OU GSC OU Viability Rankings mk. 4

[Mr.E]

I used Golem well before it was cool, but not as a Spinner. I do love Explosion and Golem deals reasonable damage. It's a good, though not spectacular, Pokémon on paper. I just feel like Spin Golem is often spread too thin, trying to do too many things. It wants to be le standard Normal resist, but then often goes for the Spin instead of being a universal offensive threat like Ttar or Rhydon while lacking the pure defensive utility of Steelix who has Toxic immunity, much higher raw Defense, etc. Spin and Rock Slide being mutually exclusive (yeah I know you can technically run HP Rock) makes it a total liability against Zapdos -- at least Steelix takes Hidden Powers well -- and who wants to be a liability against Zapdos of all things? (And Forry fucks with Golem more than Steelix, between the Toxic unimmunity and random dumb Giga Drains. Golem doesn't quite hit it hard enough to be threatening, although you could surprise it with Fire Blast.) To that point, I suppose, you could say I dislike how it's often used more than the set itself. I realize the role compression is cool and Spin is a fairly unique move to have in its arsenal, but people should press the Earthquake button more.

Also, honestly, it's just really annoying hearing most everyone else treat a solid B-tier mon like it's the second coming of Curselax. Consider it a bit of playing devil's advocate. Plus, I think the Spikes game is being overemphasized of recent. Gen 2 Spikes isn't that potent and the opportunity cost of using a Spinner is higher than using Spikes because Cloyster is really good anyway (and Forretress... well, it still has Explosion).

 

[Diophantine]

I shot this in one take so apologies if I have missed something or make a mistake somewhere.
Would be great to see some discussion in the comments section!

 

[Ajjc]

I feel like Electrode has some sort of niche that, at the very least, make it more viable than mostly everything C2 and lower. The offensive presence of STAB thunder even with Electrode's mediocre sp. atk mean that it can kind of reliably spread damage/status (HP water is pretty useful for the Steelix/Golem switch-ins). Plus it being the fastest mon in the game lets it beat some mons even with +2 speed.

Then it having the ability to play mind-games with boom, which is obviously what differentiates it from Jolteon, is pretty helpful. It has a chance to nab some OHKOs after spikes (only 7.7% against Raikou which ALWAYS gets switched in but still that's valuable especially if you managed to get the para off earlier).

Anyway it's obviously no world beater and we are talking about a now twenty some odd year old game but I've been having some solid success with it on ladder and I think it deserves some sort of tiering here.

 

[Zokuru]

Electrode Explosion vs. Snorlax: 308-363 (58.8 - 69.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Explosion vs. Starmie: 262-309 (81.1 - 95.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Explosion vs. Nidoking: 279-328 (76.4 - 89.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Explosion vs. Exeggutor: 262-309 (66.6 - 78.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery


Electrode Thunder vs. Gengar: 135-159 (41.7 - 49.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Thunder vs. Jynx: 115-136 (34.5 - 40.8%) -- 63% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Thunder vs. Machamp: 125-147 (32.6 - 38.3%) -- 2.5% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Thunder vs. Vaporeon: 231-272 (49.8 - 58.7%) -- 74.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Thunder vs. Tyranitar: 113-133 (28 - 33%) -- 85.7% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Thunder vs. Starmie: 250-294 (77.3 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Thunder vs. Misdreavus: 125-147 (38.6 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Electrode Thunder vs. Skarmory: 282-332 (84.6 - 99.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Electrode Hidden Power Water vs. Golem: 231-272 (63.6 - 74.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Hidden Power Water vs. Steelix: 115-136 (32.5 - 38.5%) -- 2.4% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery



Tldr : Electrode is waaaay less good than any Pokemon on C2 and probably a lot portion of the Pokemon lower than that.
Won't even do defensive calcs, it's worse.

 

[Jorgen]

Yow. Electrode's Explosion is even worse than I thought. However, being faster than and capable of targeting Raikou is still worth something, albeit not much, and of course that something has huge opportunity costs tied to it. I'd still take Gengar over it any day if Explosion were its only draw.

However, Screech + Swagger + Substitute is also in Electrode's toolbox. If you couple that with spikes, it could do some damage. That said, it probably shouldn't make it on the list before Crobat does, and Crobat's case is already quite dire.

 

[morty123]

Wait, swagger is legal?

 

[Isa]

not morally

 

[Ajjc]

Electrode Explosion vs. Snorlax: 308-363 (58.8 - 69.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Explosion vs. Starmie: 262-309 (81.1 - 95.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Explosion vs. Nidoking: 279-328 (76.4 - 89.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Explosion vs. Exeggutor: 262-309 (66.6 - 78.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery


Electrode Thunder vs. Gengar: 135-159 (41.7 - 49.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Thunder vs. Jynx: 115-136 (34.5 - 40.8%) -- 63% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Thunder vs. Machamp: 125-147 (32.6 - 38.3%) -- 2.5% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Thunder vs. Vaporeon: 231-272 (49.8 - 58.7%) -- 74.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Thunder vs. Tyranitar: 113-133 (28 - 33%) -- 85.7% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Thunder vs. Starmie: 250-294 (77.3 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Thunder vs. Misdreavus: 125-147 (38.6 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Electrode Thunder vs. Skarmory: 282-332 (84.6 - 99.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Electrode Hidden Power Water vs. Golem: 231-272 (63.6 - 74.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Electrode Hidden Power Water vs. Steelix: 115-136 (32.5 - 38.5%) -- 2.4% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery



Tldr : Electrode is waaaay less good than any Pokemon on C2 and probably a lot portion of the Pokemon lower than that.
Won't even do defensive calcs, it's worse.

It's meant to be a facilitator on offense, spreading para/chip damage and booming once it's gotten that job done. Few mons have access to t-wave plus explosion plus literally the best speed in the game. These calcs literally are completely meaningless without context. Half of those things are getting t-waved rather than thundered lol which just shows that you're kind of completely missing the point.

 

[Zokuru]

It's meant to be a facilitator on offense, spreading para/chip damage and booming once it's gotten that job done. Few mons have access to t-wave plus explosion plus literally the best speed in the game. These calcs literally are completely meaningless without context. Half of those things are getting t-waved rather than thundered lol which just shows that you're kind of completely missing the point.

Well maybe it just shows that you completely don't understand the tier and shouldn't post in a thread like this ?
Those calcs are just there to show you threaten nothing with this shitty Pokemon, which means you will Twave / Boom on what your opponent wants you to boom, so it is useless.

 

[Earthworm]

I would say you're probably looking at low E1 or high E2 for Electrode. It's got pretty bad 4MSS (can't fit screens and attacks on the same set) and doesn't do a whole lot if it can't spread paralysis. Fast paralysis is easily its strongest asset, and you're going to have Ground-types switched in much of the time and then have to figure out if it's worth chipping them with HP Water or setting up a screen.

I think the reason you are thinking it's better than everything C2 and lower is not because Electrode is awful, but because you probably don't have the experience or expertise with the Pokemon in C2 and lower.

 

[cherryb0ng]

I feel like Electrode has some sort of niche that, at the very least, make it more viable than mostly everything C2 and lower. The offensive presence of STAB thunder even with Electrode's mediocre sp. atk mean that it can kind of reliably spread damage/status (HP water is pretty useful for the Steelix/Golem switch-ins). Plus it being the fastest mon in the game lets it beat some mons even with +2 speed.

Then it having the ability to play mind-games with boom, which is obviously what differentiates it from Jolteon, is pretty helpful. It has a chance to nab some OHKOs after spikes (only 7.7% against Raikou which ALWAYS gets switched in but still that's valuable especially if you managed to get the para off earlier).

Anyway it's obviously no world beater and we are talking about a now twenty some odd year old game but I've been having some solid success with it on ladder and I think it deserves some sort of tiering here.

I think there is a reason why there is only one viable electric type besides Zapdos and Raikou in OU and there are no electrics in UUBL. I've seen para-fusion Laturn be used and it has a secondary stab to complement Thunder which hits some of the resistors of the move super effectively. Besides that, the slot is just too valuable, especially when the pure electric fits the obligatory electric resist slot (like Raikou and Joleton do). Not even Electabuzz or Magneton are that great because the first can't take a thunder without the risk of being put out of commission (and its cross chops are hella weak) and Magneton is slow. That said, you could attempt running something like screens + boom + twave like in UU. Or try some Mirror coat shenanigans or pretend you have a zap in the back only to surprise the opponent with it.

 

[Blaine500]

Here's my 2 cents on the matter, take it or leave it (I did a list of 100 cause I like round numbers)

S1 Rank
01Snorlax

S2 Rank
02Zapdos

A1 Rank
03Raikou
04Cloyster
05Exeggutor

A2 Rank
06Tyranitar
07Gengar
08Forretress
09Skarmory
10Starmie

B1 Rank
11Golem
12Nidoking
13Jynx
14Machamp
15Vaporeon
16Steelix

B2 Rank
17Marowak
18Umbreon
19Suicune
20Charizard
21Misdreavus

B3 Rank
22Heracross
23Rhydon
24Dragonite
25Miltank
26Blissey

B4 Rank
27Espeon
28Alakazam
29Jolteon

C1 Rank
30Moltres
31Quagsire
32Smeargle
33Houndoom
34Tentacruel
35Porygon2

C2 Rank
36Nidoqueen
37Muk
38Meganium
39Piloswine

D Rank
40Poliwrath
41Kangaskhan
42Scizor
43Venusaur
44Articuno
45Entei
46Clefable
47Kingdra
48Aerodactyl
49Sandslash
50Lapras
51Tauros

E1 Rank
52Qwilfish
53Donphan
54Shuckle
55Ursaring
56Raichu
57Blastoise
58Typhlosion
59Onix
60Pikachu
61Primeape
62Jumpluff

E2 Rank
63Hitmonlee
64Gyarados
65Gligar
66Electabuzz
67Pinsir
68Bellossom
69Mr. Mime
70Magneton

E3 Rank
71Xatu
72Omastar
73Politoed
74Lanturn
75Ampharos
76Crobat
77Scyther
78Hitmonchan
79Ninetales
80Feraligatr

E4 Rank
81 Rapidash
82 Victreebel
83 Arcanine
84 Noctowl
85 Magmar
86 Weezing
87 Electrode
88 Kabutops
89 Flareon
90 Arbok

F Rank
91Delibird
92Girafarig
93Dewgong
94Kingler
95Hitmontop
96Haunter
97Murkrow
98Mantine
99Magcargo
100Sunflora

 

[turd2]

I think Tauros is severely under-appreciated now that offensive teams are popular. He's fast, strong, and has the coverage to take care on everything in the tier.

I tried to make RestTalk Tauros work - which is the set that's recommended on Smogon - but IMO it wasn't very good. Tauros doesn't check anything defensively, which means you can't switch him in early on to sponge attacks and force out special attackers like RestTalk Snorlax. RestTalk Tauros is completely walled by steels and has a hard time with Golem/Rhydon, which means you're playing 5 vs 6 until you get rid of all of those. Overall it just felt bad. The few games where my Tauros was able to do damage were not because of RestTalk.

Instead, I have been using all-out attacking Tauros + RestTalk Snorlax. This combination ended up with much better results.

Tauros (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast / Thunder
- Surf

Surf gets a 2HKO on Golem and Rhydon. Fire Blast gets a 3HKO on Skarmory and Steelix, plus a OHKO on Forretress after spikes. Earthquake is necessary for Gengar. Thunder is an option over Fire Blast for Cloyster, but I think hitting Forretress and Steelix more important. Cloyster still takes a big chunk from Double-Edge and will get 2HKO'd from around ~60% after leftovers.

Bring Tauros in mid-game, when most enemy mons are softened up and spikes are down, and he will punch holes through the other team like no other mon can. He will often take out the enemy's normal resists/phasers to pave the way for a RestTalk Snorlax sweep. Occasionally, he can even do the sweeping himself due to his excellent speed tier.

The hardest mons for him to deal with are Suicune, Growl Miltank, and Charm Umbreon, which aren't on a ton of teams at the moment. But even they can be brought down into 2HKO range with spikes and some chip damage, which means they can't switch in because Tauros outruns them. Starmie is also a problem if it carries a status move. If Starmie doesn't have status, it can attempt to stall out Double-Edge PP by spamming recover (although Starmie risks dying to a crit Double-Edge if it does this, which can OHKO even from full health). Finally, enemy Curse users like Snorlax and Heracross will also beat Tauros 1v1, but they don't want to switch in because they get chunked by Double-Edge.

 

[Jorgen]

I think the key question to answer with Tauros has always been when you switch it in. At least in OU where OHKO moves are banned.

Clearly, it's pretty dangerous offensively. It's basically fast Mixlax in that regard, albeit without the relatively important surprise factor.

However, just as it chunks, it gets chunked by all but the full-stall cast that walls it to oblivion anyway (it's definitely an anti-offense poke, not a stallbreaker by any means, which I guess also adds "matchup dependent" to its problems). Plus, while it chunks things, it doesn't ever threaten to outright kill anything unless that opponent is already worn down. This means that, even when you get Tauros in on a deft double-switch, you're liable to trade blows or get hit by an easy Toxic.

For this reason, I really like Surf (instead of a "classic" move like Curse) to take advantage of Golem. It's less about beating it than it is about forcing switches and getting free turns that way.

Having Thunder in its rotation is probably important as well to claim some of that surprise factor that makes Mixlax dangerous.

Going RestTalk might actually be better than either of these, though, to make sure Tauros doesn't just fold to a random Toxic and can play to trade those blows in the matchups where it should shine. With Tauros, you're probably trying to fish for that favorable matchup vs. offense anyway, since if you pull the sort of team that uses Skarm (the main thing Tauros is trying to get around with its Special coverage, and also the definitive stall Pokemon in my perspective), you're likely not making a ton of progress with it no matter what (because of the Umbreons / Suicunes / Miltanks / unconventional Mixlax walls lurking beneath). This is a pretty high-level assessment without having done the detailed deep dive into the team matchups, though, and the previous poster clearly feels like they have more success with the mixed set, so it's likely I'm overlooking something here.

 

[turd2]

RestTalk makes 0 progress as long as the other team has a steel type alive. You switch in, they switch to a steel, then you switch out. This just repeats itself until the steel types die.

In a vacuum, that might not seem like a big deal, but then you consider that you also want Snorlax on your team. If you want Snorlax to only have normal and maybe ground coverage, then you're running 2 mons that can not touch steels. That's a problem. So then maybe you run mixed Snorlax + RestTalk Tauros, but I think that's like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Snorlax has much better bulk, which makes him the better Rest user. Meanwhile, Tauros is faster than everything regularly used in OU except for Raikou and Starmie, which are conveniently walled by a Snorlax using Rest. IMO it doesn't make sense to use RestTalk Tauros with a mixed Snorlax. The team gets better if you reverse those roles.

The main mons that a mixed Tauros threatens (Jynx, Gengar, Zapdos, Tyranitar, Golem, Rhydon, Forretress) don't usually carry toxic anyway, except for Forretress, but Forretress gets OHKO'd by Fire Blast. Five of those (Gengar, Tyranitar, Golem, Rhydon, Forretress) can stop a CurseLax sweep, which is where Tauros is useful. He overloads Snorlax's checks and gets them out of the way.

You can do something similar with Tyranitar (i.e. pursuit trap ghosts to get rid of them for Snorlax sweep, then use special coverage for rocks and steels) but Tyranitar is slow and isn't all that threatening if he's not hitting something for super effective damage. Tauros' Double Edge hits a neutral target much harder than Tyranitar's Rock Slide. Tauros is also one of the few usable mons fast enough to outrun Zapdos, which offensive teams greatly appreciate.

 

[Conflict]

I can attest to 2 things:

a) defensive Tauros sucks ass and only ever does anything if one is up against Nido-Gar-Tar teams and gets the correct sleeptalks.
b) offensive Tauros is really annoying for a lot of current teams due to some trends (low Miltank/Umbreon/Cune-usage for one) and abuses common defensive cores (Rock+Steel).

 

[Fawfulmk-II]

Wait, swagger is legal?

Lurking here, but gonna drop 2 pennies: much like Baton Pass, Swagger is fair game since a lot of the degenerate interactions from later Gens either are super situational or just don't exist yet. So it's not really a universal Ban due to a mechanic that hinders the game like the ones with OHKO/Evasion moves, moreso that the moves were victims of Generational powercreep. It's why Flatter(the Sp.A variation of Swagger) was never seen as an issue for example.

Well that and also because Rest is like the 2nd most used move in Gen 2 behind Curse and giving your opponent a +2 seems a no-no.

 

[aklla28]

RestTalk makes 0 progress as long as the other team has a steel type alive. You switch in, they switch to a steel, then you switch out. This just repeats itself until the steel types die.

In a vacuum, that might not seem like a big deal, but then you consider that you also want Snorlax on your team. If you want Snorlax to only have normal and maybe ground coverage, then you're running 2 mons that can not touch steels. That's a problem. So then maybe you run mixed Snorlax + RestTalk Tauros, but I think that's like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Snorlax has much better bulk, which makes him the better Rest user. Meanwhile, Tauros is faster than everything regularly used in OU except for Raikou and Starmie, which are conveniently walled by a Snorlax using Rest. IMO it doesn't make sense to use RestTalk Tauros with a mixed Snorlax. The team gets better if you reverse those roles.

The main mons that a mixed Tauros threatens (Jynx, Gengar, Zapdos, Tyranitar, Golem, Rhydon, Forretress) don't usually carry toxic anyway, except for Forretress, but Forretress gets OHKO'd by Fire Blast. Five of those (Gengar, Tyranitar, Golem, Rhydon, Forretress) can stop a CurseLax sweep, which is where Tauros is useful. He overloads Snorlax's checks and gets them out of the way.

You can do something similar with Tyranitar (i.e. pursuit trap ghosts to get rid of them for Snorlax sweep, then use special coverage for rocks and steels) but Tyranitar is slow and isn't all that threatening if he's not hitting something for super effective damage. Tauros' Double Edge hits a neutral target much harder than Tyranitar's Rock Slide. Tauros is also one of the few usable mons fast enough to outrun Zapdos, which offensive teams greatly appreciate.

I have used many bl mons, and just like in their time it seemed very stupid to me that golem and jynx were not ou (3 years ago they were bl), I can safely say that tauros is not ou, even electrode is much better and that's it that can use screens, explode with a curse on top of it and even surpasses several of the metagame, it does 87% ko to jolteon and can commit suicide against marowak with +2 speed, besides being electric it can always use rest against zapdos and raikou No problem

Do you think anyone cares about that?

Tauruses are fast yes, but their only virtue is to be faster than zapdos and I tell you that zapdos does not stay to fight against snorlax except to check that he does not have a belly drum, so you are not going to be able to hit him as you want either, you you will have to sit down and see how your tauros takes good hits because he will always have his main objectives outside, they recommend the restalk because tauros does not have the necessary bulk to survive long games, otherwise you will have to deal with spikes, paralysis and poison, also fire blast only has 8 pp, once you rebelled your mixed attacker tauros loses impact, tauros cannot switch against anyone without taking good damage, for example he cannot enter against zapdos (one of your arguments ), someone uses curse against tauros and it has already made it completely useless, needless to say if they paralyze it, it becomes a free pass, if you use curse on tauros they will look at you like crazy

your tyranitar comparison is laughable, to think that his greatest advantage is pursuit is ridiculous, because he can be put to sleep or poisoned + recover and they will kill him easily, tyranitar is better than tauros because his mixed set is much better, he can resist and expel to snorlax, it is slower than tauros yes, but it still manages to overcome exxegutor, rhydon golem, snorlax, steelix, marowak, machamp, etc. also he is not completely defenseless against skarmory, with paralysis so common he kills several mons with rock slide, better not even continue with this, tyranitar even has a considerable niche in ubers

quaqsire , piloswine , electrode , sandslash , ampharos , venosaur , charizard , tentacruel , muk , jolteon , shuckle , alakazam , etc. they are more viable than taurus

the only thing that tauros can do is finish off dying pokemons and take advantage of some painful decision that your opponent has to let his dying pokemon die or keep it for the rest of your team, even if tauros takes a hit he can still give 2 (and right here restalk is important)

 

[Siatam]

The 2022 VR update is here. Thank you to the following players who took part. Nael222 Kenix ABR soulgazer TDK Fear McMeghan Earthworm TonyFlygon Blui Jirachee gorgie Mr.378 choolio D4 Repertoire vani Conflict Groudon

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

Collection of data
- Players who placed in the top 24 of the 2021 circuit standings or played at least 5 games in the past 3 editions of SPL were invited to submit their rankings.
- Submitters could rank any Pokemon on their list.
- None of the Pokemon were mandatory to rank.
- It was possible for players to make edits to their rankings after submitting the survey.
- The survey was left open for about two weeks.

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 five players to be included. The end result of this was that the same set of Pokemon remained on the VR.

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.

Link to raw data in spreadsheet form

S1 Rank

01 Snorlax​

S2 Rank

02 Zapdos​

03 Cloyster​

A Rank

04 Gengar​

05 Raikou​

06 Tyranitar​

B1 Rank

07 Exeggutor​

08 Nidoking​

09 Skarmory​

10 Golem​

11 Steelix​

12 Starmie​

B2 Rank

13 Forretress​

14 Jynx​

15 Vaporeon​

16 Machamp​

17 Umbreon​

18 Marowak​

B3 Rank

19 Smeargle​

20 Miltank​

21 Misdreavus​

22 Espeon​

23 Heracross​

24 Jolteon​

25 Rhydon​

26 Suicune​

B4 Rank

27 Alakazam​

28 Blissey​

29 Tentacruel​

30 Moltres​

31 Charizard​

32 Quagsire​

C1 Rank

33 Porygon2​

34 Houndoom​

35 Dragonite​

C2 Rank

36 Piloswine​

37 Meganium​

38 Venusaur​

39 Kingdra​

D Rank

40 Clefable​

41 Muk​

42 Scizor​

43 Articuno​

44 Shuckle​

45 Donphan​

46 Kangaskhan​

47 Entei​

48 Ursaring​

49 Tauros​

50 Jumpluff​

51 Hitmonlee​

E Rank

52 Aerodactyl​

53 Sandslash​

54 Omastar​

55 Ampharos​

56 Typhlosion​

57 Nidoqueen​

58 Pikachu​

59 Gligar​

60 Qwilfish​

Visualization of results and individual rankings
As with last year, all the rankings are assembled into a single image. In the New VR column, I have formatted it 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.

Observations
Differences when compared to the old VR that I found particularly notable include:

- Gengar (+1)
Like Cloyster in 2021, Gengar has also surpassed Raikou on the VR. This is no surprise with how dominant offensive teams are in the metagame and how perfectly Gengar functions on offense. With Explosion and Dynamic Punch/Hypnosis/Destiny Bond tech options, there is virtually no 100% reliable check to Gengar. Only three submitters ranked Gengar outside of 4th or 5th place; Nael222 at 9th, choolio at 8th, and gorgie at 6th.

- Exeggutor (+3)
Exeggutor has rebounded from its 2021 performance, landing back at 7th place. This ranking may reflect that boom offense teams are succeeding in the offense heavy meta. Exeggutor is the poster child of this archetype, spreading status, threatening normal resists, and exploding. Popular opinion on Exeggutor is divided, with Earthworm ranking it 11th, Conflict 12th, Nael222 13th, and Groudon 13th, but Eggy still has enough overall support to land ahead of Nidoking, Skarmory, and Golem.

- Skarmory (-2)
Skarmory has seen a steady decline in its VR ranking over the past years, but now finds itself at the cusp of falling outside the top 10. The signature Earthquake Snorlax check and defensive staple reaches its all time low in the VR after being passed by Nidoking and Exeggutor. While Skarmory is almost mandatory on every stall team, the general consensus on stall appears bearish. Other popular stall mons: Raikou, Misdreavus, Suicune, and Blissey have also fallen in the rankings this year. Some players still see great value in Skarmory with vani ranking it 6th, Nael222 ranking it 5th and gorgie ranking it 3rd!

- Steelix (+5)
Steelix regains some of its form after sliding 6 places in 2021. Steelix has had consistent tournament results and most players seem ready to accept Steelix again after a 3 year downward trend from #7 in 2018. By providing support to Curse + Earthquake Snorlax and countering Toxic + Mean Look Umbreon, Steelix has carved out a niche for itself once again. General sentiment is now certainly on an upward trend, not a single player ranked Steelix below #16 - its previous ranking in 2021.

- Smeargle (+12)
Smeargle completes the largest ever movement on the VR, rising an astonishing 12 places to 19th! Smeargle utilizes a multitude of sets which are impossible to decipher from the lead. Spider Web, Spore + BP, Spore + no BP sets all require different counter play and can provide the user with great momentum as the opponent dances around Smeargle. Smeargle is also subtlety influencing the lead metagame. Fear cited Smeargle as a deterrent to leading Snorlax or Cloyster. Experimentation with non-Miracle Berry sets has also meant the Sleep + Thief leads, Jynx and Nidoking do not have safe 100% safe matchups either. Smeargle has the tied highest range in ratings and greatest standard deviation out of all the mons ranked by every player. While it is still up for debate among players where Smeargle belongs, it appears to be a threat on everyone's radar.

- Suicune (-7)
Suicune has the unfortunate title of the biggest loser in this year's VR. Like many other defensive mons Suicune has not been rated highly by players, but also suffers the misfortune of not fitting very well on popular stall structures. With Raikou and Snorlax tending to use Sleep Talk, Suicune has been edged out of its role as a mixed wall and status absorber. choolio and gorgie rank Suicune the highest and 15th and 16th respectively. soulgazer and TonyFlygon are Suicune's biggest detractors, ranking it 36th and 34th.

- Venusaur (+9)
Venusaur has long played second fiddle to Meganium. But after an impressive 9 place jump, public opinion between the two seems to be equal. Meganium ranks 37th with 0 movement from 2021's VR, while Venusaur ranks 38th. Meganium's higher defense stat has been the main reason cited for its superiority, but Venusaur's Toxic immunity and ability to check Machamp have encouraged players to explore its niche on defensive teams. Venusaur's access to Sleep Powder and Growth also provides it with an offensive niche. The competition is fierce for the title of GSC's second best grass type.

- Kingdra (+9)
Kingdra has many similarities with Suicune, but conversely has risen in the rankings this year. This could be an example of the mere exposure effect after increased tour usage and forum discussion about Kingdra. This is not a coincidence however, as Kingdra is being explored for its improved matchups against Zapdos, Gegnar, and Vaporeon when compared to Suicune. While Kingdra's viability is only the results of a small niche on unusual team structures, it has proven itself worthy of consideration. Perhaps in future years we will see Kingdra's and Suicune's ranks continue to converge.

 

[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.

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.

If anyone has feedback, please let me know.

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

Aggregate Rankings

01 Snorlax
02 Zapdos
03 Cloyster
04 Gengar
05 Raikou
06 Tyranitar
07 Exeggutor
08 Nidoking
09 Skarmory
10 Golem
11 Steelix
12 Starmie
13 Forretress
14 Jynx
15 Vaporeon
16 Machamp
17 Umbreon
18 Marowak
19 Smeargle
20 Miltank
21 Misdreavus
22 Espeon
23 Heracross
24 Jolteon
25 Rhydon
26 Suicune
27 Alakazam
28 Blissey
29 Tentacruel
30 Moltres
31 Charizard
32 Quagsire
33 Porygon2
34 Houndoom
35 Dragonite
36 Piloswine
37 Meganium
38 Venusaur
39 Kingdra
40 Clefable
41 Muk
42 Scizor
43 Articuno
44 Shuckle
45 Donphan
46 Kangaskhan
47 Entei
48 Ursaring
49 Electabuzz
50 Primeape
51 Tauros
52 Jumpluff
53 Hitmonlee
54 Aerodactyl
55 Dodrio
56 Sandslash
57 Omastar
58 Ampharos
59 Lanturn
60 Typhlosion
61 Nidoqueen
62 Pikachu
63 Gligar
64 Slowbro
65 Qwilfish

and considering only pokemon that were ranked by 5 or more players, we get the reduced list and final version of the VR,

Reduced Aggregate Rankings

01 Snorlax
02 Zapdos
03 Cloyster
04 Gengar
05 Raikou
06 Tyranitar
07 Exeggutor
08 Nidoking
09 Skarmory
10 Golem
11 Steelix
12 Starmie
13 Forretress
14 Jynx
15 Vaporeon
16 Machamp
17 Umbreon
18 Marowak
19 Smeargle
20 Miltank
21 Misdreavus
22 Espeon
23 Heracross
24 Jolteon
25 Rhydon
26 Suicune
27 Alakazam
28 Blissey
29 Tentacruel
30 Moltres
31 Charizard
32 Quagsire
33 Porygon2
34 Houndoom
35 Dragonite
36 Piloswine
37 Meganium
38 Venusaur
39 Kingdra
40 Clefable
41 Muk
42 Scizor
43 Articuno
44 Shuckle
45 Donphan
46 Kangaskhan
47 Entei
48 Ursaring
49 Tauros
50 Jumpluff
51 Hitmonlee
52 Aerodactyl
53 Sandslash
54 Omastar
55 Ampharos
56 Typhlosion
57 Nidoqueen
58 Pikachu
59 Gligar
60 Qwilfish

Final Aggregate VR

S1:
S2:
A:
B1:
B2:
B3:
B4:
C1:
C2:
D:
E:

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

Full VR Ranking Plot

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

Up to Tyranitar 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 Quagsire-Tentacruel tier is a lot closer to the Houndoom-Dragonite tier (connecting height ~10, note the log scale) than the Smeargle cluster (connecting height 20). 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 Snorlax to Dragonite

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. I choose to split Snorlax and Zapdos up into two distinct tiers; I suspect that has to do with the scaling of the Ward linkage at small cluster sizes.

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:

S1:
S2:
A:
B1:
B2:
B3:
B4:
C1:
C2:
D:
E:

Numerical ranks represent partial tiers, whereas letter ranks represent a more complete separation. I choose to follow precedent and adopt numerical subranks because there is no reason a priori to believe that Pokemon are grouped in viability by a tripartite scheme of +/-.

Metagame Shifts

This chart shows the difference between this and last year's VRs, together with the uncertainties in the means (not the standard deviation, but the standard deviations divided by sqrt(N-1)).

Rank Improvements from 2021 to 2022

A better way to understand how significant these changes are so as not to mistake changes occurring as due to pure chance is to plot the z-score,

Individual Analyses

For those who are interested to see whose S to C 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).

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.

 

[Mr.E]

Dang, past three years guess I'm not gonna be invited anymore and I missed it.

Gengar over Raikou, that's interesting. Ttar always overrated zzz, and Charizard.

 

[Siatam]

Dang, past three years guess I'm not gonna be invited anymore and I missed it.

Gengar over Raikou, that's interesting. Ttar always overrated zzz, and Charizard.

What drawbacks do you think Tyranitar has? I think it has the most set diversity and offensive utility (ignoring boom) of any of the normal resists.

Likewise for Charizard, I can hardly imagine ranking it below the C rank mons.

 

[Mr.E]

Other than Normal resistance, its typing does it absolutely no favors. Like I know Snorlax matchups are important but Ttar basically can't switch into anything else (can't beat EQ Lax either!), it's vulnerable to every form of passive damage and status, and shitty STAB attacks blunt a lot of its would-be offensive potential. (Golem and Rhydon are at least immune to Electric and have STAB on Earthquake.) I'm not convinced the moveset versatility matters that much when the power level of all its options just aren't that high, and what utility?

Like, if you compare it to Gengar as far as "set diversity and utility among Normal resists," Gengar has Hypnosis, DBond + Explosion all but ensures it trades with something but are "beaten" in two different ways, fighting a Perish trapper requires a completely different response than the standard attacker, plus it carries all sorts of random weird utility moves on occasion (Thief, Confuse Ray, Nightmare), outspeeds most things and is immune to PSN plus PAR from Body Slam. TTar is merely a versatile mixed attacker, a slow one with tons of exploitable weaknesses at that. The big feather in its cap is Pursuit, but even that's heavily mitigated by Ttar's weaknesses as all of its biggest targets can fight Ttar head-on anyway: Eggy can Giga Drain or sleep it, Gengar can Dynamicpunch or sleep it, Starmie reliably 1v1s it. It's decent against Jynx and Misdreavus but even those aren't slam dunk matchups due to its status vulnerabilities.

Also because I didn't have anywhere to mention it, it's worth pointing out Ttar is literally the only mon Machamp switches in for free against. At least till you get all the way down to Blissey in the rankings.

Now, I understand that's exactly why Gengar is ranked ahead of Ttar, but they really aren't even in the same league. Is it that much better than other offensively-oriented mons? Is Normal resist alone enough to offset Nidoking's Electric immunity, resilience to status (PSN and Electric immunity), higher Speed, access to Lovely Kiss and Morning Sun and Counter (and, for that matter, Thunder because Ttar only gets Tbolt)? Does the 2% of the time Surf nabs a Golem make up for Rhydon* tossing out STAB Earthquakes every game? Does it have a utility on par with Golem's Rapid Spin? TTar kinda occupies a space in between all of those and more (Umbreon's Pursuit, Dragonite's mixed attacking capabilities, etc.), and it doesn't especially stand out as the clear winner IMO.

*(Now that I think about it more, why is Rhydon so low anyway? And Smeargle and Espeon so high?)

Charizard just doesn't do anything outside of Belly Drum, which isn't that potent because things in GSC don't get one-shot by non-STAB 999 attacks. At best it should be sitting with Clefable at the top of D tier; Quagsire at least has a defensive niche.

 

[Jorgen]

The key sticking point seems to be that Ttar doesn't have any slam dunk matchups. That said, the matchups where it makes things "favorably complicated" are pretty broadly distributed and hit some of the key players: Snorlax, Zapdos, Gengar, Exeggutor, and Jynx are among those. There isn't much else out there that covers that much importance-weighted ground, and I suspect that's a big part of what people value in Ttar.

As for Charizard, it's fast with Rock Slide flinch potential (a little ADV Aerodactyl-esque once it's set up, really), and it also has a strong STAB that threatens OHKOs even without setup (and thereby wins free Drum turns). Sure, its drawbacks are obvious, but it has a unique ability to exert pressure that the other Drummers don't share (plus a few other perks like Spikes immunity), and I suspect raters are giving it credit for that.

If you're gonna knock Ttar for not being able to switch into anything besides Snorlax, Rhydon's got a way bigger problem with that. Plus, Rhydon has to compete with Tyranitar and Golem for a slot, is caught in the crossfire of measures meant to be anti-Golem, and is probably simply too darn slow (in a literal Speed stat sense) and vulnerable to Toxic and Hidden Power for the tastes of today's playerbase. That said, it still gets some credit, and that's probably because it's the best wallbreaker among the Normal resists and has a nice matchup against the NidoGarTar builds which were pretty popular for a hot minute.

Smeargle's the Baton Pass enabler. People are bullish on the playstyle. Espeon deals with Gengar nicely, and we see how bullish people are on Gengar. I suspect its placement a tier above Alakazam has to do with Growth (helps mitigate Alakazam's coverage advantage) and better defenses (helps it stand up vs. Nidoking better).

BTW is this list already obsolete given the recent ML + BP ban? For instance, Umbreon's use of the tactic seemed to be driving a renewed bullish assessment of Steelix.

 

[ABR]

re: ttar

i think it’s an overrated / overused pursuiter but mixed attacker sets (curse or dpunch with whatever coverage) are extremely threatening and only safely walled by suicune of all things.

nonetheless the lack of boom / elec immunity definitely hurts it in comparison to golem and lix. for that reason i think it fits best with other grounds like nido and wak (or golem lix themselves) so it can pivot on hpice and such. it also has a better matchup vs the psychics (not just jynx egg but also esp zam) that i think is valuable in this metagame.

tldr: harder to fit than golem lix but still has a place alongside grounds