Name: Alolan Ninetales
Nerfed Stats: 73 HP / 67 Atk /
50 Def / 81 SpA / 100 SpD / 109 Spe
Removed Moves: NA
Removed Abilities: Snow Warning
New Ability: Magic Guard
Justification: Fairy type, so being more frail on the physical side and having Magic Guard makes sense thematically. This ability allows it to come into hazards and use LO with no downsides, and its supportive movepool like Encore and Nasty Plot can help stallbreak. It no longer sets Aurora Veil reliably without auto-hail, and even if paired with Abomasnow it wouldn't be that good of an idea to rely on it to set screens when Abo can just do it naturally + veil teams need more sweepers and coverage.
Competitive Insight: Alolan Ninetales would trade its supportive role for a fast, special revenge killer. Being a Fairy-type this fast and viable would be great, as G-rap is very underwhelming in comparison, and Frosslass is more supportive as a Ghost-type with Spikes. Most Ground- and Dark-types of the tier can be revenge killed by a LO boosted Ice Beam or Moonblast, while Water-types and special walls like Silvally-Water and Clefairy need to be wary of Freeze Dry and Nasty Plot. It still struggles with Steel- and Fire-types, and cannot break Piloswine. The nerfed Def is also a noticeable handicap, as any of the many popular forms of Speed control like Choice Scarf Togedemaru, Sawk, and Toxicroak easily 1HKO. Alolan Ninetails would probably work best as a NP + 3 attacks sweeper, and a much needed fast mon for the tier.
Name: Gyarados
Nerfed Stats: 95 /
95 / 79 / 60 /
90 /
58
Removed Moves: Earthquake, Stone Edge, Bulldoze, Bounce
Removed Abilities: Moxie
New Ability: Hyper Cutter
Justification: If Gyrados is to retain its role as a DD sweeper, it can't be s good as Scrafty was, but I don't want it to be as underwhelming as Flapple is at the moment. For it to be the premier DD sweeper, its huge Attack and workable Speed needed significant nerfs; putting its power on a Silvally playing field sounded right, and base 58 still loses to a ton of fast mons if Adamant like Wild Charge Rapidash and Gourg-Small. And at +2 Jolly, Gyra is still slower than Choice Scarf Toge, making it very plausible to be revenge killed. It's movepool drops prevents it from hitting Electric-, Poison-, and Grass-types for strong super effective damage like Rotom-S, Qwilfish, Eldegoss, and Abomasnow. Hyper Cutter over Moxie pretty much guarantees Intimidate's usage, and makes Gyra less threatening in the long run.
Competitive Insight: The coverage Gyra is left with is a very strong combo of Waterfall and Power Whip. With Heavy-Duty Boots and Substitute, it can set up on a ton, and offensively pressures every Ground- and Water-type (besides Qwil) of the tier; Quagsire only has a 12.5% chance to be OHKO'd at full, but otherwise a physical sweeper naturally checking Quag is huge. This is another plus as there is a sever lack of viable offensive Waters, and while this coverage is great, the only comparison in Ludicolo is too weak. Gyra still has a lot of issues with a handful of phsywalls like Garbodor, Iron Defense Cofag, and non-Leaf Storm Eldegoss. Many faster, offensive mons can easily revenge kill Grya, while other offensive mons like the Rotoms, Drampa, and Flapple can stomach the coverage and 1HKO in return. Gyra will need adequate support for these mons, but as a sweeper it surely will do pretty well.