Played this meta a good bit and decided to make a VR based on what I've seen/used so far!
S Rank
Pretty easily the best mon in the format, the meta has developed with it in mind, and then more with the things that are used for it in mind. The other two restricteds end up being a lot harder to slot because of the opportunity cost of not having Xerneus. There are a whole bunch of variations of it, such as Geo Reflect 2a, Geo 3a, dual screens, etc. All of the sets of a few viable items, I have personally been using babiri berry the most, but as things evolve it may be easier to go with sitris berry for general use due to the rise of poison attackers. Lorb is another option I've seen for making nuclear Moonblasts even resists struggle to handle. All in all, you need to have a real good reason to drop this. It's definitely possible, but I wouldnt recommend a new player do so.
S- Rank
Pretty self explanatory given how the meta developed around xern, loads of fires and steels with a few poisons on the side. All of which are victims to its ground STAB. Sash SD 3a is my preferred set to be able to eat a boosted Moonblast in a pinch, with Pjab as the third attack to dodge babiri on Xern and because Thunder Fang barely helps against Skarm anyways. Lorb and resist berries are also probably fine, anything to keep this thing trucking longer or stronger is nice for racking up points. Overall this mons just a giga threat that you gotta watch out for, only really held back by Xern and Skarm most of the time.
(Mega)
This is, to me, the best mega in this format, simply because it plays into the super fast pace of it quite well. You may think that a tbolt weak Steel is gross in a Xern heavy meta, but to be honest, all steels lose to Xern eventually (except sorta Mega Metagross but ill get to why I dont like him a whole lot later) so its never felt like the biggest deal to me. Worst case you can just slot a screener to help soften the blows, but I think with skarm you usually just wanna go in guns blazing, getting as many KOs as possible before eventually succumbing to recoil or a stray tbolt or heat wave. The pace at which this thing gets KOs is what makes it super appealing to me, there isnt really much that can stand up to its hits without immediately getting bopped by the follow up Aerial Ace. By the way, steel STAB is overrated on this, both Steel Wing and Iron Head are too slow to be worth it and leave Skarm sitting around for too long. Overall, the is probably the most worthwhile mon to save mega energy for in this metagame to me.
For the sake of reducing clutter, ill condense the rest of these and probably make shorter reasonings as the ranks get lower. (Also skipping over B- and C because they dont feel super worth talking much about, both are just rather niche mons that fill a small niche, or are really good at one specific task. An example of this being pikachu nabbing 1 kill for low resources before probably dying.)
Really nice way to condense an offensive threat and a screener. I kinda value screeners highly bc anything that makes Geo 3a Xern easier to run is nice to have. Pair that with something that nukes the hell out of pmuch anything other than Garchomp and you got yourself a demon. Of course, being walled by chomp is not ideal, but if you can get a reflect up and not double up on slow moving ground weaks you should be fine.
Hydrogen Bomb right here, Heat Wave Overheat Calm Mind Protect/Shadow Ball with either lorb or charcoal is all you need to send almost anything directly to hell. Steels get obliterated, and nothing really wants to come close to it for fear of boosted overheat+, especially if you protect the likely approaching Earthquake. Heat Wave, on the other hand, lets you pop entire skirmishes. The combination of these two makes Chandy an incredibly annoying threat to work around.
Garchomp but bigger and scarier. Problem is that you cant use one of the really nice items base chomp can and you need to not use plus moves to achieve the mega evolution in the first place, which makes it a bit annoying to use. Still, watching it tear people apart is satisfying. Not much else to add here.
Chandelure if it traded typing for movement speed, plot, and a stab that could hit through a Geomancy boost (Psyshock). Although, you dont always want to use the psychic stab as fitting Tect could be a bit more important. Still enough use cases over Chandelure for me to consider it a good mon though.
This things main appeal is that its the best thing to 1v1 Xern with. The problem is that its kinda... meh into everything else. It kinda needs to run Heavy Slam Eq Ice Punch Thunder Punch for the best coverage, but then it runs into issues with cooldowns when actually brawling as the non-se moves wont be doing a lot. Then theres the issue of Reflect, which the Xern its supposed to be answering can just throw up and dip. You could slot Brick Break, but then you give up important coverage. Theres also its movement speed and tendency to get stuck on stuff, making it harder to actually stay on stuff after Heavy Slam. You could slot Bullet Punch, but again, losing coverage. Therein lies the issue, by having coverage, you lose to reflect or just... people walking away from you and having the kill stolen, but by having utility, you lose out on the coverage you need to actually scare things. Of course its still good because being the best guy fot 1v1ing Xern is super nice, but giving up your mega energy for the 4mss machine that explodes to the fires is rather meh imo.
Nice MU into the fires and packs coverage to take on Garchomp, would recommend a Wacan Berry for all the tbolts as even with all the i-frames this guy gets one of them is eventually gonna hit you. As a whole, being a ground check is still nice and checking fire is even nicer now.
Chandelure but if it could more directly threaten Garchomp and Xerneus at the cost of needing to mega. Bit jank to slot but the upsides are super nice and I recommend people try it out.
Pretty nice into a good portion of the meta, but pretty bad into Xern itself. That doesnt hold Garchomp back though, so whys Yveltal so low? Simply because by using it, you cant use Xern. You need to have a damn good reason to slot it over Xern or else youre gonna struggle to get KOs before Xern gets one on you. Its matchups into a lot of the other relevant mons is quite nice however, so it can definitely be worth it to use.
Makes Gyarados's already annoying coverage even scarier and makes it not easily taken out by stray unboosted tbolts. However, it does become Fairy weak and lose its Ground immunity, which stings.
(Mega) (Mega)
Grouping them bc theyre pretty much the same, pumps up their offensive prowess and enables them to last longer while spamming + moves, issue is again saving up mega energy is a bit annoying and the larger hitboxes are kind of a pain.
Similar to the other mega fires, but is ground immune. Tbolt weakness is a bit of an issue and it is a bit weaker though, so its important to keep that in mind.
Annoying and fat, similar to Glaceon from last season where its somehow annoying to kill and pretty scary despite the low resources needed to make it work.
Played aggressively, this thing can nab a good few kills and get out with its crazy movement speed. Protect is tempting on it, but SD 3a feels too important to give up, so just SD in base and use your mega to dodge would-be OHKOs before clicking as many buttons as possible. Most notable thing here is its ability to quickly fly up and one shot Xern before bolting away.
All of these things do something similar to other mons but have use cases over them, yet feel overall worse. Metagross and Mega Steelix could be compared to Mega Metagross, Glaceon Mega Blastoise and Clawitzer could be compared to Vaporeon, and Mega Houndoom could be compared to Chandelure and Delphox.
S Rank
Pretty easily the best mon in the format, the meta has developed with it in mind, and then more with the things that are used for it in mind. The other two restricteds end up being a lot harder to slot because of the opportunity cost of not having Xerneus. There are a whole bunch of variations of it, such as Geo Reflect 2a, Geo 3a, dual screens, etc. All of the sets of a few viable items, I have personally been using babiri berry the most, but as things evolve it may be easier to go with sitris berry for general use due to the rise of poison attackers. Lorb is another option I've seen for making nuclear Moonblasts even resists struggle to handle. All in all, you need to have a real good reason to drop this. It's definitely possible, but I wouldnt recommend a new player do so.
S- Rank
Pretty self explanatory given how the meta developed around xern, loads of fires and steels with a few poisons on the side. All of which are victims to its ground STAB. Sash SD 3a is my preferred set to be able to eat a boosted Moonblast in a pinch, with Pjab as the third attack to dodge babiri on Xern and because Thunder Fang barely helps against Skarm anyways. Lorb and resist berries are also probably fine, anything to keep this thing trucking longer or stronger is nice for racking up points. Overall this mons just a giga threat that you gotta watch out for, only really held back by Xern and Skarm most of the time.
(Mega)This is, to me, the best mega in this format, simply because it plays into the super fast pace of it quite well. You may think that a tbolt weak Steel is gross in a Xern heavy meta, but to be honest, all steels lose to Xern eventually (except sorta Mega Metagross but ill get to why I dont like him a whole lot later) so its never felt like the biggest deal to me. Worst case you can just slot a screener to help soften the blows, but I think with skarm you usually just wanna go in guns blazing, getting as many KOs as possible before eventually succumbing to recoil or a stray tbolt or heat wave. The pace at which this thing gets KOs is what makes it super appealing to me, there isnt really much that can stand up to its hits without immediately getting bopped by the follow up Aerial Ace. By the way, steel STAB is overrated on this, both Steel Wing and Iron Head are too slow to be worth it and leave Skarm sitting around for too long. Overall, the is probably the most worthwhile mon to save mega energy for in this metagame to me.
For the sake of reducing clutter, ill condense the rest of these and probably make shorter reasonings as the ranks get lower. (Also skipping over B- and C because they dont feel super worth talking much about, both are just rather niche mons that fill a small niche, or are really good at one specific task. An example of this being pikachu nabbing 1 kill for low resources before probably dying.)
Really nice way to condense an offensive threat and a screener. I kinda value screeners highly bc anything that makes Geo 3a Xern easier to run is nice to have. Pair that with something that nukes the hell out of pmuch anything other than Garchomp and you got yourself a demon. Of course, being walled by chomp is not ideal, but if you can get a reflect up and not double up on slow moving ground weaks you should be fine.
Hydrogen Bomb right here, Heat Wave Overheat Calm Mind Protect/Shadow Ball with either lorb or charcoal is all you need to send almost anything directly to hell. Steels get obliterated, and nothing really wants to come close to it for fear of boosted overheat+, especially if you protect the likely approaching Earthquake. Heat Wave, on the other hand, lets you pop entire skirmishes. The combination of these two makes Chandy an incredibly annoying threat to work around.
Garchomp but bigger and scarier. Problem is that you cant use one of the really nice items base chomp can and you need to not use plus moves to achieve the mega evolution in the first place, which makes it a bit annoying to use. Still, watching it tear people apart is satisfying. Not much else to add here.
Chandelure if it traded typing for movement speed, plot, and a stab that could hit through a Geomancy boost (Psyshock). Although, you dont always want to use the psychic stab as fitting Tect could be a bit more important. Still enough use cases over Chandelure for me to consider it a good mon though.
This things main appeal is that its the best thing to 1v1 Xern with. The problem is that its kinda... meh into everything else. It kinda needs to run Heavy Slam Eq Ice Punch Thunder Punch for the best coverage, but then it runs into issues with cooldowns when actually brawling as the non-se moves wont be doing a lot. Then theres the issue of Reflect, which the Xern its supposed to be answering can just throw up and dip. You could slot Brick Break, but then you give up important coverage. Theres also its movement speed and tendency to get stuck on stuff, making it harder to actually stay on stuff after Heavy Slam. You could slot Bullet Punch, but again, losing coverage. Therein lies the issue, by having coverage, you lose to reflect or just... people walking away from you and having the kill stolen, but by having utility, you lose out on the coverage you need to actually scare things. Of course its still good because being the best guy fot 1v1ing Xern is super nice, but giving up your mega energy for the 4mss machine that explodes to the fires is rather meh imo.
Nice MU into the fires and packs coverage to take on Garchomp, would recommend a Wacan Berry for all the tbolts as even with all the i-frames this guy gets one of them is eventually gonna hit you. As a whole, being a ground check is still nice and checking fire is even nicer now.
Chandelure but if it could more directly threaten Garchomp and Xerneus at the cost of needing to mega. Bit jank to slot but the upsides are super nice and I recommend people try it out.
Pretty nice into a good portion of the meta, but pretty bad into Xern itself. That doesnt hold Garchomp back though, so whys Yveltal so low? Simply because by using it, you cant use Xern. You need to have a damn good reason to slot it over Xern or else youre gonna struggle to get KOs before Xern gets one on you. Its matchups into a lot of the other relevant mons is quite nice however, so it can definitely be worth it to use.
Makes Gyarados's already annoying coverage even scarier and makes it not easily taken out by stray unboosted tbolts. However, it does become Fairy weak and lose its Ground immunity, which stings.
(Mega) (Mega)Grouping them bc theyre pretty much the same, pumps up their offensive prowess and enables them to last longer while spamming + moves, issue is again saving up mega energy is a bit annoying and the larger hitboxes are kind of a pain.
Similar to the other mega fires, but is ground immune. Tbolt weakness is a bit of an issue and it is a bit weaker though, so its important to keep that in mind.
Annoying and fat, similar to Glaceon from last season where its somehow annoying to kill and pretty scary despite the low resources needed to make it work.
Played aggressively, this thing can nab a good few kills and get out with its crazy movement speed. Protect is tempting on it, but SD 3a feels too important to give up, so just SD in base and use your mega to dodge would-be OHKOs before clicking as many buttons as possible. Most notable thing here is its ability to quickly fly up and one shot Xern before bolting away.
All of these things do something similar to other mons but have use cases over them, yet feel overall worse. Metagross and Mega Steelix could be compared to Mega Metagross, Glaceon Mega Blastoise and Clawitzer could be compared to Vaporeon, and Mega Houndoom could be compared to Chandelure and Delphox.
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Xerneas 
