Lower Tiers GSC NU Viability Rankings

[DiannieRatson]

GSC NU VR March 2023 UPDATE

The GSC NU VR update is finally here after a very long while. The previous update was last February 28, 2021 so it’s been more than 2 years and the voters in this viability rankings (VR) are those who qualified based on the tours in that span as early as GSCPL II. Thank you to the following players who took part: DiannieRatson FNH
Lunala MrSoup dawn Monai vani Estarossa File 13 Sabelette BeeOrSomething chub Siatam

Special thanks to Earthworm and vapicuno whose' work over the past years has made this project much easier.

Collection of data

- Players who got at least 1 win in GSCPL II, NUSD II, GSCPL III, NUSD III, ALTPL I (Inaugural) and/or Top 6 in GSC NU Cup were invited to submit their rankings via the smogon conversation (or for some, in discord)
- Submitters could rank any Pokemon on their list and there is also no limit to how many Pokemon they could nominate for the VR.
- None of the Pokemon were mandatory to rank.
- It was possible for players to make edits to their rankings after submitting their list until March 19, 2023.
- The data collection happened from February 6, 2023 to March 19, 2023 in which the Inaugural ALTPL GSC NU final match was already played.

Formation of rankings

- Cutoffs for the ranks and subranks were determined using vapicuno's method
- The order was determined by an outlier-compensated mean ranking.
- Pokemon had to be ranked by at least four players to be included.

Flaws
- Some submitters opted to use tierlist programs to submit their VR. These could have limited new additions to the VR and promoted Pokemon that were ranked last year.
- Relatively small sample size that made subtiering and cut-off not that evident

Link to raw data in spreadsheet form

S1 Rank

01 Xatu

S2 Rank

02 Octillery

A1 Rank

03 Weezing
04 Stantler
05 Pineco

A2 Rank

06 Dugtrio
07 Wigglytuff
08 Fearow
09 Ninetales
10 Dewgong
11 Primeape
12 Kingler
13 Chinchou
14 Persian
15 Sudowoodo

A3 Rank

16 Magnemite
17 Gloom
18 Magmar
19 Hitmonlee
20 Porygon

B1 Rank

21 Rapidash
22 Flareon
23 Houndour
24 Graveler
25 Dragonair
26 Azumarill

B2 Rank

27 Exeggcute
28 Dunsparce
29 Shuckle
30 Noctowl
31 Farfetch’d
32 Lickitung
33 Pidgeot
34 Gastly

C Rank

35 Arbok
36 Raticate
37 Pupitar

D Rank

38 Cubone
39 Ledian
40 Mantine
41 Tangela
42 Poliwhirl
43 Ariados
44 Seaking

Visualization of results and individual rankings

All the individual submissions are assembled into a single image. In the New VR column, It was formatted by Siatam so that green indicates a rise and red indicates a fall when compared to the old VR. Blue indicates no movement. The pale green and red in everyone's rankings indicate what they ranked higher (green) and lower (red) than the new VR. It should also be noted that this chart does not get rid of outliers - this is purely the average ranks. It is slightly different than the final rankings, particularly on the bottom end.

Observations

The following are the notable differences of previous VR compared to this new VR.



Octillery from 17th to 2nd (+15) A3 to S2

The metagame has changed a lot from the previous VR that also led to the difference of perception of the players before and currently. Octillery jumped 15 places higher and even has someone (Estarossa) nommed it as the best mon right now in GSC NU. Despite it being slow, it is bulky and strong enough to take some damage and deal strong damage back. Xatu using HP elec is also common to improve its match-up versus Octillery despite sacking some DVs compared to those who uses HP Ice. One of the most reliable checks to Oct is also itself and the anti-meta mon, Chinchou. Ice Beam Oct makes it tricky for the likes of Gloom to come in if it is still not revealed yet.



Stantler from 14th to 4th (+10) A3 to A1

Resttalk stantler is dropping in popularity and turns into a more offensive set with Return, Earthquake, and Curse. Some even think Stantler is borderline broken for GSC NU because of its access too to moves like Hypnosis and Light Screen. Many tour games recently has been won by a Stantler sweep. Normal resist like Magnemite and the rocks will crumble versus its Earthquake while also having that threat of catching a nonresttalk mon with Hypnosis.



Wigglytuff from 15th to 7th (+8) A3 to A2

Another normal type mon had a huge jump. Wigglytuff is more of monocurse resttalk mon compared to Stantler but it is very bulky. Once it set-up Curse, it is hard to stop it since even the strong special attackers like Magnemite needs to hit all 3 Thunders in order to stop its possible sweep. Wigglytuff rise has been seen starting GSC NU Cup in which it had a higher usage rate while being versatile with its sets. Body Slam can fish paralysis while Double Edge packs a punch and rock/ground type like Graveler needs to be wary of its Ice Beam too.



Fearow from 22nd to 8th (+14) B1 to A2

Normal types rise! Fearow also has a STAB in flying that helps it deal more damage to fighting types like Primeape and the likes of Pineco. It is also faster than Xatu which is an important speed tier to bypass in the current metagame. With the help of Spikes, it can worn down its checks like Nonresttalk Sudowoodo and Magnemite. GSC PL II also featured 3 attacks Fearow with an HP Ground move to improve its match-up versus Magnemite. Since then, many recognized Fearow’s threat level and considered it more in teambuilding.



Primeape from 3rd to 11th (-8) A1 to A2

Primeape falls 8 places down which looks like counter-intuitive when seeing the rise of Normal type mons. What holds Primeape back is the accuracy of its Cross Chop and it is slower than the rising bird, Fearow. It is still very threatening but it is becoming more inconsistent that lead to its drop in usage too. It is tied at 13th in usage in 114 games recorded from the recent 3 team tours with GSC NU.



Kingler 4th to 12th (-8) A1 to A2

Just like the ape, the crab also fell 8 spots. HP Elec Xatu makes it harder for Kingler + Houndour comps to consistently deal with it alongside HP Elec Oct that are both at the top of VR and usage. It isn’t seen as strong and worth it to be spammed unlike before and even the recent tour stats back this up too. It is 16th in usage with just 31% win rate in 16 games it was used out of 114 total teams.



Persian from 31st to 14th (+17) B2 to A2

The biggest jump on rankings is from another normal type mon. Lead Persian has become very popular since GSC NU Cup because the only mon that outspeed it is Dugtrio and it is free to click Hypnosis. It can also Thief leftovers of those resttalkers that want to take the Hypnosis instead like Octillery and Xatu which is kinda huge. Screech also helps it become a good mon mid to end game depending on how the user wants to play things out.



Gloom from 6th to 17th (-11) A2 to A3

Gloom dropped in usage due to various reasons. The likes of Fearow rise and Dugtrio drop in usage rate makes it hard for Gloom to perform consistently game by game. Ice Beam Oct also doesn’t help its case and its niche is becoming limited to countering Chinchou and clicking stun spore. It is also kinda free switch for Xatu where Xatu doesn’t mind the paralysis because it can rest it off.



Hitmonlee from 11th to 19th (-8) A2 to A3

Another fall for a fighting type mon. HP rock helps its case versus Xatu and Fearow but both of those mons are still faster and if not HP rock, Hitmonlee tends to rely on body slam para fishing. It is also really not that bulky and can take around 40% even from special attacks like Magmar’s Fire Blast. Hitmonlee is only used 6 times across GSCPL III, NUSD III, and ALTPL I which is tied at 24th in usage.



Porygon from 28th to 20th (+8) B2 to A3

Normal type rise again! Porygon with Twave is a more reliable paralysis spreader than those who fish para from Body slam and higher accuracy than Gloom’s stun spore. It can also replenish its health with Recover so it doesn’t need to Rest. Porygon is also 20th in usage in recent tour stats. Boltbeam is its usual offensive weapon while some slot in Thief in their set for some utility.



Rapidash from 10th to 21st (-11) A2 to B1

Despite being a fast mon faster than the likes of Xatu and Ninetales, Rapidash is in an awkward middle of everything since it is a hypnosis user slower than Persian and its Fire typing is neither really a great offensive typing nor defensive in GSC NU. It was also only used thrice in the recent 3 team tours.



Houndour from 32nd to 23rd (+8) B2 to B1

This rise is deserved as Xatu continues its reign over the tier while Sunnybeam variant can mess up Octillery. It is faster than Octillery and traps Xatu with Pursuit. Houndour is actually 18th in usage right now tied with Magmar which supports its rise in this current VR.



Exeggcute from 36th to 27th (+9) B3 to B2

Exeggcute is tied with Hitmonlee in usage at 24th while some of the other mons above it in the previous VR fall which led to this jump in the current VR. It overtook the likes of Dunsparce, Farfetch’d, Arbok, Shuckle, Pupitar, Pidgeot, Ledian, and Raticate deservingly as it is indeed used more and checks one of the huge threats in the tier in Dugtrio and HP elec variant of Octillery.



Gastly from 41st to 34th (+7) C1 to B2

Normal types rising up? How about deal with them with a Ghost type! Gastly walls the monocurse variant of Wigglytuff and is also in a good speed tier to outspeed Kingler and come in on its return attack while threatening it back with a base 100 spatk Thunder. Hitmonlee using resttalk and HJK + Body slam will also not be able to touch this mon.



Lickitung from 21st to 32nd (-11) A4 to B2

Apparently, not all normal types rise. Lickitung dropped in usage, only used twice in the 3 recent tours, and won zero game. It is threatening on its own but compared to Wigglytuff which is also a bulky normal type, Lickitung is mid. It also kinda relies on Baton Pass teams passing it Speed and setting up Belly Drum but the tier currently has enough tools that is not hard to fit on common teams that can deal with Baton Pass like booms and encore.



Arbok from 26th to 35th (-9) B1 to C

Arbok has no usage in the three recent team tours and in theory, it is outclassed by other curse set-up mons, its glare isn’t reliable, and poison typing that Xatu can abuse. Base 85 attack and base 80 speed is also mid in GSC NU. It still deserved to be ranked though because of the combinations of glare threat plus curse or even just 3 atks glare set that sets itself apart from Weezing, Gloom, and normal curse setters.

 

[Siatam]

IMPORTANT: Please use the Smogon classic theme instead of Smogon Dark to view this post (link to profile settings here for convenience). This provides a white background necessary to view the graphs in this post because of the png transparency.

And here's the post with all the charts. Huge thank you to DiannieRatson, they have been invaluable in coordinating the voting for this VR as well as writing the fantastic post you see above. Diannie really took the lead on this update, and you wouldn't see it now without them.

I have used vapicuno's original methodology described here to assemble the VR and tiers. Huge thank you and props for supplying the code used to generate these graphics. I will also be copying his format and explanations, no need to reinvent the wheel and I personally cannot explain all the formulas used to create these charts. I've opted to exclude the "Analysis of Camps" because I do not feel confident I can present worthwhile analyses. Some charts have also been left out due to the lack of statistical data from the 2020 VR.

If anyone has feedback, please let me know.

Without further adieu:
The average outlier-compensated ranks from everyone are

Aggregate Rankings

01 Xatu
02 Octillery
03 Weezing
04 Stantler
05 Pineco
06 Dugtrio
07 Wigglytuff
08 Fearow
09 Dewgong
10 Ninetales
11 Primeape
12 Kingler
13 Chinchou
14 Persian
15 Sudowoodo
16 Magnemite
17 Gloom
18 Magmar
19 Hitmonlee
20 Porygon
21 Rapidash
22 Flareon
23 Houndour
24 Graveler
25 Dragonair
26 Azumarill
27 Exeggcute
28 Dunsparce
29 Shuckle
30 Noctowl
31 Farfetch'd
32 Lickitung
33 Pidgeot
34 Gastly
35 Bayleef
36 Arbok
37 Raticate
38 Pupitar
39 Cubone
40 Ledian
41 Mantine
42 Tangela
43 Poliwhirl
44 Ariados
45 Seadra
46 Seaking
47 Hitmonchan
48 Tentacool
49 Magcargo
50 Machoke
51 Corsola
52 Voltorb

and considering only pokemon that were ranked by 3 or more players, we get the reduced list and final version of the VR,

Reduced Aggregate Rankings

01 Xatu
02 Octillery
03 Weezing
04 Stantler
05 Pineco
06 Dugtrio
07 Wigglytuff
08 Fearow
09 Dewgong
10 Ninetales
11 Primeape
12 Kingler
13 Chinchou
14 Persian
15 Sudowoodo
16 Magnemite
17 Gloom
18 Magmar
19 Hitmonlee
20 Porygon
21 Rapidash
22 Flareon
23 Houndour
24 Graveler
25 Dragonair
26 Azumarill
27 Exeggcute
28 Dunsparce
29 Shuckle
30 Noctowl
31 Farfetch'd
32 Lickitung
33 Pidgeot
34 Gastly
35 Arbok
36 Raticate
37 Pupitar
38 Cubone
39 Ledian
40 Mantine
41 Tangela
42 Poliwhirl
43 Ariados
44 Seaking

Final Aggregate VR

S1:
S2:
A1:
A2:
A3:
B1:
B2:
C:
D:

Let's go through the whole process.

First the data is cleaned by compensating outliers 1 standard deviation away from the edge of the percentiles expected to contain +/- 1 standard deviation of a normal distribution. This is a modification of the conventional interquartile range (IQR), which I have not chosen to use because 50% of the sample doesn't capture the full variation from what I've seen. The compensation is done by bringing these points to the edge of this extended range. This results in mostly zero, but sometimes one or two outlier corrections. We then plot the outlier-removed data as a function of the integer rank to obtain this graph.

VR Tiering Decisions

We can zoom in to the top 35 mons where tiering decisions are expected to make more sense,

To read this chart: the x-axis "Integer Ranking" denotes the final ordered ranking the mons received on the VR. The y-axis "ranking with deviation" indicates the average the mon received from votes. The blue vertical lines show the deviation, roughly the highest and lowest placements, the mon received. (Adjusted for outliers)

The colored horizontal lines show how I have constructed the tiers, while the black diagonal line is a 1:1 plot of Integer Ranking vs Ranking with Deviation. A mon placed above the black line received a boost to its final ranking compared to its average rank by virtue of a slightly lower average than its peers. A mon under the black line is under "represented" when it came to the final ranking. Example: Fearow is ranked 8th. despite recieving votes averaging 10.3. Persian is ranked 14th despite receiving votes averaging 12.1.

These differences are too be expected and exactly how we use the average rankings with deviation to determine the VR subtiers. However, it is useful to keep these in mind when comparing the final placements of different mons. While #8 -> #14 is a decent gap, the difference in their average ranks is only ~2. This group of mons from Fearow-Persian in the A2 tier is closer in viability than the pure numerical rank can represent.

Up to Pineco the tiers are pretty well defined, but after that there are lots of overlaps between tiers and looking for jumps in the mean ranking is possible but not obvious to the eye. We turn to hierarchical clustering to help obtain the tiers. We form a dissimilarity matrix where the distances between Pokemon X and Y are given by the following: Take the rate at which voters ranked Pokemon X over Pokemon Y, take the logit transform as is done in logistic regression of a Bernoulli-distributed variable, and take the absolute value. Performing what we call a Ward linkage, this yields a dendrogram of the following sort, where the clusters (what we are going to call tiers) formed by setting a reasonable threshold are represented by different colors, and the dissimilarity between each cluster can be thought of as the vertical height of the nearest branch that connects the two clusters.

In other words, the Graveler-Azumarill tier is closer to the Flareon-Dragonair tier (connecting height ~7, note the log scale) than the Rapidash cluster (connecting height ~11). Note that the order is not preserved by the algorithm, and hierarchical clustering throws away information, so this is just a rough guide to defining the tiers.

Dendogram across Xatu to Gastly

We want to verify the validity of the clusters obtained from the dendrogram, so we next plot the dissimilarity matrix and draw out the tiers specified.

To read the dissimilarity matrix, note that zero (the darkest value) corresponds to equal number of people voting in favor and against the Pokemon on the Y axis > X axis, and the higher the value, the more one-sided the voting becomes. In other words, the darker, the more indistinguishable the Pokemon on the X and Y axis become, and a well-defined tier would be a fully dark square (read vapicuno's methodology thread for explanations).

This yields the following subdivision which I have decided on:
Note due to the granularity of the data (only 13 votes) this algorithm created multiple one mon tiers as well as groupings that did not pass the "eye check". The current tiers took a fair amount of manual tweaking. I am not completely satisfied with the current result, but I think it gives a generally accurate view of the metagame.

S1:
S2:
A1:
A2:
A3:
B1:
B2:
C:
D:

Numerical ranks represent partial tiers, whereas letter ranks represent a more complete separation. I choose to follow precedent and adopt numerical subranks.

Metagame Shifts

Due to the lack of real statistical data behind the previous VR, I cannot present a more significant analysis than places lost/gained. Refer to Dianne's previous post.

Individual Analyses

For those who are interested to see whose S to B2 rankings are closest to theirs, you can refer to the chart below. The numbers inside the box go from -100% (full anticorrelation) to 100% (full correlation). They are sorted by the S to C dendrogram order (and the light squares represent the camps). Don't worry about "Xatu to Bayleef", these plots include mons that didn't make the 3 voter minimum.

And finally, these are the relative ranks of everyone. Blue = disfavor, Red = favor. Cyan lines demarcate tier cutoffs.

Individual Ranking Graphic

Closing Remarks

The large number of graphs may seem daunting, and to people who aren't quantitatively trained, this may be really confusing. I recommend just glancing over the spoilers on the first read, only thoroughly analyzing them after you've gone through the more important graphs that have been left unhidden. I'm interested to know what you can infer from these trends, I hope this can generate some discussion.

 

[FNH]

the fact that Primape isn't higher indicates that my opinion wasn't given a 10x weight.
I specifically told you to weight my opinion as if it was worth more then everyone elses.....

Surprised Fearow is that high tbh. its a pretty meh mon overall
Octillery is where it should be, curious to see if chin takes higher usage and is valued more in the future. Porygon is undervalued for certain currently

 

[BeeOrSomething]

GSC NU VR March 2023 UPDATE

The GSC NU VR update is finally here after a very long while. The previous update was last February 28, 2021 so it’s been more than 2 years and the voters in this viability rankings (VR) are those who qualified based on the tours in that span as early as GSCPL II. Thank you to the following players who took part: DiannieRatson FNH
Lunala MrSoup dawn Monai vani Estarossa File 13 Sabelette BeeOrSomething chub Siatam

Special thanks to Earthworm and vapicuno whose' work over the past years has made this project much easier.

Collection of data

- Players who got at least 1 win in GSCPL II, NUSD II, GSCPL III, NUSD III, ALTPL I (Inaugural) and/or Top 6 in GSC NU Cup were invited to submit their rankings via the smogon conversation (or for some, in discord)
- Submitters could rank any Pokemon on their list and there is also no limit to how many Pokemon they could nominate for the VR.
- None of the Pokemon were mandatory to rank.
- It was possible for players to make edits to their rankings after submitting their list until March 19, 2023.
- The data collection happened from February 6, 2023 to March 19, 2023 in which the Inaugural ALTPL GSC NU final match was already played.

Formation of rankings

- Cutoffs for the ranks and subranks were determined using vapicuno's method
- The order was determined by an outlier-compensated mean ranking.
- Pokemon had to be ranked by at least four players to be included.

Flaws
- Some submitters opted to use tierlist programs to submit their VR. These could have limited new additions to the VR and promoted Pokemon that were ranked last year.
- Relatively small sample size that made subtiering and cut-off not that evident

Link to raw data in spreadsheet form

S1 Rank

01 Xatu

S2 Rank

02 Octillery

A1 Rank

03 Weezing
04 Stantler
05 Pineco

A2 Rank

06 Dugtrio
07 Wigglytuff
08 Fearow
09 Ninetales
10 Dewgong
11 Primeape
12 Kingler
13 Chinchou
14 Persian
15 Sudowoodo

A3 Rank

16 Magnemite
17 Gloom
18 Magmar
19 Hitmonlee
20 Porygon

B1 Rank

21 Rapidash
22 Flareon
23 Houndour
24 Graveler
25 Dragonair
26 Azumarill

B2 Rank

27 Exeggcute
28 Dunsparce
29 Shuckle
30 Noctowl
31 :gs/Farfetch Farfetch’d
32 Lickitung
33 Pidgeot
34 Gastly

C Rank

35 Arbok
36 Raticate
37 Pupitar

D Rank

38 Cubone
39 Ledian
40 Mantine
41 Tangela
42 Poliwhirl
43 Ariados
44 Seaking

Visualization of results and individual rankings

All the individual submissions are assembled into a single image. In the New VR column, It was formatted by Siatam so that green indicates a rise and red indicates a fall when compared to the old VR. Blue indicates no movement. The pale green and red in everyone's rankings indicate what they ranked higher (green) and lower (red) than the new VR. It should also be noted that this chart does not get rid of outliers - this is purely the average ranks. It is slightly different than the final rankings, particularly on the bottom end.

View attachment 504135

Observations

The following are the notable differences of previous VR compared to this new VR.



Octillery from 17th to 2nd (+15) A3 to S2

The metagame has changed a lot from the previous VR that also led to the difference of perception of the players before and currently. Octillery jumped 15 places higher and even has someone (Estarossa) nommed it as the best mon right now in GSC NU. Despite it being slow, it is bulky and strong enough to take some damage and deal strong damage back. Xatu using HP elec is also common to improve its match-up versus Octillery despite sacking some DVs compared to those who uses HP Ice. One of the most reliable checks to Oct is also itself and the anti-meta mon, Chinchou. Ice Beam Oct makes it tricky for the likes of Gloom to come in if it is still not revealed yet.



Stantler from 14th to 4th (+10) A3 to A1

Resttalk stantler is dropping in popularity and turns into a more offensive set with Return, Earthquake, and Curse. Some even think Stantler is borderline broken for GSC NU because of its access too to moves like Hypnosis and Light Screen. Many tour games recently has been won by a Stantler sweep. Normal resist like Magnemite and the rocks will crumble versus its Earthquake while also having that threat of catching a nonresttalk mon with Hypnosis.



Wigglytuff from 15th to 7th (+8) A3 to A2

Another normal type mon had a huge jump. Wigglytuff is more of monocurse resttalk mon compared to Stantler but it is very bulky. Once it set-up Curse, it is hard to stop it since even the strong special attackers like Magnemite needs to hit all 3 Thunders in order to stop its possible sweep. Wigglytuff rise has been seen starting GSC NU Cup in which it had a higher usage rate while being versatile with its sets. Body Slam can fish paralysis while Double Edge packs a punch and rock/ground type like Graveler needs to be wary of its Ice Beam too.



Fearow from 22nd to 8th (+14) B1 to A2

Normal types rise! Fearow also has a STAB in flying that helps it deal more damage to fighting types like Primeape and the likes of Pineco. It is also faster than Xatu which is an important speed tier to bypass in the current metagame. With the help of Spikes, it can worn down its checks like Nonresttalk Sudowoodo and Magnemite. GSC PL II also featured 3 attacks Fearow with an HP Ground move to improve its match-up versus Magnemite. Since then, many recognized Fearow’s threat level and considered it more in teambuilding.



Primeape from 3rd to 11th (-8) A1 to A2

Primeape falls 8 places down which looks like counter-intuitive when seeing the rise of Normal type mons. What holds Primeape back is the accuracy of its Cross Chop and it is slower than the rising bird, Fearow. It is still very threatening but it is becoming more inconsistent that lead to its drop in usage too. It is tied at 13th in usage in 114 games recorded from the recent 3 team tours with GSC NU.



Kingler 4th to 12th (-8) A1 to A2

Just like the ape, the crab also fell 8 spots. HP Elec Xatu makes it harder for Kingler + Houndour comps to consistently deal with it alongside HP Elec Oct that are both at the top of VR and usage. It isn’t seen as strong and worth it to be spammed unlike before and even the recent tour stats back this up too. It is 16th in usage with just 31% win rate in 16 games it was used out of 114 total teams.



Persian from 31st to 14th (+17) B2 to A2

The biggest jump on rankings is from another normal type mon. Lead Persian has become very popular since GSC NU Cup because the only mon that outspeed it is Dugtrio and it is free to click Hypnosis. It can also Thief leftovers of those resttalkers that want to take the Hypnosis instead like Octillery and Xatu which is kinda huge. Screech also helps it become a good mon mid to end game depending on how the user wants to play things out.



Gloom from 6th to 17th (-11) A2 to A3

Gloom dropped in usage due to various reasons. The likes of Fearow rise and Dugtrio drop in usage rate makes it hard for Gloom to perform consistently game by game. Ice Beam Oct also doesn’t help its case and its niche is becoming limited to countering Chinchou and clicking stun spore. It is also kinda free switch for Xatu where Xatu doesn’t mind the paralysis because it can rest it off.



Hitmonlee from 11th to 19th (-8) A2 to A3

Another fall for a fighting type mon. HP rock helps its case versus Xatu and Fearow but both of those mons are still faster and if not HP rock, Hitmonlee tends to rely on body slam para fishing. It is also really not that bulky and can take around 40% even from special attacks like Magmar’s Fire Blast. Hitmonlee is only used 6 times across GSCPL III, NUSD III, and ALTPL I which is tied at 24th in usage.



Porygon from 28th to 20th (+8) B2 to A3

Normal type rise again! Porygon with Twave is a more reliable paralysis spreader than those who fish para from Body slam and higher accuracy than Gloom’s stun spore. It can also replenish its health with Recover so it doesn’t need to Rest. Porygon is also 20th in usage in recent tour stats. Boltbeam is its usual offensive weapon while some slot in Thief in their set for some utility.



Rapidash from 10th to 21st (-11) A2 to B1

Despite being a fast mon faster than the likes of Xatu and Ninetales, Rapidash is in an awkward middle of everything since it is a hypnosis user slower than Persian and its Fire typing is neither really a great offensive typing nor defensive in GSC NU. It was also only used thrice in the recent 3 team tours.



Houndour from 32nd to 23rd (+8) B2 to B1

This rise is deserved as Xatu continues its reign over the tier while Sunnybeam variant can mess up Octillery. It is faster than Octillery and traps Xatu with Pursuit. Houndour is actually 18th in usage right now tied with Magmar which supports its rise in this current VR.



Exeggcute from 36th to 27th (+9) B3 to B2

Exeggcute is tied with Hitmonlee in usage at 24th while some of the other mons above it in the previous VR fall which led to this jump in the current VR. It overtook the likes of Dunsparce, Farfetch’d, Arbok, Shuckle, Pupitar, Pidgeot, Ledian, and Raticate deservingly as it is indeed used more and checks one of the huge threats in the tier in Dugtrio and HP elec variant of Octillery.



Gastly from 41st to 34th (+7) C1 to B2

Normal types rising up? How about deal with them with a Ghost type! Gastly walls the monocurse variant of Wigglytuff and is also in a good speed tier to outspeed Kingler and come in on its return attack while threatening it back with a base 100 spatk Thunder. Hitmonlee using resttalk and HJK + Body slam will also not be able to touch this mon.



Lickitung from 21st to 32nd (-11) A4 to B2

Apparently, not all normal types rise. Lickitung dropped in usage, only used twice in the 3 recent tours, and won zero game. It is threatening on its own but compared to Wigglytuff which is also a bulky normal type, Lickitung is mid. It also kinda relies on Baton Pass teams passing it Speed and setting up Belly Drum but the tier currently has enough tools that is not hard to fit on common teams that can deal with Baton Pass like booms and encore.



Arbok from 26th to 35th (-9) B1 to C

Arbok has no usage in the three recent team tours and in theory, it is outclassed by other curse set-up mons, its glare isn’t reliable, and poison typing that Xatu can abuse. Base 85 attack and base 80 speed is also mid in GSC NU. It still deserved to be ranked though because of the combinations of glare threat plus curse or even just 3 atks glare set that sets itself apart from Weezing, Gloom, and normal curse setters.

Alright time to complain about the VR for fun and because I want to clown on people who don't agree with every single take I've ever had.


Wigglytuff
Wigglytuff is not all that. It's incredibly hax vulnerable, walled by the rocks (and to an extent magnemite), utterly despises spikes, hates explosion (everything does but especially when wiggly is an integral part to a team's defensive core), and cannot check octillery at all despite commonly being called on to. I won't deny, it has a bunch of great traits, but I really do not think it should've put below DEWGONG.


Dewgong
REST TALK DEWGONG IS INCREDIBLE. Legit. Surf/Ice Beam/Rest/Sleep Talk is an amazing set thats impossible to switch into for a lot of xatu + dugtrio spikes offense teams (the most common team style in the tier), and these teams usually use octillery as their dewgong wall if they don't have, say, chinchou or wigglytuff or rest talk stantler. Dewgong 1v1s octillery. You fish for freeze, dodge 3hko from hp elec, immune to freeze yourself, and you're faster. And when the primary dewgong set isn't something that you can just hit over and over again until it dies and wall with fire types (the toxic encore set), you're gonna have a really hard time without specific pokemon. 3 attacks + protect is also actually unfair when passed a growth by flareon.


Gloom
High key gloom kinda sucks. With xatu, ice beam octillery, rest talk dewgong, fearow, weezing, double edge primepape, all the fires in the tier, magnemite, moonlight having bad pp, mono poison being awful attacking-wise, hp ground leaving you without stun spore/curse, the existence of spikes, and its poor stats leading to being bad at taking neutral hits, I just really do not think gloom is that good, and certainly not enough to be in THE A TIER LIKE WHAT????????


Rapidash
I made an entire post on why rapidash sucks (see: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/gsc-nu-discussion.3658394/post-9562566)


Azumarill
This thing does practically zero damage. Hates spikes, hax vulnerable, walled by so much, taken advantage of by all the curse normals, dies to explosion, can fail to pull the right move while rest talking. It is not good in this meta right now imo. The tier is just too fast and has too many strong threats.


Shuckle
Basically the same as azumarill. Walls some things, but you let in for free all the water types and dugtrio and are vulnerable to spikes and crits and you just don't do any damage in return.


Gastly
GASTLY SUCKS SO BAD. It dies to like every neutral/super effective hit (maybe tanking like 1 neutral hit? idk) and the best it can retaliate with is exploding itself. It's not even a good spinblocker, as, while yes it blocks pineco, pineco is also somewhat frail and you can just hit it enough times and lay spikes again later, and it completely thuds into graveler. Also walls spin hitmonlee but spin hitmon is not common and hp rock is rising in usage over body slam too, or at least I hope it will be soon (hp rock is good).


Raticate
Raticate is legit good. It's like a mini fearow that lets you use your fearow more aggressively earlier on or lets you preserve it for later in the game and use rat early game. Double edge is strong as usual, super fang and screech spread a lot of damage, and hp ground is nice. It's definitely absurdly frail, but being faster than xatu and primeape and being pretty strong is super nice. IMO low-mid B tier.


Pupitar
I made an entire post on why I think pupitar is good (see: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/gsc-nu-discussion.3658394/post-9562358)

That's about it. Of course I don't agree with everything, but these are the ones I consider significant.

 

[Estarossa]

To be honest surprised weezing still ended up higher than stantler this time. Talked with bee about this just now on disc but to me stantler’s insane consistency, high floor, and splash ability puts it above weezing comfortably for me in practice, a mon that is pretty unsplashable and has a low floor on top of consistency issues where it can be a threat on stantlers level but can also just struggle with entry points in a stantler + fearow dominated meta for physical threats and accuracy on thunders too, as well as the prediction heavy aspect it incurs from less entry point forcing it to guess between like booming a xatu coming in / predicting a random sack and stuff like that. Baseline explosion is a great baseline but weezing fairly often only performs at this baseline tbh. Definitely stantler > weezing.

fearow also feels too low for sure. Do think the A rank in general feels like there’s a big viabilit gapjust below Dewgong, but fearow and duggy in particular stand out amongst that rank. Fearows a top tier in this meta in general but honestly isn’t even that far below stantler in practice when it trades off the cursing for insane survivability + speed control + dueling potential and has been dominating this tier for like the last 2 years now and definitely doesn’t belong in the same tier as trash like kingler (which definitely shouldn’t be in A ranks anyway but yea)

nice to see stuff like persian get it’s recognition asarguably the best lead in this tier.

 

[BeeOrSomething]

(C tier is not really ordered. They're all kind of bad.)

Just an update and some quick thoughts.


Weezing is amazing. It's actually so good. I can't convince myself it's better than Xatu quite yet though, Xatu crits/psychic drops are utterly disastrous quite often and being actually fast is wonderful. It might be better than Xatu soon, really depends on my future experience with it.


This mon continues to be utterly broken. Both Frust/Eq/Rest/Stalk and Frust/Eq/LS/Curse are incredibly amazing and dangerous. Fantastic offensive threat with an underrated defensive presence.


These two mons are a mile ahead of everything below them, but I just don't think they stack up to the mons above. The mons above are just simply better imo, not really much beyond that.


On a usage resurgence, and for a good reason. CC/Thunder/Dedge/Sub is a very very dangerous presence and really punishes any teams with Xatu as their only Primeape check (thunder paras make me cry). CC/Thunder/Rest/Stalk is also quite good but it's very specific and has issues with a low pp count.


Tbh this is just more to say I believe there's quite a bit of dropoff from Persian to Wiggly and the mons below it, though Wiggly and co. are still perfectly fine. Persian itself has gone through a solid chunk of development recently, mainly Rest Talk Thunder but also Sub Screech. I think both are a bit overrated, especially sub screech (not having a super effective move or actual resistances blows compared to Dugtrio), but they're still cool new tools to Persian's kit.


HP rock Kingler is very good. Trust me. You lose out on Weezing and the rocks but Weezing can be pretty easily chipped (especially with spikes) and the rocks you can just force to explode on Octillery or your curse normal. Rock meanwhile just straight up OHKOes Xatu and Fearow, which is amazing. Also if you really want you can just like use Surf for the rocks or whatever.


I'm higher on this mon than most but I really do think it's great. Recover and Thunder Wave are just such amazing buttons and the ability to go with either BoltBeam or Curse Dedge sets is wonderful for surprise factor and flexibility when fitting on teams.


Really threatening mon. Ninetales is the only true answer, everything else will just fall long-term or to good play/prediction. Also sunny day is definitely the best 4th move, hp ground is pretty bad imo. Sunny day lets you bully Dewgong and Chinchou and edges your bets vs Octillery, also just crazy powerful fire blasts.


Definitely fallen a bit due to how good Octillery and Dewgong are, but it's still pretty good into most things other than those two, especially Weezing. Sunny day is also a pretty good option over Toxic, though having to choose between the two is annoying. Sunny day gives Ninetales the power it needs to grab a lot more 2/3HKOes (really the only ones you still cry vs are Octillery and other Tales/Dash) and very importantly also makes it much easier to switch into opposing Octillery since surf is weakened so much. However, using it means you don't have Toxic which blows vs the rocks, Porygon, and Primeape.


I'm sure everyone knows by now but Graveler is pretty good. That's about it really.


I talked about this in another post already (see: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/gsc-nu-discussion.3658394/post-9632760) but Gloom isn't that bad. It's not world-shattering or anything but its traits are valuable, mainly when paired with Graveler.


Basically just Wigglytuff, but with better physical bulk, slightly less special bulk, and forced into return for STAB. Should probably be ranked lower considering it only has minor use cases with RTalk but I think it's good enough as an individual pokemon to be ranked here. Also the Glare set is quite good, but again, pretty specific, and also 75% accuracy is a pain.


Really aren't as bad as I have them but I just think it's personally quite difficult to justify putting them on a team and at times can struggle providing significant value, especially Rapidash since I think it's kinda just outclassed by Ninetales (doing 30% to Octillery and Ninetales with dedge is not "progress"). Also I'm a hater :P


I don't really think they're any worse than where I put them previously. I just think I was being too kind probably.


Stall isn't that bad.


Stall isn't that bad. Minor disclaimer though, the stall man himself has even told me Mantine isn't that great since Dewgong is usualy better, but it's still probably ok enough to be better than C rank.


Utter crap. Actually so bad. Just use Weezing or Dunsparce or basically anything.


Honorable Mentions

This mon isn't that bad actually (not on the template that's why it's an honorable mention). Use toxic though. Dynamic punch is ass. Toxic makes it much harder to exploit with like Pineco or trying to force dpunch to miss when using a rock. Return/Toxic/Screech/Moonlight is definitely the way to go. Takes advantage of Xatu to generate progress. I'd say like very low B- or high C tier.


Same thing as Sneasel, not on the template. The main pain with Corsola is how restricting it is on the teambuilder. I think Ninetales is practically forced with it because Corsola can't do shit to Weezing, and unlike Primeape or whatever, Corsola is both slower and a purely defensive piece. I think Pineco is also probably mandatory, because if you want to go spike-less you'll end up being a purely defensive team and then you want Graveler which is largely much better than Corsola in that slot. Xatu is probably needed with Corsola too, then you have the obligatory slot for Octillery/Dewgong. As you can tell, pretty limited. As an individual pokemon, I think it's alright, but it's really hard to put it on a team. Probably low B-/high C.

Edit: I forgot Hitmontop

Also not on the template. Another stall mon. Purpose is to just be a bulky rapid spinner that can take on Dewgong without having to go for a pp stall like Mantine or Dewgong would, as well as answer Chinchou without having to worry about Thunder paralysis like Bayleef does. Reason for Top’s use over Lee or Chan is purely the fact that it has actually decent physical defense which is important for the purpose of being on stall. I’d say probably above Mantine but below Shuckle in that B- range, and also yes it is better than Graveler on stall, answering Gong and Chou and using them to spin without having to worry about being poisoned is quite nice.

(I promise I won't be posting so much in here anymore lmao sorry)

 

[DAWNBUSTER]

Will edit in explanations at a later date.

 

[juoean]

as im sure ppl figured out at latest by the end of week 1 lol, i built gsc nu teams for laxes this altpl. not going to do a week by week rundown thing like ppl do sometimes but heres my post-tourn vr + elaboration on my placements (tbc i didnt write this all tonight lmao, started drafting initial thoughts etc last weekend).

S

Weezing

~ ppl have discussed this at length so ill be brief but this is the best mon in the tier by a wide margin, it has very few bad mus which it alw has the option to just trade out of with Explosion anyway, it covers so many things defensively even more so if spikes arent up on your side but Primeape obviously is the big one since so many great mons are Primeape weak + Weez switches into it quite well. and offensively it is obv very dangerous too with Thunder + boom.
haze is a v cool option to have, even if it isnt entirely consistent vs bslam wiggly, as well as the usual fblast or hp water. honestly whichever one u have is more like a bonus especially fblast since explosion nearly OHKOs magenmite anyway lol.
if u want a long term primeape answer then maybe u can consider pain split fourth idk havent tried this but i think soup has once or twice, or thunder sleep talk but dropping explosion, obv gives up a ton and in particular leaves u vulnerable to cursers aka wigglytuff instead of being a check to it/them so i dont rly like it. curse stalk is more appealing to me doing fine vs normals and also flipping the stantler matchup, but ofc u are easily revenged after a curse by special attackers such as Octillery so its less a win-con than a wallbreaker. alternatively just running curse in the fourth slot is also interesting, similarly making you able to be somewhat of a switchin to curse normals (but paralysis is a pain) as well as turning the tables on a rest talk stantler switching in, again u want to be careful with clicking curse since it gives up your speed tier.
spikes teams occasionally can forego weezing, since pineco helps fill the role of checking stalk Primeape and weezing may double up on weaknesses a bit. otherwise Weezing should be on every serious gsc nu team.

A+

Wigglytuff

~ wiggly i assume is my most controversial placement in this vr, i get that the mon doesnt have a lot of switchin opportunities but it more than makes up for that with the offensive threat it poses. even its supposedly strongest answers are very inconsistent to say the least: magnemite is 3HKOd at either +1 or +2 depending on choice of stab so magnets needs to hit its Thunders quickly and if it ever has to sleep Wigglytuff has much better stalk rolls than it so its prob losing, if pupitar gets paraslammed early on then screech falls to 64% accuracy so it can no longer really outpace curse while wiggly can go as high as +5 while still outspeeding, +4 bslam 3hkos and potential stalk rolls to deal with as well and ofc this is all not to mention that paralyzed pup is hardly a threat so wiggly can exit and paralyzed pup really cannot switch into wiggly in the future; Graveler has to boom pretty much immediately and doesnt ko it at +1 needs oct to finish it off and ofc boom can be predicted as well. Sudo is maybe a more consistent answer but also is a niche mon in general + isnt threatening to the rest of the tier, it is pretty 100% in the Wiggly user’s choice whether or not to let wiggly take the sudo boom or have something else take it. Primeape, well ape has very bad stalk rolls vs wiggly so it rly needs to be awake and even then is going to need to either crit or hit consec cchops etc. gastly, is gastly. and if you dont have one of these mons then you will need good luck bc wiggly is going to have better stalk rolls than pretty much any mon that is trying to fight it.
Wigglytuff also threatens to setup and sweep against some of the best mons in the tier such as Stantler Fearow and stalk Persian, oh and it is also one of the less-bad answers to other Wigglytuff.
also i think the lack of switchin opportunities is a little overstated, in addition to switching into weaker mons like dewgong gloom and chinchou, bslam wiggly is a very good porygon switchin which is not easy to come by for many teams; and it also can be one of the best mons in NU to take advantage of an opposing mon clicking rest, particularly physical attackers like stantler/fearow.

The one negative of Wigglytuff to me is that it has very poor synergy with spikers, having spikes on the opposing side does basically nothing for it while Wiggly also can at least to some extent allow an opposing Graveler to spin away spikes messing up its spikes-reliant teammates. however even there Wigglytuff can be an excellent lead, as Primeape is an entry point for Pineco to set spikes while Graveler coming in to trade with Wigglytuff lets Pineco to spike into boom freely.

Wigglytuff should be an auto include on every spikeless Graveler team where it actually can switch into attacks sometimes, as well as every team that opts out of playing the spikes game entirely since such teams love a mon that typically isnt interested in switching in and out + these teams also tend to struggle a lot against opposing Wigglytuff and appreciate having their own Wiggly to help out there.

moveset wise, i rly like Body Slam on wiggly rn for being able to turn the tables on Pupitar and to check Porygon instead of being stalled by it, as well as to prevent Haze Weezing from freely checking it. however Dedge improves the Wiggly vs Wiggly as well as the best move vs Magnemite + having solid unboosted power for various situations, so it is an option as long as u have a different plan for Pup, Pory, and Haze Weezing.

this mon is easily #2 for me and tbh could consider having it bottom of S rather than top of A+ but ill keep it here for now.

Stantler

~ the biggest change from my old vr but very much in line with others’ vrs, Rest Talk Stantler offers a lot both on paper and in practice and while i did debate this ranking a bit ultimately I obv decided not only on Stantler 3 but to place it a subtier above the next group of mons. The most important thing stalk deer offers from my pov is a Weezing answer, no it is not perfect but it switches into Weezing decently enough and if are looking for a Weezing switchin for your team stalk deer is going to be the first consideration for that role 9 times out of 10. outside of Weezing, stalk Stantler is neutral or better against a lottt of the tier 1v1, including waters fires and electrics, while having perfect coverage outside of Shuckle and a STAB move comparable to Persian/Wiggly’s Double-Edge but without recoil. stalk Stantler also is an effective Pupitar answer, as well as outspeeding and OHKOing Magnemite, at least one of which will often be an issue for teammates. Stantler is also not at all easy to switch into, with the strongest STAB move in the tier alongside perfect coverage in Earthquake.

Stantler does however have some notable weaknesses. One is being OHKOd by Primeape’s Cross Chop, Weezing cannot switch into Primeape forever so this is something u have to keep in mind; however Primeape also cannot switch into Stantler’s Return forever so for the most part this is manageable. An arguably more significant issue is its vulnerability to Wigglytuff, primarily if Wigglytuff switches into its Rest but can also be after a KO depending on the situation. At best a 100% Stantler with 0 sleep turns burnt puts some pressure on Wigglytuff to click Curse but that doesnt necessarily make Wiggly much easier to deal with; in any case you will need some sort of plan here (a plan to go to your own Wigglytuff is a fine option, imo). ’Lastly’ deer has poor sleep talk rolls sometimes, mainly vs flying types, Fearow might already be covered by your Wigglytuff plan (tho keep in mind if you have to boom a rock vs Wiggly then you wont have it for Fearow) and stalk Xatu isnt necessarily the hardest mon to answer but nonetheless this is smth to keep in mind.
while in some ways stalk Stantler is very splashable bc of its versatility, its poor mus vs other normals + fighters is also v notable, there are plenty of teams that have good reasons not to use it, and its threat level once on the field does not remotely compare to wiggly’s, still it is a step above everything below.
Tbc I am ranking Stantler hear solely for its Sleep Talk set which enables it to be a Weezing answer, idt other movesets such as curse light screen are good options, you give up all of the valuable utility its stalk set offers while being pretty outclassed as a wallbreaker, and not really improving its matchups vs pory or wiggly either due to curse coming at the cost of rest talk.

A

Octillery

~ Octillery rly isnt anything spectacular to me, but it is a generally solid mon that does decently enough against most of the tier and is very difficult to switch into, also it is the most consistent special attacker for the role of eg finishing off a wigglytuff that took an explosion at +1. It also provides a useful check to a range of threats such as the various Fire and Rock types, although it is not necessarily the absolute best check to any of them individually and they all have ways to either break through it directly or take advantage of it with teammates in the case of Sunny Day Ninetales. Octillery does not really come with any major liabilities in the way that Stantler does, but it does have a bit of a weakness to Weezing which outspeeds and 2HKOs with Thunder, as well as not-great matchups against various faster Pokemon that 3HKO it and avoid being 2HKOd themselves. Also the things that Octillery checks are not the most common whereas Weezing is on every serious team, so i think a subrank below Stantler is appropriate for it.

At the moment Octillery is very pressured into HP Electric stalk because of how high water usage is at least for most players, but it does have two other interesting sets that i want to highlight here.
~ one set is Haze sleep talk, which allows Octillery to be a solid Wigglytuff answer, provides additional options against Porygon although you still lose on PP in a pure 1v1, as well as being a more solid moveset against the screech Grounds by being able to clear defense drops while asleep (ofc things can still go badly if sleep talk rolls rest too much). Haze also provides a check to Baton Pass nonsense while awake, to whatever extent you value that. However this moveset obv comes with major issues, not only are you completely giving up coverage against other waters but you also give up sleep talk rolls in so many other matchups, obv Fearow/Xatu but even vs mons like Stantler and Persian HP Electric damage under sleep talk can often make a significant difference. Still, Wiggly and Porygon are extremely dangerous so i think it has some merit.
~ the second set is Return sleep talk, which gives up the 3HKO against other Octillery as well as sleep talk rolls against the fliers, in exchange for a 3HKO on Hitmonlee (and Chinchou) together with better sleep talk rolls against (almost everything else) but in particular vs Fire-types, as well as Dugtrio. Return also is Octillery’s best move to hit switchins under Sun when facing Sunny Day Ninetales; while vs Flareon and Magmar, Octillery is already a somewhat shaky answer and appreciates the significantly improved stalk rolls. fwiw, Return Octillery should also be the most threatening set to stall, as well as being a dangerous sd-pass recipient.

Porygon

~ (curse) Porygon is really dangerous lol i mean ive seen many games including between gsc nu mains where this mon just completely takes over, i think ranking it even higher than #5 is valid but the mon can be a bit matchup dependent (primarily Pupitar) which is why i ultimately have it down here. In any case, somewhat like Wigglytuff Porygon’s ability to hard switch into things is a bit limited, although it can fill the sometimes crucial role of a Graveler (and Sudowoodo) switch-in, particularly for teams that forgo a water-type. It also ‘can’ switch into attacks such as Octillery’s Surf or Stantler’s return if necessary, but this comes with significant rng risks so it often is undesirable particularly if Porygon lands a favorable matchup. Speaking of which, the entire tier really tends to be very reliant on statusing porygon to threaten it, and many of the best mons do not run status inducing moves since sleep-talk users dont really have room for them and the explosion users mostly dont have free moveslots either + dont learn status-inducing (non damaging) moves other than toxic. while Porygon checks tend to answer it more effectively than is the case for Wigglytuff’s checks (Pupitar cannot be paralyzed by it, fighting types can fight it while asleep due to threatening paralysis with Thunder/Body Slam in addition to heavy damage with their stab moves, Magnemite just needs to paralyze it once rather than relying on hitting 3+ consecutive Thunders, as well as assorted other status moves like Pineco’s toxic), if specific checks are absent Porygon is more likely to just win on the spot, whereas Wigglytuff can still be at least a bit vulnerable to poor sleep talk rolls and such. also, Body Slam Wigglytuff itself can be an issue for Porygon, even if it is still a bit difficult for bslam wiggly to actually break through recover after paralyzing pory but the Porygon player is taking all the risk while the Wigglytuff player has all the control etc. and since Wigglytuff is very desirable pokemon to have on most teams anyway, this makes it relatively easy to naturally include a Porygon check on any nu team, as well as Wigglytuff being a somewhat difficult mon to lure out and remove to open up a Pory endgame. even more so than Wigglytuff, Porygon tends to be very anti-synergistic with spikers since it does not really benefit from having spikes up on the opposing side and allows Graveler to spin freely, but it is a strong consideration for any other team.

A-

Primeape

~ Primeape is a bit hard to rank but i cant really see it any lower than this so here it goes. obviously a very high variance pokemon, but certainly one of the key threats in gsc nu due to its excellent matchups against most of the tier’s best mons other than Weezing. Cross Chop + Thunder provides nearly perfect coverage while also having excellent sleep talk rolls against two key targets: Porygon and Dewgong. Primeape is less bad than a lot of other options for switching into Stantler, but it takes too much from Return to do so over and over again. Dewgong on the other hand, Primeape can switch into over and over again, which can really cause problems for the Dewgong user since standard Weezing sets cannot switch in forever, eventually Weezing will get paralyzed by Thunder and subsequently will be pressed to explode. Against almost everything else the variance makes it very hard to characterize matchups, in theory Thunder makes it a pretty good Kingler check and 2HKOs Xatu/Fearow the former of which it outspeeds, and Cross Chop OHKOs Persian and Stantler and 2HKOs +1 Wigglytuff, but since these moves have poor accuracy any of those matchups can turn out not so favorable in practice. Still, Primeape is one of the best available options for threatening the Normal-types that dominate the tier, and provides an acceptable switch in to Stantler’s Return that can otherwise be very difficult to respond to.
substitute sets have the nice feature of getting a free sub against Pineco and can potentially be scary against weezingless spikes teams specifically, but it gives up a lot in every other matchup. Ape really wants to be sleep talk to maximize its opportunities to enter the field and make progress; for a mon with near-perfect coverage, Primeape also has impressively good sleep talk rolls vs most of the tier so i rly dont think that is good to give up.

Graveler

~ Graveler has the other strong Explosion in the tier, while also having perfect dual stab coverage, a defensive typing that is valuable vs a lot of key threats including stalk Fearow/Persian, Weezing lacking HP Water, and absorbing explosions; and additionally providing Rapid Spin for spikes matchups. This mon will pretty much always find important things to do but it does come with a vulnerability to Octillery, and to some extent also Xatu which switches into EQ for free and then threatens a 2HKO, plus ofc water Weezing which OHKOs, so these have to be considered in teambuilding. Overall Graveler is a very valuable Pokemon to offensive and defensive teams alike, however against spikes teams its entry points will typically be limited so eg it may have to choose between spinning and exploding, while spikeless teams will not necessarily mind Graveler switching into and trading with something like Porygon with Explosion, so its threat level really doesnt compare to any of the Pokemon above, but Graveler’s utility + consistent value + relative splashability makes it imo worth of inclusion in the A ranks.

B+

spikes trio

~ pineco pup xatu are the spikes trio, you mostly shouldnt be using pup without spikes, and should be using it most of the time on spikes (bc pup is the only normal resist that really exploits having spikes up and you are likely to be very weak to normal offense if you forego a normal resist). xatu idt its an auto-include to the extent pup is but still a very good mon for spikes offense, so id put it a bit below pine/pup but feels like it belongs in the same subrank.
thief xatu is interesting, sadly haze prob doesnt work too well as a fourth move bc you kind of need a special defense drop to break wiggly lol, plus the paraslam issue; ppl have been runnning cray fourth, idk lol. and obv ur giving up 1v1 mus by foregoing stalk but a lot of xatus 1v1s are pretty bad anyway so i can kind of get that. cant take status at all anymore tho
the spikes mons are very hard to vr, spikes is a perfectly effective playstyle but it is also pretty specific given that pineco isnt very good in itself + a significant portion of the tier doesnt care about spikes support that much + graveler is already on many teams just for its typing and explosion + several of the tiers top mons being anti-synergistic with spikes due to giving free turns to graveler. so B+ on the vr feels fitting for an effective but specific teamstyle, esp since ‘effective but specific’ also describes many of the other mons in this subrank.
ultimately tho this is a limitation of how we do vrs, the spikes mons are kind of their own thing and it is very hard to make viability comparisons across teamstyles.
[deliberd sucks as a mon, also pineco’s ability to check primeape as well as switch into stantler’s eq can be rly useful for teammates esp for pupitar, idk how u make a deliberd team without massive weakness(es) and idg the appeal of it, esp when u can throw giga drain on pineco to beat grav 1v1 if u want to. sure deli can be good vs graveler gloom stuff but that structure is bad to begin with / easily exploitable by lots of good teams (which i think ppl are recognizing since u dont see gravgloom as much anymore.]

Persian, Fearow

~ persian has two totally different sets, hyp thief lead is alw decent enough, screech vs thunder fourth both have their downsides, effectiveness post thief def varies a lot but so does persian in general. i still like stalk persian quite a bit tbc, its a nice xatu answer and obv mus very well vs waters, fearow revenger if you arent using a normal resist, and a solid kingler check; as in my last vr, i continue to rate stalk persian v similarly to fearow overall. both come with wigglytuff liabilities but persian more so, on the flip side fearow can be pory bait but persian isnt really due to thunder.
both of them have fallen off for me as graveler usage has gone up a lot, while xatu usage has gone down. and the wiggly vulnerability is a significant issue for both/either. still, fearow and persian are both v dangerous mons that can/will tear apart teams if not respected in the builder, and ofc there are ways to press graveler to boom on something else to open them up etc. once again, i wouldnt use these mons on spikes teams at all since they give graveler free turns.

Sudowoodo, Magnemite

~ sudo is weird, the lack of thunder immunity combined with the lack of stab eq and therefore the inability to rly deal damage to most things without clicking self-destruct, as a sole normal resist this mon really is not justifiable over grav imo. but i think sudo alongside grav has a place, double rock messes up certain teams and if you can get sudo to boom on a water, what can benefit from that more than grav. have to be aware of graveler absorbing the boom tho, and double rock may be a bit tricky in the builder. u ‘could’ pair it with fourth boom eggy ig, eggy’s boom is even weaker than sudos tho lol.
~ magnemite on the other hand, in theory is an answer to a bunch of the tiers best mons including fblastless weezing and non-stantler normals and can actually deal damage without a self-ko move, but it also needs to hit 3 consec thunders to KO wiggly etc while taking a lot of damage even from resisted attacks, also thunder has 16pp and its stalk rolls are awful except vs fliers. while if u run tbolt then u dont 3hko wiggly without a crit so thats kinda even worse + no thunder para into 2HKO chance on stantler. even in a “great mu” where magnemite has the potential to get 3-4+ kos, half the time it will miss on key turns get overwhelmed and die. and ofc it also has some pretty hard answers in ninetales/flareon and to a lesser extent pupitar, while even graveler can prevent it from freely clicking thunder.

Dewgong

~ interestingly while other players seem to be liking dewgong more and more over the past year or so, i was super high on it (and weezing + dewgong ‘cores’) a year ago but have been liking gong less and less since then. i think the biggest thing for me is the shift to stalk on Primeape, so apes are now switching into dewgong long term (barring freeze if ape is awake) and weezing doesnt have recovery outside of lefties + hates thunder paralysis so even assuming spin support weez isnt switching into ape forever. (very different from a mon like stantler which does sm more damage to ape on switchin.) then you also have a pretty big wigglytuff issue, and you cant really stay in even a turn or two to try to freeze it unless you have eg a haze user. then on top of that, dewgong is a water that doesnt check sunny tales, as well as gives turns to kingler. the first two are the main issues but ultimately theres not really overlap in options for the rest of the team to cover these issues, with the exception of maybe curse stalk weezing? but ive only actually seen that on stall and idk what the rest of a team would look like there.
there are some other moveset options like encore stalk but then u need another plan for fires and magnemite (need to keep ice beam to be a xatu answer), and still isnt necessarily the most reliable in terms of flipping the wigglytuff matchup given paraslam + not being able to reliably encore while asleep and given that wiggly only needs one curse to become a threat to gong. soup mentioned curse stalk dewgong, idk it could be interesting primeape doesnt 2hko at +1 without a crit so leaves ape much more vulnerable to misses plus wiggly mu is now ok-ish u can prob just stall each other out tho theres more things that can go wrong for the dewgong user for sure. idk about dedge curse stalk tho id lean more toward bslam, recoil will cause issues and its not like u are breaking wiggly or able to fight magnemite anyway, + bslam outs vs porygon and pupitar similarly to bslam wiggly.

Flareon, Ninetales, Kingler, Hitmonlee

~ these other mons are all hard to rank, theyre all sort of matchup mons in one way or another so i j kind of threw them all here. sunny ninetales is the truest weezing answer in gsc nu as well as the most dangerous of the group i think, but it also has some hard stops in flareon/rapidash, and can also put its own team in a bind if a rock type switches in on sunny day. also to some extent weezing can boom on it if needed. kingler has more consistency in a physically oriented metagame but its ceiling is also lower, it needs to get substitute turns correct vs various slower mons like weezing/graveler/porygon, also its outcomes can swing a lot based on thunder hits/misses. Flareon is the best answer to sunny tales, as well as a great Xatu answer and among the better Weezing answers even if 3HKOd by sludge bc weez cant afford to stay in and take its attacks, but it is also slow and physically frail in a largely physically-oriented metagame; the stantler matchup particularly can be a big weak point. hitmonlee is basically a more passive primeape with way more special bulk so it can answer oct, physically frailer tho so rly does not like switching into stantler returns. its a weird mon u can pair it with graveler and maybe not necessarily need a water type while having interesting options vs normal offense, ofc neither of them really answers wigglytuff well and stantler is an issue as well. obv soup has used plenty of hitmon+grav but not as much recently and theres prob more options to explore in terms of the remaining teammates.

B

Rapidash

~ rapidash is sort of like a less ‘extreme’ flareon, it answers sunny tales p well but doesnt actually 3HKO it so ninetales can eg j wait out the sunny turns before switching, can answer xatu p well but obv has nowhere near tales/flare special bulk arguably dash vs xatu is closer to persian vs xatu, but on the flip side rapidash is much more ok vs normals, particularly fearow and persian but there is the caveat there of 85% fblast. unlike flareon octillery comes into rapidash pretty well even if it does get chipped decently. and same issue as flare with predicting rocks / choosing between stab and dedge but flare at least has the bigger reward obv hitting quite a bit harder on both sides? idk overall rapidash j doesnt rly have clear standout traits to me so feels like there are better options. but a weezing and xa check that isnt free setup for wigglytuff, without the uneven matchups of flareon or sunny tales, its worth something. feels on the border of B+/B could go either way

Raticate, Dunsparce, Furret, Pidgeot

~ raticate is like fine but competes with all those other normals, does have sfang for resists unlike fearow/persian but on the flip side sometimes sfang sucks as a stalk roll (altho other times it is fine). idt sfang actually does anything to make the mon any less wigglytuff bait than persian/fearow, unfortunately.

~stalk dunsparce is the best wigglytuff answer in the tier aside from gastly which would be the reason id consider using it, and like a slightly worse version of the #2 mon in theory should have a place but idk what that place is lol. also bc of being locked into return it not only cant threaten porygon but actually has bigger issues getting pp stalled by pory, since at least dedge wiggly can recoil itself into being able to use rest next turn, enabling wiggly to get 3 turns out of each rest pp. porygon in fact switches into +1 stalk dunsparce since return is so weak so, yea.

~ furret is a cool mon honestly, again a lot of competition tho. its curse amnesia set has similar issues to deer’s curse ls set, altho it does fight other curse users a lil better than curse ls stantler does. furret’s asset to me is the phys bulk which is close to ninetales’s phys bulk, similarly avoiding weezing sludge bomb 3hko, but with better offensive presence. also can be a makeshit stantler answer, outspeeding avoiding a 2hko even with 2 recoils and doing 40% min with each dedge. unfortunately it rly does not have a good coverage move to run with sleep talk, soup tried dedge return stalk lol, id maybe try out j dedge curse stalk since unlike a persian or stantler furret can actually fight other cursers pretty decently due to its better physical bulk, including wigglytuff (mutual 3hkos if wiggly is dedge while bslam wiggly fails to 4hko with equal stat stages), and also sudo which as usual cant break through it lol. while furret is just slower than 45s at +1, it still outspeeds pory so while it cant fight pory long term pory cannot switch into it well. as with pory dunsparce etc, doesnt get bslam so theres a pup vulnerability. anyway cant rank it higher than this since it is barely used.

~ almost forgot pidgeot oops, yea idk its like ~fine, obv mainly meant to be a stantler answer, in theory reflect is great vs such a physical metagame but the turns just run out too quickly so against threats like bslam wiggly all it really offers most of the time is a safer switchin to your own wiggly.

Chinchou

~ chinchou has a big stantler problem, but at least chinch takes advantage of oct, i guess, it kind of wants to be on spikes or else wiggly comes in too freely but its also hard to fit on spikes teams. i rly dont like this mon and i would be fine moving it down to the tier below but some players actually use it so.

C rank brief comments

not gonna spend too much time here but.
~ i hate dugtrio, the normals mus are rly bad, it requires spikes but spikes teams rly need the ground to be pup to threaten the pory/wiggly type mons that otherwise can stay in vs anything and prevent you from accumulating spikes damage, two grounds is p clearly not an option, also pup is better vs most of the stuff dug likes to threaten anyway eg fires and xatu. dug’s access to sub means it can fish vs sleeping ape/persian in a way pup cant do and the deer mu is slightly less bad but overall this mon is j not worth using to me at this point. i wouldnt be ~shocked if someone found a real place for it, cant imagine it being more than some sort of matchup fish tho.
i think flareon is about as good a breaker as magmar, esp when graveler is the most used rock; and id rather have flareon’s stalk letting it answer weezing than have magmar’s faster than deer speed tier when it rly lacks good entry points. exeggcute’s boom is quite weak, or u go defensive with moonlight, either way u have moveslot issues and ultimately octillery isnt scary enough to rly need a grass for it anyway unless ur running double rock or something. gloom i similarly see very little value in, at least stalk hitmonlee can do some other things aside from the oct mu like threaten stantler and porygon. also gloom is wiggly bait.
bp mons lol, lickitung (sd eq protect) is a nice agili-pass recipient tho since it is still a reasonably functional mon even without the agilipass so u arent j entirely putting evthg in the agilipass basket. persian (and dugtrio) do outspeed licki at +2 speed tho. idk if stalk licki would be worth anything as yet another alternate-wiggly option, ofc weaker and slower so its wiggly mu is kind of bad. need to see and/or face stall more to rate it, i feel like a standard team can just kind of outstall back shuckle has 16 toxics and doesnt seem like it is going to be able to out-pp stall multiple stalk normals to me but idk. (as long as you have a curse stalk weezing answer, anyway.)
dragonair i similarly need to see more but most teams should have a pretty natural way to counter twave into screens into bp strats in just going wiggly right away as once again the screen(s) will be up by the time any stat passing can happen while wiggly gets to +3 or +4, so you better have a plan for this. growth tangela is funny but 4mss and while being decent against eg non-fearow normals its not rly scary either plus giga has 8pp (giga’s healing is necessary for mus vs normals), i think there are better mu fishes. like gastly! lmao yea gastly is a weird mon but it does wall wiggly, and at least gets thief off on something i guess? lol. lots of move options on it but its alw going to have lots of issues, starting with stalk deer.

i actually dont think the tier is in a great place rn to be honest, tour games mostly go fine due to (a certain mon having very low tour usage) but when we'd do practice games within the team and such a pretty high % of them would get into wigglytuff mirrors (or occasionally pory vs wiggly mus if the wiggly wasnt bslam), wiggly is often the best answer to itself since it doesnt rly care about being one turn behind in a curse war, or even just if two wigglys accidentally get sent out at the same time eg after an explosion ko then the wiggly mirror is in many cases not something either player can rly opt out of, much less get any benefit from opting out of it. (obv wiggly is a good choice of mon to send out after an explosion so, if both players have a wiggly in back then there are significant chances that this happens lol) and even if you want to specifically tech to try to avoid wigglytuff mirrors, pupitar and haze weezing still have issues switching in due to paraslam, while if you want something more consistent your options are haze stalk oct, gastly, or stalk dunsparce.
tbc im not sure that tiering action on wigglytuff wouldnt cause other issues, as wigglytuff can be a significant deterrent to spamming the other offensive normals, or if there can be some adaptation to it (i do not rly see low wigglytuff usage as something that can be sustainable, given its performance pretty much whenever it is used + the fact that the more other players are using wiggly the more you are incentivized to also use it yourself) without need for any tiering action. anyway, from my pov it def should be on the radar, obv u cant take tiering action off of practice games anyway but we do have the 5 snorlaxes games + a couple other wigglytuff uses i remember bee vs soup was one, in that game as well as a couple of the snorlaxes games imo the opposing teams were j way too wiggly weak in the builder and therefore couldnt rly do anything, but either way none of the wiggly games i saw rly made it look balanced (to me).

[its kinda funny that even tho esta and i completely disagree on anything/everything else abt this tier, that we both have expressed potential interest in tiering action on wigglytuff lol]

 

[Estarossa]

Cross posting what I submitted to Bee for my VR if anyone was interested in viewing it (could be cool to see a few other people post theirs and some discussion around it too).

Xatu is still king of this tier to me and has showcased recently just how dominant it still is, I view lower opinions on it as purely a spike-less side effect but I have very little respect for it by principle, as long as you have spikes on your team its the most dominating pokemon and its speed, typing, ability to compress checking top shit like rest talk stantler and weezing, and fantastic progress making is just great.

Weezing i'm higher on than I have been for a long while, think it's just generally more splashable than its been for a while and its value as a check to rampant primeapes is big (and to quite an extent opposing weezings in some mus too), grav weezing deli structures are incredibly strong especially and its offensive potential is obviously great, it feels like its less reliant on getting every turn right immediately than it used to be too because it generally gets more of them now than just like 1-2 over a game before it has to boom.

Delibird is officially better than pineco in my book now, though its an opinion i alone have 100%. Pineco definitely has issues accessing its wider toolkit outside of primeape mus typically, while delibird has both easier to access wider toolkit in thief due to its speed tier but a generally easier time finding spikes opportunities too and gets grav mu without needing to run shitty 4ths. I generally rate thief a bit higher than the extra boom on structures like weez grav too because it offensively synergises so fantastically with deadly spikes mons like xatu / rapidash / dugtrio and rly puts a lot of pressure on waters etc in general.

Stantler is still definitely good, its curse sets are still quite threatening but are seeing less play atm, rest talk sets are very splashable but face a decent bit of competition in that slot wiht primeape for me and have some xatu issues and generally are threatening in a bit of a diff way through being so long term and hard hitting instead of deadly sweeps, the mon is such a key threat you cant ever ignore though and has a lot of high consistency that justifies still being in top 4, i just put delibird above it now because of how highly i rate spikes and the insane peaks it allows vs like how more stantlers are now rest talk and the general tier climate feeling a little less friendly to it than in previous year or so.

Octillery drops a little for me but not very much, still think its insane and you definitely nearly always need it or dewgong realistically, i'm not really considering this a drop in my books anyway as more of a reshuffle of order in the very top. Pineco good cause spikes good, still think its got a large enough use case vs delibird to still be this high and close even if i think delibirds peaks and reliability are a lil higher.

Wigglytuff / Fearow are broken normals as always, wigglytuff kinda gets a higher placement in my book of the two because we're seeing more annoying rocks in general for fearow and curse talk wigglytuff is an absolute menace that forces rng reliance to beat for a lot of non rock using teams, both have enough potential to get through stuff like sudoo (nonrest) / pupitar anyway longer term.

Rapidash just keeps getting better in my eyes and delibird innovations are no stranger to helping push this, speed tier is incredible, its ability to be one of the better ape / weezing checks is pog, its dangerous offensively with its attacking combo and rly pressures stuff with spikes and can completely turn the tides on octillery / dewgong with a single crit esp if it starts fishing vs asleep ones due to bulk. mons fantastic and the best of the fires comfortably to me and a very strong unit thats been underrated for far too long and deserves to get the respect it used to get a few years back.

I'm not really a primeape hater anymore, but only because of RestTalk which i do think is actually rly good, albeit still rng reliant and has repeatedly lost games due to running out of its low pp moves with their miss chances and crap in end-games it should otherwise win. RestTalk is definitely good though for pressuring like stantler / wiggly / dewgong / octillery etc, I respect it much more than other sets because it actually gets these "Infinite" turns and anything the other sets might arguably have against weezing is more then made up for by the fact that rest talk ape can actually sit there clicking thunder into it freely because the weezing isn't just going to immediately boom and can't hurt u, good rest talking glue with some offensive dangerousness and a good allegory to rest talk stantler on a lot of builds that changes up some of the mus, especially good with spikes builds and a nice way of justifying like ice beam octs and shit too.

Won't really explain the rest of it so much because I start to care less after the A rank ones, but mag / grav are pog still as glue pieces, mag is the deadliest thing in tier still definitely to me and abuses some stuff p hard, rest talk stantler isn't fantastic for it nor are fires but a lot of these mus get 180d the minute they get thunder parad awake anyway with spikes up, grav opens up nice builds a lot but i don't respect spikeless, its true power level absolutely comes from playing grav + spikes to me where you ensure you dominate the hazards game instead by putting spikes on their side but not yours to get one of the biggest adantages imaginable in gsc, spikeless just evens the playing field on both sides but makes it just as hard for u to make any progress as it does ur opp, no me gusta personally. helps that its also a p pog fearow / weezing / rapidash answer while at it.

persian's still one of the poggest leads and has neat builds that can fuck up gravs / other rocks etc in normal spams, solid pokemon but its definitely not as splashable as some other stuff to deserve a higher spot. Dewgong is good but its definitely feeling more and more punishable, has good use cases and is perfectly solid mon though so feels a fair placement roughly to me. Dugtrio's fallen off for sure but it can definitely still work with like delibird spikes and shit and shouldnt' be disrespected cause ive seen it farm its fair share of games into teams that disrespect it still. Chinchou is always threatening but always limiting in the builder, it being one of the few complete octillery counters is strong though but its lower power level compared to mag sort of makes it feel more doomed vs like stantler / primeape etc in general and its not quite as threatening and the bulk can sorta shit it over in xatu mus and stuff, still should again be respected though.

Can ask me on disc or whatever about rest of other placements i guess but not really vibing explaining the rest from there onwards, and ive already written an awful lot.

 

[BeeOrSomething]

This is what I submitted for the NU VR.

S Tier

I think Weezing is fairly clearly number 1 it just fits basically everywhere and does a lot, Primeape checking and Explosion are super good and RestTalk is also quite strong on specific fat spikeless teams and stall.

Stantler just feels like the strongest splashable offensive threat in the tier and provides good defensive utility with RestTalk and a deadly breaker/sweeper with Curse.

Octillery is super splashable and really strong and the best check to other Octillery.

S- Tier

Pineco is good because Spikes and boom and it has very helpful defensive utility with its ability to punish Primeape, Stantler, and some other stuff. The times where you get to spin are also super nice.

Dewgong is also amazing, it's definitely more exploitable than Octillery because Primeape is a much more direct punish but it's much less reliant on having one of Spikes and/or spin support and is a much better stop to the birds.

A+ Tier

Xatu is definitely super strong but it really wants Spikes and can sometimes thud into stuff like Porygon and Dewgong. BTW, Thief + Confuse Ray is also a really good set. Also, Sp Def drops are complete kank.

Primeape is actually crazy I started to find it absurdly obnoxious at the end of ALTPL/NUCL, it's basically impossible to answer reliably even when stacking checks like Weezing, Pineco, and a bird because Primeape can spam Thunder basically the entire game sometimes. It still always has issues though with letting in Pine and missing and stuff but I really do think the accuracy issue is overblown. Primeape is also super splashable.

Porygon is really fuckin good Thunder Wave is such an obnoxious move and 32 PP Recover is of course broken. Curse is like far and away the best set, it's such a dangerous win condition and pairs beautifully with RestTalk Stantler and RestTalk Primeape.

Persian is an incredible lead that frankly probably doesn't get used too much because people don't want to use the same teams again and again lol. I don't ever feel comfortable around Persian it's so awkward to play around without a Magnemite or RestTalk Weezing, even having your RestTalk Primeape slept before you want it and/or thieved can be super bad. Thunder is about as good as Screech as the fourth btw.

A Tier

Fearow is amazing but I don't think it's quite A+ tier, there's a lot of competition with Xatu on Spikes teams and birdless is definitely most common for spikeless from my experience and it's just not as reliable as the picks above imo. Still a very dangerous threat into rockless (very common) and even against teams w rocks you can just lay Spikes and spam moves with your Weezing and Fearow and such and just send in Octillery.

Flareon is fantastic, Growth pass continues to be very similar to Persian in that it's criminally underused for how good it is and RestTalk Flareon is phenomenal on Graveler Spikeless and even a couple specific Spikes teams.

Wigglytuff is a good Pokemon but I think it's a bit overrated by some, I don't think it's too difficult to handle for most well-built teams before the end game and Primeape and Spikes and Explosions are everywhere. It can also always just like get crit and fucking die lol I mean it is sitting there spamming Rest and Sleep Talk the majority of its turns. Still a very potent win condition with valuable defensive use.

Graveler is a very good Pokemon but I have it a little lower than some others because recently I've been feeling a little less pressed to put it on even Spikeless teams because it's so slow and specially/water weak, but it's still super valuable to have.

Ninetales is a weird Pokemon. Sunny Day Ninetales is like unironically amazing into everything that isn't Flareon and Rapidash, but the paranoia that one of these two will show up is so strong that I never ended up bringing it in ALTPL or NUCL lol.

Kingler is extraordinarily dangerous, guy absolutely throttles a lot of Dewgong teams and Hidden Power Rock deletes Xatu, half the time it feels like Primeape has to be sent in to gamble on Thunders to deal with Kingler. Hidden Power Ground is also very good for Weezing but needs more support in Xatu matchups.

A- Tier

Magmar is basically impossible to answer safely without a RestTalk fire, however all three of the RestTalk fires are really good and common so you have to be super careful in battle or drop something you don't want to like Cross Chop for Hidden Power Ground to use alongside Sunny Day.

Pretty good Pokemon, doesn't spin which is kinda annoying and Deer weak is bad but it's quite strong and being able to Screech and resist Normal at the same time is primo.

Dug has definitely fallen but I think it's overhated. Can be a really strong offensive breaker if you position it well and generally just use it smartly, but it is absolutely difficult to fit sometimes yeah.

Chinch's biggest issue besides accuracy is Deer/Ape weak, good lord. If you can manage your way around these two though then Chinch is really dangerous and it basically stops you from ever doing things with your [near obligatory] water directly.

B+ Tier

Mag is in theory like the greatest thing ever but then you keep missing all your Thunders or don't match into a bird or get crit or score into a ground. TBH I'm probably overrating it lol but it does really rock matchups where you face a bird team with no ground (quite common) assuming you hit Thunders, so it's not like that bad. Just to be clear, this area around like B+ and stuff is in general like super unclear for me.

Sudo is kinda funny, it's really strong in Dewgong matchups where the best they can do is send in Primeape (if they even have one) and otherwise it gets a 1 for 1 at minimum, but it's also super difficult to fit.

Shuckle stall is really fuckin good asides from a few specific matchups like Swords Dance Kingler and Pupitar (just off the top of my head), that's about it.

Gloom is really passive sometimes but it's good defensively, is a good status spreader, blocks Octillery, can be a nice boosting threat on defensive teams. TBH it should probably be lower lol.

I think Pidge is really good, it's still quite strong and mostly shuts down RestTalk Stantler and Dugtrio which is amazing and unique.

Dash is good on aggressive Spikes teams and serves as an important replacement for Weezing that's much faster and better into Xatu but outside of these few teams I'm never using it, there are still a lot of Spikes teams where other Pokemon (Weezing) are better and it's useless on Spikeless.

B Tier

Useful defensively and honestly kind of a serious threat to Fearow teams but it still does let in Weezing and the birds and Pine so you have to build very specifically which leads to it not being too common.

Licki is a nice Swords Dance threat and leadoff but Primeape becoming more common is a mild pain. It's bulky enough to where you can switch it out and bring it back in and set up again without too much trouble though.

Nair is a funky Thunder Wave spammer that can either set Screens for Growth pass/Kingler physical spam or click the funny coverage special attacks with Spikes up. Pretty difficult to fit on a team and a bit weak to Deer/Ape/Wiggly but it's not bad at all.

Deli isn't inherently bad, Spikes and Thief are good moves, but Pineco just does more for a team. If you play well it's not really too difficult to get Pine in safely against something it isn't 2HKOed by, and the high point of Explosion is better than the high point of Thief. Deli also doesn't provide like any defensive utility whereas Pine is nice for Deer and Ape and Pory.

Normally I would put Hitmontop in like B- with Bayleef for its role on stall teams but I found another really cool niche for Hitmontop that I feel elevates it enough to the bottom of B rank (and will be saving for GSC Slam).

B- Tier

Most consistent Agility passer and can click Barrier and Light Screen too.

Very good Pokemon on stall, threatening SD sweeper long-term and useful defensive roles.

TBH I just think Dunsparce is super funny because it's essentially just a Wigglytuff clone but it has more funny points for being a Dunsparce and also feels like it attracts less negative hax (I know I'm spitting bullshit I'm just putting it here because it is NU worthy and also it has like marginally higher defense than Wiggly + Bslam and Dedge are both mostly unnecessary anyways, especially Dedge).

C+ Tier

Fast and strong but it's super frail and Dedge recoil sucks

Tent permablocks Pineco

KIngler 2 but Kingler exists

Kinda pitifully weak sometimes but it has an appealing amount of unique traits

Ledian is just much more consistent as a dedicated Baton Pass user because Farfetch'd is so frail but having Swords Dance too is a neat trait

Hitmontop but it outspeeds Delibird at the cost of being worse at everything else

Pretty big fish but it can be super difficult to take down for some teams

Xatu fish, also inconsistent and dies to status

C Tier

MrSoup used a really cool double attack RestTalk set in ALTPL that I think has a lot of potential, Curse Surf is also neat

Supremo fish Pokemon but it dominates those fishes

Mostly inferior Dewgong with a few really specific advantages like Haze on stall or Agility + Hydro Pump on Growth pass (still worse than Dewgong on Growth pass but Haze definitely has legitimate applications)

Could probably put this lower TBH, but Ariados is an Agility passer that if you let have one more turn than it needs will also click Spider Web

Worse Sneasel most of the time unless you really need Xatu directly gone instead of taking advantage of it to spread damage onto other Pokemon

Probably put this too low but I think Agility pass works perfectly fine without Cubone whereas Cubone cannot function without Agility pass which makes it hard to want to use at the cost of flexibility/hiding your passer on an already rare playstyle

C- Tier

Curse/Return/Screech/Recover is such an interesting set but there are just so many issues that it's hard to make a good or even decent team

Arbok has been tried so much but it's just god awful. It's so frail but it theoretically can do something I guess!

Tangela has neat applications until you realize it both can't do damage and fit all the utility moves you want, and at the same time it's specially frail

I don't really know how this mon was ever good it does no damage at all and there are so many better options on turbo fat/stall

D Tier

Theoretically neat threat with 95 Spa Hydro Pump but it's so difficult to get on the field and there are so many better Pokemon to use

Awful 4mss and generally just worse than Bayleef

It's like almost not that bad until you realize Kingler is 10x better and it's made of paper and there's still a lot faster

Soup has tried to make this work but I think special attackers, especially Xatu, make it hard to really pull off a successful Curse pass attempt. Also Ledian and Farfetch'd exist.

I don't really know how to feel about Machoke, you can't really fit it ever and it's so frail but it's kinda strong but it also has awful 4mss

Apologies for the lower writing quality compared to what I normally post but it's quite late, I don't want to write sections beyond 1-2 sentences for over 50 Pokemon, and I mostly just wanted to put my list out here

 

[BeeOrSomething]

GSC NU VR April 2024 Update

It's been a year, and two major team tournaments, ALTPL II and NUCL I, have recently concluded, so I figured it would be time to get up a new VR before GSC NU Open I goes up. Thank you to the players who submitted: BeeOrSomething Estarossa MrSoup Real FV13 SANKE CARP Medeia dawnbuster romanji DiannieRatson juoean

Special thanks to Earthworm and vapicuno whose' work over the past years has made this project much easier, and additional, massive, massive thanks to Siatam for helping me out with where to go with the statistical analysis section and especially Wanted in 49 States for personally carrying me through the statistical analysis section. Also thanks to dawnbuster for helping out by alleviating some work by doing a couple of the write-ups for the observations section.

Collection of Data
- Players who got at least 1 win in GSCPL IV, NUCL I, ALTPL II, Top 4 in GSC NU Cup, and/or Top 4 in GSC NU Open were invited to submit their rankings via a smogon conversation or Discord if they chose.
- Submitters could rank any Pokemon on their list with no limit to how many Pokemon they could nominate for the VR.
- None of the Pokemon were mandatory to rank.
- It was possible for players to make edits to their rankings after submitting their list until April 6th, 2024
- The data collection happened from March 23rd, 2024 to April 5th, 2024

Flaws
- Small sample size that can lead to inconsistent subtiering and significant skewing
- Players who opted to submit a list may have missed some Pokemon relevant for ranking
- Several players opted to submit a tier list instead and may have left out Pokemon they wished to rank or ranked Pokemon they may not have deemed relevant enough

Link to raw data in spreadsheet form

S Rank

01 Weezing
02 Stantler
03 Octillery

A1 Rank

04 Pineco
05 Xatu
06 Primeape
07 Dewgong
08 Fearow

A2 Rank

09 Wigglytuff
10 Porygon
11 Graveler
12 Persian
13 Flareon

B1 Rank

14 Ninetales
15 Dugtrio
16 Kingler

B2 Rank

17 Chinchou
18 Pupitar
19 Magnemite
20 Sudowoodo
21 Magmar
22 Rapidash
23 Hitmonlee
24 Gloom
25 Shuckle
26 Pidgeot

C1 Rank

27 Delibird
28 Dragonair
29 Lickitung
30 Dunsparce
31 Bayleef

C2 Rank

32 Hitmontop
33 Raticate
34 Tentacool

D Rank

35 Exeggcute
36 Ledian
37 Gastly
38 Houndour
39 Sneasel
40 Furret
41 Hitmonchan
42 Seaking
43 Farfetch'd

E1 Rank

44 Azumarill
45 Mantine
46 Tangela
47 Noctowl
48 Ariados
49 Cubone

E2 Rank

50 Corsola
51 Arbok
52 Machoke

E3 Rank

53 Venomoth
54 Poliwhirl
55 Sunflora

Visualization of Results and Individual Rankings

All the individual submissions are assembled into a single image. In the New VR column, red indicates a fall compared to the old VR while green indicates a rise. Gray indicates no movement, and white indicates a new placing for a Pokemon that was not on the VR previously. The pale green and red in each person's individual rankings indicate what they ranked higher (green) and lower (red) compared the new VR, and white indicates the same ranking as the new VR. It should also be noted that this chart does not get rid of outliers - this is purely the average ranks. It is slightly different than the final rankings, particularly on the bottom end.

Observations

Significant differences from the previous VR to the new VR that I have taken a note of.



Weezing from 3rd to 1st (+2) A1 to S

Weezing is near unequivocally decided to be the best Pokemon in the metagame currently, checking immensely dangerous threats like Primeape and being extremely difficult to switch into with its vast array of coverage, including HP Water which has resurged as a coverage option for the now-common Graveler and Pupitar, and especially Explosion. There is very little downside to using Weezing on your team and it has had and should continue to see great usage.



Stantler from 4th to 2nd (+2) A1 to S

RestTalk Stantler has come back into the light of the metagame and harder than ever, giving Stantler great flexibility with how it's used in the battle and providing a strong check to dangerous special attackers like Dewgong and Chinchou. Players have truly realized just how impossible Stantler is to handle as an offensive threat, especially when it's sticking around throughout a game much more commonly. Light Screen + Curse remains a potent set in the early or late game, though usually never seen without another RestTalk user like Wigglytuff and Primeape in order to fill defensive holes, though Thief + Hypnosis Stantler in the lead has become largely forgotten, usually being regarded as a worse Persian. Players have even experimented with Curse RestTalk Stantler, although using Earthquake or a Wigglytuff instead remains mostly superior.



Xatu from 1st to 5th (-4) S1 to A1

Xatu is no longer the king of GSC NU, and that is a near fact. It's still an incredibly dangerous offensive threat, but with the rise in usage of Spikeless teams which usually choose to forgo Xatu or even a bird altogether, Xatu's usage has dipped significantly. Thief Xatu, often with Confuse Ray too, has made a comeback after disappearing for a long time and has helped keep up Xatu's relevancy and adaptation, but it's not enough to prevent Xatu from being worse than other Pokemon in the eyes of many.



Primeape from 11th to 6th (+5) A2 to A1

RestTalk Primeape has exploded in popularity from something nobody ever thought of to absolutely everywhere, and it's incredibly dominant. Primeape now almost always wields the devastating Thunder, which while it may look weak with no STAB and a measly 60 Special Attack, it's perfect for Primeape's needs, smacking Xatu and Fearow for a potential 2HKO, doing solid chip damage to Weezing, and dealing huge damage to Octillery and Dewgong, accuracy willing. And, of course, Thunder can always paralyze. RestTalk Primeape is very similar to RestTalk Stantler in how it functions as an offensive threat capable of being relied on defensively, and sometimes, it can be infuriating to handle consistently.



Dugtrio from 6th to 15th (-9) A2 to B1

Dugtrio's usage has significantly fallen, only fitting on teams with Spikes, most of which would rather have a Pokemon with better defensive capability. Dugtrio's issues with power are also much more notable, as with the rise of RestTalk Stantler and Primeape following the proliferation of RestTalk Dewgong as a destroyer of common Spikes teams, teams in general have become significantly bulkier and more able to prevent Dugtrio from snowballing in games. Graveler and its Rapid Spin have also become significantly more common, removing the Spikes Dugtrio almost needs. Graveler itself in addition to Pupitar also provide strong competition for a team slot, as although Dugtrio is significantly faster, it doesn't resist Normal moves.



Porygon from 20th to 10th (+10) A3 to A2

Curse Porygon has fully taken over BoltBeam Porygon and made it nearly obsolete. Porygon is incredibly difficult to take down while it's boosting up thanks to the extremely broken Recover and Thunder Wave. Porygon is a strong check to many different threats and can easily take over or outright win games. Its issues have also become less pronounced, with Curse fixing most of the problems BoltBeam Porygon had with breaking, and just generally teambuilding becoming more refined over time.



Gloom from 17th to 24th (-7) A3 to B2

Gloom continues to decline as the meta centers around bulky setup sweepers and RestTalk users like Stantler and Wigglytuff. It matches up poorly into top Pokemon like Weezing, Xatu, and Dewgong, being extremely passive and exploitable. It still has a solid niche due to its good matchups against Pokemon like Primeape and Hidden Power Electric Octillery, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to fit on teams, especially since the Spikeless balances focused around Graveler + Gloom that popped up during GSC NU Open I have almost entirely disappeared as a result of being torn apart by Stantler.



Flareon from 22nd to 13th (+9) B1 to A2

The advent of RestTalk Flareon following GSC NU Open I has allowed Flareon to find an entirely new niche as a potent mixed attacker with great specially defensive capabilities. Flareon is a major standout on Spikeless Graveler teams, remedying one of their core weaknesses, Sunny Day Magmar and Ninetales, and providing breaking power not reliant on Spikes. Growth Pass Flareon also continues to be amazing, though with quite low usage.



Houndour from 23rd to 38th (-15) B1 to D

Houndour has almost completely escaped relevancy. Let alone that Xatu is significantly less common, even if you do score the Xatu matchup, Houndour teams are severely flawed, usually having issues with Weezing and Stantler, the two best Pokemon in the tier. Building with and making effective use of Houndour is a nigh impossible task if you want to use a defensively sound team, and when using Houndour, the options you have basically relegate you to using a more defensive team if you're not using a team where forgoing Houndour is simply the much better option. Houndour can have a decent niche at times, as in Xatu matchups, it can pave the way for a decisive win with a Pokemon like Hidden Power Ground Kingler, but the vast majority of the time, Houndour is not an effective choice.



Azumarill from 26th to 44th (-18) B1 to E1

Azumarill, once an icon of defensive teams, has completely fallen out of the metagame. Its passivity is so severe that it becomes exploitable by essentially every Pokemon not weak to Water. Not being able to do damage almost totally kills any prospect Azumarill has of seeing the limelight again. Even as a defensive option on the most hardcore of balance or stall teams, Azumarill is just not worth using, being wholly outclassed by Pokemon like Dewgong and Ninetales.



Graveler from 24th to 11th (+13) B1 to A2

Graveler has made a serious name for itself upon its true potential being realized, now being a household name on numerous Spikeless teams and some Spikes teams as a powerful breaker, crucial defensive piece, and remover of Spikes. Pineco has managed to fight back against it with tools like Toxic and Giga Drain, and it's still quite slow, but the combination of a strong Earthquake, a Normal resistance, Rapid Spin, and Explosion will never not be useful.



Pupitar from 37th to 18th (+19) C to B2

Ever since it was actually remembered to exist in ALTPL I, Pupitar has displayed itself to be an excellent choice on Spikes teams as an alternative to Dugtrio that, while significantly slower, is better at breaking Octillery and crucially checks Fearow and Curse Normals. It may not be an effective choice on Spikeless teams considering Graveler's existence and a lack of breaking power without them, but on Spikes teams, it's often a better choice compared to Graveler and a very dangerous offensive threat in its own right.



Pidgeot from 33rd to 26th (+7) B2 to B2

Reflect Pidgeot has stepped onto the stage, taking Pidgeot from a discount Persian with severe flaws that likely would have been forgotten about and fallen to a Pokemon with an incredibly specific and important defensive niche that can still dish out strong hits and fit on all types of non-stall teams. Reflect Pidgeot is one of the best answers to RestTalk Stantler and Dugtrio, and when it comes to Stantler, there's close to nothing that can take it on safely, letting Pidgeot shine as a unique option to fill defensive holes. Pidgeot still has significant competition with Fearow, but with Fearow's usage falling slightly and Stantler being better than ever, I'm sure Pidgeot will continue to perform.



Exeggcute from 27th to 35th (-8) B2 to D

Nothing about Exeggcute itself has really changed, but its flaws are much more pronounced. Exeggcute generally struggles with a lack of damage, being walled by most common RestTalk users unless it uses Explosion, and once you use Explosion, you don't have an Exeggcute. The fall of Dugtrio has also significantly harmed Egg, as stuffing Dug is one of its greatest abilities. Exeggcute is just generally difficult to fit on teams and doesn't do a whole lot.



Noctowl from 30th to 47th (-17) B2 to E1

While Noctowl does still have somewhat of a niche, it is becoming increasingly harder to justify using it over other Curse Normals. Noctowl has additional weaknesses to Electric and Ice that other Normal types don’t have, and its poor Attack and Defense mean it loses to opposing Curse Normals and takes longer to pose a serious threat. As such, Noctowl is considered an inconsistent gimmick.



Arbok from 35th to 51st (-16) C to E2

Players have realized that Arbok just has no reason to be used in GSC NU. It's outclassed as a physical attacker by Pokemon like Stantler, and as a Poison type by Weezing. Arbok does not match up well against top Pokemon like Xatu and struggles to break teams. Running it makes running Weezing much harder thanks to overlapping roles and weaknesses, and giving up the best Pokemon in the tier for an extremely flawed sweeper is essentially never worth it. Arbok cannot even fulfill one of the primary roles for a Poison type, checking Primeape and Hitmonlee, because it's so extraordinarily frail and exploitable. Arbok is basically never worth using.



Poliwhirl from 42nd to 54th (-12) D to E3

Poliwhirl has become forgotten, and rightfully so. Belly Drum + Lovely Kiss is a potentially potent niche, but it's made of paper, never finding a good chance for setup. It can also be easily revenge killed by faster Pokemon like Xatu and Fearow. Maybe more importantly though, just use Kingler, or even Seaking. Poliwhirl is basically not worth considering anymore.

 

[BeeOrSomething]

note: heavily inspired by (mostly stolen) Siatam VR post from last year, was very helpful

All the charts are here. Again, I could not possibly give my gratitude to Wanted in 49 States more, without him I'm not sure I would've been able to complete this part of the analysis myself.

I have used vapicuno's original methodology described here to assemble the VR and tiers. Massive thanks for supplying the code used to generate these graphics. I'll also be copying his format and explanations, because frankly they work perfectly fine, they're right here to use, and I have no idea what else I would use or even how. I've opted to exclude the "Analysis of Camps" because I don't even know what this is referring to. Some charts have also been left out due to being unnecessary or broken (there were a lot of errors Wanted and I had to work through, also the ones that didn't work were also unnecessary).

Please offer feedback if you have any, it would be greatly appreciated.

Average outlier-compensated ranks from everyone:

Aggregate Rankings

Note: Seadra being on at 54 is the only difference so if you don't care feel free to skip this one

01 Weezing
02 Stantler
03 Octillery
04 Pineco
05 Xatu
06 Primeape
07 Dewgong
08 Fearow
09 Wigglytuff
10 Porygon
11 Graveler
12 Persian
13 Flareon
14 Ninetales
15 Dugtrio
16 Kingler
17 Chinchou
18 Pupitar
19 Magnemite
20 Sudowoodo
21 Magmar
22 Rapidash
23 Hitmonlee
24 Gloom
25 Shuckle
26 Pidgeot
27 Delibird
28 Dragonair
29 Lickitung
30 Dunsparce
31 Bayleef
32 Hitmontop
33 Raticate
34 Tentacool
35 Exeggcute
36 Ledian
37 Gastly
38 Houndour
39 Sneasel
40 Furret
41 Hitmonchan
42 Seaking
43 Farfetch'd
44 Azumarill
45 Mantine
46 Tangela
47 Noctowl
48 Ariados
49 Cubone
50 Corsola
51 Arbok
52 Machoke
53 Venomoth
54 Seadra
55 Poliwhirl
56 Sunflora

Considering only Pokemon that were ranked 5 or more times, we get the reduced and final VR:

Reduced Aggregate Rankings

01 Weezing
02 Stantler
03 Octillery
04 Pineco
05 Xatu
06 Primeape
07 Dewgong
08 Fearow
09 Wigglytuff
10 Porygon
11 Graveler
12 Persian
13 Flareon
14 Ninetales
15 Dugtrio
16 Kingler
17 Chinchou
18 Pupitar
19 Magnemite
20 Sudowoodo
21 Magmar
22 Rapidash
23 Hitmonlee
24 Gloom
25 Shuckle
26 Pidgeot
27 Delibird
28 Dragonair
29 Lickitung
30 Dunsparce
31 Bayleef
32 Hitmontop
33 Raticate
34 Tentacool
35 Exeggcute
36 Ledian
37 Gastly
38 Houndour
39 Sneasel
40 Furret
41 Hitmonchan
42 Seaking
43 Farfetch'd
44 Azumarill
45 Mantine
46 Tangela
47 Noctowl
48 Ariados
49 Cubone
50 Corsola
51 Arbok
52 Machoke
53 Venomoth
54 Poliwhirl
55 Sunflora

Final Aggregate VR

S:
A1:
A2:
B1:
B2:
C1:
C2:
D:
E1:
E2:
E3:

Process:

First the data is cleaned by compensating outliers 1 standard deviation away from the edge of the percentiles expected to contain +/- 1 standard deviation of a normal distribution. This is a modification of the conventional interquartile range (IQR), which I have not chosen to use because 50% of the sample doesn't capture the full variation from what I've seen. The compensation is done by bringing these points to the edge of this extended range. This results in mostly zero, but sometimes one or two outlier corrections. We then plot the outlier-removed data as a function of the integer rank to obtain this graph.

Previous VR Comparisons
For those who are interested in the changes from last year to this year, I generated graphs to show them on a plot. The "Rank Improvement" graph simply shows the change in ranking from last year to this year, with red representing a rise, blue representing a fall, and no bar meaning the Pokemon wasn't ranked last year. The "Z-Score Rank Improvement" graph displays the change in rankings of each Pokemon while factoring in outliers and scattering to judge variance, with longer bars showing a more statistically significant change.

Rank Improvement

Z-Score Rank Improvement

VR Tiering Decisions

Zooming into top 40 since that's what the parameters for the best option for a graph were.

To read this chart: the x-axis "Integer Ranking" denotes the final ordered ranking the mons received on the VR. The y-axis "ranking with deviation" indicates the average the mon received from votes. The blue vertical lines show the deviation, roughly the highest and lowest placements, the mon received. (Adjusted for outliers)

The colored horizontal lines show how I have constructed the tiers, while the black diagonal line is a 1:1 plot of Integer Ranking vs Ranking with Deviation. A mon placed above the black line received a boost to its final ranking compared to its average rank by virtue of a slightly lower average than its peers. A mon under the black line is under "represented" when it came to the final ranking. For example, Primeape is ranked 6th despite its votes averaging out to 7.1, and Dugtrio is ranked 15th despite its votes averaging out to 16.5.

These differences are to be expected and exactly how we use the average rankings with deviation to determine the VR subtiers. However, it is useful to keep these in mind when comparing the final placements of different mons. While #10 -> #13 is a decent gap, the difference in their average ranks is only ~1.5. This group of mons from Porygon to Flareon in the A2 tier is closer in viability than the pure numerical rank can represent.

When it comes to unclear division of subrankings, such as the cluster from Pineco to Wigglytuff where there are lots of overlaps between tiers and looking for jumps in the mean ranking is possible but not obvious to the eye, we turn to hierarchical clustering to help obtain the tiers. We form a dissimilarity matrix where the distances between Pokemon X and Y are given by the following: Take the rate at which voters ranked Pokemon X over Pokemon Y, take the logit transform as is done in logistic regression of a Bernoulli-distributed variable, and take the absolute value. Performing what we call a Ward linkage, this yields a dendrogram of the following sort, where the clusters (what we are going to call tiers) formed by setting a reasonable threshold are represented by different colors, and the dissimilarity between each cluster can be thought of as the vertical height of the nearest branch that connects the two clusters.

In other words, as examples, Wigglytuff is closer to the Porygon~Flareon tier than the Pineco~Fearow tier, and the Dunsparce~Bayleef segment is closer to the Delibird~Lickitung tier than the Hitmontop~Tentacool tier.

Dendrogram across Weezing to Machoke

We want to verify the validity of the clusters obtained from the dendrogram, so we next plot the dissimilarity matrix and draw out the tiers specified.

To read the dissimilarity matrix, note that zero (the darkest value) corresponds to equal number of people voting in favor and against the Pokemon on the Y axis > X axis, and the higher the value, the more one-sided the voting becomes. In other words, the darker, the more indistinguishable the Pokemon on the X and Y axis become, and a well-defined tier would be a fully dark square (read vapicuno's methodology thread for explanations).

This yields the following subdivision which I have decided on:
Note due to the granularity of the data (only 10 votes) this algorithm may have created multiple tiers with few Pokemon as well as groupings that did not pass the "eye check". While there may be some issues, I think it gives a generally accurate view of the metagame.

S:
A1:
A2:
B1:
B2:
C1:
C2:
D:
E1:
E2:
E3:


Numerical ranks represent partial tiers, whereas letter ranks represent a more complete separation. I choose to follow precedent and adopt numerical subranks.

Metagame Shifts
See previous post.

Individual Analyses
For those who are interested to see whose S to D rankings are closest to theirs, you can refer to the chart below. The numbers inside the box go from -100% (full anticorrelation) to 100% (full correlation). They are sorted by the S to D dendrogram order (and the light squares represent the camps).

Closing Remarks
The large number of graphs may seem daunting, and to people who aren't quantitatively trained, this may be really confusing. I recommend just glancing over the spoilers on the first read, only thoroughly analyzing them after you've gone through the more important graphs that have been left unhidden. I'm interested to know what you can infer from these trends, I hope this can generate some discussion.

Again, real quick shouts to Siatam and Wanted in 49 States for their massive help with this project