Tapu Bulu,
Tapu Koko, and
Tapu Lele to
all stay A.
There have been talks lately about all three of these being A+. Hell, Tapu Bulu, which I feel to be the closest to A+ of the three personally, recently was demoted from A+ to A. I personally voted for A and I stand by that vote. Regardless, I view all three of these Pokemon as solid metagame choices that you cannot go wrong with on balance or even bulky-offensive teams. However, I do not think any of them qualify as metagame or archetype staples outside of Tapu Koko on screens, which is more of a niche, cheesy archetype, thus not proving to be enough to warrant a bump at this high subrank as you're generally defined by your best, most common variants. I think that one of the big things that define the pretty clear line between A+ and A is that the Pokemon in A+ either are seen on a majority of a certain team archetype or are top tier threats. On the other side, the Pokemon in A are still common, but they do not necessarily have the same sense of commonality to where you almost have to try not to use them on teams. Back when SDef Bulu was the Grass type of choice, it belonged in A+ as it fit into that category, but now it's more of an aggressive offensive presence that's seen pretty often, but it isn't nearly as close to a staple as it once was. While these Pokemon are all vastly different, I find them all to fit comfortably into the A rank currently. I will break down each specifically in the remainder of this post just to outline specifics.
Tapu Bulu is obviously a great Pokemon; the Choice Banded set is perhaps the best right now and it is as close to a literal wall-breaker as you can get in SM OU. Grassy Terrain boosted Wood Hammer dents everything that is not a 4x resist (Celesteela, Heatran, Mega Scizor, Ferrothorn, Kartana, bulky Volcarona, Amoonguss, Mega Venusaur, and some other niche Pokemon). On top of this, it also has nice, complimentary coverage options that make the Choice Banded set a bit more than one-dimensional. Just off the top of my head, it was used successfully in multiple recent SPL games (
1 and
2). It is a potent presence, undoubtedly. The thing is that while it's great, it still is quite far from staple status and you see a lot more BO teams without it than with it right now. Couple that with it downside of lacking the defensive presence of the SDef set and being on the slower side and you cannot necessarily label it as consistent offensively as pokemon like Mega Mawile in A+ or Ash Greninja in S.
There are other Tapu Bulu sets, so let's go through those, too. The offensive SD set is not seen too often, but it does a nice job assuring some form of progress in mot games depending upon the Z set. However, shaky longevity, lack of consistent usage, and causing teams to be compressed defensively are all downsides that do not make it remotely close to an A+ caliber variant, in my eyes. Finally, the classic SDef set is still around and while it isn't near its peak, it's still fine...the issue is that it's just that: fine. It's not spectacular, it's not as common as Ferrothorn, and it's not going to be anytime soon in all likelihood. Tapu Bulu is a good Pokemon, but it does not have enough to distinguish itself from A rank Pokemon while it simultaneously lacks the metagame presence to fit-in with A+ Pokemon, thus leaving it squarely in A.
Tapu Lele is a Pokemon that has not been A+ for a long while, if I recall correctly. However, there have been recent posts about it potentially getting a rise, so I want to address this topic without directly responding to those posts as I like having more general perspectives shared throughout my posts as opposed to back-and-forth, isolated discussion sparkers that lead to derailing the entire thread.
Tapu Lele is a Pokemon that a lot of people view as synonymous with descriptors like potent and dangerous, especially with regards to the increasingly common Choice Specs set. However, there is a lot of opportunity cost that comes alongside using Tapu Lele and it also provides near 0 defensively outside of the priority killing from Psychic Terrain, thus making people think twice about using it consistently, especially when checks such as Magearna, Celesteela, and Jirachi are all near their peaks currently.
The fact of the matter is that both Choice Specs and Z, mainly Fighting, sets are quite nice right now. They either force unmanageable amounts of damage or very predictable lines of counterplay, such as quick pivots to Jirachi or Celesteela, which can be taken advantage of given the right team support. However, the thing is that these counter measures still do exist and are increasingly seen. It is far from as simple as "click Psychic and your troubles will go away" or "click Calm Mind as the check comes in and then the right coverage/STAB will do away with the opposing check". Because of this, Tapu Lele need to be used in a bit more of a timely, even methodical fashion if consistently brought. There are some games where it chips the check early and then picks later on, which even can be arguably more games than not. But when it is such a burden to get in safely more than 1-2 times a game and when it still has enough consistent countermeasures, the pros simply do not outweigh the cons by enough to make it some consistent, top-tier offensive presence like the aforementioned Mega Mawile.
To add on to this, I don't think anyone views Lele as even close to a staple or even defining piece in any archetype right now. The threatening sets I mentioned and even Scarf are things to consider and use a decent amount on your balance and bulky-offensive teams, but neither will be finding their way on to more teams than not -- or even close to that. Tapu Lele is good, but not great. Tapu Lele is not as metagame defining as anything in S or A+, so it should definitely stay A rank.
The last of the trio is
Tapu Koko. Honestly, I am not as high on Tapu Koko as most, so there may be a bit of negative bias here, but it seems to be rising a bit in usage since Zygarde got banned and Tangrowth fell. The thing with Tapu Koko is that it has a a great momentum generating presence, especially with the 3A+Roost Z/Magnet/Shuca set, but also with Specs. The problem is that this really is more of a luxury to use right now when options like Tornadus-Therian or Rotom-Wash provide a similar momentum-generating force, but also a lot more defensive merit. I'm aware that they are not entirely comparable, but the amount of competition there is coupled with the fact that every decent team has at least a 'check' to conventional Koko that's reliable, even if it is HP Ice which almost all are rn, leaves there little room to convince me that it should be A+.
I feel like Tapu Koko is in an awkward spot where it is a nice tempo pick against a lot of other playstyles, but it is not something you can use without a bit of team limitations and specific catering to its pros/cons. This can be said about a lot of Pokemon, even those in A+ arguably, but the thing is that the positives of Tapu Koko more stem from its indirect impacts on gameflow and perhaps scouting out of the set rather than its direct presence, thus making it really hard for anyone to persuade me that standalone Tapu Koko is anywhere near A+ rank, let alone on the fringe of it or possibly something I would vote up rn.
I do feel like Z variants have nice nuke potential, but even then it's quite awkward to time that and while it has the god-given ability to come in on Tornadus-Therian consistent, there is not much else that grants it consistent safe entry without some trade-off that could leave the entire interaction a net-neutral/negative (i.e: Toxic/TSpikes from Pex) as the game draws out. I feel like Tapu Koko is a good pick for Bulky-Offense and even balance teams with a synergetic breaker as the focus, but it is never the focus itself and it is never going to be given the direction of the metagame. Tapu Koko is like that good, supportive character in the background, but not remotely close to being the protagonist or focus. I know that's a bit of a far-fetched analogy, but in all seriousness it's nowhere near as prominent or trend-setting as the things you see ranked above it, so I fail to see much of a reason to move it up to A+.
