Here is my personal vr before the changes that will happen after the Tera sus, whether it is banned or not. I will explain why I put stuff where
S Rank
S-
This Pokemon is still obviously elite at everything it does but I think it’s a little more exploited by dnite / tusk builds and there’s a lot more ground competition. Sd fly z sets are prob worth looking into to lure said tusk and I wonder if offensive sets like in svou could work. Anyway, this is still the quintessential defensive piece on a ton of builds and provides valuable compression.
A Rank
A+
Dnite is nearing S- to me. It’s THE Pokemon that is keeping this tier sane to play and I’m not even joking lol. It checks so much that at this point it’s quite obvious what it does. It also has a ton of coverage options to hit its checks. However it’s not S- to me because of higher usage of Garg / kyurem / tusk and then easily threatening it along with random tera fairy stuff being annoying, along with scarf lele / ice spinner shifu also being annoying. Still elite tho and near mandatory on ho
Also a strong contender for S-. Its defensive profile is very good for Bo and offense and not autolosing to dd kyurem if you run a steel move / body press is nice. It also checks stuff like woger and tusk if Tera ghost which is good, along with having a typing naturally good for rain and rbolt.
Imo this is still an elite breaker even in the midst of iron crown. A lot of lele teams are able to overwhelm it decently and against almost everything else Tapu lele can usually find some opportunity to come in and punch holes. Av sets are as good as ever and cm is a solid set for breaking fat or bo teams that use ferro / Tran as steels
Speaking of crown, it being one of the most reliable blankets to every special attacker on offense / BO with av sets is really nice of a trait. Cm is also quite broken as it just clicks Tera and wins or takes out like 4 mons lol
Was considering dropping this since it feels less dangerous now but Ice spinner + scarf is still the goat against dnite offense. Jet is also good for the moths if a team calls for the occasion
play rough sets are becoming better and better with dnite getting much more common on almost every style of team, and they also slam other forms of counterplay in Tera dragon mola / dozo. However it does get outpaced vs. offense a little too often and doesn’t get many chances to sd and actually become the broken threat it’s made out to be; although sd sets still break exceptionally, I’ve been liking u turn + knock off sets to exploit all of its checks at once
Remember when this thing was B+? Yeah good times. This meta majorly favors great tusk as it’s one of the only consistent forms of removal (especially for offense where iron moth and dragonite are such huge threats). It had a ton of usage during NDPL / NDFL and it’s no wonder once you look at its removal traits and its ability to check many physical attackers like dnite mlop and garchomp. Rocky helmet is a good item on it to punish u turns and stuff like mlop / lando / opposing tusk. However, even though it looks like most of the mons on the vr threaten it, it’s removal abilities from rapid spin, Tera, and ability to use rocks too on top of threatening bu sets make it a top threat and glue option in the meta atm. Funnily enough rapid spin can also make it act as a cleaner sometimes
A
Imo this feels much easier to overwhelm in the meta atm; you can see this when it’s trying to check stuff like lele, Volcarona, and iron moth. Dnite usage also hurts it a ton. However, it still is a steel type that can still check lele and is sturdier than most at doing so. Tox sets are also a pain to switch into if something like Mola / dnite is the check to it, and they also are good against Volcarona and raging bolt.
pivot sets are good, but imo you either sacrifice true wallbreaking strength without drag z or you lose too much defensive utility if you don’t run lefties with bulk. It also just is easier to check than in previous iterations of the meta; this thing is NOT broken lol it’s a skill check mon
SD sets are really underrated imo. The state of the meta where BO is actually usable and when gouging is gone makes sd sets and Gliscor in general more justifiable to use. Taunt spikes is also a good set that is viable vs. most offense structures that use Lando
I still think this is a solid mon although it did fall off a little imo. It’s generally more exploitable but it provides a ton for offense and Bo builds
It’s solid speed control for some teams but for some reason I feel it gets stumped more than you’d like it to, and most of the builds it’s on are feel quite weak to kyurem. Dgleam fairy z is a pretty solid set that slams tusk bolt and spdef chomp; either cm or pivot sets work with it imo
Tera blast is a solid move on it; try out Tera blast fairy / dragon. Bulky-ish sets with some offensive invest are also solid
elite Pokemon, has stood the test of time through NDPL as one of Tera’s most frightening abusers with solid defensive utility to boot; it’s quite tough to stop this thing from bowling over a majority of a team once it gets going. Not only that, it’s also solid speed control and favors ho being the meta rn
Specs clicks. Nothing else to say
do I really need to explain why this thing is so insane? It’s probably one of if not the scariest sweeper(s) in the tier and punishes teams not running msciz as a steel heavily. Tera electric is the actual broken set
Figure out what balance uses to try and not be completely useless against ho with this one simple trick! (It’s also solid on Gterrain Ho as a anti-ho measure in the case of a ho mirror)
double Prio is great in this metagame
Checking all of the relevant fires with spdef sets is really nice; spdef is also good at checking a variety of other things, like iron crown, zapdos, and Tapu Koko. Dragon tail / roar is good anti-ho with tera and sd sets with drag z are relatively annoying to switch into once they get going. The reason why I raise it is because of these things and how efficient it does them, providing good utility and even good breaking potential for BO / some offenses, with the offensive sets retaining a level of defensive utility that is still invaluable.
A-
pretty exploitable; you need to either A) put this on fat / stall where it has teammates that reinforce its defensive backbone or 2) slot it on BO where it can actually serve as said backbone for big breakers like rockpon / lele, and even then it’s not exceptional at doing so. However its traits at checking ival and making waterpon / yard / iron moth easier to play around makes this A- to me. Tspikes feels like it fishes too hard imo on pex specifically especially because it’s so passive and needs toxic to actually immediately threaten stuff, and iron moth is incredibly common on ho
kyurem being broken and gouging gone makes this a really good defensive backbone for teams that have a secondary special attacker check against moth / rbolt. Knock is a really nice win on against slowking / crown BO and offense and forces progress nicely against typical sciz checks you’d see
the standard rain guys all need to go here since rain is a pretty viable playstyle atm even in the face of dnite offense
Very solid against Bo and generally provides the way to punch holes so something else can clean. Dnite being more common hurts but even so it still breaks solidly and in all of the games I’ve seen it yard has posed some sort of threat
with dnite and rbolt being extremely common as waterpon checks this thing can thrive, it even has defensive utility against ho with sturdy which is cool and appreciates a good teammate in tusk rising in viability
Was considering putting this in B+ but checking tusk and shifu is rlly nice and checks a billion more things with Tera. It’s also one of the more consistent forms of removal although having a free moveslot is nice to have
B Rank
B+
This mon is good and a cornerstone of ho but if it’s best and most defining role is as a lead I don’t see its justification for A-; Wallbreaker sets have not seen any usage and don’t rlly perform well imo, especially when crown is so common and it gets outpaced way too easily. It’s job of breaking balance is also not needed since balance is definitely the weakest of all playstyles
I’m not really impressed by mlop either. Double Prio is solid vs. moth / weakened ival and u turn into like lele / sd Glisc is good but besides that I feel it’s pretty easy to stop even when it’s hard checks are dead; it just doesn’t force enough immediate progress on its own along with more of its checks like tusk, Slowbro, and Moltres becoming more viable so its tough to justify it being a- for me
Specs is good and Av is cool on occasion, and fly z is good glue on fat. However it sometimes disappoints in the roles you want it to do (for example, it can’t really blanket things consistently; or fogging against something like heatran or mtar can be a pain). I think it’s still solid on BO still though as a fogger and ground immune
Goat mon against a majority of the meta but it’s pretty passive
I think there’s too much risk involved in using this mon since it requires a ton of aggression and good play to properly get mileage out of but even so spikes from a strong dark stab will never not be good. Its lack of longevity is an issue, however that’s why I enjoy boots sets because it’s at least a cool pivot against teams without being constantly worn down by hazards
Haven’t really seen much of this mon. Feels like u need to keep it at really high health for it to really check something in a game and it’s a bit awkward to slot on teams imo but besides that it has a decent mu spread against the meta and it provides a ton of compression that is quite valuable.
4a sets break well if you postion right and sd sucker is good to kill faster threats like waterpon koko and iron moth.
This feels close to A- to me at times but sadly it does feel exploited by certain meta trends atm, like rbolt and sub / Tera steel dnite. However it’s extremely annoying to break for some tusk structures where it just keeps wishing up its teammates
ice shard comes in clutch and fat has no completely reliable switchins besides pex / helmet clef
dragon pulse and / or Tera blast sets are good to use
sd is good vs. ting lu / defensive chomp + Ferro teams, and scarf is nice at cleanup in some mus
This thing is goated vs. offense structures imo, just need to chip crown a bit and you can go to town
I’ve not seen a single game where this hasn’t put in some work defensively; it feels great to use as a mmedi / tusk check and it isn’t rlly exploitable. Foul play could be looked more into for dnite / pon
B
I liked this more in previous iterations of the meta where more of the things it exploited were more common. Sure it can trade and it’s still a great breaker but I find it hard to justify on teams especially since it needs to pray it doesn’t load into offense to not truly be deadweight. It is a solid mon on ho though since stuff like dondooz / clodsire / skeledirge can fish for that style and it’s generally fat enough to soft check things for ho
twave is solid and cm is an ok wincon vs. rain / yard teams. I like it’s higher bulk and utility over mtios which is why I rank it higher
good ho enabler. Av is solid at this role
The goat. He checks tusk, dnite with willo / roar, ival, lop, and Serperior, which is really nice.
B-
gets overwhelmed by ho way too easily and iron moth / iron crown being incredibly common limits it’s role a ton. It does have good longevity tho and knock off + twave sets are kinda annoying to switch in against, along with the fact that it’s compression is good and that it can still somewhat check stuff like lop, Weav, and dnite.
it doesn’t rlly fulfill the defensive qualities you want out of it but it can break decently, however pp issues really bite it’s usefulness imo. Eq / mystfire are solid coverage options
it’s just average. Nothing really special about it although it does feel exploitable / passive on anything that isn’t fat
gives momentum well and pyro ball + willo can be kinda tough for iron crown offenses to come in on
this is a good mon imo and didn’t deserve the drop, it’s good anti Garg for fat and sun teams and brings nice compression as a fast pivot with knock off as well as the ability to threaten psychic pivot + ground cores. Scarf sets are also really interesting vs. ho and feel really annoying to dance around for those teams
this thing holds fat and stall together lol it’s pretty funny. It’s not needed on fat but it’s highly recommended if u can fit it
hp ice makes it not passive vs. dnite and sd Gliscor which is nice. It’s kinda passive but even so it’s still nice vs. shifu and waterpon and has surprising amounts of staying power
C Rank
C+
I think this is a more fair ranking for treads imo since I don’t usually slot this on much other than weather / the occasional ho team although it’s decent in its roles on that those styles (especially weather)
this thing has disappointed me when I’ve seen it although defensive sets are nice sometimes. Offensive feels like it gets too exploited tho and even when boosted it feels like it has too many countermeasures to prevent it from doing too much damage to teams
band is meh; why does this guy get owned by tusk lol
after trying out this it’s not that bad against boots dnite / rocks or bu tusk and it’s an ok pivot. Spikes immunity is also nice and volt is kinda hard to come in on safely
cheese but it’s ok cheese
not a huge fan of this atm but it does own Kokoval builds
Blankets a ton of special attackers rn but can be overwhelmed
same thing with blissey but I’m putting it in the same rank due to its ability to fit on things besides pure stall
this mon is actually decently solid, it has a nice speed tier after scarf and a lot of teams don’t pack solid ghost resists. This has a ton of potential to clean and I think there can be more optimization with this in the future. For now though I enjoy slotting it on teams where it fits for speed control
lead sets are good and tspikes are never bad. Meteor beam is fishy but works; maybe Tera ground ep owns iron crown
solid offensive pivot and has the natural bulk to be useful against things like ival, lele, iron crown, and Volcarona. Psychic coverage is probably optimal for tusk / iron moth but idk
Good waterpon / shifu cope and generally annoying to most teams; nplot sets have a lot of potential to be useful but cm is very annoying if you can’t neutralize it in time.
Very close to B- to me, it has a good mu spread vs. most defensive pieces atm like Garg / heatran and is a solid and somewhat dangerous wincon. It’s also a solid check to Shifu, dnite, tblast ground kyu, and weavile with physdef invest which is good in this meta for offense.
Encore sets are generally annoying vs. ho and it’s kinda consistent at doing that if you can afford to Tera it
C / C-
More physdef than corv + spikes gives it motion ngl but the teams it’s on are pretty horrible vs. lele
imo this thing has a good amount of potential but I need more evidence of that
This thing actually hits pretty hard and most teams are unprepped for it; in almost every tour game I’ve seen it in it’s done something of note.
he checks rbolt and other miscellaneous stuff but besides that kinda sux lol
like dirge this also has a ton of potential but I need more evidence before raising it higher. Nplot z is still pretty fat tho even without invest and can break solidly given good positioning
sometimes threatens those koko crown teams
decent lele / mmedi / tusk check but besides that it’s just way too passive to rlly be worth using 95% of the time
nplot breaks well and it checks waterpon well; Regen makes it blanket check some other stuff decently too
sees no usage but “”””technically””””” usable
arch / rain check for fat and more realible volt blocker than Glisc
screens is actually horrible but at least it’s ok at enabling broken kyurem
pretty much the optimal way you run stall atm; blocking hazards from Ferro / tusk well and naturally checking mmedi / cm fblast demon crown is nice
It’s a solid steel with a good amount of compression; being able to set stealth rock consistently vs. mdia ho is a very nice trait and encore is solid vs. kyurem, Garg, rbolt, and so on. It’s also better against threats like iron valiant and Tapu lele due to a lack of a fighting weakness.
it’s a ground check that’s generally solid at annoying those tusk + dnite builds; I think it has solid potential and is genuinely decent because of that. Willo is crippling to things like tusk / dnite but unfortunately Volc / moth kinda own it. Still able to be worked around by certain teammates tho
technically does something I guess in checking rbolt / pon / shifu all at once but otherwise it’s pretty subpar and doesn’t really excel over any other options
in sun he has motion in being a nuke, Gterrain offenses can also use it well to beat sciz / ferro while also snowballing vs. offense
allegedly does something but idk I haven’t seen it yet
actually rankable unlike screens because at least you can fish with webs sometimes
breaks bo well but has limited defensive utility
ok scarfer on offense especially with hwish being an ok tool
scald is broken
I wonder how well sub dark z 3a could do given it’s solid ability at forcing switches giving it opportunity to sub and start claiming, otherwise it can click with like band or whatever if you get turns right
if I load Tapu lele scarf lando vs this I’m pressing X. It’s fine at quickly suffocating offense with leech sets which is cool tho
having the traits of a mini Darkrai of sorts while also having pivoting and the ability to trade vs. like Tran / yard / mswamp is appealing, although it doesn’t really do that much in practice since it’s so slow for a breaker like it and has middling bulk. Also sees no usage
ok chat I know gseed hatt cooked me in last chance but what does it actually do consistently? Best use is on psyspam, tr, or yard sun
checking lele, crown, and ival is rank worthy imo along with having annoying typing for something like mola fat to bypass
has some longevity and with Tera can do stuff against certain threats. Also not passive like cress but it gets overwhelmed by ho too easily
rocks / twave and u turn are genuine uses for the mon but that’s about it. Maybe u could tap into its coverage if you wanted with an expert belt set
checks lele and Tox heatran which is cool. Fsight is a nice trait and checking shifu isn’t bad but it’s unfortunately pretty passive
S-

A Rank
A+







A












A-









B Rank
B+













B




B-







C Rank
C+














C / C-





























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