My personal gen4ph viability rankings
Hai! I said I promised I would have this ready by around this time, and I finally finished it. All placements are based mostly on either my opinion and/or speculation. All placements are subject to change. Also, only the Pokemon in the S tier are ranked within the tier- the rest are not.
S tier
S
Deoxys-Speed- May be controversial, but I’m rather confident that this is number one. It is the best No Guard, though it could theoretically run several other abilities- I’ve heard of/thought of Wonder Guard, Chlorophyll/Swift Swim, Drizzle/Drought/Snow Warning/Sand Stream, and maybe Magic Guard. No Guard is where it shines best, though. The main things that hold it back are its vulnerability to priority, U-Turn weakness, and how easy it is at times to chip it down (since it can’t fit recovery). Despite that, I am shocked this thing isn’t used far more often than it is.
Arceus- The best Wonder Guard. Its bulk is amazing, and everyone knows it. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t plan on OHKOing it, unless it is with No Guard. Unfortunately for Arceus, while it is amazing at taking a hit, it is not that hard to 2HKO it, so you can just break it by putting it to sleep first. The existence of Arceus also makes Fighting coverage necessary on Shadow Tags, which does
Giratina-Origin- This thing can be a monster, but it needs time to set up. STAB Shadow Sneak can shred Deoxys-Speed, the Lati twins, and other Giratinas. It also gets Dragon STAB, which is unresisted by anything that isn’t Steel-type, and can nail Palkia trying to wall Fire Fang. Griseous Orb also gives it a 1.2x boost to its STABs, and it makes it so Giratina-Origin can’t be Tricked anything. Once this thing gets going, there’s not much that can stop it, and it can be paired with a Shadow Tag to remove any annoying walls before it attempts the sweep. Incredibly good choice, especially since it can adapt to fit on any kind of weather team (Huge Power for Sun, Magic Guard for Sand, and Mold Breaker for Rain).
S-
Latios- Latios is a dragon of many talents. It is a great Shadow Tagger, it works well with Mold Breaker, it can even set weather or serve as a No Guard. It is terrified of being trapped, so you can’t always just click buttons with it and win. The U-Turn weakness also sucks, so Shadow Tag especially needs to be wary of it. Overall, I think this thing is a bit underrated if anything, but I’m not sure if it is quite on par with the S tier
A tier
A+
Latias- Bulkier than Latios, but doesn’t hit as hard. Seems like it works better than Latios as a weather setter, but any other role it can do is probably just done better by Latios. Still a very solid choice, even if it is outclassed in most roles.
Rayquaza- The main Shadow Tag user (no, it wasn’t Latios). Unlike Latios, it can run Physical coverage or go mixed, granting it more options on its coverage. Fighting/Dragon/Ground/Grass is possible both physically and specially, and Rayquaza also has a nice Spikes and Toxic Spikes immunity, along with resisting U-Turn (unlike Latios, who is weak to it). It is Stealth Rock weak, which hurts it a bit, but it is still a very solid choice for a Shadow Tag user. It could also theoretically function with Mold Breaker, Magic Guard, or maybe Huge Power, but that is just speculation from me.
Slaking- Takes physical hits slightly better than Arceus, and trades 20 points in Speed for 40 points in Attack, making it much more threatening offensively. However, unless you really need that extra Attack, Arceus is probably better nine times out of ten, especially since Slaking takes special hits far worse than Arceus.
Regigigas- Slaking but worse against Fire Fang. On paper it would take hits from Latios better, but I’m not sure how important that actually is. Might work better than Slaking on a Rain team, where Fire Fang is weaker.
Skarmory- Seems like the standard Flash Fire user. Works well from what I have seen, especially since it resists both of Giratina-Origin’s STABs, but it is far from invulnerable, and Giratina-Origin can break through with enough boosts. Also requires special coverage if you want to deal super effective damage against it, only being weak to Electric if it has Flash Fire.
Gyarados- Interesting Wonder Guard. It is Stealth Rock weak, but it resists Fire Fang, and isn’t weak to Ice, Dragon, or Ghost. You also need to run either Electric or Rock coverage on your Shadow Tag in order to trap and KO it, and Electric overlaps badly with Grass coverage, which is needed to hit Swampert. The only new targets you hit with Electric are Tentacruel (which is already weak to Ground) and Skarmory (not a Wonder Guard).
A
Ho-Oh- Can run Huge Power or Magic Guard, but you know why it needs Magic Guard so badly. Taking 50% from Stealth Rock otherwise makes Ho-Oh’s sets rather predictable at times, but it is still a very solid choice, with STAB Fire Fang, decent bulk, and decent offensive stats, allowing it to function as a semi-bulky setup sweeper. I can see this thing staying popular for the foreseeable future.
Dialga- Steel-type Wonder Guard that isn’t weak to Fire Fang. The Ground and Fighting weaknesses aren’t great, but Dialga does get STAB on Draco Meteor, allowing it to threaten out Giratina-Origin. Very solid choice for a Wonder Guard, and can function well on either Sand or Rain.
Palkia- If you want a Wonder Guard that takes 1/4 damage from Fire Fang, this is almost always your best choice. Its only weakness is Dragon, but Dragon is one of Giratina-Origin’s STABs, so you need to be wary of that. Dragon STAB is also nice for Palkia, making a safe switch hard for Shadow Tag Latios and Rayquaza. Overall very good, and the quartered damage it takes from Fire Fang could come in very handy on a Sun team. I also think Palkia could be a decent Mold Breaker, since so little resists its Spacial Rend, and what does resist it can be hit with Palkia’s Water STAB.
Swampert- A Fire Fang-resisting Wonder Guard that I expected to see more of. Its only weakness is to Grass, but any decent special Shadow Tag (such as Latios) is likely going to run Grass coverage just for it. Compared to Gyarados, it trades the Spikes/Toxic Spikes immunity for a Stealth Rock resistance, which could be worth it if you have a Toxic Spikes absorber. It also takes Fire Fangs better than Gyarados, so I guess which one you use depends on how well your team handles hazards. If you can remove Spikes and Toxic Spikes easily, Swampert may be the better choice, but otherwise Gyarados’ immunity to both is probably more worthwhile.
Deoxys-Attack- The definition of a glass cannon. Its Huge Power set is the hardest hitter in the format, though it is shredded by priority. Would work well in a hyper offense team that has a good answer to priority.
A-
Blissey- Extremely bulky Wonder Guard on the special side. Secret Sword doesn’t exist yet, and I haven’t seen a lot of physical Fighting attacks yet, so I think this thing has a solid place in this meta. It has some decent calcs against Latios, requiring a 3HKO with Focus Blast at +0 (or a 2HKO with enough chip), and Spacial Rend has a 14.1% chance to 2HKO at +2. Its physical defense doesn’t seem great, but in Rain it surprisingly isn’t even 2HKOed by Huge Power Giratina-Origin’s +2 Fire Fang, and Stealth Rock doesn’t even guarantee the 2HKO (64.8% chance). Definitely need to give the pink blob a chance.
Registeel- Flash Fire that can be used instead of Skarmory. Compared to Skarmory, it resists Stealth Rock, but it trades the Electric weakness for a Ground and Fighting weakness, which I think would be more common. Registeel might also be able to serve as a Wonder Guard, but then it would be Fire Fang weak, which is never a good thing. Overall a very good choice, but may be mostly outclassed by Skarmory or Dialga.
Jirachi- Wonder Guard that likes to run TrickScarf with U-Turn. Might also be able to run Flash Fire. Steel resists Ghost and Dark this gen, so Jirachi doesn’t have to fear either of Giratina-Origin’s STABs, nor does it have to fear Weavile (unless it runs specific coverage for Jirachi). It also takes Earth Power just as well as Dialga, so whether you use Dialga or Jirachi depends on what you prioritize more: fast pivoting or STAB Draco Meteor.
Giratina- Compared to its Origin form, it has 20 points added to both defenses and 20 points taken away from both offenses. What mainly holds back Giratina in gen4 is that Prankster and Magic Bounce don’t exist yet. It can technically run Wonder Guard, and it has a Fire Fang resistance, but the Sheer Cold weakness is horrible. Might also be able to run Poison Heal, though that is mainly me just speculating.
B tier
B+
Tentacruel- It isn’t as bulky as Swampert, and it is far easier to hit than Gyarados, but Tentacruel shines in the role compression it can do, serving as both a Fire Fang-resisting Wonder Guard and a Toxic Spikes absorber. I can see this being invaluable on certain teams, but its not-amazing physical bulk is going to hold it back a bit, even if it resists Fire Fang.
Scizor- Can function as either a Wonder Guard or as a Flash Fire. As a Wonder Guard, it has only one weakness, but that weakness is 4x to Fire, which sounds terrible. As a Flash Fire, it loses its only weakness, and it resists both of Giratina-Origin’s STABs. It also isn’t weak to Stealth Rock, which is nice for the roles it tries to serve, and it is immune to Toxic Spikes.
Spiritomb- Wonder Guard not weak to anything, best Rapid Spin blocker available. Shadow Tag has a hard time removing it. Seems decent, but doesn’t really resist any important attacks in case Wonder Guard is removed or ignored. Its level two set sounds funny, but Psycho Shift can miss in gen4, so I don’t know how to feel about it.
Regirock- Sand setter or a Sand Wonder Guard. It always does well in Sand, with its 1.5x boost to its Special Defense and its massive Defense stat, which allows it to function as a great Fire Fang wall. Ithink Regirock is a slept on choice, if anything. I’d be curious to see how well it does as gen4 develops.
Mewtwo- Latios if it lost Soul Dew. It is slightly faster than the Lati twins, but unless you really need your item slot, I can’t think of much of a good reason to run Mewtwo over the Latis. Mewtwo is still a great special attacker, though, so I’m not placing it that low, even if it is mostly outclassed.
B
Relicanth- Might be kind of slept on, to be honest. Takes 1/4 damage from Fire Fang and gets a 1.5x boost to Special Defense in Sand, allowing it to function as a surprisingly bulky Wonder Guard for Sand teams. Definitely need to give this thing a try.
Kyogre- Decently bulky pure Water-type Wonder Guard. Kyogre’s niche seems to be its massive Special Attack stat, which could let it function as an offensive Wonder Guard. Could be an interesting pick for a Rain team, but most of the time I think you would rather just use Gyarados or Swampert.
Weavile- Huge Power revenge killer with an interesting type combination- Ice and Dark. This gives it STAB Pursuit, Sucker Punch, and Ice Shard, allowing it to threaten several top threats such as Latios, Deoxys-Speed, and Giratina-Origin. Latios actually HAS to run Timid in order to not be completely shut down by Choice Band Pursuit (which OHKOs even if it doesn’t switch). If Giratina-Origin is weakened enough, Ice Shard can KO it (range is 63.6%-75.5% with Choice Band). Deoxys-Speed has to make a gamble, since it is OHKOed by Pursuit if it switches, OHKOed by Sucker Punch if it tries to attack, and it is at best 2HKOed by Pursuit even if it doesn’t switch (and is OHKOed by Choice Band Pursuit). Even Arceus isn’t safe, since it is OHKOed by Choice Band Close Combat. Weavile is Stealth Rock weak, and it also needs to be wary of priority and Fire Fang, but I can see this thing becoming more popular later on, especially considering how threatening it can be to the S tier.
Gengar- I’ve seen/heard of Shadow Tag and Wonder Guard on this. Both are terrified of Weavile and being Pursuit trapped in general. Ghost STAB lets it scare the Lati twins and Deoxys-Speed a bit, but Giratina-Origin can just click Shadow Sneak on it. Gengar sounds okay, but until I see it actually excel in a role, I’m ranking it here.
Suicune- Another Water-type Wonder Guard. It’s rather bulky, with even a Modest Latios not being able to OHKO it with Seed Flare (90.8% at most without a crit). That’s kind of all it has, though- most of the other Water-type Wonder Guards have something else going for them. Maybe it can serve the role of the Water-type Wonder Guard over Swampert if you are especially scared of Grass coverage? I don’t really see much of a point in running Suicune, to be honest.
Heatran- Probably my hottest take on this entire VR. Heatran runs Unaware, which allows it to be what I believe to be the best check to Giratina-Origin sweepers from Sun teams. It is neutral to Fire Fang, and it resists both of Giratina-Origin’s STABs. Unaware will prevent Giratina-Origin from breaking through with enough boosts, since Fire Fang doesn’t ignore Unaware (it only ignores Wonder Guard). Could be very interesting to see on maybe a Sand team that otherwise struggles with Giratina-Origin.
B-
Infernape- Huge Power with STAB Close Combat and Fire Fang. It also isn’t Stealth Rock weak, which is nice. Overall it sounds okay, might work fine as a replacement for Giratina-Origin as a sweeper on Sun teams that need Giratina-Origin for some other role.
Blaziken- Basically Infernape but slightly worse. I don’t know why you would use this over Infernape.
Cresselia- Bulky Wonder Guard with only three weaknesses, but they are kind of a big deal- Dark, Ghost, and Bug. Being weak to Dark means you are open to being Pursuit-trapped, which isn’t that bad right now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Weavile usage goes up, so you may need to be wary of that. Being weak to Ghost is also bad, since you are vulnerable to one of Giratina-Origin’s STABs. Being weak to Bug is especially bad, though, since you no longer block U-Turn, allowing you to get chipped over the course of the game really easily. It also doesn’t have any many good resistances, only resisting Fighting and Psychic. It does have the nice niche of being a Wonder Guard not weak to Ground, but I feel like the U-Turn weakness holds it back too much from being anything amazing, even if the bulk makes up for it somewhat.
Probopass- The main Sand setter, but can also function as a Wonder Guard on Sand. The Toxic Spikes immunity and Stealth Rock resistance is always nice, and it has decent bulk on top of a very low Speed stat, allowing for Sandstorm to be set if you out-slow your opponent’s weather lead.
Bastiodon- Probopass but gains a little Defense at the cost of a little Special Defense. Also slower than Probopass, if that matters to you.
C tier
C+
Groudon- What Groudon does, I do not know. It has decent stats, so it could maybe run something like Huge Power with Earthquake / Fire Fang / Dragon Claw / Dragon Dance? Once I find out what exactly Groudon can do, I’ll adjust its placement.
Electrode- Has one weakness, but it is Ground, which is kind of bad considering a lot of Wonder Guards are weak to Ground. It also doesn’t have Air Balloon this gen, so it can’t even pull off something like what Muk-Alola does in gen7. It doesn’t hit very hard, so I don’t think getting Electric STAB matters as much on it as it does on Jolteon or Raikou, but it is very fast, only being outsped by Deoxys-Speed, Ninjask (not real), Deoxys (not real), and Deoxys-Attack (which probably wants to run an Attack/Special Attack-boosting nature over a Speed-boosting one). Only realistically being outsped by Deoxys-Speed, itself, and maybe Deoxys-Attack sounds really nice, and with Choice Scarf, you guarantee that you can outspeed Choice Scarf Aerodactyl and either paralyze it with Zap Cannon (risky) or finish it off with Thunderbolt (guaranteed KO if Aerodactyl is at 59.5% or lower, or if it has at most 216 HP left). Overall, I can see this thing working as a Wonder Guard that serves the roles of a fast pivot and a potential disruptor with Spore and Taunt.
Darkrai- I had to ask Ransei what this thing does. Apparently it can function as a Mold Breaker Rapid Spinner that can punish Ghost-types attempting to spinblock. That does sound like a good niche for Darkrai, but I have yet to see it in action. May raise it higher depending on how well I see it perform.
Venusaur- If Grass-types were immune to Spore this generation, I think Venusaur would be a really solid choice, serving as a Rain setter that immediately benefits from Rain through losing its Fire Fang weakness. It also can serve as an absorber of Toxic Spikes, which can be very handy on the more defensive or stally kinds of teams that would work well in Rain. It does have the problem of not being especially strong, and it isn’t as bulky as it would like to be, especially considering its lack of good resistances.
C
Rhyperior- I have only seen this once- Ransei ran it against me as a Sand setter. It sounds decent to me- it resists Stealth Rock, and it trades a Toxic Spikes immunity for a Fire Fang resistance. Its Special Defense is really bad, though, and I don’t know if Sand’s boost makes up for it enough. Definitely has potential, though.
Raikou- Electric-type Wonder Guard that carves itself a niche over Electrode in being bulkier and hitting harder at the cost of some speed. I generally don’t think Pure Electric Wonder Guards are very good in this format, but if you had to use one or if you found a good spot for one on your team, Raikou would be a decent choice.
Jolteon- Raikou but slightly faster and worse in every other way. If you want speed, you have Electrode. If you want power, you have Raikou. Jolteon kind of sits there awkwardly in between the two. It doesn’t seem that bad, but I don’t know why you would want to use it over Raikou or Electrode.
Drapion- Like the Pure-Electric Wonder Guards, Drapion is only weak to Ground. However, Drapion is unique in that it trades Electric STAB for being a Toxic Spikes absorber, which are rare in this format. Unfortunately for Drapion, it faces competition in this role as a Poison-type Wonder Guard from Tentacruel, who also has the niche of resisting Fire Fang. Might be handy from time to time, but most of the time I think you would rather just use Tentacruel.
C-
Regice- I asked lag=bad what this thing does, and they mentioned it could work on Hail. I don’t really see Hail teams working too well, since there are only two viable Ice-types (if you include Regice as one). I can see this thing as maybe a Snow Warning user, but since Hail is easily the worst of the four weathers, I’m not ranking this thing very high.
Heracross- STAB U-Turn sounds nice, as does Fighting STAB considering the presence of several amazing pure Normal-type Wonder Guards. Could function okay as an offensive Wonder Guard, but the Fire Fang weakness really sucks.
Gliscor- I have no idea what this thing does, but unlike Groudon, its stats aren’t that of a legendary, so it doesn’t even have that going for it. Might raise this if I find or hear about a good niche for it, but until then, it can stay in C- hell with Magcargo.
Magcargo- Wonder Guard that takes 1/4 damage from Fire Fang, and does get a boost in Sand to its Special Defense. However, it takes 4x damage from Ground and Water, and I can see Ground coverage becoming more popular, considering the plethora of Ground-weak Wonder Guards.
Camerupt- Yet another Wonder Guard with a Fire Fang resistance. I really don’t see the point in this thing. Most of the other Fire Fang-resisting Wonder Guards at least have some extra use that goes along with them- Tentacruel removes Toxic Spikes, Relicanth and Palkia take quartered damage from it, Regirock gets a boost to Special Defense in Sand, and so forth. If Camerupt has anything unique to it other than the fact that it looks funny, I don’t know what it is.
Final thoughts
I'm not sure on Weavile's and Heatran's placements- could definitely be adjusted. I also still have no idea what Gliscor does, so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know either here or in the Pure Hackmons Discord server.
Thank you again for reading
-electra