I've been thinking this for a while, despite certain horrendous matchups it is clear that Mega Swampert in particular is a beast. With solid secondary cores, you can negate a lot of Rains bad matchups. I'd argue that never mind as good as Excadrill, Swampert is better though it does mandate a certain style and take up a mega slot. I did mention that Mega Swampert/Pelipper should be possibly promoted instead of Politoed being demoted a few weeks ago.
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Resource BSS Viability Rankings
- Thread starter Psynergy
- Start date
I've been thinking this for a while, despite certain horrendous matchups it is clear that Mega Swampert in particular is a beast. With solid secondary cores, you can negate a lot of Rains bad matchups. I'd argue that never mind as good as Excadrill, Swampert is better though it does mandate a certain style and take up a mega slot. I did mention that Mega Swampert/Pelipper should be possibly promoted instead of Politoed being demoted a few weeks ago.
Hi.
I was hoping to wait until after the Invitational was over but since Sword/Shield are out soon and people are already discussing leaked info I decided it was best to wrap this up now. We had a bit of discussion with regards to Tapu Koko, Pelipper, and Mega Swampert since those were mentioned here.
In the end we agreed to move Mega Swampert to B+ but no higher than that. Mega Swampert's performance in the last few sets of Invites showed off very well how effective it can be but it feels a bit reactionary to move it all the way to A-. In the end Mega Swampert still demands a team slot every game to really shine so raising it above B+ is hard to sell, but it is an absolutely deadly threat with said support and fully capable of overpowering teams without proper rain answers. Truthfully I wanted to nominate this myself and its recent performance was that last push I needed to see to be confident in that.
To that end, we decided to not move Pelipper since it feels a bit reactionary to move it. Pelipper is still competent on its own but you aren't using Pelipper unless you're using rain, and while that's very critical utility it isn't fair to move it based on the performance of another Pokemon. Swampert rising to B+ feels appropriate, but Pelipper seems fine as is.
Tapu Koko is also staying in A+ for reasons that marilli pointed out. Even if it can be argued that Tapu Koko is the worst of the A+ Pokemon, it's still a fair bit ahead of all the A rank Pokemon. Tapu Koko is still the kind of Pokemon you can put on a team and expect it to do its job without setup, and that base 130 Speed tier will always be useful at placing pressure on teams. Electric Surge is also still a powerful ability that pushes Tapu Koko into being a fast attacker with relatively strong offense, and that's where its main niche lies among the A+ rank Pokemon.
With all that said, this probably wraps up the end of the active USUM BSS metagame. Thanks again to everyone who helped participate and keep this VR as up-to-date as possible, and thanks to everyone on the VR council for your contributions on the votes! Hopefully the Gen 8 VR will turn out even better, but until then we will see how the new meta turns out.
I was hoping to wait until after the Invitational was over but since Sword/Shield are out soon and people are already discussing leaked info I decided it was best to wrap this up now. We had a bit of discussion with regards to Tapu Koko, Pelipper, and Mega Swampert since those were mentioned here.
In the end we agreed to move Mega Swampert to B+ but no higher than that. Mega Swampert's performance in the last few sets of Invites showed off very well how effective it can be but it feels a bit reactionary to move it all the way to A-. In the end Mega Swampert still demands a team slot every game to really shine so raising it above B+ is hard to sell, but it is an absolutely deadly threat with said support and fully capable of overpowering teams without proper rain answers. Truthfully I wanted to nominate this myself and its recent performance was that last push I needed to see to be confident in that.
To that end, we decided to not move Pelipper since it feels a bit reactionary to move it. Pelipper is still competent on its own but you aren't using Pelipper unless you're using rain, and while that's very critical utility it isn't fair to move it based on the performance of another Pokemon. Swampert rising to B+ feels appropriate, but Pelipper seems fine as is.
Tapu Koko is also staying in A+ for reasons that marilli pointed out. Even if it can be argued that Tapu Koko is the worst of the A+ Pokemon, it's still a fair bit ahead of all the A rank Pokemon. Tapu Koko is still the kind of Pokemon you can put on a team and expect it to do its job without setup, and that base 130 Speed tier will always be useful at placing pressure on teams. Electric Surge is also still a powerful ability that pushes Tapu Koko into being a fast attacker with relatively strong offense, and that's where its main niche lies among the A+ rank Pokemon.
With all that said, this probably wraps up the end of the active USUM BSS metagame. Thanks again to everyone who helped participate and keep this VR as up-to-date as possible, and thanks to everyone on the VR council for your contributions on the votes! Hopefully the Gen 8 VR will turn out even better, but until then we will see how the new meta turns out.
I would still err on putting Swampert to A- and Pelipper to B+. Pelipper is the only u-turning auto weather setter in the game, which is inherently such a huge boon to the core.
I can see why people might think 1 slot up for Swampert might be enough for now, but it doesn't get there without Pelipper, who has really begun to shine on its own recently, and is no longer just a 6 turn bulky weather pivot. No other combination of mons in the B tiers have the ability to systematically take down several top cores like these two do. Curious to see the rationale particularly behind Pelipper, who is league better than every other B mon, except maybe Latias who I've also been arguing doesn't belong in the B, but B+ instead.
Looking at these rankings has made me think also that the B+ ranking is getting a bit saturated, and I can see why people might not want to saturate it further. So I want to nom a few of these down, that no longer seem to fit in the top of B+
Hydreigon to B: No clue how a mon that is terrified of mimikyu, with a middling speed tier and okay offenses/coverage makes it to B+. I've played a good amount of hydreigon, and while it does fulfill the roles it takes okay, there are definitely better options available in the tier for everything it runs (better scarfers, specs wallbreakers, lures, Z move breakers, etc). It also really wants to run both fire blast and earth power with its choice sets, but has to settle with only one alongside dark pulse draco and u-turn, the biggest reason why it should be ranked down.
Skarmory to B: It remains a niche option for a lead on some hyper offenses and some stall builds, but come on, we've evolved past basic solerme offenses in 2019. If you want to consider its role in stall, all the other stall options are lower in viability (slowbro, quag, shedinja), and is clearly not the same level that Chansey is, another B+ mon.
Nihilego to B: unless your name is Zaaya and you get lucky and happen to face vivillon/volcarona in your invitationals match, chances are you have used Nihilego and found it was fucking useless. It can't take physical hits for shit, is heavily outclassed by other leads for getting up hazards, and never fails to disappoint with its lack of offenses. I often meme that its only viable set rn is scarf rocks, and weirdly enough, it might be, because it wants to snowball sweep and put up rocks, but can barely do either of them outside of its scarf set. But being a scarfer with rocks clearly has its issues, which is why this mon doesn't belong in B+.
Hopefully after clearing up B+ a bit, Pelipper can find a home amongst its rightful peers.
I can see why people might think 1 slot up for Swampert might be enough for now, but it doesn't get there without Pelipper, who has really begun to shine on its own recently, and is no longer just a 6 turn bulky weather pivot. No other combination of mons in the B tiers have the ability to systematically take down several top cores like these two do. Curious to see the rationale particularly behind Pelipper, who is league better than every other B mon, except maybe Latias who I've also been arguing doesn't belong in the B, but B+ instead.
Looking at these rankings has made me think also that the B+ ranking is getting a bit saturated, and I can see why people might not want to saturate it further. So I want to nom a few of these down, that no longer seem to fit in the top of B+
Hydreigon to B: No clue how a mon that is terrified of mimikyu, with a middling speed tier and okay offenses/coverage makes it to B+. I've played a good amount of hydreigon, and while it does fulfill the roles it takes okay, there are definitely better options available in the tier for everything it runs (better scarfers, specs wallbreakers, lures, Z move breakers, etc). It also really wants to run both fire blast and earth power with its choice sets, but has to settle with only one alongside dark pulse draco and u-turn, the biggest reason why it should be ranked down.
Skarmory to B: It remains a niche option for a lead on some hyper offenses and some stall builds, but come on, we've evolved past basic solerme offenses in 2019. If you want to consider its role in stall, all the other stall options are lower in viability (slowbro, quag, shedinja), and is clearly not the same level that Chansey is, another B+ mon.
Nihilego to B: unless your name is Zaaya and you get lucky and happen to face vivillon/volcarona in your invitationals match, chances are you have used Nihilego and found it was fucking useless. It can't take physical hits for shit, is heavily outclassed by other leads for getting up hazards, and never fails to disappoint with its lack of offenses. I often meme that its only viable set rn is scarf rocks, and weirdly enough, it might be, because it wants to snowball sweep and put up rocks, but can barely do either of them outside of its scarf set. But being a scarfer with rocks clearly has its issues, which is why this mon doesn't belong in B+.
Hopefully after clearing up B+ a bit, Pelipper can find a home amongst its rightful peers.
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Lets be clear, even in that matchup Nihilego was theoretically absolutely best in, a matchup where the best rock/poison resist was kartana and there were vivillon and volcarona on the opponents side, Nihilego STILL managed to be fucking useless, basically being used as sack fodder to Gengar when Zaaya realised what a mistake it was for this pokemon to exist.