my rby nu vr
The following will show my rankings with short reasons as to why I find said mon to be the rank. This is because going in depth for mons like Mime is redundant, though I will have in depth explanations when I find it necessary.
S
(1) Zard has shown to be an absolute menace in the current meta, being on every team. It's not hard to see why. Zard has a massive movepool for any fire type and can destroy entire teams with just an SD. 100 speed makes it an extremely fast spinner, so it gets to pivot into a teammate if it can't handle whatever is on the field. It's pretty clear if you've played against it that it's crazy good.
(2) Mime's high Special combined with access to Thunderbolt and Thunder Wave make it undoubtedly the best in the tier. You can put mime on just about any team you'd like. I think the fact that Mimes will commonly trade thunder wave speaks to how good they truly are.
(3) Clef has very few switch ins, BlizzBolt hits nearly everything. Anything that can neutrally take hits despises being paralyzed. I will say that Clefable is susceptible to chip damage, as even Mime's Psychic can deal a decent chunk to it. It's not really as much of a Mime check, as it is a check to nearly everything in the meta.
A +
(4) Water typing combined with solid defenses means Blastoise gets to come in on plenty of opponents. Rest allows for sub-optimal recovery, but can be pulled off if needed. Much like mime, Blastoise commonly finds itself duking it out with opposing blastoise, waiting for one to get frozen, or to be forced to rest.
(5) A great switch in to the dozens of T-waves getting thrown around. Great coverage & speed makes king even more of a menace. Poison typing does hold it back some but that doesn't stop it from steamrolling anything that has been paralyzed.
A
(6) Kabutops barely missed the spot for #5, holding nearly identical versatility, and a great resistance to many fire spinners. On top of that, swords dance will completely destroy someone who misjudges your Kabutops as a Rest set. With the amount of Fire Spin being spammed, it's easy to see why this guy is used.
(7) On paper Moltres seems absolutely broken. Holding crazy bulk, a solid speed tier and the highest special in the RBY NU. Yet in practice, Moltres' speed is only decent, and base 90 speed stat is solid but not amazing. This means Moltres can't super reliably fire spin, as many other mons like Mime and in some cases poliwhirl can abuse the speed tie. Yet don't get it twisted Moltres is still brutal with its fire blasts, and they tear a chunk out of everything in the tier.
A-
(8) Kingler is just all around great. Kingler's attack stat makes nearly every mon crap their pants, and on top of that it gets crabhammer to slap Golem and Kabutops. Yet Kingler's speed isn't the best, so it's commonly threatened out by Mime coming in to revenge kill it. Yet even then, nothing ever wants to switch into the King Crab.
(9) It's hard to talk about Golem without just saying that it's pretty freakin' reliable. Sure, it does a surface level job at countering Fire Spinners, and will completely break down upon being burnt, but that's not to discredit how solid this thing is. The only big thing that stopped me from ranking it any higher is how easily pressured it is to boom, as it can take a notable amount of damage with how often it comes in to sponge thunder waves and normal type attacks.
(10) Speaking of being pressured to expolde. Trode might as well be the only electric type in the tier, and it's a solid one at that. Sure, Trode can't do anything to Golem or Nidoking, and is pretty much a garunteed explosion upon being paralyzed. Yet on the flipside Trode threatens everything with a crippling paralysis. Trode is also a solid bait for its aforementioned Counters, as many grounds can't do much to the waters of the tier.
(11) Amazing lead. Base 90 speed with Dual Powder & Psychic. Yet moth has a considerably crappy matchup against the fires of the tiers, as many outspeed and threaten it with fire Spin. Though this is not to say it's bad in any way, moth excelles in the lead slot and will put any opponent out of commission instantly if sleep clause has yet to be active.
(12) Rapidash is heavily reliant on Fire Spin, but it's high speed stat combined with a strong hyper beam makes it not too shabby at the job. Rapidash's ability to outspeed every other spinner makes it great as a Fire Spin pivot.
(13) Reminds me of Rathchu meta, but that's besides the point. Poliwhirl is so threatening to a lot of teams and at the same time is so unreliable. Yet I do belive the risk is worth the reward, and on top of that you can get a free sleep sac if you lose the speed tie against Venomoth.
B+
(14) Meet the lowest ranked (Viable) Water in the tier. Despite being the lowest ranked, it's still amazing. Hydro Pump coming off of this thing hits like a truck, and at times feels like the equivalent of switching in on a Moltres Fire Blast. Rest and Agility are both great options as both allow Seadra to become more and more threatening. Ahility by allowing it to outspeed everything and threaten opponents, and Rest meaning Seadra will stick around for a while. It might be the lowest ranked Water, but it sure as hell isn't a bad one.
(15) No Fire Spin? Not a problem when you’re Arcanine. Arcanine is not only bulky, but dishes out plenty of damage with Body Slam and Hyper Beam. It’s also capable of pulling of Rest with its solid bulk. It’s kind of like a Moltres lite, but you do get a nice speed stat that Moltres lacks.
(16) Hard walls Mime, and has access to sleep powder. On top of that, you get explosion. You already know what this thing does if you’ve played OU. Yet Exeggcute still doesn’t have super high HP stats, so Rest is easily abusable. Outside of that it doesn’t necessarily do a lot. Exeggcute takes a ton from every fire type in the tier, so it can easily be forced out. Although Egg doesn’t instantly die to Fire Spin, so it can threaten spin pivots easily. Not a horrible pick for a team if you ask me, and is able to reliably pull off Sleep Powder a majority of the time.
(17) - Pinsir is just another one of those mons that is simply reliable. Base 85 speed and a gigantic base 125 attack is fabulous. What it cannot hit with Slash, it brings in an opponent with bind. However Pinsir is still hard walled by Golem, and base 85 speed isn’t good when every fire spinner in the tier is faster than you. Though a weakness to Fire Spin is never an instant nail in the coffin, and Pinsir still excells when on the field with its Slashes.
B
(18) - This is likely the spiciest my picks get. Ninetales is just as reliant on Fire Spin as Rapidash, and yet dishes out similar damage and has less speed, meaning it speed ties base 100s. Yes, it does have far better special bulk, but both can take a decent amount of damage from special and physcial hits. Both actually are very fearing of Paralysis, which is commonly able to be dished out by special attackers. Now outside of that, Ninetales is still a solid addition, and its Fire Blast is able to dish out monstrous damage in addition to Fire-Spin
(19) Fearow is the strongest Normal in the tier, with base 100 speed and 90 attack. It's also got effectively the only Flying STAB in RBY NU, Hitting Exegggcute and Pinsir pretty hard, but Fearow is Primarily known for being the hardest hitting Normal in the tier, not defined as "that one mon that has drill peck"
B-
(20) Raticate is able to disinguish itself from the other normals with its access to Super fang and solid coverage. The main issue is, super fang will never OHKO, so Raticate cannot deal with opponents which have thunder wave. So raticate is in this situation where it struggles to get damage off out of fear of paralysis, but Raticate can do pretty well with opponent that lacks Thunder Wave or Stun Spore, and can break walls pretty effectively.
(21) Sandslash's access to Swords Dance makes it a decent sweeper in RBY NU. There are Thunder Waves getting passed around all the time in this tier, so Sandslash gets plenty of opportunity to switch in. Now Sandslash does struggle to take a lot of damage, and it faces heavy competition from Nidoking and Golem, but neither have access to the heavily threatening Swords Dance.
( 22) Drowzee seems to be a worse Exeggcute, lacking the more reliable Sleep Powder, and not resisting Mime's Thunderbolt. Though Drowzee is effectively an Egg with a lack of Fire Weakness, meaning it can easily stay in and threaten a paralysis to a Fire Spinner. Also Drowzee can hit pretty hard with its Psychics, so not a a lot wants to switch into it.
(23) Wigglytuff separates itself from other doppelgangers by copying a mon that is so versatile that having two of them is worth going out of your way to build around dual blob. Seriously, try Dual blob, it's awesome. Now unfortunately Wigglytuff can't get above B-. because if you're using Tuff, you're also using Clef.
(24) All that Porygon has to its name is recover, its other stats are less than stellar, Conversion Porygon is able to 1v1 some of the tier with Thunder Wave and then spamming Recover. Porygon has BlizzBolt Coverage to make it usable. Porygon truly is a one trick Pony.
C+
(25) Gastly is suprisingly good on paper. It has solid Special and good coverage. to hit a ton of things super-effectively. Though Gastly is considerably worse in practice. For one it's comically frail, and makes Mime's defenses look a lot better when compared Side by side. This isn't great when you consider how Gastly tries to come in on Exploders like Golem and Trode who can easily nueter it with Paralysis or Earthquake. Gastly also has middling speed, at base 80. meaning it gets outsped my many common threats like Nidoking and Mime. Although Gastly does deal with Kingler and Pinsir quite well, being able to take them out with thunderbolt. Hypnosis is quite unreliable, and barley saves Gastly from being any lower. Gastly has some use, but it's frail, has mediocre speed, and can't be put on a lot of teams.
(26) Ape is kind of meh. Hitting base 95 speed makes it slightly above average. On top of that you get thunderbolt to smack the waters of the tier, but outside of that you don't really gain a whole lot from it. Fighting typing isn't good by NU standards, and there are many better revenge killers, though few have the coverage options that Primeape has, meaning it's considerable on many teams
(27) Abra is effectively just a Mime lead without the risk of your own Mime. It seems like a great addition to most teams until you realize both Mime and Abra are very frail and struggle to consistently switch in. Giving up much needed bulk for a crappier Mime is less than optimal for many teams.
C
(28) Dragonair holds a good defensive typing vs a lot of the tier. In addition Nair gets Thunder Wave, solid coverage, and agility Wrap to spam on a lot of the tier. I wouldn't blame you for using Nair just for the not abysmal accuracy on its pivoting moves.
(29) Nidoqueen suffers from the same fate as abra, being pretty bad at switching into opponents meaning it struggles to get in. On top of that Queen doesn't reach Nidoking's base 85 speed, making it quite slow. So it'll be taking even more hits than King does, with slightly better bulk.
(30) Meet RBY NU's other amnesia user! Slowpoke has mediocre physical bulk, and access to thunder wave meaning sometimes, however rare, you will be able to dish out some decent damage with Amnesia boosted Psychics. It's usable, but not something you'd instantly go to for a team.
C-
(31) Okay so just talking about spore doesn't give this thing credit. Slash is pretty alright and Swords Dance sets can do decent damage. Though Spore is really the only reason to use this thing.
(32) Are you tired of having to play around Clefable and Nidoking? Machamp can sort of reliably switch into these two, but you run the risk of Psychic Clefable, and on top of that Machamp is pretty easy to Chip. Champ really isn't that great, with its common weakness to Mime and other Psychic users.
D
(33) If it wasn't obvious already, I dislike duplicates which are frail or unreliable. Yeah, wag means you're running two unreliable sweepers on one team. Oh, and your opponent better not be running electrode.
(34) For those who haven't attended my lecture on why Vileplume is worthy of D-tier ranking, I'll quickly catch you up. Plume has good special bulk, sleep powder, and access to swords dance. This makes it semi-reliable at late game sweeping. People who run Mega Drain on Plume are simply doing it wrong. Sleep Powder/Swords Dance/Body Slam/ Hyper Beam is the way to go. I mean it's still not good but it definitely gets you style points.
(35) It's strong, It's Static, and it's less than optimal. Having a Special stat 5 points below moltres is amazing. Though not being able to do crap with it sucks. It's a worse Electrode that threatens nothing.
(36) Wrap is usable, and Razor Lead can nail the 2 amnesia users we have. It's usable, but Sub-Optimal.
(37) Raichu's younger brother was the last hope for the Chu regime. Pikachu held the ability to conquer RBY NU with Tsunamis able to take out everything that could take a thunderbolt. When Pikachu gets on the field, instead of the promised massive waves destroying nearly everything. Pikachu drops its pants and pisses all over a Rock type switch in. Seriously, Surf doesn't even OHKO Golem, Sure it's nice to actually be able to hit Rocks but in the end, you're using Pikachu for crying out loud.
(38) Last, and very much least you have Onix, a far worse golem with terrible stats. You only really get Wrap to compliment this dirty strip of, well, I'm not going to say it.
if there's an explanation you feel i did a lackluster job on please tell me and I'll try to fix it.