Resource National Dex Viability Rankings v2

[Nish the Great]

About your nominations for Weavile and Rillaboom:
It is much more important to give reasons as to how a Pokémon has gotten better than simply stating how good it is. However, there are many good reasons to move them up.

Weavile has seen a spike in popularity because 2 of its best counters, Cinderace and Magearna, were banned. Also, with the rise of Mlatias and defensive grasses after those 2 bans, it has more prey to kill or pursuit.

Rillaboom loves no longer having 2 offensive threats that it can’t revenge kill, but because it also lost a teammate in Magearna, I don’t think that it gains enough to move up to A+. However, A does seem reasonable.

 

[Avery]

Hey everyone! With the metagame finally starting to cool off after the Magearna (and Cinderace!) bans, we figured it was about time for a VR update! Everybody's votes can be found here.

Rises:

Gliscor from A to A+
Kartana from A to A+
Greninja-Ash from A- to A+
Rillaboom from A- to A
Tapu Koko from A- to A
Tapu Lele from A- to A
Hydreigon from B+ to A-
Tangrowth from B+ to A-
Garchomp-Mega from B to A
Kommo-o from B to B+
Ditto from B- to B
Gallade-Mega from B- to B
Serperior from B- to B+
Volcarona from B- to B
Heracross-Mega from B- to B
Slowking from B- to A-
Diancie-Mega from C to B+
Shuckle from C to B-
Thundurus-T from UR to B-
Tapu Bulu from UR to C
Zarude from UR to C
Urshifu-R from UR to C
Grimmsnarl from UR to C

Drops:

Blissey from A+ to A-
Latias-Mega from A+ to A
Slowbro from A+ to A
Zapdos from A to A-
Aegislash from A- to B+
Gastrodon from A- to B+
Jirachi from A- to B+
Victini from A- to B+
Charizard-Mega-Y from B+ to B
Greninja from B+ to B
Slowbro-Mega from B+ to B
Alomomola from B to B-
Hippowdon from B to C
Venusaur-Mega from B to B-
Alakazam from B- to C
Latios-Mega from B- to C
Aerodactyl-Mega from C to UR

Over time, we've seen Mega Diancie establish itself as one of the strongest Stealth Rock setters available, easily beating every form of hazard control with its new toy in Mystical Fire. The drop is Blissey usage is also a godsend, as Mega Diancie can afford to invest more into special attack to ensure that Stealth Rock stays on the field. It is rising as a result.



Offensive teams get devastated by Ash-Greninja now without Magearna, being forced into Kommo-o or Ferrothorn only to prolong the slaughter. Against balance and bulky offense, teams now have to employ some variety of Specially Defensive Toxapex + Dark resist and prey that neither fall into Ash-Greninja range after taking Spikes damage. Slowking's rise in usage is also amazing, as it is can often be seen as a team's specially defensive Water-resist, leaving them very vulnerable to Ash-Greninja. Many common checks are also deathly afraid of Spikes, see: Kommo-o, AV Tangrowth, and Gastrodon. It is rising two ranks to reflect this.



Slowking has become a very convenient check to dangerous Pokemon like Tapu Lele and Heatran that can also pivot on Mega Latias, Reuniclus, and Toxapex without Cinderace or Magearna in the metagame. The loss of Cinderace is especially huge, as Slowking was a Water-type that could not handle it. Future Sight is also extremely valuable in the current metagame, enabling terrifying breakers such as Choice Band Kartana, Mega Lopunny, and Ash-Greninja. Unfortunately, using Slowking as your specially defensive Water-resist will leave you at a deficit against Ash-Greninja, but that can be shored up by its teammates. It is rising a whole three (!!!) ranks to reflect these recent changes.



Recently, Blissey has become more of a detriment to slot onto teams than a benefit, as it is often very easy to exploit with Taunt Heatran, Calm Mind Clefable, Reuniclus, Tapu Lele, Serperior, and especially Mega Mawile. The incredible passivity does it no favors either. However, it is still a nice check to Ash-Greninja, can still status Mega Latias, and can still pivot effectively. Still, it is falling a whole two ranks to illustrate these glaring flaws.



As a Defogger, Zapdos fails to keep Stealth Rock off against the more common and dangerous setters, such as Garchomp, Swords Dance Landorus-T, and Mega Diancie. Additionally, it dislikes the rise in Swords Dance Kartana. It is dropping a rank.



As a Stealth Rock setter, Hippowdon is frankly horrible. It cannot keep hazards up in the face of any Defogger, the most it can do it land a Toxic on Zapdos and hope to catch it on a Roost. Hippowdon's sheer physical bulk is still rather convenient for defensive teams, but it is still dropping to reflect its shortcomings.

 

[pomfpomfpluff]

Zaurde

Bruh

To not make this a throwaway post, I'll just ask about a few rankings I find weird.

(Urshifu-Rapid-Strike)

I genuinely can not think of anything this does well. Like it's worse than every rain mon you could possibly use and it gets 2hkod by non evolved ash gren hydro pump so it's clearly not an ash gren check. Any amount of theorymoning I could even attempt to do doesn't answer my question, so could someone else try to?

I get that stall can afford to run weird mons like this to get better matchups vs standard stallbreakers, but I don't think this does anything unique compared to the competition. Like back when magearna was a thing, you could atleast get away with building an overall more flawed stall team because nothing else walls every magearna set, but nowadays the most relevant reason I can think of for using this is like Quag or Clef stall for Manaphy. Idk, maybe I'm missing something, hence why I'm posting this.

 

[MudkipBeans]

(Urshifu-Rapid-Strike)

I genuinely can not think of anything this does well. Like it's worse than every rain mon you could possibly use and it gets 2hkod by non evolved ash gren hydro pump so it's clearly not an ash gren check. Any amount of theorymoning I could even attempt to do doesn't answer my question, so could someone else try to?

Basically its just Choice Band off of rain, since Slowbro is on a minor downtrend a lot of things that resist it's stab are not too sturdy against banded U-turns, and Toxapex shifting to SpDef helps it out just a little. Of course it still has a load of flaws so we only deemed it C rank. Viable, but still has a bad Toxapex matchup. Take the new Latias sample added today, that team can potentially get destroyed with good play by a banded Urshifu-RS, but a lot of other teams dont really mind it and It's also not bad at revenging Volcarona

Shedinja can wall random stall threats, a bunch that I honestly can't think of, but out of those matchups it is quite useless, So C rank is what we continue to deem it.

 

[R8]

I get that stall can afford to run weird mons like this to get better matchups vs standard stallbreakers, but I don't think this does anything unique compared to the competition. Like back when magearna was a thing, you could atleast get away with building an overall more flawed stall team because nothing else walls every magearna set, but nowadays the most relevant reason I can think of for using this is like Quag or Clef stall for Manaphy. Idk, maybe I'm missing something, hence why I'm posting this.

Shedinja has an awesome niche on stall, which is really unique imho. Not only it is able to take on very very annoying threats in only one slot, such as Specs Lele, Manaphy, Mega Swampert, or Mega-Medicham (Which usually can try to fish for haxx against MSableye, especially with Electric Terrain support), CM Fini, Reuniclus, etc.. and also is a good voltblocker against Tapu Koko, and isn't even scared of the very rare Grass Knot. It also is a good Future Sight absorber if Protect is ran, which is useful if you don't want to get Sableye burned by the slowtwins.
Not only that, it also can act as a win condition thanks to its access to Sword Dance, or spread both Will-O-Wisp and Toxic if a win condition isn't needed.

It does have a lot of flaws, such as dying to Sand and Pursuit, but nevertheless, its combination of treats is absolutely unique, and no Pokemon in the game is able to do all the above mentionned stuff. And anyway, stall is easily able to cover the bad MUs it has, being especially Sand or Weavile offensive cores. Fitting everything on stall is often painful, and the role/"checking" compression it provides is a god send.

Also, fun fact: Shedinja is the only U-Turn blocker in the entiere game. Unfortunately, most U-Turns users in the metagame have ways to break through it.

 

[Edstur98]

Amoongus -> B+

Amoongus has raised as one of the premier defensive grasses in a meta infested with offensive grass-types as well as Ash Greninja. The Magearna and Cinderace bans have benefited Amoongus greatly; The usage of Tapu Koko, Ash Greninja, Kartana, Calm Mind Tapu Fini and Rillaboom have gone up since the Magearna and Cinderace bans, all of these are Pokemon who would be commonly offensively / defensively checked by Cinderace and Magaerna but can now be compressed into Amoongus. Amoongus serves as a very nice check to all these rising pokemon with it's defensive typing and utility in Spore / Stun Spore. As well as having regenerator for recovery to offset the problem of having no consistent reliable recovery options, as well as spore to pressure Heatran and Mega Latias switchins.

Here are 2 replays that showcase Amoongus putting in work:

Replay 1

Replay 2

 

[Zneon]

Serperior to A-

Not sure how many people will agree with this or not but I feel Serperior has become quite a great Pokemon for the past few weeks to the point where it is worth rising to the A ranks. Cinderace and Magearna being gone has been more beneficial to any Pokemon quite like Serperior in my opinion. It's a very potent threat that fits on so many different teams. Glare is a huge boon for almost every single team, Pokemon that are really threatening without the paralysis paralysis such as Heatran, Rillaboom, Tapu Lele and Hydreigon become infinitely less effective and efficient at their role when Serp just Glares them. The amount of support that Serp provides with just this move cannot be understated. Mega Garchomp is one of the most threatening Pokemon in the metagame in my opinion and the mon becomes even better when it is paired with Serp.

Outside of the infinite utility Glare provides, Serperior is just extremely threatening. It's so easily for it to take advantage of the opposing team with the combination of Sub + Glare crippling teams so easily and at late-game, if Serperior's checks are worn down, it can easily just win the game after 1 or 2 Leaf Storms. The mon fits really well on HO because of this as well, Screens Serp is amazing, heavily crippling shit on the opposing team, having the Speed to set up dual screens and potentially being able to snowball.

Overall I feel Serp is an amazing Pokemon, its ease of use on a variety of archetypes, role compression and consistency make it better than the Pokemon in B+ and just on the level of the Pokemon in A-, thus I feel it's worth rising.

 

[Zobirisking]

Hey guys, I want to tell you why I think that Mamoswine should rise up to B- or B.

• Mamoswine checks so many good Ground types very well like Landorus, Garchomp and it's Mega Evolution and Gliscor, which are all super good right now. This gives it a very good niche.
• Mamoswine also checks many other very common and good Pokemon like Tapu Koko, Toxapex, Mega Mawile, Mega Latias, Tyranitar and it's Mega Evolution and Magnezone, which is super good.
• Another cool thing about Mamoswine is the fact that it has very less Counters, because of it's great attack stat with a base of 130 and it's great coverage. These calcs can show the power of Mamoswine with Choise Band:

252 Atk Choice Band Mamoswine Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 216-255 (54.8 - 64.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Choice Band Mamoswine Icicle Crash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Lele: 264-312 (93.9 - 111%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

252 Atk Choice Band Mamoswine Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp-Mega: 348-412 (97.4 - 115.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

And here is a Replay in which Mamoswine did a great job: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-1338453900-du5g1p4pjjdz43r9mnnc1ons4kov5rcpw

Thanks for reading and have a nice day.

 

[Sputnik]

I would like to nominate Thundurus Incarnate for C rank



Now I'm not talking about Z-Move stuff (although that probably isn't bad either). I'm talking about the pivot set.

Thundurus (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Knock Off
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn

This set has several advantages over its main competition of Tapu Koko, chiefly among them being its access to Knock Off and its Ground immunity. Knock Off allows Thundy-I to pressure annoying walls such as Assault Vest Tangrowth, Gastrodon, Toxapex, Amoonguss, Blissey, Specially Defensive Excadrill, and a whole host of other things that don't want to lose their item. The Ground immunity also gives Thundurus-I an easier time of pivoting around Scarf Landorus-T and can let it theoretically switch into SD Garchomp's Earthquake in an emergency. The speed tier also gives Thundy the ability to outrun our SD Ground Types and pressure them with HP Ice, an invaluable trait in the current metagame. I've been using it in a VoltTurn core with Slowking and Mega Lopunny, which provides an obscene amount of offensive pressure. It's of course not perfect; it's less powerful and slower than Koko being the main things holding it back, while Zeraora also gives it some competition. It is however quite good in its own right, and I believe that Knock Off and the typing give it a solid niche in the tier, making C rank a decent place for it.

Also for what it's worth I did try Thundy-T with this but I got annoyed that it was slower than Garchomp and Mega Diancie so I think this is better.

Replays

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-1339845520-0vps73ejs6m68w5mzhoaf619d36ul6hpw Thundurus applies a decent amount of pressure pivoting in conjunction with Mega Lopunny and Slowking. The endgame of this game gets weird bc I forgot to make my Amoonguss Regenerator but Thundy ends up putting in work.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-1339855550 Thundy applies some early pressure although I have to sack it rather early on. Still a decent example of what it can do.

 

[Pikachu_fan4820]

This is my first post on the smogon forums and from some experience before joining the forums:
Mega charizard : B->B+/A-
When I used this mon it did way too much damage with weather ball. it also has solar beam for greninja. Its not top tier, for example, although its pretty rare, galarian weezing can put a setback on the drought, luckily charizard Y has scorching sands for this, though using it may be shunned due to scorching sands not being a great move. Drought in general is also helpful for sun teams, as this provides a lot of power on its own, and also can set sun. sadly it can't hold heat rock, so torkoal or ninetales is a better option for purley setting sun. However, charizard Y can do much more on its own than either of these sun setters.

 

[Lupla]

This is my first post on the smogon forums and from some experience before joining the forums:
Mega charizard : B->B+/A-
When I used this mon it did way too much damage with weather ball. it also has solar beam for greninja. Its not top tier, for example, although its pretty rare, galarian weezing can put a setback on the drought, luckily charizard Y has scorching sands for this, though using it may be shunned due to scorching sands not being a great move. Drought in general is also helpful for sun teams, as this provides a lot of power on its own, and also can set sun. sadly it can't hold heat rock, so torkoal or ninetales is a better option for purley setting sun. However, charizard Y can do much more on its own than either of these sun setters.

The issue with Zard Y is the support required to make it function, not only you need pursuit support for stuff like Mega Latias but you also need lots of backup for the rockers, which makes the Zard Y Builds kind of restrictive, leaving you open to certain threats such as Mega Medicham, as for Zard Y itself it struggles to dish out much damage with the prominence of Kommo-O, Toxapex (Even with sands it can switch around your moves), Slowking (Read Toxapex), Mega Latias, Garchomp and Mega Garchomp, Blissey, Moltres and constantly having to deal with faster offensive threats such as Tapu Koko, Zeraora, Ash Greninja, Mega Diancie and more. The most crippling weakness is obviously Stealth Rock which are really tough to keep them away and your probably gonna be playing 5.5 Vs 6, it is a decent wallbreaker as his attacks are still really strong and it has some sort of defensive use agaisnt pokemon like Rillaboom but its way too hit or miss to be that consistent. Side Note: Weather Ball is really inconsistent on Zard Y because of the weather changes agaisnt Tyranitar or Sun running out, which is why Fire Blast/Flamethrower are better options. While i dont know much of Sun i dont think Zard Y is able to fit on those teams because it would keep adding more weaknesses on those teams.

Edit: Page 5 for more info about Zard Y moment kek

 

[Pikachu_fan4820]

The issue with Zard Y is the support required to make it function, not only you need pursuit support for stuff like Mega Latias but you also need lots of backup for the rockers, which makes the Zard Y Builds kind of restrictive, leaving you open to certain threats such as Mega Medicham, as for Zard Y itself it struggles to dish out much damage with the prominence of Kommo-O, Toxapex (Even with sands it can switch around your moves), Slowking (Read Toxapex), Mega Latias, Garchomp and Mega Garchomp, Blissey, Moltres and constantly having to deal with faster offensive threats such as Tapu Koko, Zeraora, Ash Greninja, Mega Diancie and more. The most crippling weakness is obviously Stealth Rock which are really tough to keep them away and your probably gonna be playing 5.5 Vs 6, it is a decent wallbreaker as his attacks are still really strong and it has some sort of defensive use agaisnt pokemon like Rillaboom but its way too hit or miss to be that consistent. Side Note: Weather Ball is really inconsistent on Zard Y because of the weather changes agaisnt Tyranitar or Sun running out, which is why Fire Blast/Flamethrower are better options. While i dont know much of Sun i dont think Zard Y is able to fit on those teams because it would keep adding more weaknesses on those teams.

Edit: Page 5 for more info about Zard Y moment kek

Yeah, now that I think about it, maybe B+ is okay but A- is a bit too far. Stealth rock obv sucks so if your defoging you prob default to something like zapdos or corv, so if those get knocked out before all opposing rock setters are knocked out, zard Y is kinda screwed.

 

[NuttyRabbit]

A couple of quick noms

-> B or higher

This mon is super slept on rn. Between its incredible speed tier, solid movepool which between Knock, Volt, CC, Toxic, Plasma Fists or even Blaze Kick contains a solid mix of utility and power, and an ability that lets it act as a pseudo Volt blocker, Zeraora finds itself surprisingly splashable on BO or even offense builds.

While the increased prevalence of Grounds and bulky Grasses certainly bothers it, its ability to consistently pressure and keep up momentum against the majority of them (outside of Glisc) between Toxic, Knock, or even the niche Blaze kick means that they're hard pressed to check it the entire game or at the very least more vulnerable to its partners (it partners exceptionally well with stuff like Medicham, Kyurem, and Lele which all pressure its checks and appreciate its ability to apply consistent pivoting and pressure between Volt, CC, Knock, and even Toxic).

In terms of other meta trends, it greatly appreciates the decline of Mega Latias and the rise of bulkier pivots like Kommo-o, Heatran, Amoonguss, and Slowking all of whom either get Knocked, Volted on, or outright threatened like Slowking and Heatran are and ultimately struggle to keep up against it over the course of a game.

It also appreciates the plethora of fast offensive mons that are thriving rn like Weavile, Lop, Ash Gren, Koko, and SD Kart since it can outspeed and threaten/pivot all of them (which Koko can do except for Lop)

All in all, Zeraora is a really splashable offensive pivot that benefits greatly from current meta trends and finds itself able to perform with a level of efficiency and consistency which, imo, places it at the very least above more niche picks like regular Gyarados, Mega Heracross, and Galarian Zapdos

-> B+

Volc is on the up and up right now, finding new life as a solid member of HO teams, on which it is once more able to flex its insane offensive potential. QD STABS + Psychic Volc under Screens is an absolute menace, having just a handful of reliable switchins (one of whom, Heatran, gets mangled by HP Ground variants). Not only that, but between the fall of Blissey, the rise of Grasses, and the abundance of defensive cores that fall to the aforementioned combo of moves, Volc finds itself in a good place right now and imo it deserves a rise as I feel it is on the level of stuff like Manaphy, Kommo-o, and Gar as opposed to the likes of M-bro

 

[Nish the Great]

Hawlucha: B —> A-/A

Hawlucha is too good of a Pokémon to be considered a B tier along the likes of Chansey, Bisharp, and Ditto. Out of the top threats (B+ up), it only gets stopped by 7, those being Physically bulky variants of Pex, Corviknight, and Clefable, as well as Slowbro, Zapdos, Scizor and Aegislash. It makes a great pairing with Magnezone, who does well versus all of those but Zapdos, who can lose its boots very easily to other Pokémon it is tasked with checking such as Kartana, Landorus-T, and Rillaboom. In addition, most of these mons except Aegislash are relegated to bulkier balance and defence, which means that Hawlucha often wins an offense matchup on team preview because they have no outspeeds or switch ins.
Speaking of Rillaboom, it is another amazing partner to Hawlucha because it baits in defensive grasses and sets Grassy Terrain, which allows Hawlucha to use its best item, Grassy Seed. Also, between the two, speed control is basically given to a team.
As for why I think Hawlucha should rise, if you look at the rising Pokémon, you’ll see Pokémon such as Slowking, which leaves a team much more weak to Hawlucha when swapped with Slowbro, Tangrowth, which is a wall obliterated by Hawlucha, especially with Substitute, and offensive Pokémon throttled by it like Kartana and Ash-Greninja.

Relevant Calcs:
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Koko: 195-229 (69.3 - 81.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
With Rocks and some light chip, Koko is no Hawlucha answer
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 168+ Def Corviknight: 255-300 (63.7 - 75%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Once again, Corviknight can be chipped, or the boost can be grabbed if you can get up a sub
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 273-322 (69.2 - 81.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
With the right EVs, you live moonblast
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 166-196 (54.6 - 64.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
You always win without scald hax
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 248 HP / 48+ Def Scizor-Mega: 204-241 (59.4 - 70.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Use acrobatics over CC to avoid dying to bullet punch

 

[adem]

Hawlucha: B —> A-/A

Hawlucha is too good of a Pokémon to be considered a B tier along the likes of Chansey, Bisharp, and Ditto. Out of the top threats (B+ up), it only gets stopped by 7, those being Physically bulky variants of Pex, Corviknight, and Clefable, as well as Slowbro, Zapdos, Scizor and Aegislash. It makes a great pairing with Magnezone, who does well versus all of those but Zapdos, who can lose its boots very easily to other Pokémon it is tasked with checking such as Kartana, Landorus-T, and Rillaboom. In addition, most of these mons except Aegislash are relegated to bulkier balance and defence, which means that Hawlucha often wins an offense matchup on team preview because they have no outspeeds or switch ins.
Speaking of Rillaboom, it is another amazing partner to Hawlucha because it baits in defensive grasses and sets Grassy Terrain, which allows Hawlucha to use its best item, Grassy Seed. Also, between the two, speed control is basically given to a team.
As for why I think Hawlucha should rise, if you look at the rising Pokémon, you’ll see Pokémon such as Slowking, which leaves a team much more weak to Hawlucha when swapped with Slowbro, Tangrowth, which is a wall obliterated by Hawlucha, especially with Substitute, and offensive Pokémon throttled by it like Kartana and Ash-Greninja.

Relevant Calcs:
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Koko: 195-229 (69.3 - 81.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
With Rocks and some light chip, Koko is no Hawlucha answer
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 168+ Def Corviknight: 255-300 (63.7 - 75%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Once again, Corviknight can be chipped, or the boost can be grabbed if you can get up a sub
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 273-322 (69.2 - 81.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
With the right EVs, you live moonblast
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 166-196 (54.6 - 64.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
You always win without scald hax
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 248 HP / 48+ Def Scizor-Mega: 204-241 (59.4 - 70.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Use acrobatics over CC to avoid dying to bullet punch

Hello, I would like to add my opinions on this

Although I also do think that Hawlucha deserves a raise, the maximum it really deserves is B+, and it being A- or A+ along with the likes of Slowking, Weavile and Tapu Koko is a crime. Your point about most of these mons fitting only bulky balance / defense (which i assume is fat) is also not true, as Corv, Slowbro and Mega Sciz can fit on a lot of offenses and Bulky Offenses, and mons like Clef, the aforementioned Corv, and Pex all fit on Sand, which i would classify as BO, and Zapdos on rain which I would classify as Offense. You really underestimate how many mons threaten Hawlucha, even if you count the ones B+ up:

it only gets stopped by 7, those being Physically bulky variants of Pex, Corviknight, and Clefable, as well as Slowbro, Zapdos, Scizor and Aegislash.

You fail to mention Landorus-T, which as of right now, is more and more leaning towards SuperDefensive sets over the traditional 112 / 144 spread:

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Fly
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn

And Z Fly on these sets are also being used more, due to the ability to exert a lot of offensive pressure and revenge a plethora of threats it checks, such as Kartana, Gliscor, Lopunny-Mega, Medicham-Mega, Hawlucha and Garchomp-Mega. Rocky Helmet can also be used as a substitute item, and still deals with those mons well, but the point is, this mon is IMO a big staple on offenses, and deals with Hawlucha very easily, which pretty much disregards your point about it beating the offense MU on preview.

What Hawlucha does deal well with (usually) is HO, due to the reason you mentioned above, but even that can be played around, with your own Hawlucha, Screens, Revenging via priority from the likes of MSciz, Preserving Lando (if hes your suicide lead) to pressure it with Intimidates and threatening chunking it with Explosion, Status-ing it (Grimmsnarl, Serp lives a hit behind screens and can glare), abusing the fact that its extremely weak and threatening it outright with the Mon currently on the field, Taunting it, and a lot of mons just outright setting up on it, see: Garchomp-Mega.

You also fail to mention Latias-Mega, which even at +2 cleanly lives Hawlucha’s Acrobatics:
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Latias-Mega: 265-313 (72.8 - 85.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

and OHKOs it back:
0 SpA Latias-Mega Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hawlucha: 294-348 (98.9 - 117.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

Even if you are a +Defense seed:
0 SpA Latias-Mega Psyshock vs. +1 0 HP / 0 Def Hawlucha: 198-234 (66.6 - 78.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

With some small chip, you KO it either way.

You also forget to mention Tapu Fini, which although is easily chipped, still lives and KOs back (Talking about the defog set, the Draining Kiss set deals with it with ease)

Reuniclus is also in the same case, but even less easily chipped.

You mention that Koko is no longer a Hawlucha answer with Rocks + Slight chip, but what if its boots? Or even if its Specs Roost? Thats a lot of chip to get to Koko on shorter games (which you will be having with Hawlucha due to it being on HO) You mention Corv, which btw you used the wrong set for, thats a Galar spread, and although the difference is minimal its still a difference: +2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Corviknight: 250-295 (62.5 - 73.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

And as i mentioned before with Koko, you’re aiming to win as fast as possible with Lucha, and getting 30% chip as a minimum on Corv is still quite hard, due to it being able to just Roost back up to full, and your best bet is trying to overload it with Rilla, but even then its hard due to a lot of teams usually not having Corv as their sole grass check, due to a certain magnet, and have ways to play around it, so even then its shaky at best. You also have to rely on the fact that they are not ID, or even Bulk Up, as that can deal with Rilla much easier than Defog sets. And you also mentioned “if you can get behind a sub”, thats 3 free turns that the opponent has to give you: one to sub, one to sd, one to attack, which is really no feasible when you’re fighting a player that has any sense of competence, as if a player gives your Hawlucha 3 free turns, they pretty much deserve to lose that game.

Chipping Clefable is notoriously difficult, due to its reliable recovery, its ability in Magic Guard, and its fairy type. And yes, you can EV Hawlucha to live a Clefable Moonblast, but what if theirs rocks? You die anyways.

Although Toxapex is now leaning to a more specially defensive spread, the physical spread wins against it, as you’re not factoring Black Sludge, and the fact that Toxapex can just haze. Furthermore, this repeated actions (sd>cc as pex hazes, pex clicks recover as you sd, cc as it hazes and so on) will eventually lead to pex slowly healing up back to a substantial amount, where it can safely click scald, and repeat this continuously until it burns you, thus resulting in a useless Hawlucha. Even if it is spdef, it can still play around Hawlucha due to the bulkier types of teams it fits in with haze and scalds, and repeated switchings.

I dont think Mega Sciz is a check to Hawlucha at all, and tbh is just setup fodder for it, so idk why that was mentioned.

Lastly, you mention Zapdos as the only check that is not dealt with via magnezone (and using magnezone on a HO team is really something that you should be thinking about, and I have pointed out that other checks to it do exist. Even if Zapdos loses its boots, say, by a stray Rilla knock, it still hard counters it extremely well, as you need 30%+ chip +Rocks after boots are knocked off to have the slightest chance at killing it:
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 220 Def Zapdos: 153-181 (39.9 - 47.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

You greatly overestimate how good Hawlucha is, and it really struggles to do much to bulkier teams, and even offence team pack enough pressure for it, see: SuperDefensive LandoT, Rotom W, Corv, own terrain. This is all in the point of using Lucha on a HO team, which IMO, outside of maybe super fast offense, similar to SM style MediKoko offenses, is really the only way to build it, and sacrificing 3 Slots on a Offense team to be built around Lucha is really not that efficient, due to the large portion of metagame threats you need to check, and if your offensive core can deal with a large amount of these threats, Ie: this cores stall matchup is bad, relying only on RillaZone to try and deal with it, which is neutered in the long term with good stall play, if the stall team has a grass check thats not corv, ie: Naskarm, Zapdos, Moltres, Amoomguss, Volcarona, and other nicher options such as Aggron-Mega, Altaria-Mega and Heatran etc. Luchas big issue is also the fact that it is a one time thing, and if you set it off too early, you wont be able to try again, potentially wasting it, and playing 5 V 6 until you send it out at the right time, due to not wanting to risk wasting it too early. The prevalence of future sight is also a pain for it, as a lot of teams with this structure usually cant handle dealing with Future Sight + Breaker, due to not having a strong enough defensive core, and not being able to out-offense it in time.

Tldr, you missed out a bunch of really important mons, and overestimate how easily lucha can bypass these threats due to them being able to recover from the chip easily or barely being able to get chipped at all. The team structure you mentioned (rilla lucha zone) struggles to break a lot in the tier, especially with teams that rely on Zapdos as their grass check, or Corv + Grass, or even just a grass themselves because it forces Lucha in early, potentially just killing / crippling it, and due to its 1 time nature, its basically just a sack from then on.

 

[Nish the Great]

0 SpA Latias-Mega Psyshock vs. +1 116 HP / 0 Def Hawlucha: 198-234 (60.7 - 71.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
This is pretty standard EVs on Hawlucha.
However, you are right about many of these matchups. I play lower ladder (around 1400-1500), so I can go for a day without seeing Reuniclus or MLatias, which is why I never thought of them.
Looking at this again, I can see that Hawlucha is much more of a hit-or-miss Pokémon than I thought, and outside of HO, it forces you to play a team down. Because of this, I agree that Hawlucha is nowhere near as reliable as Tapu Koko, nor can it fit on as many teams.

 

[adem]

Hello hello, sorry if this counts as a double post but I needed to finalize my thoughts about some mons in the meta rn, anyways, let's get to it.

Rises


C>B-

I have been advocating for this mon for a while now, and I do think it is a great mon rn. Although I have started with an offensive Fight Z set, I have recently found a ton of success with a bulky 2a sd set:

Tapu Bulu @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 220 HP / 92 Def / 140 SpD / 56 Spe
Careful Nature
- Swords Dance
- Synthesis
- Horn Leech
- Close Combat

This is an amazing set right now, and amazing on both sand and grasspam, as it compresses a sturdy gren check that also functions as an amazing wincon, and partners well with Mega Tyranitar eliminating zap, and Fight Z Kartana eliminating Corv / MSciz for it. With Leftovers + Synthesis, it checks Ash Gren and Tapu Koko very consistently, and even the likes of Mega Swampert, as it isn't 2hkoed by ice punch. Given EV spread lets it maximize the healing from grassy terrain + lefties, hit 200 speed as a benchmark, avoid the ohko from +2 Mega Garchomp fire fang, whilst dumping the rest in spdef with a positive nature to check the frog. This set appreciates Gren being a lot harder to deal with, and sand being good rn.

B>B+

Volcarona @ Psychium Z
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Psychic
- Flamethrower
- Bug Buzz / Hidden Power Ground

With Mega Chomper being so good rn, and it abusing the fact that screens are IMO the most dominant HO force, I feel volc deserves a raise, as it fits extremely easily on these types of teams, and synergizes well with mons like Serp and drum Kommo-O, as it lures and KOs mons such as Pex, opposing SpDef Kommo O, Heatran (if running hp ground), Mega Latias (if running buzz), and really sets up easily on a large number of mons in the tier, and generally sweeping extremely easily.

Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Roost
- Flamethrower
- Psychic

A bulkier set can be used on Offenses and BO’s as it functions as a semi-check to Rillaboom and Mega Mawile, whilst functioning as a late game wincon too.

C>B-

Slowking-Galar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 64 SpA / 192 SpD
Calm Nature
- Future Sight
- Earthquake / Scald / Ice Beam
- Sludge Bomb
- Flamethrower

Glowking is a great defensive pivot right now, as a more offensive option to its Johto counterpart, and checking the likes of Charizard Y, Tapu Koko and CM Clefable, which can be devastating to a lot of teams, and pivots into Ash Greninja to scout it. Really appreciates grassy terrain and pairs well with the previously mentioned Bulu.


Drops

C>UR

This mon needs 20 moves, but can only use for, may hit harder than its twin, but doesn't hit hard enough, walled by a large portion of the meta no matter what 3 moves you use.

B>B- / C

I don't rate this mon highly at all, super easily walled by the likes of pex, kommo o (depending on what moves you use, I’ve been told that sludge scald is best so I'm basing it on that), and if you’re not running sludge you miss out on all the grasses. You’re super toxic prone post mega, and pre mega (if glowbro) there isnt much you can effectively check bar Rilla. Also taunt bait, really weak without boosts (and cant get them up as easily as, say, Mega Lati, and imo has too many flaws to justify. I can see it being usable, but very niche, so that's why I offered a B- nom at the very least.

and A and A- to B+, respectively

Slowbro and Blissey have really fallen off, and right now, its hard to justify using Bro over king from my experience, the best you get is a better medi and lop mu, which isn't hard to patch up. This core struggles really with the rise of the likes of Kartana, Weavile, Kyurem, and Lele, and is super passive for the metagame rn. While I do think they have fallen off, they are still relatively good mons, just not even as close as good as they once were, and on the contrary, are not doing that well, and thus, B+ rank is suitable for them.

 

[adem]

Gotta disagree with this drop here. Although definitely not in contention for one of the best Megas in the tier due to the overall increase in checks and loss of Magearna, it's hard to discount its positive traits and role as a wincon. I'd say that it needing "20 moves" (that accolade belongs to the ) is more a statement in its lack of newfound consistency with its mainstream sets (i.e. cm, shock, sphere/beam, roost) and in actuality opens more doors for more diverse sets. Roost-less sets like CM, Shock, Sphere, Substitute are interesting sets and are still potent wincons, with flexibility against Pursuit-trappers like and , and becoming immune to status, two things Mega Latias despises. Another set like CM, Stored Power, Substitute, Roost is also a great wincon with proper support and shone brightly when ND Majors winner iNoLife won with it. I still think its definitely fallen off and no longer top 5, C is still a respectable rank and far from unusable.

e

i was talking about latios, mb for not specifying ><, + its like a- rn

 

[Senko]

e

i was talking about latios, mb for not specifying ><, + its like a- rn

loooooooool yeah I cant tell the difference at all ;;; i was confused as hell when I saw lati as C like wtf??

 

[Pikachu_fan4820]

Toxapex A+-->A/A-
Toxapex is a good stall mon (though I despise it), but the thing is the pex is SO EXPLOITABLE with ANY taunt mons and litteraly looses to heatran despite the type advantage because heatran taunts it and its locked into scald or forced out. Lele also shreds pex. to make heatran even MORE annoying for pex, heatran can use magma storm to chip and make it unable to use regenerator. Magnezone is also highly notable as a quick pex KO, as it has a 50% chance to OHKO just with volt switch and guarnteed with thunder bolt (or thunder if rain teams have thunder magnezone now lol). Pex also does not like loosing its black sludge. Some much less used mons like crawdaunt beat the frick out of pex but almost nobody uses crawdaunt so its not worth noting, crawdaunt blasts nearly every stall mon anyways.

 

[Optify]

This post is somewhat confusing, as the reasoning just doesn't make much sense.

Toxapex A+-->A/A-
Toxapex is a good stall mon (though I despise it), but the thing is the pex is SO EXPLOITABLE with ANY taunt mons and litteraly looses to heatran despite the type advantage because heatran taunts it and its locked into scald or forced out. Lele also shreds pex.

Yes, stallbreakers do break stall. This isn't news.

Magnezone is also highly notable as a quick pex KO, as it has a 50% chance to OHKO just with volt switch and guarnteed with thunder bolt (or thunder if rain teams have thunder magnezone now lol)

I fail to see how this is relevant. Yes the electric type does beat a water type; does this mean Landorus should drop because ice types beat it? No, it's ranked so high because of general good match-ups vs the overall metagame, this also applies to Toxapex.

Some much less used mons like crawdaunt beat the frick out of pex but almost nobody uses crawdaunt so its not worth noting, crawdaunt blasts nearly every stall mon anyways.

Cryogonal beats Landorus. Let's unrank Landorus.


This whole post focuses on Toxapex's bad matchups ( which are few, and far between. ), while ignoring it's several good ones currently.

==============================================================================================

In order to make this not a fully negative post, I would like to nominate Skarmory to B+ rank.

Skarmory currently has a great matchup vs the strongest breakers of the tier, notably beating mawile and being able to whirlwind out mega garchomp, not even Magnezone can do the greatest job of trapping it, as some run 184 speed evs, allowing it to outspeed magnezone and standard gliscor. It isn't just a sturdy defensive wall however, as Iron Defense Body press sets are very potent win conditions, setting up on physical breakers such as garchomp and mega mawile late game, then proceeding to sweep the opposing team with a very strong boosted body press, coming off 140 defense. With the departure of Magearna, Mega Latias teams are struggling to find ways to beat Mega Mawile long-term, and this is the most effective way.

I would wait to see how the meta develops post-ssnl, but I do think Skarmory has solidified itself on the same rank as rain and Aegislash.

 

[Jho]

C>UR

This mon needs 20 moves, but can only use for, may hit harder than its twin, but doesn't hit hard enough, walled by a large portion of the meta no matter what 3 moves you use.

Just wanted to touch on this a bit since I've been using Mega Latios a decent amount recently and think it does have a niche unique enough to keep it ranked - that niche being offering offense a solid Fighting resist, albeit at the cost of the mega slot. This is actually a fairly important role for a lot of offenses as Mega Medicham tends to be able to force trades vs traditional offense builds quite a bit and having Mega Latios alleviates that a little. While Mega Latias also fulfils this role, it tends to be too slow paced for the teams which I think Mega Latios fits onto.

Being able to instantly revenge kill Pokemon such as Kartana, Garchomp, Landorus-T, Mega Medicham, and Rillaboom while still maintaining important defensive roles like the ability to check Medicham and Heatran is pretty nice too. Now obviously Mega Latios has flaws, most notably choosing its coverage and therefore, which Pokemon it can actually pressure and revenge, but since its quite malleable depending on the team it finds itself on i havent found it to be that much of an issue in practice. Basically it boils down to you want Mega Latias but you need the offensive capabilities instantly instead of having to CM first as well as an extra coverage slot. That is what I think Mega Latios offers to teams and I think that niche is enough to warrant it sticking around on the rankings, even if it is just in C.

 

[Pikachu_fan4820]

This post is somewhat confusing, as the reasoning just doesn't make much sense.



Yes, stallbreakers do break stall. This isn't news.



I fail to see how this is relevant. Yes the electric type does beat a water type; does this mean Landorus should drop because ice types beat it? No, it's ranked so high because of general good match-ups vs the overall metagame, this also applies to Toxapex.



Cryogonal beats Landorus. Let's unrank Landorus.


This whole post focuses on Toxapex's bad matchups ( which are few, and far between. ), while ignoring it's several good ones currently.

==============================================================================================

In order to make this not a fully negative post, I would like to nominate Skarmory to B+ rank.

Skarmory currently has a great matchup vs the strongest breakers of the tier, notably beating mawile and being able to whirlwind out mega garchomp, not even Magnezone can do the greatest job of trapping it, as some run 184 speed evs, allowing it to outspeed magnezone and standard gliscor. It isn't just a sturdy defensive wall however, as Iron Defense Body press sets are very potent win conditions, setting up on physical breakers such as garchomp and mega mawile late game, then proceeding to sweep the opposing team with a very strong boosted body press, coming off 140 defense. With the departure of Magearna, Mega Latias teams are struggling to find ways to beat Mega Mawile long-term, and this is the most effective way.

I would wait to see how the meta develops post-ssnl, but I do think Skarmory has solidified itself on the same rank as rain and Aegislash.

I said crawdaunt isn't worth metioning because nobody uses it...
But I wouldn't be so sure about skarm plain old MATCHIGN rain teams because this stuff WALLS MSwampert even in the rain
252 Atk Swampert-Mega Liquidation vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory in Rain: 133-157 (39.8 - 47%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
And this isn't even taking IDs into consideration.
however, I would like to note that I beilive we are viewing magnezone from different takes. I'm viewing it as a slow anylatic sweeper and not a trapper, as tbolt from zone destroys skarm.
ANYWAYS, I would like to nominate hoopa-unbound to fall to UR:
Hoopa is a super frail mon with below average speed unless it uses a scarf. however without specs/band/life orb it fails to get the precious OHKO that its frail defenses need it to get. It makes rocks and spikes alot more excruciating for its entire team because with band/specs/scarf it has to switch so much to get the right move to OHKO that hazards wreck through teams that use it.
TLDR, hoopa is a hard hitter but is a such a ticking time bomb for its entire team and slow so it should be in UR.

 

[NuttyRabbit]

I said crawdaunt isn't worth metioning because nobody uses it...
But I wouldn't be so sure about skarm plain old MATCHIGN rain teams because this stuff WALLS MSwampert even in the rain
252 Atk Swampert-Mega Liquidation vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory in Rain: 133-157 (39.8 - 47%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
And this isn't even taking IDs into consideration.
however, I would like to note that I beilive we are viewing magnezone from different takes. I'm viewing it as a slow anylatic sweeper and not a trapper, as tbolt from zone destroys skarm.
ANYWAYS, I would like to nominate hoopa-unbound to fall to UR:
Hoopa is a super frail mon with below average speed unless it uses a scarf. however without specs/band/life orb it fails to get the precious OHKO that its frail defenses need it to get. It makes rocks and spikes alot more excruciating for its entire team because with band/specs/scarf it has to switch so much to get the right move to OHKO that hazards wreck through teams that use it.
TLDR, hoopa is a hard hitter but is a such a ticking time bomb for its entire team and slow so it should be in UR.

Your perspectives on both Crawdaunt and Hoops are heavily flawed. While both suffer heavily from having bad speed tiers and defensive typings, both of them still justify being ranked owing to their absurd wallbreaking abilities.



Starting with Crawdaunt, the lobster is extremely hard to switch into owing to its incredibly strong Knock Offs, Crabhammers, and even Close Combats, especially under Rain where, while it finds itself competing with Manaphy for a spot, its ability to act as a more direct and potent wallbreaker than Mega Swampert can be appreciated, especially vs teams with ( Slowking/Amoonguss/Kommo-o cores or FiniTang cores which have become increasingly common and Pert finds itself struggling to break) as can its extremely strong Aqua Jets, which outmuscle even the likes of the rising Urshifu Rapid Strike and give it a very powerful revenge killing tool. Though, as I said before, its mediocre defensive typing, low speed, and general competition with other Rain staples and other Water wallbreakers like Urshifu-RS and Manaphy means it finds itself in a rough spot, its sheer potency means it is "worth mentioning" and certainly more than merits a place in C



Hoopa-Unbound is in a similar boat as Crawdaunt, being a slow but extremely potent wallbreaker, except it exchanges a place on rain and an absurdly strong Knock Off for even better offensive stats, a wider movepool, and being even harder to switch into.

I don't think many people would argue that Hoopa-Unbound, whether it is Specs or Band, is one of the hardest Pokemon to actually switch into in the tier, with either Hyperspace/Zen/Gunk/Fire or Drain and Psychic/Dark Pulse/Focus Blast/filler having near perfect coverage for the entire tier and hitting absurdly hard thanks to 160/170 offenses. In particular, these traits serve it well in its main role of utterly dominating defensive cores. Most defensive cores in the metagame, whether they be SlowMoonguss, TangFini, PexCorv, or even full on fat/stall teams, utterly struggle to deal with Hoopa, getting OHKO'd or 2HKO'd by its coverage or even getting crippled by niche options such as Trick.

Speaking of, I want to address your hazards argument. While you argue that teams with Hoopa struggle with hazards thanks to Hoopa's prediction-reliant nature, I would argue otherwise, since the specific structures Hoopa fits on tend to feature pivots that either don't really mind/can remove hazards (Corviknight) or flat out ignore them (Slowtwins/Blissey/even the niche Teleport Clef). The only exception to this I can think of is Mega Lopunny. However, this leads into the main point of this paragraph: Hoopa, thanks to its strong offensive stats and great coverage, forces a lot of prediction and more importantly, switching. Owing to this fact, while Hoopa may hate switching into hazards, it utterly loves having team mates that can supply them, since the combination of hazard damage and Hoopa's raw power can whittle opposing teams down incredibly quickly.

In terms of partners, Hoopa really loves not only slow pivots like Corv, Rotom, Blissey, Slowtwins, and Mega Scizor, but also fast ones like Lop, U-Turn Gren, Lando, and Zeraora. In general, Hoopa finds itself fitting well on teams that focus on keeping up momentum with pivots and using wallbreakers to help their fast mon clean up (usually Gren, Zera, Kartana, Mega Lop, etc), and it does well on these builds.

That being said, Hoopa has a ton of flaws. Its defensive typing is terrible, it has a proclivity for being Pursuit trapped, it is very prediction reliant, it desperately needs help getting in, and of course it is really slow.

However, in my opinion, a flawed Pokemon that needs a good deal of help to perform a specific niche, but can perform said niche well and with a level of consistency (in this case being an extremely hard to switch into wallbreaker that can decimate fat squads) is the definition of a C rank Pokemon, and thus, Hoopa-U should remain in C

Also quick aside but Analytic Zone is a bad meme

Finally, I echo Optify's nomination for Skarm to B+

 

[Solaros & Lunaris]

from A+ to A/A-

Ferrothorn has been on a recent decline as of late, as players have started to realize that it just doesn’t do alot aside from setting Spikes. In theory, it checks metagame titans like Ash-Greninja, Calm Mind Clefable, Tapu Lele, and Kyurem, but in practice they all wear it down very easily. For example, Ash-Greninja can lay down Spikes and fish for Dark Pulse flinches in late game scenarios where Ferrothorn is a team’s only check. Standard (Spikes/Leech/Whip/Knock) Ferrothorn cannot touch Calm Mind Clefable, while Gyro Ball/Iron Head only delay the inevitable. Ferrothorn is even facing competition in the Spikes setting department form Skarmory, who I’ll talk about in a bit. TL;DR Ferrothorn doesn’t check much of what it’s supposed to and now faces competition in its main role as a Spikes setter.

from B+ to A-

Serperior has been on the rise for some time now, doing the same thing that it’s always done: annoy people with Glare and Leaf Storm. While it doesn’t necessarily like the rise of Corviknight, it’s not really bothered by it because Corv can’t Defog in front of it and is likely getting paralyzed in the ensuing matchup. This is similar to how Serp’s other matchups against Steel-types are: while they are likely to beat it, there aren’t going to be in the most pristine condition. In addition, Serperior’s Glare support can really let Pokemon like Garchomp, Mega Mawile, and Mega Medicham go crazy. Lastly, I want to mention that Serperior is a staple on the rising Screens teams that give it some added bulk while letting it do what it does best.

from B to A-

Remember when I said Ferrothorn had Spikes competition? This is it. Skarmory has been a potent member of stall teams ever since the rise of Mega Mawile, SD Gliscor, and both Garchomp formes. However, it has now started to squeeze onto balance teams, bringing this crucial defensive utility alongside the potent power of Spikes. This lets Skarmory act as a potent defensive weapon that can still support its team in less than ideal situations. If Spikes last on the field while Skarmory doesn’t, then Pokemon like Clefable, Reuniclus, Mega Latias, and more become far more threatening. While it will inevitably face competition with Corviknight for a teamslot, this doesn’t detract from Skarmory’s solid Spike setting skill.

from B to A-

Volcarona is one of the most capable offensive sweepers in the tier, as its few defensive answers are often not hard to wear down (Heatran, Tapu Fini, Kommo-o, Tyranitar, and Garchomp lack reliable recovery and Toxapex can be smashed by Psychic) while also carrying a number of great defensive traits. The ability to set up on Pokemon like Kyurem, Rillaboom, Kartana, and Mega Scizor with ease means that Volcarona can and will get a Quiver Dance in a given game, and when it does, you better be ready. On teams with heavy hazard control, such as hyper offense, Volcarona can become even more dangerous with a Z-move set that can bust through its own checks anyway. While Volcarona is matchup-reliant, I think the potential of the moth alongside its ease in setting up makes it deserve a bump to A-.

from C to B-

While it does mandate some form of Toxapex pressure, whether through Future Sight or Pokemon like Tapu Koko and Gliscor, Urshifu-RS is a very competent breaker that can smash common defensive cores with good prediction. Non-Water resists like Corviknight take a ton of damage even when invested, and Toxapex andd Amoonguss don’t want to be caught by a stray Zen Headbutt. Similarly, the Slowtwins and Mega Latias don’t want to be U-turned on for Weavile to come in and trap them. The only real safe bet against Urshifu-RS, Rocky Helmet Tangrowth, can be overcome by CC + Future Sight. Of course, while Urshifu is is as offensively potent as its banned brother, it is much more prediction reliant and can easily become deadweight against offensive teams, while defensive teams can very easily scout it with some luck on their side. I think there is an upside to using Urshifu though, and that’s why I think it should be bumped up.

(This post got long but I might make a post in the future if adsam or R8 want to send replays :))