Hi so now that I've had the chance to try the drops out for a while, I'll talk a bit about what I think of each one.
Pawniard is pretty dumb in all honesty, it has a decent amount of checks, but they're all easy to wear down, making it an absurd late game sweeper. However, if you look past how annoying it is, it actually provides a lot of healthy qualities to the meta. It does well against a lot of mons that were problematic before, including Linoone, Dodrio, and Vigoroth, while providing priority that helps deal with faster threats and a nice way of combatting Memento (though it doesn't like being put to sleep at all obviously). It also gives the tier another Stealth Rock user and Pursuit trapper, so those roles are a bit easier to fulfill now. While it's hard to say if Pawniard's overall impact on the meta will be positive, it at least won't be the worst influence on the tier ever.
Exeggutor was the mon everyone was calling broken immediately once they saw it dropped, but I think it will be perfectly manageable like it was back in August. While it is a huge nuke, there are a few counters for bulkier teams to use like SpD Vullaby and Zweilous. It's really slow (even under webs it's underwhelmingly slow), so offensive teams shouldn't have a huge issue with it especially since it's pretty easy to Pursuit trap (unless you're running
gasquakee's set which is honestly really good). However, it's still really good, especially on teams where its Speed can be patched up (Eggy sun looks pretty silly), and its insane wallbreaking power coupled with a few other things like access to Sleep Powder and Harvest make it a great Pokemon from the looks of things.
Bouffalant is a really cool mon. In particular, the Sub + SD set that was its best before it rose to NU back February is really good. Its great bulk lets it set up on a lot of passive mons like Stunfisk and Probopass, and Sap Sipper lets it easily set up on Tangela and Choice-locked Exeggutor, among other things. Sub lets it eat up a hit from a would-be revenge killer which is really awesome. The coolest thing about Bouffalant is that it can easily get past most conventional Normal checks with Earthquake / Sap Sipper, making it really good on Normal spam teams. Like literally every other drop, its Speed is its biggest flaw, but it's so bulky that it isn't a huge deal.
Gorebyss is probably the drop I'm the most torn on. On one hand, it's absurdly strong, capable of 2HKOing full SpD Politoed without a Life Orb, and it's decently bulky, especially with Memento support (for example it can live a Flare Blitz + Close Combat from Eviolite Monferno). However, it's really slow, so slow in fact that literally every relevant scarfer can outspeed it at +2. This means it's really easy for offensive teams to deal with it, and even balance teams are decently well off against it as they can fit any scarfer they want and still be able to beat it. I've heard some people calling for this to be broken, but I don't really see it.
Finally, we have easily our most underwhelming drop, Gothitelle. There isn't much this can do that isn't done better by Grumpig or Mr. Mime, as it just lacks anything useful that they don't already have, while also not posessing some of the things that make them good. There might be some unique niche it has (it's quite bulky and Competitive is a good ability on paper), but right now I'm just not seeing it.
So yeah, this meta is pretty fun, and it's really nice to finally start getting drops again. Feel free to reply to this post if you disagree with anything I've said about these Pokemon (especially if you can find something interesting Gothitelle can do), and have fun playing PU!
