Big noob who flopped hard in NU snake reporting in.
The meta is developing pretty rapidly right now with advnu being in more team tours and having a more active playerbase that cares about it, due to this some trends are rising and falling at pretty impressive rates. stall is being avoided pretty hard by the playerbase right now despite it seeming to have some real strength on paper and boomspam is proving to be a very strong archetype every tour. ppl have fully trended off of fullpass but I think it's still pretty fucking gross so I'll be putting some random shitmons that otherwise have no place in the tier but fill a strong bp niche in C.
I'll explain the big mons but probably gonna waver off to one liners further down the list.
(ordered)
S Rank
S
Chimecho - Far and away the best pokemon in the tier imo, unmatched set versatility and the fact that it comes in free on some of the other most popular pokemon in the tier is strong enough on it's own, but then you add in the fact that ingame, until fully scouted, it could just be running a set that checkmates any build endgame makes this thing often a headache to play against. The go-to glue stays #1.
Wailord - The whale is an obnoxious piece of shit that has some of the best offensive and defensive power in the tier, thankfully these can't /really/ both be done at the same time but it's still able to provide both to a reasonable level while one of the two is the focus. As the go-to water for most teams, and often your own water check it's hard to argue for other things to take it's place in the builder considering the fact that it's almost universally going to have an easy time switching into any team and apply pressure off the bat.
Flareon - Horribly underrated at the moment, one of the best generic defensive mons in the tier and provides a strong answer to all the spikers (minus eq glalie), metang, bell and the balance staple mawile. Drypass to generate momentum is one of the best things you can be doing in the tier and I'm honestly shocked that it's not at the front of more people's minds.
Haunter - Offensive workhorse that is an absolute monster lategame, as well as being one of 2 (two) viable spinblockers is more than enough of a case for this to stay up here, salac and petaya are both absurd as always and it's utility kit, while underused is nothing to scoff at.
S-
Glalie - Premier spiker in the tier but I don't really see it holding S rank anymore, rose and cact are both proving once again to be able to replace this thing on a lot of builds that it would otherwise never be unseen on in the past and the meta is generally getting a lot more hostile towards it now with offense builds being made in ways to almost never let glalie in for free as well as always packing an anti-glalie lead. Still though it's got two very good offensive sets and a serviceable defensive set, can reliably spike vs every team not mentioned above and is actually able to make progress against most teams vs only being able to go after the more specific targets that cacturne would be aiming for so I can't drop it any lower.
Hitmonchan - Only rapid spinner even worth considering in the tier, bulky beyond reason and consistently a high-damage-threatening switch in that has the ability to smoke (almost) every single switch in the opponent could have, boggles me that people would have this any lower. Bulk up, band and tank are all incredible for their niche, kept in check decently well by the existence of chime and the fact that it has to do some games of guess who to make the most of it's previously mentioned ability to smoke it's natural switchins.
Sableye - Pretty unpopular right now but as always: an absolute monster if it catches the right MU. Very easy glue to put on a team and shore up weaknesses while also being one of two (2) spinblockers in the tier. Unlike a lot of the other mons commonly found on stall this thing can also apply a lot of pressure on it's own be it through cm, stoss or just the fact that it's one of the most consistent mons in the whole tier at getting free toxic opportunities. Staple of the tier and stays up here.
Metang - Major nightmare for defensive builds stays up top for the same reasons as always, I think that metang is getting a bit worse right now due to the uptick of all the 50/50 bait mons that either get walled and forced to switch by this or just 1tap it and mawile is just stronger in those scenarios generally.
A Rank
A+
Roselia - Really big on rose rn, balance is strong and usually wants this mon way more than glalie or cact. I really don't think I need to go in detail too much about this but I will say that it's even showing up on some harder offenses in glalie's place to make pivoting easier and I fuck w that.
Dewgong - 2nd best water free, doesn't have nearly as many downsides of the other non-wailords but still sits firmly in the whale's shadow. Has a way better utility movepool though and is often better on dumb slow teams.
Torkoal - Koal is really starting to shine lately and finding places on a lot of different structures. very solid glue in the tier and has a distinct niche separate from flareon. Yawn is a killlllllller move on this thing and allows an otherwise anchor of a mon to generate real momentum. Big on this thing rn.
Bellossom - Bell is likely the best weather sweeper right now, but that's kinda hard to say for sure. What really pushes this mon over the top is the fact that, alongside straight sweeping, the defensive sets are gaining more traction and can be really fucking nippy to deal with. sleep is broken as always too.
A
Diglett - Arena trap is absolutely absurd as always, requires BP assistance but it's really not that hard to find a flareon or mawile team that would appreciate having a dig on it. Dig enables some otherwise shaky offenses and can be very matchup skewing on some balances. I think this mon is incredibly slept on atm.
Huntail - Surprisingly usable on quite a few different styles, huntail is always something to prep for in builder and always locks up some of the most free endgames in the tier. Happy for it to stay here despite it's absolutely one-dimensional kit.
Mawile - MAW IS GOOD, while slightly overshadowed by metang due to the latter's stronger offensive capabilities and variety of sets maw should still be getting played over it in quite a few cases imo. Drypass is great on flareon and almost as great on mawile. Also this thing just doesn't take damage from unboosted phys moves.
Pikachu - Electrics are actually pretty uncommon right now but still stand as being some of the most potent special threats in the tier, their life is made pretty tricky by the frequency of grasses and the fact that they can't really switch into a lot of shit but they're pretty hard to deal with once allowed in, pika makes better use of it's time in play before being forced out or dying right now due to hitting some pretty important breakpoints (wailord being the most important of these.)
Vigoroth - People are big on this right now for good reason: band and bulk up are both phenomenal balance breakers and both are very solid endgame mons, has some fairly common easy switchins though and faces direct competition from the rat with them both being pretty similar in power level.
Plusle - Same spiel on electrics that I rattled out on pika applies here. Plusle finds itself here and not further down the rankings due to the fact that while struggling, it is still an incredible mon in the lategame and is able to fit more utility on it's kit. The ability to pass a sub or encore and pass to safety without needing to predict is a major boost for this lil dude.
Raticate - Similar to vig, big strong normal that makes crazy progress vs slower teams and is still able to do work vs offenses. Less variety in what it can realistically run as well as no real setup set make this a bit less usable in my eyes but it's speed and QA are both really good reasons to consider it.
Pelipper - Not as great as it once was due to more and more chan's running slide and most opposing waters running elec but is still an incredible water if these conditions aren't met. All in it's a bit of a fishy mon as things currently stand but I don't think that's enough to drop it lower.
A-
Murkrow - Worse than bat in regards to switching into chan more than once but outside of that murkrow clears golbat in the offensive bird niche (@chimecho). That alone can be a reason to not bring it, however. Of note: there are some double bird builds floating around after me and expulso toyed with the idea in nupl that seem pretty strong, so you can negate the trouble of decision making by just bringing both :)).
Cacturne - The prickler is currently catching up to glalie in people's minds and is stealing the icy ball's spot on teams more than ever before, it's ability to smack up non-fire chimes and launch off moves that don't get entirely negated by waters without exploding is a big boon right now. Sadly this thing is made of paper and also has worse base speed than rose so it hardly gets to stick around for long in games to show off it's cool niches.
Golbat - Pretty much explained this above w murkrow, bat also has some pretty nice midground clicks I guess?
Sudowoodo - Staple Boomspam lead but also just launches absolutely mental attacks any time it can come in. focus punch, stab rs and boom is a recipe for disaster with a free turn.
Crawdaunt - Momentum machine and forces 50/50s very well. Incredibly fun mon to use and can make endgames pretty simple. Mixed, special and physical are all worth bringing on different teams. I'm crabpilled atm.
B Rank
B
Kecleon - Not often used right now but this thing is pretty demonic on some balances, the core of Kecleon+Relicanth+Chimecho deals with almost the entire tier in only 3 slots and all 3 can consistently apply pressure after coming in. I think it's pretty limited on the builds that can field it so I wouldn't really feel comfortable placing it higher though.
Pupitar - Feels like absolute bait every time I bring this, on paper it's pretty sweet but it's often more trouble to achieve the conditions for setting this up for a sweep than is reasonable.
Pidgeot - The third bird, not quite as strong as the other two (worse typing than bat, worse hits than krow) but still fills a very similar role and is pretty good at it.
Relicanth - Band is super strong, defensive is great (with kecleon and chime). Pretty good mon with a few glaring weaknesses, the largest of which being that it gets pissmad when some of the mons that you want your water to check actually come in on you and threaten it.
Seadra - Seadra's long said to be competing with huntail for teamslots due to their similarities and seadra's niche of not needing rain up freeing up a slot for sub, but I think it's real competition is actually offensive whale. It's /really/ hard to justify bringing this over the whale but it's speed tier does a good job of arguing for it, sometimes.
Minun - In a vacuum I like this mon a lot but it's often hard to find a place for it over pika/plus when building. I don't really think it's that badly outclassed but the structures that want it are rare.
Venomoth - Very solid offense lead but that's about it.
Whiscash - Definition of an 'OK' mon. Like 'ok I can switch into some hard things and threaten them out once' and 'ok he was hpgrass not hpelectric I guess I have no metang check now.'
Octillery - Strong lead and regular headscratcher for balance mid/lategame, I don't think the octoguy is that much stronger than the mons in B- but it's niche is a lot more defined. Also a premier pass recipient.
B-
Lickitung - Great stallmon but absolutely unviable elsewhere.
Tangela - Worse bell as far as sun goes but there is a pretty strong sleep/seed physdef set here that can be incredibly obnoxious for some teams to break through.
Abra - Overshadowed by haunter/offensive chime pretty hard but this thing is still a turbothreat on HO.
Kingler - worse than the other crab but hits physically harder, I've used salac on this in the past but it doesn't feel great.
Tropius - Underexplored but potentially quite good rn, could see a case for it going up. I got packed away by this mon in NUSD so might be a bit biased there.
Wigglytuff - Great movepool but always seems to get left to the side over other choices (because of it's gooch stats). I think it's a pretty decent wish provider and screens are pretty sweet but that's kinda hard to justify a full slot on your team for.
Arbok - I think this thing's pretty shitty in all honestly but it's proven itself enough to not fall to the depths of C.
(not ordered)
C Rank
Ariados - Baton pass.
Clamperl - Baton Pass.
Delcatty - Baton pass.
Dunsparce - I think this isn't very good but it's also gone fairly untouched as of late, paraspread is pretty strong but just gimmicking people out is also doable w this.
Graveler - Boomspam consideration with stab EQ, not totally unviable.
Ledian - Baton pass.
Zigzagoon - worse rat
Magby - Outspeeds Glalie, has nice coverage.
Magcargo - Kinda overshadowed by torkoal and flare but as normal and bird phys attackers continue to be popular you can see a bit of a use case for this. That use case is however a bit weak considering the fact that all those mons run a fighting or ground type move and will fold this thing in half with them.
Piloswine - How the mighty fall, I think swine is still pretty usable but it seems to do a lot of jobs half as well where other mons can do a couple of those jobs very well. Works for compression but just not great rn.
Poliwhirl - I've not seen this once in game ever but I understand it's had past phases of popularity? Seems cute idk tho.
Ponyta - Cheesy sleep lead, packs a decent punch.
Shelgon - Wish+bulk seems decent but not incredible at what it does. Otherwise overshadowed by pupitar.
Spinda - Baton pass.
Swalot - Pretty strong stall mon but also an absolute momentum vacuum, idk I like this quite a bit, could see it reasonably rising if stall trends back up.
Togetic - I'm yet to see the hype in person.
Wartortle - Very, very niche spinner.
Yanma - Actually fairly strong? Has an impossible time coming in on anything but if it does manage to it can be pretty hard to deal with.
Dragonair
Grovyle
Houndour
Lairon
Omanyte
to C?. Outclassed maybe by Digglet (but its a little more resistent) and Pupitar but decent speed and good atk for teams with a lack of solid ground resists. Works as Pupitar check at the same time.
Noctowl
Seviper (New)
