I’ll try to include all the recent discussion in one response:
View attachment 116943 Mega-Sceptile - The ability to 50/50 Charizard X isn’t that great. I don’t really see the reason it should go up. Might be worth dropping entirely since Tapu Koko got banned.
View attachment 116944 Meloetta - It should rise up to B+. The Koko ban and popularity of the Z-set make it better. Crunch Gyarados and Magearna will probably always keep this Pokémon from returning to the halcyon days of the Perish Song meta when it was S rank.
View attachment 116945 Talonflame - This just seems like a bad Skarmory, which isn’t that great itself. It really needs to have priority Roost to be worth using. I guess it could be D. I’d want to drop something for it though.
View attachment 116946 Necrozma - The newness of the Specs set has worn off. I think more people know it has Heat Wave now. The reason to use the Stored Power set at all is because people think you’re Specs. I think it should remain B for a while longer.
View attachment 116948 Mega-Sableye - It can’t help but be better now that Koko is banned, but it still loses to both Zards and the Fairy pokemon other than Tapu Koko have gotten better as well. Taunt or Crunch Gyarados are also more common.
View attachment 116949 Azumarill - I just don’t see a good reason to use this when you could use Tapu Fini or Primarina instead. It should probably be unranked and reside in the Krookodile/Breloom tier.
View attachment 116950 Manaphy - B- seems like asking a lot. It just doesn’t have the tools to be well-rounded in 1v1. There’s just no way to make it beat all the Pokémon you’d expect it to beat with one single set. Plus, there are a lot of good Water-types in 1v1. It should’ve been ranked a while ago, though.
View attachment 116951 Mega-Mawile -I agree. This Pokémon has been left behind by gen 7. There are better Steel-types, better Fairy’s and better set-up Pokémon now. B.
View attachment 117008 Mega-Pinsir - This should drop along with Mega-Mawile. There are more and better Steel types, EVs are better, Gyarados isn’t the overwhelming force it used to be, Dragonite is better. Pretty much all developments in gen 7 have worked against Mega-Pinsir.
View attachment 117007Porygon-Z - This should return to A now that you can run slow EV spreads much more safely. Z-Conversion is very strong, and it can even run tech moves like Nasty Plot, Recover, and Sub.
View attachment 117005 Blaziken - I just don’t see the reason to use this over Charizard. You basically have to hope the essentially one Pokémon you’re luring with your 4th move is what your opponent brings. I don’t remember a single person bringing this in PL. Not that other good Pokémon didn’t have lower usage than Mega-Pidgeot also, but in combination with my feelings on it, I found it telling. It should at least drop to B. I’d like a drop to B-.
View attachment 117011 Genesect - Is this really more versatile than Greninja? It might be better now that Tapu Koko is banned, but Greninja is better too. I think it should drop to B+ or Greninja should rise to A-.
View attachment 117012 Infernape - There are some solid memes that are possible using this Pokémon, but they’re just that, memes. Is this any better than the Brelooms, Nidokings, and Kyurems of 1v1? I doubt it. No one has shown it to be in a year and a half.
View attachment 117013Hitmonlee - Hitmonlee just sucks. Not even Tv_Party uses it anymore. Those usable unranked Pokémon I’ve mentioned? This is worse than them.
View attachment 117014 Stakataka - I don’t really see the point of using this. It just seems like bad Avalugg, bad Ferrothorn, just outclassed by the other really slow mons. Is this any better than Gigalith?
View attachment 117015 Deoxys-Speed - This just seems like a C+ mon to me. Maybe it always has been. PP stall and Specs beat different things and are hard to predict. It has definitely been getting more use.
View attachment 117016 Steelix-Mega - It should’ve been ranked C- in the last VR. It should be D rank now. I always seem to lose to this, so it must be good, right?