Max Flare having 100 BP actually is accurate to cart, I assume it's a typo on Game Freak's part. That said, the move is still almost completely outclassed by other physical Fire moves which offer more power, more utility, or both.
On the council: I don't really want to join in the dogpile, but I will say that I've been a bit frustrated about the council's inactivity and lack of transparency. I agree with SL42 about the kokoloko tiering method: I think it's ideal for a tier like BH and is the best way to get the metagame to a balanced state as quickly as possible.
Some thoughts on some mons in the current meta:
The hype has died down, and Dragapult has dropped off almost completely. The Normalise set is incomparable to last gen's NormGar: its serious lack of power and the fact that Dynamaxed Pokemon are unaffected by Entrainment renders it incapable of posing a serious threat to most teams. I've experimented with non-Normalise sets like Shell Smash Multi-Attack and Choice Band Intrepid Sword, but they're mediocre overall.
At this point Melmetal has cemented itself as one of the most important Pokemon in the tier. Its best sets are Fur Coat, Flash Fire/Primordial Sea, Prankster, Magic Bounce, and Ice Scales, and it has a number of more niche sets beyond this. Melmetal's prevalence really hinders the viability of physical attackers that struggle to break it, like Kyurem-B, Dragapult, Zacian, Zacian-C, Solgaleo, Necrozma-DM, and Snorlax. A lot of Pokemon run V-Create basically just for Melm, and I've seen Kyu-B running Blue Flare to get past the Fur Coat set. All of its sets are extremely flexible and easily fit onto a range of teams, to the extent that running multiples is completely valid.
Melm's popularity is partially responsible for the huge uptick in Darmanitan-GZ usage lately, as physical attackers that can force out Melm are very useful and often hard to come by. In particular, the Mold Breaker Choice Band set is obnoxiously difficult to switch into while also having an excellent speed tier, and I've started running Primordial Sea rather than Flash Fire on Steel-types to deal with it. Really important to keep up hazards against this thing. Refrigerate sets have fallen off I've found, as priority is pretty bad against Dynamax and it can't really threaten to OHKO stuff the same way Choice Band sets can. Scarf sets have been popping up as well, and I think they're quite good too: V-Create is so stupidly powerful that the extra power from Choice Band is often unnecessary and it checks Zacian-C very effectively.
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PH Zamazenta is really well-positioned at the moment I feel. It can run offensive utility sets like MMX did last gen, but that set is a little awkward now mainly because Low Kick just isn't very good anymore. Not only does it not work on Dynamaxed Pokemon, but the powering down of the tier has meant that there are a lot of Pokemon running around that are quite light and don't take much damage from Low Kick, so it's a bit unreliable. The best option is Close Combat, but due to that move's low PP and defense drops it's not that well suited for sets that want to stick around for a long time. However, I'm a big fan of this set with Shift Gear:
Zamazenta @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shift Gear
- Close Combat
- Knock Off / Earthquake / Bolt Beak / Sunsteel Strike
- Will-O-Wisp / Spore
This can force a ton of switches to get set up, and if your coverage lines up well against your opponent's team it can be challenging to deal with long-term. I'm finding that Poison Heal is not very well-prepared for at the moment as stuff like Entrainment has fallen out of favour.
Kyurem-B has also dropped off quite hard. It has a lot of trouble getting past Melmetal, who I think is the most common Pokemon in the tier, and Dynamaxing makes it a lot less effective as a revenge killer. Additionally, Darm gives it a ton of competition for most of its sets. I've found Kyu-B to be really hard to justify running. I think its best set atm is a utility Refrigerate set with Heavy-Duty Boots and Rapid Spin.
Zacian is yet to really find its place I think. Offensively, it lacks power because its STAB options are weak and it usually can't get past Melmetal. Defensively, its resistances aren't particularly relevant and its bulk isn't quite good enough to switch into much. I've tried out a number of Zacian sets and even when they look good on paper I find that they don't really do much in practice. Maybe there's a really good Zacian set out there just waiting to be discovered, but I wouldn't bet on it. The metagame is very unkind to it. If only there was a good physical Fairy move...
Gourgeist-Super is a neat defensive Pokemon that I think is quite good right now. With Fur Coat, Prankster, or Poison Heal it can take on a lot of common Bolt Beak/Fishious Rend users, as well as Shedinja, Zamazenta, and some miscellaneous mons like Excadrill. The Ground resist is really nice, as it's often quite difficult to fit one of those onto a team and STAB Spectral Thief from Gourgeist's 100 base Attack can hit surprisingly hard. Its weaknesses to Spectral Thief and Knock Off are annoying, and it gets ganked by a surprise V-Create quite often, but despite this I've found room for it on a lot of teams recently.
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Ghost resists are becoming even scarcer due to Dragapult's plummeting popularity, which is great for Choice Specs Adaptability Lunala, one of the most underrated wallbreakers in the tier at the moment. Great STABs, a speed tier that puts it ahead of the Unova Dragons, and very good bulk combine to make Lunala a threat that many teams aren't really prepared to deal with. What's cool about Lunala is that Moongeist Beam and Psystrike allow it to get past pretty much any Ice Scales mon, which is what a lot of teams rely on to blanket check special attackers in the absence of versatile special walls. Its issue is that while very little can avoid being 2HKOd by Lunala, it doesn't actually threaten to OHKO many things, so it can struggle to force switches.
Lunala @ Choice Specs
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moongeist Beam
- Psystrike
- Volt Switch
- Blue Flare / Secret Sword / Focus Blast / Trick
Excadrill has been picking up quite a bit lately as well. I'm a big fan of Choice Band sets like this one:
Excadrill @ Choice Band
Ability: Intrepid Sword / Adaptability / Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Sunsteel Strike / Double Iron Bash
- U-turn / Double Iron Bash
- Bolt Beak / Extreme Speed / Double Iron Bash
Excadrill's Earthquake is very difficult to switch into, as so many of the best Pokemon in the tier are weak to Ground and resists are often hard to come by. It's secondary STAB in Sunsteel Strike and/or Double Iron Bash lets it get past Fur Coat users and pretty much anything else that can switch into Earthquake. It's role as a physical wallbreaker that not only breaks Melmetal but also can usually safely switch into it is very valuable. Compared to other wallbreakers its speed tier is unimpressive, but it offers meaningful defensive synergy by being immune to Bolt Beak. It also can run a decent Scarf set, but that one is not quite as potent and often outclassed. The boosting sets with Ground-type Multi-Attack are ok but a little bit gimmicky I think, the fact that they can't run Shell Smash without losing to Imposter is pretty wack and makes it way less appealing to me compared to some other Imposter-proof boosting sweeper like Marshadow.
On future suspects:
I'm in favour of suspecting Bolt Beak and maybe Fishious Rend in future, but I think they should be dealt with separately and not tiered as a unit. Despite having the same mechanics, the metagame impact of these moves is very different. Bolt Beak has very strong STAB abusers in Zekrom and Zeraora and is useful as a coverage move for a lot of threats. Fishious Rend's best STAB abusers are Barraskewda and Gyarados, certainly a step down, and the only things that want to run it as coverage are Electrics trying to hit bulky Grounds. I think Bolt Beak is far more problematic and I think there's a good chance I would vote to ban it in a suspect, but I don't really feel the same way about Fishious Rend, which feels easier to handle both in the teambuilder and in battle. The complication is that users of both of these moves frequently run the other as coverage: Bolt Beak might be easier to manage if Fishious Rend were gone, and vice versa. Regardless, I think the best course of action regarding these moves is to deal with Bolt Beak first and then assess Fishious Rend.
I've said before that I think Dynamaxing isn't as plainly broken in BH as it is in other tiers, that we have the tools to deal with it offensively, and that it offers valuable defensive utility. I still believe this, but I'm coming to feel that it may be problematic for the way that it makes many Pokemon difficult to check offensively. The power increase and stat boosts isn't a big deal in BH, but frail offensive threats being able to double their bulk at will to avoid being revenge-killed can be very obnoxious and creates a lot of high-stakes 50/50s. I feel like this may not be healthy for the metagame in the long run, but I'm still unsure to what extent this is just me still maybe not being fully accustomed to the mechanic.