So I'm back making a post on the latest disease that has been plaguing PU which I have named the "Fighting Disease."
Fighting Disease 
It is easy to see what sort of symptoms a tier with Fighting Disease has: a large amount of fighting-type pokemon, the majority of them being quite good and that's about it. The PU council sent out a vaccine that ridded us of Sirfetch'd and Machamp not too long ago. The biggest issue concerning the Fighting Disease where switchins were practically non-existent. The remaining Fighters got a bit angry and now they are plaguing the tier so for the sake of my fellow PUers, I'm doing an in-depth analysis on the viable Fighters in the tier because we deserve to know how they operate and what they are capable of. Click on the mons to see their sets.
The Best 
Starting off with monkey boy Passimian, which is my favourite Fighter to use right now, is not the most versatile mon I will be covering. I can only see choiced as viable options for it but do not let that distract you from the fact that Passimian is one of the best mons in the tier. Choice Scarf is a fabulous revenge killer, outspeeding the entire unboosted metagame utilising its great coverage in Knock Off and Gunk Shot to damn its Ghost and Fairy checks into oblivion. U-turn also being a fantastic and quite necessary move on a lot of scarfers to maintain offensive momentum, not many of the other Fighters are able to replicate Passimian's scarfing ability. The few cons with Passimian is base 80 Speed is contested with Scarf Braviary (which isn't bad guys) and also Scarf Mesprit, both of which can deal fatal damage to you if Passimian decides to lose 50 50 speedtie. Choice Band is a devastating mid-speed breaker, especially on builds that utilise webs to alleviate its above speed tier. Anything that isn't named Palossand or Cofagrigus (or Weezing for that matter) do not want to switch into Close Combat. I mentioned webs because you cannot forget about Passimian's ability Defiant which defers Defog attempts from the likes of Silvally-Steel.
Passimian overall is quite a good mon in such an offensive metagame, isn't too slow, hits hard and has decent bulk to afford switching into neutral moves.
Virizion is next on my list and Virizion has been claimed by many to be broken for the tier and should either get quickbanned or suspect tested. It is a shame that I have not used Virizion as much as I should've compared to other Fighters but I still have decent enough knowledge to talk a good bit about this mon. Virizion stat-wise is very stacked for the tier. Base 90 offensives aren't shabby by PU standards, especially when you have setup options in Calm Mind and Swords Dance plus it is the fastest Fighter in the tier with base 108 speed. You don't notice too much but having base 129 spdef is amazing to switch into mons like Specs Heliolisk spamming Thunderbolt and threaten it up and proceed to sweep. My favourite set would have to be Swords Dance because you're able to use dual stab + Zen Headbutt, which covers your poison weakness and bopping Poisonvally, Roserade and Weezing which cm somewhat struggles to do due to lack of coverage. I won't say too much else on Virizion but it's pretty self-explanatory why Virizion is the best Fighter in the tier.
The Good 
Starting off the good section with Gallade. I like to call Gallade the "Fighter who beats the Poisons" because of its psychic typing. Gallade overall hits very hard, having the highest Attack stat of the Fighters tied with Sawk and is able to boost that Attack with Swords Dance, Gallade is probably the best balance breaking Fighter in the tier. Dual-stab + Knock hits everything in the tier (Dark + Fighting coverage is goated) and it's very easy for Gallade to just ohko opposing mons. AoA isn't the only set I've experimented with. It might be the best but Gallade isn't as one trick pony as you think. Choiced Trick is a nice option to cripple the defensive mons that intend to rain on its parade like Palossand and Aromatisse, the latter really hates getting choice locked because it loses passive recovery.
Toxicroak is up next and I made a pretty fun team utilising both Gallade and Toxicroak so I've gotten quite used to using this beast. I called Gallade the "Fighter who beats the Poisons" and now we have the "Fighter who beats the Fairies." Toxicroak does its job as a great physical and special attacking Fighter because of its good offensive stats and decent speed tier. Toxicroak's strongest tool is obviously you do not know what set it is running off the bat. You want to bring in Weezing to burn physical, oh it's just going to Nasty Plot and 2hko you with Shadow Ball/Dark Pulse. Its versatility keeps whoever faces it on their toes as its checks are completely different depending on what set it is. Toxicroak is also very nice to use rn when Vaporeon is so common and you use it as setup fodder thanks to its ability Dry Skin, making it a water immunity. My main issue I've found with this mon is 4mss on SD sets because you're completely walled by Ghosts unless you want to run Knock > Sucker but Sucker is amazing for dealing with faster threats that are attempting to revenge kill. Its STABs are somewhat easy to wall but NP has this covered with Shadow Ball/Dark Pulse coverage which catches out the Ghosts. I think Shadow Ball is more preferable due to Colbur being so common. Once again, like Gallade, it can run Choice Scarf. imo it's not the best scarfer but its speed tier is higher than things like Braviary and Passimian so I suppose it's nice to catch them out and potentially kill them with your moves.
My favourite Fighting-type of all time, I'm happy to use Sawk in the tier I play the most. Sawk is most similar to Passimian out of all the Fighters. They typically want to run the same sets (Band or Scarf), their stat distributions are quite similar (Sawk has slightly higher and speed but Pass is more bulkier). So why is Pass like the most used scarfer over Sawk. From my studying of the Fighting Disease and discussing with affiliates, U-turn is a big move that Pass possesses and Sawk does not. U-turn is such a free move vs checks switching into you so the player using Passimian is always in the lead in terms of momentum but Sawk does not have that option. The best Sawk is able to do is Knock incoming checks. There is nothing wrong with that, Knock is the freest move in the game but when Palossand comes in and takes like 25 from Knock due to Colbur, you are immediately forced to switch and the opponent is most likely guaranteed rocks or instant recovery, setting you back. This is not to invalidate Scarf Sawk. I still believe it has reason to be used. Sawk's Mold Breaker ability is nice for catching out things like Weezing that dare to switch in expecting a Close Combat and then proceed to get Earthquaked on the switch.
Band is also a fantastic breaker in the same vein as Band Passimian, having the added benefit of being stronger and faster. There is not much to explain here because it
is practically a faster and stronger Passimian with the same coverage options (Gunk Shot Poison Jab same thing).
Last one on the good list is Hitmonlee, another Fighter I wished I had used just a bit more but Hitmonlee has quite a few tricks up its sleeves to differentiate itself from the other Fighters so far. Hitmonlee thrives on terrain teams, not as much as before because we banned Indeedee, basically killing Psy terrain teams but it was very strong under that, outspeeding the entire metagame via Unburden and being immune to priority so it could use Endure + Liechi Berry and proceed to destroy offence. It can still function on Grassy and Electric Terrain but it is definitely not as strong as Psy Terrain. But if you're like me, and do not care about terrain teams then Hitmonlee can do everything the previous Fighters can in terms of running a Choice Band set and proceed to have limited switchins. Utilising its other ability Reckless, banded Hitmonlee Reckless High Jump Kick is definitely the strongest attack coming from the Fighters in the tier, landing a solid 3hko onto Weezing after rocks and straight up killing everything that isn't a resist/immunity. It is also the king of the mid speed Fighters having base 87 speed, getting the run on even Sawk and Toxicroak, who have base 85 speed.
Insufficient Data/Unexplored 
This is the section of my report where the mons where I've barely used and the mons that are overall not being used that I believe have potential will be placed. This is not indicating that a mon here is worse than the Good Fighters eg Scrafty is here but I've heard from many that Scrafty is great, I just haven't used it enough. Speaking of Scrafty...
When I asked on PUcord about why Scrafty was so high on the VR or why people thought it was good, I was told that in certain MUs, it kinda goes off. Now I can understand that, bulky Bulk Up (great wording ik) sets can be dangerous late game sweepers especially when you don't have anything to hit it with for super-effective damage. I've also witnesses Dragon Dance sets which I personally think aren't that great considering Scrafty's speed tier kinda blows and the ones I faced not having full speed investment, even at +2, you are still outsped by base 80 speed scarfers and above, a lot of them being Fighters which kill you instantly so yeah. I'll try out this mon in the near future and report back to you guys.
Hitmontop is next and tbh, I could've put Top in the good section but i didn't want it to get too long, I already know a lot about its capabilities in this tier atm. imo it's one of the best spinners in the tier, slightly below Tsareena when it comes to offensive spinner but it can get the job done quite well. Earlier on in the gen Top was dangerous because of Technician Triple Axel and I still have to say it's still dangerous, not too many mons resist ice + fighting (Centiskorch can get hit by the occassional Stone Edge and Lass and Jelli get hit by that Brutal Swing). I feel like this gen, we've abandoned bulky Top sets with Intimidate because Technician so good but those are still being used but idt they're that good, you can just use Throh if you want a bulky Fighting type. I think you want to go for damage and have sweeping potential when you have a speed boost up.
And finally the last mon from the Fighting Disease I will be going over is Silvally Fighting. Metas change I know, we got a whole lot of mons now because of DLC but no one is scared of Silvally formes anymore. Not to say this thing is broken but I think it's slightly being overshadowed and underestimated rn. Second fastest Fighting-type in the tier and sure it is unable to hold a band to increase its immediate breaking power nor a scarf to be pivot like Pass but SD is still quite a dangerous breaker with a Close Combat that doesn't drop your defences and 95/95/95 bulk all around that makes taking this thing out not too easy unless you use a Brave Bird. 4mss still kinda sucks, you want Flame Charge to sweep but Psychic Fangs is nice for killing Poisons or you want Iron Head to punish Fairies but also there's U-turn to keep momentum if you face Fairies who don't care about your STAB or your mandatory coverage option which is Crunch. I do believe it's somewhat difficult to sweep with Fightingvally, it's better to break with it but other Fighters can break much more reliably. Things like Toxicroak can handle its weaknesses and so can Gallade. Why use Fightingvally over them? Well it still has its speed and bulk so there's always going to be a niche for this mon.
Now guys, hopefully I well-informed you when it comes to knowing about the Fighting Disease. We won't be getting rid of this for quite a while now and maybe Virizion goes in who knows when but we are still left with the plethora of Fighters raring to spam CC and Knock Off or attempt to hit Focus Miss. If I missed out a mon you think I should've talked about then my bad. Poli, Chan, Gurdurr (Falinks is pushing it) but those are the only things that are somewhat worth that I missed. Everything else isn't.
This has been the #1 discussion point of council and at this point and opinions have shifted since the quickvote on 1/2 which saw it receive 4/8 ban votes and stay in the tier. A majority of council just believes it's flat out broken and not worth dealing with, not the most broken thing we've ever had or absolutely dominating every game it's in but overpowering enough with little enough counterplay to be worth just quickbanning. It's been talked about a lot in our voting reasonings, discord and room discussion, even in the post above (s/o LST his reasoning is good) so I won't bother adding on more here.
These are the only other Pokemon to see major discussion along the lines of "broken maybe?". The former is pretty fast and strong and annoying, I think it's clear what Archeops's benefits are. On the other hand there's a good few Pokemon in this meta that can outspeed and revenge kill it, even more scarfers that help put on the offensive pressure, and most of our normal defensive mons match up just fine vs it (Weezing, Regirock, Vaporeon, etc.). You're not exactly going deep on the VR to find how to beat Archeops. Toxicroak, on the other hand, is insanely strong at breaking teams down. Being able to run powerful Swords Dance or Nasty Plot sets, both of which can drop priority to break even more would be counters, makes it really threatening right now. Currently it's much more of a pure wallbreaker as even with the priority it doesn't pull off that many sweeps, which is a decent factor in it not being super broken, but we're still keeping a close eye on this since the counterplay is not that easy.
(RIP) and
while 
was banned. Time has changed and it's good to see more versatility and options!
which has the unique ability to Defog (even though I've never used it as a defogger) and absorb status.
