Nidoking B -> B+ - Disagree
Clearly going against the grain here but this thing feels overhyped to me. A lot of people have been saying stall and slow, bulky playstyles are dominant lately, so you can see why a wallbreaker like this is becoming more popular, but I think the ability to break common walls is far less significant than people think. As a paranoid stall player I've given a lot of thought to possible wallbreakers and ultimately I've come to the conclusion that while numerous Pokemon can be good wallbreakers, far more than many realise, most of these options never really make an impact because they don't have that same level of usefulness in offence vs offence games where you really need every Pokemon to make an impact. Nidoking obviously can smash through common defensive cores and I totally agree that its resistance to passive damage is almost unmatched, but it's relatively slow, quite frail, and prediction reliant. If you can guess exactly what your opponent is about to bring in then I'm sure it works great, but in practise there are so many fast offensive Pokémon that either force it right out or OHKO it that against speedy offensive playstyles it's just not that reliable and can quickly lose you momentum.
Low Speed tiers are forgivable when you've got high bulk, strong priority, speed-boosting moves and so on but Nido doesn't really have any of that. It can switch into Clef which is nice (although if Nido ever becomes really popular, Clef having Psychic coverage will probably rise proportionally too), but against speedier teams I think the extra speed of faster wallbreakers like LO Garchomp, LO Thundurus or even Charizard X counts for a lot more. I would want to give Nidoking Earth Power, Sludge Wave, Ice Beam, Flamethrower, Superpower, Stealth Rock and Sucker Punch all at once but the first four moves feel borderline essential... but then a dedicated wallbreaker that is hard walled by Chansey feels underwhelming too. It feels like a significantly worse Landorus-I overall.
Raikou B -> B- - Disagree
Raikou is so valuable in the early game when you are trying to slowly weaken the opposing team, and it's still one of the only reliable ways to check Thundurus in most offence match ups. You can fault it for being easily walled, but even the likes of Chansey and Heatran won't want to repeatedly come into Volt Switch if you have rocks set up. It still checks many offence Pokemon that are otherwise really awkward for these teams to deal with (Talonflame, Pinsir, Scizor, Tornadus, even Jirachi). The Calm Mind set is also very effective against teams that don't have dedicated walls or a Scarfed Ground type. It's not really fair to compare this to Thundurus as they do pretty different things - Thundurus can't switch into things anywhere near as easily as Raikou can.
Mega Beedrill C+ -> C - Disagree
Almost the same reasons as above. There are so many win conditions that are "good, but not quite able to KO the checks they need to when set up." Beedrill is one of the very best chip-damagers, which counts for a lot in the early stages. Simply a nightmare for some teams to deal with. Knock Off is really nice for taking off Landorus' Choice Scarf, Scizor/Ferrothorn/Skarmory's Shed Shell, walls' Leftovers, Gengar's life. There's not much that can comfortably and repeatedly take Adaptability U-turn, entry hazards, possibly with no Leftovers at that. Ultimately Beedrill can come in against almost anything, take a big chunk off it, then leave the field before you can even hit it. All it needs is good support. It may be ultra fast and ultra frail but that's not actually the kind of team it belongs on, it needs bulky support in the back to receive the U-turns. If people used it like that I think they would see how useful it can be. It's not like C+ is a high rank as it is anyway
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I've not been here for ages. What's up with Mega Scizor being A+ but normal Scizor only B-? Undoubtedly it's worse, but by that much? More dmg potential with LO, comparable bulk with Leftovers, it's solid. Apologies if it's not the time to bring it up
Clearly going against the grain here but this thing feels overhyped to me. A lot of people have been saying stall and slow, bulky playstyles are dominant lately, so you can see why a wallbreaker like this is becoming more popular, but I think the ability to break common walls is far less significant than people think. As a paranoid stall player I've given a lot of thought to possible wallbreakers and ultimately I've come to the conclusion that while numerous Pokemon can be good wallbreakers, far more than many realise, most of these options never really make an impact because they don't have that same level of usefulness in offence vs offence games where you really need every Pokemon to make an impact. Nidoking obviously can smash through common defensive cores and I totally agree that its resistance to passive damage is almost unmatched, but it's relatively slow, quite frail, and prediction reliant. If you can guess exactly what your opponent is about to bring in then I'm sure it works great, but in practise there are so many fast offensive Pokémon that either force it right out or OHKO it that against speedy offensive playstyles it's just not that reliable and can quickly lose you momentum.
Low Speed tiers are forgivable when you've got high bulk, strong priority, speed-boosting moves and so on but Nido doesn't really have any of that. It can switch into Clef which is nice (although if Nido ever becomes really popular, Clef having Psychic coverage will probably rise proportionally too), but against speedier teams I think the extra speed of faster wallbreakers like LO Garchomp, LO Thundurus or even Charizard X counts for a lot more. I would want to give Nidoking Earth Power, Sludge Wave, Ice Beam, Flamethrower, Superpower, Stealth Rock and Sucker Punch all at once but the first four moves feel borderline essential... but then a dedicated wallbreaker that is hard walled by Chansey feels underwhelming too. It feels like a significantly worse Landorus-I overall.
Raikou B -> B- - Disagree
Raikou is so valuable in the early game when you are trying to slowly weaken the opposing team, and it's still one of the only reliable ways to check Thundurus in most offence match ups. You can fault it for being easily walled, but even the likes of Chansey and Heatran won't want to repeatedly come into Volt Switch if you have rocks set up. It still checks many offence Pokemon that are otherwise really awkward for these teams to deal with (Talonflame, Pinsir, Scizor, Tornadus, even Jirachi). The Calm Mind set is also very effective against teams that don't have dedicated walls or a Scarfed Ground type. It's not really fair to compare this to Thundurus as they do pretty different things - Thundurus can't switch into things anywhere near as easily as Raikou can.
Mega Beedrill C+ -> C - Disagree
Almost the same reasons as above. There are so many win conditions that are "good, but not quite able to KO the checks they need to when set up." Beedrill is one of the very best chip-damagers, which counts for a lot in the early stages. Simply a nightmare for some teams to deal with. Knock Off is really nice for taking off Landorus' Choice Scarf, Scizor/Ferrothorn/Skarmory's Shed Shell, walls' Leftovers, Gengar's life. There's not much that can comfortably and repeatedly take Adaptability U-turn, entry hazards, possibly with no Leftovers at that. Ultimately Beedrill can come in against almost anything, take a big chunk off it, then leave the field before you can even hit it. All it needs is good support. It may be ultra fast and ultra frail but that's not actually the kind of team it belongs on, it needs bulky support in the back to receive the U-turns. If people used it like that I think they would see how useful it can be. It's not like C+ is a high rank as it is anyway
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I've not been here for ages. What's up with Mega Scizor being A+ but normal Scizor only B-? Undoubtedly it's worse, but by that much? More dmg potential with LO, comparable bulk with Leftovers, it's solid. Apologies if it's not the time to bring it up