OU ADV OU Viability Ranking and Metagame Discussion

[YubelVT]

I thought I'd throw together what I have pre-ban.
Unfortunately, my hard drive that contained the original project file died, so I'll have to recreate it at some point.

For an outline of the process, it wasn't anything too crazy.

• I converted the OU usage data (again, 1760 ELO weighted) into .csv format for easier processing.
• I trimmed out all truly 0-usage Pokemon and NFEs, minus a couple (Chansey, Haunter, Pikachu, Clamperl, and Scyther). For whatever reason, I decided that Magnemite, Diglett, and Trapinch should just be trimmed, but maybe when I redo this I'll leave them in as well. This was mostly to filter out ultra-low usage things that I deemed to be statisically irrelevant.
• Then, over the period of analysis (Jan '25 to Aug '25 in this case), I did a trimmed mean, which is the average excluding the top and bottom outliers. I did this (of course) to decrease the impact of massive spikes in usage, attempting to get something more indicative of stable trends.
• Next, the natural log of this trimmed mean (plus 1 to handle usage values near and equal to 0) was taken to reduce the skew at high usage values (Tar, I'm looking at you).
• Then, I used this NTM (Normalized Trimmed Mean (normalized isn't exactly the right term here but oh well)) to create a matrix of distances between each Pokemon. These were hierarchically clustered using Ward's method, and 6 clusters ended up producing the best results by silhouette method, IIRC. It may have also just been what I thought looked the most reasonable qualitatively, I don't recall exactly.
• Oh yeah, "Gap" is the difference in NTM with the Pokemon above. The clusters (CL 6 column) have been renamed with the traditional tier names.

So, with that out of the way, here we go!

January 2025 - August 2025 Usage (1760 ELO Weighted):
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E Cluster

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In the spoiler are the images for the E cluster (the lowest cluster) in case you want to see them as well.

Yeah, big ol' table when you include everything down to Castform! Lol. I had to include it as separate images because I think the forum got mad at how massive it is. Not ideal, got a little squished here and there. Here is a link to the spreadsheet.

I made a graphic that shows each cluster, down to Typhlosion (arbitrary stopping point) in the lowest cluster, the E cluster. All this graphic does is take the data from the table and make it easier to visualize in a traditional tier-slop format. The tiers are ordered, by  Rank.

6 Cluster Usage-based "Tier List":
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Now, I'm not really claiming this to be exceptionally useful in any way. Just a little fun project for me to see what "natural" clusters/tiers arise from usage statistics. I might edit this post with some commentary, but I'm not a high-level player, so it would likely be less-than-useful. I guess one lighthearted comment I can make is that even trimming out their highest usage months, the Zoomer duo of Registeel and Raikou still make an appearance quite high, lending to the idea that if the trend continues to prove to be stable, they may be worthy of OU. And of course, we expect in the post-speedpass world that Jask, Wak, and perhaps even Smear and Vap will see some drops. I don't predict that Zap will see too much of a usage hit.

Well, that's that for now. I hope this proves somewhat interesting!

It's extremely vindicating for me and my anti-gyarados agenda to see that it's below the big name UUBLs on the rise as well as several OUs people are saying were "falling off" like Jolteon. Cloyster is absolutely better than Gyarados but this is usage and not viability.

 

[Zpanther]

It's extremely vindicating for me and my anti-gyarados agenda to see that it's below the big name UUBLs on the rise as well as several OUs people are saying were "falling off" like Jolteon. Cloyster is absolutely better than Gyarados but this is usage and not viability.

I’d argue jolt is seeing a little bit of a resurgence due to trends it never “fell off”. Just has always been on the lower end of ou. All of these lower end ou mons are very divisive, opinions vary a lot on them. really makes no difference if gyara is ranked below kou or registeel as both of those should probably be ou soon. And regardless gyara is not going to drop from ou. Your “anti Gyara propaganda” had no sway on my ranking of it ftr.

 

[Pajama Sam]

It's extremely vindicating for me and my anti-gyarados agenda to see that it's below the big name UUBLs on the rise as well as several OUs people are saying were "falling off" like Jolteon. Cloyster is absolutely better than Gyarados but this is usage and not viability.

Jolt is great idk ppl seem to use it all the time but its ranking / the way ppl talk about it dont reflect this. It compresses a role with ttar/skarm/gengar which is valuable for all the usual gengar ruining a slot reasons etc. Real archetype esp with all the offense hype now

That said its viability is always going to be limited bc its really not consistent but yea

 

[FrankMarley]

I have placed these Mons in the C tier, which is my cutoff for OU. If Medicham is OU since it can do work from lead every now and then, I don't see why Raikou and Registeel ,who are more consistent and see greater usage, shouldn't also be OU.

Hi, on behalf of the UUBL community I am asking you all to please keep Registeel in UUBL.
You can have Raikou, but the tier would suffer without Registeel.

 

[Jhall99]

Honestly, seeing Registeel be exceptionally useful in mixed offense given how poor Snorlax & Rest Zap perform (Lax is better on weather clear, Rest Zap is better with aromatherapy support) made me glad to play ADV OU.

Think all my experience playing DPP UU, where Registeel is a fantastic defensive pivot, has carried over to ADV OU