyranitar: The second mon that glues the metagame together. So many dangerous pokemon can be checked by this thing, it's by far the best pursuit user in a tier dominated by broken psychics, rain, HOs with multiscale Dnite (yes it often runs lefties but that just shows how good sand is into it) and Volc. People usually complain that it's a do nothing pokemon, but for one, just being able to remove Latios and other psychics from the game is massive and Ttar is by far the best at it, and also, calling it do nothing is insane when it can potentially run so many coverage moves to scare mons out, cripple things that try to stay on it despite its massive special bulk with twave. Custap is usually possible to fit in place of the usual chople berry to make it even more of a threat, or make it a bit more effective as a secondary rocker, and if you somehow manage to handle the demons that are Zam Volc and Thundy without chople/custap, you can run scarf/CB to make it anything but passive while still being able to trap the non Zam psychics, with scarf being especially good into Lati and Starmie and CB into Reun. Also lum Ttar is sort of a potential mon imo but I never really managed to make it work so I won't comment on it.
S- tier:
:Landorus-therian: Another amazing glue mon, spdef being able to take hits that hit as hard as Starmie ice beam AFTER rocks most of the time is crazy, not that you'd usually want to do that bit it just goes to show the types of hits it can take, then U-turn out into a threatening teammate. Intim and it's typing also means it's a good check to most physical attackers and it's higher attack stat allowing it to be more immediately threatening into stuff like Exca and Scizor make it better on faster paced teams than something like Gliscor which mostly does the same thing with it's rocks + U-turn set, that alongside not needing protect meaning it can run all of eq, U-turn, rocks and hpice on the same set. It's also probably tied with Rachi for the best scarfer in the game. Offensive sets are good on teams where you can fit them too.
:ferrothorn: Spikes are broken, and Ferro is by far the easiest spiker to fit. It does well into pretty much every spinner, even it's worst spinner MUs, Forre and physdef Exca, are not ironclad into it and it's a great mixed wall in general. It has a ton of options in the moveset and item department, Lum and lefties+leech with a partner to punish opposing Ferro are the most common sets now from what I've seen but there are a ton of other stuff it can do. The metagame is very ready for its dominance with so many pokemon running HP fire mostly for it and some mons see the usage they do at least partially just because of how they punish Ferrothorn, which makes it a bit worse, but it also shows how effective it is at its job, as it manages to still do it despite all of that.
A+ Tier:
:excadrill: This thing is so much more beyond a spinner. SD makes it the best breaker in the tier, steel typing as always provides incredible defensive utility, and it's attack combined with sand force means it can afford to not invest in attack, making it by far the most customizable pokem in the game when it comes to its spread. Physdef is more common now but spdef is still good into the usual Latis, Zam and Co. You can make it as slow as 230 and as fast as max speed and it would make sense depending on the context. SD can be replaced by stuff like tect sub and rocks if you think you don't need the hreaking power, which is not too common but can definitely happen. Scarf is a great cleaner on teams that care less about spinning and more so about overwhelming the bulky grounds Skarm and rotom with sheer power and then letting Exca reap the rewards.
It's also a nice option on rain as an electric immune that can spin potentially provide more utility or speed control with scarf.
:Alakazam: people love life orb so much that i think sash is kind of forgotten now? Don't get me wrong it's still used a lot, but Sash is such a nice safety net into pretty much every offensive threat and sometimes I see teams without a real scarfer that use life orb over sash and wonder if it's really the move. Life orb is obviously crazy though, an incredible breaker and revenge killer that can potentially kill anything if you decide to be evil and run life orb hpice + focus blast, or just kill most things with the standard set. Speaking of standards, it IS the standard when it comes to setting speed tiers. If you're slower than Zam with a scarf, you can still be a good scarf mon, but you can't be a real scarfer. The rise of scarf Rachi and Lando hurt a bit but it's still incredible.
:Starmie: I used to think there's no way this can be the highest ranked w-less mon and now I'm eating my words. The standard set can only really spin like once, but damn it's probably the best spinner at getting off that one spin, and when it's not spinning it's outspeeding you while being very uncomfortable to switch into. It's so good that now it's often used on fast paced sand teams to capitalize off of the breaking power Latios has (or alternatively hitting the Ttar that wants to trap it for Latios to go berserk), providing a Conk check with stab psychic and having to option to spin at least once. Bulky sets on sand and 4 attacks on teams that don't care about spinning/already have a spinner are hard to fit but are great too.
:dragonite: THE ho mon. A terrifying breaker and/or sweeper that also has a great defensive presence thanks to it taking almost any single hit from full. Espeed gives it speed control as well, but honestlyI'vebeen liking fire/super+ice recently. Just like Starmie it's borderline unreplaceable on ho. Outside of that it's pretty good on rains where it fits, usually with DD or CB. I haven't really tried it outside of ho and rain but I can definitely see it having a place on other styles, oh and I guess it's also one of the best wincons for sun/rain stall with sub roost DD so that's something lol
:Rotom-wash: How do you switch into this thing without a seismitoad? Seriously this thing is so well known for how annoying it is and most of the reason as to why you need a volt immune on almost every team. The one thing it has going against it is that it wants pain split/chesto rest for recovery, both of which are exploitable, but honestly most teams are built with this in mind and it ends up being a great pivot regardless so it's not really an issue
:keldeo: This mon dropped from like almost top 5 for me, but that's mostly because the meta is less favorable for it: More Starmies, more Rotoms, more Conks, more Celebis, and yet it's still fantastic. It will always have potential counterplay for each one of its checks, so I can't see a world where this thing isn't somewhere near the top 10 or so
:Jirachi: Part of the reason I have it a bit lower than what you might expect is that most of the time it's using the scarf set which I think the meta has adapted to with small adjustments like more rocky helmets. The thing is, it's so good at handling the things a scarfer is supposed to handle that it's still tied as the best one in the game imo. Also, it might be hard to forget nowadays when almost all you see us scarf, but it has other sets, which are kinda hard to fit, but with a typing this good, a movepool this deep and a good stat spread that literally can't get more balanced, it's options are almost limitless.
A tier:
:politoed: some people say rain is bad, which is obviously an exaggeration, but it's more than that, rain is great, enabling Thundy alone is good, and making already good pokemon like Latios Keldeo Ferro and Starmie better is insane. Sand is good into it on paper, but this is very team dependent and I think the rains that utilize scarf Rachi/Lando have things covered to a degree where every MU is more than playable. Politoed itself is kinda boring most of the time but I guess I should point out that non bulky and non choiced sets such as mystic water ebelt and custap can be good in some rare situations and they're pretty fun so try them out.
:Thundurus-therian: Honesty I don't mind if we got rid of this pokemon, but it's in the tier so I guess I'll talk about it. It's the easiest volt immune for rain to fit, thunder having 30% chance to para is broken when the usual check for it is the Latis, and it can customize what it wants to target with it's last slot. Feeling a bit weak to fat teams? Use asty plot or taunt. Is HO the real issue? Run agility. Want something that's just kinda solid into everything? U-turn, and this can really go on forever. The only reason it's not higher is that it relies pretty hard on rain. It can be surprisingly decent without it as well, but rain is what really makes it work
:Skarmory: If Ferros water resistance and ability to contest rotom wasn't the huge factor that it is, this thing could be higher. Even with that in mind, it's longevity with roost means that fat teams will always try find a way to use it over Ferro when possible, and on faster teams it's still a hood spiker, so if it fits, it fits. Jelly Skarm HO is kind of a fish but it's pretty good for a fish so while it shouldn't be common it's definitely usable.
:Terrakion: CB just clicks buttons and kills things, even the bulkiest teams have a tough time surviving through 8 CCs and stone edges, and if you really want to punish fat you can run SD, if you para'd/removed the few things that outspeed it on fat it's lights out. If you want a cheat code into fast setup sweepers instead, use choice scarf. Scarfed or not, It does all of this while being a decent volc and Thundy check. Sr lead on HO is good too, and honestly sr in general is probably good on other sets as a second rocker if you really want one since most sets don't need much more than CC and stone edge and it forces a lot of switches.
:Reuniclus: This pokemon is kinda broken with CM but the rise of Rachi/HO in general is not good for it. SD Drill and Ttar also exist as they always have. Still though, there is usually not a whole lot that prevents a reuniclus in a from taking over the game if you don't get crit for a few turns. Lorb 3 attacks is good too, haven't tried the new support sets with twave but they seem decent. OTR is also decent. Acid armor sets are bad and so is however decides to use them (obviously joking a little but I don't think giving the opponent even more chances to crit you is a good idea).
:Gliscor: In the Lando section I talked about how Lando is usually better, but just like Skarm, on balanced/fat structures this is one of the best mons in the game because of how much survivability it has. Remember the Lando eating a Starmie ice beam example? This guy is a tiny bit less bulky, but it can eat a specs meteors from Latios and then on top of that, pretend like nothing happened after a few turns
:Garchomp: kinda outclassed by Terrak and Lando on a lot of teams but there are still plenty of avenues where it shines: it's probably the best SD user out of all of these since it's revenge killed by mostly the same stuff as Terrak while having a similarly scary type combo, if you don't really care about taunt/imprison/being able to take big hits it's probably better as an HO lead, and mixed Chomp is something completely unique to it, not to mention that in Terrak's cases of outclassing can only ever be true if you already have a ground type.
:Scizor: SD takes advantage of a ton of stuff, mainly Ferro and choice locked Lati, both of which are very good mons to exploit for HO and rain, with it's coveted steel typing beinng a massive boon for HO specifically as there aren't many good steels besides Rachi. I also think that while pursuit is great on paper, in practice SD sciz isn't actually that good of a pursuit trapper because it's not as bulky as you think, especially with LO recoil, so I usually prefer QA. Scarf is good on rain and ok on w-less, CB is not that consistent imo because stuff like Skarm hard wall it but it can be very scary for a lot of teams still and U-turn means it can't really truly be bad.
:Volcarona: I personally don't really like this mon so much because of how much variance there is with this thing, not just when going against it, but also when using it. Still, even in the worst case it's a potential threat no matter what and you're opponent needs to account for that and it'd probably deal a bit of damage to something before going down unless you're up against a Heatran without hp ground, and in the best case, with the right item, right 4th move and right MU, it can just 6-0 teams with very little prior prep.
:Conkeldurr: The time has come to stop lying to myself: this mom is not a noob trap, it's genuinely great. One of the best mons in the game at forcing trades, which HO obviously loves, but it can also trade into its own checks, then come back to full with healing wish and steal the whole game. It's also defensive utility for a style which has very little of it so that's always nice.
:Kyurem-black: The time has come to stop lying to myself part 2: This thing is not just kinda good, it's more than that. It's actually very similar to Conk in how it often forces trades, but it's more rare that it does so for itself. It also has great defensive utility with it's bulk and being one of the few HO mons which can safely come in on Starmie. Having a ton of different good sets is also nice and forces the opponent to respect it way more at preview.
From now on my explanations will probably be shorter as the mons get less relevant. I might skip a few stuff in the lower tiers as well.
A- tier:
:latias: I wish I could place this higher because I love using it, but the truth is that Latios is usually just better. That said, it's better bulk and access to healing wish can outweigh the sheer power Latios provides.
:celebi: Do you hate rain teams, specifically Keldeo? Is a temporary answer like Lati not enough for you? If so, use Celebi. This cones up more often than you might think. I don't really like it as a rocker because it invites most spinners for free, but it can do it if you want to I guess. I think sub pass and especially nasty plot are very good though.
:Hippowdon: Hippo structures will always have to cheat a little into some stuff like LO volc, Ttar+Keld and hard hitting specs mons in rain, but they are still pretty good teams overall in spite of that
:Clefable: Hippo's main partner in crime. Being a special wall loaded with utility is nice on fat spinless teams, which is a good amount of them. It's not super bulky and it doesn't have the top tier typing it has in later gens, but magic guard is so good that it still gets the job done
:heatran: Pretty awkward to fit, but very hard to switch into. Maga storm + sunny beam can open up a lot of things that hate rain, it can also just run 3 attacks+rocks/sub/wisp and be very annoying to contest. Most of the other sets like spdef are meh but can still be used with the proper 6.
:tentacruel: with the entire metagame being faster paced Tenta kinda fell off due to rains usually being faster too and thus Starmie being prefered, but for rains that want to spin long term or just want another defensive piece this mon is still good. Hell even on some teams where Starmie is preferred now you can probably use it and still be relatively fine. Has a ton of flexibility in it's 4th slot too.
:Jellicent: People say this thing fell off but I still really like it. Like I said Skarm Jelly is far from perfect but it's still a real style, but it's mostly on regular spikes teams where I think it shines most anyway. It can check Keldeo incredibly well, and not fearing Ttar as much as other pursuit weak mons is also nice. All that while being by far the easiest spinblocker to fit on a team means it's bound to have a niche.
B+ tier:
:Seismitoad: One of the few rockers that's not afraid of waters, and unlike Celebi it can actually threaten the spinners back with scald. It also completely blanks non hpgrass Rotom (so almost all of them) which is massive. The one big issue with it is that it can be a bit passive in general into teams that have any form of status absorption.
:slowbro: Big physical wall with tons of recovery that can threaten a lot of the things it's tasked with handling. It only takes like less than half from Ttar crunch so it's not that pursuit weak on paper, though a U-turn from Lando/Gliscor or a defense drop from crunch can quickly change that so it's still a little flawed. It also really wants hazard control.
:magnezone: Steel types are big forces in this meta but people are using other methods to threaten them in a way that doesn't make the game a 5.5 vs 6. It is cool to see it try to be more generally useful with items like chople and helmet though.
:abomasnow: Hail HO teams can be very good but there aren't actually very many of them because they are hard to build. The same goes for the fat hail teams except they are even harder to build. As for aboma itself, sash/specs on HO, bulky with giga blizz shard protect on fat and maybe scarf on both are the only sets imo.
B tier
:Blissey: Basically a much bulkier Clef that really, and I mean REALLY wants reliable long term hazard control, which can be hard to find. If I'm wrong about Forre though it can definitely go up.
:amoonguss: a Celebi that has regen and the ability to para ground types and Thundy at the cost of having much less utility in every other way. Really wants long term hazard removal (though the same goes for Celebi tbf).
:Tornadus: Hits like a freight train but is vulnerable to a lot of common pokemon.
:Gyarados: there are some teams where this thing just 6-0s but it's vulnerable to some very common mons like Rotom, Ferro, Thundy, etc. Also never use a set that's not sub/taunt DD
:forretress: Some people are hyping this thing up nowadays but I think it's still kinda flawed because it needs so much support and the mons it hated to see like Jelly and Zone, while not as common, are still there and the teams that rely on Forre to spin usually kinda crumble without it. Has pretty severe 4mss as well, having to choose between eq and hpfire is really annoying and it can rarely afford some of the cooler options in its movepool like tspikes.
:xatu: Amazing on paper but pretty exploitable in practice unless you play out of your mind with it.
:breloom: Kinda similar to torn on rain in how it hits super hard but provides 0 defensive utility while not liking a lot of common mons. Conk stocks rising isn't good either, even if they do different things. Pheal is a broken ability but imo Breloom's bulk isn't enough to make it work in BW's high power environment unfortunately.
:Hydreigon: usually you should just use Latios as the pursuit weakness is just an excuse for Ttar to get chipped into range of your other psychics, but having access to U-turn and stab dark pulse means that choice scarf has a real niche on a few teams. I think chople berry+twave sounds cool on paper too but I have yet to see a team where it's actually good.
:Bronzong: It can cover for some threats that fat teams usually struggle against but it has no recovery which is kind of a big issue. It's pretty passive into a lot of things as well.
:Cresselia: It's mostly used on sun where it's obviously a staple but it can kinda be used on w-less so I put it a little higher.
B- tier:
:slowking: If only it wasn't this weak to pursuit mane.
:chansey: Usually seen on sun so I'll elaborate more once I get to Ninetales, but I put it a little higher since rain and w-less stalls do exist I guess.
:ninetales: While definitely usable, I think the main issue with sun is how it lacks the spinners that other styles have so you get this weird style that wants to keep hazards off long term but has a very hard time actually doing it. Every MU besides some rains and some HO is an uphill battle. Ninetales itself is probably the least active weather setter besides having wisp which is saying a lot since Politoed and Abomasnow don't do much on their own either.
:Gastrodon: This thing is such a fraud, basically Seismitoad with recovery but without the status immunity nor the access to rocks. It's more sturdy sure but besides lacking recovery it has all of the flaws Seismitoad has without any of the progress making tools like rocks and knock that make Seismitoad good in the first place.
:Salamence: Scarf is a good cleaner on W-less but usually KB's initial power makes it better while also providing more defensive utility. Specs also exists I guess but it's super hard to fit and runs into the "just use Latios" issue.
:Zapdos: I feel like a broken record but having long term hazard control is so hard in this tier is very difficult, not to mention that Rotom and Lando have very similar roles and are much more splashable.
:Mew: It has a massive movepool yes, but there are very few things it can do which other mons can't perform similarly but better. Being a mono psychic type without a good defensive ability is not fun in Ttar land, though having wisp does admittedly help.
:Weavile: very difficult to build with and even harder to pilot because of how frail and hazard vulnerable it is.
That's it! Like I said I won't be going into the mons in the lower tiers, since while I do think they have a niche, I also think that they tend to either:
1. Have flaws so big that they are very hard to build around
2. Are outclassed by another mon which can do a similar job but better the vast majority of the time
If you want to win with these pokemon, then no they aren't unviable. It's just that I think that winning with them consistently at the highest level using a variety of teams is very hard.
