Spikes has always been good in the tier and newcomer Scolipede is an easy to fit Pokemon on a lot of teams thanks to its awesome Speed tier and powerful Megahorn. That being said, I would consider Spikes to be more of something you have on the side same rather than something like Stealth Rock, which I would say is essential to have. Stealth Rock is essential because it wears down the opponent just for having them switch (and hits Levitate Pokemon and clips Flying-types unlike Spikes) and majorly hurts a lot of dangerous Pokemon like Jynx, Scolipede, Charizard, Swellow, Braviary..etc.
